We are hours away from watching our Louisville basketball team play in the ACC Basketball Tournament for the very first time. We have had a lot of these first. Louisville has played in three different conferences in the last three years and six different conferences total. I do hope this first will be our last. I’ve been waiting for years to put down roots in a traditional rich conference like the ACC.

I’ve heard stories of families going to ACC tournaments for decades. For some the conference tournament becomes an annual event. I want to have this with my son someday. I want to look forward to heading south every year, staying in the same spots, and eating at the same restaurants. I’m ready to start building decades of memories in the ACC.

Being a Louisville basketball fan has afforded me many great moments over the years but never the chance to embrace all of the nostalgia that a conference like the ACC can provide. I have been weaned on conferences like The Metro, and C-USA. I remember a time I traveled to Cincy to watch the Cardinals play in the C-USA Tournament at US Bank Arena. There weren’t any hard core fans, there weren’t folks tailgating beforehand and there were barely enough people in attendance to fill the lower bowl in that small venue.

The Big East was a great basketball conference that offered a different and intriguing backdrop. But even it wasn’t the type of conference where you could embrace it in a personal way like fans do the ACC. And it took a pretty healthy wallet to be able to afford the luxury of spending a week in New York City every year.

There has always been a large Louisville contingent at every stop along the way but isn’t it going to be nice to be in a city and an arena filled with fans just as passionate about their team as you are yours. Even the teams in the ACC who aren’t basketball giants have their fair share of fanatics.

In hours the Cardinals will start their first step in a journey that will hopefully be filled with years of great memories that can only be attained in a conference like the ACC. And I think it is very fitting to be able to kick things off by playing one of its founding members. As much as North Carolina represents the conferences past Louisville hopefully represents an exciting future.

I know I’m ready to embrace all that the ACC tournament has to offer, and ready to make many memories in cities like Greensboro, Charlotte and Atlanta. And even if they eventually move the tournament to new places I know that those hard core fans will bring that special tradition along. For the first time as a Louisville Basketball fan I feel like we are part of a bigger basketball family and that we finally have a home. And that’s awesome! Enjoy this weekend Cardinal Fans.