Far beyond the boilerplate lessons that NCAA hoops offers us (teamwork, competition, resilience) there are some much more tangible things that we can learn from watching the game.

This season's lesson: Managing Expectations

the 2010-11 team was a delight because we really didn't think they'd achieve all that much. Sure, the season ended poorly (what season since 1986 hasn't), but the path toward that outcome was an amazing ride fueled by the unexpected offensive explosion of PK.

This year, returning so many players plus the infusion of a strong recruiting class our hopes were much higher. Much higher. So even if you set aside last night's bumbling, inexplicable performance you are left with the same sneaky sense that this team was oversold. CRP (who I tend to stand behind) himself gave the fanbase reason to expect great things with the tone of his preseason chatter.

But here it is - Watching this team I feel almost exactly as if I am watching last year's team only there's no Preston magically dropping in 3 balls from crazy angles with his oddball shooting mechanics. Defense is generally good, but our offense looks like it was dug out of fresh grave. It's hard to imagine what a difference those timely shots of Preston's meant to last season. We've got almost the same record for this point in the season (conf sked notwithstanding) but I have ZERO confidence that we're going to finish above .500 in league play. Most of this feeling stems from the sense that what I see on the floor cannot possibly live up to my preseason/early season expectations.

Maybe Pitino finds a magic bullet, but at this point I have reset my expectations to zero and will follow along accordingly. If only I had started that way I might be able to enjoy this season and not get too distressed over some early losses.

Typical

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/

Not like we expected him to pick the cards, but C'mon. N.C. State? At least he chose a school that will probably miss the playoffs his entire tenure there, so we won't have to worry about him knocking us out of the tourney. Which is nice. On the flip side maybe he is as good as promised and he can give UNC and Duke a couple of beatings a year, that also wouldn't hurt my feelings. So I guess if he wasn't going to be a Cardinal I'd just as soon he play for the wolfpack.

http://awfulannouncing.com/2011-articles/may/breaking-news-gus-johnson-done-with-cbs.html

Richard Deitsch of SI.com, who broke the news about Gus Johnson not being hired by NFL Network for Thursday Night Football, has relayed even more shocking and stunning news.  Gus Johnson is done at CBS Sports.  That means come March Madness next year, you won't hear Gus calling any of the action.  This will effectively reduce the number of good games by 20%.

UPDATE: Reports of Gus leaving CBS may be premature, more info HERE

A back-up forward for the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team was arrested and jailed early Sunday for hitting a pregnant waitress at a downtown International House of Pancakes while drunk, according to police.

Derrick Caracter, 22, was arrested about 1:18 a.m. Sunday at the IHOP in the 800 block of Canal Street, said New Orleans Police spokeswoman Shereese Harper.

Caracter, a 6-foot-9 forward who was in New Orleans for the playoffs series, was drunk and acting disorderly inside the restaurant, police said.

He "started grabbing and pulling" a pregnant waitress, prompting the manager to go outside and flag down a police officer, Harper said. The female officer tried to defuse the situation, Harper said, but Caracter remained obstinate. The officer arrested him.

He was handcuffed and taken to Orleans Parish jail and booked with one count of battery for hitting the waitress, as well as one count each of public intoxication and resisting arrest.

Full Story >>

*Editor's note: Upon further review, the waitress was not pregnant.

This is sacrilege around these parts. But I've alluded to this before, heck I might have even come right out and said it. I just don't hate UK the way i used to. The way most folks around here do. Like it's not enough that they lose, but that they get beaten profoundly and publicly, again and again.

You see, here's the thing. When you are neck deep in UK fans just dying to snipe and make snide remarks, then reciprocating is perfectly natural. But over here in ACC country things are a little different. UofL is looked on by the general public as no more than a mild curiosity, and certainly no cause for concern. 85% of the people around here are UNC fans. And while one could do worse - UNC fans are generally pretty polite - their recent spate of success has given them a sense of entitlement and superiority that is frankly unbearable. Roy is a saint. He's in the hall of fame already you know. Year after year their recruiting class is among the top 5 in the nation. The Duke/UNC rivalry is the best of all time in any sport. On and on they go. It is simply nauseating. The thought of them advancing to another final four (their 4th in the last 7 years) was too much to handle.

So yeah, UNC may have been 1.5 point dogs in this game, but believe you me, there was not one UNC fan that wasn't 100% sure they were going to beat UK. Sure, they'll tell you otherwise, they have to. But once this team starts getting deep into the tourney the fans start to assume the title is theirs, especially after Kansas went down. As far as they were concerned they had a clear path. The Huskies presented no more than a slight hump to stroll over. Would UConn have beaten them? Maybe, I really don't know, I really don't care. I do know that if it came to that and UNC bested UConn to get to the final game I would never have heard the end of it. The UNC/ACC ranting would make Charles Barkley's anti-Big East platform seem tame by comparison.

Nope, this was for the best. And now I can get back to the business of rooting against the wildcats. Unfortunately it means I have to root for the Huskies, another chore I don't relish. But conference pride is on the line here. After the rash of BE flameouts this year, the best possible means of redemption will come with the Huskies walking away with the top prize.

Especially if the final game can somehow be UConn v. Butler. Two teams we've beaten this year. Will it make me feel better about the season? Maybe a little. But with the summer months looming ahead of me and nothing besides the Orlando Magic for me to hang my hat on, I'll take whatever small comfort I can get. And with any luck I'll never be forced to root for UK again.

About midway through the conference season I began to get "The Fear."

Average teams don't inspire the fear. Great teams inspire fear but also offer the soothing salve of confidence.

The real fear comes from the overachievers, teams that fill you with the sense that they can win every game but not the confidence that they will. UofL has been the embodiment of this stereotype. There was never a game I just knew (DePaul notwithstanding) that we would win. I watch just about every minute of play this year, riding the emotional highs of a team doing the unexpected.

The Fear I felt was that uncertainty that I carried with me until the closing bell of every game (and in the case of the Pitt game slightly beyond). I knew we could beat Morehead, but I wasn't entirely convinced that we would. From a fan's point of view close games are exciting and they send the message that a team can "Close." But it's misguided. Good teams shouldn't have to "close." Good teams should comfortably win most of their games. As much as I have loved the heart of these Cards, they never really exhibited that level of play, certainly not consistently.

The Fear was that we were going to play over our heads, get in a position to not just fail, but to fail fantastically. Of course that fear turned to confirmation yesterday and I was left to wander my house in a daze. How didn't I see that coming? How wasn't I emotionally prepared for the let down? How did this happen?

It happened because despite all evidence, all Pitino's foreshadowing, all of my own suspicions, I get swept off my feet by a team that seemed to do the impossible. And while they did manage to do the impossible most of the season, they also spent lots of time this season not quite achieving the possible. Beat Syracuse, UConn (twice), Pitt, Notre Dame? Impossible. But the games that were very possible, Drexel, Providence, Morehead, were the ones that got out of our reach.

Yesterday was a painful loss, but I'd been warned. Bridge year. Injuries. Inconsistent shooting. I chose not to heed the warnings and, just like falling in love, let it happen, lumps and all. And like so many misguided love stories, this one ended badly. And like all the spurned lovers before me I'll tell myself, "we had some great times, I wouldn't trade them." It's true. It was good while it lasted. Maybe the next one will be "the real thing."

>>>Shame on you if you disparage Justice. He's not the physically gifted freshman that should ever have been playing extended minutes or been expected to make a huge contribution. He's a smart, tough kid who will take this experience and grow on it. We're going to capital L, love him in two years. Preston!-style.

>>> All season long injuries were a culprit. Yesterday was no different.

>>> All season long foul trouble was a culprit. Yesterday was no different.

>>> So much more, but I've got a first round game to get to. Go UT. Go Big East.

anyone know what hotel the cards are staying in? or know how I might find out?

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https://www.facebook.com/dunksoftheyear?v=app_157554364290773

Facebook's got this dunk of the week contest. KK won a few week's ago. Currently Siva's 360 is falling a little short of whatever slop Scotty Hopson threw out there. More votes wouldn't hurt. Get on it. Don't want to lose to UT at anything, ever. There might not be much voting left, so send the link around. Siva demands satisfaction. Remember, he'd do it for you.

Broken finger. Tentative comeback. Game-ending sprain. Season-ending ACL. Poof. And like that he was gone. The loss of our top rebounding force feels palpable, and while it's not something to be easily dismissed it is something that needs to be put into perspective.

This breakdown does not, unfortunately, lend itself to bullet points. Though if I had access to "cardinal bullets" I might reconsider.

The issues are not necessarily complex, but neither are they as easy as "without Rock we're in trouble." It would be over simplistic to say that we've played some of our best basketball without Buckles. And it's not really his absence that I want to focus on just now. It's more about how he has looked since he rejoined the team on the floor. And I think we can all agree that throwing the word "rusty" around has not been overstating the case. In the handful of games Rock has been back in the lineup he hasn't looked very impressive offensively. He's made some silly mistakes and short of the bump we get from his boards he hasn't been a game changer. Of course we are now coming off a game against the best rebounding team (in the Conference? Nation? Universe?) where the numbers look remarkably balanced even with Buckles on the bench. Like everything else in basketball, good rebounding is a team effort. Boxing out, good decision making, aggressive effort all go in to helping the ball roll our way. If the Cards can work together to overcome the loss of Buckles' rebounding prowess then it's a wash. Otherwise his missed chippies and 8 footers are exactly the same as SVT's missed chippies and crappy hands.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the upside is the same, clearly the potential of Rock to come alive offensively is something we'll miss. But we haven't been living in a season where that potential has been achieved and we've fared well against the strongest teams in the country. And not to be dismissive of his ability, but March is no time to force shots in an effort to "find your rhythm." Either you are in a rhythm or on the cusp of it, or you are better off not wasting possessions trying to bring it around. I'm rose-coloring this to say: Yes, Rock may have found his groove and elevated us to a new plateau, but more likely he would have continued to struggle offensively. With Rock there were unknowns, without Rock we know exactly what our cards are (no pun) which makes it easier to decide how to play them.

I love Buckles and after the UK game I was pretty sure our season was going to be much less successful for his injury. But now I'm at ease with the reality that this team can coalesce around whatever game plan gets tossed its way. We'll miss a little depth, but in the end the tools are there to get boards, to score points, to lock down opponents and win games. No one started this season saying "with Rock we're an elite 8 team, without him we're not in the tourney." 

In fact even pie-eyed optimists (a group to which my membership is on auto-renewal) thought the card's would get into the tourney with an 8 seed and get bounced in the 2nd round at best. Those more prone to keeping their feet on the ground were poo-pooing the idea of a tournament bid with or without Rock.

Yet here we are. No Rock, but probably a 4 seed (if not better) and at least the hope that we can make it out of the first weekend and into the 16. We'll miss Buckles, but this season has always turned on teamwork and chemistry. Nothing has changed that.

Other notes:

>>> Not sure how many NBA fans we have here, but as a Magic fan I've gotten to see a lot of E5 since the big trade brought him to Orlando. Earl is getting to see a surprising amount of action and he's responded very well. A little more slowly on the offensive side, but defensively he's been tremendous (which the magic need). Physically he's grown out of skinny kid into huge man. He stands next to Dwight Howard quite a bit and surprisingly doesn't look small by comparison. We'll get to see him a lot in the post season I think. E5 might grow up to be the most successful Cardinal in the NBA in a generation. Sorry Cisco, it DOES matter where you land.

>>> While I love surfing around reading piles of accolades about the Cards, I also think there is a great benefit to being under the radar (just as long as the selection committee has us on theirs). Beating Pitt would have had a completely different trajectory if male cheerleader didn't rah rah his way into infamy. Everyone's focused on the circus clown, no one's looking at the dangerous beast prowling around. Best way to win is when they don't see you coming. Also it's hard for guys to get high off their own press if they aren't swimming in media praise.

>>>Have we ever lost a white out? I remember beating GTown in the first one, I remember beating 'Cuse last year. Someone help me out.

>>>I dropped in to Lunardi's chat yesterday and was surprised how many of the questions were aimed at UofL's seeding/prospects. But I shouldn't have been. Bouncing around SBNation to other teams' pages and other teams' open threads, I have noticed that Card Chron is among the top in terms of comments and fan posts. An active community like this is due partially to rabid fans and partially to a moderator who "gets" what sort of content those fans want and (in this day and age) what tone they want to hear in its delivery. I hate to say it (my newspaper roots run deep) but I've stopped going to the CJ because they give me so much less than Mike does, and the community of fans they try to foster seems in general less savvy about the game, more prone to snap judgments and it is much harder to find the interesting comments that help us understand the game and the team we love. So thanks Mike (and gang). It is a remarkable job you've done building something genuinely entertaining and newsworthy. Aside from the gnome. That guy blows.

Like most highly recruited players, the signing of Peyton Siva often overshadows the reality of Peyton Siva. Siva was the centerpiece of the 2009 recruiting class. Rakeem Buckles was a touted talent, but with Swopshire and Samardo still supposedly on the floor, his impact wasn't intended to be felt just yet. But Siva was the point of the future.

For a team that has suffered a biblical-style drought of star point guards since the gut punch of Sebastian Telfair (waht's he doing these days?) great things were expected of young Siva.

But as his freshman year progressed he still showed signs of immaturity, lack of physical stature, the inability to wrest the starting job from senior Edgar Sosa.

When he played we were treated to moments of quickness and grace weighed against dumb turnovers and, let's say it, freshman mistakes. It was hard for many fans to get their hearts back into that initial Siva love fest. Why bother? We have been burned before. This feeling is further inflamed when we see what some other top freshman point guards have done in the last few years - John Wall, Raymond Felton, Ty Lawson, Derrick Rose. Why isn't our guy doing that?

As the 2010 season opened, any swell of Siva-love was quickly checked by extended preseason minutes for Louisville favorite Elisha Justice followed closely by the explosive early season play of Preston! Knowles and Coach RP's expectation-lowering statements that this is a "bridge year."  So what's a Siva? What's the point of this undersized, immature guard who once was the lightning rod for our hope?

The point is that, like UNC's Ty Lawson and Ray Felton before him, this kid is the quickest player on the floor at all times. Both of those guys decimated defenses, cut through the crowd and scored at will. Both of those guys led their teams to national titles.

Is Siva the same as those guys? No. Is this team as well-balanced at all other positions like the '05 and '09 UNC teams were? No. But given a chance Siva has taken games into his own hands and been the difference between winning and losing. Is he polished? Nope. He continues to play ahead of his game and his decision-making suffers lapses when he's leading the charge. But today we experienced something we haven't seen in many years. A guard who other teams don't seem to have an answer for in clutch minutes.

Does this mean that Siva is a top flight player? Maybe it does. Maybe we have a guy who is just now gaining the confidence of his team the way Sosa never could. He is growing every game. Today he outplayed the best guard in the country in the last 15 minutes of clutch play. Today he owned the floor when it mattered.

That feels good for us, but it feels better for him. It gives him the faith in himself to take over and make big plays. His teammates see that. He will be their leader on the floor. Siva is approaching a time when he may fulfill all of our expectations and make us remember that excitement we felt when he decided to jump coasts and play in Louisville.

We will not win a championship this year. Too many injuries, too many weaknesses. But we have the best shooters we've had since the Garcia/Dean days and they should be here next year (sans Preston!). We have a slashing guard the likes of which we haven't seen since before the days of Pitino. 

I hope the pieces fall into place next year. I hope these guys stay calm and grounded. I hope they stay in games until my heart is about to stop. Because 2005 felt a lot like this, and let's not kid ourselves, that team overachieved like crazy. I'm not looking for anything more than what I've always felt this year's team would accomplish: top 6 in the Big East and a 2nd, maybe 3rd round out. But even with that we will have gained the most important piece for a team to grow on, an extremely talented, confident, upperclassman point guard. Peyton Siva.

Viva Siva.

First I must qualify this. Louisville played like a rusty bung. They shot like the '09 Cards and got just about as many bad breaks (errant rebounds, dropped balls in the paint, possession arrow that seems stuck in the wrong direction). If the Cards had made something north of 17% of their 3-point attempts we'd be laughing about mafia-like assassination pulled off by the refs.

This sort of thing occurred with great regularity last year and it was maddening. It was looking like maybe this season things would even out a bit, until last night. It's not like the foul situation was horribly imbalanced -- on paper. But in reality it was like a pressure point take down. Like a controlled demolition where expert placement of the explosive device gets maximum impact out of minimum uses.

Not one. Not two. But three moving screens called on made baskets. Two away from the ball. Two on three pointers by PK. One of those kept us from extending a lead in the 2nd half. One of those kept us from taking the lead in the last 3(ish) minutes of the game.

You can't beat that kind of gut-ripping call, better to just miss the shot. With calls like that being made is there any doubt that we were not supposed to win that game? Probably for the best that we dropped a shitty performance since the refs knew at the tip it was time for Providence to end its Big East losing streak.

If I were a Friars fan (shudder) I'd be happy with the win no matter how it came to pass. You don't achieve that short of futility without some things going against you. So I suppose they deserve the win, and they played OK. I hate that it had to happen against us, I hate that the refs had to be the ones to administer the beating (no offense to Marshon Brooks).

Obviously this puts more pressure on the WV game. Unfortunately the 'eers loss to Marshall yesterday means they are going to be as amped up as we are. Last year we got jobbed by the refs at Morgantown, hopefully Higgins and his buddies got it out of their system on Saturday. We don't need any 3rd party interference to turn this game into a brawl.

Lose bowl game to head-coachless Big East rep Pitt? Check.

Lose basketball game to unranked SEC dog? Check.

Lose some guy named Enes who you have a huge crush on? Check

Flip out about it? Check.

Lose day-long debate over relative distastefulness of your fans to guy who probably wasn't wearing pants the entire debate? Check.

Watch as arch-rivals out-recruit your precious football program? Check.

UK is one late-night trip to Taco Bell away from a suicide watch ward. Maybe just pull the shades and be thankful the NCAA never looking into that 4.0 GPA John Wall posted last year. Next week HAS to be better.

I have a hard time seeing the worldview when it is not the view from my own default setting. David Foster Wallace urged us to actively seek to break free from this myopic view, and I suspect many of you will wish that I would listen to the late author. But here it is: I just can't get myself all worked into a lather over a loss to UK anymore.

I love the rivalry. I love to win the game. But there is something missing that helps ease my suffering when things don't go the Cardinal's way in that particular game. Maybe it's because I live in the midst of 3 million UNC fans, so that I can go weeks without ever hearing from a UK fan. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to trash talk it, did the tree really fall?

The bigger reason for my growing ennui about this matchup is that in the end it is not as important to me as how the Cards perform when conference play starts. From my perch that is really all that matters. Win the games you are supposed to in November and December, beat UK if you can, but come Big East play it's time to stop messing around and start winning games that can ensure us a good tourney seed. Beating UK...nice. Finishing in the top four of the Big East...necessary.

Driving home last night I was surprised at how much more excited I was about the Seton Hall game then I had been about the UK game on New Years Eve, Maybe it's because I felt confident we'd win, maybe it's because I like mid-week diversions, maybe it's because it gave me an excuse to drink beer in my living room and cheer at the to of my lungs.  I don't know. But I do know that a loss to Seton Hall would have pissed me off far beyond what the UK loss did. And beating even a 3rd-tier Big East team made me feel almost as good as beating a top-rated, in-state rival would have.

I don't say this to diminish what the rivalry means to those who drink it up. But as I read the exortations of those who demand satisfaction from Pitino with regards to this rivalry, and those who condemn him for putting more weight on the conference over the historic rival, I want to raise the awareness that not all of us are consumed by this single game. The NCAA tournament is what is important. And if you want to quesiton how well coach has done or whether or not he's living up to expectations, let's measure him by that stick. Not whether he beats the blue. I'm not necessarily saying he universally passes muster in terms of his tourney resume (though I'm happy with his performance) I'm just saying let's use the correct goal as a way to measure the man. I won't bother reciting his Cardinal honorifics because even I, a huge Pitino fan, can admit that I thought he should have had a banner in ten years of coaching. But if he loses to UK every year yet still has us poised for deep tourney runs, so be it.

And for those who do let the rivalry fire burn so hot that they feel the loss all year, all I can say is that you are missing out on enjoying the incredible rivalries we've developed in the Big East. If you gave me a choice between beating Syracuse and UK, I'd take Syracuse every time. Same for Marquette. Same for UConn. Double for WVU.

I want to win every game and UK is one of those. But the season doesn't start with the UK game, the less important part of our season ends with it. Go Cards.

Urban Meyer is retiring, again. But probably we can count on him not being a Gator next season. Why? 24/7 job...time with kids...blah blah blah. Normally I wouldn't give a rat's ass about how Meyer is planning to spend his summer vacation -- leaving the world with the lasting memory of him getting drubbed by FSU in his final regular season game is enough for me. But obviously this is different.

We can tell ourselves all day long that Strong to Miami would have been a bad idea and a tough call to make. And maybe we'd be right. But this is much different. If the prodigal son gets called home to lead the Gators there is no amount of loyalty in the world that will keep him in Louisville. You simply don't turn down the UF job no matter where you are. Lane Kiffin would jump ship in a second -- OK, bad example -- but I'd bet that Saban himself would have a hard time saying no to that job (he'd have to turn them down for pride's sake, I think, but he'd be thinking about it). CSS? No question if they want him he's gone.  So the only question is - do they want him?

USA today thinks they might:

Possible replacements that will get early mention could include Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen, the offensive coordinator for UF's national titles under Meyer before leaving this past year and former UF defensive coordinator Charlie Strong. Strong was named the Big East co-coach of the year in his first season at Louisville. He was also on both national title staffs.

Worst case scenario is that he's not their top choice, but their top choice (Saban or whoever) turns them down and they come dragging in for sloppy seconds and he still leaves. Best thing that guy can say right now is "I'm building a program here. I'm going to be here to finish what I started. Maybe there is a day when I have accomplished my goals here that I tackle a new challenge, but that day is not today."

I have a feeling we won't be hearing that speech. The good news is, Urban Meyer is on the market, maybe we can get him.

And by pro grade, I mean, he has been paid to play basketball according to the New York Times:

Turkish Team Says It Paid a Top Kentucky Recruit

By PETE THAMEL

ISTANBUL — The best recruit in Kentucky’s top-ranked recruiting class, the Turkish center Enes Kanter, received more than $100,000 in cash and benefits over three years from the professional team he played for here, according to the team’s general manager.

Can't wait to find out who paid the rest of the team.

Our main man Hunter Cantwell has moved to #2 spot on the Carolina Panthers depth chart. Presumably ahead of rookies Tony Pike and Jiminy Cricket, er, Clausen.

The no. 2 spot on the panthers depth chart makes Cantwell almost a guaranteed starter at some point this season unless Moore just goes nuts, or Hunter gets punched in the head by Steve Smith. 

Sadly, Cantwell's fantasy value is still nil. I'll be drafting him anyway.

(QB tutor) Whitfield referred to Cantwell having "rare arm talent," saying that among current NFL quarterbacks, only Chicago's Jay Cutler and former Oakland Raider JaMarcus Russell were comparable. But what impressed him most was Cantwell's dedication and work ethic.

Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/07/10/1555634/practice-makes-perfect-for-qb.html#ixzz0tTySa6EE

File under: Couldn't happen to nicer people.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Ar8CsNEqsuEAInsFwwXFCum8vLYF?slug=aw-caliparibulls050410

How long will Teague stick around if our boy Blue bolts for the Windy City? 5 minutes, 1 day? There's an awful lot of "Thinkin' time" between now and whenever the hell that dude is suppose to graduate for him to mull over the wickeness of his ways.

Dig if you will the picture of Cal bolting UK. This would have to be magnitudes worse than Kiffen dumping UT, right? Like the psychic groan coming from Lexington would be something akin to the noises coming off Alderaan right about the time it got turned to spacedust. And to be clear, I had to look up the spelling of Alderaan, so simmer down.

Listen, if someone told you that we'd have to suffer a tumultuous season, a first round tourney bouncing (to a PAC 10 team no less), a disappointing recruiting season and a legion of jackasses who think we'd be better off with out Pitino, but at the end of it all Calipari would take his toys and go to Chicago, would you take that deal? I would. Please tell me that guy loves pan pizza. pretty please Cal, one and done - that's what I'd call leading by example.

hindsight, 20-20, yadda-yadda. But seriously - The timing was off for us to land teague. Teague looks at the cards and sees his freshman year coinciding with Siva's junior year, he knows he's not going to start, he can't go pro after 1 if he doesn't start, so what's he to do? He made a good call for him, and in the end a good outcome for us. 2011 Siva is way better then 2011 Teague. I think.

So the real issue here is that we feel like we were chasing the hottest prom date and then she shows up to class holding hands with the porsche-driving class douche. We feel cheated, we feel second class. But the truth is this, everyone (including prom queen teague) knows who the douche is, yet still prom queen makes up her mind to go with douche. It doesn't really tell us anything we don't know about the douche, but it tells us an awful lot about the girl we were chasing. That kind of bad judgement isn't an anomaly, it's part of her character. It tells us what we really should have always known: prom queen was never going to be in it for the long haul. She's looking for the most expeditious route to a ton of money, and porsche-driving douche seems like the easy road because he is. In the end we don't need that girl, or any girls like her. We're better off focusing our attention on very pretty girls whose heads are in the right place, they make for much more fulfilling relationships. God knows the prom queen is going to leave the blue-balled, porche-driving douche with his dick in his hand, just like everyone else has. That's one reason he wants to keep moving, so the stink on his history never has time to settle around him. UK fans are happy now, but a few seasons of having the best high-schoolers not deliver a final four, or NC and the love will start to wear thin and they'll chase the blue-balled, porsche-driving douche out of town. Unless the NCAA gets onto him for one thing or another and he bolts first.

We're fine. We're better than fine. Our prom date is awesome and I bet next season she puts out. 

Were you shocked? I sure wasn't. I was hopeful all weekend, keeping the positive fan spirit in high gear. So much so that in retrospect it seems forced. It is not odd for me to expect the best out of the Cardinals, and this year it was not odd for them to disappoint. 

The saving grace of this season comes in two distinct pieces of knowledge:

1) We closed down the Hall with an absolute bang. I'll never forget that game as long as I live. And frankly, barring a highly unlikely final four drive, I'd rather have won that game then a couple in the tourney.

2) This was undeniably a rebuilding year, and we still played OK, making the NCAAs when many other powerhouses did not. That leaves me excited about next season when Siva gets the reins, Sammy,  Jennings and Swop are more refined and Buckles, Marra and Kuric will see a lot more floor time. I'll be amazed if we aren't contending for the Big East title again.

Alas, we have to wait 7 months for that to happen. 

But I, for one, stand completely behind Pitino and the coaching staff. Without him the outlook isn't so sunny when we open the new arena. 

I hate that we lost, and I hate that I have to hang up my lucky shirt for one more off season. But it'll be worth it next year when we win 26 games, get seeded in the top part of the brackets and a deep run doesn't seem so improbable.

Go Cards!

Doug Gottlieb, enough with the Michael Irvin pinstripes.

Doug Gottlieb, Richmond will not make the elite eight.

Doug Gottlieb, everyone knows you hate Louisville and are pretty sure Illinois should be in ahead of them, go fuck yourself.

Doug Gottlieb, I want my credit cards back.

Doug Gottlieb, when you say things like "The Big 12 is the strongest conference in the tournament in terms of numbers." No one knows what you mean. What numbers? Was it the number 7? Because most of us consider that number slightly inferior to the number 8. 

Doug Gottlieb, what's the exact number of times you had to blow Digger Phelps to get a job on air?

Doug Gottlieb, fall down a well on Boeheim's farm.

Doug Gottlieb, I feel bad for your father, who always wanted a boy.

Got a short note for Doug? Leave it here.

Wore the gray cardinals shirt last night. I wore it when we lost to Marquette too. All my other shirts were in the laundry. I knew it when I put it on.  My fault, won't happen again. 

also - anyone starting to rethink their position that the time of the games has nothing to do with their performance? I swear we suck after the sun goes down. We get exactly one good half and that's it. 

either way we're still in the dance. And now we are squarely on a 9 seed. Or 8, it doesn't matter which. We'll probably get Duke in the second assuming they get a 1 seed. I can't imagine they'll put us with Syracuse, or KU. Gotta be a lower 8,9 out there who'll pick up the top seeds. They could put us with UK to be hilarious. Naturally I'd like to avoid a 1 seed as long as possible, we all would. But the fact is we play our best against top competition so maybe we'll be better served. I don't know how we'll fare against Duke, they are good all over the floor. But we'll be finding out. And if we can knock off a 1 seed then who knows. Oh well, it could be worse - my brother flew to NY with BET tickets this morning, talk about bad timing. He did the same thing two years ago when we got bounced early.  I feel bad for the guy.

Go Cards!

a brief, very nonscientific survey demonstrates that the cardinals are not night people. So while I'm excited that I won't miss any of the BET action due to work, I'm extra glad we won yesterday (as if I could be more glad) because we stink after the sun sets. 

Dig, if you will, the picture:

Night games since Jan:

Providence, Villanova, Seton Hall, UConn, St. Johns, ND, Georgetown, Marquette. We won only three of those, and two of those were nail-biters. Two of the losses were ass-whippingly embarrassing. 

via www.blogcdn.com

Day games since Jan:

UK,  Pitt, Cincy, WVU, Rutgers, Syracuse, DePaul, UConn, Syracuse.  OK, I'm not saying we dominated the day games, but we did win a couple of VERY big games and gave Pitt all they could handle.

via www.auburnpub.com

I know, I know, the top line probably has a higher aggregate RPI then the bottom line, but still, the games where we have faded the fastest or simply not shown up at all were all night games. We were in every single one of the day games depending on how you view the UK game. 

Pitino has to know that drawing the late game in the BET is going to present a challenge for his team which refreshes the meaning of Cinderella.  Hopefully the gravitas of The Garden will wake the guys up. Or maybe they just need set the clocks back about 7 hours, clearly they optimal time for them to be on the court is between the hours of 12 and 4. 

Hi Edgar.

It's me, Eric. I've got some things I need to say. I probably should have said them earlier, but I was scared. I was scared if I let myself hang out there that you'd hurt me. So I waited. But I can't wait any more. In four years together we've gone through a lot, some of it great, like when you nailed it down on UK last season. Some of it not so great, like when you clunked a bunch of free throws in the late stages of close games this season. Some if it was incredible and awful at the same time. Like the second round the NCAA tourney your freshman year.

But during the Georgetown loss I kept wishing, for the first time, that you would just drive to the rack every possession. You were the only piece of the machine that worked consistently that day. It was then that I realized we would go only as far as you could take us this year. I think you know what that means. It means that you are going have to be the guy to make the good decisions that will have us playing until we absolutely get outmatched. You will know when to pop the triple, when to penetrate and kick out, when to drop the ball in to Samardo and Swop, and when use your trickery to put the puck in the net yourself.

You were a slashing masterpiece on Sunday. I never thought for a second that we were going to win that game. No matter who took the last shot. Every star seemed to be aligned against us. But you are kind of used to that. Stars aligning against you, that is. And it hasn't always worked out for the best. But now you are stronger. Now it doesn't matter because it is your time. There are probably a few teams out there that we simply can't beat. But there aren't that many of them. I hope you are able to guide the team through the brambles and bring them out on the other side of March. Few people think  we're a sweet 16 team. I think we are. Next to no one thinks we're an 8 team. I think we are. I don't even think the final four is THAT much of an insane outlook for this team but we'll probably need to be in the right bracket and catcha break. But we've earned a break.  And if we get one then it's a whole new ballgame. I won't be holding my breath or anything, but the pieces are there. The talent is there. The leadership on the floor is there.

If you make all the right moves you could become the most surprising floor general in the team's history. A guy whose name is part of the Louisville lexicon forever. Some people will say: "Can you believe how far Edgar took this team? It's amazing." Others will say: "Of course he did, I knew he was the man all along." And they'll both be lying a little bit. Because no true fan has not seen those championship sparks, and every true fan has wondered if they would ignite at exactly the right time.

Judging by the relatively weak pulse around Card Vegas these days it's fair to say that fans are still feeling a little violated by the Johnnies.  Nothing wrong with that, the Cards deflated what little confidence most folks had when they failed to show up in the Garden. UofL has at times showed us flashes of Above Averageness, enough to  make me wonder who we can't beat when we play well.  We've had a few big tests, and though we haven't won any of those games we've been there to the (sometimes very) bitter end. 

Under the best circumstances today's game against Syracuse was bound to be a Big Game. In the current climate it has become the biggest, baddest, most important game of the year. If we go into the Carrier Dome and walk out with the win, who among us won't be completely reinvigorated and excited about our chances to not only make the tourney but to make a run. If we walk out with a loss who will think that we have the stones to beat the Hoyas, Marquette, Notre Dame and then take season finale against the Orange? I've already taken the days off work so I'll watch the games, but it will feel more like visiting a hospice than celebrating the team. If we lose a nailbiter, I'll be tempted to say: "We hung in there and still could make a run." But I'd be wrong. It would just mean that we failed to close one more time down a very important stretch. 

Maybe I'm wrong, but this feels like our last chance at redemption, and a chance that frankly we are fortunate to have. We have a deep team loaded with capable players. We have one of the best big men in the conference. We have an intense coach who treats his season not as a string of wins or losses but as his family's developmental growth chart. We have decent defenders and good scoring options. The question is do we have the hunger and the heart. I'm not even going to venture a guess, but I'll know today by 3 p.m EST.

Here's hoping the cards can give themselves a shot and give us something to cheer about. 

Go Cards! 

(I reserve the right to be hopeful if we lose by less than 3 - no matter how dumb that is)

OK. Now let's look at this thing logically.  We just got absolutely demolished by a below average team. We played like the pieces of shit that Shooter McGavin eats for breakfast, and that is what bothers me the most. For the  part,  we have played well lately. We've lost a lot of tight ones and we haven't closed very well, but  we've basically played well. Until last night.

All of that to say this: As painful and disappointing as it was, it doesn't matter. St. Johns does not get us in or keep us out of the tourney. If the only teams remaining on our sked were mid-level, Big East bubble teams that might not be true, but the fate of our season was never going to be decided by how we play against average teams. We have the beauty of staring down a stretch of 3 games against two top 10 teams, and a charging Marquette. We probably need to win two of those four games.  That has been true forever. Our record is mediocre, our SOS is great and our RPI is strong. But we were never going to make the dance is we didn't notch a big time win or two.

Sunday is huge. It almost could not be bigger. We need to go on the road and beat the No. 2 team in the country. If we do that we should get to dance. If we lose, well, then I'd say our backs are against the wall and we'll need to beat GTown & 'Cuse. to get in.

So far this year we've been treated to horrible, out-of-conference disappointments; devastating, late-game let-downs; and infuriating, Tim Donaghy-style officiating. So that's a lot of bad news. Is there any good news?

Sure.

1) If you've been watching the games through the same rose-colored, prescriptions I use, then you see Samardo turning in some outstanding offensive performances. His rebounding has really developed, especially on the offensive boards.  He's developed a baby hook that would make David Padgett weepy. When was the last time we had a big guy in the post who could drop a baby hook that wasn't cringe inspiring? I can't remember. 

2) Peyton Siva. While there's been a lively debate over Siva v Sosa for the past week or so now, it is clear that our future PG is an outstanding talent. He's nimble, speedy, confident and possesses a killer 3-point shot. He makes mistakes, sure, but they seem to be standard rookie mistakes, not signs that he's a head case. He's been so genuinely supportive of Sosa that it's hard to doubt the kind of attitude he'll bring to the team. 

3) Delk. Jennings. Not yet perfectly reliable, but both of these guys seem to have turned a corner. 

4) We've lost more games than we'd like and our schedule isn't getting any easier, but we haven't been dominated by anyone. not even UK. Any one of those conference losses could have gone the other way without too much changing in the game. This team clearly has the tools, and the skills to play with anyone. 

So the big question is are we resilient? Will we let these close losses shake our confidence? It could easily go that way. What this team has in terms of ability is offset by a lack of maturity and killer instinct. We have not shown great confidence up to this point and it's hard  to imagine how recent events could be very inspirational to them. But there is no reason we can't win most of the rest of our games and show well in the tournament. And the beauty of playing in the BE is that we'll get the benefit of playing a raft of ranked teams that look outstanding on the resume. If we can beat the teams we should beat and then get 4-5 wins against some combination of UConn x 2, GTown, Marquette, ND and Syracuse x 2, then we should be money. It's not going to be easy, but the ship isn't sunk. 

There is no other way for me to say this other than to come right out with it...we're a much better team when Siva is on the floor. Maybe that wasn't true in November. Maybe it wasn't true 3 weeks ago. But the difference in style, court savvy and general awareness between Sosa and the freshman was pretty evident on Sunday. When I watch what Siva does it is like watching the confident, capable, elite athlete we always wanted Sosa to become.  When he needs to slash - he slashes. When he needs to pull up for the 3, no problem. When he needs to snap a no look pass through traffic to SamSam - yeah, he seems to be able to do that quite well, too. He's the first good point guard we've had since I can't remember when. Mike says Siva'll be the best PG in the BE in three years, I'd be willing to raise him one year.

And you know, I'm a loyal guy. I appreciate Sosa and I've probably half-glass-fulled him more times than I can count. But enough is enough. The Cincy game was a decent balance, and I have no problem with Sosa starting b/c I think we'll need his ego not to be terribly bruised down the stretch, but going forward we'll be more successful if we wean ourselves off Sosa's unpredictable play and give the kid a chance to shine.

 http://www.charlotteobserver.com/423/story/782273.html

According to Charlotte Observer columnist Rick Bonnell, TWill had an impressive workout with the bobcats and coach Larry Brown, who loves the defense, hopes he's available at 12. From what I've read this is the second best workout Brown has seen this year (stephen curry being the top). The only downside I see is that the Bobcats have an athletic forward and already play pretty good D. What they really need is someone who can shoot the ball (like curry).    

1) all the buzz today is about UK's landing of 4 5-star hoops stars including no.1 PG john wells. Let's assume Meeks and Patterson jump, which, if that happens, could potentially leave Calipari with 5 freshman starters. The last time we saw this sort of nonsense was Michigan's Fab Five. By the time you factor in the new coach,  you are looking at possibly the most cleared table in NCAA history. What will UK do with this roster of young bucks and the new skipper? What is their ultimate upside? 

2) Some oddsmakers have futures lines up for next year's NCAA championship. Not surprisingly Kansas is getting the best odds at 6-1. With UK's latest news they come in second as 10-1. BUT THE BIG SHOCKER is that in UofL checked in with the third best odds of cutting down the nets at 12-1.  For reals!?! I figure we are probably a little worse off then we were last year. Which is to say, we're going to be good. We'll contend for a Big East title and we'll make a run in March. But am I missing something? Are we way better than I think we are?

Discuss.

1) I will never again rely on CBS to show me a game if it is one I MUST see. The cut away early in the second half basically ruined my weekend. Sports bar from here on out. 

2) Since I didn't get to actually watch the game, it's hard to say how we looked. I saw joggy bits and pieces on justin.tv, but even good play looks bad there, so it was hard to tell where we were messing up. Though it looked like we weren't really taking care of the ball. Then when we finally made out comeback even my justin.tv feed had switched over to marquette.   

3) So really all I know is that I was crapping my pants for 45 minutes with no real indication of how the game was going. Hopefully a close game like this will be beneficial to us going into the Arizona game. I am starting to wish maybe that St. Mary's had gotten the invite instead of Zona. But whatever, I think we stand a better chance of being ready for Zona than for Siena. Or maybe Siena is just an awesome team, like I said, I have no real way of knowing.

4) I'm just glad we won. God bless the Cards. Deep breath then on to Indy.