LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Well, at least that’s over.
The University of Louisville men’s basketball team finished the worst home season in its history with a 71-54 loss to Virginia Tech in the KFC Yum! Center on Tuesday night.
On my first day out of a mandated COVID isolation period, I elected to watch remotely, which is against everything I feel and believe, but undoubtedly was the right decision with a long couple of weeks of tournament basketball ahead.
So I guess I was like a great many Louisville fans who watched not from the seats they have occupied for years in the KFC Yum! Center, but at home, because why endure it? Health matters.
I feel your pain. You want to be there. You want there to be a compelling reason to drag you back down there. But you did not see it this season.
And you didn’t see much of it on Tuesday night. Whether it was the 10 points through 12 ½ minutes of play in the first half, or pulling back within 3 in the second half, only to have Virginia Tech answer with 14 straight points in an arena that sounded sadly quiet.
"We had numerous guys that did not come to play, on Senior Night, the last game of the year," Louisville coach Kenny Payne said. "I don't know what to say to that. I'm disappointed, discouraged, hurt. There are no words to describe what it feels like to be a part of something where you watch guys not coming to fight for their teammates or this fan base on the last regular-season game of the year. That's disappointing."
I remember Senior Nights.
I remember Senior Day in 2015. That was a Louisville team that had lost 3 out of 4, then managed to lose 3 straight before losing to a very good Notre Dame team at home. Facing a Top 10 Virginia team at home, there was little cause for optimism. But Mangok Mathiang hit a jumper, and all that changed. That team wound up in the Elite Eight and was, incredibly, an overtime loss away from a Final Four.
In 2016, Louisville had banned itself from the NCAA Tournament. Dark times.
In 2017, Louisville beat Notre Dame on Senior Day, but would lose in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in what would be Rick Pitino’s final game.
In 2018, Deng Adel walked on a baseline inbounds play against Virginia on Senior Night, and nothing has been the same since.
There have been moments in the past month that gave you a bit of hope, maybe. Mike James keeps getting better. So does Kamari Lands. So does JJ Traynor. It’s a reminder that if these guys keep coming along, at some point they can become the bullies, and not the bullied.
But the energy of the program, folks, did not appear to be there, from the game I watched on television. Or the many I saw in person.
(Though, one final digression after the final home game: You fans who did show up were outstanding. You cheered, you supported, you gave the place atmosphere, if not the overwhelming chills of a sold-out crowd at full throat, you made the place feel inhabited, and made the team feel supported, and you deserve a lot of credit for that. Sometime we scoff at a crowd of 8,000, forgetting how many programs – good ones – don’t draw that in good years.)
Everybody says Kenny Payne needs to have the program dramatically better in Year No. 2, some even say he needs to get back to the NCAA Tournament. Maybe so. I don't put must-reach goals. I do know he needs to keep developing the young guys he has, because in the college basketball landscape today, how well you develop guys, and your relationship with them, determines the health of your program.
If everything you’ve built can be dismantled in the transfer portal with the next round of flashy NIL offers, how solid is it?
Maybe that’s life for anybody and everybody, but hopefully Payne can preserve the young core of this team, add a few more, then solidify through the transfer portal.
There’s work to be done. Louisville’s last performance of the season in front of its home fans illustrated that. Virginia Tech hadn’t won in Louisville since its Metro Conference days.
Louisville is 4-26 overall. It is 2-17 in the ACC. If you count two exhibition losses, it lost 17 times in the KFC Yum! Center this season. This is a program that doesn’t like to lose 17 home games in a decade, let alone a season.
At halftime, a handler brought a dog out to put on a show of frisbee artistry. The dog pooped on the court.
Apt, dog. Apt.
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