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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;CHARLOTTE, N.C. \u2014 Just after 10 a.m. on Wednesday, the two\u2014and only two\u2014members of Louisville\u2019s contingent for ACC basketball media day made their way to a pair of small tables in a Ritz-Carlton ballroom. They had appeared at this event a combined zero times, as they had appeared in a combined zero games for the Cardinals to date. They were new at this and approached it with wide-eyed wonder.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Damion Lee snapped a picture of his nameplate, sat down and disseminated the photo to the rest of the digital universe. The graduate transfer from Drexel then looked up and to his right. He saw Trey Lewis, the graduate transfer guard from Cleveland State, with his thumbs furiously at work. Lewis could not resist a brief, excited social media interlude, either.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CGot that sensation?\u201D Lee called over to his teammate, before needling Lewis as though he were a junkie getting a fix: \u201CI &lt;em&gt;neeeeeeeeed&lt;/em&gt; it.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It was hard to miss the genuine satisfaction felt by two players spotlighted after years of relative obscurity. It was also hard not to be cynical about the entire enterprise, and that was sort of a shame. Louisville was in full view but simultaneously in the bunker all Wednesday, living a juxtaposition that will be its burden all season. After the salacious allegations that former assistant coach Andre McGee arranged sex for recruits, the Cardinals will throw up soundproof walls to muffle the clamor all year, even when they have no choice but to let people in.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022 &lt;strong&gt;MORE: Introducing SI.com's preseason All-America team&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That\u2019s a pretty stressful way to make it through a day, let alone pursue an ACC championship. But here they were. Or at least here some of them were: Rick Pitino was merely a figurative presence, advised by legal counsel to skip the event. And Lee and Lewis representing the team felt like both a showcase &lt;em&gt;and&lt;/em&gt; a strategy, given that they had been on campus for less than five months. Consider, for example, Lewis\u2019s sincere response when he was asked what Pitino told him before the trip.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CHe said, once you tell the truth, your problems immediately become part of your past,\u201D said the 6'2\" guard who averaged 16.3 points at Cleveland State last year. \u201CThe only thing he\u2019s advised me to do is come here, be myself and tell the truth.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It sounded great, but about that advice: What truths could Lewis tell, anyway?\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Only the most convenient ones, naturally. This is to be expected for a program under siege, and it is indicative of the oppressive conditions that Louisville will endure all season. The possibility of an NCAA infractions gutshot looms; investigators were reportedly on campus this week. Beyond the safe haven of the locker room, players may find that the conversation diverts from basketball often. And the logical extension of Pitino\u2019s absence is fairly absurd: If the Cardinals\u2019 coach can\u2019t answer questions in a public forum Wednesday, when can he ever?\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To exist even somewhat comfortably in all this, Louisville players will have to keep their heads down, if not entirely in the sand. To hear Lewis and Lee tell it, they have enough on their plates. They don\u2019t need to spin another one.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201COur days are consistent,\u201D said Lee, a forward who averaged 21.4 points for Drexel last year. \u201CGuys wake up around 8, 9, and right after that we\u2019re busy. Guys have class, workouts, study hall, lifting, guys will get a nap in, practice will end probably around 6 every day. All we do is continue to focus on one another.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201COur schedule is so brutal,\u201D Lewis said. \u201CWe have to get up early, guys have class, then there\u2019s individual workouts, then there\u2019s study hall, then more classes, then we have practice, then there\u2019s team dinner. There\u2019s so much that\u2019s going on that we don\u2019t even have time to worry about those things.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At different tables, at different times, they both delivered essentially the same answer. It smacked of scripting, which was too bad. A pair of players seemingly couldn\u2019t avoid parroting lines, making them sound a little inauthentic on a day they were otherwise excited for. But then a disaster like this is bound to cause collateral damage.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;They had company. At the outset of John Swofford\u2019s question-and-answer session Wednesday, the ACC commissioner extolled the various basketball achievements of his league. At one point during the spiel, a graphic displayed on two flat screen televisions noted that the conference is home to five of the 11 winningest programs ever.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That three of the five\u2014North Carolina, Syracuse and Louisville\u2014have been or currently are under NCAA investigation was an irony impossible to ignore.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI\u2019m not concerned about the league\u2019s image,\u201D Swofford said. \u201CI don\u2019t like the fact that there are three investigations going on because that\u2019s highly unusual for this conference. But I do have a great deal of confidence in each of those institutions. Issues are going to happen sometimes. We\u2019ve got more schools than we\u2019ve ever had before, maybe there will be a few more issues. They aren\u2019t issues you want, they aren\u2019t issues you welcome. But we can\u2019t allow that to undermine the cornerstones of what league is all about.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lately that seems out of his hands. (Though, in fairness, Syracuse\u2019s infractions occurred before it joined the league.) Swofford conceded he was stating the obvious when he said that the Louisville allegations have \u201Cabsolutely no place in college athletics in any way, shape or form.\u201D But he stopped short of indicating the league would proactively address the situation. Should the Louisville allegations prove true, you\u2019d hope anyone serious about protecting the integrity of a league wouldn\u2019t wait long before applying pressure for action.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For now, Swofford said, it\u2019s fairest to just wait and see.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That is a familiar stance for the Cardinals, at any rate. Lee and Lewis join a roster with five freshmen and without anyone who averaged more than 4.1 points per game last season. Louisville could play small with Lee and 6'7\" freshman Deng Adel at the forward slots, or it could supersize\u2014the Cardinals have six available players who stand 6'9\" or taller. Practices are effectively daily lineup experiments.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the Louisville players say they have a good base of camaraderie, despite all the new parts. \u201CThat\u2019s saying a lot, for Rick Pitino to say this is one of the best teams he\u2019s coached in 40 years, attitude-wise,\u201D Lewis said.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Little is certain around Louisville. But there was an insistence Wednesday that this predicament is not wearing on the program\u2019s head coach. \u201CI haven\u2019t seen any change in his emotions,\u201D Lee said. Added Lewis: \u201CIf it\u2019s affecting him, he has a really great way of hiding it. Because we can\u2019t really tell.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022&amp;nbsp;\u200B&lt;strong&gt;DAVIS: Ten storylines to watch as college hoops begins again&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It ought to be noted that Lewis and Lee were spared rigorous interrogation on Wednesday; it felt like sympathy for the awkward position they were thrust into. While it was unfortunate that they had to field a fleet of unanswerable questions\u2014\u201CI wouldn\u2019t wish that upon anyone,\u201D said Syracuse guard Trevor Cooney, who faced the queries about the Orange\u2019s NCAA troubles last year\u2014it wasn\u2019t that hard to do. By the end of the hour, Lewis was smiling. He was looking forward to it, he said. At one point he advertised his Instagram, and he later joked that the day made him feel important.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI didn\u2019t come here for all of this,\u201D Lewis said, \u201Cbut when you\u2019re on a big stage, this is what you sign up for.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;No, Louisville couldn\u2019t have picked two better representatives to send on Wednesday, however you want to interpret that. Soon, though, it would be back into the bunker for everybody, back into the cocoon of a daily routine that protects the Cardinals from the damaging forces outside of it.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;They\u2019d work to find answers that were actually within their power to find. They\u2019d continue to learn about themselves, and what Lewis feels will be the measure of the team ultimately: How it will respond when something doesn\u2019t go right.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At Louisville, at the moment, chances to respond are in great supply.\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/college-basketball/2015/10/29/louisville-sex-scandal-season-preview-rick-pitino-damion-lee-trey-lewis>