It started with a whisper. By which I mean, it started with a joke in a blog post: that in the off season, one way to cope would be to do a post listing in order the Top 153 Russ Smith Things that happened in the 2011-2012 season. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. While a list involving the best Gorgui things of 2011-2012 would just be "1. All of the Gorgui Things", a list of Russ Smith moments, quotes, factoids, GIFs, pictures, videos and plays could extend into the triple digits. Ranking them would be a TOTAL waste of time and would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the author needs a life. But an unranked crowdsourced list? Totally different.

So I'll get us started with some of the easy ones. And in the comments, if you want to add them and try to stay in some sort of numerical order, let's see how many we can get. Again, pictures, quotes, GIFs, photoshops, nicknames, stories, specific plays, anything that could possibly be counted as a "Russ Smith Thing" from this past season.

Note: the less words you use to explain it, the more of a Russ Smith Thing it is.

1. "Nice Pass, Russ." - probably my favorite of the whole season

2.

via hellinthehall.files.wordpress.com

3. Remember that play where Russ Smith threw the ball away in the last few seconds of an Elite 8 game with us up 1 point and then the guy immediately walked, we got the ball back and Russ hit both free throws? That was pretty Russdiculous.

4.

via cdn0.sbnation.com

5. How his high school coach confirmed that he often didn't know the score, time on the clock, game situation, game importance, or much else about anything but scoring.

Can you think of 148 more?

We all just need to keep moving forward. Look back, but not in sadness. Survive and advance.

Louisville v. Florida 3-24-12

Louisville v. Cincinnati 3-10-12

Louisville v. Connecticut 2-16-12

Louisville v. Vanderbilt 12-2-11

I would like to defend the Florida video. Honestly, I think a lot of people were initially disappointed. But let's be honest: that was such an amazing game, such an amazing result, such a crazy situation, I mean, there's literally no person alive who could come up with a video that captured everything about that game and that situation and then set it to music. The expectations were just too high. And I think on some level Villen got that. Because the more I watch that video, the more the music fades into the background and it's just about the game itself. And there is a weird beat and almost trance-like words in that song that really make sense by the end of the video. It gets better every time you watch it.

And yes, I have thought about this more than I would care to admit.

Anyway, re-watching these, we really had an unbelievable run didn't we? I don't think we can fully appreciate it because it just ended, but these last two years, despite the extreme lows (or maybe because of them?) were about the most enjoyable of my entire life in terms of sports. Winning the Big East Tournament? Comeback after comeback after road win after comeback. The Final Four, after being down 11 with 8 minutes to go and Siva fouling out. Can you seriously believe all of that happened?

And as soon as the season ended (or really before, but that's for another post), it was next year, next year, we are going to be so good next year. So sure, we lost, but next year, boy, next year we are going to be awesome. And we will probably be awesome. Obviously until October we know not to write our lineup in ink. But maybe we could go to the Final Four back to back, even though that is extraordinarily hard, because honestly, it is REALLY hard to get to even one Final Four, much less two in two years. But maybe we won't. Next year is already going to be different: no more Bullet, Richard Pitino is gone, Lieberman gone, maybe they take Buckles with them, maybe someone else gets hurt or leaves or who knows what can happen in the future.

People made fun of Pitino for his whole "precious present" thing but I think these last two years have really driven that home. Regular seasons like last year are so rare. Postseasons like this year are so rare. Enjoy them. We will miss these things when they all roll by.

Louisville v. Davidson 3-15-12 aka First Ever VillenHD NCAA Tournament Video

Louisville v. New Mexico 3-17-12 aka NM aka When You Roll, Roll Hard aka Is That Skillrex?

Louisville v. Michigan State 3-22-12 aka State aka It's My Time aka the This Is Really Happening Game

Louisville v. Florida 3-24-12 aka FL aka Florida Shooting Multiple 4 Point Shots For The Lead aka Seriously, This Game Actually Happened Like In Real Life Happened

I had the strangest dream a few weeks ago. Our players went to New York to play in the Big East tournament, but they weren't really our players. I mean, they had the same names, but they played, like, a completely different style, ran different plays, made a bunch of outside shots, runned and gunned. And get this: they were wearing these like ORANGE shiny uniforms. And we usually wear red, not orange. It was cray, bro. Below are snippets from that dream set to music.

You know what to do, although the obvious winner of the whole f'in thing is in this pod. Sorry, Louisville v. Marquette 3-8-12, you may have been the overall runner up, but too bad. I don't make the rules. Well, yes, I guess I did just sorta make up these rules. But still.

Louisville v. Seton Hall 3-7-12 aka The "I remember literally no plays from this game" game

Louisville v. Marquette 3-8-12 aka The First Official "Is This Real Life?" Game aka Laughing Gorgui GIF

Louisville v. Notre Dame 3-9-12 aka The Who Gon Stop Me Video aka Seriously, Is This Real Life?

Louisville v. Cincinnati 3-10-12 aka Take Me To That Old Familiar Place aka You Are A Constellation aka Slow Mo Running With Finger In Air Championship Celebrating Siva aka Literally Greatest Youtube Video of All Time aka No, I'm Not Crying, Shut Up Mom

Wow. What a crazy, crazy dream.

Yes, this video has already been posted and yes I have my reasons for re-posting it, and no I won't tell you them. Okay fine it's because Charlie Strong crowd surfs and that's just about the best piece of video available on the internet.

An assignment: count the number of returning players making big plays in this video. And then try to keep your pants on, until at least 1 PM tomorrow.

I'm still trying to sort out details of whether I can attend and take MarraFan427. We'll see. If you see a dude in one of those front baby carrier things IT IS LIKELY NOT ME SO PLEASE DO NOT POINT AND LAUGH BECAUSE YOU WILL HURT THAT GUY'S FEELINGS.

If you go, pay special attention to LB Mount and RB Corvin Lamb, my prediction for breakout players of 2012. Which of course means both of them are about to have terrible seasons.

My backup prediction on defense is DE Dubose. On offense, sounds like from yesterday that no WRs are stepping up but all are solid. So, it's too soon to tell where the ball is going to go.

I think we are going to be really, really good next year. Talk of going undefeated is a little aggressive and unlikely (Strong still has not beaten Pitt OR Cinci and we play Pitt on the road next year) but the pieces feel like they are 85% there. Just need some luck and a healthy squad and we can have a special, special year.

And remember, wear sunscreen.

Congrats to Louisville v. Vanderbilt 12-2-11, which survives its pod with approximately 56% of the vote. Soon you will know how it feels to be Louisville v. Fairleigh Dickinson 12-10-11 (Goode Feeling), I predict.

Moving on, the run through the Big East regular season left some of us confused and angry and caused us to tweet things we shouldn't have. But there were happy times as well. Choose among them:

Louisville v. DePaul 1-14-12 aka You Should Pass It Right Away

Louisville v. Pittsburgh 1-21-12 aka Party In The USA (fake) --> Ima Boss aka Return of the King

Louisville v. Seton Hall 1-28-12 aka Don't Play High

Louisville v. West Virginia 2-11-12 aka The Fat A-- Wayne Game aka "You F---n Killed Us"

Louisville v. Connecticut 2-6-12 aka The Heavy Favorite

Thanks for everyone who nominated videos for this very, very important poll. To make this a little more fair and possibly interesting, I'm going to break this up into pods: non-conference, Big East games, BET and NCAA.

There is a lot riding on this, people.

Let's do this.

Louisville v. Vanderbilt 12-2-11

Louisville v. Memphis, 12-17-11

Louisville v. Fairleigh Dickinson 12-10-11 (Goode Feeling)

Louisville v. Arkansas State 11-22-11

Not sure when the real postseason writing will start. The Final Four seems like a million years ago already, even though it was just last weekend. The month of March was amazing, intense, exhausting and rewarding like no other month as a Louisville Cardinal fan that I can remember. And unlike any season I can ever remember, we head into the offseason with positive, hopeful and appreciative feelings. Which is shocking considering we lost in our last game to our most bitter rival, who went on to win the national championship. You'd think a loss like that would be CRUSHING. But strangely not. The last few seasons especially have ended with bad tastes - first round losses, Elite 8 losses that were disappointments. I can't remember a tournament loss that took less time to get over than this year. Maybe 2007 v. Texas A&M when the entire team was coming back? But the way that game went, still felt like it was too soon and too awful of a way to end the season.

Anyway, more on that later, I'm sure. The basketball offseason is so long you have to break it into phases. Roughly:

Phase One: Bitterness, sadness and what-might-have-been conversations about shots/plays/fouls/tactical decisions. This year, this phase lasted about 5 minutes for me, and it basically coincided with the last 5 minutes of the UK game.

Phase Two: Excitement over football. As a defense mechanism, you immediately pretend you don't care about basketball and start worrying about second string offensive linemen and whether our Wide Receivers feelings get hurt when they don't get the ball thrown to them and/or another WR catches a touchdown. This phase lasts through the Spring Game.

Phase Three: Looking back with VillenHD and other "Best XXX of the season" polls. That's where we are today. Quit watching the Cincinnati video over and over ("you are a constellation!!!!") and expand your horizons. Review the whole season, say things like "I have literally no memory of that game/play" and "wow we were literally a different team in the tournaments than we were even 2 weeks beforehand, like, a completely, completely different team" and get excited about next year. If I ever get the time, I'd also like to do a "Best 150 Russ Moments of the Season." And decide once and for all if this year's "What is Happening Here, Bob" is "Nice Pass, Russ" or "All You Wanna Do Is Use Insta-Gram" (Chris Smith (Gorgui Voice)) or even "When you roll, roll hard" (Gorgui (Gorgui Voice)).

Phase Four: Thunder --> Derby Festival --> Derby. Do not think about Louisville basketball once except when you see players at the track or hear about other people seeing players at the track.

Phase Five: Post-Derby Louisville. Just a weird time, feels like you can finally take a breath and sit down, look up and say "Wow, where did mid-February, March, April and the first week of May go?" As it relates to Louisville basketball, at this point you are like, well I'm excited, I'll watch a VillenHD every couple days instead of 4 times per day, and have you seen those screenshots for NCAA 2013? I hope they really improved the gameplay, LBs should not be able to intercept a ball thrown deep over the middle by jumping 11 feet in the air. Basketball? Ya, I'm excited about that too.

Phase Six: Summer. Unless there is August basketball, this is the longest phase. You would give ANYTHING to watch Louisville basketball. Your wife/significant other/dog thinks you are weird as you watch the same highlight VillenHD over and over.

Phase Seven: Football season. All of a sudden time is flying. You watch the Tip-Off luncheon and then get back to worrying about playing at Heinz Field. Oh, the Red-White Scrimmage? I dunno, I'd love to go but I just spent 5 hours at PJCS tailgating and watching the UConn game and I'm exhausted and I dunno is it on TV? There are pre-season rankings and magazine covers and honorifics, but there's so much football news that it gets lost in the shuffle.

Phase Eight: Exhibition games. It's like when you are really hungry, and wait an extra hour to eat, you can barely eat anything? Or, you devour whatever is in front of you and feel sick as a dog afterwards? After more than 6 months of no Louisville basketball, these exhibition games are one or the other. Sometimes you analyze every single possession, play and shot against Georgetown College as if it were the Final Four and make yourself sick. This year I predict the pre-season build up, excitement, rankings, Wayne, etc. will have us so ready for these preseason games that we will have 800+ comments in the open thread.

Phase Nine: The Season Starts. Things. Get. Real.

So we are basically in Phases 2 and 3 right now, and how about a poll? In the comments, nominate your favorite VillenHD for the season and explain why. The Top 10 or so will be put into a poll in a couple of days. Obviously Cincinnati, Marquette and Notre Dame BET and all four NCAA Tourney wins will be in the poll. UConn will definitely be there. Vandy/Memphis will get strong looks. But this is not set in stone. Go to the archives. Watch the videos. Weep openly. And then make your case.

Awesome work. Looking forward to the Spring Game next week.

Reality sucks. That game really happened. And it was what everyone said: we had to play our best game of the season to beat them, and we just didn't. UK has a lot to do with that, their length and talent really made a big difference. When we tied it up with 9 minutes to go, I literally said "Oh my God" mainly because it was on a Siva 3. But also that we had tied it, which seemed too much of a stretch even for this team.

Then UK did what they do and what they have done all year: made a bunch of shots and got a bunch of stops. Even though he wasn't jumping, Davis affected shots and you could see our guys not taking normal layups, missing bunnies and the ball just baaaaarely going out.

Even with 2 minutes left we pushed it to 5 points, then UK broke the press and got some game-clinching dunks and that was it.

Kyle Kuric, Chris Smith and Jared Swopshire have played their last games as Cardinals. Jerry Jeff to them and the entire team.

And so the two year run (I think we will look back on the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons as a tandem) of heart and teamwork comes to a heartbreaking end against one of the most talented college basketball teams of our lifetimes.

But.

But.

But.

How about that Wayne Blackshear?

So I've been holding back this little nugget because I hadn't really known how it fit in, but with the lack of interesting Final Four week story lines, we need something to talk about this week. My parents were in the Peace Corps in the 1970s in the Gambia, which, if you google it, you will discover is a small nation basically surrounded by Senegal. You may have heard that Gorgui Dieng is from Senegal and speaks a number of languages. Have you not heard that? You should read more.

Anyway, courtesy of my Dad, should you meet Gorgui, here are some things you can say. Disclaimer: these are phonetic and are from the 1970s so they may be completely wrong, inappropriate or otherwise not understood by Gorgui. If at any point the conversation breaks down, just say that Russ said you should hug now, hug him, and run like hell in the other direction.

Chron Reader: Gorgui, Sala Mah-lay Coom (literally: Is Allah with you? But I believe it is a general greeting. I do not know Gorgui's religion and am not assuming anything)

Gorgui: Mah-lay coom salam ("Yes, Allah is with me") - Note: Gorgui may not respond in this way. If he does not, see the Russ Hug Exit Strategy above, or just wing it with some phrases below.

Gorgui May Possibly Say: Day-ga-na wollof? ("Do you speak Wollof?")

Chron Reader: You have three options here:

1) Wow ("Yes") - this is a technically true response but misleading, and likely will result in having to counter his follow up statement or question with the Russ Hug Exit Strategy.

2) No, day-ga-na wollof ("No, I do not speak wollof") - also technically true but misleading and somewhat confusing as you are currently speaking Wollof.

3) Day ga-na wollof tu-ti ("two tee") wreck ("I speak Wollof very little") - probably your best bet since it is true and a helpful response to his question.

Now, you, the Chron Reader, will take over the conversation thusly:

Chron Reader: Na-conga-deaf ("Where are you") (This is not a literal question as you will likely know where he is, unless you are calling him on his cell phone in which case, no, do not call him on his cell phone)

Gorgui: Mag Knee Fee Wreck ("I am here only") (Also not a literal response, but also quite literal if you think about it.)

Chron Reader: Jama Gham (Dad was unsure exactly what this meant, only that it was supposed to come next. It is something like "What's up?")

Gorgui: Jama Wreck (Also unsure what this means, only that it comes after jama gham, and means something like, "Peace is all I have" which is very cool but also highly unlikely what it really means.)

Chron Reader: Ona Wah Har-Ett ("Where is your wife?") (We are running out of things to say) Hopefully this is Gorgui's response:

Gorgui's Most Likely Verbal Response: Omolo har-et ("I have no wife") (If he says something else, you are on your own.)

Chron Reader: Knee-ya-ta-la (one word) ("How much does this cost" / "what is the price") (We have officially run out of things to say.) You should point to his shirt or his phone or something of value. Do not then pay him for it because that would be weird and also possibly an NCAA violation. Growing up, this was the one Wollof phrase my dad used with me and my brother in normal conversation, usually at stores. It was a helpful way to ask without the person at the store knowing, until, of course, we said the price/answer in english. At that point, the jig was up.

Gorgui: I have no idea what he will say in response, so, again, you are on your own.

When you are ready to go, you say:

Chron Reader: Jerry Jeff ("Thank you") and Mon gee dem ("I am leaving.")

Better yet, if you ever meet Gorgui, just say "Jerry Jeff" over and over again and hope that it really means "Thank You."

And then give him a hug and run like hell.

It wasn't pretty and it wasn't poetic but a stifling defense and a decided advantage at point guard propelled the Cards to their first NCAA tournament win since March 2009. It's been a long time. It feels good. Our defense is really, really good.

Now we wait. But we get to play on.

Five down.

So, that happened. The weirdness that is the Louisville College Basketball Experience of the Early Teens continues. It didn't quite have the historical significance of the Syracuse/Freedom Hall/Kuric game, nor the Senior Night, capper-on-the-season feel of the Providence game last year, or even the "I can't believe we are beating these guys" feel of the last couple Pitt games, but wow, that was quite a game.

Eric Crawford tweeted Siva wearing the Best Undershirt Ever via a.yfrog.com

The score was 44-32 at the under-12 timeout. Then for the next 6 minutes, the Cardinals looked like a team playing their best possible game of basketball: dunks and steals and 3's and rebounds and dunks and omg Kyle Kuric just dunked all over you, bros. By the time Kevin Ware lobbed it up to Gorgui for an emphatic alley-oop at the 5:29 mark, the Cards led 67-38, the bench was jumping up and down, the crowd was loving it and UConn's players looked like they'd rather be shoveling snow on a cold Storrs morning than be on national television.

You know what it reminded me of most? Those NCAA tournament games (Stanford, Oklahoma, Arizona) where the other team's flaws play perfectly into our style, and things like Jared Swopshire getting an and-1 on and blocking Andre Drummond's shot and our coldest three point shooters (Swop, Siva and Chane) start draining them look completely normal and reasonable. And the other team just gives up.

You wonder why we can't play like that every game, then you remember that this is exactly what Pitino's entire philosophy is supposed to produce: soul crushing runs keyed by pressure defense, steals, extra passes, dunks and wide open 3s. It can work for small stretches in games to key comebacks and extend leads, and you appreciate it. But when it works like it did tonight (and in those NCAA blowouts and in some of the games last year) it really is beautiful to watch.

The next three games: @WVU, #2 Cuse at home, Depaul Day II. More weirdness lays ahead.

The takeaways from this game are the two big guys: Dieng's scary writing and Chane's monster afternoon. Still let the other team make too many threes and hang around longer than we should have, and Kyle didn't play great.

Can't wait to watch video of Chris Smith's left handed "dunk" a couple times a day for the next 5 years.

Everyone send good thoughts to Gorgui's ankle. Gonna need it Monday night and keeping this season on track requires a healthy, productive Gorgui Dieng.

This is our seventh season playing in the Big Machine known as Big East basketball. At the beginning there was novelty in each opponent, seeing UConn and Nova and Georgetown and even Providence come to Louisville was interesting, new, exciting. But by now each game against a Big East opponent actually has a history, a feel, a theme that jumps out. West Virginia and Notre Dame are close game after close game. Syracuse, obviously, our absolute dominance over them. We always play Cinci close because of Cronin and they beat us more than they should. We always lose to Georgetown. UConn games are always great and we always seem to pull out crazy wins against them. We can't beat Providence or Seton Hall on the road, even though we usually are the better team. Pitt games are ugly and close, but we can win on their home floor when others can't.

And then there's Nova. What can we say about Nova? Well, since our offense is usually inside-out based, and their defense is usually a deny the entry pass defense, and they play with 4 guards who could shoot 3s from all over the court and rebound, and they shoot free throws well, which obviously is bad for us since we foul so much, in general they are always a bad matchup for us. Which is interesting how our record against them has defined our season as a whole.

Let's be honest, more than we should, we measure our season by how we do against Kentucky. But those are the wrong Wildcats to measure against; in Big East play, Nova has actually been the harbinger. Our best teams - in those Better Days of 2008 and 2009 - we were 3-0 against Nova. And it wasn't just the wins, it was the circumstances. In 2009, despite shooting 12% from 3 (not hyperbole, literally 3-25 from 3) and being down 1 point with less than a minute to play, we beat them on the road thanks to a T-Will driving layup that touched every part of the rim and the Wildcats missing a couple easy shots to win it. In the Big East semifinals that year, we stormed back from down 8 at half to win by 14. But don't have any Sympathy for Villanova - their next loss was in the Final Four. Even more significantly, the loudest ever and last official "Boom Motherf---er" uttered by the author occurred on Earl's dunk late in the game.

Anyway, in every other year, the story of the Villanova game has been the story of the season: In 2006, our first season in the Big East, we just weren't good enough yet, and they welcomed us to the Big East with a beatdown at Freedom Hall and a clutch win in Philly. I was at Freedom Hall that night of course - the atmosphere was electric, we had a chance early, but they were clearly better and we all knew it. We weren't quite ready for Broadway. We went to the NIT.

In 2007, our young team went on the road and gave it a game, but came up short against a mediocre Villanova team. Samsies in the NCAA against a mediocre Texas A&M team - close, but we were young.

After the 3-0 run during the 2 Elite 8 years, we are back on a losing streak against them: in 2010, the teams played one of the worst officiated and most awful games ever played or witnesses by mankind, no exaggeration. They combined for more than 90 free throws and Scottie Reynolds couldn't miss in the second half of that game. Much like that season, the game was an ugly, frustrating roller coaster that everyone would just as soon forget and not have to ever witness anything like ever again, thank you very much.

And last year - the infamous MB20 game - captured our season. Low expectations, surprising run, soooooo close, but then it all fell apart at the end.

So what happens in 2012? Both based on this history and the fragile state of things surrounding the program, this is a huge game. Nova, like Pitt, has struggled in what was supposed to be a good year for them. They score decently but they don't play defense well. They rebound well. They are improving, beating Seton Hall, but they still needed overtime to beat St. Johns. They got crushed by South Florida. It all adds up to a big question mark as to which Villanova team will take the floor tomorrow night. And more importantly, which Interrobang Cardinal team will show up for the Cards - the ?! (what the hell is wrong with you guys?!) or the !? (wooooo can you believe we won that game!?). Our best effort should beat their best effort.

Maalik Wayns returns for his 9th season and leads them in scoring, minutes, assists and steals, but his 3PT % has been an uncharacteristically low 29%. Dominic Cheek shoots way more 3s than anyone else for them, but makes at only a slightly higher rate than Wayns. James Bell is the one who worries me - if he gets hot and gets a lot of open looks, we may be in for a rough night. If their bench can Give A Little Bit, then we could also be in trouble.

So a loss would not only portend bad things, it may become self-fulfilling and put us back on the slide taking us a Long Way Down. I think we pull it out, but I'll be nervous about it all day. So that's good, at least.

Go Cards.

Iris.

Kuric hit a bunch of 3s, 2010-2011 Peyton Siva showed up for 12 solid minutes out of freaking no where. Chane and Gorgui made short shots and made them look easy. Fun times were had by all. We're not "back" by any stretch of the imagination. But you have to feel good not only for the fans but for the team. They deserve a feel-good victory like this.

Enjoy the weirdness. Enjoy your Sunday. Nova's got next.

So I've been tasked with previewing the Pittsburgh game. Sigh. What can be said that hasn't already been said, written, tweeted, texted or just screamed to the sky? When the ESPN College Gameday schedule came out, this likely was the best game of the weekend with 2 top-10 teams vying for the Big East championship. Now, thanks to injuries, apparent curses and the Wagner Seahawks, these two teams are each one bad loss away from writing off the season and riots in the dozens of arena bars.

Honestly, is anyone excited about this game? I'm not. And I hate that.

That is not to say that we should give up. I have been a UofL fan my whole life and will be one the rest of my life. Last year was probably the best year of Cardinal fandom outside of the 2006 football season, both seasons made bittersweet by unlucky injuries to favorite players, and what might have been.

Nothing can take away last year from us, and no matter how much we want it, this year is not last year. And maybe it never was going to be better. These guys have to be exhausted from the pressure that started to build as soon as Marra's shot went wide, as soon as they looked at the refs running towards the tunnel instead of running towards the scorers table to announce "foul" and "three shots" and "the clear, obvious foul call." You could see it from the beginning of the season and you can see it now, as the losses pile up. Every game was like a do-or-die, win-or-go-home game, and that wears on you.

Five years from now we are going to look back at the period spanning March 27, 2009 to whenever all of this madness ends with a strange detachment. March 27 was the day UK announced Calipari as their next coach while most of the city of Louisville was driving to Indy to see us whip Arizona in the Sweet 16. It was also the last day the Louisville Cardinals won an NCAA tournament basketball game. And who knows how this madness all ends: Cal leaves for the Knicks or Kings? Rick retires or "retires"? UK finally wins a championship and their fanbase shuts down the internet for 3 hours, causing federal hearings and National Guard intervention?

We'll look back and ask, did all of that really happen? I swear I remember exhibition games involving "villains" and Calipari taking the job of national team coach of a small island nation and coaching Francisco Garcia and Edgar Sosa against his own UK players. But that doesn't make sense. That sounds like a circus, not a college basketball program. Who would have done those things? I also vaguely recall something about a federal extortion trial? And like 4 guys being injured for the whole season. And someone named Bryce Cotton? But all of that seems off somehow, like there's no way that stuff really happened, did it?

Anyway, as fans and as a team, I think we just have to relax and take a breather. Get through this year, whatever the results. Clear our heads and just move on. Stop fighting the ghosts of the living: Goran Suton and Kenneth Faried and What is Happening Here, Bob and UK 1-and-dones past, present and future.

Because strange things are happening here, Bob. Strange things have been happening for the last three years. It is been weird and intense and bizarre. And I'm ready for it to be over.

Beat Pitt. Or not. Just play hard and let's all try to enjoy this weirdness while it lasts.

True to form, a scrappy, well-coached, untalented Notre Dame team gave the Cards everything they wanted, but the home crowd made the difference and Notre Dame's historic losing streak in Kentucky continued as the Cards won in overtim-...wait, what?

It's not time to panic yet. Yet. Brey's offense is our nemesis, and we are lucky we didn't get blown out honestly. They had open 3 after open 3 just clank badly. Cooley did his Harangody impression to score on a variety of dinks and banks. Russ inexplicably went for the steal and gave up a wide open shot with less than 30 seconds to play. And equally inexplicably, the coaches (I guess?) decided that getting easy points every time by having Gorgui or Chane beat their man inside was not the preferred offense, and instead having Siva run the same play over and over that everyone (including Coach Brey, obv) knew was coming that would result in an out of control drive to the basket or a piping hot feed to Rak Buckles flying at the basket at 45 MPH from the baseline in perhaps the least likely person/spot on the floor to result in points for our team would be better.

So this is a classic Notre Dame - Louisville game. And ND played waaaaaaay better than us the whole time and we still should have won. So ya, it sucked, but let's not panic yet.

Except. Except. Here's why panic may be appropriate:

1) If we lose the ability (or the confidence) to win close home games, then I'm not sure how we can play to keep games close and expect to make the tournament, much less go deep in it. Whatever happened last year and through the beginning of this year, we always thought that we had a good chance to win somehow, someway at the end. If that goes....yikes.

2) The offense. I tweeted this, but my favorite play of the whole game was when the back pick actually worked and Kuric was WIDE OPEN for the alley oop. The crowd made that anticipation noise because we've all seen that play so many times over the last few years, and then Siva didn't throw it??!?!?! Anyway, when that was the highlight of the night on offense, there are serious problems. Russ barely played in the first half, and Russ is a guy that is going to miss shots, but he scores a lot because he takes a lot of shots, and it is inexcusable that Notre Dame would OUTSHOOT us. Those guys are terrible! At least Russ takes it to the other team, our guys have become too passive and too risk averse. Russ don't care.

Anyway, the offense is clearly a problem, Chris Smith is lost, we have not been able to get our transition game going STILL, guys aren't getting open looks (which I think is mostly schematic but also on Chris/Kuric to some extent) and Gorgui is still very raw and doesn't look to score enough for the advantages he has. Next year Gorgui should make a HUGE leap on offense. But it's not next year yet.

3) The defense. Again, Notre Dame has always had us figured out, but we've usually been able to score with them because they are terrible on defense. They kept getting open 3s against the zone, but other teams have shot amazing against us from 3 all year too. Our defense can look dominant at times, but on a night like this, we needed a couple big stops and just didn't get them. But we would have won by 20 if we had played better on offense.

4) Lots of guys have regressed from December. Not sure what happened to Swop but he's a liability out there. I've never been a big fan of him getting minutes, although the NewSwop we got early in the year was great. We're relying on Rak way too much for where he is after being out so long. Chris Smith (see above) and Kuric need to do more. Siva's still got issues, and we are basically 7-8 deep right now. I tweeted the Kuric/Smith thing: but who did they give their scholarships for? Why do we have 15 guys if half of them don't play?

Whatever. Still a TON of time left this season, but momentum is a helluva a drug. And right now, we are getting a heavy dose of the bad stuff.

And....YAM.

There's probably not two fan bases in the country more different than West F'in Virginia and Notre Dame. As a good Catholic boy growing up in Louisville, I of course was inundated with Notreganda from an early age, through cousins and television and Rudy and all that. But I was never a fan. One of the more unheralded rivalries in the country is Georgetown/Notre Dame. Rumors of admission to one virtually requiring the other to reject even the most qualified applicants. Graduates of both regarding the other with pity for attending their safety school. The obvious football disparity and basketball rivalry. So if I was neutral on Notre Dame as a kid, I became very anti-Notre Dame through high school, college and afterwards.

And when we started playing them on a yearly basis, the rivalry grew. Every game against them at Freedom Hall was close. Every time we played up there, we got destroyed. Since we've been in the Big East, Louisville victories have been by 3 points, 5 points, 6 points (in OT), 2 points (2OTs) and 6 points (OT in Big East semifinal in the last win of Preston!'s career that elicited this biggest post-game CardsFan922 excitement response since....the WVU Elite 8 game.) And the losses at ND were by 10 points (OT/Kuric Dunk game), 14 points, 33 points (!!!!) in 2009, ND was on a 7 game losing streak, and the Cardinals would go on to be the overall 1 number tournament seed. A definite pattern exists.

So history would tell us that we should win tomorrow in a close game. But these are not your Hansbro/Gody Irish. This is probably the weakest ND squad of the past 5 years. Tim Abromaitis, their best player, is out for the season. Their leading scorer is sophomore point guard Eric Atkins and the second best scorer is sophomore Jerian Grant, of whom I've never heard. Also lurking are Scott "Kyle Kuric Dunked On Me And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt Reflecting 21 Points In an Ultimately Futile Team Loss In Madison Square Garden" Martin and Jack "I've Lived Off Convincing Freshman Girls I'm Really Luke Harangody For 3 Years" Cooley. There's another sophomore named Alex Dragicevich who can score for them, but I don't know enough about him to make a funny "quote as middle name" joke. So I'll just go with Alex "Chickenf---er" Dragicevich. And they've got a guy named, I swear this is real, Mike Broghammer. If it's not too late, I hope someone makes a "Sup, Broghammer" sign for the student section.

Anyway, Notre Dame comes into town for their first Yum! Center experience with a 9-6 record, including losses to Cinci, Indiana, Maryland, Gonzaga, Georgia and Missouri. So you can see, not all that bad. Their destruction of Pitt looked better two days ago than it does one day into the Depaucolypse. Also they beat Sacred Heart by like 40, although that doesn't seem fair since Sacred Heart is a girls high school.

So we SHOULD be able to avoid overtime tomorrow. But Notre Dame is sorta like our rivalry with West Virginia: every game ends up being close no matter how good the teams are. Every game has crazy events and happenings. But it's different somehow than West Virginia. Notre Dame brings out the Doctors of Dunk encoded in every Cardinal player's DNA, but West Virginia brings out the AHHHHHHHH in all of us every time we play. There's always way more intensity/dread/fear when we play West Virginia than when we play Notre Dame even though the series history is eerily similar. Maybe because we consistently win at home against Notre Dame it doesn't have quite that same feel as the West Virginia game. Maybe it's all the Catholic fans whose second favorite team is the Irish. Maybe it's that every time we play them, I mean, sure ND is up by 10 with 2 minutes to play and all of our guys have 4 fouls and their 3rd string center is hitting 25 footers, but, you know, we've got this game. Who knows.

So with the way this year's squad seems to play to its competition, and Notre Dame's style seems to always give our defense fits, and we always get down, and we always play crazy close games against Notre Dame, and they always involve huge comebacks....well, I'm going with the obviously reasonable prediction: a double digit win, overtime, a crazy dunk by a Louisville player that will forever be known as "The Yam! at the Yum!".....and a Louisville win.

Just don't count on it.

That's right, this is the preview of the preview. I just had to re-watch and post this video from last year's game. My three favorite things:

1) The WKU announcers.

2) How we looked like the Harlem F'ing Globetrotters and had never played that well before or ever since.

3) Getting to see Siva's shot at its peak. Maybe he can rediscover it tomorrow.

Classic.

Just like we drew it up.

Seriously, overall a frustrating but fun game against a good team. RussCrat did RussCrat things. Seniors stepped up. Defense and conditioning wore them down (we didn't exactly go 10 deep tonight and Kuric/Dieng played 78 combined minutes) and we hit huge shots and got huge steals and rebounds when we needed them. It's like we play well at home for some reason?

Also, Ohio moved to 10-1 tonight.

I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.

More later.

Almost instantly after the big win on Saturday the whispers started: Tuesday night is setting up as a huge trap game, just like Drexel last year. Coming off a big win (like UNLV) late night game on ESPNU, with Western KY, Georgetown and Kentucky as the next three games on the calendar, and a no-name opponent coming in....the similarities are there. Add to that the most widely seen CN2 clip of all time on any subject, which I think we should just go ahead and short-hand into #ChaneQuote going forward since I'm sure we'll see it every game we play this year (especially when we are losing), and people are officially freaking out about tonight's game.

Let's hope the players are thinking the same way. But make no mistake: College of Charleston is not Drexel. We lost that game because Drexel's style killed us and we missed big shots. College of Charleston does not play that style, so if we lose, it won't be because we got "Drexel'd". It will be because CofC is a very good team. They've won a road game over Clemson and beat Tennessee (who barely lost to Memphis in 2OTs) at home, and their only loss this season was against UCF....who beat UConn.

So these guys are good. They score a lot and shoot well from the floor, and they have a scorer in Antwaine Wiggins who can hit big shots: he sank one with 11 seconds left to win their last game. They aren't particularly deep: only 7 guys see real minutes.

Louisville Will Win: If they give an extraordinary performance, not just a good performance, not just a mediocre performance. If they are great at all times.

College of Charleston Will Win: If they give an extraordinary performance, not just a good performance, not just a mediocre performance. If they are great at all times.

That joke will be this year's J-Bone: hilarious to (or at least acknowledged by) regular attendees of the KFC Yum! Center and not gotten by out-of-towners. Sorry.

CardsFan922 Prediction: Close game throughout, CofC gets a 6 point lead late in the 1st half but the Cards depth and defense take hold in the 2nd and we pull away with late free throws to win by 5-7 points.

I love how Charlie Strong doesn't react to most baskets in the game, and then at the end he gets HUGELY into it. I wonder how/why/what is going on there.

Anyway, enjoy:

Big win last night for the Cards in what was widely considered a "weird" or "crazy" or "kray" game depending on who you talked to. Whistles marred the first half as the teams combined for 49 fouls and 133 free throws in the first 20 minutes. And both teams struggled with their FT defense, although our FT defense held Memphis to only 67% from the line while we shot 80% (!) for the game. Really unreal performance at the line from our guys, especially Behanan who was 8-8 and used all 10 seconds before shooting each free throw.

Will Barton "got his" in that he didn't cross half court and waited for the ball to come back his way, got tons of free throws and made a bunch of garbage hanging/floaters in traffic. He grabbed a game high 16 boards and then really lit up the other areas of the stat sheet: 1 assist, 2 steals, 0 blocks, 1 turnover and 2 fouls. I got 2 fouls called on me and the guy next to me fouled out, so I think he had to really be not trying if he only got 2 fouls called against him in this game. I tweeted after the game that I have never been so unimpressed with an opposing player who put up huge numbers against us, but I just did not like Barton's game.

We are very lucky to have the team we have, the players we have, the coach we have and the fans we have. I don't understand why we've gotten pegged as a team with limited talent (at some point this season we will have 3 McDonald's AA's on the floor at the same time) but Pitino seems to have gotten the talent/heart/ego/TEAM "Louisville first" balance close to where he wants it to be. And if it was entirely by accident or luck, so be it. This team could easily crap out in the first or second round against a well-coached, senior-led mid-major if Dieng and Siva both get into foul trouble and 3 more guys get hurt. Winning at Rupp is going to require a crazy hot shooting night from 3 and fair whistles (hahahahahahaha) but that's not how this season will be defined.

It's going to be another very fun year.

There are a lot of storylines as the Louisville Basketball Men's Cardinals 2011-12 host the Memphis State Tigers Saturday, 4 PM at the Yum! Center, and like all things in life, they can be broken out into short-term, medium-term and long-term storylines, both past and future. Let's hop into the DeLorean and head back to the 1980s and 1990s, the early 2000s and then next week, March 2012 and March of like 2014 just to see if we have flying cars finally.

WARNING: DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING BECAUSE YOU COULD SCREW IT ALL UP WE COULD ALL TURN INTO DINOSAURS.

via theassociation.blogs.com

Long-Term Past

One of my earliest memories is of hating Elliot Perry. People my age and older will remember Perry and his stupid socks and goggles. He was the Dwayne Wade of his day in that it always seemed like LaBradford and the Cards got the best of him in college, and then he had a much longer NBA career than Smith or any of his other Cardinal rivals. Man, I would have lost so much money on a Reece Gaines v. Wade total NBA points scored head-to-head bet. Anyway, most if not all of our current players weren't born yet when those classic games were played, and honestly has anyone ever met a Memphis fan? Other than this paragraph, I have not thought about the 1980s Memphis State games in a long, long time, and so while it would be awesome if they showed highlights tomorrow, I think the rivalry - to the extent one still exists - is less about the 1980s and 1990s than.....

LOOK HOW HARD I'M COACHING

Medium-Term Past

Let's be honest: if Josh Pastner or Brad Stevens or anyone other than John Calipari coached the Memphis State Tigers in the last throes of our CUSA days, we probably wouldn't care about Memphis State. We played some great games against them (the 2003 CUSA championship comes to mind) but they for the most part were non-factors in CUSA and the NCAA tournament before 2005, culminating in a certain moment that has been beaten to death around here. So lets watch it again:

Wow that is awesome. Anyway, the rivalry took on a much different tone in the 2000s thanks to Coach Cal and his shenanigans. And that game and situation was the PERFECT way to leave those dirtbags behind. Then Cal left for UK and Pastner took over, and kept the pipeline coming with McDonalds' All Americans, leading to....

Short Term History

So the Memphis team that comes into the Yum! Saturday is much closer in DNA to Cal's teams than Larry Finch's teams (google it kids) in that they will be super athletic, play fast, run, run, run and start highly ranked, young recruits. Their best players Will Barton, Mad (Real Mad) Joe Jackson, and Adonis Thomas were born in 1991, 1992 and 1993, respectively, and none of them would be eligible for Junior Homecoming King if that's a thing in that they are just a freshman and some sophomores.

I TOO CAN LOOK LIKE I AM COACHING HARD

Memphis started the season in the average poll position of #10 (and the median!) but has sandwiched wins and losses: wins against Belmont and Tennessee around a loss to Michigan and sandwiching wins against three crappy teams between losses to Georgetown and Murray State. But make no mistake, this will be the most pure talent on display at the Yum! yet this year, with the obvious exception of the Taylor Swift concert. Throw in the 4 PM national game of the week showcase on CBS and Rick Pitino's promise to run with Memphis (which means there's a 75% chance we play a ball possession, slow-down game with 30 seconds off the clock each trip) and we have the makings of a classic, classic game, regardless of the names on the front of the jerseys and what happened between these two schools 5 or 25 years ago.

Short Term Future

Because of the talent and Memphis's style, especially the super-complicated, highly precise offense that is so mind numbingly technical less sophisticated readers should skip the next 6 words: take your man one-on-one, our individual defensive abilities will be put to the test tomorrow and will tell us a lot about our potential to stop other similar, highly complicated offenses in a certain game a few weeks from now. Also, because this game is on the national stage, Memphis is coming off a terrible loss and everyone with a tie and a no-accountability job providing "insight" into college basketball is rooting for us to lose, winning this game and looking impressive doing so (which makes 1 win count as 1.2 in the computer rankings) will help quiet critics or at least prevent loads of sanctimonious gasbaggery and a double-digit drop in the polls. So, ya, big game.

Medium Term Future

Who knows where this Memphis team will be at the end of the year, but any out-of-conference win is a good win for seeding purposes. And on the off chance you know one actual Memphis fan (I know none) or run into them on the internet (I never have and I spend A LOT of time on the internet, like probably an unhealthy amount if we are being real) losing would give them bragging rights for ahwile. Also, the whole "NBA/McD's AA's v. 3+ year player development" argument could get a huge boost in our favor tomorrow if our mix of the two, led by the older players and implementing a good defensive strategy, pulls out a win. If we lose because we play Memphis's game and they are more talented, well, that would be a scary thing as we try to take the next step from "lots of regular season wins" to "deep March run" that has eluded us the last two years.

Long Term Future

Kevin Ware, Russ Smith, Rak Buckles and Chane Behanan are four key pieces for lots of wins in 2011 and 2012 and tomorrow will be the first time all four of those guys will play significant (or any, really) minutes together. Now that we are approaching "just unlucky" status with injuries (recently upgraded from "You've got to be f'in kidding me" and weeks beyond "I don't believe in curses but I believe there is a curse at work here") we have enough guys that we can play any style: slow down, grind it out or run with an athletic team like Memphis. So look for more Siva-Russ-Kuric-Rak-Swop type lineups, with Ware getting more minutes than someone like Justice at the 1 or Chris at the 3. Can Chane hang in a game like this? Will be really interesting to see, and as we look forward to other, athletic run/gun teams on the schedule (like the NCAA tournament for instance) this game could be a good test for our guys. And for the whole current operating theory of our program (see above). No pressure.

What To Watch For: Chances to catch your breath and turnovers. Pitino says he's letting us loose this game, and as long as we can speed ourselves and Memphis up in a way that causes turnovers but doesn't risk turnovers, it should be a lot of fun to watch. As was pointed out earlier this week, Memphis is able to go fast without turning the ball over, and they shoot a high percentage. If we can keep their shooting percentage low and score in transition, we have a good chance to extend our win streak against Memphis State to 2 games. Finally, the magic that is the Yum! home court advantage should be helpful, especially against a young team like Memphis coming off a bad loss.

CardsFan922 Prediction: Close, high scoring game. I think we'll win but would also not be shocked to see Memphis pull this one out in a very hostile environment. If it turns into just a run-and-gun game and Memphis's talent prevails, well, it's not the end of the world. But it could give ammo to the haters and make a big difference in the type of match-up we want to see in March.

Let's just hope Charlie Strong and Siva's Dad are there. We need them now, more than ever.

That narrowly beat out "VillenHD Does It Goode".

I'VE STILL GOT IT PEOPLE.

Chane's dunk was pretty, pretty sick.  There were also some other plays.

Even he (she?) (Neo?) can make awesome highlights out of the Arkansas State game.

The only way this weekend could end.

With these two teams, the Race to 6 refers both to 6 wins and 6 points.

The BCS talk from a few weeks ago died down a bit after the loss to Pitt last week, but even though we are still mathematically in the race for an improbable and likely roundly mocked Orange Bowl berth, just making a bowl after early season losses to Ty Hilton and Marshall would be a huge accomplishment.  Especially since everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) is certain of the sky-is-the-limit combination of talent and experience of the 2012 Cardinals, getting an extra few weeks of practice and "big game" experience would be huge.  And to give this year's senior class one more game would be an extra benefit.

So who is the standing in the way?  This guy:

via www.onthecan.com

I think Dexter will enjoying sacking the smug off that guy's face hair.

I'll admit I have not watched one second of UConn football this season, and I feel I am a better man for it.  My only knowledge of UConn is following its hilarious, self-loathing bloggers on twitter during their games.  And from those tweets, my sense is that UConn is a defense first team, in part because of their coaching philosophy and in part because their offense blows.  I'm also only vaguely familiar with their skill position players: RB Lyle McCombs? WRs Kashif and Isiah Moore (related? no idea).  They have a dual-threat QB who may be starting today, and if they watched the Pitt game tape, maybe that's what they'll do.

UConn's record is weird: close losses that don't look too bad now to Vandy and Iowa State.  They lost to Western Michigan the same time we were losing to Marshall, and then they got blown out by West Virginia and Pitt, with a 16-10 win over USF sandwiched in between.   That was a crappy game I bet.  Anyway, they are coming off a 28-21 home win against Syracuse in a game I had no idea was played or who had won.

Oh well.  The point is this: with bowl eligibility on the line and dreams of the BCS receding, and a game next week against a reasonably good opponent in a place we've never won, today may be our best chance to get to 6 wins. 

CardsFan922 Prediction:  Louisville 21 - 17 UConn.