It takes a lot to win an NCAA National Championship. It takes commitment, it takes hard work, it takes a little bit of luck and if you ask Gorgui Dieng, the thing you need most is trust.
Dieng’s Louisville Cardinals won the national championship in 2013 (though it was later vacated) and it was a run that Dieng will never forget.
“It’s just belief and trust. We believed we were going to win the national championship in 2013,” he said.
That team was a talented one with Dieng, Payton Siva, Russ Smith, future NBA player Montrezl Harrell, but they weren’t the most loaded roster in the country. What they did have was cohesiveness and a single-minded focus on winning. No other victory would be enough—the Cardinals wanted that title.
“Every tournament we won we never cut the net,” he said. “We always believed we would win the national championship—that’s the only net we’re going to cut. We trust each other, how tough the game was, how difficult it is, we look at each other in the eye like, I got your back, let’s get playing.”
That belief paid off and Louisville defeated an upstart Michigan team to win the championship with Dieng leading the team in assists.