So every year we all experience the same cycle. Some high school football, basketball, field hockey player (okay, so probably not field hockey) commits to our school and everyone gets excited at the new prospect and how they impacted our recruiting ranking. Then a few months later, news starts to trickle out that the player "might not qualify", "isn't cleared yet", or their "eligibility is in question". Then everyone starts acting like a child whose toy from Christmas breaks or is taken from them in January. Screams of "Not this **** again!" and "Geez, how dumb is this kid?" abound and message boards are filled with, "Dude HS is easy. I took 12 P.E. classes in HS and had a 3.5 GPA", "I thought you only needed an 18 on the ACT to get in", "I heard he going to retake the ACT in June and that's our only hope" and "Stupid Coach, why do we recruit these fringe qualifiers in the first place?"

Basically, a lot of people show that they really don't know what the NCAA requirements are, let alone what a recruit's "current status" is that "needs to be monitored". Are you one of the above statement-makers and want to pick an internet fight? No. Okay, well do you at least want to know what the real NCAA Division I eligibility requirements are and why this crap is so confusing? Yes? Well click on to learn more.

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Eric Crawford and CL Brown did a good job of analyzing the last play of the game, but I can't help but throw in my two cents here.

VIDEO OF FINAL PLAY:

On the initial drive:

Right here Siva's momentum is carrying him away from the paint as he's no doubt not wanting to get an offensive foul like the ND game. So at this moment, a bounce pass to Gorgui is very dangerous (because of his momentum) and anything short of a perfect soft pass to Kuric on the wing would easily have been closed out by CJ Fair.

Thus he kept driving and here is the result (less than .4 seconds later):

He still has two options for the pass, Kuric for a three or Gorgui for a layup.

If he passed to Kuric, Kyle either takes a moderately contested 3 from his favorite spot on the floor or if Kuric managed to get closed out, I'd bet he'd have found Chris Smith was WIDE-open for a three. Either one shooting a three is a high percentage shot, I'd peg it no worse than 50%. Syracuse would have gotten the ball, down two with around 5 seconds to go or we'd be fighting for an offensive rebound on a night where we collected 50% of our misses with a shot to throw up a final prayer or even call a timeout with 2-4 seconds left.

If Gorgui could have handled the pass, he would have easily either scored or at the very least earned two free throws. If he missed the shot and went to the line, that's a 49% chance for going up by 1, a 42% chance of tying the game, and a 9% chance of being down 1 with around 5 seconds to go. Remember, on a bad team FT% night, Gorgui was 5-6.

Finally, Here is the view that Peyton saw on that last play and shows why he made the choice he made. Gorgui looks pretty damn open and alert to me. The pass was about 6" high and about 12" too far to Gorgui's left side. I still believe Gorgui should have caught it. I'm not solely blaming Gorgui, but I am annoyed that the caption for the following photo on the C-J is "Uof L's Peyton Siva attempts to pass the ball while driving the lane. Instead Siva threw the ball away at the end of the game." To me, that statement, while I suppose accurate, just doesn't seem fair.

In the end, I think Siva made the right choice. The pass could have been more accurate (though it did hit Gorgui's left shoulder), but the velocity and delivery method (no bounce) were spot on. Gorgui definitely thought Siva was going to shoot it, because his eyes drift up to the rim. If he doesn't stop watching the ball, he would have caught that pass. I was 99.9% certain that Siva was going to pass on that drive, unless it was totally a blown help defense. I can't help but think the rest of the team should have figured on a pass too.

It's really only disappointing in that no shot was taken. I believe the play and the choice to let it play out live action was the correct decision by Coach Pitino, who said in the presser that they drew this play up in the timeout before. All the pieces were there: Siva the distributor, Kuric and Smith as shooters, Dieng the cutter off the roll and Behanan down low for potential clean up. The execution was just a bit off. Something tells me that falling on the wrong side of this one is likely to help us out in a tight game later on down the road, say March?

Today Scout.com released their 2014 class position rankings for the first time and local product and Louisville commitment Quentin Snider was rated as the ninth best PG prospect of 2014.

At this time, Scout.com has only ranked the top 10 players in the 2014 class for PG, SG, SF and PF and the top 5 players for C. Of the 45 players who were ranked in their position, Quentin Snider is one of only three players who have committed to a school. Indiana and Virginia also have one top ranked 2014 commitment.

Louisville is also listed as a "School of Interest" for several other top prospects including #3 PG D'Angelo Russell, #2 SG Jaquan Lyle, #5 SF Jalen Lindsay, #7 SF Shaqquan Aaron and #2 C Dakari Johnson. Of these prospects, Louisville has only offered Russell, who played at Central High School and for the Louisville Magic AAU team before moving to Florida before his sophomore year.

Here are the links to the Scout.com position rankings:

2014 Point Guards

2014 Shooting Guards

2014 Small Forwards

2014 Power Forwards

2014 Centers

This post is in response to a lot of fans on this site who have asked two or more of the following questions:

• What is Pitino's "System"?
• What about Pitino's "System" is so complex?
• Why does Pitino say that defense is the problem this year?
• Why does everyone say that freshman struggle with Pitino's "system"?
• Why can't Pitino just dumb his system down a little bit?
• Why does chocolate covered fruit taste so damn good?

First, a disclaimer. I am, by no means, an expert of the X's and O's of basketball. I am just like most of you, a fan of college basketball and a supporter of Louisville Cardinal athletics. Now, what I'm about to go into is very likely me on my assent of Mount Stupid, but I'm going to go ahead and post anyway.

This post will not contain animated gifs of pressing defenses, nor a detailed history of basketball defenses. I'm simply going to discuss how Rick Pitino's defenses have changed over the years and in doing so, perhaps give some of you some insight into the answers to the questions above. So here we go.

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Link to the SB Nation Story

Basically...UK is lobbying to keep us out.  And is saying that they "wouldn't rule out veto" to make sure it doesn't happen. Satirical comments follow.

From a press conference in the near future after the SEC has expanded to 14-teams, not including Louisville:

MB:  "After evaluation of the new 14-team SEC schedule and UK's committed desire to attend shit-tastic bowl games, the University of Kentucky will be removing the University of Louisville from it's football schedule.  We are willing to remove several millions of dollars annually out of our poor state economy to preserve our football team's strategic goal of attending the Banjo Bowl annually.  It is our hope that with the increased difficulty of our football schedule, we'll be making Banjo Bowl appearance at least once per decade, with the hope of better bowl negotiations after 2014 providing new exciting opportunities such as the Purnell Old Folks Country Sausage Bowl and the CoachCal.com Bowl."

Reporter:  "Mitch, are you aware that you could have avoided a substantial hit to the state economy by adding Louisville as the 14th member, thus not further increasing the overall difficulty of your football schedule?"

MB:  "Yes.  This was brought to my attention.  However, since Steve Kragthorpe left the University of Louisville, we believe that the difficulty of our schedule has already been increased significantly.  Couple this with the fact that bringing Louisville into the SEC would promptly remove our only advantage in recruiting and thus would allow the University of Louisville to win every major football recruiting battle against our team.  They already win most of these battles playing in the Big East.  It would only get more embarrassing if we allowed them to be on equal footing with conference affiliation."

Reporter:  "What about basketball?  Wouldn't adding Louisville aid in improving Kentucky's conference basketball schedule, usually a sore point with the national media during the month that lead up to the NCAA Tournament?"

MB:  "I'm glad you brought this up.  This has been addressed.  Riding the coattails of our football television contracts, the SEC has created a beneficial conflict of interest with the national media.  Since they must show our less-than-stellar basketball games on their national network, they are forced to pretend that LSU at Kentucky is an exciting basketball game and promote it as such.  The networks are very creative.  They use language like 'dark horse' and 'sleeper team' and 'loads of potential' to describe our opponents.  The rest of the SEC could disband basketball and the networks would still promote us."

Reporter:  "So you are satisfied with 'artificial competition' in basketball and 'impossible competition' in football?"

MB: "Absolutely.  It's like having your cake and eating it too.  The University of Kentucky has zero commitment to football, but we get a great return on our investment, probably the best in the nation.  All we care about is basketball and playing in a weak conference that gets touted as being 'respectable' is ideal for a program like ours.  Adding any real competition on the hardwood would be counter to our goals.  That's all the time for questions for now."

In reviewing of the 2011-2012 Basketball Schedule, I'm trying to pick out the "toughest" 3 game stretch the Cards will face.  Here are the top three 3-game sets I believe will be the most challenging for the Cards.

Set 1
12/28/11 vs. GEORGETOWN
12/31/11 at Kentucky
01/03/12 at St. John’s

Set 2
01/16/12 at Marquette
01/21/12 at Pittsburgh
01/25/12 vs. VILLANOVA

Set 3
02/06/12 vs. CONNECTICUT
02/11/12 at West Virginia
02/13/12 vs. SYRACUSE

Discussion

Set 1
As mentioned, we start off with a real Big East opponent before the UK game (no offense USF, but you don’t really count). It’s 3 tough games in 6 days, but I like that we get G’town at home. St. John’s is a wild card with all their new players, but I do like that we get them early in the season. If all three were on the road, this would be a much tougher set. It’s also over the holiday break, so school responsibilities aren’t a factor.

Set 2
Two tough road games followed by a hard nosed opponent at home. Marquette wants revenge from last year’s collapse at the Yum. Pitt is always tough at home (best home record in the Big East over the last several years) and this year will be an exciting game. Hopefully we can beat those bums on their home court. Finally, Nova at home. If we stumbled two games on the road, it’s a short Saturday to Wednesday rest before facing a physical team at home.

Set 3
In the end, I think the toughest is going to be this last set, even though 2 of the 3 are at home. It’s 3 games in 7 days, 2 Big Mondays on ESPN. All big time games. Throw in the fact that the opening Big Monday with Connecticut only has 1 day of rest thanks to the Rutgers game on Saturday. (At least we aren’t traveling back from NJ.) The sure-fire dog fight at WVU on the Saturday in-between two likely top 10 opponents. This should be as bad as it gets. I’m glad this set is in February. We are pretty solid come February.

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What do you all think? What’s the toughest set of 3 games?  Outside of a head scratching loss before a tough game, I believe if we lose 2 of 3 at any point in the season, it'll be within these sets.  That said, I still believe that Louisville will win 2 of 3 in each of these sets. 

I've been reading many comments both here and at other Louisville athletics sites predicting that the recent NY Times and ESPN articles will help DaMarcus Smith win his LOI release appeal and you might be right.  Some are very excited to rekindle the Smith vs. Bridgewater debate that we had all dreamed of and want to see Smith in a Cardinal uniform this fall.  I hate to say it, but honestly I don't think these stories bode well for Smith ever playing for Louisville.  With the suspicion that Smith's mother may have accepted, planned to accept, or even discussed accepting impermissible benefits from these runners/agents, I can't see UofL taking a chance on Smith. 

The NCAA set an ugly (from a national popularity standpoint) precedent with Cam Newton last year and they are itching to prove that was an exception, not a rule to judge that  if a player didn't know Mamma/Daddy was on the take they are absolved from violating their amateur status.   The NCAA would love to show that dealings with runners will not be taken lightly.  Coaches have been crying about it for years.  One Heisman has already been returned.  Another was almost lost before it was handed out.  In other words, the hammer is ready to drop, the question is merely who will it fall on.

Considering that DaMarcus' demeanor throughout all of this recruitment would suggest that he was being pressured by his mother ("business decision" language a big clue), I think it would be hard pressed to say that DaMarcus wasn't aware of the shadiness surrounding Bender, Carter, and Caldwell making deals with his mother.  If it were proved that the Smith's were even entertaining offers of impermissible benefits, DaMarcus could be declared to have violated his amateur status and thus ineligible for competition with ANY NCAA school.

For Coach Strong and Louisville Football, the burden of proof will rest with the Smith family to prove they didn't accept or plan to accept benefits from any runner, agent or even UCF.  Typically, it's pretty hard to prove that you didn't do something, since tangible evidence of not doing something is difficult to produce.  Not to mention that if fires are lit at UCF, you can bet that UCF (rightfully so) won't hesitate to throw Smith and his family under the bus if it helps their case.

Smith could always join the team, subject himself to a NCAA investigation and wait to be cleared.  But those types of investigations under Smith's circumstances take years to complete.  Newton's decision was lightning quick only because it was mid-season and Auburn was competing for the SEC Title and obvious invitation to the BCS Championship, not to mention that Newton was a extremely high-profile player, while Smith is at best just an elite recruit.  

With Louisville football on the rise, I'm not so sure that Coach Strong and the staff can afford to take a chance on DaMarcus.  No player, no matter how loved or how sad the circumstances, is worth risking penalties or season vacations for the rest of the team and football program.

So Card Chroniclers, what are your thoughts on young DaMarcus Smith and his potential future at Louisville?

According to Jeff Goodman, Louisville assistant coach Tim Fuller has accepted a position at Mizzouri with Frank Haith's staff.  Apparently Fuller and Haith are very close friends and is suspected that Haith offered Fuller a much higher ranking position than what he currently holds at Louisville.  Tim Fuller, as Cardinal Faithful know, had been viewed very positively as a lead recruiter for Louisville and was responsible for securing the committment of 2012 top guard prospect, Rodney Purvis.  Fuller had also been credited for bringing a lot of energy back to Louisville basketball as his connections to the North Carolina area and NBA superstar Chris Paul had put Louisville on the map of every top recruit in the 2012 and 2013 classes.

From the Official UofL release:

"Frank Haith has been like a father to me." said Fuller. "He's been a part of my life since I was a freshman in college and has helped mentor, advise and direct me in every aspect as a person and professionally. I'm so thankful for everything that Coach Pitino has done for me at Louisville. He's helped change my way of thinking and drive me toward perfection. At this time in my life, being with Frank Haith at Missouri is a family decision and it's the best fit for us right now."

Even though there is no ill will between Louisville and Fuller, no matter how you slice it, this is a major blow to Louisville basketball.  This makes the return of Richard Pitino even more important as we need assistants with recruiting experience.  This quote also debunks any bullcrap rumor that Richard's return had anything to do with Fuller taking the position. 

My main question is will we be able to hold the commitment of Rodney Purvis, the obvious gem of our 2012 class?  Pitino and others on the staff have made a strong connection with Purvis' mother and by no means is UofL out of the mix.  However, we certainly have a LOT of ground to make back up.

(In other news, Mark Lieberman will be promoted from assistant coach to Director of Basketball Operations.  So there is yet another vacancy in the assistant ranks.  I hope TJ and Rick go for broke in finding the best and brightest to bring aboard the team.)

Reading all these rivalry posts, I decided to formally share my POV on the rivalry game and what it means to me.  It’s a really long story, so read on if you dare.

I grew up in a UK home...as a UK fan.  My extended family owned a coal company and the entire family pooled together for season tickets and each head of household drew at random for the games.  Whatever games my Dad drew (after the complaining and swapping was finished) I'd get to go see since my Mom and sister didn't really care about sports and only cared about UK because my Dad was so passionate.  This made all my cousins super jealous as they'd rarely get to go to games and I would go to 2 games a year, every year.

I got to see some really good games as a kid with my Dad.  I got to see Kentucky beat LSU (who was ranked and had Shaq) in Rick Pitino's first year as my 9th birthday present.  (I now know my Dad traded two other games to get this one, since it was close to my birthday.)  What I remember from the game was that UK shot 33 3-point shots.  Thirty-three!  (Only 9 of them went in, but I would have sworn all of them did as a nine-year-old.)  I probably shot more airball three-pointers that summer than any other 9 year old in existence, but it didn't matter.  I was living the dream.

My parents divorced when I was 10 and I'd spend most weekends with my Dad at his apartment.  We'd play video games, watch movies, but in the winter...it was Wildcat basketball.  My father was a pretty defeated man after the divorce, but one of the main things that kept his fire going; like it was before, was his passion for Kentucky Basketball.  I think that's one of the biggest reasons he'd try his best to get tickets and take me to those games.  We went to the SEC tournament in 1995 in Atlanta and UK won the tournament with an epic win over Arkansas in overtime.  I even had a pair of those awful denim basketball shorts (Jorts!) from the 1996 season...and wore them every time I played ball--with pride.

My first live experience of the UofL game was on New Year's Day 1995.  My Dad (a lawyer) had finished a case for a client of his who lived in Louisville and was a big-time Cardinal fan.  It was a domestic case and my Dad helped ensure this guy was given custody of his kids over a "bad woman".  (That's all the info a 12-yr old was going to get.)  The guy was going to be out of town for New Year's (spending it with his kids), so he gave my Dad his nose-bleed seats in Freedom Hall to the game.  It was my first trip to Louisville and I remember thinking how HUGE the city was as the only other "city" I'd ever been to was Lexington.  There were quite a few Kentucky fans in our section but I remember feeling VERY intimidated by all the red shirts around me.  It was my first away game.  Kentucky lost.

Next Louisville experience was when we drew for the Louisville game at Rupp in 1997.  Louisville won the game, very unexpectedly; I can't tell you if Louisville was ranked, but I know Kentucky was top 10 that year.  I remember a Louisville fan talking with my Dad after the game while we waited to cross the street.  The Louisville fan (a tall and overweight black guy, biggest guy I'd ever seen) said, "Wow. I can't believe we pulled that off.  You guys made a great comeback toward the end there.  I don't know how we held on."  A drunk guy standing on the other side of the Louisville fan dropped the N-bomb and threw a "spit cup" at him, but it missed and hit my pants.  My Dad was livid as was the Louisville fan and nearly every Kentucky fan around.  Two other Kentucky fans shoved the guy to the ground and a few policemen came over.  Both my Dad and the Louisville fan stuck around to give info to a cop and I think the drunk guy was arrested. I was 14 and I remember on the ride home, that nasty used wintergreen tobacco smell still in the car, asking my Dad why so many people hated black people.  I'd seen racism for many years growing up in rural Kentucky and had heard the n-word used casually by older folks (and some of my friends) for as long as I could remember.  Why did they hate? My Dad had always taught me to ignore that hate, but also to never treat anyone special, just because they were black.  I can't remember exactly what wisdom was shared on the ride home, but I do remember having a lot of respect for my Dad and decided to start standing up to others against racism.  Whether it was telling my friends off or a 70 year old WWII vet at the body shop I worked at, I wasn't going to sit quietly anymore.

Time went on and I watched UK win 2 National Titles in high school.  I had always been a straight A student, but by my junior year, it was clear expectations had been set very high for me and I wanted to shatter those.  My sister was announced as Valedictorian of her class, so naturally I had to match it.  I had taken every Advanced Placement (AP) class my school offered and had scored well enough to get college credit on most of them.  I did extremely well on my ACT, and had decided that I wanted to major in Engineering in college and was considering Medical School after that.  I applied to 5 schools; MIT, Georgia Tech, Ohio St., Louisville and Kentucky.  Having been a Kentucky Governor’s Scholar in 1999 I had a guaranteed full-ride to Kentucky or Louisville.  I was accepted to all 5 schools and received a scholarship to each.  However, the MIT, Ohio St. and Georgia Tech offers were half-scholarships, leaving tens of thousands of dollars to come up with annually.  My family was pretty well off financially, but it had always been said that college was “on our own” to build character.  I knew my limits in terms of working during the school year and I had to admit that I wouldn’t be able to work my way through school and still do well.  After visiting all my choices, I ultimately chose UofL. 

Louisville was the best choice for me as they had an excellent Engineering program, offered a nationally recognized co-operative education program and did it on the fast track as well.  If I did my best, in 5 years I would have a Bachelor’s, a Master’s and a full year of work experience in industry.  UK had a solid program as well, but I didn’t like the campus and they didn’t offer a co-op program that was as complete and established as UofL’s.  In addition to the full academic scholarship, I had several local scholarships (some Kentucky state specific) that would allow for me to have around $5000 per semester of extra funds for food, lodging, etc.  This allowed me to not work during the year-round program.

My family, save for my parents, was incredibly unsupportive of the decision, my grandfather in particular.  He secretly asked if it was a “money thing” and offered to pay me any difference to “just go to UK”.  I explained to him my choice and he warned me, “Well if you ever cheer for them…”  At my high school graduation, as I was called up to deliver my Valedictorian speech; they announced my school of choice.  It was booed.

I loved college life at UofL as most young people do.  I was fortunate to not love it too much and I kept my grades in order as well.  I joined a fraternity and one of many social interactions was attending UofL football and basketball games.  I had never been to a college football game before and the atmosphere at Louisville was electric.  We celebrated watching players like Arnold Jackson, Anthony Floyd and people asking whether this Ragone kid would be as good as Redman.  I enjoyed the tailgating and cheering for football so much, I started attending basketball games as well.  I watched Louisville struggle under Denny Crum’s last season; but I learned to respect and appreciate Cardinal Basketball.  Having a player like Reece Gaines to watch was incredible.  I still followed UK basketball, but not of great depth.  I cheered for both teams throughout the season and when they played, I was distraught.  I think I felt that I should want UK to win, but it didn’t feel right.  Even though UK won easily that year, I had that classic “bummer” feeling after the game.  As the year went on, everyone around me talked Louisville ball and by season’s end, I knew a lot about Louisville Basketball.  I was a Louisville fan and have never been distraught for whom to cheer for on gameday since. 

The off-season of course brought Rick Pitino to Louisville and with him, came some redemption from my family.  My family was the sort that would have voted Rick Pitino for governor during his UK tenure and magically became huge NBA fans after Pitino left Kentucky to the point of buying me a Celtics jersey for Christmas that year.  Pitino was hero and savior of Kentucky basketball to them and with some early heat being applied on “Ten Loss” Tubby Smith at that point in time, my family was truly upset that Tubby wasn’t instantly fired to make room for Rick’s return. 

Even though it was already the case, suddenly it became “okay” for me to be a Louisville fan.  I’d come “home” with Louisville attire and my Dad would start asking about Louisville’s team, and we’d have discussions about both Kentucky and Louisville.  My college years went on and Louisville had some really great years while I was at the University.  My best highlights were far and away attending the Liberty Bowl against Boise St. and attending the Final Four in St. Louis.

For the past decade, I’ve been a Louisville fan and after each Kentucky-Louisville game I have a tradition.  The day after (to let any boiling blood cool), I call my Dad and we talk about “the game”: who played well, who coached better, what ref calls were wrong, what strategy might have been better for the other team.  It’s a great talk and I look forward to it every year, win or lose.

I’ve since moved to New Mexico, so I’m not immersed in as much Kentucky and Louisville basketball on a day-to-day basis, especially during rivalry week.  I’ve never been to the KFC Yum! Center.  I’ve never seen Peyton Siva play live.  But I did suffer with you last Friday and I did have a nice long 90 minute chat with my Dad on New Year’s Day. 

I may not remember how many points, rebounds and blocks Samaki Walker went off for in that triple-double back in 1995; but I know how to stand my ground, how to make choices for me and my wife and kids, going against the grain of what’s popular in the eyes of family and friends.  I may not be able remember how close that game in 1997 really was or who the on-court heroes were; but poised to adopt two children from Ethiopia this year, I know exactly how I feel about racism.  To me, this rivalry is a lot more than a basketball game.  Growing up in and around this basketball game, I’ve learned a lot about myself.  Not that I wouldn’t have learned these things apart from “the game”, but “the game” has always been there, seemingly in the foreground, but in reality in the background.  And I think that's how it should be.  Go Cards!

Ok, so two tweets; but they are equally awesome.  Chane Behanan committed to the Cardinals this morning and as other's have posted; he's excited about it (and so are we).  However, some other guys also appear to be excited this news as well.  At the risk of being banned (or at least being forced to buy Mike a crappy Fox Sports hat), I'm going to link Jeff Goodman.  In this article, Chane reveals how he's talked with top Cardinal prospects, Quincy Miller and Deuce Bello, and says "it's looking good".  This coupled with the tweets after the jump have me really excited.

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Stop what you are doing and read this article now...

What's wrong with college basketball?

Dana O'Neil has interviewed 20 high-profile college basketball coaches with some serious questions about the landscape of college basketball recruiting.  With the promise of complete anonymity, some of the coaches freely speak their minds about what goes on and what's wrong with college basketball.  More after the jump.

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