Louisville fans waited a long time to hear their names called again on selection Sunday for the NCAA Tournament. The moment finally arrived but the committee threw a wet blanket on it.
After a remarkable turnaround season where Coach Kelsey led a revived Louisville Basketball team to a 27-7 overall record, 18-2 ACC Conference record and conference tournament runner-up they were awarded an 8 seed.
After stewing about this for a few hours and reading through the angry posts on social media I decided to not let this put a damper on this moment for me. A moment during the past few seasons that I questioned would ever happen again.
My Louisville Cardinals are back in the NCAA Tournament and I get to hop in my car on Thursday afternoon and take a 20-minute drive down the road to Lexington to watch them open up in the first game of March Madness.
As far as the 8 seed goes… This is the time of year when the name on the jersey doesn’t mean anything when the ball is tipped at center court. This is the time of year when you gotta bring your game and not just your name if you want to survive and advance to the next round. As we’ve learned over recent years seeding is not the be-all end-all to making a run.
When it comes to this time of year you just have to play and win. And Louisville is no stranger to winning in Lexington during the NCAA Tournament. The Cards are 3-2 in NCAA Tournament games in Rupp Arena, playing there in 1984, 2007, and 2013.
Louisville is one of 12 teams ranked in the top 30 by Kenpom in both offensive and defensive ratings. At times they’ve been really good on the offensive end of the floor and the news of Reyne Smith being back in the lineup is great news.
The overall consistency with this team has been on the defensive end of the floor. In large part due to having one of the best defensive players in the country in Chucky Hepburn.
In my opinion, defense wins games in March and if Louisville can figure out how to stop or slow down Creighton Center Ryan Kalkbrenner who stands at 7’1 and is averaging 19.4 points per game, along with 8.8 rebounds per game, they have a great shot at moving on to Saturday for a showdown with overall #1 seed Auburn.
I’m so excited about this game and hope Louisville fans pack into Rupp Arena on Thursday afternoon and turn that place Red. Let’s keep this reviVILLE going all the way to the Final Four. L’s UP!
See you at Rupp!