Anyone can argue any 1-point loss (such as UL's loss to Morehead) as being attributable to a number of reasons. Right or wrong, anyone can debate a failed shot block, a key player going down, missed free throws, etc, as 'the reason' for the loss. There's nothing wrong with having, stating, defending or debating such an opinion.

One can also argue that UL would have gone far in last year's Big Dance if Preston hadn't gotten hurt. This train of thought is also plausible and defensible given the context of last year's squad's consistent over-achievement and stunning comebacks.

These 2 snippets of conversation actually occurred with Coach Pitino. They had nothing to do with each other; they occurred at different times in different contexts. Each snippet stood on its own merits. Yet, a fan recently complained that this is Pitino being a hypocrite.

This touches one of my former professions related to communication, so after the jump comes a long post. I submit it in the humble hope it will light up a pathway for anyone interested to improve communication and listening skills. And not just with regard to Rick Pitino.

The above to me illustrates one of the problems digesting what [any coach or] Rick [or anyone else] says throughout a season [or throughout life].

There are times when statements should be kept in context of the topic at hand - and times not. Reporters and journalists aren't always savvy when to do so, let alone how to. Also, Rick isn't from the south. He unquestionably has a Yankee accent and speech habits. His communication style is more direct and blunt than a Kentuckian's. These small differences can lead to some misunderstanding, but there are many more factors at play.

Each year, from preseason to postseason, players and programs experience change. Health, morale, motivation, performance, execution, ability are all factors that change for each and every player. They change from season to season and from one game to the next. Consistency and stability are a luxury rarely given by Lady Luck to any program. This largely explains the rarity of (and time elapsed since) a perfect season such as the last by Indiana in 1976.

Considering there is also change-commotion at macro levels (i.e. conference and NCAA), this much is clear: Coaches must navigate an ever-shifting and unpredictable series of changes to even give their program a chance to succeed. It should be concluded that program success is based less on how well coaches plan life, and more on how well coaches overcome its obstacles.

Each year, from preseason to postseason, coaches execute hundreds of communication sessions in pre- post-game comments, interviews, shows and other engagements. That sounds like a lot of communicating, but it's not; not as a percentage of time they spend on the program.

If you could measure all time spent on team practice, game time, individual workouts, individual drills, tape review, staff meetings, staff planning, game planning, recruiting visits, getting a knee operated on, visiting Miss Hawaii, communications, and all other basketball program related activities, the percentage of time spent on communications-fans-see is probably ~2%. Yet we fans wish to, and try to, understand 100% of our program and its coach from the 2% of it spent communicating. That's not gonna work. There will always be gaps.

And what does it mean to communicate, anyway?

In my American military interrogator training I was taught techniques to induce people to talk and techniques to corroborate or refute what they said. Then I was taught a foreign language in which to perform interrogation. Much later came what I now believe was a pivotal piece of learning for me: an Israeli interrogation course. It focused on deviations of native languages such as colloquialisms, dialect, slang, paralinguil signs, etc., and how to analyze those for further information. It was a mix of (what is today referred to as) Discourse Analysis and Conversation Analysis, mixed with some additive criminal and detective science. Language deviations have been around since Adam spoke. Language deviations are not evil by nature, however they are pitfalls which often lead to misunderstanding. Even in sub groupings of people there is variance in how language deviations are used. In turn, that makes it all the more probable the [intended] message will be perceived in numerous ways.

Indeed, 2012 Darrell Griffith knows what a 'sick dunk' means, but 1979 Darrell Griffith would have either been confused or suspected that was an insult. If we were in Italy, see (Stripes reference), a 'sick dunk' never made any sense to players there. Nor have the Germans ever called anything awesome 'cool'. Think about it. We all do it. We say things that literally mean something else (i.e. idioms, sarcasm), yet we expect others to understand exactly what our true meaning is. I don't recall one yet, but I'm willing to wager Mike's reputation that there is at least one funny Cardinal story about a player saying something slang or sarcastic to Gorgui and getting some nonsensical-because-he-was-literal response. So there are those pitfalls, and don't even get me started on the impact of improper grammar.

Communications pitfalls challenge everyone: yourself, Pitino, Obama and even the Prophets. It is the root of why there are so many versions of The Bible. Communications pitfalls also greatly exacerbate the rhetoric and intensity of discourse in internet message forums.

Misinterpretation and misunderstanding increase in direct correlation to the frequency of communication, the diversity of the listeners, the amount of information, and the level and frequency of change to that information.

The point is that noone responsible for frequent communication (such as NCAAB coaches) to a lot of passionately interested people (such as fans) will avoid all the pitfalls of language deviations. There will always be misinterpretation and misunderstanding. There will always be some recipients getting the intended message, some an unintended message, and some simply confused. ADs know that, and that is why communication is [attempted to be] managed. Knowing how to communicate better does not guarantee you will successfully convey your message. Improvement can be had when one person makes effort, but it is improved the most when treated as a two-way street.

One commonly taught technique in civilian and business communication courses is to "repeat the message back in your own words", not unlike military cypher code recipients are taught specific methodologies for confirmation.
Sometimes you might think you understood the message correctly when you really didn't--and even the communicator isn't aware you didn't. However even as the listener, you can initiate such methods.. "Here's what I think you just told me...<say it back to them>; is that right?"

From another of my professions comes a more reconizable aconym: RTM. "Read The Manual." It's what some of us techies would often say to another when being asked a question about how some widget is supposed to work. It's a shorter way of saying "stop making noise (RTFM) and being confused, and go carefully re-read it and make sure you comprehend all that was written/said."

So we know we have an imperfect communicator and are ourselves imperfect listeners. Whatever truth there is that 'Rick spins' clearly will increase misunderstanding in addition to the above pitfalls--even if he does sometimes motivate a player while doing so.

Reading too much into comments or mistakenly putting the wrong puzzle pieces together wouldn't be a bad thing if it didn't escalate into rants, insults and over-the-top conclusions--but unfortunately it does. A lot. So much so that we're still having a flap about one comment when more 'controversial' comments are made. Herd instincts start taking effect, 'hate' increases and posses form, and some guy in the back throws rope over a tree branch.

What does this mean for Cardinal fans? We certainly won't get more communication time.

We can choose to continue wasting [too much] time chewing on 'spin' and hating. Or we can choose to redirect more of that negative energy on positive support of the students and staff for whom our fanhood exists to begin with. And inspiring others to do the same. I believe Cardinal fan life would be much better if we did.

Louisville isn't the only school suffering injuries to its athletes, but clearly it is a program having the least amount of injury luck in recent years. This Cardinal fan wanted to know a little more about what (if anything) is being done on a systemic level to take care of our kids.

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Think you like love Russ now? If you didn't know his background, check this out and be prepared to fall more deeply.

I thought we were all shocked about this recent Russ surge. Does anyone remember that Russ came to UL clearly touted as a scorer? If I ever heard that, I'd long forgotten it. After perusing these articles, it's clear what we've been seeing is no fluke. It shouldn't even be considered a mildly surprising turn of events.

It's Russ's payoff for years of hard work and a drive to excel.

And fortunately for Card nation, it's a guarantee of highlight reels to come.

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Some fans: Pitino is too defense oriented. He doesn't build offensive teams. We rely on defense too much.

Me: Bullshit. That's arm-chair coaching, over-the-top nitpicking and, as I believe I will point out after the jump, just really wrong.

First and foremost, let's recheck who we're talking about. Then let's look at this recent grousing and what it really means.

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Each season brings unending debate over player contributions (or detractions.) I have all boxscore data for the season for our team in a massivespreadsheet filled with multiple nested calculations. I came up with some new stats you might like to see. For example, I compute percentage of game time versus percentage of points, which reveals who can fill it up the fastest. (Hint: It's not always the leading team scorer.)

In this post I'd like to present my new stat "Impact". I created it, but you can help make it a useful stat.

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From NCAA.com and ULSPorts.com, as of today for the regular 2011 season:

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I hope everyone writing this game up gives TJ some love today. 

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From the ULSports.com:

Intersport announced Monday. The 2011 Dunk of the Year is wholly determined by fan voting and will be Kyle Kuric's Dunk Tabbed a 2011 Dunk of the Year Nominee

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Mike Marra causes me to scream more than anyone. My humble opinion, and of course I could be wrong, the dude has a bad case of 'headcase'. Meaning he can't shoot worth a hoot except for those rare times when his first couple of shots go in.   I say this because in 18 games played, he made 5 three-pointers once - against South Akabama mind you - and in another four games he made 3 (South Florida, Seton, Jackson St and Chattanooga.) So that's 17 3's in those low-RPI wins, but he took 43 shots to make them (39.5%.)  In summary, his best scores come against lower level opponents, and even then his percentage is tepid.

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A CBSS article yesterday quotes Coach Calipari thusly:

"Though Calipari said it would be 'an honor' to coach for an international team, he's not sure he has the time to devote to the position because of the way it would cut into his recruiting time."

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And no, we are not talking about 2011; the Year of Blackshear.   We're talking about this year.

Sizzlin Siva and Thunderin TJ. Swooping Swop and Rim-Rocking Rock. Bombs from Marra and Kuric.

And, of course... Preston! (with a healthy wrist.)

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Just noticed this post. If Coach is getting Hood to come visit, doesn't that mean Coach knows Wroten will stay in Seattle?

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Like my father, I was born in Louisville. Though he went to UL to catch up on a degree while I was a toddler, I grew up uninterested in any sports programs. I left for the Army after high school in 1978 and became a UL fan in California during its first championship year of 1980. Mostly because all my Army buddies knew I was from Louisville, and would whoop it up with me. They were fans of Dr Dunkenstein.

Years later when Pervis lead the Cards to a second title, I was screaming at the top of my lungs in Munich, Germany. I won a case of local German beer and a day off from my section sergeant over that win.

After leaving the service and settling in Louisville again, I finally got to see the Cards in the Hall. I can still remember the daze it put me in. The loud crowd, the excitement, the smoke filled smoker's room on the corner, the huge beers, lots of gorgeous southern belles wearing Cardinal red; it was quite an experience after seeing it on TV for so long!

 Yet more years later (I qualified for AARP this year), I had to settle in Indiana after meeting my wife and starting a family. We had 3 kids, and I got to take the first one, my son, to the Hall to see Samuels and Knowles' debut in scrimmage. I have a picture of him sitting with the mascot. He, and his younger sisters are big Cards fans.

Religious people say their body is only a shell in which their soul temporarily resides. Freedom Hall is that shell to the Cardinal basketball program. Our Cardinal spirit is ready to move on to a more glorious stage. I say farewell to the Hall with many fond memories, but no regrets. The Louisville Cardinals are a fine and storied basketball program, and will continue building on its history by adding a third national title banner to hang in April, 2012.