The legendary career of former Louisville basketball star Peyton Siva, told through his own eyes.
Peyton Siva will be revered in Louisville, Kentucky until the end of time.
Consecutive Final Four appearances topped off with an NCAA Championship will do that in a basketball-crazed town. Just a pencil-thin chinstrap line over 11 years later, Siva has joined Louisville’s mens basketball staff as Director of Player Development/Alumni Relations.
But Siva’s road to triumph and success began long ago. As you’ll discover, none of it came easy.
I sat down with the man himself for a deep dive into how he became the player, father, husband, business owner, and coach that he is today.
Humble beginnings
What endeared many Louisville basketball fans to Siva upon his arrival in the 502 was Siva’s upbringing in his hometown of Seattle.
“My first basketball memories were playing against my older brother and cousins in my backyard. I would always lose to those guys because they were bigger, stronger, and faster than I was,” Siva explained. “It helped me become tougher.”
Through the fog, there was always light.
“I grew up in the inner city. There was shady stuff going on all around but it was a tight-knit community. If you played sports, you were really off limits to the street life,” Siva said.
That was just part of everyday life in Seattle in the 1990’s.
“Mom did a great job raising me working three jobs and also my grandma. Dad was in and out of prison, but he tried his best,” Siva said. “Everything that was going on around me just felt like a normal childhood because that’s all I knew.”
At the beginning of his sports career, another sport had Peyton’s undivided attention.
“I enjoyed football much more than basketball at that time because my whole family played. I played wide receiver, cornerback, and safety,” he said. “Basketball didn’t really take over until about high school.”
A dual-sport star, basketball began taking center stage after Siva broke his collarbone playing football. Soon thereafter, his hoops career was on the up and up.
The recruitment
“I started getting some national attention,” Siva said of his high school days, not long after quitting football.
Playing on the gridiron eventually translated onto the hardwood, where Siva began to demonstrate a knack for defensive tenacity.
“Football taught me how to be tough and take contact. It also helped with seeing everything, reading the QB’s eyes, and trying to anticipate an interception—just like in basketball. I think that’s why I got a lot of steals,” he said.
Soon enough, Louisville came knocking.
“Louisville called around my junior year. I told my coach I was interested in them. I loved watching them play, especially since T Will (former Louisville basketball player, and fellow Washington native, Terrence Williams) went there,” Siva said. “That was a big reason I even knew about them. That and they beat (Washington) in the tourney a few years prior.”
But what was it about Louisville’s style that he loved?
“Watching Sosa and the way they played up-tempo, I felt like it was a great fit,” he said.
Once his interest peaked, Peyton put the word out to his coach to reach out to Louisville.
“Richard Pitino came up to cold Seattle in the winter to my high school practice. It was a freezing cold gym. The high school coach had to wear a hoodie and gloves in practice so he wouldn’t freeze,” Siva explained. “We had a light practice. We didn’t go too hard, and Richard offered me the next day. Trust me, I was shocked to get that offer.”
Soon after, he visited Louisville.
“It was cool man. I didn’t do much,” Siva said of his visit. “I went to the practices and chilled at the dorm. We went to the bowling alley and then a football tailgate. It felt a lot different from Seattle, but I liked seeing the way the fans treated the players. They really showed love to them. I had never seen that before, where it felt like everyone knew who they were.”
Siva shared one of his funny Coach Rick Pitino stories with me.
“One of my favorite Coach P stories would have to be on my first recruiting trip,” Siva said. “I wore a hat inside the gym to watch practices. It was just a regular baseball cap. I was sitting in the stands, and over the loudspeaker, he goes ‘Peyton is it raining in here,’ and I was like ‘no why?’ He goes ‘then why the hell do you have a hat on inside?’ I was like, ‘damn my bad.’ I wasn’t even committed or anything, but he didn’t care. He laughed it off but I could tell he was serious about it.”
Peyton committed to Louisville in 2009. That’s when the real work would begin.
The rise to be a champion
“A typical practice would be some 5-0 offense, some shell drills, working on our different presses, our zone, and our offense. Our practices were much more difficult than our games,” Siva said.
The values and lessons Siva learned along the way would come in handy as Louisville’s point guard. Along with a solid core, the teams he played on would turn out to be very special.
As Siva became an upperclassman, he assumed a larger leadership role.
“Luke (Hancock) and I were the more vocal leaders on that team. But everyone held each other accountable,” he said.
In 2012, Louisville made an unforeseen run all the way to the Final Four. At that season’s end, it was bittersweet, to say the least.
“It sucked, especially for the older guys who were leaving. For the guys coming back, it gave us hope that we could get back. With everyone coming back and a few new pieces, we felt like we were headed in the right direction,” Siva said. “We had the talent and experience, and going to the Final Four just showed that we could (win it all).”
Louisville basketball had a great start to the 2012-13 season, but in mid-season, suffered three consecutive losses.
Amid frustration, however, the already tight-knit team gelled together even more.
“Everything clicked after those 3 losses in a row. We were ranked number 1 and to go through that adversity really grounded us and helped us come together and bring us all back down to earth,” Siva said.
In the games that followed, Louisville fans began to have good faith that no matter the deficit, Louisville always stood a chance. That feeling was cemented in the 2013 Big East Championship Game vs Syracuse, as they trailed the Orange by 17 at the half.
“In the second half, Coach was just on us and guys didn’t want to lose. Luke and Kevin (Ware) changed the game by pressuring the hell out of Michael Carter-Williams, and coach getting Trez (Montrezl Harrell) in there to finish on the rim vs their zone,” Siva explained. “I wouldn’t say there was some magical moment that someone said something. We knew what we had to do and we went out there and did it. It was more about Coach P’s in-game adjustments and him just encouraging us the whole game telling us to shoot the ball, telling us to dunk it. We knew what was on the line.”
As Big East Champions, Louisville was selected as the No. 1 overall seed in the 2013 NCAA Tournament. Their eye was firmly on the prize.
“Our whole thing was just to get past that first game. Luckily, it was in Lexington and we had pretty much our home fans to cheer us on. But after that Syracuse win in (Madison Square Garden), we had all the confidence in the world,” Siva said. “We knew we had the pieces and guys were stepping up in a major way. Trez had his breakout and Kevin was showing the true potential that we had seen all summer. So things were just clicking for us. Guys healthy and playing well. We were battle-tested and we knew what to expect come tournament time.”
With the many many highs in the 2013 postseason, there was one memory that stuck out along the way.
“The Duke game (Elite Eight) was a big one for me in the tournament just because of the magnitude of the game. It was a chance for us to go back to the Final Four. Then Kevin got hurt in a gruesome way,” Siva said. “That moment felt like time stopped, only because we didn’t really know what was going on and the injury looked worse than what it eventually was. So many questions were going through our heads. But we knew we had to finish out and everything was going our way—blocks, steals, shots falling.”
Louisville eventually cruised past Duke and into the Final Four, where they met a scrappy Wichita State. Once again, Louisville trailed by double-digits, this time late in the game.
“There wasn’t really a panic. We have been down before where we came back. They were a really good team and well-coached. They took us out of everything, kept us out of the lane, and made it difficult, slowing the pace of the game down,” Siva said. “We thrived on being the most-conditioned team and wearing out our opponents and they made it a half-court game so that helped them. But eventually, we made shots and sped them up.”
Enter Tim “Wichita” Henderson.
“Tim hitting the big threes gave us the momentum boost. Honestly, it meant more for the team that it was him because it was a big moment for a guy who doesn’t really play that much to step up in the clutch. For example, if it was me, or Luke, or a starter, I don’t think it would have given us the added boost of energy as it did coming from him,” Siva said.
Overcoming WSU meant advancing to the championship game, which was the ultimate goal all year long.
We all know the story of that game. Louisville started off flat, got down 12, came back, took the lead, and traded buckets into oblivion. They beat Michigan and became the 2013 NCAA Champions.
Peyton shed a little light on his game summary.
“The big moments—Michigan hitting all those threes, Luke hitting those threes, and getting Trey Burke in foul trouble. My lob to Trez to finish off the half. Also, my slip-and-slide layup. I don’t know how that went in,” he laughed.
The rest was history.
I asked if Coach Pitino lightened up after the game.
“Lighten up? He didn’t do that until i graduated. Okay, after the final buzzer he lightened up a little,” he said.
He was just getting started
With last summer’s Louisville TBT team The Ville breaking onto the scene, it’s apparent that the 2013 championship group has remained relatively close.
“I still communicate with most of them from time to time,” Siva said.
The Ville has even added the 2012-2013 team’s big man Montrezl Harrell to the roster. Things should be on the up and up there.
Peyton has gotten married, had two daughters, and played professionally for a decade in the NBA, G League, and overseas in Italy, Germany, Australia, and Greece. After his time playing basketball abroad, he returned home to Louisville and has opened a basketball training gym called Shoot 360 before getting the call from Louisville hoops coach Pat Kelsey, which has been very successful out the gate.
Although over a decade has passed since the national title victory, Siva is just as well-received now as he was in his senior season, for obvious reasons.
Life champion.
