I read that Tim Higgins will be retiring this summer:

http://blog.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2012/05/veteran_ncaa_basketball_offici.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

I think we can all agree that this is a good thing, although unfortunately we will not get to experience the piggy higgy dance anymore. I was never one to get all upset over the refs, but in general I thought this guy was past his prime, out of shape, and was no longer able to effectively officiate a fast-paced (or any pace for that matter) college game.

The "Piggy Higgy" Dance (via NovaWildcat01)

Just a few numbers I snagged (and expounded) from ITV:

Before I post them, I think the bottom-line is that they haven't seen the type of talent we'll be bringing in nearly 3 months. Unless they get insanely hot from the 3pt line, I really can't seem them beating us.

Of their 25 wins, exactly five of them are against teams with a winning percentage over .500. We have 15.

They've got exactly two wins over teams in the RPI Top 100. We have 13. Those two wins are (6) Kansas - very impressive, but it came Dec 19 - and (98) Penn on Dec 29. In 2012, they've played three games against teams in the top 150. They split with Charleston (118) and lost by 17 to Wich St (15) at home. The SoCon championship game was against 17-18 Western Carolina (225), and they beat them in 2OT.

They have three losses to teams outside the RPI top 100. We have 1... the implosion at Providence. They have one win over a team that made this year's tourney (Kansas). We have 10. I mean, shit, they have 4 wins in total against the top 150. We have 17.

According to the Pomeroy ratings, we've got the 2nd rated defense playing against the 19th most difficult schedule this season. Davidson's got the 37th rated offense playing against the 210th ranked schedule. They haven't seen a defense remotely close to what they will on Thursday. Their defense is ranked 124th. Our athleticism and their willingness to play up-tempo bodes well for us.

If we don't win by 10+, we've played very, very poorly. Last year, I thought Morehead State was a bad matchup (I still thought we'd win) due to rebounding problems we had all year. Our major problems this year are FT shooting and turnovers. Those are what cost us games. But against top 50 teams. I think we'll be fine.

I haven't seen anything that would support him being either eligible or not for this upcoming year.  If he's not qualified, he'll have to go the route of prep school I imagine.  It's getting quite late for that, no?

This would also make us depend much more on Bullet or CS5, given that Russ has made the switch to SG.

Anyone else in Chicago thinking about making the MLK day trek up to Milwaukee for the Marquette game?  Could be a fun environment...

Kinda of forgotten (or at least sparingly talked about) in our discussions on seeding is whether or not we’ll get any consideration for all the injuries we’ve had.  When Buckles was out, we went 7-5.  When Buckles and Dieng were both out, we went 2-2.  Strangely enough, we played really well on the road over that stretch (Gtown/ND) but ultimately lost.  That might be offset with how poor we played against Cinci with both players back.

I guess if we can finish 3-1, or maybe somehow 4-0, do we get any leniency on some of our losses with those two players banged up?  Might end up being the difference between a 4/5/6 seed.

From someone who has seen all UL games and the majority of ND games this year, I wanted to provide some thoughts.  Obviously, my moniker is ND affiliated, but my heart lies with the Cards.

As many of you know, we typically don’t fare well up in South Bend.  Most teams over the last five years haven’t either.  ND has the stigma of being world-beaters at home, and usually plays well below that level on the road.  This year has been a bit different.  Being great at home is no different (they’re undefeated), but they’ve played much better away from the JACC.  True, ND has gotten spanked on the road at St. John’s and Marquette, but note that those games were played without perhaps its most versatile player in Carleton Scott.  Scott is a 6-8 SF who can regularly make threes, can block shots, and can crash the boards.  A poor man’s E5.  But I think he’s probably the best NBA prospect the Irish have.  Also, Marquette shot 12-17 from 3, and SJU has several good wins at the Garden this year (see Gtown and Duke).  The other two losses (Cuse and UK) were actually closer games than the final scores suggest (ND had second half lead vs Cuse, and was down by 5 with 3:00 left vs UK), but ND ran out of steam in the last five minutes of those two road games (yes, playing UK in Louisville is a road game).

But this year’s ND team has a lot of experience (all five starters have been playing D-1 basketball for at least four years), can shoot the ball, and doesn’t turn the ball over.  To be effective against ND, Louisville will need to shoot the ball well, take care of the basketball, and limit second chance points.  I’d like our chances a lot more if Rock were playing, but we definitely need a great game from Siva, and it would help to have the good C. Smith and PK for this game.  Lord knows we haven’t had much luck shooting the ball up there, so hopefully it’s our turn for some hot shooting.  

I don’t know why Ben Hansbrough isn’t the front-runner for BE POY at this point.  He single-handedly beat Pitt in the last five minutes, and is averaging 19.3pts for an 8-3 BE team, predicted to finish 9th.  He makes the team go, and PK will have his hands full.  Four words of advice: make him go left.  Ok, enough about ND.

I actually feel pretty good about this game for some reason.  Maybe it was Mike, but I thought I read somewhere that Pitino said in a presser that he really wanted this game, and thought we could win.  But seeing how we performed vs UConn and Gtown on the road gave me a lot of confidence.  I think ND will slow down this game, and will want to keep the score in the 50s, low 60s.  Not our forte, but we scrapped and had our chances to win last Monday in a similar game.

My keys to victory:

-Protect the ball; we need to keep our TOs below 10, because possessions will be precious.

-Run when we can; we don’t have the most prolific half-court sets, so getting on the break and getting some open looks will be vital if we want to knock down some 3s.

-Rebound the basketball.  Getting killed on the boards played huge roles in most of our losses (Drexel, Nova, UK). Ensure ND doesn’t get multiple shots because that might mean we’re defending for a minute or a minute and a half each possession.

-Don’t lose the game at the FT line.  We aren’t a great FT shooting team, but ND is.  And they do a great job of getting to the line.  So this means we need to defend without fouling, and make sure we can hit a decent % (75) of our FTs.

-Don’t lose the game in the first half.  I think we’re a gritty team.  We’ve shown we can make second-half comebacks, but sometimes we just run out of steam (Nova, Gtown).  When we make our second half run, it would be nice if it were to extend the lead, rather than even up the game.  

-Being down by 5 at the half.  I’m not sayin’, I’m just saying.

Here’s to hoping we get it done. Our last four losses have all been followed by at least two wins, and in each of our 3 game BE mini-series we’ve started 2-0, so let’s keep the streak going.

Prediction: Irish 61, Cards 64

Why are our options for FT shooting either 18-19 or 12-25?  Even in the games where we're shooting well, we can't hit $hit from the FT line.  It ultimately hasn't been the difference in a game yet, but somewhere along the road, it certainly will.  Also, consider our momentum early on in games.  If we can hit our FTs, stretch the lead, it might cause the other team to speed up and play into our strength.  Also, it seems like other teams are usually on fire against us.

Great game tonight against SJU.  The Johnnies are a solid team, and I expect to see them finish in the top 8 of the BE.  Already is, but will end up being a great win for us.  Given the spread, would have expected more Russ Smith, but I can't complain given the game that Siva had.  Thought Justice looked a lil out-matched at times tonight.  Don't mean to say that R. Smith wouldn't have been, but I just thought he could have seen some time if T. Henderson did.  Speaking of TH, he was a beast on the offensive boards, but if he can't finish around the rim, I hope he doesn't expect minutes (kidding).

So, are we a good shooting team this year?  Seems like we have at least one guy per night that is stroking it, between P!, CS, KK, MM, or the occasional red-hot Siva.  I like it.

Strange to think that three starters against Butler did not play tonight (TBHSSCRPHES, TJ, RB).  Hope the SVT injury wasn't too serious.  Good start (2-0) to the final 15 game stretch.  I read on a diff site that heading into tonight, of all 44 BE conf games in total, the road team is 14-30.  Consider further that 9 of those road wins come against the bottom 4 teams (DePaul, USF, Prov, Rutgers), who combined have 2 BE victories.  ... we really need to defend the Yum Center.  

Some thoughts on tonight's game:

1) My faith in Preston! has been fully restored after having it stripped from me last year.  I'm now fully okay with his off-balance shots and sometimes dicey decisions. He's a great shooter, keep it coming.

2) Why does Villanova always have a PF/C that can consistently hit the 15-18' jumper from the top of the key/elbow?  Seriously, just miss some damn shots.

3) I didn't like the announcers saying that UL didn't have a chance if they didn't hit eight 3s in the second half.  While he might have been right, he completely ignored that Villanova was also shooting like 60% from 3-pt range as well. Including hitting some really well-defended shots.

4) I swear I can't stand the pump fake, lean 3 feet toward the basket to draw the foul jumpshot.  I can buy the foul call in the lane, but if the shooter is contorting his body to draw the foul, I think it's a BS, cop-out foul.  That said, I don't know why our guys don't do it. ever.

5) It's been said before, but Nova got 95% of the bounces tonight. It probably didn't make the difference in an other 8-12 pt game, but you never know how momentum could have turned.  oh well, these things tend to balance out over the year.

6) Is it me, or did every single one of Nova's FTs hit the rim in 5 different spots before going in?  To be honest, I would rather them swish all their FTs, at least I could chalk that up to a ton of practice.  When they bounce all over the place and finally fall in, I just get pissed off.

7) TJ/SVT, gotta make some of those bunnies.  Actually, just make any of them.

8) We badly missed Rock Buckles tonight.  Pena and Yarou had their way.  We need him back sooner than later.  Are we still expecting mid-Feb?  Or perhaps maybe sooner?

All in all, I think I'm actually kinda encouraged.  I'm not satisfied, but I'm not disappointed.  Can't really complain, but it's nice to be able to shrug off a loss like this.  We played hard, just didn't have that rebounding force we need.  Hi, Chane.

The man admitted to intentionally misleading NCAA investigators.

"I've made some serious mistakes, and for that I'm truly sorry," Pearl said tearfully at a news conference. "I provided incorrect and misleading information to the NCAA. I've learned some invaluable lessons. After I provided the false and misleading information, subsequently I went back and corrected the record. I learned that it's not OK to tell the truth most of the time, but you've got to tell the truth all of the time," he said.

I just don't get it.   Certainly he's paying a price with his pay reduction and the 8 SEC game suspension, but shouldn't this have cost him his job?  Your moral stance on Pitino's situation aside, his trangressions weren't breaking NCAA laws.  Pearl blatantly broke them, and essentially gets a stern slap on the wrist.  I don't know the details, but didn't have have some kind of incident at UW-M?

To be honest, I don't really care one way or the other, because I don't think Tennessee will ever be a threat to make the Final Four, much less win a title with B. Pearl there.  I think his teams are generally overhyped, and I enjoy 20pt ass whippings in the tournament just as much as the next guy.

But had this happened at my job, where I blatantly lied to the highest officials/executives, you're god damned right I would have been canned.

It seems like there are a fair number of out towners on this "blog"...

I'm trying to understand if there is any incentive to purchasing the Full Court package.  It seems to me that every game that would be available on Full Court is also available on ESPN3, which I can stream through my Xbox.   My only thought would be that I usually casually watch other games when they're close late in the 2nd half.  Also, on ESPN3, would I be able to watch from the beginning a game that's halfway done (i.e. like I Tivo'd it)?

Anyone else out there with the same problem?  Also, is there a full schedule of what games (specifically OOC) will be broadcast on ESPN3/Full Court for UL this year?

Source didn't necessarily come out and say that UL would win the appeal, but the facts shared with me seem reasonable enough.  that said, usually it seems to take more than that when you're dealing with the NCAA.

Anywho, this is what I have:

- In Senegal where Dieng started his education, the standard for graduating HS is 13 years.  Most places, including here in the US, it's 12 years.  But it's 13 years in Senegal for some reason.
- Dieng completed 12 years in Senegal, and moved to the US to complete HS.  This would be his 13th year of schooling.  He took the rest of his classes, and scored 31 on his ACT.
- the NCAA looks at your first 12 years (or 4 years of HS, rather) for eligibility, and therefore Dieng didn't have all his core classes completed in that time.  There has been some confusion as to the core classes, but it's a small mix of English, History, Science, and Math.  I don't know the specifics, but apparently Dieng took all required classes he needed, just over a 13 yr period, not a 12.
- What's taking so long is Huntington Prep.  The NCAA will ask for one thing, HP will wait a couple weeks and send it in.  The NCAA says this isn't what they needed, and it takes another two weeks to get something.  So on and so forth.
- If Dieng loses his appeal, he will not be allowed to play at UL.  The Big East does not allow you to enroll full-time as a partial qualifier.  You can enroll part-time, but not full-time.  Because compliance didn't expect problems with Dieng, he enrolled full-time.  the details of this are hazy (a few beers deep), but the point being that Dieng either wins his appeal and plays at UL, or not at all.

Sounds to me like it's a matter of when, not if, but you never know.  Just wanted to share some additional info.

What is the baseline expectation for basketball this season?  Is there a certain record CRP needs to hit to keep himself off the hot seat? All things considered (SS going pro, Sallie/Coleman/Dieng not eligible, various other commits not here (Tyler, Martin), injuries), what defines a successful year this year? NCAA tourney birth?  Does any result (aside from an obvious 12-25 type season) put Pitino on the hot seat?  Now, I also realize the things we're considering all can be placed at Pitino's feet, but there's no point in doing otherwise.

There's been a lot of negativity lately, mostly directed at the results of the 2011 recruiting efforts, and I think that's fair.  But I also think people are downplaying the strength of our current commits.  But, given the stress that Pitino has directly (through his statements) and indirectly (multiple strikeouts in the 2009/2010 classes) placed on the 2011 class, I think he has set up people for disappointment.  Had we never gone after Teague, Miller, Bello, Wroten, Sampson, Hinds, (fill in the blank), and only went after the current commits we have, I think the feel of our current class would be much more positive.  We have some players, just maybe not the top ones we went after.

Given Pitino's salary, his recruiting assets (arena, facilities, fanbase, tradition), and everything else, there is no reason that he shouldn't be making the NCAA this year (regardless of who's on the roster).  That's not to say missing the tourney costs him his job, though.

I'm thinking a 20 win season is a success.  And if he can sign his current commit group, I'm bullish on the future.  Much less, and I have my doubts about Pitino to bring in #3.

Article from deadspin re: America's dumbest student athlete.  Submitted without comment because, quite frankly, I don't know what I could say to either add or detract from this. In addition, I'm not trying to pass judgment (directly, that is)

Link from deadspin: http://m.deadspin.com/5586171/americas-dumbest-student+athlete-nominee-villanova

Link to a screenshot of the student webpage referenced in the article: http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/11/2010/07/custom_1279053027342_shaneclarkwebpage.jpg

Enjoy

I'll direct you to a prize that was won by yours truly:  http://www.cardchronicle.com/2010/2/2/1288703/your-card-chronicle-connecticut

To save you the trouble, I'll post the relevant details below:

Congratulations again to IRISH2705. Your tickets, as well as an autographed wallet-size photo of me from 7th grade, will be in the mail shortly. 

I'll grant that Mike followed through on his promise of tickets to the Rutgers game (appreciated, thanks again), but I'm still waiting on the photo. I'm no lawyer, but I am familiar enough with tort law to attempt to force promissory estoppel. By definition, promissory estoppel prevents a promisor from unjustly retracting a promise made to a promisee who, as a result, suffered detriment from reliance upon the original promise.

Promise: Autographed wallet-size photo

Promisor: Mike R, proprietor of this fine blog

Promisee: Irish2705, visitor of this fine blog

Detriment: Irish2705 purchased small 2"x2" frame for expected gift (said photo)

Further comment: This aggression will not stand, man.

The defense to this case is actually what prompted Mike R to apply to law school (and get accepted, congrats).

The proverbial ball, my friend, is in your court.

I'n support of Mike's request for some Friday irrelevance, I'm looking for a team name.  The funnier the better.  But hopefully it will service both my trivia night team and any rec leagues I join (basketball, softball, etc).

A few that I like:

1) 17? Fine by Me

2) Stay there, I'll get a towel

3) 6, no wait, 5 Sea World Trainers (For basketball)

4) Better D than a drunk girl's roommate

5) Pontius Pilate and the Nail Drivers

Props to the eight billion people that labeled Gonzalez's offseason contract extension a mistake

Still unconfirmed, although sources at SHU are saying it's true.

Apparently, the administration was fed up with the off-court antics.  Oh by the way, Herb Pope was ejected from last night's NIT game for punching a kid in the groin. 

Not to kick a guy when he's down, but I really have no sympathy for Bobby Gonzalez.  We usually had a tough time facing his team, but I despised him for his antics and overall thought he was low-class.  So did SHU, apparently.  And that might be fine when you're winning championships (Calhoun), but not when the NIT this past year is your first postseason play.

Does anyone else feel like this team is destined for the 8/9 match-up?

(Note – all RPI and SOS numbers are referenced from realtimerpi.com)

I’m wondering what our ceiling is this year, with regards to NCAA seeding.  I tend to think that we can still reach a 5, if we win the BET.  Just speculating, but that would mean victories over Cinci, WVU, Nova, and Cuse/Pitt.  If people feel comfortable that we’re at about an 8/9 right now, I think each win after the Cinci game (this assumes a win tonight) would move us up a full seed.  Although we have a significant edge in SOS, we just lack the quality wins of teams we’d be competing against for a 6/7 seed.

We’re basically riding two wins over Cuse, which is still very impressive, but we lack top 50 wins.  If UConn had gotten their $hit together, that would have given us two more, and maybe we’re be more comparable.  Or if we had held on against Pitt (that also would mean we’d be sitting with a double-bye right now).  But we beat a lot of teams between 50-75 (UConn, ND, Cinci, USF). 

ACC – Clemson (27), Wake (33), FSU (35), GTech (44), VaTech (50)

Big 12 – Texas (26), Okie St (28), Mizzou (39)

Others – Gonzaga (37), Xavier (21), BYU (23), Richmond (24)

Looking at the numbers, how is Ohio St in the running for a 2 seed, with some saying an outside shot at a 1 seed?  Their RPI is 30 with SOS 67.

On another note, does anyone else think we should add one more marquee game to the schedule?  While our schedule is certainly tough, its essentially due to two things: playing in the BE (the worst SOS of all BE teams is 56, and 12 teams have SOS better than 33), and not playing really $hitty teams OOC.  We play a lot of teams in the top 150 (only 2 teams rated worse than 175, if you don’t count DePaul), but we don’t play any “marquee” OOC games outside of UK.  I’d prefer that we schedule a Mich St, Texas, or Butler and a 250 type team in place of two teams rated about 150.  The change to SOS would be negligible, but it would give us another opportunity for a top 25 win.  And RPI really rewards those types of wins, without much punishment if you lose it.

Saw on another site:

As of Sunday, 2/28, here are the BE wins (not including the BET) over the last 4 years.  Pretty impressive, although its a shame we didn't make the Final Four either of the last two years.

Louisville 52
Pitt 48
Georgetown 44
Syracuse 44
Marquette 43
Villanova 43
UConn 41
Notre Dame 41
West Vir 41
Providence 28
Cincinnati 25
Seton Hall 25
St. John's 23
South Flor 17
DePaul 16
Rutgers 13

I'll be going, and I might have a couple tickets to give away to a Card fan making the trip up.

I could meet you outside the arena, I guess it will only cost you a beer. I made the last trip, and it was awesome. 

Hopefully we take the momentum from the UConn game and turn this into a victory. I would have done a huge Card Chronicle giveaway contest, but I doubt enough people will be going to the game

Noticed they have a few good 3pt shooters.  I've watched Gtown play a small handful of games this year (Cuse, Duke, Nova, Cuse), but nothing in the early season.  Note that I only watched the last 15 minutes of their game against Cuse last week.

I've been impressed with some of Monroe's post play, but at times I feel like he should demand the ball a bit more.  Makes me wonder whether we'll have Jennings play him and Samuels match up with Vaughn.  Or will we double down on him?  Makes it kinda tough with Freeman and Clark stroking it this year from the 3pt line.

I don't really know what to expect.  I don't feel like we've played particularly well the last few games (cuse included), but we've managed to win, so that says something.  hopefully we "break out" tonight, and look good while picking up the impressive win.

If Pitino's goal is 2-2, I'd trade this georgetown victory for a Marq or Uconn loss anyday.

I predict Cards 77 - 72

I’ve watched ND play probably 10-12 times this year, and to be honest, I think it was one of their better games.  It might be hard to believe that, considering they were playing without Gody, but they played more like a TEAM last night.  As productive as Gody is, he doesn’t really make his teammates better, except maybe bailing them out with a tough rebound or good finish.

ND is more inconsistent than we are. I was really surprised that their guards didn’t wear down against us (Abromaitis did, but not Hansbrough or Jackson). I thought we should have thrown a different press at them later in the 2nd half, but that’s just me.  I also thought we shouldn’t have bellied up as close to them on defense as we did. A lot of fouls on drives to the basket that I think we simply didn’t need to commit. But to ND’s credit, they made a lot of tough shots, I can think of 5 or 6 where I was like “damn, that’s a really tough shot”.   

Perhaps the most impressive player on the court last night was Tory Jackson for ND.  The boxscore says he ended up with 5 TOs, but I only remember the one he had when Siva was guarding him and the 10-second violation.  And to play 50 minutes against that press, and to not recall more turnovers, is down right impressive. He’s the player we needed to foul out, not any of their big men, because fouls or not, they couldn’t stop Samuels.  Jackson played about as well as he could.

With regards to UL, this team is terribly inconsistent and not mentally tough.  However, I still think they’re a good team.  I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I saw that Harangody was out for the game.  For some reason, we just don’t match up well with ND.  Since we’ve joined the Big East, we’ve gone 4-2 against them, but all four wins have been at home, and been close, while we’ve been blown out in South Bend.

2005-06: win by 3, in OT, Dean hits 3 to send it to OT at buzzer

2006-07: lose by 16 @ND

2007-08: win by 5, withstanding a furious rally, probably our best performance against them

2008-09: win in OT at home, I forget what happened when we played them in south bend

2009-10: gutsy performance, a please god let us win baby type of win

I’m torn about whether I want to simply say “a win is a win” or do I want to admit this team is just above average. Certainly they’re not consistent, as evidenced by winning/hanging tough on the road against 3 top 10 teams, but getting beat (handily) by the likes of Western Carolina and St. John’s.   And I guess that’s the maddening part about it – I want them to decide whether they’re good or simply mediocre, so I can adjust my expectations accordingly. It seems like my thoughts for this team change after every game (which I suppose is part of the fun).

At this point, we’re squarely in the tournament, IMO. If the season ended right now, we’re dancing. That said, we have multiple games left during which we can either play our way into a better seed, or play our way out of the tournament.  2-2 over the next four would mean either two road victories over teams we’re fighting against for at-large spots, or two victories over top-4 seed teams that would seal our inclusion in the tournament, or any combination therein. 1-3 and I start to get worried, we might need two victories in the BET.  0-4 and we’ll need to at least make the BET finals. 3-1 or 4-0 means we’re fighting for better seeding.

Go Cards

with 5-star Justin Coleman committing this afternoon, and potentially Gorgui Dieng following suit, this gives us a 3-man 2010 class (adding to Russ Smith).  We have three seniors on this year's team: Sosa, Smith, Delk.  There's also strong word that George Goode will not be on scholarship next season. So with only Preston slated to graduate next season, and having a HUGE 2011 class (Teague*, Blackshear, Taylor, Price, Chandler), where do the scholarships come from?

2009 Seniors:

Sosa, Smith, Delk

2010 Seniors:

Knowles, Goode

2011 Seniors:

Kuric, Swopshire, Samuels, Jennings, Chris Smith

2012 Seniors:

Marra, Buckles, Van Treese, Siva

I'd have to think that we'll get scholarships from Knowles and Goode, maybe an early defection from SS (after 2010-11), and a potential transfer from SVT and Marra?  I usually don't like to speculate, but wanting to get a better idea of how the numbers work out.

* Please God

If moments after the Rutgers game (note, you would have found me at Churchill by then) you told me that our recruiting class would border top 40, we'd steal two recruits from UGA, sign a 4-star WR, a very athletic QB for a new spread offense, and that we'd be missing out on recruits to the likes of LSU and not ULL, I'd have taken it in a hearbeat.

All things considered, its frustrating thinking that we missed out on Wilson (has this been officially confirmed?) and Chandler, Patterson, and Boone.  But with what we've taken, we have some playmakers and guys that can come in and make an impact.  It's a very strong class considering that CCS didn't piece together his staff until less than a month ago.

My hope is that UL has a good to very good season (I'm hoping for 8-4 or better), and CCS can build off that momentum and snag us a top 25ish class next season, with one full year to talk to recruits.

Perhaps a mildly disappointing end to the recruiting season, but overall a very good class considering this team has gone a collective 15-21 over the last three years.

Two guards who can't seem to hit free throws and still commit silly fouls? I really think a more steady dose of Siva and Knowles will make us a better team next year.

To be fair, Sosa has played much better this season than I expected, but as a senior, you can't go 1-5 down the stretch from the stripe. And Jerry, where has your shot gone?

Ugh, such a disappointing loss today. We should be 5-0.

I hear that Finley Dunne's is out, and now Sully's is the place to watch the Cards in Chicago.  Can anyone confirm?

I'm looking for a place to watch the UK game this weekend.

75 word filler,,, I'll give my 2000's starting lineup

PG - Reece Gaines

SG - Marques Maybin

SF - Francisco Garcia

PF - Earl Clark

C - David Padgett

Had a tough time taking T-will out, but I like Garcia's decision-making.