Due to a recent update to NCAA policies, college programs are now permitted to embark on foreign tours every offseason, rather than the old cadence of once every four years.
Schools have been taking advantage of the new rule throughout July and August, traveling the globe to get their first taste of game action against international clubs. The tours are useful team-building exercises and give coaches a better sense for where their teams stand as the 2026-27 campaign inches closer.
“It helps with planning purposes for the preseason because you know what you’ve got,” Cincinnati coach Jerrod Calhoun told Hoops HQ. The Bearcats were one of several NCAA teams that visited The Bahamas at the end of July for the Baha Mar Hoops Summer League. “You know your strengths, you know your weaknesses, you know things you tried to run, things that were good on offense, things that need to be improved on defense. I think it just overall really lets you know who your team is, because I don’t think you know who your team is until you play against another opponent.”
Below is a recap of a few summer exhibition tours, including the top performers and most eye-popping stats from each.
Cincinnati
The Bearcats have a brand new roster in Calhoun’s first season at the helm. They added a whopping 12 transfers, the most of any school in the Big 12. Four of those players suited up for Calhoun at Utah State, but the rest entered the summer unfamiliar with his system.
Despite the heavy turnover, Cincinnati looked like a cohesive team during its trip to The Bahamas. The program went 2-0 in the Baha Mar Hoops Summer League, destroying the University of Victoria (110-63) and the University of Calgary (107-66). Calhoun was very impressed with the group’s unselfishness and how well it executed his fast-paced, five-out offense.
In their opener against Victoria, the Bearcats shot 28.6 percent from deep but still managed to reach 110 points. Seven players scored in double figures — led by Utah State transfer MJ Collins, a 6-foot-4 senior guard, with 15 — and the team racked up 29 assists. Defensively, Cincinnati forced 32 turnovers and held Victoria to under 40-percent shooting from the field.
A day later, the Bearcats caught fire against Calgary, knocking down 20 of 36 three-point attempts. Wake Forest transfer Myles Colvin, a 6-foot-5 senior guard, was responsible for seven of those, finishing with a game-high 25 points in just 19 minutes. His backcourt mate Tyler Tejada, a 6-foot-9 senior guard from Towson, contributed 14 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. As a team, Cincinnati held a 27-0 advantage in fastbreak points.
“We’re really skilled,” Calhoun told Hoops HQ. “I think we have four extremely talented, long, athletic, skilled wings in MJ Collins, Myles Colvin, Tyler Tejada and Adlan Elamin. Those four guys are very versatile. They can shoot the ball. I think right then and there, you’ve got some real capabilities.
“We made 20 threes in a game — I don’t care who you play, that’s hard to do,” Calhoun added. “So I think we shoot the ball at a really, really high clip. I thought our unselfishness was as good as I’ve seen in the summer. We made the right play offensively.”
Six-foot-6 sophomore guard Eric Mahaffey (transfer from Akron) and 6-foot-3 senior guard Trevian Carson (transfer from North Dakota State) have emerged as the Bearcats’ defensive specialists. Calhoun expects his final rotation to feature nine or 10 players. When the team returns from a three-week break, the focus will be on continuing to define roles and becoming more physical, Calhoun said.
Arkansas
For a young team like the Razorbacks — with an average age of just 18 years, nine months — foreign tours are especially valuable. Along with Cincinnati, Arkansas also participated in the Baha Mar Hoops Summer League in late July. Over the course of five days, John Calipari’s squad went 4-0, toppling The Bahamas National Team, Carleton University, Toros del Valle and the University of Calgary by an average margin of 46.5 points.
“Great team building,” Calipari said afterward. “We learned about our team. They learned about each other. One thing I learned is that we have really good guys. They care about one another. We’ve got some guys who are in a growth mode and I’ve gotta be patient. They’re young.”
The Razorbacks have eight freshmen on their roster, one of whom — 6-foot-2 point guard Davion Thompson — reclassified up from 2027. While the highly touted class is still “in a growth mode,” it showed flashes of brilliance throughout the tour.
Five-star prospect Jordan Smith Jr., a 6-foot-2 combo guard and the reigning Gatorade National Player of the Year, recorded a triple-double in a 98-58 win over Carleton: 20 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists. In the same game, fellow five-stars JJ Andrews and Abdou Toure pitched in 17 and 15 points, respectively.
Calipari thought Andrews, a 6-foot-6 forward, got increasingly comfortable as the tour progressed. In Arkansas’ final game, a 105-48 victory over Calgary, Andrews dropped 24 points on 10 of 13 shooting to go along with 6 rebounds and 4 steals. Toure, a 6-foot-5 forward who was productive in all four outings, has emerged as the team’s “X-factor,” Calipari said.
The staff was also pleasantly surprised by Thompson, who averaged 11 points off the bench. The 17-year-old only joined the squad a few weeks ago after starring on the Nike EYBL circuit. “Davion’s more ready than I thought he would be to help us,” Calipari said.
Given the team’s overall versatility and athleticism, Calipari expects it to be elite defensively. What he saw in The Bahamas did nothing to convince him otherwise. Arkansas held all four of its opponents under 60 points and forced an average of 22 turnovers per contest.
Louisville
With the country’s No. 1-ranked transfer class — which just added former UNC guard Seth Trimble, a fifth-year senior who gained eligibility following the federal court preliminary injunction in Colorado — Louisville projects as a preseason top-10 team. Pat Kelsey’s revamped roster played one game in the Baha Mar Hoops Summer League in late July, dismantling The Bahamas Select Team 101-52. “It’s just nice to play against somebody else,” Kelsey said. “We’ve been beating the heck out of each other the last couple of months. All we’ve been harping on is business trip, business trip, business trip.”
Five players scored in double figures in the win, led by 6-foot-4 senior guard De’Shayne Montgomery (20 points), a transfer from Dayton. The biggest standout was 6-foot-10 junior forward Flory Bidunga, Hoops HQ’s No. 2 overall transfer. The athletic big man from Kansas finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists and 6 blocks in less than 27 minutes of action.
“He’s got a motor that never stops,” Kelsey said about Bidunga. “That motor and that effort level is a talent. It’s hard to develop that. You either have that or you don’t, and his motor runs constantly. He did some other things, too. He’s playing as a hub and as a decision-maker, he’s connecting, just growing different areas of his game. I think he’s done a great job over the last couple of months developing his skill and his game.”
Six-foot-1 senior guard Jackson Shelstad from Oregon — another top 15 transfer, per Hoops HQ’s rankings — struggled to find his shot, connecting on just 1 of 9 three-point attempts. Shelstad missed the last few months of the 2025-26 campaign with a hand injury. The rest of the Cardinals were red hot from behind the arc. Montgomery, 6-foot-3 senior guard London Johnson (13 points) and 6-foot-10 senior forward Alvaro Folgueiras (12 points) went a combined 8 of 11 on threes.
Clemson
Clemson was shorthanded on its 10-day trip to Italy (July 27-Aug. 6), which included stops in Rome, Florence and Como. Four of Brad Brownell’s key players — 6-foot-10 senior forward Carter Welling, 6-foot-4 sophomore guard Zac Foster, 6-foot-3 sophomore guard Ace Buckner and 6-foot-9 senior forward Dylan Faulkner — are currently sidelined by injuries.
Still, the Tigers managed to go 3-0 on the tour, toppling BC Silute, Pro Camp and Orange Bassano. Their most reliable offensive weapon was Notre Dame transfer Cole Certa, a 6-foot-5 junior wing who averaged 12.8 points for the Fighting Irish last season. Certa scored in double figures in all three games and buried four threes in the win over Orange Bassano.
With his team banged up, Brownell used the tour to get a closer look at some of his younger players. He is especially high on 6-foot-5 freshman guard Harris Reynolds, a consensus four-star prospect out of St. Pius X Catholic High School in Atlanta. “I like the fact that we’ve had to throw a lot at him so far,” Brownell told Hoops HQ in early July. “Zac and Ace aren’t out there, so he’s got the ball in his hands a lot. He’s trying to learn and he’s doing well. I think he’ll be a really good player for us.”
Reynolds took advantage of his heightened opportunity in Italy. He led the Tigers in scoring against Orange Bassano, finishing with 18 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field and 3 of 4 from deep. A few days earlier, he contributed 9 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and a team-high 3 steals in a 69-58 victory over Pro Camp.
Returning sophomore Dallas Thomas, a 6-foot-9 forward who played sparingly as a freshman, also had a productive tour. The former top-75 recruit averaged 13 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.5 steals in the last two outings.
Meet your guide
