Louisville won't be playing in the NCAA Tournament

There was always a chance that COVID-19 could cause issues in the NCAA Tournament. To prepare for that, the college basketball decision-makers decided that the traditional "Last Four" would be called "Replacement Teams" this year. Those selected teams would be on call and would be brought into Indianapolis in case any squad in the field of 68 was unable to participate due to positive COVID-19 tests. It just happened to turn out that Louisville was team No. 69 and would be patiently awaiting a call from the NCAA. Welp, sorry about your luck. https://twitter.com/MattNorlander/status/1371951552752185350?s=20 Per Matt Norlander of CBS Sports, the deadline for the replacement squads has passed and UofL never got a call. This means that all 68 teams are good to go and the tournament will proceed forward with the action all tipping off on Thursday evening when the four play-in games take place. For the fourth time in six seasons, Louisville will not participate in the dance thanks to a self-imposed tournament ban, one global pandemic, and twice missing out on an at-large bid. Mack will have to go another season winless in the NCAA Tournament at Louisville while the program has also never made it to the ACC Tournament semifinals since joining the league back in 2015. It has been a long road back to major relevance for this historic program. All of these issues are taking place while the Cardinals still wait to receive the hammer from the NCAA for the pay-for-play scandal with Brian Bowen. You know, it happened while the program was on probation for the Minardi Hall incident. It has not been a good season to be a Kentucky basketball fan, but the school down the road has a myriad of issues that aren't even close to being figured out. Now tag on another one after the Cardinals didn't get the call-up from the NCAA.