Kentucky basketball’s preseason pilgrimage to the Bahamas will take place next week. While that trip will be exciting for the several hundred to few thousand who make the trek with the team, it’s the possibility that it sets up another trip in March that would prove more exciting to the Big Blue Nation — one to the Final Four.

How helpful can a handful of practices and a couple of exhibition games against subpar competition be? Well, Kentucky’s past three squads to take international trips all ended up in the Final Four.

Given the NCAA mandate that restricts these international trips to a once-per-four-years event, the most recent Kentucky team to undertake a pre-season international trip was the 2014-15 squad, which made an August jaunt to the Bahamas before competing an undefeated regular season that culminated in a Final Four spot, before Wisconsin knocked the Wildcats out of the NCAA Tournament.

That team, though playing in the Bahamas without Willie Cauley-Stein and Trey Lyles, each of whom were nursing injuries, used the extra practices and six exhibition games to work out team chemistry issues which had threatened to swamp a talent-heavy squad. Calipari took to platooning his players, although he also spent one game wandering around the small arena and even taking a turn running a camera for ESPN rather than coaching.

At the time, ESPN commentator Jay Bilas observed the maturation of the young Wildcats.

“Maybe the most impressive thing of the whole trip is the unselfishness of Kentucky,” he said during a broadcast.

The current Kentucky team seems to have as much depth as any squad since that 2014-15 group, and Calipari will doubtlessly hope to see some of the same team spirit that marked their predecessors.

Kentucky returns two starters: forward P.J. Washington (10.8 points and 5.7 rebounds per game last season) and center Nick Richards (5.1 points and 4.4 rebounds per game). Also returning is point guard Quade Green (9.3 points and 2.7 assists per game), who began the year as a starter before sliding into a sixth man role behind Gilgeous-Alexander, as well as shooting guard Jemarl Baker, who redshirted last year due to injury.

Additional experience is added in the person of forward Reid Travis, a senior transfer from Stanford who averaged 19.5 points and 8.7 boards per game last year. Add to that nucleus five incoming recruits ranked between 9th and 37th in 247sports.com‘s national recruiting rankings (the class overall was ranked second only to Duke’s freshman group), and you have some idea of the lineup juggling that the Bahamas will include.

It was a very different situation for Calipari’s other traveling UK team, the 2010-11 squad. That team was one of his youngest and most inexperienced groups, and they played three August games in Canada. They were missing freshman forward Enes Kanter, who ended up never being cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse, as well as forwards Terrence Jones and Eloy Vargas. Accordingly, Calipari turned his backcourt loose in their three exhibition wins.

That group of young Wildcats, led by freshmen Brandon Knight and by Jones, hit some rough spots in the regular season, but rallied Kentucky to a spot in the Final Four before the team fell to UConn.

Coaches Tubby Smith and Billy Gillispie were not fans of international exhibition tours, so before Calipari’s ‘Cats headed to Canada in 2010, it had been a decade and a half since UK had last played internationally.

Rick Pitino took his 1995-96 squad on an Italian tour than presaged a 1996 NCAA title. That team played on its foreign trip without freshmen Ron Mercer, Wayne Turner, Oliver Simmons, and Nazr Mohammed, but still had sufficient firepower to post a 4-1 record in five exhibition games. After losing a game in the exhibition trip, Kentucky lost only two all season en route to the NCAA title in 1996.

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So what do those recent Final Four teams foretell about this upcoming foreign trip?

For one thing, it’s an excellent opportunity for some under-the-radar players to step up their game.

In 1995, forward Scott Padgett, who was about to be kicked off the team for grade problems, displayed the potential that probably led to him being allow to come back and star for the 1997 and 1998 Final Four Kentucky teams. Shooter Cameron Mills also got some time that he hadn’t previously seen at UK, and showed some of the form that helped him contribute to the 1998 NCAA title team. Sophomore Allen Edwards played well on the trip, which was probably a key factor in Pitino’s decision not to redshirt him for the 1996 season.

In 2010, it was reserve forward Josh Harrellson who took advantage of the absence of Enes Kanter — which set the tone for an entire season in which he had to replace Kanter. Probably the most notable thing Harrellson had done before 2010-11 was wear a pair of jorts in an Internet video that led UK fans to dub him with the nickname of his infamous fashion choice.

The main beneficiaries of the 2014 trip were freshman point guard Tyler Ulis, who had not been especially highly rated by recruiting services, likely based on his 5-9 statute, and sophomore forward Derek Willis. Ulis showed the leadership and toughness which would dazzle UK fans in his first Kentucky competition. Meanwhile, much like Edwards in 1995, Willis was a talented player who was slipping below more acclaimed recruits on the depth chart, but his play in the Bahamas led to him not being redshirted in the 2014-15 season.

The secondary facet of these trips seems to be defensive improvement. The one common thread through the comments of Pitino in 1995 and Calipari in 2010 and 2014 was that in each instance, the coaches recognized that their teams had a long way to go defensively in order to compete at a high level. The extra practices and games are doubtlessly helpful for offensive execution, but the chance to learn team defense in a game situation might account for the superb results that arise after these international trips.

So while the games are exhibitions and mostly a good excuse for a few Wildcat fans to take a vacation, watch the defense. And watch the under-the-radar guys who look like bigger contributors than expected.

And if history is a guide, then watch for the 2019 Final Four.