U of L Card File

We may not be as good as we thought....

2012-02-05T21:58:00.000-08:00

...But we're a lot better than we looked a couple of weeks ago.

So say fans of the University of Louisville men's basketball team, winners of four consecutive Big East Conference games and playing with a confidence missing since at least December.

Saturday, the Cardinals dispatched visiting Rutgers 78-66 at the KFC Yum! Center, behind 23 points and 11 rebounds from freshman forward Chane Behanan. Behanan recorded his sixth double-double of the season and hit 11 of 12 attempts from the field, his only miss a wide-open three-point try -- a good shot, merely off target. He finally shows signs of learning the craft of rebounding at the college level; as a result, other players, teammates and opponents alike, who dare dispute a missed shot with him do so at their peril.

Behanan said his major influence is former Pittsburgh forward DeJuan Blair, now of the San Antonio Spurs, whose mantra is "Treat every rebound like a dollar sign." That voracious pursuit of every carom reminds me of a host of former Cardinals, but when I look at Behanan, I see Rodney McCray. If Behanan wore No. 22 instead of 24, he'd be a figurative McCray clone.

Behanan McCray

These head shots don't look much alike -- facially, Behanan looks more like McCray's older brother Scooter -- but from the neck down, the resemblance borders on eerie. The two also play very similar games in the paint, and their statistics are very much alike as well. Here's a comparison between Behanan this year and McCray as a freshman in 1979-80:

Behanan McCray

Minutes played per game 24.9 32.6

Field goal percentage .486 .543

Free throw percentage .605 .647

Rebounds per game 7.7 7.5

Blocked shots per game 0.5 1.8

Steals per game 0.8 0.8

Assists per game 0.9 2.0

Points per game 9.7 7.8

Overall, McCray shot slightly better from the field and from the line. Rebounding is practically a draw. McCray averaged about three times as many blocked shots, but unlike Behanan, he didn't play with an eraser like Gorgui Dieng; on the '79-80 Cards, McCray played center and was the team's best shotblocker. Steals are dead even. McCray averaged double the assists, and indeed was a brilliant passer, but in order to record an assist, two things must happen: a player must make a pass, and the receiving teammate must make a shot. McCray played on a team that shot 52 percent from the floor; Behanan plays on one that currently shoots 43 percent.

Behanan averages 9.7 points per game for a team that averages 71.3; McCray averaged 7.8 on a team that not only scored 76.9, but had Darrell Griffith averaging 22.9 -- nearly 30 percent of the total. Kyle Kuric, this season's top scorer, has accounted for 16.9 percent of U of L's points, leaving more offense for Behanan to grab a share of.

Similar physique, similar numbers -- if Behanan stays healthy and continues to improve, I believe he could join McCray in U of L's very exclusive 1000-point, 1000-rebound club. (The other members are Charlie Tyra, Wes Unseld and Pervis Ellison.)

* * * * * * * * *

Some observers believe U of L was overrated as a preseason Top 10 team, based on the record so far this season. I would presume to point out the team the pollsters ranked so highly before play began in November has never yet been on the court.

That team would have had a healthy Mike Marra and Rakeem Buckles and gotten meaningful contributions from Wayne Blackshear and Kevin Ware. It also wouldn't have lost more than 80 player-games to injuries and spent so much time unable to practice due to lack of bodies.

With a full complement of healthy bodies getting more meaningful practice time, Louisville arguably would have collectively learned its offensive and defensive systems more quickly, thereby avoiding the mistakes that cost it late leads against Georgetown and Notre Dame and negated a brilliant start at Marquette.

Had the Associated Press and ESPN/USA TODAY polls not held the Cards in such high preseason esteem, I think Planet Red would be more accepting of the current 18-5 record. The current 6-4 Big East record still might have engendered some grousing, but I believe the collective angst level would be lower.

Perspective and patience are called for, I think. This team is rounding into shape, and as long as Dieng can roam the paint and block and alter shots, this team is capable of great things. We shall see.

Come down off that ledge, folks....

2012-01-14T22:34:00.000-08:00

It seems there's life left in this flock of Cardinals after all.

Perhaps determined to overcome the absence of leading scorer Kyle Kuric, his University of Louisville teammates jumped with both feet on visiting DePaul, roaring to an early 18-5 advantage and snuffing a late rally enroute to a 76-59 victory.

The "Smith Brothers," unrelated Russ and Chris, sparked the win with 25 and 18 points respectively. Watching the two of them, I'm reminded of a comment Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams, then the Chicago Cubs' closer, made to Sports Illustrated contrasting himself with ace starter Rick Sutcliffe.

"Sutcliffe pitches like he's in a rocking chair," Williams said. "I pitch like my hair's on fire."

While I wouldn't quite call Chris Smith rocking-chair calm, I'll buy Russ as the next Wild Thing. In fact, I see him more as a basketball version of former NHRA/Formula 1/IndyCar racer Danny Ongais, a/k/a Danny On-The-Gas. Ongais drove only one way: flat out -- as though his only options were win or crash. Similarly, Russ Smith's motor seems stuck in overdrive; his 25 points came on 22 field goal attempts -- but he also racked up six assists, five rebounds and four steals.

Atlanta Hawks legend Dominique Wilkins became known as The Human Highlight Reel; perhaps we should call Russ Smith something like The Human Thrill Ride.

* * * * * * * * *

This evening in Foxboro, MA, the Tim Tebow train finally derailed. Behind nonpareil quarterback Tom Brady's six touchdown passes, the New England Patriots bludgeoned Tebow's Denver Broncos 45-10. Brady's six TD throws tied the NFL playoff game record; he threw a record five in the first half, three to tight end Rob Gronkowski. Tebow completed only nine of 26 attempts for 136 yards; he suffered five sacks and seemingly spent most of the night running for his life.

Lest I be accused of Schadenfreude, I took no special pleasure in watching Tebow and the Boncos getting strafed. I was rooting for the Patriots, though -- I like Brady, and the Pats also have former U of L standout Deion Branch. (See there? Cardinal content.) Tebow's out-front Christian faith doesn't bother me either, although if I never hear him sing "Awesome God" again, it'll be too soon.

What does bother me, though, is the sniping Tebow draws because of his faith and the way he demonstrates it -- as though somehow being devout and an NFL quarterback have become mutually exclusive. Tebow may pray for victory if he chooses; sometimes, as against the Patriots, that doesn't work.

As Napoleon supposedly said, "God fights on the side with the heaviest artillery." Tonight, that was the Patriots.

Holy cow, what a weekend!

2011-11-30T21:45:00.001-08:00

The past holiday weekend left fans of the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky with extra reasons to feel thankful. When all was said and done, both UK and U of L had extinguished odious football losing streaks, their basketball teams had delivered a fistful of victories, and for the second year in a row, the U of L men's soccer team stood one win away from the NCAA Final Four.

And oh, by the way, Kentucky stood poised to move atop both men's basketball polls, thanks to UNLV's thumping of No. 1 North Carolina in the Las Vegas Invitational championship game.

The thrill ride began last Friday morning. Not only had Louisville never beaten South Florida in Tampa, the games generally hadn't been close -- after the first, a 34-31 double-OT thriller, USF had won by double digits three straight times, the average margin reaching three touchdowns. When the Bulls built a 17-3 lead late in the second quarter, I for one thought, "Here we go again."

But Senorise Perry returned a pooch kickoff 54 yards to the USF 25, and the Cards capitalized on the short field with the first of Teddy Bridgewater's three TD passes, an 18-yarder to DeVaunte Parker, pulling U of L within 17-10 at halftime. U of L dominated the second half, outscoring USF 24-7 to clinch a share of its second Big East Conference championship. For his efforts, Bridgewater earned Big East Offensive Player of the Week honors.

That evening, the U of L men's basketball team stopped Ohio University 59-54 to remain unbeaten.

Saturday afternoon, UK hosted Tennessee in its annual season-closing game, one it had lost 26 consecutive times. With quarterbacks Morgan Newton and Maxwell Smith both banged up, the Cats turned to senior reserve wide receiver Matt Roark, an option QB in high school, to run their offense. Roark managed only 15 passing yards, but ran for 124, leading UK to the 10-7 upset.

The last time UK beat the Vols, current head coach Joker Phillips was a senior wide receiver for the Wildcats and receivers coach Tee Martin (later a quarterback at UT) was a first-grader in Mobile, Ala. Ronald Reagan had just been reelected President, and Google and Facebook still were years in the future. Roark and his classmates halted a run of 22 Wildcat senior classes who left UK without a win over Tennessee.

UK still owns the nation's longest string of consecutive losses to one opponent (25 to Florida), but thankfully can no longer claim the top two.

And as a capper on the weekend, the 12th-seeded Cardinal men's soccer team scored a 4-2 upset win at No. 5 Maryland, reaching the Elite Eight for the second consecutive year. Only a rematch with 13th seed UCLA stands between U of L and back-to-back Final Fours. While I think it's too soon to anoint U of L a a soccer powerhouse, Ken Lolla's program appears headed in that direction.

By the way, kudos to the Big East for placing three teams in the Elite Eight: No. 3 seed UConn, U of L, and No. 7 USF.

Cleaning out the dust and cobwebs....

2011-11-04T21:50:00.000-07:00

Six months since last post -- how'd that happen??

Before I get into my usual ranting and raving, a personal note -- my mom, Helene Zukof, passed away Oct. 13 at the age of 78. She was a rabid Cardinal fan, of both the St. Louis and University of Louisville variety. Wherever she was, I'm sure she enjoyed her Cards' triumph in the World Series, especially in that epic Game Six.

And how insane was that game? I've been watching major league baseball as a serious fan since 1964, and I can't remember anything as exciting -- the ugly defense notwithstanding. I may have seen a game before in which the teams combined for five errors, but I don't recall one -- excluding a certain slow-pitch softball league that shall remain unnamed here. But to win that game after having twice stood one strike from elimination, the Cardinals earned my admiration.

No wonder Tony LaRussa retired -- after this World Championship, anything else would seem anticlimactic.

* * * * * * * * *

Mom also would have enjoyed U of L's 27-10 pasting of Syracuse last Saturday -- in no small part because Dad was a Syracuse grad. But he also earned his M.D. from Louisville, so no matter what happened, his alma mater was going to win -- but as he often said, "The right one won."

Three weeks ago, I thought the season might be headed down the dumper. U of L's offense looked toothless, due mostly to poor line play. Freshman quarterback Teddy Bridgewater seemed confused, even when he wasn't running for his life, and the Cards couldn't generate enough of a running game to frighten a high-school team.

The last two games? Different story.

Against then-Big East leader Rutgers, Louisville generated 187 yards on the ground, led by Jeremy Wright's 108 -- the first 100-yard effort by a Cardinal ball carrier in 2011. They followed that with another solid rushing effort against the 'Cuse, highlighted by Victor Anderson's 61-yard run with a perfectly executed option toss from Bridgewater -- further evidence the O-line is getting the concept of playing together.

* * * * * * * * *

Speaking of Bridgewater, it appears to me U of L has itself a quarterback.

Like most passers, Bridgewater throws more accurately and makes better decisions when his protection allows him to stay upright. He also has shown great progress in reading defenses and recognizing opportunities; he audibled into the option play that gave Anderson his 61-yard score.

And just think, Planet Red -- as long as he stays healthy, he'll only get better.

2011-04-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

This 'n' that, here 'n' there....

Now that two weeks have passed since the end of the college basketball season, I believe I've developed enough perspective to assess what I saw from local teams. First, what a joy to welcome two new Kentucky members to the exclusive society of national champions -- Pikeville College (NAIA Division I) and Bellarmine University (NCAA Division II). They join Kentucky, Louisville, Kentucky Wesleyan, Georgetown College, Kentucky State and Sullivan University as knowing the exhilaration of finding themselves the last men's team standing in their divisions in a given year.

Now a look at my principal rooting interests:

Louisville men

Some bridge year, wasn't it? Before the season, the Cardinals were a team full of question marks. With only one starter returning (who played a grand total of zero minutes in 2010-11), I thought this team would struggle to win 20 games and reach the NCAA tournament field. Instead, U of L delivered a third-place finish in the Big East, reached the conference tournament championship game, and earned 25 victories and a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament.

That said, a shocking first-round loss to 13th-seeded Morehead State left a sour taste in the mouth of Planet Red, as much for the way it came about as for its happening to begin with. A team which had found a way to win so often in the regular season instead found ample ways to lose -- defensive lapses, shoddy passing and ball-handling, and atrocious free-throw shooting.

On the bright side, though heart-and-soul senior leader Preston Knowles departs, along with reserve center-forward George Goode, next year's Cardinals should be loaded. One hopes the nonconference schedule will stiffen somewhat, as head coach Rick Pitino's charges shouldn't lack for confidence.

Louisville women

Coach Jeff Walz led his Cards back to the NCAA tournament after a one-year absence, and U of L played on the second weekend for the third time in Walz's four seasons. Unlike their male counterparts, the women can't jump to the WNBA after one season, so Cardinal fans can safely anticipate watching freshman All-America guard Shoni Schimmel continue to get better and better.

And her kid sister may be coming to U of L -- and with a very similar skill set. Walz has a stellar recruit class headed for campus in the fall, and with starting center Keshia Hines the only significant graduation loss, Louisville should return to the national rankings and once again contend for a high finish in the Big East.

Kentucky men

Coach John Calipari's Wildcats looked less talented on paper than the 2009-10 team that won 35 games before losing to West Virginia in the NCAA Elite Eight -- especially when five Cats became first-round NBA draft picks. Things looked especially gloomy (by Big Blue Nation standards) when this season's squad lost twice as many Southeastern Conference road games as the '09-10 team lost any games at all.

But a regular-season-ending romp at Tennessee doused the Cats with new confidence, and they stormed through the SEC tournament and the first two weekends of the NCAA tournament to reach UK's 14th Final Four.

There, a game filled with mental lapses and bad foul shooting against an even hotter Connecticut team left the Cats two victories short of the championship the UK fan base so desperately wants -- and for what seemed the umpteenth time, at the hands of a team from hated Louisville's league.

Unlike Louisville, the Cats' prospects for next year hinge to some extent on who jumps early to the NBA and who stays. If both Brandon Knight and Terence Jones go pro, UK should be a Top 15 team. If both stay, the Cats could find themselves the preseason No. 1. If one stays and one goes, somewhere in between. UK will miss Josh Harrellson, but like U of L, should not lack for veteran leadership.

Kentucky women

All-American and WNBA first-round pick Victoria Dunlap leaves a gaping hole to fill, but UK coach Matthew Mitchell has plenty of talent loaded up for next season. I expect the current trend of national relevance to continue.

Bellarmine men

With the luster still on the NCAA Division II national championship trophy, BU coach Scott Davenport should find himself in an enviable position; his team should rank among the prime contenders entering next season. The Knights welcome back most of the major contributors from the title run, and if Jeremy Kindle wins his medical hardship appeal and returns for a senior season, Bellarmine should begin 2011-12 as a Top Five team.

I love being a college basketball fan, especially in Kentucky....

2011-03-27T21:48:00.000-07:00

Vince Lombardi said it best....

"What the hell is going on out there??"

The NCAA men's Division I basketball tournament continues to defy prediction and strain credulity. Next weekend's Final Four consists of Connecticut, a No. 3 seed; Kentucky, a No. 4; Butler, a No. 8; and Virginia Commonwealth, a No. 11.

No Number 1s. No Number 2s.

Only two of the top 16 seeded teams are still playing. It could be argued that VCU might have missed the postseason altogether had the NCAA field not expanded from 65 to 68 teams this year. The Rams are the first team ever to win five games to reach the Final Four. Whatever happens next weekend, I'll bet those four Tuesday night games in Dayton that open next year's tournament will draw a larger audience than they did this time around.

* * * * * * * * *

Now that Kentucky has reached the Final Four, it's difficult to tell what pleases some UK fans more: the fact the Cats are there, or the fact Louisville isn't. Judging by the amount of trolling being done by the Big Blue-natic fringe, it's a very close call.

Maybe I haven't been paying attention, but in all the hundreds of times I've driven the stretch of Interstate 64 that connects Louisville with Lexington, at no time have I crossed a state line. I don't know why it is that the loudest part of Big Blue Nation seemingly cannot accept that the Commonwealth is big enough for two great Division I men's basketball programs. Whatever the season, in the Cards vs. Cats rivalry, when I take the high road, there never seems to be a lot of traffic. I'd love to see UK cutting down the nets next Monday night; the current group of Wildcats deserves it.

* * * * * * * * *

Speaking of the Cards, I'm disturbed by the clamor for Rick Pitino's head in certain parts of Planet Red. Certainly the season didn't end the way any of us wanted. I was two years old the last time U of L lost to Morehead State, and when I consider that the Cards' last three losses came by a total of six points and all featured end-of-game brain cramps, it gives me indigestion.

But how about a little perspective here?

With no returning starters thanks to Jared Swopshire's groin injury, and a season-long revolving door of wounded players demanding constant tinkering with the rotation, Pitino managed to coax 25 wins and a No. 14 final ranking out of this crew. These Cards were fun to watch, they obviously cared more about winning than anything else, and their coach looked as energized as he has in several years.

While Preston Knowles won't be on the court next season, the team won't lack for upperclass leadership. I expect Kyle Kuric and Terence Jennings to provide a lot of it. And with the recruit class Rick is expecting, the Cards should be loaded. What that will translate to on the floor remains to be seen, but U of L fans have ample cause for optimism.

* * * * * * * * *

The U of L women also should be at least as good, if not better. Only starting center Keshia Hines, among significant contributors, departs, and Cards coach Jeff Walz also has a stellar class coming in, headlined by McDonald's All American and Kentucky Miss Basketball Sara Hammond of Rockcastle County.

The Cards got undressed by Gonzaga, but there's no shame in being unable to corral the Zags' Courtney Vandersloot. That young lady is the real deal, and while she showed a few chinks in her armor during the stretch when U of L whittled its deficit from 20 points down to three, she got her act back together in time to preserve the victory. That team was awfully tough for a No. 11 seed, and with leading scorer Monique Reed sidelined by a groin strain she incurred in warmups, the Cards spent three-fourths of the game looking for answers. Apart from using this disappointment as motivation, I hope the team forgets this performance quickly, particularly Shoni Schimmel. It thrills me to think about how she will improve as she matures -- and she's pretty darned good now.

* * * * * * * * *

Finally, how great has it been to be a college basketball fan in Kentucky this year? With UK returning to the Final Four, Bellarmine and Pikeville claiming national championships, and U of L's men and U of L and UK's women delivering sparkling seasons, it will be a long wait for next November.

Special kudos go out to Josh Harrellson, Preston Knowles, Keshia Hines and Victoria Dunlap for going out with memorable senior campaigns. I'll miss them -- the older I get, the quicker kids become seniors and their careers end.

2011-03-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

And now, before I blow a 50-amp fuse....

Perhaps it's a good thing I didn't get to watch the University of Louisville's 62-61 loss to Morehead State University in the first round of the NCAA tournament. (I know the folks in Indianapolis insist it's the second round, but I'm sorry -- the First Four isn't the first round when it involves less than one-eighth of the field.) I'd have been on the verge of throwing things watching U of L cough up an eight-point second half lead after coming back from 13 points down early on.

Let's get this out of the way first: Mike Marra was fouled on his last shot, but I'm neither surprised nor outraged it wasn't called. Nine times out of 10 it won't be. Morehead's Kenneth Faried would have had to knock Marra on his butt to get whistled in that situation. I accept that -- it doesn't upset me.

What does upset me? Let me start the list.

Four missed layups in the opening minutes, and 7-for-16 foul shooting. Make two of those layups and two more free throws, and no one cares about Devonte Harper's last three-pointer. Hitting only nine of 16 from the line is 56 percent -- still putrid, but it would have been enough to win the game.

The defense on Morehead's last possession. Time and score, guys -- time and score. In the waning seconds of the game with a two-point lead, as a perimeter defender you should be thinking only one thing: prevent the three! If you're beaten inside the arc, it isn't fatal; your help is behind you, and barring a foul in the act, a two-pointer only ties the game. The only thing that kills you is a three, so do not give a guy an unmolested look at one.

The seeming lack of focus at the beginning. Nothing else explains spotting Morehead a 15-2 lead, and though the Cards clawed back before halftime to stick their noses in front, U of L gave up a buzzer-beating three to let the Eagles gain a halftime tie.

As I heard former U of L coach Denny Crum say many times, you get what you earn -- and Thursday night the Cards earned a loss. The guy you have to feel the worst for is Preston Knowles; after all he has been to this team, he did not deserve for his college career to end with him slumped on the bench in excruciating pain, unable to hit a key shot or provide a crucial defensive stop.

These Cards may have exceeded preseason expectations, but make no mistake: this loss hurts.

* * * * * * * * *

A little historical perspective: the last time Morehead State won a first-round NCAA tournament game, it was 1984. None of the Eagles' current players had been born yet.

The last time MSU beat U of L, in 1957, I'd venture to guess, most of the current team's parents had yet to be born. I don't remember it -- I didn't know what a basketball was yet.

2011-03-14T09:07:00.000-07:00

No dinner, no movie, no kiss, no K-Y....

I must express my admiration for the NCAA tournament selection committee. Not only did they fill the largest bracket in tourney history, but they also pissed off more fanbases than ever before -- many of whom follow teams that made the field. I'll leave the perceived snubs for another discussion -- let's look at who got screwed:

Kentucky

My beef isn't so much with Kentucky's No. 4 seed in and of itself -- it's that the committee saw fit to bestow a No. 2 on Florida. Let me get this straight: UK beat Florida twice. UK pounded Florida in the SEC tournament championship game. UK was ranked higher in the final Ratings Percentage Index.

Yet Florida somehow is the better team.

Yeah, right.

So UK gets a date with Princeton, never an easy out, in what is now the second round, and assuming the Cats beat the Tigers, play a rematch with West Virginia. After that, if form holds, would come Ohio State.

That, friends, is a brutal draw.

Louisville

Evidently UConn impressed the daylights out of the committee by winning five games in five days to capture the Big East tournament championship. What the committee seemingly ignored was the reason the Huskies had to do that: they finished NINTH in the league during the regular season. What's more, they lost TWICE to Louisville.

Yet UConn is a No. 3 seed, and U of L is a No. 4.

Despite what committee chairman Gene Smith said about looking at each school's body of work, it seems the regular season didn't count for much. Nor did the Big East Tournament, except for UConn; the Cards got no discernible benefit from beating Notre Dame.

Now the Cards head off to Denver to play Morehead State (which also got reamed -- more on that later). Nothing says committee respect like being sent 1100 miles to meet a team whose campus is less than 150 miles from yours. At least two years ago when the Cards and Eagles met, it was in Dayton, Ohio, a reasonable distance from both Louisville and Morehead.

Morehead State

The committee members must be avid TV Land watchers, judging from their seeming love of reruns. This will mark the third consecutive NCAA appearance in which Morehead has played Louisville; at least the Eagles weren't required to win a game to earn the privilege. Heaven forbid the Commonwealth should have a chance for three of its teams to reach the round of 32; could Morehead not have played one of the two No. 4 seeds not named Louisville or Kentucky?

Ohio State

How can I have the overall No. 1 seed on this list?

Well, OSU head coach Thad Matta might want a word or twelve with his boss, the aforementioned Gene Smith. When your own athletic director heads up the selection committee, you might expect an easier road to the Final Four than a regional featuring the likes of North Carolina, Syracuse and Kentucky. It would appear Pittsburgh has the clearer path to Houston, but given the Panthers' penchant for flaming out early in the Big Dance, I wouldn't recommend betting the mortgage payment on them to get there.

Suffice it to say, if the Buckeyes get to the season's last weekend, they will have done some work to get there.

2011-03-09T09:30:00.000-08:00

This is why it's called March Madness....

Officially, the Big East Conference tournament has four first-round byes. The University of Connecticut, however, drew a fifth through its matchup with woeful DePaul, as the Huskies waltzed past the Blue Demons 97-71. As I type, UConn is mopping the floor with Georgetown in the opening second-round game -- the Huskies lead by 15 at the under-four-minute TV timeout in the first half.

Marquette was another easy winner in the closing first-round contest, breezing past Providence 87-66. The Golden Eagles next face West Virginia, with the winner taking on Louisville in Thursday night's quarterfinals.

The other two first-round games provided considerably more excitement. In an all-New Jersey affair, 13th-seeded Rutgers, in a mild upset, bounced No. 12 Seton Hall 76-70 in overtime. I say "mild upset," because whenever the seeds differ by only one, in my mind the game is a tossup. So to me, the Scarlet Knights' victory has little shock value.

I cannot say the same regarding lowly South Florida's 70-69 upending of Villanova. Not only was this the No. 15 seed taking out the No. 10, but it also featured the Wildcats self-destructing in spectacular fashion. In coughing up a 16-point halftime lead to a USF team that won only three Big East games in the regular season, 'Nova may have played itself into the National Invitation Tournament. If I'm on the NCAA selection committee, I have a difficult time voting Villanova in and, for example, Ohio Valley regular-season champ Murray State out.

* * * * * * * * *

Meanwhile, fans of the University of Kentucky have little to do other than wait for tomorrow afternoon's Mississippi-South Carolina game to determine UK's Friday afternoon opponent, or debate the Southeastern Conference coaches' awards. (Unless they can somehow bring themselves to watch the Big East games.)

In my mind, considerable debate should occur regarding the league rule that each school can nominate only one player for each award. This year, UK's Terence Jones won Freshman of the Year, but in many people's opinion (including his own), Jones should have shared the award with teammate Brandon Knight. Cat fans saw this same show last year, when it starred John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins.

If memory serves, the media isn't under the same restriction. I hope not; gaudy as Jones' numbers have been, I believe UK's success owes more to Knight's work as a distributor and facilitator. Knight certainly merits a share of the honor.

2011-03-06T21:11:00.000-08:00

The good, the not-so-good, and the crazy....

Wow, what a crazy weekend. The University of Louisville men snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at West Virginia, the University of Kentucky men snatch victory from the jaws of the road at Tennessee, and both schools' women's teams show well at their respective conference tournaments.

First, the U of L men.

The Cards got shoved around like grade-schoolers against the Mountaineers, who outrebounded U of L by a whopping 25. Yet U of L still led by five points inside the last minute, but Peyton Siva missed a crucial free throw with seconds to play, and he and Kyle Kuric made defensive gaffes that allowed WVU's Casey Mitchell two clear looks at three-pointers, the second of which tied the game with 8.2 seconds to play.

Then there was Preston Knowles' ill-advised attempted trey with four ticks left, which led to a mad scramble for a loose ball and a Knowles foul with :00.6 on the clock. Why you even risk a foul deep in the backcourt in that situation is beyond me. Even though 99 percent of the time the officials will deem it incidental contact, attention to time and score would dictate leaving well enough alone and settling for overtime.

And no, I haven't forgotten that egregious out-of-bounds call in front of the West Virginia bench. Despite what the play-by-play person said, at no time was Knowles touching the ball with his foot on the sideline. The ball bounced off his ankle, THEN he went out of bounds, and he re-established himself inbounds before the whistle blew.

Lest we forget, another blown OOB call cost U of L a chance to win last year's game in Morgantown. That one elicited an official apology from the Big East Conference, but I don't expect that to happen again.

Nevertheless, once is unfortunate; twice is a pattern.

* * * * * * * * *

Now, on to UK.

This team is much too good to justifiably finish 1-7 on the road in Southeastern Conference play, and thanks to a 64-58 win at Tennessee, it won't. The Wildcats' win ensured the No. 2 seed from the SEC East and its accompanying first-round bye in the SEC tournament.

And in case you were wondering, it causes me no pain to write good things about UK. When the Cats aren't playing the Cards, I root for them; what's more, save for the Lady Vols and Pat Summitt, I loathe all things Big Orange. So it was highly gratifying to me to see the Wildcats mend their road woes in Knoxville.

One thing troubles me, though. For all the growth this team has shown, freshmen big man Terence Jones still shows a distressing tendency to play the black hole on offense. Once he decides to go to the basket, not even a triple team from the defense will deter him. Maybe it won't matter in the NBA, where there are players who can guard him one on one, but at this level he is costing his team potentially easy baskets by refusing to pass out of those situations. I had the same beef about former U of L head case Derrick Caracter.

Let's hope Jones has an epiphany soon, or collapsing defenses could make it a very short postseason for UK.

* * * * * * * * *

Both the Cardinal and Wildcat women did their schools and themselves proud in the Big East and SEC tournaments. The Cards bowed to third-seeded Notre Dame 63-53 in the Big East quarterfinals, while the Cats bowed 90-65 to top seed Tennessee in the SEC final.

In U of L's Jeff Walz and UK's Matthew Mitchell, the Commonwealth boasts two of the nation's best young coaches. We should give both these programs the support they deserve -- they've come a long way from the days when fans of both teams all knew one another by name, or so it seemed.

I've been watching the U of L women's program since 1976, when both the Cards and UK belonged to the old Kentucky Women's Intercollegiate Conference and played each other at least twice a season. I dreamed of a day when both schools would draw crowds and showcase a brand of basketball indisputably worth watching. That day has arrived.

Now it's tournament time. God, I love March -- I'm pulling for all four squads to advance deep into their respective brackets.

GO CARDS!! GO CATS!!

2011-03-03T21:57:00.000-08:00

And the amazement continues....

In case you hadn't heard, the University of Louisville Cardinals nailed down a double bye in the Big East Conference tournament Wednesday night, blasting Providence 87-60 to claim a Senior Night victory and close out a perfect slate of conference home games. Dating back to its Freedom Hall finale last season, U of L now has won 10 consecutive Big East home games.

Louisville received a surprise assist from Seton Hall the next night, as the Pirates upended St. John's 85-70. The Red Storm had been tied with the Cards for third place in the league, but now U of L, by virtue of an 88-63 pasting of the Johnnies on Jan. 19, has clinched the No. 3 seed in the Big East tourney.

Not too shabby for a squad the league's coaches predicted would finish eighth.

* * * * * * * * *

My own picks for Big East men's basketball awards:

Coach of the Year: Rick Pitino, Louisville
Player of the Year: Brad Wanamaker, Pittsburgh
Freshman of the Year: Cleveland Melvin, DePaul
Most Improved: Kyle Kuric, Louisville

All-Big East: Brad Wanamaker, Pittsburgh; Kemba Walker, Connecticut; Austin Freeman, Georgetown; Rick Jackson, Syracuse; Alex Oriakhi, Connecticut

If I had a ballot, that's how I'd vote. I'd have Preston Knowles and Peyton Siva of Louisville on my second team, and Gorgui Dieng on my all-freshman team.

2011-03-01T07:24:00.000-08:00

Why even bother with preseason polls?

Before the season began, coaches in the Big East Conference picked the University of Louisville to finish eighth. The No. 8 seed in the Big East tournament receives a first-round bye. That probably made sense, given that the Cards' only returning starter, forward Jared Swopshire, was plagued by a groin injury that eventually would cost him the season.

That was in November. It is now the first of March.

With a win in tomorrow's Senior Night game against Providence, U of L clinches at worst the No. 4 seed and its attendant double bye in the conference tournament. By also winning Saturday at West Virginia, the Cards would lock up the No. 3 seed; they could finish in a tie for second with Notre Dame, but the Irish would get the No. 2 seed because of a head-to-head win. Louisville holds a similar edge over St. John's for the No. 3 seed.

The Cards put themselves in this position Sunday with a 62-59 home court overtime win over fourth-ranked Pittsburgh. Neither team earned any style points for this one; defense dominated a typical bloody-nosed Big East battle. I've been racking my brain since Sunday, and I cannot remember ever seeing U of L shoot 34 percent from the field in a victory. Then again, I might be considered a relative newbie, having watched the Cards only since 1964.

I'm certain Pitt's Jamie Dixon will receive a lot of support for Big East Coach of the Year, as will Steve Lavin of St. John's. That said, I believe Rick Pitino has done more with less than either Dixon or Lavin, especially in light of the continual rash of injuries that has bedeviled U of L all year long. To have this team perched at 11-5 in league play and 22-7 overall with two games remaining reflects a coaching job the likes of which we haven't seen since his early years at Kentucky.

* * * * * * * * *

Big East basketball officiating has given me indigestion for years, but it seems to me Big East refs have had an unusually quick trigger this season when it comes to technical fouls. Yes, I mean in particular the "T" called on Cardinal cheerleader Jordan Alcazar for tossing the ball into the air after Kyle Kuric's game-clinching dunk with less than a second to go.

True, Alcazar in the strictest sense violated a rule by doing so, but the horn had sounded and the game appeared over. Calling the technical after a replay review that reset the clock to :00.5 struck me as excessive. Far more egregious examples of premature celebration by fans have gone unpunished; this could have been handled with a warning.

I still haven't accepted the technical for taunting Kuric received just before halftime of the Notre Dame game. Maybe some of the league's officials have an overblown thirst for notoriety; I haven't come up with another logical explanation yet.

And yes, UK fans, I have seen more than the usual quota of headscratchers in Southeastern Conference games as well. As I've said before, officiating consists of only two basic tasks: knowing the rules and watching the game. Too often this year, the striped shirts appear to have fallen down on the job.

2011-02-25T10:56:00.000-08:00

A little of this, a little of that....

First, a note on our neighborly rivals down I-64.

I really have no idea what to make of the University of Kentucky men's basketball team. Inside Rupp Arena, the Wildcats look invincible; on the opponents' floors, they look more like the nightly special at the Roadkill Grill.

I mean, seriously: Arkansas?

Unless UK finds a way to close out a game on the road, it may be a very short postseason for Big Blue Nation. The last time I checked, neither the Southeastern Conference nor the NCAA has any tournament games scheduled for Lexington. Even though Cat fans flock to neutral-court games in large numbers, it's not the same as having 22,000 of them supporting the team to their last breath.

I hope UK sorts it out. Life improves greatly around the Bluegrass when both the Cats and the Cards are doing well.

* * * * * * * * *

As for the University of Louisville, I have to confess I didn't see this level of success coming. I believed U of L head coach Rick Pitino when he characterized this season as a "bridge year" -- it appeared the Cards would struggle to escape the middle of the pack in the Big East, and without winning the conference tournament, might have to sweat a bit come Selection Sunday. When Jared Swopshire's groin injury failed to heal promptly, Louisville looked painfully thin on the front line, and after player after player got hurt in December and January, a slide toward the .500 level seemed inevitable.

Hasn't happened. Give Pitino a large slice of the credit.

He has made an art of juggling the pieces available for every game to make them fit into a working machine. Some of those available pieces have proved more valuable than expected, as well. Who knew Gorgui Dieng would develop so quickly? Or that Stephan Van Treese would prove so stalwart on the front line? Or that Kyle Kuric would contribute so well as an undersized power forward?

Several times this year, these Cardinals have come from behind to win simply because they would not accept defeat. That has made them fun to watch, easy to like, and hard to play against. If you're an opposing coach, how do you game-plan for this bunch, when even Pitino doesn't know in advance what will work on a given night?

Senior guard Preston Knowles has been the key to this season, but the Cards still have won games without big numbers from him. Knowles and Peyton Siva have driven opponents berserk, especially lately, with the ball pressure and disruption they bring to bear on enemy backcourts. Dieng and Terrence Jennings have become formidable shotblockers, and with the return of Rakeem Buckles, the Cards have an inside presence I certainly didn't anticipate.

I expect an exciting postseason.

* * * * * * * * *

A quick note on women's basketball....

The U of L women have been up and down, but notched a big win last week when they knocked off No. 7 DePaul at the KFC Yum! Center. They also have a budding star in freshman point guard Shoni Schimmel -- I hope to see her in person sometime soon. Schimmel strikes me as the most disruptive player U of L has had (and by that, I mean disruptive to the opposing team) since Stephanie Edwards 30 years ago. Thank heaven women hoopsters don't leave early for the WNBA; otherwise we wouldn't have Schimmel to watch for three more years.

Jeff Walz continues to impress as a coach -- he habitually pulls the most from his players, helping them become a team that can beat just about anyone. Anyone except Connecticut, that is; we haven't seen anything comparable to what Geno Auriemma has done at UConn since John Wooden's UCLA powerhouse of the '60s and '70s. In women's college basketball right now, there are the Huskies, and there's everyone else.

Someone else doing a bang-up job is UK women's coach Matthew Mitchell. He has brought the Cats to a level of relevance they haven't seen in ages, and in Victoria Dunlap, UK has a talent not seen in Lexington since the days of Valerie Still.

2011-02-04T22:29:00.000-08:00

Midterm exam time: Cards earning a solid 'A'

And I'm inclined to give their coach an A-plus.

As a nearly lifelong fan of University of Louisville basketball, I feel qualified to say that rarely has a U of L team achieved more with less. In a season where expectations were modest even before a rash of injuries hit the team, head coach Rick Pitino's Cardinals passed the midpoint of the Big East schedule at 17-5 overall and in a three-way tied for third place in the league at 6-3, a half-game behind second-place Notre Dame.

Considering Pitino hasn't had the luxury of the same roster three games in a row all season (or so it seems), to my mind it would constitute a miscarriage of justice for him not to receive the Big East Coach of the Year award. Indeed, he should at least get votes for the national award.

What with Samardo Samuels jumping to the NBA and two front line recruits never making it to campus, U of L has struggled for an inside presence. Jarod Swopshire's yearlong absence due to a groin injury hasn't helped, either; nor has the broken finger suffered by Rakeem Buckles. Freshman Gorgui Dieng has proven surprisingly adept at blocking and altering shots, but lacks the bulk and strength to hold his ground against the linebackers and tight ends that pass for forwards and centers on other Big East teams -- and he has lost time to leg injuries and a concussion.

Now top scorer and senior leader Preston Knowles has tweaked a hamstring and will miss the next game. That's the bad news; the good news is, U of L should handle a hapless DePaul team without him, playing at home. Knowles is the eighth different Cardinal to miss at least one contest due to injury -- if you're keeping score, that's more than half the team.

I submit Pitino is doing his best coaching job since Kentucky's "Unforgettables" in 1991-92. The current Cardinals have that squad's dogged refusal to accept defeat, and they have bought into Pitino's system lock, stock and barrel. It doesn't seem to matter to these guys who scores the points, as long as collectively they have more than the opposition when the clock runs out.

In a landscape thickly populated with one-and-dones and stat hogs, that's a refreshing attitude -- one worthy of a nickname.

How about "The Team that Wouldn't Die"?

* * * * * * * * *

A brief football note: I was very disappointed to see Seneca High School star quarterback DaMarcus Smith renege on his verbal commitment to U of L to sign with Central Florida -- as a Seneca alumnus, I was looking forward to seeing Smith don the red and black.

Nevertheless, Charlie Strong's recruit class has garnered Louisville's best ratings ever. Provided everyone passes the NCAA Clearinghouse and arrives on campus eligible, Strong should enjoy a level of flexibility in deciding whom to play and whom to sit or redshirt that hasn't happened at U of L in several years.

Bravo to him and his staff -- Cardinal football appears on its way back to prominence.

2011-01-15T13:35:00.000-08:00

A comeback for the ages?

It's difficult to say whether the University of Louisville's 71-70 win over Marquette University this morning/afternoon at the KFC Yum! Center ranks as one of the greatest comebacks in college basketball history, but it certainly ranks as the best I've seen in 47 seasons of watching Cardinal basketball.

In case you hadn't heard, U of L trailed 65-47 with 6:28 to play, but outscored Marquette 24-5 the rest of the way. The Cards made nine of their final 11 shots, including Kyle Kuric's game-winning layup off a nifty Preston Knowles pass with four seconds to play.

To me, this compares favorably to the University of Kentucky's 1995 "Mardi Gras Miracle" rally from 31 points down at Louisiana State -- the gold standard in college hoop comebacks. Today's was a U of L home game, but the Cards overcame a comparable deficit in terms of time and score, and I'll place it at No. 1 on my list of U of L's alltime "I believe in the resurrection of the dead" masterpieces.

The rest of my top five, in chronological order:

Dec. 18, 1968: Louisville 67, Memphis State 66 -- This one tastes all the sweeter in retrospect because it came at the expense of the loathsome Tigers in the Missouri Valley Conference opener. Memphis led this one by eight points with 1:30 to go -- and this was almost two decades before the three-point basket, which at the time existed only in the American Basketball Association.

Louisville went on to win a share of the MVC championship that season, losing a playoff game to Drake for the league's NCAA berth.

Feb. 16, 1975: Louisville 75, Saint Louis 68 -- This one stuck in my memory for a number of reasons. First, that day was the first time I remembered a U of L team getting booed off the floor by its own fans. Second, it was one of the rare Cardinal home games at which the U of L pep band did not play. Third, it was my 20th birthday.

The Freedom Hall crowd loudly voiced its severe disappointment as the nationally ranked Cards went to halftime trailing a dreadful Saint Louis team by 17 points. As the story goes, U of L head coach Denny Crum walked into the locker room and said, "OK, who wants to play?" The first five players whose hands went up -- sixth man Stanley Bunton and four rarely used subs -- started the second half.

U of L's starters visibly fumed on the bench as the five scrubs fought valiantly to cut into the Saint Louis lead, but with 12:36 to play, the Cards still trailed 59-36.

Then Crum reinserted his starters -- and the Billikens never knew what hit them. U of L went on a 39-9 tear the rest of the way, and the only reason the Cards won by just seven was the clock running out.

Dec. 20, 2001: Louisville 73, Tennessee 72 -- With 30 seconds left, the Vols led 70-64, but U of L threw in three treys, including Reece Gaines' game-winner at the horn. (No love for Tennessee in this corner, except for the Lady Vols and head coach Pat Summitt. As a general rule, nothing sucks like a Big Orange.)

Feb. 17, 2007: Louisville 61, Marquette 59 -- From my own blog posting about the nearly magical history of the No. 34 jersey at U of L: "Jerry Smith, No. 34, a product of nearby Wauwatosa, WI, capped a furious Louisville rally with a trey from the right wing as the buzzer sounded. Smith's third triple of the game, all in the final three minutes and change, completed the Cards' comeback from a seven-point deficit and handed the 13th-ranked Golden Eagles a stunning 61-59 loss."

What landed this game on my list was its importance. With a loss, U of L might easily have played itself out of the NCAA tournament. Instead, the Cards closed on an uptick and earned an invitation to the Big Dance.

I do not include the original Dream Game, the 1983 Mideast Regional final against Kentucky, on this list. While U of L faced a double-digit deficit in that one, it was in the first half, and the Cards actually surrendered a five-point lead in the last eight minutes of regulation before blitzing the Cats 18-6 in overtime. I rank it as one of college basketball's alltime best games for a host of reasons, but not because of the U of L comeback.

2010-12-31T15:09:00.000-08:00

The good, the bad and the ugly -- bad and ugly first....

Well, first blood in the KFC Yum! Center edition of the Battle of the Bluegrass goes to the University of Kentucky, which defeated the University of Louisville this afternoon 78-63.

As the old saw goes, "Kill the head and the body dies" -- or in basketball terms, neutralize the point guard and your opponent's offense dies. UK's DeAndre Liggins got into the head of U of L point guard Peyton Siva, and instead of playing the inside-out game that had worked against lesser opposition, the Cards went into a scramble drill that made me think Siva had decided to channel Edgar Sosa.

And as if that weren't enough, the "bad" Preston Knowles showed up for the first half, going 2 for 10 from the field on mostly rushed shots. Knowles did revert to "Good Preston" after halftime, but by then the Wildcats has established firm control of the game. Credit UK for that, and for doing a superb job of taking what the Cards were giving them -- mostly in the form of center Josh Harrellson (23 points and 14 rebounds, both career bests).

Taking nothing away from the Cats, I have to wonder what (or if) U of L head coach Rick Pitino was thinking, since center Terence Jennings played almost the entire second half while contributing virtually nothing on either end of the floor. Surely things couldn't have gotten any worse with either George Goode or Stephen Van Treese on the floor. While neither can be reasonably considered a force on offense, both provide efficiency and enthusiasm on defense -- two items noticeably absent from Jennings' game on this day.

As a diehard Cardinal fan, I can only hope UK is that good -- if not, it may be a long Big East campaign for U of L.

* * * * *

Now for the good.

I wanted to give myself a chance to let my euphoria exhaust itself before commenting on U of L football. I think my head has cleared enough now that the Cards' comeback win over Southern Mississippi is more than a week old.

Charlie Strong is the real deal. With a team of players who had done comparatively little under the tutelage of former U of L coach Steve Kragthorpe, Strong got U of L to its first bowl in four seasons. From Day One, he showed no tolerance for mediocre effort from his team, and as a result, many of the Cards delivered performances no one not affiliated with the team had any reason to expect.

In addition, Strong has returned U of L to its former status as a force on the recruiting trail, attracting one of the nation's best classes for 2011.

U of L can win without an outstanding quarterback. Let's face it -- no one will ever mistake Adam Froman or Justin Burke for Brian Brohm or Chris Redman. This season, though, neither was asked to win games with overpowering stats; instead, whichever man was driving the Cardinal offense strove merely to keep it going the right way. For the most part, both played intelligently and made the plays necessary to at least give his team a chance to win -- and avoided the big blunders that can fritter away victories.

While neither looks like a pro prospect, both were more than adequate at operating the offense, and unlike in previous seasons, neither proved prone to attempting throws that were beyond their means.

Bilal Powell surprised virtually everyone except Strong. The head coach was sold on him long before anyone else -- to the point where much of Planet Red thought said coach had lost his mind. Based on his first three seasons, no reasonable prognosticator would have predicted Powell would come within hailing distance of Howard Stevens' 39-year-old record for rushing yards in a season -- yet that's exactly what happened.

Along the way, Powell led all of Division I-A (sorry, NCAA -- I cannot get used to this FBS nonsense) in rushing plays of 70 yards or more. He also became the first Cardinal to gain 200 yards in a game twice in the same season -- or in a career. Along the way, he rose from oblivion to a solid NFL prospect.

The offensive line was as good as advertised. With four senior starters, this group expected to lead the team to whatever success it would achieve -- and it did. Powell's success sprung in large part from the effectiveness of his blockers, and on most of his long runs this year he was untouched until far downfield. Froman and Burke also benefited from superb protection most of the year.

The defense was far better than advertised. Most observers thought the offense would have to score points in bunches, because the defense would be hard pressed to stop a rumor. Strong and defensive coordinator Vance Bedford, however, created a unit that gave up points only grudgingly; Beef O'Brady's Bowl opponent Southern Mississippi was the only foe to score more than 24 points in the Cards' final seven games, and only twice all year did U of L surrender as many as 35. By way of contrast, each of Kragthorpe's three Louisville teams got lit up for 40 or more at least once.

Candor from the coach. Unlike his predecessor, whose postgame comments reeked of coachspeak and cliches, Strong dealt in the cold, hard truth. When his team played poorly, he said so, and no matter how well his Cards played in defeat, a loss was just that.

Anticipation. With the signing of one of the highest rated recruiting classes in the nation, it's not a stretch to believe U of L soon will rank among the contenders for the Big East championship and its attendant BCS berth. For next year, I might settle for reclaiming the Governor's Cup and the Keg of Nails.

2010-06-04T13:08:00.000-07:00

On the eve of the NCAA Division I baseball regionals, a rant on Big East officiating

For those of you unacquainted with the situation, the University of Louisville Cardinals will start NCAA tournament play in about two hours without head coach Dan McDonnell, who drew a three-game suspension after he was tossed from the Cards' 4-3 loss to St. John's in the Big East semifinals.

McDonnell had a heated discussion with the umpiring crew after Cardinal left fielder Drew Haynes' ejection for throwing his bat after being called out on strikes on a pitch that appeared on replay to be about six inches outside. McDonnell had finished his piece and gone back into the U of L dugout when evidently the first-base umpire said something nasty, and McDonnell came barreling back onto the field to get in the ump's face. He brushed against one of the other umps and was subsequently ejected.

In my eyes, Big East officiating in a number of sports has been suspect for many years, but this baseball incident sent me over the edge.

Here's the text of an e-mail I fired off to Commissioner John Marinatto:

"Dear Commissioner:

"WILL YOU PLEASE MAKE IT A PRIORITY TO HIRE GAME OFFICIALS IN ALL SPORTS WHO KNOW WHAT THE DEVIL THEY'RE DOING???? I am sick and tired of watching blown calls unduly influence Big East competition.

"The actions of the umpiring crew that resulted in the ejection of Louisville head coach Dan McDonnell from the U of L-St. John's Big East baseball semifinal must be addressed. In watching the video of the incident, it is crystalline clear one of the umps said something to set McDonnell off; my guess would be either an extreme insult or taking the axe to the coach's family tree. Even if these guesses are mistaken, the ump's behavior was reprehensible, and deserves some sort of public response. It is totally unjust for this crew to go unchastised while McDonnell serves a three-game suspension.

"Were I you, sir, I would publicly declare these umpires personae non gratae and see to it that none of them ever sets foot on a Big East baseball field again."

My dissatisfaction with Big East officiating goes back 25 years in football -- ever since the Howard Schnellenberger era at U of L, I have been convinced Big East refs have at best a tenuous grasp of what does and does not constitute pass interference, for one thing. Their enforcement of the applicable rule has been wildly inconsistent.

Then there was the infamous "fake fair catch" at Connecticut in 2007. I've already beaten that horse to a bloody pulp -- needless to say, even Pee Wee league officials get that call right.

Basketball officiating has been no better; the conference officially apologized to U of L twice last season over blown calls that cost the Cardinals chances to win close games.

As I've said before: officials are charged with only two principal tasks -- know the rules, and watch the game. Why in the name of all that's holy can the Big East not hire officials who can perform both those duties effectively?

2010-03-28T14:09:00.000-07:00

A few random observations (minimal U of L content)

In the wake of the University of Kentucky's mild-upset 73-66 loss to West Virginia University in the NCAA East Regional championship game, some random observations come to mind. To wit:

At the worst possible moment, some of UK's freshmen played like freshmen. Other than John Wall, that is; without his 19 points, eight rebounds and five assists, UK would have had no prayer of keeping things competitive. True, Wall turned the ball over five times, but balanced those errors with four steals and a blocked shot. I could nitpick his 1-for-5 three-point shooting, but his teammates were worse at 3 for 27.

In the face of perhaps their first real adversity of the season, Eric Bledsoe and DeMarcus Cousins let frustration get the better of them. Both wore pained expressions much of the second half, and their play suffered as shots failed to fall. They had plenty of company, though, as the team's composure evaporated in the face of West Virginia's uncharacteristically deadly outside shooting.

What on earth can John Calipari do for an encore? After a first season in which he recruited a fabulous freshman class and took a team that lost in the National Invitation Tournament quarterfinals the previous year to 35 wins and the NCAA's Elite Eight, how does he satisfy one of the most demanding fan bases in college basketball? There are only two rungs left on the ladder, and it's hardly a failure not to win a national championship.

Next year's Cats almost surely won't have Wall, Cousins or Patrick Patterson, and could lose Bledsoe as well, though I think Bledsoe could benefit by a couple more seasons in Lexington to enhance his draft position. Daniel Orton has the NBA in his future as well, but not immediately; I can envision him and Bledsoe declaring, but not hiring agents in order to leave open the option of returning to UK.

How long will it take before another combination of this kind of talent with this kind of chemistry comes back to Lexington? For an example of what top talent without UK-like chemistry looks like, turn your eyes to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where a similar collection of blue-chip recruits failed to mesh into a cohesive team. As a result, the vaunted Tar Heels landed with a thud in the NIT.

Where in blazes did that sharpshooting West Virginia team come from? It certainly wasn't in evidence during the regular season; the Mountaineers were among the best offensive rebounders in the country because they missed an awfully large number of shots. Heck, WVU was hard-pressed to beat Louisville in Morgantown -- in fact, the Cards lost that game more than the Mounaineers won it.

Additionally, in an eerie parallel to Calipari's 2008 University of Memphis NCAA finalists, three of UK's weaknesses finally caught up with the Cats against WVU: inconsistent perimeter shooting, too many turnovers and poor free-throw shooting. Hitting only four treys in 32 attempts, 16 of 29 foul shots and 34 percent from the field overall will get you beaten most nights; it's a credit to Kentucky's outrageous talent WVU won by only seven.

Kentucky is back. At least far enough that a 35-3 season leaves an unpleasant aftertaste in the collective mouths of Big Blue Nation.

2010-03-19T22:37:00.000-07:00

OK, season over -- time to vent....

The University of Louisville men's basketball team brought its 2009-10 season to a disappointing end with a 77-62 loss to the University of California Golden Bears in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on March 19. The Cards missed 11 of their first 13 shots in falling behind 22-4, and never trimmed the deficit to less than four the rest of the way.

As had often been the case throughout the season, Cal's smaller, quicker lineup bedeviled the Cards with good ball movement and accurate shooting, burying an open shot to stop every U of L surge.

Time for a few postmortem observations:

Next year's team will be better in part because Edgar Sosa won't be on it. Rick Pitino has made relatively few glaring coaching errors in a soon-to-be Hall of Fame career; one of them was his four-year campaign to make Sosa into a point guard. Sosa never shook his high-school shooting guard mentality; I've never met him, but I'd bet if asked, he'd say the two best games of his career were a 31-point outing against Texas A&M in the 2007 NCAA tournament and a 28-point effort against Cincinnati in this year's Big East Championship second round. U of L lost both those games.

The Cards have a pure point guard in freshman Peyton Siva. In my opinion, the best thing Pitino can do for Siva is name him next season's starter, then send him home with a personal lowlight reel of all the poor judgments he made on the floor in his rookie campaign. If he learns to make his teammates better without trying to make ESPN's Top 10 Plays every night, this team can do great things.

Samardo Samuels could use an attitude adjustment. More specifically, he needs to become more assertive around the rim. When you're 6-foot-9 and carry a well-muscled 265 pounds on your frame, you don't need finesse; your game should be powering your way to the hole and making the other team stop you. And when you have teammates who can hit open shots, learn to recognize the efficient pass out of a double-team.

Summer homework: develop your jumping ability so you can play above the rim. Play pickup ball with good players, and rebound with the mindset that every missed shot is your property. Pick Walter McCarty's brain about the finer points of inside play, and see if you can schedule a session or two with former U of L stars Rodney McCray and Charles Jones -- two of the best I ever saw at influencing a game without stuffing the box score.

Terrence Jennings needs a MAJOR attitude adjustment. Big Fella, don't take the summer off! Work on your game; at this level, athletic ability alone doesn't get it done. Learn to catch the ball and move to shoot without putting it on the floor, and do the same homework I assigned Mardo above. Coach P and Coach McCarty know what they're talking about; learn from them.

This team was capable of much more than it achieved. With the level of effort it displayed in the two wins over Syracuse, U of L could have beaten almost any team in the country on a given night. Without it, they could be very ordinary, as we saw against Cincy and Cal. This squad never bought into the concept that playing hard every possession on defense will win games even on some nights when shots aren't falling, despite what the stats showed about the best offensive performances of the season stemming from disruptive defensive efforts. If you're stopping the other guys, you can overcome subpar shooting and bad officiating.

Rick Pitino might consider an attitude adjustment. Pitino has few peers at taking a scouting report and developing a game plan; however, in watching the Cards play, I've noticed that when the game plan isn't working, he seems reluctant to tweak it, and often burns timeouts in fits of pique early in the game. As a result, at crunch time he deprives himself of the ability to strategize.

You don't have to like a guy to learn from him, Rick -- would it kill you to sit down with Denny Crum? (Why, you ask? Here's a hint: in games decided by five points or fewer or in overtime, Denny's record was 155-108. To date, yours is 80-84.)

2010-03-04T21:57:00.000-08:00

U of L exits Freedom Hall in blaze of glory

If that wasn't sending the old girl off the right way, I don't know what is.

On Saturday, March 6, 2010, the University of Louisville men's basketball team brought its 54th and final season of home games in Freedom Hall to a stirring end, using a 48-33 second-half blitzkrieg to dispatch top-ranked Syracuse 78-68 before a record crowd of 20,135.

Like many Cardinal fans, I had to revise my list of favorite Freedom Hall memories to include the finale in a prominent position. I doubt I will ever forget the way the Cards bade farewell to The Hall. Not that I'd rank it first all-time, though; here, in no particular order, are the rest of my faves.

Legendary public address announcer John Tong: My friends and I used to give John's introduction of the starting lineups along with him, word for word; his style was unique. When I close my eyes, I can hear it now -- and it still gives me goosebumps. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center and Freedom Hall, for the thrills and excitement of college basketball, as tonight, the University of Louisville Cardinals host...." It's a different world now; John must spin in his grave at the rah-rah excesses now commonplace among PA people. (No disrespect to current U of L announcer Sean Moth intended.)

Wes Unseld's Senior Day: This might be colored by the fact I was 13 at the time and Wes was my hero. It is indisputably true, though, that when he was introduced, and then when he left the game for the final time, he received the two loudest and longest standing ovations I had ever heard.

Beating Kentucky in 1995: Samaki Walker's triple double, including a U of L-record 11 blocked shots, highlighted a two-point game many called the best ever. Terrific game regardless of your rooting interest.

Beating Kentucky in 2009: "THREEEEEEEEEE, SOSAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" Great way to stick it to Big Blue Nation, which had been unusually obnoxious in the days before the game.

Louisville 115, Memphis State 97, Feb. 25, 1978: I confess -- I despise Memphis. I've been called names in Memphis I had to ask my dad about. Because of that, I've cherished every victory over the hated Tigers, especially this one, in which the Cards totally mopped the floor with them.

Louisville 99, Memphis State 94, OT (women), Feb. 25, 1978: This one was memorable again for the opposition (did I mention how much I despise Memphis?), but for the weirdness of it. U of L actually had this game won 88-86 in regulation, but due to a malfunction, the horn didn't sound when the clock hit :00. In the split second between time expiring and timekeeper Richard "Rosie" Rozel manually blowing the horn, Memphis State scored a tying basket, which the officials had to count. The Lady Cards regrouped to fend off the No. 17 Tigers in overtime; it would be nearly a decade before they would again defeat Memphis during the regular season.

Louisville 84, Southern Mississippi 73 (women), Mar. 12, 1993: The Lady Cards won the Metro Conference championship, avenging a bitter loss to USM in the '92 semifinals. Five days later, U of L became the first (and to date only) team to defeat Connecticut in an NCAA tournament game in Storrs. What do you want to bet UConn coach Geno Auriemma hasn't forgotten that?

2010-01-31T11:13:00.000-08:00

Maybe we aren't who I thought we were....

But then again, maybe we're closer than I thought a week ago.

Now isn't the easiest time to be a fan of the University of Louisville men's basketball team.

Four weeks ago, on the heels of a snarling, hard-fought, leave-your-soul-on-the-court effort against a more talented and more physically gifted Kentucky team, I believed good things lay ahead for the current Cardinal squad. They had overcome a horrendous start in the most hostile of environments to take the Wildcats down to the last minute; to paraphrase former U of L football coach Howard Schnellenberger, the Cards weren't defeated, they just happened to be trailing when the clock hit zero.

Then the Cards began showing an exasperating inability to close out games. Against Villanova at home, U of L came out smoking, building a 17-point lead in the first half, but lost. At Pittsburgh, a five-point lead melted away in the final 54 seconds when the Cards clanked four of five free throws down the stretch. Similar meltdowns led to losses at Seton Hall and West Virginia.

I asked myself, "What in the name of the original Cardiac Cards is going on here?"

Many on Planet Red have pointed the finger at the senior guards, particularly point guard Edgar Sosa, saying some variation of this: "A senior point guard shouldn't be making the kind of errors Sosa is making running the offense." They also criticize the number of minutes Jerry Smith is getting, mired as he has been in a season-long shooting slump.

Permit me a reasoned dissent.

First, though Sosa is a senior point guard, this marks the first season he has been the primary initiator on offense. As a freshman and sophomore, he played in an offense that operated, for the most part, through center David Padgett. Last season, it was forward Terrence Williams who drove the bus. So Sosa is not as experienced at his craft as most senior point guards.

More relevantly, he hasn't played that badly; if anything, he's guilty of trying to win close games by himself, as are most of his teammates. U of L coach Rick Pitino seems at last to have conveyed that message to his team, or so it seemed last Monday night when Connecticut came to town.

Cardinal fans got a queasy sense of déjà vu when the Huskies pared a 19-point deficit to six with 7:32 to play, but this time Sosa hit a high-banking runner and fed Samardo Samuels for an easy hoop on consecutive possessions to stretch the lead back to double digits. U of L cruised from that point on, winning 82-69.

As I see it, the main task for the Cards is resisting the temptation to play to avoid losing. In games where this team builds a lead, it is best served by continuing to do the things on offense that got them that lead. When they try to get conservative and the lead dissipates, the trend has been for each individual to try to save the day alone. Sosa successfully bucked the trend against UConn by taking what the Huskies' defense permitted and keeping his teammates involved.

If he keeps doing that, and his mates follow suit, I'll feel much more confident about the remainder of the season.

2009-12-28T10:54:00.000-08:00

One for the history books -- UK wins, but....

It's the morning after the Battle for the Bluegrass. The University of Kentucky has defeated the University of Louisville 71-62 in their annual rivalry game, but as usual, the score doesn't begin to tell the story.

Big Blue Nation gets the bragging rights, but Planet Red comes away with more than lovely parting gifts. More on that later.

This game differed from the rest of the series from the very outset; it was filled with snarling, nasty attitudes on both sides, reminiscent of '80s-vintage U of L-Memphis or UK-Louisiana State tilts. Consider: eight seconds past tipoff, UK's Eric Bledsoe draws a foul call, and woofs so vehemently that Wildcat head coach John Calipari pulls him out of the game to calm him down. As Calipari tries to pour soothing words into his ear, Bledsoe continues to rant over Calipari's shoulder, at either the official or U of L's Reginald Delk.

Some 37 seconds later, a scrum over a loose ball ends with UK's DeMarcus Cousins delivering an apparent forearm shiver to the face of the Cards' Jared Swopshire, bouncing Swopshire's head off the floor. Swopshire's objection to this kind of treatment earns him a technical foul. Delk also gets T'd up in the aftermath, and after a long session of all three officials scrutinizing the video replay, Cousins also draws a T -- and in the virtually unanimous opinion of the analysts, is very fortunate not to be ejected from this game and suspended for UK's next contest (against Georgia).

And the game still is less than a minute old!

The rattled Cardinals proceed to miss 18 of their first 19 field goal attempts and rack up 12 first-half turnovers. At the under-eight-minute TV timeout, the Wildcats lead 17-5. Game over, right?

Wrong.

U of L keeps battling on the defensive end, and helped out by a couple of silly UK fouls near the end of the half, the Cards claw back to within eight points at the break. They've shot a dismal 17 percent from the floor, but they've held the No. 3-ranked team in the country to 27 points in the half on its home floor -- something to build on, if U of L coach Rick Pitino can push the right buttons at halftime to get his players' heads back into the game.

Whatever Pitino said worked. The Cards played like demons beginning the second half, and midway through the period, U of L took a 42-41 lead.

Could the unthinkable happen? Could the outsized, outmanned, upstart Cardinals upend mighty UK on its own floor?

No. Because John Wall wouldn't allow it.

The Cats' freshman point guard scored seven points in a 9-0 run that put UK in front by eight, and the Cards got no closer than within four the rest of the way. Still, the issue remained in doubt until the final minute, and the major beatdown Cat fans had envisioned never materialized.

What do the teams take away from this contest?

UK gets further confirmation it can take a talented opponent's best shot and remain on its feet. Many lesser teams would have folded in the face of U of L's fierce rally, but at least in front of its faithful, UK did not. Cat fans know their fabulous freshman point guard is the real deal; they also know the guy they call "Big Cuz" is capable of removing himself from the arsenal if he cannot keep his temper in check. Calipari will find plenty of teaching points in this game video.

So will Pitino. U of L's execution in the first half was, to be kind, dismal; the Cards completely lost their poise after the first-minute hostilities. On the other hand, Pitino's charges displayed a toughness some feared they lacked. It will serve them well during their remaining 17 Big East Conference games, beginning Wednesday night in Providence, R.I.

All in all, though I hate to see the Cards lose to Kentucky, Saturday's performance left me encouraged. Bring on the Big East.

2009-11-12T08:40:00.000-08:00

OK, I've had enough....

There comes a time when even the most tolerant person finds his tolerance has reached its end. As an unswervingly loyal fan of University of Louisville football, I have arrived at that time.

Like many of my fellow Cardinal backers, I have had enough -- of several things associated with U of L football. To wit:

Steve Kragthorpe's coaching style. When U of L athletic director Tom Jurich hired Kragthorpe after Bobby Petrino bolted for the Atlanta Falcons, I expected the Cards' offensive philosophy not to change much. On paper, Kragthorpe seemed fairly close to Petrino, complete with NFL coaching experience and credentials as a talented developer of quarterbacks -- not to mention the edge of growing up as a coach's kid.

He even appeared to have some charisma Petrino utterly lacked.

Now, nearly three full seasons later, I find myself weary of sifting through piles of cliches and banalities in search of a really substantial Kragthorpe comment about any of the galling losses that have piled up at a rate Cardinal fans hoped would never become commonplace again. I'm sure Kragthorpe cares -- all coaches care about wins and losses -- but I wish he had shown his concerns more obviously.

Perhaps Kragthorpe is best suited for a lower echelon of college football if he truly intends to serve as his own offensive coordinator. At the BCS level, he has not shown himself adept at balancing his playcalling and overall game management -- although, to his credit, he has proven more amenable than his predecessor to trying something different when the game plan isn't working.

I believe, however, it is time for Jurich to concede the Kragthorpe experiment is a discovery of one incorrect method of establishing the consistent winner he and his fan base want. U of L needs to try something different.

Irrational Cardinal fans. By that I mean those who act as though U of L became an established football power under Petrino. True, Bobby had a 41-9 record in his four years at the Cardinal helm. He also spent his first three in Conference USA, where he often was the one-eyed man in the kingdom of the blind. Furthermore, in his one season in the Big East, he had a perfect convergence of superb talent, scarce injuries to key players, and down cycles at traditionally powerful opponents that allowed his team to back into an Orange Bowl berth. (Remember, the Cards needed help from both Cincinnati and West Virginia to win the league title.)

I'm not saying the Cards haven't underachieved under Kragthorpe, but if U of L fans think that suddenly Louisville has reached a par with Michigan, Alabama and Notre Dame, they need to reevaluate. (Speaking of Michigan, it seems Rich Rodriguez is discovering painfully that Ann Arbor isn't Morgantown, West Virginia -- and Ohio State and Iowa aren't exactly Louisville and Rutgers.)

And finally, Big East football officiating. In the last two seasons, beginning with the Louisville-Connecticut fake-fair-catch debacle in 2007, I do not recall watching a single Big East game without seeing at least one officiating decision that made my blood boil. The U of L-Syracuse game was no exception -- the offensive pass interference call against Josh Chichester, nullifying a brilliant one-handed leaping catch for an apparent touchdown, was an egregious case of an official with a bad angle flagging a phantom foul. Every television replay showed at worst incidental contact between Chichester and the Syracuse defender.

Officials in every sport, when their jobs are distilled down to the essence, have but two basic tasks: know the rules and watch the game. I have never received an answer from the Big East as to why the league has such difficulty hiring football crews who consistently can do both.

This is nothing new for the league. Back in its days as an independent under Howard Schnellenberger, U of L often used Big East crews at its home games. The Chichester call reinforced my observation from the Schnellenberger era that Big East refs have only a tenuous grasp on what does and does not constitute pass interference.

To Commissioner John Marinatto and Director of Football Officiating Terry McAulay: please do whatever it takes to get conference games called by people who know what they're doing!

2009-10-20T13:58:00.000-07:00

And now, for your halftime entertainment....

The University of Louisville has now played half its 2009 football schedule, to the tune of two wins and four losses. Probably a majority of prognosticators predicted a 2-4 record at this point, with victories over Indiana State and Southern Mississippi.

I honestly thought the record might be as good as 4-2 through six games -- I thought the Cards had a good chance at stealing road games at Kentucky and Connecticut. In fact, U of L died of self-inflicted wounds in both cases, Cardinal turnovers giftwrapping both the Wildcats' winning touchdown and a total of 24 points at UConn.

Barring a succession of major miracles, Kragthorpe's Cards will post their third consecutive non-winning season -- enough to send a fan base that prior to his arrival had celebrated nine consecutive bowl bids simmering toward outright revolt. With a stadium expansion due to open next September, U of L athletic director Tom Jurich may have no alternative to dismissing Kragthorpe.

I must admit, I too have just about run out of slack to cut Coach K. It's not so much the losing that galls me -- though it certainly does. It's the appalling number of stupid mistakes that have cost U of L dearly -- offside penalties on kickoffs, late hits on offense, miscommunication on defense, linemen forgetting the snap count, receivers not knowing when they should or should not be on the line of scrimmage, and other outright blunders.

It speaks to quality of coaching these things have lingered far beyond the end of preseason camp.

True, as I myself have often said, coaches don't drop passes, miss blocks, shank kicks, or fail to make secure tackles. They do, however, bear the responsibility for teaching proper technique and creating a culture of efficiency. At the level of competition where U of L's program resides, Kragthorpe has not shown me he has the resources to serve as both head coach and offensive coordinator -- either playcalling or game management has suffered all season long. U of L has burned too many timeouts to save delay-of-game penalties or get the right personnel on the field. That reeks of a disorganized sideline.

I truly hope Kragthorpe has his resume polished and updated, because only a bowl bid would assure him another year at U of L. That would require at least five wins in the remaining six games, and with road trips to Cincinnati, West Virginia and South Florida lurking, that prospect seems slim indeed. The home games look daunting as well; Arkansas State gave Top 10-ranked Iowa all it wanted in Iowa City a few weeks ago, Syracuse is showing signs of life, and Rutgers, while showing signs of reverting to its long history of putrid football, has recently played U of L much tougher than expected.

Honestly, anything better than 5-7 looks like a reach right now.

I also hope Jurich has that short list of coaching candidates in his desk -- I expect he'll be making phone calls in about six weeks.

2009-09-05T23:29:00.000-07:00

Well, Game 1 is in the books

The University of Louisville officially started its 2009 football season with a 30-10 win over visiting Indiana State (0-2), the Sycamores' 28th consecutive defeat.

Earlier, the Cards' archrivals from the University of Kentucky blasted Miami (Ohio) 42-0 on a neutral field in Cincinnati. Comparing the two results left much of Planet Red grousing and grumbling.

U of L plays UK in Lexington at noon Sept. 19. Both schools have open dates next week.

I find it difficult to assess Louisville's performance in an opening game against an overmatched opponent that now has won only once in its last 53 outings, but I saw some things I liked, as well as some cause for concern.

The pluses:

The defense. True, the Sycamores aren't exactly an offensive juggernaut, but the Cardinal defenders treated them much the way I expect them to treat a thoroughly overmatched opponent. ISU managed only seven first downs and 101 yards of total offense, including 19 net rushing yards (0.8 yards per attempt). The defense also generated four turnovers (three interceptions and a fumble recovery) and had an interception return for a touchdown nullified by a holding penalty.

Justin Burke. After a shaky start (one completion in his first seven throws), Burke rallied to finish 17 for 31 for 225 yards. He suffered two interceptions, one on a ricochet off his receiver's hands, the other on the last play of the first half, when instead of taking a red-zone sack, he threw an ill-advised shovel pass directly to a Sycamore defender. Once he shook off his first-start jitters, he looked poised and delivered his passes with authority.

Placekicking. Barefoot kicker Ryan Payne hit from 29, 21 and 31 yards, and hooked a 35-yard try from the left hash mark slightly wide. U of L made only five field goals in the entire 2008 season.

The minuses:

Justin Burke. Much has been made of wide receivers Scott Long and Trent Guy's ability to stretch the field with their speed. Burke failed to connect with either on deep passes, overthrowing Long and Doug Beaumont on certain touchdowns. His touch on the deep ball needs considerable work.

Kickoffs. Burke's hang time and distance left a lot to be desired. He didn't threaten the goal line on any of his kickoffs, and ISU's second scoring drive, which produced a field goal, followed a 55-yard kickoff return. This area must improve, and quickly -- one hopes starter Chris Philpott's transgression wasn't severe enough to warrant more than one game out of uniform.

Stupid penalties. Forgetting the snap count. Late-hit personal fouls on offense. Holding during a fair catch. All told, the Cards incurred 14 penalties for 128 yards -- far too many to get away with against a decent opponent, and a disturbing flashback to the worst of the John L. Smith era. Kragthorpe must impress upon his players the vital importance of keeping cool heads and playing snap to whistle, not beyond.

Above all, I'm profoundly thankful for the open date before the Kentucky game. I have no idea what to expect.

2009-09-02T20:21:00.000-07:00

Three days to the season and...?

Who knows what to expect from the 2009 University of Louisville football team?

Wholesale changes have occurred since the ignoble end of the 2008 season. For the second straight year, the Cards will break in a new starting quarterback -- Justin Burke, who last played in 2007 for North Carolina State, throwing a grand total of three passes. That happens to be three more than any of his backups has thrown in Division I-A play. (Yes, I know it's properly called the Football Bowl Subdivision -- don't get me started.)

Burke finally won the starting nod when Adam Froman, his main competitor, went down with a shoulder injury. U of L head coach Steve Kragthorpe said, however, that Burke's job will not be in jeopardy merely through Froman's return. So unless he himself is hurt (God forbid) or performs badly (God further forbid), Burke is The Man for '09.

By all reports, his teammates support Burke as the starter. Consensus has it he's the more "cerebral" of the QBs, but doesn't lack for physical talent. While no one fears Burke as a runner, he is nimble enough afoot to get himself out of trouble, according to the defensive linemen who have to corral him in practice. Game action will tell -- but if he's mobile enough to evade the pass rush, that's an upgrade over last year's starter, Hunter Cantwell.

Burke will not lack for weapons. While the Cards will miss short-yardage warhorse Brock Bolen, they welcome back Big East Freshman of the Year Victor Anderson, who topped 1,000 yards while averaging only 15 carries a game, and Bilal Powell, who looks to regain his freshman form after a disappointing sophomore campaign.

Then there are the receivers. Burners Trent Guy and Scott Long appear healthy, after injury-plagued '08 seasons, giving U of L the capacity to play the vertical passing game both Kragthorpe and Cardinal fans so dearly love. Josh Chichester, the 6-foot-8 sophomore who seems to have cut down on his propensity for dropped balls, shows signs of developing into a first-class possession and red-zone receiver. Kragthorpe also said he intends to utilize his tight ends more, which will make opposing defenses less free to double-team Long and/or Guy.

Before the players started to get banged up, and lack of production from the offense and special teams took its toll, the Cardinal defense showed terrific improvement over '07's numbers. While some key players were lost from last year, particularly in the line and secondary, the linebacking corps remains strong, and if the Cards can get better pressure on opposing QBs, the secondary should do well.

Which leads us to the kicking game. Last season, it became painfully apparent early that Art Carmody wasn't coming off the sideline on fourth down any more -- and all too often, neither was any other Cardinal kicker. As a consequence, U of L's offense was forced into far too many fourth-down conversion attempts and surrendered far too much field position when unsuccessful. Again, game action will tell whether and how much the kicking situation has improved.

In the punting game, Corey Goettsche returns -- one hopes, with more consistency. I for one would like to see a 40-yard average that didn't consist of equal parts 51-yard boomers and 29-yard shank jobs. With consistent length and hang time, coverage will have a chance to improve.

The return game has the potential to score points and provide Burke with short fields. Guy has breakaway speed bringing back either kickoffs or punts, and Anderson and Doug Beaumont both can go long distances if the blockers do their jobs.

Now, what will all this translate to in terms of wins and losses? That's hard to say. The Cards should handle Indiana State in the opener -- the Sycamores are truly dreadful, having blown a 17-0 lead in an overtime home loss last Thursday to NAIA member Quincy, ISU's 51st defeat in its last 52 outings. Next comes a Sept. 19 date at Kentucky -- I'd love to see a win, but would settle for a competitive game. This season, I think the Wildcats are deeper and have a few more weapons.

I'd be very surprised to see a win at Utah -- the Utes are a very good team, and the Cards historically have not played all that well in Big Sky country.

Pittsburgh comes to the Pizza Palace for the Big East opener. Here lies an opportunity for U of L to pick up an upset win -- the Panthers have gotten a lot of preseason buzz as a Big East contender and might be ripe for the picking, especially if the Cards come into the game at 1-2.

Former Conference USA rival Southern Mississippi comes in for a pivotal Oct. 10 tilt. U of L should win this one, but I shudder to think of how many times the Cards should have beaten the Golden Eagles, but didn't. A win here, and the Cards take a much more confident attitude into the thick of the schedule; a loss, and it could be Katie, bar the door.

The following week, U of L travels to Connecticut. Beware the fake fair catch. The players may not know the story, but the fan base wants this one badly -- badly enough that they might forgive a 15-yard fair-catch interference penalty under certain circumstances. Donald Brown doesn't play in Storrs anymore -- this game certainly qualifies as winnable.

A road test at Cincinnati looks much more daunting. There was a time the Cards owned UC, but these are not your older brother's Bearcats. Winning here might be a tall order -- I'm calling it a probable loss (much as it hurts to type those words).

The Cards return home on Halloween to host Arkansas State. This might be the last time in '09 U of L is favored to win, and it must hold serve here.

Louisville finishes at West Virginia, vs. Syracuse, at South Florida, and vs. Rutgers. I cannot envision more than two wins in that stretch. U of L has struggled mightily in both Morgantown and Tampa over the years, and though both games will be hard fought, I expect two losses. The Cards will be out for blood when Syracuse comes to town, and they should get it -- the Orange come to town with a bunch of new starters and a new head coach.

Which leaves Rutgers. As in Rutgers 63, Louisville 14, the final game of 2008. Hungry for redemption though they be, the Cards may have a tough time getting it -- but their desire to send their seniors out on a winning note might just carry the day.

The bottom line appears somewhere between 5-7 and 7-5. Less than that would disappoint me enough to think perhaps it's time to show Kragthorpe the door.

2009-08-17T22:01:00.000-07:00

Pitino or Sypher -- who's the villain?

First, the facts: University of Louisville men's basketball head coach Rick Pitino, by his own admission heavily under the influence of alcohol, had consensual sex with Karen Sypher (then Cunagin) at a table in a Louisville restaurant after closing time on Aug. 1, 2003. Sypher later alleged Pitino had raped her, a claim no law enforcement authority has been able to substantiate. She has been indicted in federal court for attempting to extort money from Pitino, and for lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Pitino went before the media last week to apologize in public to his wife and family, the University, and its basketball fans for his conduct and its consequences.

This much we know.

Some of the other claims made in various quarters, especially from people howling for Pitino's head, don't make quite as much sense. Much has been made of Pitino's giving Sypher $3000 -- according to her, to pay for an abortion; according to him, for health insurance she used to pay for an abortion. That boils down to "he said, she said."

The chronology, however, raises many eyebrows, including mine. Pitino and Sypher had sex on Aug. 1; she had an ultrasound exam to confirm the pregnancy on Aug. 26, and an abortion three days later -- four weeks to the day from the sexual encounter that purportedly led to conception.

From all I've been able to uncover, though, it generally takes four to five weeks before ultrasound will confirm pregnancy; it takes that long before the gestational sac will show up in the image of the uterus. On this timetable, though Sypher's pregnancy was confirmed, Pitino's responsibility for it remains a matter of reasonable doubt. While the anti-abortion crowd howls for U of L president Dr. James Ramsey and athletic director Tom Jurich to dismiss Pitino, some of us in the pro-choice camp see a certain virtue in Pitino's giving Sypher the money without insisting on a paternity test.

Bottom line: while Pitino's contract with U of L does contain a morals clause, he has broken no laws -- neither adultery nor abominably bad judgment are open to criminal prosecution in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He will continue for some time to take a battering in the court of public opinion, but I don't believe his transgressions merit dismissal.

Sypher, on the other hand, may be facing serious prison time, but her troubles appear mostly self-inflicted.

Suffice it to say, the whole sordid mess will bear watching.

2009-03-21T22:05:00.000-07:00

It's the NCAA Tournament -- it doesn't have to make sense

At least when it comes to the seedings, if you're a University of Louisville Cardinals fan.

For once, Cards fans have no beef with the men's selection committee. That happens when you're the No. 1 overall seed, and your potential first four games are within 150 miles of home -- opening two rounds in Dayton, Ohio, and Midwest Regional in Indianapolis. It doesn't get much better than that, especially when you throw in U of L's 6-0 record in NCAA Tournament games played in Indianapolis.

The women's selection committee, however, has some explaining to do in the eyes of Louisville fans.

First, how does a team ranked in the Top 10 in the polls and No. 4 in the Ratings Percentage Index drop all the way to a No. 3 seed in the tournament?

Second, why does a No. 3-seeded team have to travel 761 miles to play its first- and second-round games on the home floor of the No. 6 seed in its region, when there is a neutral site 113 miles away?

The seeding alone was enough of a slap in the face, especially when the committee chairperson's lame rationalization involved an early season loss at Nevada. But combined with the placement in Baton Rouge on No 6 seed LSU's home court, and No. 5 seed Tennessee taking the 229-mile trip to Bowling Green, U of L fans feel justifiably outraged.

In my experience, that kind of screwing usually involves at least a sit-down dinner at a two- or three-star restaurant, followed by a first-run movie or a live concert. This was strictly no dinner, no movie, no kiss, no K-Y. It reeks of committee shortsightedness, if not outright bias.

2009-02-26T22:39:00.000-08:00

Big East race less of a cavalry charge, thanks to upset

Holy cow, what a difference a week can make in the Big East.

What started out seven days ago as a four-way tie in the loss column is now down to Connecticut and Louisville, as the Huskies beat Marquette and Pitt, for the second time this season, lost a Big East road game after reaching No. 1 in the polls, this time at Providence.

If UConn beats visiting Notre Dame on Saturday, and U of L beats Marquette the following day and Seton Hall on Wednesday, the scenario will hinge entirely on the result of the UConn-Pitt game Mar. 7. A Panther win would give the Cards the chance to capture the title outright by winning at West Virginia that night; a Husky victory would clinch the title regardless of the U of L-WVU result, since UConn won its only meeting with U of L.

Similarly, under those conditions Louisville would capture the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament regardless of a possible loss to the Mountaineers, by virtue of its January win over Pitt. Unless Pitt shocks the rest of college basketball by losing at Seton Hall, a win over Marquette not only would clinch at least the No. 3 seed, it would also put Marquette's hopes for the No. 4 seed (and the last double bye) in grave jeopardy.

In fact, should Villanova win its Saturday game against Georgetown and win again Monday at Notre Dame, Marquette would have to beat Pitt and hope for a Nova loss against Providence on Thursday in order to make its season finale against Syracuse relevant. A loss to Pitt would mean the best Marquette could achieve would be a tie with Nova, which would give the Wildcats the No. 4 seed by virtue of an earlier win over Pitt.

Confused? Don't feel bad -- figuring all this stuff out gives me a headache, and I'm the idiot writing this piece. Here, however, is the essence: if Louisville wins out, it can finish no worse than tied for first and seeded No. 2 in the tournament. If UConn wins out, it wins the title. If Pitt wins out, it can finish no worse than second. If Nova wins out, it finishes fourth. If Marquette wins out -- that would entail road upsets at both Louisville and Pitt. Not likely.

The one thing I know without doubt is, in another week this will all make more sense.

2009-02-20T22:54:00.000-08:00

Four battling for lead in Big East home stretch

(I'm a Kentuckian -- forgive the horse racing metaphor...)

With two weeks left in the Big East men's basketball season, four schools lead the way with two losses each in league play. Entering games of Feb. 21, Connecticut has a figurative nose in front, leading Louisville, Pittsburgh and Marquette by a half-game. The Huskies have four conference games left, the other three schools five each.

At stake beside the regular-season championship, of course, are the four double byes into the tournament quarterfinals. Villanova lurks in fifth place with four conference losses.

The current four-way tie in the loss column may survive the weekend, as all four leaders have games they should win. UConn (12-2 Big East) hosts South Florida (3-10); Louisville (11-2) faces Cincinnati (7-6); Pitt (11-2) hosts last-place DePaul (0-13); and Marquette (11-2) travels to Georgetown (5-8). Biggest trap possibilities: Marquette, whose inside game is suspect, faces a dominant frontcourt man in the Hoyas' Greg Monroe, as well as an opponent whose NCAA Tournament hopes are on life support; Louisville, the league's consummate road warrior, goes against an archrival desperately needing a marquee win to impress the selection committee. Still, the Golden Eagles and Cardinals should prevail.

After that, things begin to get verrry interesting, as Arte Johnson used to say.

Monday, Louisville travels to Georgetown, which at this point needs to treat every game as a must-win. A Cardinal victory probably punches GU's ticket to the National Invitation Tournament.

Tuesday, Pitt travels to Providence. The Friars are 5-2 at home in league play, the Panthers 6-1 on the road. Providence, which lives and dies on the perimeter, has no immediately obvious answers for Pitt's lethal inside duo of DeJuan Blair and Sam Young. My pick? Pittsburgh.

Wednesday, UConn visits Marquette. The Huskies are the kind of guests who smash your furniture, abuse your dog and empty your refrigerator; they are undefeated on the road, and center Hasheem Thabeet and forward Jeff Adrien should run amok against the Golden Eagles. Unless Marquette shoots a ridiculous percentage, especially from three-point range, UConn should cruise.

Saturday the 28th, UConn hosts Notre Dame; the Irish have been abysmal on the road, with only one win in their first seven tries. Pitt invades Seton Hall, which is only 3-5 in conference home games.

Sunday, March 1, Marquette gets another dose of backloaded scheduling as the Golden Eagles head to Louisville. The U of L-Marquette series has been fraught with weird happenings since at least the mid-1970s, but the Cards' frontcourt has enough versatility and muscle to negate Marquette's excellent guards. U of L head coach Rick Pitino also will have two days of extra preparation -- good enough reasons for me to expect a Louisville win.

Wednesday, March 4, Louisville hosts Seton Hall. Expect the Cards to get a huge lift from a Senior Night crowd bidding farewell to two fan favorites, Terrence Williams and Andre McGee -- this one has "blowout" written all over it. Also that night, Marquette concludes its Murderers' Row stretch at Pitt, probably with Villanova breathing down its neck in a battle for the fourth double bye.

The league schedule wraps up Saturday, March 7. That afternoon, UConn plays at Pitt, in a game that could decide who gets the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. If the scenario plays itself out as I've envisioned it, UConn, Pitt and Louisville all would enter the final day with 15-2 league records. Louisville wraps up the Big East regular season at West Virginia that night, and Marquette hosts Syracuse.

If UConn beats Pitt, the Huskies would win the title regardless of the U of L-WVU result, because UConn won the head-to-head meeting. If the Panthers win, a Louisville victory would give the Cards the championship by virtue of their January upset of then-No. 1 Pitt.

Horse racing fans can only hope for a stretch drive this thrilling in the Kentucky Derby.

uoflcardfile

2009-02-09T13:20:00.001-08:00

University of Louisville All-Time Men's Basketball All-Stars
Any list of the most talented men ever to play basketball for the University of Louisville must begin with Wes Unseld and Darrell Griffith.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/1425059/university_of_louisville_alltime_mens.html

2009-01-26T20:50:00.000-08:00

University of Louisville Men's Basketball Report
A Look at the Cardinals One Week into Big East Conference Play

By Alan Zukof

The coming of the New Year has rarely held such meaning for University of Louisville basketball fans as it has in 2009.

On New Year's Eve, the Cardinals suffered a 56-55 homecourt loss to Nevada-Las Vegas that left the U of L faithful in, shall we say, less than a partying mood. In that game, the Cards shot 29.6 percent from the field, coughed up a second-half lead, and at times looked generally clueless -- not good news to a fan base that entered the season with visions of a Final Four appearance.

And with a suddenly troublesome-looking contest with archrival Kentucky looming four days away, the fainter-hearted on Planet Red began checking parachutes, preparing to bail out should the Cards do the unthinkable and lose to the detested Wildcats.

Much of their grumbling centered on junior point guard Edgar Sosa, whose extended sophomore slump featured rafts of contested shots, ill-advised forays into the lane, and lapses on defense -- so much so that head coach Rick Pitino was ready to buy Sosa a cheap ticket out of Louisville.

"I told him, 'I think you should transfer now,'" Pitino said in his press conference following the Kentucky game. "'The fans aren't very happy with you right now, and you aren't happy with yourself. We'll find you a school where they don't play defense (laughter) -- I have a few in my pocket. Take tonight and think it over....'"

Sosa opted not to leave, and UK paid the price. Sosa hung 18 points and a solid floor game on the Wildcats, including a 25-foot bomb with :02.3 to play that lifted U of L to a 74-71 win.

Sosa and senior Andre McGee had been alternating starts and splitting time at the point, but lackluster guard play had plagued the Cards all season. Pitino even had resorted to starting junior shooting guard Jerry Smith at the point, to no avail. But after their last heart-to-heart, Pitino named Sosa his starting point guard.

The combination of Sosa and Smith starting, with McGee and sophomore Preston Knowles coming off the bench, seems to have solidified the Cardinal backcourt. Sosa's wild charges into the paint have all but disappeared, and U of L has racked up four straight victories, including a 61-60 heartstopper at then-#18 Villanova and an 87-73 overtime masterpiece over #13 Notre Dame that featured a sparkling 21 assists with only nine turnovers.

Improved play on the perimeter has in turn created more maneuvering room for the Cardinal front line. Freshman center Samardo Samuels, who had virtually disappeared for three games, bulled his way to 18 points and six rebounds against the Irish, and frontcourt mates Terrence Williams and Earl Clark both notched double-doubles. Williams, a senior, led the Cards with 24 points, 16 rebounds and eight assists, and junior Clark's 15 points and 10 rebounds included a key three-pointer in overtime that stretched the Cards' lead to eight.

The Cardinals seem to finally grasp the way Pitino expects them to play, and as far as their fans are concerned, their timing could hardly be better. Undefeated #1 Pittsburgh comes to Freedom Hall Saturday evening, and U of L fans suddenly savor the propect of facing a Panther team that a week earlier was making them queasy. Pitt still has senior point guard Levance Fields, he of the 4.35-to-1 assist/turnover ratio, and sophomore center DeJuan Blair, the nation's third-leading rebounder at 12.6 per game, but the Cards appear far more ready to defend them than they did four games ago. Freshman center Terrence Jennings has delivered unexpectedly solid minutes in relief of Samuels, and gives Pitino five extra fouls to throw at Blair, whose only glaring weakness thus far has been a propensity for foul trouble.

2008-12-05T13:01:00.000-08:00

Now that it's all over....

I have held my tongue all season regarding the trials and tribulations of the University of Louisville football team. Now that the campaign has come to its inglorious end, however, I no longer feel the need to remain silent.

Here, then, are a few observations:

Hunter Cantwell is not who we thought he was. The guy has a National Football League body, with the NFL arm to match, but his other quarterbacking skills appear somewhat short of that level. He has not shown an adequate ability to read defenses, he tends to radar-lock on his primary receiver, and on short balls past the line of scrimmage he has the touch of a blacksmith. Truthfully, he was a lot better QB when he was the second-stringer and had Harry Douglas, Mario Urrutia and Gary Barnidge to throw to.
The best addition between the 2007 and '08 seasons was defensive coordinator Ron English. Coach English put the teeth back into a defensive unit that barely could stop a rumor until late in '07. Until injuries and lack of support from the offense and special teams took their toll, the Cards' defense was among the nation's best. With many of the key players back next season, U of L should still do a creditable job of stopping opponents.
Firing Steve Kragthorpe is absolutely not the answer. If U of L athletic director Tom Jurich accedes to the wishes of the noisiest part of the fan base and shows Kragthorpe the door, he loses all credibility as a boss the next coach can trust. Cardinal fans became spoiled after John L. Smith and Bobby Petrino guided U of L to nine consecutive bowl appearances, and the howling for Kragthorpe's head began even before his career-opening loss at Kentucky. It is not responsible to fire a coach after only two years unless he (or she) gets the school in hot water with the NCAA. Kragthorpe is cleaning up a mess not of his making, and he deserves at least one more year to start righting the ship. Of course, beating UK next year would be a good first step.
Award-winning kicker Art Carmody's graduation left a bigger hole than anyone could have imagined before the season. From '04 through '07, crossing the opponent's 35-yard line meant a virtually automatic three points, provided the offense didn't get a stupid penalty or cough up the ball. This year, no reliable kicker emerged; consequently, the offense was forced into going for a disproportionate number of fourth-down pickups, far too many of which failed.
Depth is a major issue. Kragthorpe needs more bodies, and recruiting junior-college players is not the long-term solution. U of L must re-establish the Florida pipeline it once had, as well as signing more of the best in-state prospects. Though it may be tempting to plug every hole possible with a juco signee, the downside risk is too great. You need a core of veterans to keep a program steady, and the best way to do that is with high-school signees who work their way up through the ranks.
Louisville fans need to quickly develop some perspective. U of L is not Notre Dame, Michigan or Alabama; the Cards do not have enough of a history of gridiron success for their fans to expect a major bowl game every season. (Of late, even those three powerhouses have fallen on hard times, so why should the Cards be immune?) Though ticket buyers expect value for their money, it is delusional to expect U of L to run roughshod over the Big East year after year.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm extremely disappointed by this season, especially the way it ended. I don't believe, however, that it's time to jump into full-blown panic mode. What's called for, instead, is that no-longer-in-vogue virtue -- patience.

2008-01-15T10:45:00.000-08:00

Midterm report: Cards, Cats seem to be 'getting it'

Fans of the universities of Louisville and Kentucky have endured tons of trepidation with their respective men's basketball teams this season. Put aside the injuries to key players for the moment; more worrisome has been the appearance that many times the team has not been hearing/listening to what the coaches were saying.

Happily, it appears the message is starting to get through. Louisville has begun playing like a team with a working knowledge of the scouting reports. Kentucky has begun playing like a team with a backbone. Both trends coincided with the return of experienced players from injury, significantly U of L's Juan Palacios and David Padgett and UK's Derrick Jasper and Jodie Meeks.

Louisville

At 11-4, it would appear the Cards have little room for complaint, but a neutral-court loss to Purdue and home defeats by Dayton and Cincinnati set the faithful to grumbling, not without reason.

However, the loss to Purdue, I believe, started the turnaround for U of L, particularly sophomore center Derrick Caracter. Suspended for that game, Caracter appeared almost to squirm watching on the bench as in his and Padgett's absence, the Cards had no inside presence whatever. Third-string senior center Terrance Farley, while an adequate defensive presence, contributed nothing on offense, while willowy forward Earl Clark proved himself totally unsuited to playing with his back to the basket. Purdue owned the paint, and with it, the game.

The message from head coach Rick Pitino to Caracter: You are not bigger than this team, and if you do not abide by team rules, we will play without you, win or lose.

While Caracter's playing time has suffered with the return of Padgett, his attitude has not. While he remains foul-prone and slow to recognize when he cannot overcome a double- or triple-team, the rest of his game is improving. His passing has begun resulting in open shots, and at 63.6 percent for the season, he has become much less a liability at the foul line.

For the rest of the team, the light bulb appeared to go on in the second half of the Kentucky game. The Cards blitzed the Cats with the first nine points of the period enroute to a 32-9 run, and for the final 18 minutes there was no indication UK had any chance of winning. U of L shredded UK's defense with backdoor cuts and crisp inside-out passing, cruising to an 89-75 win that could have been more decisive save for atrocious free-throw shooting down the stretch.

At this writing, U of L has won seven of its last eight games, holding six of the eight opponents to 65 or fewer points, five of them to less than 60. Palacios and Padgett's senior leadership has the Cards playing much more intelligent basketball, and though no one expects them to run the table in the Big East, it appears the eventual champion will probably suffer four or five losses by the end of league play. A 13-5 BE record certainly seems within reach.

Kentucky

UK, on the other hand, still puzzles me. Which are the real Wildcats -- the bumfuzzled bunch that lost to Gardner-Webb and San Diego, or the gritty, never-surrender unit that survived the loss of a 16-point lead to dump previously unbeaten Vanderbilt in double overtime?

I for one believe (and hope, even in my Cardinal-loving heart) it's the latter.

Against Vanderbilt, for the first time all season, senior guards Ramel Bradley and Joe Crawford appeared to play the game the way UK head coach Billy Gillispie wants it played. While rough spots and warts remained aplenty, starting with more than 20 turnovers, there was no questioning the Cats' effort, particularly on defense. Vandy entered last Saturday's contest averaging over 80 points a game; even with 10 extra minutes of play, UK limited the Commodores to 73.

A huge question: will UK's improved act play as well on the road? One wonders how much the collective will of 24,000-plus screaming blue-clad faithful helped carry the Cats to Victory over Vandy, but I believe the steel in UK's spine will travel adequately; the impending game at Mississippi State will tell volumes. It is somewhat troubling, though, that UK may be without Meeks and Jasper; the two, Jasper especially, have done much to stabilize UK's oncourt psyche.

What kind of Southeastern Conference record the Cats will achieve, I cannot predict without seeing a few more games. It would not surprise me at all, though, to see UK contend for yet another SEC East title.

2007-10-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

Beating a dead horse

It's my blog, so I can keep harping if I want to.

Tony LaRussa became manager of the St. Louis Cardinals the same season, 1996, as Joe Torre took over the New York Yankees.

In the next 12 seasons, Torre's Yanks won four world championships, LaRussa's Cards one. Torre won six pennants, LaRussa one. Torre won 10 division titles, LaRussa seven. LaRussa's teams missed the postseason five times; Torre's never did.

And yet who got a contract extension and who got fired?

Make no mistake -- I believe LaRussa deserved his new deal. Seven division crowns in 12 years represents excellent success.

And yet Torre's 10-for-12, with six pennant and four World Series titles to boot, earned him a pink slip -- couched in a completely insulting one-year offer (see "Of firings foolishly..." below).

The difference, you ask? Glaringly clear.

Cardinals CEO Bill DeWitt Jr. grew up in baseball. Yankee boss George Steinbrenner grew up in shipbuilding, with a side of college football assistant coaching experience.

DeWitt's father was the longtime general manager of the Cincinnati Reds. Papa Steinbrenner ran American Shipbuilding.

DeWitt is a baseball guy. Steinbrenner only thinks he is.

Torre's six pennants in 12 seasons rank third in Yankees history behind Hall of Famers Joe McCarthy (eight in 16 years) and Casey Stengel (10 in 12 years). Yet Torre was offered only a one-year extension at a 33-percent cut in base salary -- with incentives that would have added up to an 8 percent raise if the Yankees were to win next year's World Series.

I'm sorry -- with a track record like Torre's, that is demeaning.

Bill DeWitt knows that -- he's a baseball guy.

2007-10-19T11:24:00.000-07:00

Of firings foolishly accomplished and contemplated

Some U of L content later, but uppermost in my mind right now is how infuriated I am with George Steinbrenner.

A three-year-old with one of those pump-action singing tops can create better spin than Yankees management is churning out over the Joe Torre firing.

And it was a firing -- make no mistake. Yes, they made him an "offer" -- to manage as a lame duck, taking a 33 percent salary cut. All Torre did in the 12 years he managed the club was win four world championships, six American League pennants, and nine consecutive AL East titles -- and never once miss the postseason!! It's hard to imagine how Steinbrenner could have more thoroughly insulted Torre without actually spitting on him.

By contrast, in the previous 12 seasons (1984-95) under a number of managers, the Yankees made the postseason ONCE. Steinbrenner's spending style has been a constant the entire 24 years, and his taste in free agents has not changed. Accordingly, one might reasonably infer Torre's managing has made a significant difference in the Yanks' level of success.

And for this, he is shown the door -- with a shamelessly lame PR ploy laid on to make it appear he was leaving by choice.

Torre stands eighth alltime on the managerial victory list, behind Tony LaRussa, Bobby Cox and five Hall of Famers. Only Hall of Famer Joe McCarthy managed the Yankees to more wins. Torre has four World Series titles; every other manager with at least three is in the Hall. Not since Casey Stengel was unceremoniously shown the door 47 years ago have the Yankees treated a legend so shabbily.

George, I'm betting you'll live to regret this.

===============================

Now, as promised, on to my beloved Louisville Cardinals.

The spoiled-rotten lunatic fringe of the U of L fan base has been howling for first-year head coach Steve Kragthorpe's head practically since the end of the Cards' 40-34 loss to archrival Kentucky. (Four weeks down the road, that loss to the Wildcats seems far less ugly, especially in light of the Cats' 43-37 takedown of top-ranked LSU last week.) Given the Cards' tantalizing near miss at an undefeated season in 2006, coupled with the return of virtually the entire offense, much of Cardinal Nation was gearing up for a run at the BCS championship this season.

Two factors mitigating against that reared up and derailed the train, though. First, unless it's a promotion from within with only the single change, it takes time for a new coaching staff to mesh into a smooth operation. Second, no one knew how devastating an impact the losses on defense, both players and coaches, would have. The front seven generated no pressure on opposing passers, which allowed teams to feast on Louisville's apparently clueless secondary. The failures appeared schematic as much as performance-related, which called the defensive coaches' ability into question.

Through all that, even with ugly losses to Syracuse and Utah that had the Cards reeling at 2-3, Kragthorpe seems to have righted the ship. Ater UK's defeat of LSU, Cincinnati owned Division I-A's longest active winning streak -- for approximately three hours. Louisville dumped the No. 15 Bearcats 28-24 in Cincinnati -- and the much-maligned defense, while allowing 460 yards, kept UC out of the end zone for all but the first drive of the second half.

With wins over paper tiger Connecticut and woeful Pittsburgh, U of L would become bowl eligible entering its daunting homestretch against West Virginia, South Florida and Rutgers. A victory over any of those three would all but assure Louisville's 10th consecutive bowl appearance.

So cancel the moving van and cease your howling, morons -- the Kragthorpe era is far from over and shows signs it might be well worth watching.

2007-03-29T07:08:00.000-07:00

In case you've been sleeping under a rock the last several days, the University of Kentucky is looking for a new men's basketball head coach. To many Kentuckians, this far outweighs the process of electing a new governor for the Commonwealth -- thus the rumor mill is running amok.

In a sense, filling the coaching slot is more newsworthy, if not more important. After all, we elect a governor every four years; UK has had only five men's hoops coaches since 1930.

But let me examine the sublime and the ridiculous among the names UK fans are batting about: Florida men's coach Billy Donovan and Tennessee women's (yes, women's) coach Pat Summitt.

Donovan has said next to nothing about the rumors that have him headed for Lexington. It seems he's distracted by the trifling matter of coaching his team as it attempts to become the first repeat national champion since Duke in 1992. (Sarcasm fully intended.) News flash, Wildcat fans: coaches get paid big bucks to coach, and when a particular coach's team makes the Final Four, he's still working! Serious news can wait until next week.

I almost spit a mouthful of whatever I was drinking across the room when I heard Summitt's name come up. This comes under the heading of "what have you been smoking, and where can I get some?" (Just kidding, folks -- I'm not advocating drug use.)

Why in heaven's name would Pat Summitt ever consider leaving UT for another school? In Knoxville, "The Lord is my Shepherd, but Pat Summitt is my Coach" stands next to anything in the Scriptures as eternal truth. Summitt is the alpha dog in the Vols' coaching pack -- you don't see Phil Fulmer or Bruce Pearl doing national TV ads. Her name is on the court where all UT home basketball games, men's and women's alike, are played. And she would leave all that for the unmatched aggravation of the UK men's job? Puh-leeze.

I expect UK to make a serious run at Donavan after the championship game Monday night. I also expect Summitt to have a good laugh over her turn in the rumor mill, quite possibly with former top assistant Mickie DeMoss, the women's head coach at -- you guessed it -- Kentucky.

2007-02-18T06:29:00.000-08:00

There's something about No. 34

At the University of Louisville, there is a special magic attached to the Number 34 jersey for the men's basketball team.

Other numbers have a more storied history, to be sure - like Darrell Griffith's No. 35, say, or Wes Unseld's 31.

But don No. 34 as a freshman, and U of L lore gives you a heightened chance of sinking a game-winning jumper for the Cardinals.

It began March 4, 1978, in the old Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati. U of L trailed Florida State 93-92 with nine seconds to play in the Metro conference Tournament championship game when freshman guard Roger Burkman, No. 34, took an inbounds pass and worked his way upcourt.
Burkman, christened "Instant Defense" by Cardinal fans, wasn't the first option on the play, but everyone else was blanketed. He weaved his way upcourt to the left baseline, whirled, and fired an 18-footer as the horn sounded.

BOOM! Nothing but net - the arena erupted, and a Cardinal legend began.

Seven years later, on a January night in Tallahassee, another Cardinal freshman bearing No. 34 stuck a dagger in the heart of the Seminoles. Mike Abram's shot from the right baseline lifted U of L to a 63-62 victory. And again on Feb. 16, 1989, a rookie wearing 34 buried FSU - Everick Sullivan's three-pointer at 0:01 gave the Cards a 78-77 win.

Last night in Milwaukee it happened again.

Jerry Smith, No. 34, a product of nearby Wauwatosa, WI, capped a furious Louisville rally against Marquette with a trey from the right wing as the buzzer sounded. Smith's third triple of the game, all in the final three minutes and change, completed the Cards' comeback from a seven-point deficit and handed the 13th-ranked Golden Eagles a stunning 61-59 loss. The win lifted Louisville into sole possession of third place in the Big East, solidifying the Cards' chances for a first-round bye in the league tournament and enhancing their prospects for an NCAA tourney berth.

But it also added luster to the saga of the magical No. 34.

2007-01-19T20:36:00.000-08:00

It's been a tumultuous time to be a Louisville football fan.

Consider: Within the span of less than two weeks, the Cards win the Orange Bowl over Wake Forest, 24-13; lose their head coach; have their stud-horse running back, who missed all but 33 minutes of the season with a broken leg, declare for the NFL draft; bring in a new head coach; and retain their starting quarterback.

Coach Bobby Petrino's departure for the Atlanta Falcons reminded me of an old joke about a guy who asked an attractive woman, "Would you sleep with me for $1,000,000?"

After a moment's thought, she said, "I suppose so."

"Would you sleep with me for $20?"

WHAP! "What do you think I am?!" she huffed.

"We've established that," he retorted, rubbing his face where she had slapped him. "Now we're negotiating your price."

Falcons owner Arthur Blank found Petrino's price.

U of L athletic director Tom Jurich got the last word, in a sense -- he had Petrino's replacement hired before the chair in Bobby's office got cold. Jurich had his old buddy Steve Kragthorpe, late of the University of Tulsa, on board in under 48 hours. This has all the earmarks of another genius hire; Kragthorpe can just about match Petrino's credentials as an offensive genius and developer of quarterbacks, but has Bobby beat all to hell in terms of charisma. He can smile without straining himself!

About Michael Bush's jump to the pros: many expert prognosticators cited it as a reason to drop the Cards to the bottom, or in some cases clear out, of their early predictions on next fall's Top 25. Hello? Bush was lost for the year three minutes into the second half of the season opener; all the team managed without him was an 11-1 record. I wish Michael well; we U of L fans haven't seen one of our alums succeed as a pro running back since Ernie Green four decades ago.

Of course, most of the naysayers figured that at a minimum, quarterback Brian Brohm also would make the jump to the pros. They were wrong. Brohm didn't announce his decision until the last possible day, but in the end, one more chance to lead his hometown school to a shot at the national championship meant more than possible NFL millions.

And part of Petrino's welcome to Atlanta? His incumbent star QB gets busted in an airport for possible possession of marijuana, setting loose exactly what Petrino loathes most -- a crapstorm of media attention.

If that's not a damned shame, I don't know what is (heh, heh, heh).

2006-11-03T06:27:00.000-08:00

Every once in a great while, a purported Game of the Year will live up to the hype, but frequently one team or the other will throw in a clinker that renders the final result completely unappetizing.

Last night in Louisville, the souffle did not fall.

Third-ranked West Virginia and No. 5 Louisville, two of the nation's most prolific offenses, torched the Papa John's Cardinal Stadium turf for 78 points and a Big East record 1008 combined yards. The host Cardinals won 44-34 in front of a record crowd of more than 43,000.

Expect more than 100,000 to claim they were there for the biggest victory in U of L history -- kind of like the fans who claimed they were there when Roger Maris hit his 61st home run, or saw Babe Ruth's "called shot" in the 1932 World Series. The Cards and Mountaineers put on that sort of a show.

I wasn't out there freezing my butt at the Pizza Palace -- but my wife and I hung on every play via ESPN. (Thank God she loves football almost as much as I do.)

And I'd be willing to bet two of the biggest smiles in the state of Florida belong to former U of L head coaches Lee Corso and Howard Schnellenberger.

The seed for a U of L home game of this magnitude, one might argue, was sown by Corso sometime between 1969 and 1972 -- probably the Saturday he made his pregame entrance to Fairgrounds Stadium on the back of a Barnum and Bailey Circus elephant. Corso's relentless promotion of Cardinal football started the process that led to last night's spectacle.

Schnellenberger added more fuel to the process with his 1985 proclamation, "The University of Louisville is on a collision course with the national championship; the only variable is time." Most observers questioned his sanity, especially when his first three teams went a combined 8-24-1, but maybe he was onto something after all. Certainly the Cards' 34-7 demolition of Alabama in the 1991 Fiesta Bowl served notice that U of L was capable of becoming a player on the national scene.

After last night, that "collision course" talk doesn't sound quite so crazy.

Dessert, anyone?

2006-10-31T07:28:00.001-08:00

The scoffers are surprised, and the believers are crowing.

Louisville and West Virginia have arrived at Thursday night's showdown undefeated. That wasn't too much of a stretch to anticipate.

However, even the truest believers might not have dreamed both would be ranked in the top five, making this game arguably a steppingstone to the BCS championship. Count me among them -- I didn't figure on the Big East drawing this much respect around the country.

But here it is -- a #3 vs. #5 showdown at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.

My pick? U of L 28, WVU 24.

Welcome to the Pizza Palace, everyone.