Marching Into Madness | Chapter 3: Zero, Zero

Ladies and gentlemen, we have.

please.

This is our time.

Lordy, I'm all in.

2.

Superstars don't come along often, but when they do, they can turn a hoop town upside down.

They instantly become the face of the franchise.

They sell out stadiums, their jerseys fly off shelves, and if they deliver, they're a hero.

Do it long enough A legend But while superstars don't come around often, they also don't come cheap.

It takes millions to build an elite college basketball team these days, and with archrival Kentucky coming to town, the bill is coming due early.

You know, and everybody talks the sanctity of amateur sports and all that.

This is a big stinking business.

Now it's legal Let's be straight, this was pro sports before the players were let in on it.

It's a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry run off college campuses and it has been for decades.

Can you, uh, look for me?

Am I here?

It's really the stuff that happens around it.

Now you look up and kids have Lamborghinis, the same cars I have driving home, right?

Like it's, it's, it's crazy to see that.

It's a lot of helter-skelter right now because there's really no, there's no plan, right?

There's no structure, but I think the best part about it is guys are getting compensated the way they should be.

But with great power comes great responsibility.

We're gonna be the hardest playing team.

Hey, hey, transition, rebounding, physicality and toughness.

You win that, we win the freaking game.

Bring it in.

When Pat came in from the first day, it's like, let's go on 3123.

I mean, heck, they won more games last year than they won the previous 3, and so people are energized again.

Louisville's been such a great program.

It's the number 1 college basketball market in the country.

You know, no question about it, you're in a fishbowl.

There's an event going on.

I don't know if there's a better place in the country than Louisville.

To be in that type of scenario where every dribble is watched every move is, you know, paid attention to, I love it because it means you're invested, it means you care and because you care that allows us to then go out and recruit to that level of passion.

So when I first stepped foot on the campus was like mid September.

It was an unofficial visit.

I got in at like 12 a.m. There's like 30 freaking fans outside at 12 a.m. waiting for me to get out the car.

I've never seen this before it's just a different type of energy that this city brings and the fans bring you could see the passion that they have for for Louisville basketball.

I think overall man it was just the best situation for me and also for my family.

You know it gets even realer when you play here for a year.

I'll tell you that just everywhere you go is always uh, you know, L's up cards up just everything about Louisville is just like a once in a lifetime opportunity.

It's like like a true blue blood and you know getting to play at that was just like a, a childhood dream because you know you get a little bit of everything with it.

That little spark has ignited that sense of revival in this town, revival, and you could feel it coming.

There's a saying that says, man, they got it going.

That means recruiting is rolling.

That means you're winning games.

That means you're competing for Final Fours and everywhere in this city there's a bounce in the step.

There's an energy about Louisville basketball again.

I want the college basketball world around the nation.

When you say Louisville, you say, man, this this cat's got it going.

Oh yeah, let's go play.

Well, we got 4.

I don't wanna play with an AI.

I don't wanna play with AI.

No, I don't.

I don't know if y'all haven't seen yet, but yeah, the 19 squad, I think that's where, you know, everything took off.

I think I kinda made a name for myself there for sure, and um, just took off running, took off running and.

You know, no, I think, I think that definitely, that, that, that team definitely helped me, you know, grow, um, I played with that staff for 2 years because I played with them in 19s and 18s, so I won two gold medals with them, um, so.

You also did you, you got scanned, right?

So you're going in the first day when it came out I see my car.

And I was like this is crazy.

I would've never thought, right?

Like that's, this has been a dream of mine, you know, to be in 2K.

I think everything was on point.

I had like a 90 , like a 95 ball handle, I think 893, like a 85 midi.

My driving dunk is a 75.

I don't kind of agree with that because um I think the body that I had in Arkansas speaks loud.

75, I'm not mad at it, but I think it should be up, up there more, um, I would have never thought that I would've been in the game this early, especially in college, um.

Just shows you know the the the game and and the world is growing and the game of basketball is growing so um.

I enjoy, I enjoy, you know, being in the middle of the process every single day, so.

Uh, my Wi Fi is starting to trip.

No way, dude, nothing's worse than when a player's Wi Fi drops while gaming.

Real world problems, even for this freshman who's making more money in his first year of college than most mere mortals will make in a lifetime.

But you gotta love this kid.

He's a 19 year old multi-millionaire who does his own laundry.

Even separates the darks from the lights.

That's what makes mama proud, but to make his new Carnation family proud, he has to live up to the hype, or Wi Fi will be the least of his problems, Mr.

Clean.

Mr.

Clean.

So Kel, this is a scream through.

So once you get right here, you're screaming and, and, and although we're not going full speed, you can sure as crap point at the safety.

Hey, I'm Mick.

I'm Mick.

All right, here we go.

Switch out.

Hey, left, left, I got the ball.

I'm in the gap.

Louisville came in around my junior, like the end of my junior year going into my senior year.

Their energy and their positive vibe like the whole staff um just reached out to me and they just constantly like made sure I was straight every single week shoot some of them like Coach Thomas Carr made it to my sister's volleyball game.

Just to show that like it's really like all about family and the one thing that we base everything off of is love as PK would say that's elite that is elite that family aspect of like hey we're not only embracing you but we're embracing your family as well so.

Here we go.

It's easy to say we love our kids equally, but inside the locker room walls of a college basketball family, it's a hell of a lot harder to convince your kids they're equals when they're not paid equally, and there's no I in team.

Even the greatest one man highlight reel needs 4 other guys.

It takes way more than a one man show to build a winner .

It takes the whole family.

The opposite of Mel Brown's journey is journeyman Javon Hadley.

Let's start with when you started in this game.

I still remember my first play actually in junior college, you know, I'm a little freshman out there, and they immediately ran a play at me, uh, hit me with the back door.

Um, I was a freshman.

I was lost.

They scored the bucket.

I got taken out, man.

They, they took advantage.

They, they knew that I wasn't gonna be locked in right away coming in.

So yeah, I'll never forget that experience right there.

Hey, do it again.

You know, when I was younger, you know, I was never like the top 10 in the country, like a 5 star, that type of a guy.

I feel like I'm overlooked.

I feel like it, but you know I can't do anything about it honestly besides go out there and, you know, play my butt off every single night.

Look at where I'm at now and what I'm doing now.

The proof is in the pudding right there.

Oh yeah, we got another dog fight.

Are you just freaking drained.

Walmart, uh, You're a stinking warrior, man, my goodness.

I think what's special about last year's group is just the fact that we had to figure it out together like nobody else was coming to save us nobody else was, you know, we were kind of our backs were against the wall, you know, everybody, you know, when they committed here, um, and we knew that we signed up for that, you know, everybody was doubting us.

It was just a a cool experience to have like everybody figure out their their roles and just get comfortable.

What, what, what am I always ready to do?

Yeah, you know, all those results, all those, you know, draft picks, like all that's gonna take care of itself for, you know, players that just stay locked in and continue to work on their graft.

You, you, your wins get free once you start getting comfortable in college basketball.

Hey, freaking bring it in.

Other than maybe putting on some muscle weight, there's no freshman 15 phase for these athletes.

Yep, the true freshman experience has become all but extinct for these ballers.

In fact, almost every single player on this squad started somewhere else than here, or even.

Three somewhere else's to put it monetarily these days heading into March, it's the madness of money that can make or break a team.

We talk about the seismic shift that's going on over the last several years, how things are changing, the rise of sports gambling.

I mean, you look at that comes into play with all this, and I mean there's prop bets on whether a guy's gonna score a certain amount of points or get a certain amount of rebounds, and then.

Just the form of social media and as Nick Saban calls it, the rat poison.

Freaking toughness.

We bring that.

We're great in transition both ways.

We're great on the backboard both ways.

We're hitting dudes at the pack line and protecting that rebounding pocket.

We're the tougher team.

We're the more physical team.

We're just the dudes.

You know, in the 90s when I played, ignorance was bliss.

We didn't know all that went on.

When you got to the venue, the students would be, you know, talking about your girlfriend and your mom and all that stuff, but now it's in the palm of their stinking hands.

So the money aspect, the social media aspect, the gambling aspect, the stakes, it's totally, totally different.

Trust your training.

It's what we do.

Be us.

We have systems in place.

We have processes that we believe in.

There's great belief in this circle, OK?

We got phenomenal leadership.

Just be us.

Make no mistake, this is a new age of the college athlete.

Big bucks mean big expectations, but it still ain't the big leagues.

The road to the NBA is next level shit.

We're talking contracts approaching half a billion dollars, and trust me, this dude's not doing his own laundry.

Yeah, I mean, I was horrible my freshman year.

I was, um, I wasn't great, um.

And Coach Pitino, he challenged me, right?

Like he, I wanted to quit.

I, I didn't wanna, I don't know if I'd say this to people, I, I didn't want to stay, um.

At Louisville, I was ready to leave.

Well, Coach Pitino was crazy, um, I will say that always, but, um, that played a part into it, but also because that was like, there was doubt, like, you know what I mean, like, am I good enough?

And for me, it just came down to a point where if you leave, like, are you, you're quitting.

You're not a quitter, it's not who I've ever been.

For me, I had to go figure that out as growing into a man, you know, you know, yourself, and I give Coach P credit for pushing that button and finding that.

It just showed that deep down there's a hunger there and a tenacity and a fire, um, that really ignited and, and changed me forever.

I What you got?

What have you got?

Like mental health I think is the the biggest thing because it's not great for you, but I understand the world we live in where it's like, hey, it's there.

I'm not gonna lie, when I first was in college, even in my first few years in the NBA, I looked at it a lot and I tried to take everything negative that I would, I would look for stuff.

I would look for things to kind of say, oh, he can't do this, he can't do that.

But at some point in time you gotta ask yourself like, I'm here for a reason, right?

Like there's only so many people that do what I do.

To be going through all these life things where people are speaking on you positive, negative, you have the weight of your team and you're the leader, right?

And it's, it's, you're basically introduced to the NBA life at 18 years old.

That's not easy, right?

Like everybody's expecting you to be, you know, on always, um, and for him to see him handle it with grace, class, um, and to be, to be the leader that he is, is definitely impressive.

Louisville's last NBA first rounder has been mentoring their next, and most of that mentoring has been about the mindset needed not just to survive but thrive.

Complacency.

I think it's the temptation that I deal with the most, you know , seeing a little bit of success go your way, and I kinda sort of get comfortable with it when there's more work to be done to be able to, you know, stay down when you're at your lowest point and remain to stay down when you even stuff is going good your way because you know it could turn left at any moment.

That's the most important thing is just, you know, me staying locked in on.

The goal that I set for myself and I and we have as a team, you know, to win a national championship that's on our mind first and foremost and all that social media stuff will take care of itself.

Freeze, what are they doing on pitch heads?

Shooting?

How's our effort running back?

Crazy.

This is a big, big, big game, big game.

I know the stakes of this one.

I know how bright these lights are gonna be.

I mean this is.

The first full sellout of the biggest arena in college basketball in 8 years.

What's that?

That's us killing the glass.

What's that?

That's us keeping them off the glass.

What's that?

And everywhere I go in this town, people recognize the head coach at Louisville, which is pretty cool, but they also not only say, Hey, coach, good luck, they say.

You need to beat that team down the street.

So I, I know what I signed up for and I, I, I know the significance of this game.

It'll take this city a little time to get over it if we don't win, but.

Let's just go ahead and win it.

Don, you came a long way, man.

Tough game last night.

You got a big one tomorrow.

We gotta be out of this locker room in about, in about 1.5 minutes.

I'm putting you on the spot in 2 minutes.

Well, if you had to say something to these guys about this moment, about this series, about anything in your heart, what would you say to these guys right now?

Fuck him.

I We've been talking a lot about the business, but there's no business like show business.

Oh, what This is the essence of what makes the college game so powerful a rivalry that brings out the best on the court and the worst in the stands.

Here, passion makes perfect for people who know this rivalry, you know, this whole state is blue.

The only part of it is red is Louisville, you know, so the basketball is gonna be great no matter what, but the rivalry just adds that sits gasoline on that fire.

You put it I was.

Man, it was one of the coolest things that I've been a part of watching that, being around that.

And for that to be my first game back to like it was dope just because I felt the vibe.

Hey, process defensively be great at us.

Everybody's ready for this game, even though I had just played the day before.

I'm like, man, like I'm, I'm geeked up, right?

I'm ready to go.

Coach is talking on one sideline.

I'm communicating on the other sideline on what I see and.

To see one of the Kentucky players doing my 3 point celebration, like, you know what I mean, like a slight to me, like kind of like talking shit in his way, all of that.

I loved all of it, and for me I never felt like I had left.

Damn.

Frozen, they tougher than Everybody they was.

for You know how these true blue bloods you get, you take advantage of it and you don't really, you know, think about, you know, all the, the things and all the blessings that you have but you know I do a really good job just because, you know, I was in junior college.

You know, I was broke.

I didn't really have nothing, nothing to my name, so you know it was a grind.

It was a struggle, and you know, to be on the complete opposite end, you know, at the, at the end of my college career, you know , it's nothing but God's work.

That's all it is.

This year I'll take a step back and really just enjoy college basketball for one last year.

No miss.

Get no hands.

Oh shit.

money.

Hit it.

Bang that shit.

As we say as a as a organization or as a program we get to you know I get to have these type of expectations that people set for me.

I performed at, you know, every single level at a high level.

And that just just shows me you know trusting my work.

Overlord, the overseer and so revered, hate the salty.

They don't dock till coast is clear talking that where is he at, bitch?

I'm over here and you ain't worth the effort.

I've seen him.

I've known him for 3.5 years now.

Does his mental makeup has been the same.

He's, he's, he's someone who wants it, doesn't care about everything else going on.

He's, he's a fiery kid who wants to be the best.

He'll be one and done, obviously, be a top 10 pick.

Just being confident like I put a lot of work in and I put so much work in to get to this point that it can't go wrong for me.

I don't look at it as pressure just because I have fun while doing it and all that pressure and all the expectations just go out the window and you're just hooping now they're saying whoa oh no I didn't wanna do this no oh lord.

To see those guys go out there and and put on a show for the fans and being around them and seeing them the way they came together as a group, that's what it's about, right?

Like that's why I go back, that's why I'm always around just because it's about the next generation to see those guys get a big win in front of the city, man, it's it's nothing like it.

Yeah, don't hurt him though, please.

Are we all gonna blend in with the wall?

I broke my finger.

No, it's dislocated it.

Pull it out.

No, dislocated, Katie, Katie.

Hurry up.

Hurry up, get Katie, Katie, Katie.

Oh shit hurry up.

Damn, what are the chances?

Doc.

That motherfucker is black and blue.

PK broke his finger celebrating.

Broke his finger celebrate.

I mean that shit is like.

If you would have told PK pregame coach, we're gonna win, but your fucking fingers are gonna get ripped out.

Yeah, he'd cut it off.

He'd cut it off in a heartbeat.

Keep going.

Keep pouring it.

He gonna pass out overall betting odds betting odds.

Does he pass out?

Yes or no?

55 55555 5555.

Banners are beautiful and we all love a freshly nipped net, but it's games like these that a diehard fan remembers forever, a big win in one of the biggest rivalries in all of sports.

It'll make you want to scream and dance.

Last year's team.

was dubbed the revival team.

In many ways, they restored a lot of the pride that the people in this town, the former players had, our department.

For Louisville basketball.

You look to Donovan Mitchell, the greatest of all time, sir.

One of the best ever play here.

It was part of one of the greatest error in the history of Louisville basketball.

But what you guys did here tonight.

It's hard to equate and it's hard to put in words how much it means to this city.

What you did for them tonight.

We talk about what we're building and we talk about the momentum that we're building.

We talk about the end.

We're not even near that right now.

Only thing is I have my hair out so it's obvious.

Go cards see all ready.

What a great day to be a cardinal.

I, how many good looks did you get versus how many congratulations on, uh, on like text, social media?

It must have exploded after.

Um, honestly, I don't like to look at my I don't like to look at my phone like 2 hours prior to, so I really don't get back to them until after the game, but I opened up my phone .

It was just a lot of, you know, loved ones that's been there every step of the way, you know, they congratulated me, so it was great to see that.

100%.

It's easy to rush past this.

It's easy to kind of blow past this 789 months, whatever it is, right, and just be ready for the next thing that, that went last night, man.

That was for the city.

That was for the fan base, you know.

They constantly, you know, I'm walking up this street or I'm riding a scooter and the fan.

Tells me to just beat UK like we need that we need that game.

I, I kind of look at it as like, hey, it's gonna happen whether you win, whether you lose.

So, and then even if we won, the next question is can he win too?

Not like, you know what I mean, so it's always going to be something.

Enjoy the friendships, enjoy being on campus, enjoy, you know, different events like do those things because there's nothing like college.

But my biggest life advice to him and even all those guys that enjoyed this.

Just be a kid