It’s been a rough day for everyone who loves, supports and is involved with the Louisville Basketball program. We’ve enjoyed a lot of good times over the past 10 years but it seems now that all of that is coming to an end. We all know that our basketball program has been under the cloud of a dark scandal most of the season. Today we started to see the consequences unravel from that scandal. Unfortunately our basketball program has placed a self-imposed ban on any post season participation which means that our great Conference and NCAA Tourney run will come to an end.

This news is devastating on many levels but probably the most to those student athletes who have sacrificed and given so much of themselves to chase that ultimate prize of being a champion. Especially in the case of Damion Lee and Trey Lewis. These two young men decided to finish their college careers at the University of Louisville so they’d have a chance to compete in the NCAA tournament. With the news today these guys are now facing the last 9 games of their college basketball careers and for them there won’t be a “one shining moment” not in the NCAA tournament anyway.

So what now? My father always tried to teach me to relish in the great times and prepare myself for the bad. Now granted we aren’t talking about some of life’s greatest tragedies here and sports stuff is really trivial in the big picture of things. But nevertheless it is something that can be very frustrating and disappointing. We all follow our teams and enjoy their success in order to escape some of those real life issues. Right now we have to prepare ourselves for the bad because this NCAA post season ban is not going to be the end game. We are in for more ahead.

We can also relish in the good times that we have left. Damion Lee, Trey Lewis and the rest of our basketball team have 9 games left and we must celebrate them. It’s easy to be a fan when things are great but its times like these that show a person’s true loyalty to the team they support. We must sell-out the remaining 4 home games and the KFC Yum Center should be loud from tip to time. We owe it to these student athletes to make their efforts all worth it. We’ve had a saying all season… I’ve got Your Back… Well Cardinal fans it is time to have this programs back. Good, bad and worst we need to rally around it. They can break our hearts but they haven’t and they never will break our Cardinal Spirit. It was here before us and will be when we are long gone but it is up to us to keep it alive and moving forward.

My son and your children will be able to look back on this moment in our programs history as a minor hiccup and they won’t ever give it a second look. This program is headed for a rough couple of years but we will come out on the other end much stronger than we were before. Seeing Damion and Trey up there in that press conference today so composed and thoughtful in their time of woe was amazing. Seeing guys that age value their friendships and relationships over everything else is something to marvel over.

Damion Lee: “There are silver linings to every storm.”

There are a lot of adults who could learn from these guys. I know that I wasn’t that grounded in my college years. Trey and Damion are going to be fine and if this is the worst thing that ever happens to them that would be incredible. They might not win an ACC Tourney Title or a NCAA Title but they are well on their way to winning the game of life. That’s the most important of all. This Louisville basketball team is united and now they’ll ball. Let’s support them. Go Cards!