No TV or streaming for Louisville’s Bahamas bball video games? Come on

This is the primary installment of a brand new sequence referred to as “come on,” by which I admit that I can’t fake to grasp the intricacies behind why a call was made, however nonetheless get upset due to how clearly improper the choice appears to me from the surface.

In eight days, the 2026-27 Louisville males’s basketball will play the primary of two exhibition video games in opposition to groups from The Bahamas. It would be the first alternative for Cardinal followers to get an actual have a look at a group that options 9 new faces and that already has town buzzing about what might be this winter.

Except Louisville followers received’t get an actual look as a result of the video games aren’t being broadcast anyplace. No TV, no streaming, no radio, no something.

It’s 2026. If I wish to wish to watch my finest pal’s 9-year-old daughter’s softball recreation in Detroit stay, I can do this with out lacking a single pitch. But we’re not going to have any possibility to observe a preseason high 15 males’s basketball group’s first stay recreation motion anyplace? Come on.

Twenty years in the past, trying to bounce again from a disappointing first season within the Big East, Rick Pitino took his 20026-07 squad to Canada for a trio of aggressive video games in opposition to one of the best faculty groups our neighbors to the North needed to supply. My dad and I huddled across the radio and listened as Juan Palacios’ layup within the closing seconds lifted the Cards to a 1-point victory over Canadian powerhouse Carleton.

It was annoying not to have the ability to watch any of the video games on TV, however we nonetheless had Paul Rogers and the official radio group giving us all of the play-by-play motion again right here within the states, which we have been grateful for.

Five years later, Pitino took his 2011-12 group to The Bahamas for a quartet of July contests. The full native tv broadcast group made the journey as nicely. People held watch events, bars made positive everybody knew they’d be carrying the video games on all TVs, hell there have been even postgame reveals.

If this hadn’t been the case, we by no means would have had the chance to see Russ Smith present the primary glimpses of changing into the participant who would finally have his quantity retired at Louisville. We wouldn’t have seen the primary in-game motion for a Cardinal squad that might finish its season eight months later on the Final Four in New Orleans. We additionally wouldn’t have skilled the unimaginable saga of the person who served up because the bellhop on the U of L group lodge after which additionally confirmed up as a participant on the “Real Deal Shockers” group the Cards confronted hours later.

Four years after that, Rick Pitino introduced his Louisville group to Puerto Rico to sq. off in opposition to the Puerto Rican nationwide group that he had been charged with making an attempt to assist get certified for the Olympics. The video games have been out there on stream, all of us streamed them. At one level, the stream went out and so Kenny Klein stay streamed the motion from his telephone whereas sitting courtside. We all watched that too.

We acquired to see Damion Lee present that he was going to be a celebrity at U of L by dropping 36 factors in his first recreation in a Cardinal uniform, Chinanu Onuaku acquired into it with J.J. Barea, we found Bompy, and I by some means grew to become probably the most hated man in Puerto Rico.

Just two years in the past, with enthusiasm for the Louisville basketball program cautiously peaking its head out of the cave of despair it had been resigned to for happening 4 years, Pat Kelsey took his first Cardinal squad to The Bahamas for a pair of mid-summer tilts. Floyd Street Media introduced notable faculty basketball personalities Rob Dauster and Terrence Oglesby all the way down to name their broadcasts of the video games. We watched as U of L offered cathartic proof that issues have been about to vary for the higher in lopsided wins over the Bahamas All-Stars and the Calgary Dinos. Chucky Hepburn started his run as the primary actual beloved star for a brand new technology of Cardinal hoops followers, and Kelsey proved that he was greater than only a good talker.

We watched, we reacted, we shared our favourite clips, and the ensuing enthusiasm held us over till The Revivalists took the courtroom for actual in early November.

It didn’t seem to be it took rather a lot to get the broadcasts green-lit and completed, and it was simply two years in the past.

I do know there are contracts and prices and different issues which have gone into this that I’m not aware of, however it’s nonetheless troublesome for my feeble thoughts to grasp how, in 2026, there might be a scenario the place a Louisville basketball group might be enjoying a recreation in opposition to somebody, and Louisville basketball followers may haven’t any choice to comply with alongside.

If you set it on TV, you recognize we’re going to observe. If you set it on stream, you recognize we’re going to observe. If you make us pay an affordable, you recognize we’re going to pay it and watch. If you might have a grainy Instagram stay feed from Dana Brown’s telephone, you recognize we’re going to observe. If you might have a blind man doing his finest to name the motion on a satellite tv for pc radio feed, we’re going to pay attention.

There are nonetheless eight days left till the Cards play their first recreation. Someone must determine one thing out.