Category archive: Louisville Cardinals
Once upon a time, that four-letter school in Westwood won seven consecutive national championships. It is both an unthinkable achievement and the byproduct of a smaller, more regional NCAA tournament.
The institution of multibid conferences in 1976 and the dawn of the 64-team bracket in 1985 changed the face of college basketball's postseason forever. More recently, the era of one-and-done stars makes the prospect of multiseason dominance by any school far less likely.
Yet the unexpected return of guard Russ Smith to Louisville, along with mega-recruit Andrew Wiggins' decision not to join the Kentucky all-stars, has generated new talk of a possible repeat for the defending champion Cardinals. Rick Pitino both returns and adds plenty to his 2013 title team, enough to lift the Ville to a No. 1 seed in our first post-Wiggins bracket.
But back-to-back national championships? Let's just say there's a reason we've seen only two "repeats" -- Duke (1991 and '92) and Florida (2006 and '07) -- in the 64-team era. And it's not as if there's been a shortage of legitimate candidates. To wit:
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ABOUT THIS BLOG
College Basketball Experts
Fran Fraschilla is an analyst for ESPN and was previously the head coach at New Mexico, St. John's and Manhattan.
Joe Lunardi is the resident bracketologist for ESPN.
Seth Greenberg is an analyst for ESPN and was previously the head coach at Virginia Tech, South Florida and Long Beach State.
