I’m sad. You’re sad. We’re all sad. Why? College football is finally coming to an end. Yes, we’re all celebrating the fact that in year one as the head coach of his alma mater, Jeff Brohm has made Louisville football relevant again. The Cards spent the majority of the season ranked, even achieving its highest CFB Playoff ranking since 2016 when #8 was roaming the field. But in a year with so many highs, it’s hard to officially close the book on the action and move to the next season.
Thankfully, we get one more football matchup. Enter USC in the Holiday Bowl out west.
Since the inception of Kentucky Sports Radio, the Louisville basketball program has created countless headlines you never thought were possible. Time and time again we’ve thought, “This can’t get any worse?” Time and time again, we’ve been proven incorrect. Wednesday night we finally saw the Cardinals reach rock bottom.
Arkansas State, a 3-7 team ranked No. 196 in KenPom, completely dominated the Cardinals in front of dozens of people at the Yum Center. The final score: 75-63.
Rick Pitino got extorted by his mistress. An escort exposed stripper parties in the Louisville basketball dorms. Pitino flipped off the crowd at Rupp Arena. Then one of his assistants got caught by the FBI trying to pay a player. His eventual successor was fired after he recorded an assistant who was trying to extort him. They got a banner pulled down, then put up the saddest banner in its place. Louisville fans have seen just one NCAA Tournament in eight seasons, none since 2017.
That is a short list of the crazy things that have hit the program. None of them feel as bad as this.
Typically there are a few Cards’ fans who are still delusional enough to believe they are still one of the top programs in all of college basketball. Now you can’t even find any fans that are willing to fork over $3 to watch their team play.
Losing to a 1-win DePaul team is bad. What happened tonight against Arkansas State is somehow even more embarrassing. The Cards did not hit a three until there were less than three minutes left on the clock. They had just five assists on 22 made field goals while letting the Red Wolves shoot 51.4% from the field in the second half. That’s an abomination to basketball.
