By David Mann
On Saturday afternoon, the University of Louisville’s men basketball team’s spectacular 88-90 overtime win against Charlotte last Saturday marked the end of an exciting regular season. Prior to the game, the university athletics program, head coach Rick Pitino, and the 19,554 fans in attendance honored the team’s graduating seniors, Hajj Turner and Joseph N’Sima.
On Friday, both players had a chance to reflect upon their careers at Louisville.
“It’s been fun, it’s been a good career,” said Turner, a player who saw much more adversity than action throughout his time at Louisville due to injury. “It took some work on my part to make it fun because I expected a lot out of myself. For a while there I wasn’t willing to restructure my goals. Finally I was able to just because it made me feel better… put less stress on me.”
Over the course of their careers, both players have learned things that they had never expected.
“Under Coach Crum I guess I learned a lot just because his years here, especially his years when I was here, were not his best years,” said Turner. “The main thing I learned from him was how to handle adversity with class. And on a different level, I’ve learned how to handle adversity with Coach Pitino here. He had a different set of circumstances, personal circumstances, that were different from anything that could transpire on the court and he handled that with such class.”
“When I came here, if you had told me we would be having senior night a few days after beating the No. 4 team in the nation with Coach Pitino as our coach, I would have told you ‘stop lying’,” said N’Sima.
N’Sima is especially thankful to his teammates because without them he would not be on the team now. The forward from Paris, France, was kicked off the team prior to the season and then only reinstated when his teammates voted him back on. “There’s been a lot of growing as a person,” said N’Sima. “I was twenty-one, I had no expectations of a high profile program; the demand, the impact on the community and everything, it’s been a very, very, very, positive learning experience. Whatever good, whatever bad thing happened, I always got something out of everything.”
Coach Pitino said of the seniors that they were “two young men who put their teammates before themselves.” For the two, it was to be their last game ever at Freedom Hall, and the crowd gave them warm applause to thank them for their hard work and dedication.
After the game, the team awards were handed out to the members of the squad who ultimately had the most impact. Following the final buzzer, Pitino handed out the ten awards. The coach wanted to do the ceremony in front of the fans in Freedom Hall because he felt that they were a large part of the reason why the team finished the season with only two home losses.
Pitino began by announcing that a scholarship was awarded to Erik Brown. The award for academic excellence went to Alhaji Mohammad Jr. while the hustle award went to Otis George.
The field-goal percentage award was given to Ellis Myles, who topped out at .436, second only to Reece Gaines’ .457. Myles also took home the award for the most improved player, the best defensive man and the award for best rebounder. The big winner of the day was, of course, Reece Gaines, who received the free-throw award, leading the team with 98 over the course of the regular season. The award for assists also went to Gaines, along with the 3-point award for his 42 shots from beyond the arch this season.
The team MVP award was shared by Ellis Myles and Reece Gaines. “I wouldn’t have been the MVP if he (Coach Pitino) wouldn’t had made me work so hard,” Myles said as he accepted the award.
The remarkable game capped off an incredible season by the Cardinals and gave the hope that they will be even better next year.
“I’m really proud of this team, it’s one of my favorite seasons ever,” said Pitino. The Cardinals now begin their run at the Conference USA Tournament.
