The first real controversy of the 2026-27 U of L athletics season hit about a month before a Cardinal team played a contest that counted.
On Tuesday, the Louisville men’s basketball team played an exhibition game in the Bahamas that fans had no ability to watch or listen to. I wasn’t happy about it, you weren’t happy about it, nobody was happy about it.
The immediate result of that annoyance, as it typically is, was people trying to figure out who they should blame. There were fingers pointed at Josh Heird, the ACC Network, ESPN, U of L’s marketing department, and bizarrely at one point, Tim Henderson. Ok, the last one might have been made up, but every other entity on that list received their fair share of not so friendly fire over the last two weeks or so.
Following his team’s 101-52 trouncing of Bahamas Raw Talent on Tuesday, Pat Kelsey wasted no time in accepting full blame for fans having to spend their afternoons staring at an updating box score.
“I’m well aware that people are upset that we didn’t stream it,” Kelsey said. “All I can do on the back end after we made that decision is apologize. Probably, looking back and seeing how passionate everyone is about it, probably should have done it. But everything this summer was just about doors closed, blinders on, let’s grow as a team. Let’s get better. It’s been about us and business.”
As with all things, the number of Louisville fans who will care about this if Kelsey and company go out there and make a Final Four next April is zero. The number who will add it to a list of reasons why Kelsey and company are in over their heads at U of L if the season doesn’t go as planned is … more than zero.
After attempting to explain his side of the matter, Kelsey once again ended his response by accepting responsibility for something that frustrated his followers.
“I admit when I’m wrong,” Kelsey said. “I can be convinced otherwise. Dana (Brown) is the best in the world at what she does, and she asked me on two or three occasions whether I wanted to do it, and I just made the decision that we’re not. I apologize to Card Nation. Next time we do this, I promise we’ll air it.”
It’s all good. Let’s win a shitload of games this winter.
