For the UofL men’s basketball team, Saturday’s game against Clemson was a banner night literally.
Members of the 2013 team returned to the KFC Yum! Center at halftime to commemorate the ten-year anniversary of their NCAA Championship win, which was marked by a new banner hanging up in the rafters.
The new banner, however, didn’t call the Cards “NCAA champions” rather, it read, “2013 #1 Final Coaches Poll.” The original banner was removed in 2018 due to a scandal involving UofL allegedly using escorts and strippers to recruit players, for which the NCAA vacated 123 of the team’s wins.
Even so, the fans at a season-high attendance record of 15,157 would not let the 2013 win go unremembered. On flags, t-shirts, and a tifo in the student section, they proclaimed the victory: “2013 NCAA CHAMPIONS.” (One student’s poster simply read, “2013 HAPPENED.”)
That night, the energy helped the current Cards bring a victory of their own an 83-73 win over Clemson, their fourth win in a season otherwise marked by losses.
Read sportswriter Tim Sullivan’s analysis of the game and check out LEO’s photos in the gallery above.
