Charlotte football has only existed for four pretty unsuccessful years, so in order to get ourselves sufficiently fired up for Thursday night, we're going to have to dig a little deeper.
There was a time when the 49ers (both during the "UNC Charlotte" and "Charlotte" eras) served as one of Louisville's chief rivals on the hardwood. The program has fallen on some seriously hard times since conference realignment ravaged the old Conference USA more than a decade ago, but fans around the Derby City still remember names like Diego Guevara, Curtis Withers and Bobby Lutz.
They also remember Senior Night, 2005, when hometown kid Larry O'Bannon said farewell to Freedom Hall by hanging 33 points on No.