If there’s anyone who knows how to overcome adversity it’s Luke Hancock. Luke is a guy who propelled himself from humble basketball beginnings to winning the most valuable player award during the 2013 Final Four and leading Louisville to a national championship. We’ll all be telling stories for years about Luke’s beard that became a symbol of great superstition during the Cards 16 game winning streak and Championship season. Other players and fans including myself decided to grow out our beards in solidarity with Luke because we started to believe in the power of that magical facial hair.

He was also a player that was recognized by the New York Times for his genuine act of compassion when Kevin Ware suffered a gruesome injury in the Elite 8 game against Duke. While the initial reaction of nearly everyone on the Louisville team was to cover his face and keep his distance, one player went to Kevin Ware’s side, knelt down, and comforted him “Luke Hancock”. There hasn’t been a player more deserving of the title “Louisville Man”. He always represented himself and the University of Louisville with class.

Luke Hancock was living in Billy Minardi Hall during the supposed peak of the recently accused sex scandals. Today Luke went on air with Howie Lindsey to defend his coach and his college program. There’s no way that a guy like Luke Hancock would have allowed something like that to go on and not tell his coach. And during the culture of the program at that time I don’t see any of those guys allowing it. This whole thing has been hard for me to believe and guys like Luke being there at that time is one of the biggest reasons why.

Here’s Luke’s appearance on Howie Lindsey’s show today:

https://soundcloud.com/espnlouisville/luke-hancock-10-12-15