BOZICH | Yes, Louisville basketball is a top-10 job | Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- UCLA has won more men’s basketball national championships (11) than any program on the planet. That explains the Bruins’ consistent status as one of the nation’s top 10 jobs.

But UCLA is a program that has spent considerable time in the wilderness since John Wooden retired 47 years ago.

Indiana is another top-10 job, but the Hoosiers will constantly be asked to prove their credentials until another coach wins close to as consistently as Bob Knight won in Bloomington.

Is Duke really a top-five job?

It wasn’t when Bill Foster was in charge. Best of luck to Jon Scheyer when he begins following Mike Krzyzewski next season. We’ll find out then.

Has Gonzaga cracked the top 10 list after two decades of Mark Few? Put me down as skeptical about the Zags, Baylor, Arizona, Villanova and other programs that have spent a lot of time in the top 10 lately.

Of this, I am certain: Louisville basketball is a top-10 job, regardless of anything you hear from the national gurus, who will line up to use the current turmoil and uncertainty at Louisville to drive up their clicks.

It didn’t work for Chris Mack here.

That happens.

Ask Billy Gillispie (Kentucky); Archie Miller (Indiana); Matt Doherty (North Carolina); Steve Lappas (Villanova); Tommy Amaker (Michigan) and a cast of thousands at UCLA.

But all the ingredients are here for the next coach to make certain that Louisville does not disappear from the national scene.

Let me count the ways:

1. Passion: Louisville fans care as much as any fans in the game. There are larger fan bases. There are more obnoxious fan bases. There are not fan bases more basketball-obsessed than Louisville fans.

Louisville’s 40-season run of finishing in the top seven in attendance will end this season because of the losing, COVID-19 and a temporary disconnect.

With inspirational words from the next coach, Louisville fans will return. They always have. This is a program where basketball matters. People are eager to debate and discuss the sport in July and August as well as March. Selection Sunday will always be a local holiday.

2. Tradition: Louisville basketball checks every necessary box.

National titles. Final Fours. NCAA Tournament appearances. Conference titles. All-Americans. Players sent to the NBA. Nationally celebrated rivalries. Remarkable games. Unforgettable shots. Iconic victories. Stinging defeats. Game day experience.

It’s all there.

3. Arena: There are teams in the National Basketball Association that do not have an arena as plush and visually stimulating as the KFC Yum! Center.

The Cardinals do not have to share their facility with an NBA or hockey team. They control the dates. They don’t have to work around renovations. There are plenty of amenities to dazzle recruits.

4. The Atlantic Coast Conference: This has not been a banner season for the ACC. The league is looking at three, four or perhaps five bids to the NCAA Tournament, ranking below the Big Ten, Big 12, Big East and Southeastern conferences this season.

It’s an off year for Michael Jordan’s League. Louisville is one of six ACC programs with an NCAA title in its pedigree. The DNA of the league ensures that it will bounce back.

5. Hall of Fame Coaches: The next coach the program hires will be U of L’s fourth coach in 51 years. The stability was created by the productive runs by Denny Crum and Rick Pitino, coaches who have plaques at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. Louisville is one of eight programs that has been led by two Hall of Fame coaches.

6. NBA Connections: Scouts from NBA teams regularly rotate through Louisville looking for prospects. There have been nights when more than two dozen NBA guys show up on press row.

Louisville's logo of the dunking Cardinal is one of the iconic logos in the game.

David Johnson became the 77th former Cardinal drafted into the league last season. Jordan Nwora won a championship ring with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021. Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz is one of the league’s most popular players. Wes Unseld is one of two guys voted MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same season. Darrell Griffith. Butch Beard. Rodney McCray. You know the list. The road to the NBA has always gone through Louisville.

7. Practice Facility: Pitino made certain that Louisville held its spot in the college basketball arms race when he pushed to build the practice facility on Floyd Street nearly two decades ago. The recent upgrades and renovations to the Planet Fitness Kueber Center gave the program all the bells and whistles necessary to dazzle recruits.

8. Iconic Uniforms: The Cardinal Bird and Louisville’s logo are timeless reminders of the strength of the program. The Doctors of Dunk tag adds more juice.

9. Basketball Dorm: The next time your drive down Floyd Street, look across the street from the Kueber Center. The nearly $24 million, 128-bed Denny Crum Hall for the men’s and women’s team has risen from the ground to become another item the next coach can drop into the conversation when he starts talking to mothers and fathers.

10. Basketball Country: There are two places in college sports where basketball matters more than football. One is the triangle area in North Carolina that is home to the Tar Heels, Duke and North Carolina State.

The other is this larger, more entertaining spot in Kentuckiana that is home to Louisville, Kentucky, Indiana, Western Kentucky and now Bellarmine.

If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. And the next coach of Louisville basketball will have all the necessary tools to do precisely that.

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