Louisville to Serve Self-Imposed Ban of One Year
On Friday, Louisville took action and gave their men’s basketball program a self-imposed ban from postseason play. This type of action is not unprecedented in fact, it seems to be a year for this sort of thing.
Syracuse just one year ago to the date plus one day, did the same thing. However, this is different. To begin with, Syracuse kept itself out of a postseason it likely would never have qualified for, at least not the NCAA but possibly the NIT.
Louisville is not only on track to earn a tournament berth in the NCAA, but with just over one month remaining in the season, The Cardinals are playing like a high seed and they beat North Carolina just this past Monday.
The Louisville investigation is ongoing by the NCAA but the final decision is far off and easily would not have taken place prior to the NCAA basketball tournament. Most sources say the school has yet to receive any notice of allegation and has not yet appeared before COI.
Some believe a decision by the NCAA would not come for months.
However, after receiving an update about their own investigation and apparently one from the NCAA on Friday, the school announced on Friday afternoon it had imposed its own one season postseason death penalty.
The season for the Cardinals will end March 5 and by doing this, many feel things could become even worse. Most insiders believe the NCAA and Louisville’s own investigation have found something incredibly damaging and giving yourself a self-imposed ban is almost admitting something ugly, embarrassing and highly damaging took place.
The sad thing is the players who will never play in the postseason or have an opportunity to reach the Final Four.
Head coach Rick Pitino had told everyone who asked that he loved this year’s team and has compared it to his 1987 Final Four Providence Friars. He has also said he felt the team could reach the Final Four this season. That now will not be the case.
On Monday, Louisville beat North Carolina after recovering from a loss to the Virginia Cavaliers, at a time when the players and coaches futures looked bright.
Now only a few days later, the school suspends itself and everyone attached to the program is just waiting for what is to come next. In this case, for Louisville you should expect the worst.
