How long does swagger last?

Good morning! It’s the middle of August and we still have college basketball news to cover. It’s a good day.

1. Louisville’s back! (Probably.) Now what?

There’s an unmistakable high that comes after blowout victories. Chests swell up, chins rise and there’s a swagger to a player’s walk.

And it’s not just from the result. It comes from the perception of people around you and others you may not even know. Raise a few eyebrows with a few runaway victories and people notice.

Louisville’s feeling that in the weeks after their foreign trip to the Bahamas. (Heck, we helped.) But the funny thing is, it’d make sense if these were the players from the last few Louisville seasons.

It’s not. Pat Kelsey has 13 new players on the roster (two of whom are redshirting in 2024-25), but he knows the fans and people around the program are extending that era of good-feelings onto the players.

And therein lies the rub. You can’t put too much stock in a few summer blowouts. No matter how goods they felt to a hoops-proud program

"Guys are going to look at their phones, and people are going to be telling them that they're the greatest thing since sliced bread and they're the '84 Lakers and things like that," Kelsey recently told the Louisville Courier-Journal. "We're going to be really good. We're not good yet; we've got a long, long, long way to go."

Fair enough. Still, the bones of a healthy, successful season are there. This is a team with NCAA Tournament-caliber talent, with impact transfers who appear ready to deliver on their promise.

As Rob Dauster and Jeff Goodman note in their Offseason Grades, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Cardinals playing in March.

Will they? It’s a long season, and Louisville’s schedule isn’t a cupcake filled with 300+ SOS sweet treats.

Tennessee’s on there. The Battle 4 Atlantis features three (likely) preseason Top 25 teams in Gonzaga, Arizona and Indiana, Davidson, not to mention Power 5 programs Oklahoma, West Virginia and Providence. Ole Miss is on there. Kentucky’s on there. Then you dive into ACC play.

Barttorvik projects Louisville at 16-12 overall and 10-10 in the ACC, which would place them directly on the NCAA tourney bubble.

After the last few years in Louisville, would that be enough to count as a success in Kelsey’s first season? Or will some summer swagger elevate those expectations just a little bit more?

2. North Carolina’s gonna be really deep

Give Hubert Davis credit. The man may not give his bench many minutes — the Heels ranked 348th, 360th and 332nd in bench minutes the last three seasons — but he sure does like to have options.

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