With the NCAA forcing Louisville to vacate its 2013 national championship Tuesday, the title is now up for grabs and a group of Michigan fans are claiming it as their own.
The SB Nation fan blog site Maize n Brew announced they will be selling T-shirts commemorating Michigan’s newfound de-facto 2013 national championship starting Tuesday. The site said all proceeds will be donated to the ChadTough Foundation.
Michigan — led by current Knicks guards Tim Hardaway Jr. and Trey Burke — lost to Louisville in the title game that year, 82-76. The game came down to the wire, but Burke was controversially called for a foul on an attempted block of Peyton Siva which ultimately served as the turning point and sealed Michigan’s fate.
“But our eyeballs say otherwise,” Maize n Brew managing editor Anthony Broome writes, “as they did when Trey Burke’s block was most certainly clean, so we are going to commemorate this de-facto national title anyways. Hell, they have more of a case than UCF Football does.”
The T-shirt itself doesn’t have “Michigan” in the type, but it is designed in the Wolverine’s blue and yellow colors.
The shirt reads: National Champs/Men’s Basketball/2013/ “The block was clean”
Louisville men’s basketball program was forced to vacate all of its wins from 2011-2014, including the 2013 national championship, following a recruiting scandal which included former Louisville director of basketball operations Andre McGee allegedly organizing escort parties in which sexual acts occurred involving players and recruits.
Louisville fans angry at the NCAA shouldn’t be too discouraged, however, as a representative from BlockingT, the site selling the Michigan shirt, told the Daily News they have a Louisville shirt currently in the works.
