Louisville’s 1st & Last American Athletic Tournament

Tonight, the American Athletic Conference Tournament begins in earnest at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, TN.  Louisville plays tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. and will play a conference tournament outside of Madison Square Garden for the 1st time in 9 years.  The result of a coin flip put the Cards in the #2 position, opposite of the Host Team/City Memphis.

Louisville in Conference Tournaments has had its share of magic.  The Cards didn’t begin playing a conference tourney’s until UofL joined the METRO in 1976 where the Cards won 11 of 20 Tournament League Titles. The most thrilling of which came in 1986 at Freedom Hall when the Cards’ Milt Wagner was fouled with 1 second remaining, the Cards down by 1.  Before going to the line Milt actually flashed a “W” to the crowd before he sank both.  The crowd was in such a fervor that a man actually had a heart attack in the crowd and paramedics were tending to him while Wagner shot his foul shots.   Louisville, of course, would go on to win the National Championship in 1986.  Just like in 1980 and in 2013 after winning Conference Tournament Championships.

When the Cards left the METRO Conference they did so by winning the Conference Tournament in 1995.

When the Cards left Conference USA they did so by winning the Conference Tournament in 2005.

When the Cards left the Big East they did so by winning the Conference Tournament in 2013.

The Cards have never won a conference tournament in their 1st year in a league and this tournament being the 1st and last, one sequence must break by Saturday around 8:10 p.m.

Louisville will be attempting to win their 3rd League Tournament in a row, something the program has done twice before (1988-90 & 1993-1995 both in the METRO).  In the city of Memphis the Cards have won 2 of 6 League Tournament Championships (1988 & 2005) with the most recent being a famous game featuring missed free throws from Darius Washington, Jr. with no time on the clock leading to UofL winning their final appearance in the C-USA Tournament.  The Cards would March to the Final Four St. Louis in 2005, and would fall to Oklahoma in 1988 in the Sweet 16 who was the eventual National Runner-Up.

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The Cards have won 3 of their last 5 Conference Tournament Championships and UofL has claimed 16 of 38 (42.1%) League Post-Season Tournament Titles.

What’s going to happen next? No one knows. But you can bet it will be exciting.

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Mark Blankenbaker

@UofLSheriff50. Louisville native, University of Louisville Business School Grad c/o 2004. Co-Founder of TheCrunchZone.com

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