Louisville’s men’s basketball team has not been competitive over the last three or four seasons. I love cheering on my alma mater, but until this season, I haven’t had much for which to cheer. That outlook started to change after the offseason hiring of Pat Kelsey, our new head coach.
I was excited for this hire, but tried to temper my expectations. After all, I was very much onboard with the Chris Mack hype train, and I felt that Kelsey very much exuded Chris Mack energy: both were energetic, excited, and on the younger end of the spectrum. The Chris Mack era came to a halting end a few years ago. I don’t even want to get into the Kenny Payne era that nearly took away my enjoyment of Louisville basketball.
This past Wednesday, the Sports app reminded me that Louisville was playing No. 14 Indiana. I no longer subscribe to a service to reliably watch live television and the game was not being broadcast over the air here in Nashville. I was busy and didn’t expect much anyway. Well, around the start of the second half, I had a moment and checked on the score. Indiana 40, Louisville 74. I was gobsmacked. I was in disbelief. I assumed there was a data error in Sports. I looked at the box score. Louisville had zero free throws. How was this even possible?
I enabled the live activity in Sports so that I could follow along on my iPhone’s Lock Screen or on my Apple Watch. As the final score update came across, I was speechless. I then started to wait for a phone call, but this phone call would never come. It was then that my excitement gave way to sadness. I expected my father to call, as he always did, when Louisville pulled off something miraculous.
My father wasn’t a diehard Louisville fan. I would say he was passionate, but he was a passionate sports fan. He watched any game that was on, but always kept a keen eye on anything Kentucky-related (meaning any team that called Kentucky home). His father, his brother, and then his son (me) all attended the University of Louisville. I think it’s safe to say he had a soft spot in his heart for Louisville athletics.
I don’t think my father and I really ever butt heads, but we did not always agree or see eye-to-eye on everything. However, one common thing that we could always share was sports and, specifically, University of Louisville athletics. I wanted, very badly, to share this moment with him.
Louisville’s victory came in the Battle 4 Atlantis in-season tournament. They would go on to beat West Virginia on Thursday, but lose to Oklahoma in the championship game on Friday. While I was sad to see them lose a heartbreaker to Oklahoma on Friday, I was still feeling good about this run and the beginning of this season. It is bittersweet. I have so many fond memories around Louisville athletics and connecting with my father. I am thankful for that.