With the recent development of TJ leaving I foresee much consternation along the lines of "How dare he? He’s not ready" "Good luck in the NBA-DL" or "Best of Luck, we don’t need ya". Really anything said in the wake of Samuel’s poorly written press release announced his similar intentions last year.

These comments show a lack of understanding and compassion for the player they once rooted for. Let’s be honest. TJ choice of profession is as a basketball player. This has been his goal since he was a child. And now as an adult he has the capacity and ability to make that happen. We as fans may mark this choice as a failure for we believe he will never don an atrocious NBA all-star jersey or have shoe with his name on it, but it won’t be failure to person it matters most to, TJ.

If he can make a conformable living doing something he loves and has worked for is whole life Europe or Istanbul or Russia, is that such a thing to be looked down upon?

Cut TJ some slack. He worked hard for the Cards for 3 years and now he thinks it time to move on.

And bring on Deing

I miss football.

I do.

I know it’s basketball season.

I know we are great.

But I miss football.

I do.

Continue reading this post »

Hey guys,

Tonight at the YUM(!) Center we will be sending off the undefeated, Big East regular season and Tournament champions U of L soccer team.

You may have heard about the thrilling last minute victory of UCLA this week, but their trip out to Santa Barbara is sure not to disappoint either.

If you’re unfamiliar, this is Final Four of the College Cup and all three games will be taking place in Santa Barbara. The games will air on EPSN or ESPNU, yet to be determined.   

The send off will last from 5 until 6:30, addmission is free and the first 500 kids get a t-shirt.

http://www.ncaa.com/brackets/2010/ncaa_bracket_DI_soccer_men.html

http://blogs.courier-journal.com/ericcrawford/2010/12/05/louisville-plans-big-soccer-send-off/

As with all new ESPN incarnations, I hated espn3 as soon as I found out that this was the vessel that is going to hold my football game hostage this week.  Sometimes it’s the Big East Network, sometimes it’s ESPN U, or Fox Sports whatever, none of these channels I get, all of them I loath for making trek out to bar to watch the game (Not that I don’t like going to bars, it just distracts my focus form willing the team to victory).
After the AK St. game  I classified ESPN3 as another toilet dweller.  
I never got full connection speed, the picture froze up a ton, and when I ran it via HDMI to my big screen it looked positively 8-bit.

To say the least, I was not enthused about another ESPN3 game.

But, to be fair, the coverage this week was pretty good. I maintained a full connection speed almost the whole time, the picture was wide screen, and UL won by 56 points.

Some of the pros of ESPN3.COM
Less commercials then broadcast
Less in game ads ( this Fanpost brought to you by Red Giraffe Video)
16:9 aspect ratio

Negatives
Watching A football game on your computer is just lame, end o’ story
You are at the mercy of your connection speed
You are at the mercy of ESPN3’s bandwidth
Low production values
Still blacked out in other areas

I have ranked my personal preference of watching the game.

At Game, good seats / box
At home, HD, national or regional broadcast
Crappy seats at game
ESPN3.com
Local coverage, FSN, Big East Network, Non-HD

I guess this is sort of compliment to ESPN3 (your not as ugly as I thought you would be), but I would like to see the quality of the picture improve significantly.

I hate Bobby Gonzalez. I hate him. I hate him. I hate him.

I hated watching him coach. I hated watching him recruit, I hated watching him over react to everything.

So in the months in which he was booed by a home crowd, fired, and later picked up on shop lifting a man-purse were giddy times in my life.

Sometimes I’ll google his name and hope that something new and insane has happened to him by his own actions.

Today, I was on the Seton Hall blog and found this delicious tidbit.

It seems that Bobby’s wife had posting this on PirateCrew message boards under the name "lindag”.

Continue reading this post »

Hey Card fans,

I watched the noon Charlie Strong press conference today on the CJ’s website and thought I would pass on some notes from it.

-It was about 30 mins long with 200 people watching online at the start and 290 by the end of it.

-Vic is 100% healthy. Looks like Powell beat him fair and square

-Jordon Campbell is still dealing with USC and U of L is proceeding without him.

-Coach talked at length about stopping UK’s Cobb while he is in the Wildcat formation. He emphasized hitting gaps and staying square to him due to his speed.

-He mentioned Brandon Heath specifically as someone that has played well and built confidence.

I have always thought that Ryder Cup looked so much cooler then Rider Cup ever would. So points for that. Anyway, prefacing this with the typical “I know this is a Louisville Blog, but;”. What are your thoughts on the Ryder Cup?

 I mean everything from the competition itself to the impact and events it has brought to Louisville.

For me tonight is going to the real judge. Are there really 200,000 visitors in Louisville right now?  Are any of them going to buy me a BBC Jefferson Bourbon Barrel Stout at O’ Shea’s? How long before I can start a USA! USA! chant at Brendan’s?

I can already tell that this is not my year for bracket glory, so I will do my best in other ways. I have compiled some of the more clever bracket names from Mike's (yes, the one he stole from me) Yahoo! group and brought them to you. So you're welcome.
The winner of the vote may not win the bracket contest but they may get their own autographed 8X10 of the Go Cards Baby. This, as we all know, is possibly more precious and valuable than life itself.

This is so fantastic I can hardly hold on to the belief that is entirely true.  
The following is a taken from a blog written by a man from the United Kingdom who works on a Carnival Cruise ship that has a run in with UK fans on spring break.

Enjoy.

http://johnhealdsblog.com/2008/03/15/kfckentucky-fried-chaos/

When I was at college sports meant two things..........football (soccer), which was played in a park with two coats for goal posts.
The second sport was to see how many girls Alan and I could get to ignore us or worse throw up on us.........my mate Alan usually won this particular event..............unfortunately, not by much.
I have therefore always been fascinated by American College sports. Maybe it's the sheer size of the events, the huge stadiums and the wild and passionate support that the teams command. We have nothing like this in the U.K. Our biggest college event is the varsity boat race.

This involves a bunch of upper class men from Oxford and Cambridge University with names like Henry Henrison and Siegfried Smyth - Crapperton paddling a canoe up the River Thames. A crowd of polite students placing their strawberries and cream and glass of Pimms on their Louis Vitton table clothes before gently proclaiming words of encouragement such as "Tally Ho" & "Oh, spiffing, we won."...........that's University sports in the U.K.
So, as I said University sports in North America fascinate me and tonight I am sorry to say ............they now get on my bloody nerves.

Here is why.

During the Afternoon Show I received a live call from a phone on the Lido Deck and when I answered I very rude young man declared without a hello or good afternoon.............you had better get the Kentucky vs Georgia game today or there may be trouble.
I had no time to answer him because he put the phone down.............."wow" I said..........how brave............I am sure right now his friends are giving him a high five for doing such an amazing dare.
Anyway, I thought nothing more about it and moved the show along...................then this happened.

Ref: 002721369A
Owner: (ELTS) Elitza Stimac
Large group Of Guests Shouting in the Lobby
About 30 guests approached the Desk, stating that he and at least another 200 people were waiting for the Kentucky Game supposedly on CBS, but found out recently that it would not be broadcasted. Guests were chanting and shouting, "We want the game" and swearing and screaming. After 10 minutes Purser received a call back from AV staff advising that the Kentucky Game was not able to be broadcasted. Purser tried to explain the situation to the crowd, but had to call Security to intervene, seeing that the answer was not to their satisfaction. The Cruise Director was called to which John came down to the lobby.

Security attended situation.

So, as requested by the gathering masses I went down to the lobby where I was immediately surrounded by a throng of mini skirt wearing Barbie's and a various assortment of Ken's, Beavis's, Buttheads and one very strange young man who for some alcohol infused reason was wearing his life jacket.

The gang of 30 plus surrounded me and off they went..........some shouting.........some swearing and some just trying to look cool. I stood there for at least two minutes and said nothing, letting the Get-A-Long gang have a good old vent. It was only when one lanky streak of a kid called me a very nasty name that I raised my hand and said "ok, that's enough"..........and raised my hand in the air. Everyone stopped talking..........except Mr. Lanky Streak who I now noticed was so pale he was almost transparent. He was as thin as a stick insect and like the guy earlier in the week he too had been mugged by a Staple Gun.........anyway.......Lanky Streak kept talking and kept swearing and I had decided enough was enough. I looked him in the eye..........I wanted to tell him to piss off and go and eat a bowl of pasta................but instead I calmly informed him to walk away or the reason I would not listen to all his friends would be him..............he was going to argue but one very smart Barbie took him by his hand and pulled him away.........hopefully in the direction of the dining room.

I had now been joined by two security officers and on each side of me I now had two burly chaps from India and that changed the atmosphere as well.
Now I had their attention I began to explain that we had tried every satellite channel to find the game they wanted to see but unfortunately none of the networks we had which included all the major ones were showing the game...............there was silence for a few moments and then...................one of the Barbie's started crying.................yep.............crying. It was as though someone had pulled the cord in her back and she had become "Sobbing Barbie."................and you know what.............I felt sorry for her.................I don't know why....................maybe it was the big blue eyes looking at me..............but I actually felt sorry for her.

It was because of " Sobbing Barbie " that I tried to do something else for them..............I called the Internet Café manager and allowed them to use the Internet free of charge to listen to the game on the Internet. When I arranged this and came back to the lobby to tell them this was the best I could do it was met by mostly thanks...........especially from the Barbie's. However, one young man who was sponsored by Budweiser said the strangest thing to me..............this is word for word what he said to me in front of the Senior Purser and two officers.................."When I get off this boat I am going to make sure you lose your job........do you know who I am".............now, being a bit of sarcastic chap I answered " Donald Trump..........Henry Kissinger..............one of the Telly Tubbies".............but this sarcasm was wasted on him and he carried on with "I am fu%$8ng Rick Partino's God Son and he will make sure you are fired you beep beep beep beep beep."
He said this with such venom and such hatred that I immediately realized that our meeting had come to an end and I asked security to escort this angry young man away..................they did.

I then led the remaining twenty something to the Internet Café and once everything was set up I left.............I thought I may get a word of thanks but no...........they were too busy ordering drinks, high fiving and calling each other Dude.
I returned to the cabin and as I sit here and write to you I have to say what a rude and arrogant lot they were. I have no idea who or what Rick Partino is, maybe he owns Kentucky.........maybe he is head of the University..............maybe.........well anyway........whoever you are Rick I have to tell you if that's your God Son you may want to consider removing yourself from that title or at least giving him a lesson in manners before someone else does............with a baseball bat.

All this because of a basketball match.............I know there is passion involved and as I said I think that is wonderful. However, to be so rude and to act like some of those kids tonight.........well...........I know they were a minority and the majority I am sure are wonderful young people whenever I hear the words University of Kentucky I will think of the rude and arrogant people I met tonight...................what a shame.

Oh by the way.................the game was abandoned due to a severe storm..............so after being called all the names you can imagine by Lifejacket Boy, Mr. Lanky Streak and the godson of Rick Partino..............the game was never played. Whenever it is played.............I hope Georgia wins by 3000 points