Don’t look now but basketball is breathing down our necks already. The Cards tip off the season on Monday in a exhibition game against Carleton University at Freedom Hall. Hope nobody is expecting U of L to just roll over the visitors. Carleton is a basketball powerhouse in Canada, having won five straight national championships. Anything less than a romp could ignite another round of Pitino bashings.
Slow starts in opening exhibition games in recent years against Georgetown College and Bellarmine University have done just that, setting a negative tone before the season officially got under way.
Football is tops, basketball a close second in my book. The affinity for all things U of L actually began with basketball, however. I was a 13-year-old during the 1955-56 season, following Louisville games on radio even though I lived in Big Blue territory, only 11 miles from Lexington.
The Cards started off that season winning nine games in a row before losing a heart breaker to Ed Diddle’s Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, a perennial power in those days. I could have used Diddle’s trademark red towel to dry my tears after the loss.. The Cards recovered quickly, however, achieving a 26-3 record, including the National Invitation Tournament trophy, then the most prestigious prize in college basketball.
They defeated Dayton in the NIT championship, their third win over that top 10-ranked team that year. The game was, in fact, one of U of L’s first televised games. I missed the telecast but heard it on the radio. My headache was gone after the game.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise if U of L is exerting high pressure on the national barometer. Their midseason transformation from an error-prone youth corps to an unselfish, role-oriented upstart didn’t go unnoticed — from their tourney ranking to early pre-season rankings in the top 10.