Louisville knocked off Villanova by a score of 74-55 Thursday night in the Big East quarterfinals at Madison Square Garden, and the celebration carried over into their locker room. In one of the most random sets of pictures that we have seen in some time, Bill Clinton was photographed numerous times celebrating with the team. The photos were posted by Louisville’s Chane Behanan to his Instagram account and they are wonderful.
According to Eye on College Basketball, Behanan was the instigator of the pictures:
“That’s just me,” Behanan said of the photos he put on Instagram that went insta-viral. “I’m just that type of person with anybody.”
Behanan was the one who instigated all the photos, he said. Smith confirmed. He gathered everyone around, brought Clinton in for the shots, and made some good material for feel-good Internet fodder. Clinton, man. The young guys love him.
“He loved us — hopefully,” Behanan said.
The best part of the visit was that it was a complete surprise to Bill Clinton’s old friend Rick Pitino and his team. They didn’t know it was going to happen until a member of Clinton’s security detail asked if it would be all right if he stopped by to congratulate the team.
“We all approached him — very slowly,” Behanan said. “He was telling us about becoming a president, how things were, traveling, and he talked to Gorgui (Dieng) about visiting Senegal, asked what city he (Dieng) was from. I thought I’d never meet a president. AN honor and a blessing.”
Clinton stayed in the locker room for nearly 10 minutes, sharing stories, taking photos and giving a bunch of people in that room a lifetime memory.
There is also this photo still floating around the Internet from last year’s Big East tournament.
Here’s Bill Clinton being Bill Clinton, posing w/ the L’ville dance team. twitter.com/MattNorlander/…
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) March 10, 2012
About Chris Partlow