Chris Mack issues decree: Louisville basketball is “gonna be rockin'”

Louisville basketball will transition into a new era when the season kicks off Thursday, and fan support has never been more important than now.

Being a Louisville fan has sucked the life out of me. The last few years have made it harder than ever to be a supporter of Louisville sports, but particularly Louisville basketball. While the teams have had a lot of success for the most part, it’s been the scandals, athletic department, and university dysfunction that has made it difficult to keep rooting the way we have.

2018 may have been one of the tougher seasons in Louisville basketball history to swallow, and the attendance for men’s basketball games decreased as the regular season went on.

Riddled by various scandals, supporters in this city and around the country grew more and more numb to the situation. We saw the fan base (for the most part) split into two factions:

1. Rick Pitino & Tom Jurich supporters, who would fight tooth and nail to keep them around

and

2. Fans who grew tired of the scandals and trials, and who were ready for a new era.

However, whatever you felt last year, it is a new dawn. Chris Mack and his staff are at the helm, and with the new regime comes new traditions, and a renewed excitement.

Mack has spoken before about feeling strongly about improving the fan experience and giving the “best fans in the country” something new to cheer about.

Now, he is issuing a decree far and wide, calling all fans to the KFC Yum! Center to create the first of many raucous crowds this year.

Mack followed that tweet up Wednesday with a message to the fans during his pre- Nicholls State presser:

"“I’d like (The KFC Yum! Center) to be rockin’. I’d like there to be 22,000 people in red. I’d like this place bouncing off the walls. But at the same time, I recognize that we have to earn that. We understand that there has been a lot of hardship over the years; Fans were frustrated. I’m incredibly excited to get going tomorrow night. I know our guys have worked awfully hard, and that doesn’t mean that they’ve earned the right to (a crazy crowd). I’m not saying that our guys have earned the right to have this place like a zoo, but if you ask me what I want tomorrow night, I’d tell you I want it to be raucous. I didn’t come here for it not to be. However long that takes, if it takes 24 hours or it takes three or four years, it’s gonna be rockin’.”"

If that doesn’t get you fired up to be a Louisville basketball fan, I don’t know what does.

if you ask me what I want tomorrow night, I’d tell you I want it to be raucous. I didn’t come here for it not to be. However long that takes, if it takes 24 hours or it takes three or four years, it’s gonna be rockin’.

Regardless of what side you were on regarding the head coaching situation, there is one thing that still remains.

One thing that unites as all.

There’s still one thing that can pull us out of the darkness on our bad days and wreck us on our good days.

That one unifying force is the spirit of the University of Louisville fan base. Steeped in tradition, passion, and pride, there is not a greater group of people in this country. No matter how you feel about the past transgressions of old administration and coaches, we still unite as one on November 8th. Team 105 deserves our full attention, and unwavering dedication; And we owe it to ourselves to give it to them.

Charles Swindoll famously said that life is 10% what happens to us, and 90% how we react to it. I say if we give our 90% to the players, to the coaches, and to passion that ignites a fire inside of all of us, then we as a fan base can take back the program.

Let’s light a fire under this team, under this basketball program as a whole, and under this university and this city. It starts game one against Nicholls State. Let’s take what is ours back and let’s get this city rockin’.