The Louisville men’s basketball team expects to hear its named called on Sunday.
A few minutes after the Cardinals departed the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament on Thursday afternoon with a 75-58 loss to No. 1 Virginia, the Louisville interim head coach, David Padgett, bounded up a set of stairs to begin his news conference and quickly made the case any college basketball coach anywhere near the N.C.A.A. tournament bubble knows by heart.
Louisville’s 20 wins, Padgett insisted, had been collected while competing in, “without a doubt, the toughest conference in the country.” That, he went on, should be plenty to earn the Cardinals an at-large bid.