Hoops heaven for Kansas fans is heartache for Louisville

The sleek, black charter bus pulled into the heart of the most basketball-mad city in the middle of the most basketball-mad month on the calendar late on Friday afternoon.

The Kansas Jayhawks filed off the bus at their hotel after the two-block ride from the KFC Yum Center, where the top-seeded team in the NCAA Tournament will take on Villanova on Saturday night.

Around them, a party began to get its footing in downtown Louisville’s entertainment district. Fans gawked and snapped pictures on their cell phones. A local radio station set up shop and began blasting music out of huge loudspeakers and a stage went up for a concert by rapper Flo Rida later that evening.

“Who doesn’t love NCAA college basketball? Who doesn’t love KU?” said Erin Frank, a Kansas City native and Kansas graduate who was there with her husband, Joel.

“We were just talking about the players staying right over there and that they probably keep them under lock and key. They probably tell them they get room service and nothing else.”

The Franks laughed and turned back to the party.

It was hoops heaven. For most.

Away from the fray, a row of taxi drivers sat in their cars and looked at the scene with disdain, waiting for customers. The men all sported different variations of the same red-and-black symbols – a T-shirt, a hoodie, a hat, even a car ornament. The University of Louisville Cardinals are the hometown team, and the locals aren’t afraid to show it.

And this year, they’re not in the tournament. And not because they’re not good enough – not by a long shot.

Louisville president James Ramsey imposed a postseason ban in early February after he concluded, in concert with an NCAA investigation, that former basketball staff member Andre McGee paid prostitutes to have sex with and dance for Louisville players in campus housing.

Louisville coach Rick Pitino even went on local radio this week and called it “March Sadness,” a term that you’ll hear almost everywhere around town this weekend.

The NCAA could still impose violations. Pitino, who has been vocal in his opposition to Ramsey’s decision, is scheduled to meet with the NCAA in April.

The Cardinals went 23-8 this season and finished No. 14 in the final Associated Press poll. Louisville won the national championship in 2013, defeating Wichita State in the national semifinals.

“It’s great, and I don’t want to begrudge anyone their happiness for their team,” said taxi driver McNeal Peterson, sporting a Louisville hat with the Cardinals logo next to white block letters that read “ACC” for Louisville’s conference.

“I’m not watching the games in protest. … I think we should’ve waited for the verdict to come down. We would’ve had a shot to get to at least where everybody else is right now, at least to the Elite Eight.”

So the city that prides itself on several things – chiefly basketball, bourbon and bluegrass – saw its team take a backseat to the teams competing for a spot in the Final Four in its hometown for a few days.

And the visitors were appreciative.

“The city has been great, the people here have been great,” Joel Frank said.

“There were a ton of people here on Thursday for the game against Maryland,” Erin Frank said. “Hopefully some more will head over on Saturday.”

This story was originally published March 25, 2016 at 10:21 PM with the headline "Hoops heaven for Kansas fans is heartache for Louisville."