Chris Mack and the Louisville basketball program officially announced that Louisville Live is coming to The Ville.
The wait is over Cards fans, Midnight Madness is coming to Louisville basketball.
After years of Cards fans clamoring for something fresh and fun to bring in the basketball season, head coach Chris Mack announced on Friday that Louisville is all-in on the madness.
The Louisville basketball program will put together a new event called “Louisville Live.” The event will take place at Fourth Street LIve! on Friday, September 28th from 7 to 9PM.
In a release on the Louisville athletics website (GoCards.com) the following details were made available:
"“The free, outdoor event will include team activities on a portable court placed on the covered area of the street, surrounded by fan viewing opportunities of the stage, court and video screens.”"
This is huge for the future of the program, and a sign that thew new administration understands what it takes to go to the next level. If you think about when the event is happening, you’ll quickly realize that this is the night before the Louisville football program takes on Florida State at Cardinal Stadium.
That weekend Louisville will have a long list of basketball visitors, making this a prime recruiting event. We know that Jaelyn Withers will be in town, along with current Josh Nickelberry, and hopefully five star big man, Aidan Igiehon.
Although it really doesn’t have much to do with the basketball season itself, a fun party-like atmosphere to celebrate the players and the culture of Louisville basketball in general is exactly what the doctor ordered.
For years, programs like Kentucky, Duke, Kansas, and other fellow blue bloods have held these late-night events to introduce the team to the fans and just flat out have a good time.
Kentucky has notoriously held their “Big Blue Madness” since John Calipari’s arrival to attract big-name recruits. Rapper Drake has been a repeat guest at the event, and the party is the place to be in Lexington that night each season.
Former Louisville coach Rick Pitino was resistant to such events in his time on campus. He preferred to hold events like the red-white scrimmages and open practices. Those team previews never really drew more than a couple thousand fans, and were not very indicative of what the season would look like for the Cards.
Chris Mack, however, is much more in-tune with expectations from the Louisville students and fanbase. This isn’t Mack’s first rodeo. At Xavier, his squad hosted a similar event called Muskateer Madness, and Mack has never been afraid to get into the action.
This event will pay huge dividends for Louisville’s success in the future. Without things like this, Louisville will struggle to land top-5 or top-3 recruiting classes in the future.