Time to see who's next in line. Get on the train or get out of the way.

NJCard sporting the victorious shirt at Gampel Pavilion

Courtesy of espn

And that's with a bye week in there.

Since we (in the general blog sense) are in the mood for more PJCS updates, here is the predicted seating chart for the upcoming season. Quick thoughts: my usual student seats on the 50 are no more. We have been relegated to the west side of the stadium, making way for the higher priced donors at the 50. However, the band and two small student sections have been placed close to the field on the southwest corner. Additionally, it also seems as though the upper level of the crunch zone will now be populated with students (i'm guessing graduate students?).

I do appreciate the fact that the new expansion level seats are priced to sell quickly: Tommy Jurich wants to put butts in the seats this season.  You can expect the price of these seats to increase proportionally to how well the team does this year. Also, the visiting team/individual game ticket section was remarkably augmented with the new expansion.

Thoughts?

via thebiglead.com

Here's for living the dream

I hear it on the radio call-in shows. Its heavily debated on the message boards. "Rick Pitino can't recruit." "He can't coach his players up." "Always underachieving."  "This senior class was full of wasted talent." Well friends, the data are the data. This senior class has more Big East wins than any other team, by far, during their 4 years here. Sosa and Smith have been starters or got major PT during those four years. Do you think Jim Calhoun's career is on the line at the bball powerhouse Connecticut?  No, he just got an extension. Is JT3 worrying about his job security at tradition-rich Georgetown?  Hell no.  Rick Pitino is a good great coach. Do you really want to trade the most successful coach in the best league in the nation for something better? I think not. Would it be nice to have a lack of Pitino-involved scandal every year? Yes, of course.

Thank you Seniors. We wish you the best.

Moving on to the East: Some of my favorite mascots are in this region. For my money, you can't beat the Mountaineers. There aren't too many lame mascots coming out of the East regional.

Continue reading this post »

I'm pretty certain some weak mascots came out of the Metro conference back in the day: Billikens, Cardinals, Hokies, Green Wave, 49rs. Let's take a look at the South bracket, and boy, there's some good ones.  Remember, the bolded name moves on to the next round of worthlessness. Happy March people. 

Continue reading this post »

I was listening to Bob and Tom on the ride in this morning and they had Brandon Lang, sports handicapper (http://www.brandonlang.com/) on the show. They asked for his dark horse upset special. I'm seriously paraphrasing, but he basically said "Louisville over Duke and on to the Final Four. Louisville is a team that everybody is overlooking".  Thanks for the jinx Lang. Now we'll get slaughtered by California.

Forget making your picks based upon seeds or their performance over the last months. This year, my wife is going to pick the most helpless mascot to win. So, here is IMO who would lose in a head-to-head matchup of mascots dueling to the death.  The weaker mascot (bold font) moves on to the next round. I think you all should have a pretty good idea who should win this one from the start.  I'll start in the West this post.

Continue reading this post »

Here's some video from my awesome seats (italics = sarcasm). Watch after the 30 s mark when Kuric calls for it. He knows it's going down with authority. Like Syracuse's mom. Double click to get better quality.

Griff's face is hard to top.
 

Well we're movin on up,
To the riverside.
To a deluxe arena in the sky.
Movin on up,
To the riverside.
We finally got a piece of the pie.

No more caramel corn stinkin';
Hot Dogs burnin' on the grill.
Took a whole lotta tryin',
Just to get up that hill.
Now that we're up in the big East,
Gettin' our turn at bat.
As long as we live, it's you and me baby,
There ain't nothin wrong with that.

Well we're movin on up,
To the riverside.
To a deluxe arena in the sky.
Movin on up,
To the riverside.
We finally got a piece of the pie.

Continue reading this post »

It's the end of "Doppelganger Week" and I was wondering how we could embarass the team and give our rivals some blackmail photos. Well, MyHeritage.com had the answer. Celebrity look-a-likes. I fed the program the UofL website's roster photo and then took the highest scoring match (that was actually a celebrity and not a saturday morning children's tv star). The resemblances are uncanny.

Next installment: Big East coaches

   Ricky P = Kim Dae-jung  Rick would run South Korea with an iron fist.

Continue reading this post »

      Your Thursday Gonzo

Catch the fever as your Louisville Cardinals take on Jeremy Hazell and some other people dressed up as pirates. Speak of the devil, here he is shooting like he's on NBA Jam against the Cards two years ago.

Seton Hall is 10-6 overall, 1-4 in the Big East.  As the Courier-Journal points out, "The Pirates (10-6, 1-4) have improved from last season, when they tied for 11th in the league, but have little to show for it. Five of their losses have come against teams currently or formerly ranked, and the sixth was a 103-94 overtime defeat to Virginia Tech in Cancun. Seton Hall has been especially tough at home, where it lost to West Virginia in overtime, played Syracuse tight before falling 80-73 and toppled Cincinnati 83-76."

Samardo Samuels is coming off 21 and 25 pts, respectively, against Nova and Pitt.  You can bet Seton Hall will be focusing on denying the entry pass.  It's no secret that we haven't been shooting well as of late from the arc.

"I feel unstoppable...It's something I had in me a long time. Once I get rolling … I don't think too many defenders can stop me and what I want to do on the basketball court."

Seton Hall is 10-6 overall, 1-4 in the Big East.  As the Courier-Journal points out, "The Pirates (10-6, 1-4) have improved from last season, when they tied for 11th in the league, but have little to show for it. Five of their losses have come against teams currently or formerly ranked, and the sixth was a 103-94 overtime defeat to Virginia Tech in Cancun.

 Seton Hall has been especially tough at home, where it lost to West Virginia in overtime, played Syracuse tight before falling 80-73 and toppled Cincinnati 83-76."

Samardo Samuels is coming off 21 and 25 pts, respectively, against Nova and Pitt.  You can bet Seton Hall will be focusing on denying the entry pass.  It's no secret that we haven't been shooting well as of late from the arc.

  The Spread is about even as of now. Betting trends from offshore having no effect on the game at hand:

Louisville is 5-8 against the spread.  Seton Hall is 3-7 ATS

Louisville most recently:                                Seton Hall most recently:
When playing on Thursday are 8-2             When playing on Thursday are 3-7
Before playing Cincinnati are 8-2                Before playing Pittsburgh are 5-5
After playing Pittsburgh are 6-1                    After playing Georgetown are 4-6
After a loss are 8-2                                         After a loss are 4-6

Louisville writeup - Boooooring.

Gonzo Ball - Points out that we have tall players who can't rebound nearly as well as Herb Pope.

The Cardinals certainly have holes, most glaring their rebounding.  Despite carrying a roster that includes six players 6'8 or taller, they only have two players who average greater than 4RPG. Secondly, the Cardinals turn the ball over, a lot. In fact, their assist-to-turnover ratio is nearly even at 1.1AST per 1TO. Despite their weaknesses, they're still a greatly talented and deep team that will require nothing short of the Pirates best effort in order to send them home with the L. For the Pirates, the effort will need to start on the boards and end with their defense. Top notch efforts on the glass will be needed from Pope, JRob, Stix and Garcia, while the Pirates need to turn up their defensive intensity against the Cardinals.  It might be time for a heavy dose of the full-court press, c'mon Bobby, beat Pitino at his own game.  

 Setonia Blogspot - Makes analogies of the team to Washington, D.C. monuments. Predicted starting lineup: Lincoln Memorial, Washington memorial, Fed Column, Jefferson memorial, and the White House.

The Washington Monument -- Jeremy Hazell

At the center of it all, this one gets the most attention. Visible for miles, old Washington can be seen for a range that extends beyond even the arc of the Beltway. But might it also be the most one-dimensional??

TMI Seton Hall season recap. Really, 5 more years of BG?

Bobby Gonzalez has received a contract extension to remain the Pirates' men's basketball head coach through the 2014-15 season.  "This extension serves as a strong indicator of the University's commitment and support for Bobby Gonzalez as head coach of our men's basketball program,"

NJCard has floor seats. Heckle Hazell. Don't worry about Gonzo: he has enough problems.

Extremely In-Depth Prediction:  Cards pressure is too much for SU, but still turn it over just as much, Hazell tries to beat us by himself ending up 2-16 shooting, SamSam nets 28. Rock fouls out before half-time.  Cards win 72-62.

Aloha from Turtle Bay Cards fans. Alas, it has been spent inside still recovering from some stomach flu/raging head cold/allergy to beautiful weather. I can't even get the game on ESPN360 today to boot. Also it's 5:50 in the morning. Nothing like a 7:00AM tip off.

So I was watching a UFC fight yesterday, and wouldn't you know it, a basketball game broke out.  My quick thoughts on the first half (more to come from Mr. CC himself):

 Good and bad stat of the half:  John Wall: 3 points.  UofL: 19

 Holy blown layups people. How many points did we leave on the court from inside 3 feet? I can't really name one player that played well in the first half.

 1-19 shooting to start it out doesn't look good on paper and looks even worse on TV.  Also, zero (that's a 0 with no numbers in front of it) assists in the first half may have contributed to the first statistic.

  The defense held UK to 27 points at the half. I expected this to be an offensive shootout from the start, but it was quite the opposite. I didn't see the dribble drive motion executed even once in the first half.

 Swop was physically overmatched: the heart and hustle were there but the statistics say otherwise.

  Once both teams finally settled down, UofL basically played them even the rest of the game. The senior leadership finally bubbled to the surface. Sosa and Jerry were calming figures toward the end of the first half, and their hustle helped create some turnovers as well.

  This is the first and last time we get to play Wall and Cousins. No time for revenge. Get your revenge on the Big East boys.

 I think I contracted strep throat from watching the game. I may be on an extended Xmas break.

OK, shameless plug for myself.  I need to be on an intramural basketball team. I'm a graduate student in Biochemistry and, wouldn't you know it, I can't pull together enough basketball playing scientists. So i'm looking to comandeer a team and rename them something like "The Mike Rutherford Special". So if anybody needs a solid contributor, here's my full resume:

* 6'4", 178 lbs

* I can dunk.

* Junior Bridgeman coached my elementary school team.

* I grab more rebounds than Kyle Kuric but am much less awesome than Preston Knowles

* I got new shoes for Xmas.

 Let me know if anybody needs another player. Greg.Luerman@Louisville.edu

Dear Jerry Smith's shooting form,

  I have always been a huge fan of yours. One of my all-time favorite UofL memories was your magical moment at Marquette. I write you to perhaps point out something that your team and coaches may have not clued you in on. But first, I'm going to throw some stats out there that I am sure you are well aware of:

Continue reading this post »