Louisville Cardinals Mens Basketball Tickets
The Louisville Cardinals men’s basketball team is a Division I program for the University of Louisville. The team is located in Louisville, Kentucky and play their home games at the KFC Yum! Center. The Yum! Center has a capacity of 22,000 people and was built in 2010. In the team’s two years playing at the newly built venue, the team has amassed a sparkling 35-6 record. Prior to the opening of the Yum! Center, the team played their games from 1956 to 2010 at Freedom Hall. At Freedom Hall, Louisville spent the final 28 years of the arena’s use in the top five for attendance. The team is currently coached by Rick Pitino, who has amassed a 275-106 record while taking the team to two Final Fours and overseeing their transition from Conference USA to the Big East.
The team played its first season in 1911, and since that time, has featured many notable players and coaches. The team first became successful under coach Bernard “Peck” Hickman. Starting his tenure in 1944, he led the team to a 16-3 record, which began a string of 46 consecutive winning seasons. Denny Crum during his 30-year career brought the team to 23 NCAA tournaments, with six Final Four appearances and two NCAA championships. Throughout the school’s history, the team has made 38 NCAA Tournament appearances, good enough for fifth all time, with 64 NCAA Tournament wins and 9 Final Four appearances.
Six consensus All-Americans have played for the Cardinals, with 1980’s John Wooden Award winner Darrell Griffith being the only national player of the year. 59 players have been selected in the NBA Draft that have come out of Louisville, most recently Earl Clark and Terrence Williams in 2009. Wes Unseld, who was a two-time consensus All-American, is the only Cardinal player in the Hall of Fame while Denny Crum is also in the Hall of Fame as a coach.
The Battle for the Bluegrass is the name for the annual meeting of in state rivals the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville, the two most prominent state universities in the state of Kentucky. While the two teams first began playing one another in 1913, the rivalry lay dormant between the two from 1959 until their meeting in 1983’s Elite Eight. Since that time, the teams have faced off against one another each year since. Kentucky holds the advantage 30-14 in their matchup.
