Banner honoring 2013 Louisville basketball team will go up. It may not say what you think

A banner will be added to the KFC Yum! Center rafters Saturday night, during the Cardinals' game against Clemson, as the University of Louisville celebrates the 10th anniversary of its 2013 men's basketball team winning a national championship.

The words, "NCAA champions" won't be anywhere on it, though, after the title — along with 123 wins between 2010-14 — was vacated in June 2017, in response to a scandal involving payments made to strippers and prostitutes to dance for, and have sex with, former players and recruits.

Instead, the new banner will read, "2013 Final Coaches Poll #1," according to an email athletics director Josh Heird sent to fans on Monday.

"After productive communication with the NCAA staff and Committee on Infractions, we can recognize our former student-athletes in this way, and we're grateful to the NCAA for their guidance," Heird wrote.

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Fans have clamored for years to have the 2013 championship — and its commemorative banner — restored. The conversation picked back up last November, when the program avoided a postseason ban and other major punishments stemming from a long-running NCAA investigation into alleged violations under the watch of former U of L coaches Rick Pitino and Chris Mack.

Heird has addressed the possibility of raising a banner for the 2012-13 team more than once within the last year.

"I'm not going to sit up here and make any promises," he said last fall. "I can tell our fan base unequivocally that, if there's an opportunity for us to do something along those lines, we're going to try to do it."

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Last month, Heird said, "We're going to do everything that we're allowed to do. Are we going to have some conversations about some things that we're allowed to do? Yes, we will do that from an NCAA standpoint."

Although fans may not love what the banner says, Saturday night's banner-raising ceremony is something that was not permitted previously. While NCAA guidelines still do not allow the Cardinals to hang a banner acknowledging Louisville's 2013 national championship, the banner that will be added to the rafters — merely recognizing the No. 1 finish in the final coaches poll — is also something that was previously prohibited by the NCAA.

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U of L and Clemson tip off at 7 p.m. on Saturday at the Yum! Center. The following members of the 2013 will be in attendance: Mike Baffour; Logan Baumann; Wayne Blackshear; Jordan Bond; Gorgui Dieng; Luke Hancock; Montrezl Harrell; Tim Henderson; Mike Marra; Zach Price; Peyton Siva; Stephan Van Treese and Kevin Ware.

It's unlikely the team's head coach, Pitino, will make the trip to Louisville. Pitino, who is in his third season as the head coach at Iona, and the Gaels have a game at 2 p.m. Sunday against Saint Peter's in Jersey City, New Jersey. And in the wake of being exonerated by the Independent Accountability Resolution Process (IARP) in November, he said, "my days at Louisville are over."

"I love the fans. I think, when they reconcile with (former athletics director) Tom Jurich, then I would possibly consider coming back," Pitino said at the time. "But until that day happens, I think it's better that I stay in New Rochelle."

Until 1990, the NCAA did not require universities to remove banners, trophies, signs and mentions of vacated championships and other accomplishments. Western Kentucky still has a banner honoring its vacated run to the 1971 Final Four hanging at E.A. Diddle Arena, for example.

Every mention of U of L's 2012 Final Four appearance was also removed from the university's arenas, facilities, websites and more.

Reach Louisville men's basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @brooksHolton.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: 2013 Louisville basketball team honored with banner at KFC Yum Center