NOTE: I always want to write a special column for Thanksgiving, but it can’t be forced. There’s no point in writing it unless something moves you. I had pretty much passed on doing anything this year. I wasn’t feeling it. I was just going to write this blowout of a game Wednesday night and get on with things. I wasn’t entirely sure why I was even going, in fact. But after the game, the way a couple of Louisville players and their coach shared their own Thanksgiving thoughts turned on some lights for me. I got it. That’s why I was supposed to be at that blowout. I’ll let them take the story from here. If you’re reading this, I’m thankful for you. –E.C.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Anyone who has paid even passing attention to the Louisville basketball program under Pat Kelsey will recognize the mantra: “The next thing is the most important thing.”
The next game is the most important in the history of Louisville basketball. The next practice. The next video session.
It just turns out, after Wednesday’s 104-47 carving of NJIT, the next thing for Louisville basketball is Thanksgiving dinner.
And it’s pretty darn important, and as with all things Kelsey, the product of serious preparation. Though in this case, it’s not the coach calling the shots for the large gathering in their home, but his wife.
“Lisa is crushing it, like she always does,” the coach said Wednesday.
I’d have asked him for the guest list but I’m not sure he completely knows it. A former player of his from Winthrop, Josh Davenport, surprised him after the game and told him he was coming to Thanksgiving.
“He must have said something to Lisa,” Kelsey said “He said, ‘She’s making my strawberry trifle.’”
The menu, too, can get pretty extensive, when you’re catering to the Cardinal “25 Strong,” and then some.
“We have the team over a lot,” Kelsey said. “And we have big meals and she has her go-to hors d’oeuvres that the guys love and that she always makes. And then her go-to desserts that she always makes, that this guy loves one and that guy loves another. They all have their favorites.”
One of the nice things that the HBO series Ted Lasso did was depict a holiday dinner for a team, in this case a soccer team. A bunch of young players, away from home, showing up at a home to share a moment.
For Louisville, Vangelis Zougris’ parents from Greece were in for the game Wednesday night. They got to see their son pull down six rebounds and hear the KFC Yum! Center reverberate with shouts of “Zouuu” more loudly with each ball he grabbed.
“They’ve never experienced American Thanksgiving before,” Kelsey said. “So they’re coming over.”
Sananda Fru is here from Germany. Mouhamed Camara from Senegal. Aly Khalifa from Egypt has been in the U.S. for a while but brings his own traditions.
“Obviously all the staff, all of their families, all of our managers, all our GA's, all the players. So it’s going to be a boatload of people and we’re excited. It's what this season is all about. Giving thanks.”
You don’t have to be 6-0 and ranked No. 6 in the country to be thankful. This scene will play out in many coaches’ homes around the country, and in many homes, period.
But the transient nature of college basketball right now is that for these young players, these moments they’re having, they’ll have only once. Next year will be different.
And right now for U of L, you get the feeling among players and coaches that they are in the midst of a special time. Watch college basketball very long this season and you know, no matter how good you are, somebody punches you in the mouth and knocks you down at some point.
But there’s a great deal of maturity on this team. And a pretty impressive level of buying into Kelsey’s core principles already, of taking things as they come, being in those moments, and then focusing on the next.
Ryan Conwell, an Indianapolis native who will get to spend time with family on Thursday, said, “I'm definitely thankful for the Lord. You know, he's truly the reason why I'm here today. I’m thankful for my family and just the position I'm in, just being around such a great group of people every single day, just on this team and the staff and everyone who is part of the organization. I'm just thankful for everything.”
Isaac McKneely, who scored 17 on Wednesday and made five three-pointers, will have his family in from West Virginia.
“I’m thankful to the Lord for blessing us to be here,” he said. “You know I dreamed of being here as a kid. So, I’m super thankful for that. I’m thankful my family, for sure. You know, my parents are here tonight, so I’m definitely going to spend the night with them and have some fun. I’m thankful for my brother, my girlfriend, 25 Strong. I have so much to be thankful for. Definitely blessed. ... We'll go to PK's and eat a ton of turkey, ham, mac and cheese and all that. It'll be good to be together.”
I suspect it’ll be a pretty special gathering. It’s not often you’re with a group of people, dedicated to a purpose, experiencing success and there for the purpose of being grateful for it.
It doesn’t mean all is right with the world. A week ago at this time walk-on guard Cole Sherman was in the hospital with a kidney stone. He got out in time to be back with the team for its game in Cincinnati on Friday. A day later, he learned that his grandmother had died. Two nights after that, he got in the game in the final minute and buried a three-pointer. The arena erupted.
Life comes at us, its joy and pain. Sometimes all at once. But it gives us these moments we’d do well to stop and remember, when things are good and often, too, when they aren’t, that we can feel blessed. No matter what our record is.
“I know one thing,” Kelsey said. “This guy sitting here, this ugly, short guy with weird glasses and no hair, I'm really, really thankful to coach this team, because they're special. And I'm thankful, obviously, to be the head coach here at Louisville and be a member of this awesome community.”
Happy Thanksgiving.
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