CRAWFORD | 1 year, 1 legacy: the seniors who revived Louisville's program | Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- It will be a different kind of Senior Day for the University of Louisville men's basketball team. Of this group, it can be said, they were here for a good time, not for a long time.

And the good they did was this.

When they arrived on campus last summer, Louisville basketball had won 12 games in its previous two seasons and seen its attendance plummet to its lowest levels in five decades, with its national profile dropping even lower than that.

When they take the court for their final game in the KFC Yum! Center on Saturday at 2 p.m. against Stanford, they will have a record of 24-6, will be ranked No. 14 in the nation, and will still have a shot at a No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament in front of a crowd of around 20,000.

How do you build a legacy in less than a year? These guys should write a book.

"Each team, every, single year, is unique and different," Kelsey said. "This is one of them. It's as fun as I've ever had coaching a team, and I've coached some really, really special ones. It's always hard to say goodbye. I mean, obviously tomorrow is not goodbye, but it's the last time that they'll put on a Louisville uniform here at the Yum! Center. It's been well-documented where the program was before these young men arrived and where it is today. I think I speak for everybody in this city that we owe this group, this special group, a huge sense of gratitude and appreciation for what they've done over the last eight months to lift this program and to lift this city in many ways."

Louisville will honor seven players on Saturday.

Chucky Hepburn, a Wisconsin transfer who has been one of the best point guards in the nation and arguably the second-best player in the ACC this season.

Terrence Edwards Jr., a James Madison transfer who has been a fantastic scorer, turned himself into a defensive stopper, stepped into the gap to play point guard when Hepburn was hurt, and became a father, all while turning in an all-conference season.

Reyne Smith, who followed Kelsey from Charleston and raised his level of play. He's third in the nation in three-pointers made per game and tied for fourth in total threes, having set a regular-season record for threes made heading into his final game.

Aboubacar Traore, a native of the Ivory Coast who helped lead Long Beach State's longshot NCAA Tournament run a year ago, has been a major addition after sitting out several weeks with a broken arm in December.

Noah Waterman, a BYU transfer who played through a broken thumb and subsequent surgery, has saved his best for last, turning in two of his best all-around games of the season in wins over Pitt and Cal.

Frank Anselem-Ibe, the least used of the scholarship seniors, he is perhaps the favorite teammate of everyone, plays well when given the opportunity, and has become a must-follow for postgame social media.

Aidan McCool, appropriately, represents the scout team, and players who get into the game at the end, but who are held to exacting standards by Kelsey and his staff. McCool is the only senior who has been here for four years.

Two other seniors – Kasean Pryor and J'vonne Hadley – could get another year of eligibility. Pryor was injured early in the year and could receive a hardship waiver, while Hadley could get another season by virtue of having spent a season at a junior college, which would not count against his NCAA eligibility.

They may not go through the ceremony, as they could continue to play, but they're very much a part of that whole group, who came to spend their final season doing something memorable.

Louisville's Terrence Edwards acknowledges the crowd after a three-pointer on his way to a career-high 35 points against California in the KFC Yum! Center.
ERIC CRAWFORD

"The makeup of these guys from Day One was special," Kelsey said. "They were raised the right way. They're winning people, and we knew they had the right values, which is why we brought them into our program. But when our team truly became player led is when we really took off."

During his first meeting with the players, and even before, Kelsey laid out to them the challenge – to restore a great college basketball program to its rightful place, and to do it by playing together and playing team basketball, so that with their one season they could do something that would be remembered.

"In our first meeting on June 5, we told the story of the legacy and the mystique of Louisville," Kelsey said. "The great coaches, the great players, the great teams, the championship teams. And we told them, you may have worn another jersey for three years, and so have you, and so have you, so have you. But now you guys are Louisville, you're Louisville Cardinals, and it's a great responsibility to put on that jersey. And I think they upheld that."

Mission accomplished.

A "reviver," chemically speaking, is a compound that makes something old or stained, like clothing or metal or furniture, look new again. These Louisville basketball revivers did something even more difficult. They didn't make an old program look new – they made it look like its old self.

"They're only going to wear that jersey for one year, but you'd be hard-pressed to think that this group won't be revered and remembered and beloved for a long, long, long time for what they've done and the success they've had," Kelsey said. "Obviously we're far from done, but it's going to be a very special celebration."