BOZICH | Chucky Hepburn, teammates inspired a city to love Louisville basketball again

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WDRB) — A half dozen empty bottles of water and energy drinks surrounded the chair where Chucky Hepburn sat in the University of Louisville locker room at Rupp Arena. When you grind for 39 minutes and 23 seconds, more playing time than any teammate, there’s plenty of fluid to replace.

A bag of unopened Welch’s fruit snacks were on the floor, inches from an energy bar wrapper as well as a discarded bag of cheese crackers.

But there was no greater evidence of the incessant 35-game, 10-month investment Hepburn made in bringing the Louisville basketball program back to relevance than the towel wrapped around his neck, the tears trickling down his cheeks and the catch interrupting his voice.

His number 24 jersey was tucked inside his shorts. He’d yet to cut the tape off his ankles or even remove his lime green sneakers.

“We gave it all we had, man, through adversity, through whatever,” Hepburn said. “We’re warriors. We didn’t want to lose and go out the way we did. But we weren’t going to go out without fighting.”

Nobody did more to lead the Cardinals to 27 victories and second place in the Atlantic Coast Conference than Hepburn.

Nobody resonated more within the Louisville fan base than Chucky Hepburn.

And, nobody burned with more disappointment over the Cardinals’ jarring, 89-75 first-round NCAA Tournament loss to Creighton Thursday afternoon than Hepburn.

“That was one of the most amazing walks over (to the arena) that I’ve ever been a part of,” Hepburn said.

“Man I don’t even know how many people were there but it just gave me chills over my whole body, just knowing people were there, rooting for us to turn this on."

“You know, it sucks because I feel like we let them down. And that’s not something you ever want to do … it feels like we let them down, being an hour away from Louisville. We wanted to give the fans something to remember. We didn’t want to go out like this.”

Hepburn needed to stop there to compose himself. So let’s stop with him and change the direction of the narrative.

From the moment he arrived here last June as a transfer from Wisconsin, Hepburn competed as relentlessly as Beard, Griffith, Eaves, Gordon, Wagner, Hall, Smith, Smith (LaBradford or Russ), Siva, Rozier, Mitchell or any former UofL guard you want to drop into the discussion.

Hepburn ran Pat Kelsey’s offense as crisply as it could be run, refusing to force shots but taking and making big ones when they were needed. Did that again Thursday, scoring 22 points.

He shared the basketball as if he had no interest in his scoring average, setting up James Scott for cruise-control dunks and Reyne Smith for set-your-feet three-pointers on the perimeter. Did that, too, on Thursday.

Defense was his calling card. It has always been Hepburn’s calling card. It’s why Hepburn moved into the starting lineup at Wisconsin and then finished his college career starting every game he played.

Banged up. Injured. Fever. Chills. Chucky Hepburn played on. And on and on.

He logged all but 37 seconds of his farewell game Thursday. It wasn’t his greatest or most complete game as a Cardinal, but it was the finest game anybody in Kelsey’s lineup delivered against the Bluejays.

Hepburn led Louisville with 22 points, although he missed 14 of 23 shots to get them. He led the team with six assists and two steals. He scored the Cards’ first seven points, everything they scored in the first 5 1/2 minutes.

Hepburn tried to drag more people along but Creighton refused to endorse that story line. Hepburn, Terrence Edwards Jr. and J’Vonne Hadley combined for 56 points. The five other Cardinals who played had 19.

What burned Hepburn is Louisville’s defense never enforced its will with the authority the Cardinals displayed while winning 27 games. The Bluejays missed their first five shots -- and then made 32 of 51 (62.7%) the rest of the way. That's a losing formula in March, especially against a Creighton team that proved its ability with wins over Kansas, UConn, St. John's and Marquette.

Creighton center Ryan Kalkbrenner was too versatile running the pick and roll. Creighton guard Steve Ashworth kept dancing away for open three-point shots. And every time Creighton forward Jamiya Neal attempted a jump shot, it seemed to go in the basket in the final second of the shot clock.

“We knew going into the game it was going to be transition and rebounding,” Hepburn said. “And when they got hot, they were beating us in transition and rebounding. And second-chance points. And spraying open threes. It just felt like they couldn’t miss. It’s a credit to them.”

And it was a credit to Hepburn that he never surrendered. With Louisville down 20 late in the first half, Hepburn scored five points in the final 39 seconds to cut the margin to 49-34. Hope bloomed within the thousands of Louisville fans who made Rupp Arena look as red as it has ever looked.

Twice, Hepburn powered to the rim for layups that pulled Louisville within a dozen points in the final 7 1/2 minutes. But Louisville was never able to pull within three possessions.

Not this time. Creighton had too many weapons. Louisville did not have enough weapons. It happens. It will happen to other teams in this tournament.

This game won’t be the signature paragraph of Chucky Hepburn’s story at Louisville. The signature paragraph will be that Hepburn and his teammates gave a university and a city a reason to fall in love with Louisville basketball again, to believe that great things were coming for this program.

“The (love from the fans) brought happiness to my heart,” Hepburn said. “To know that everybody appreciated us.

“I’m proud to wear this uniform. I’m proud to be in this city. Wouldn’t want to go nowhere else. We revived the city and the city revived me.”

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