Seedy K’s Game Cap: Miami (Fla)

Basketball,

One thing I’ve been up front about from the get go here is that I’m a fan first, reporter second.

So, let’s start with the former.

Your BW/LTCD has been at it a long time.

Sunday was a first.

As loathe as I am to admit it, I had to talk myself into going to the game instead of watching on TV.

Never ever has that happened before.

Yes, there are home games I’ve missed for various and sundry legit reasons, but none because what was going to play out was a fait accompli, and an unpleasant one at that, and I just didn’t want to see it in person.

U of L game days for me have always been eagerly anticipated. Today I’m sincerely and embarrassingly grateful that there’s not another one for six whole days.

Oh my, oh my, oh my, oh my. Continue reading Seedy K’s Game Cap: Miami (Fla) →

Seedy K’s Peerless Pigskin Prognostications: Championship Week

Football

Thanks to Caleb Williams, the latest greatest howdhedothat QB ever in the history of college football, I avoided an ofer.

Ole Miss lost. Lane Kiffin is staying. And, no, I’m not going to give myself two Ls for missing that captain not jumping ship. Ohio State had Buckeye fans jumping off those dorm towers nearby into the Olentangy. Clemson continued its slide back to the pack in the ACC. And Kentucky beat U of L fair and square.

The good news after a 1-4 weekend: I’m still 41-30 for the campaign. Meaning an ofer title week, and I’m still over .500 for the year.

This week’s winners: Continue reading Seedy K’s Peerless Pigskin Prognostications: Championship Week →

Seedy K’s GameCap: Maryland

Basketball

“Nothing changes if nothing changes.”

One might have hoped, actually one who cares deeply about U of L hoops would have expected, after three truly horrid beatdowns in Maui, that there might have been some tweaks in store in the interleague challenge against Maryland.

But, uh, no.

Same story, different foe.

I hit the keyboard with 14:00 to play.

Terps 57. Cards 35.

It’s now 69-39 at the penultimate TV timeout.

I mean, you tell me, what’s a guy supposed extricate from this dumpster fire?

At the same timeout in the 1st, the Cards had committed 6 turnovers leading to 11 Maryland points. Those numbers now read 12 TO > 19 Terp points.

The Cardinals were down 26-37 at the break.

They turned it over on their first possession. Continue reading Seedy K’s GameCap: Maryland →

Louisville CardFile: Kentucky

Football, ,

Throughout Feast Week, the Cardinal Faithful kept asking the same question in various wordings.

“Can we beat the Cats?”

“Will the the Cardinals win Saturday?”

Your scribe’s response was always the same. Presented with an undertone of doubt.

“Of course, the Cards can beat UK.”

Though it remained U of L’s best chance to capture the Governor’s Trophy in years, there were signs to this observer of worry.

Based one supposes on that odd stat that U of L had the most Ws in the country over 7 win teams, the Cardinals snuck into the CFP rankings in the last spot.

Would that gird the Cards, or give them a false sense of security?

It seemed here it would give UK more fodder for the locker room wall. Continue reading Louisville CardFile: Kentucky →

Louisville CardFile: Cincinnati

Basketball,

One of your beat writer’s superstitions about the U of L Cards, among many, has been that it’s better to be one down at intermission than one up.

So, when David DeJulius netted a midcourt trey at the halftime buzzer, the Bearcats sixth of the stanza for a 31-30 advantage, yours truly remained relatively heartened by the winless Cardinals performance to that point.

After the break, the Cards went turnover, shot clock, missed shot, shot clock, missed shot in the first five possessions, while their long time upriver rivals tallied five.

The Cards still hung in before the first media timeout on a Jae’Lyn Withers triple, and a nifty El Ellis to Brandon Huntley-Hatfield assist for a deuce at the rim.

35-40 with 15:06 left.

The game was winnable.

But it was not to be. Continue reading Louisville CardFile: Cincinnati →

Seedy K’s Peerless Pigskin Prognostications: Week XIII

Fandom, Football, ,

Readers who don’t understand a lot of the things they read here — and they are aplenty — have asked whether when sleepwalking at night, I type out my lede and predictions and hit Send without copyreading?

Others have wondered if there’s a warehouse somewhere with thousands of monkeys at keyboards banging away? And that I mindlessly cut and paste their senseless output and hit Send without copyreading.

Well, no. And no.

But there are times when I dazzle even myself with the senseless drivel I write.

Like this week, when I totally discarded my original opening shtick. It literally made no sense. Then I came up with the erudition above.

Anywho . . . last week . . .

. . . Minnesota and Okie State lost. My bad.

Auburn, Georgia and the now CFP #25 University of Louisville Cardinals prevailed.

Three up. Two down. 40-26 on the season.

Enough fathomless diversion.

This week’s winners: Continue reading Seedy K’s Peerless Pigskin Prognostications: Week XIII →

Seedy K’s Observations: Arkansas

Basketball,

There is not enough kumbaya to sugarcoat what is happening with University of Louisville Men’s Basketball.

This already is and will continue to be a bad season.

A really bad season.

A historically bad season.

Your BW/LTCD wishes it wasn’t so, wishes he didn’t care so much.

And certainly would love not to be contractually bound to weighing in here.

Wishes he could truly believe in his heart of the U of L Cards, “It’s Only A Game.”

Longs for the days when getting to experience games three days in a row was one of Naismithius’ great blessings.

Sigh. Continue reading Seedy K’s Observations: Arkansas →

Seedy K’s GameCap: NC State

Football, ,

Before a recent game, long time AP beat writer Ed Peak threw out the kind of question long time fans have been arguing about forever at sports bars around the globe.

You know the kind, argued over mead and forest slaughter, “Who ya got, the Romans or the Huns in a rematch?”

The query presented: “Who was the worst U of L football coach of our lifetime? Cooper? Kragthorpe? TW Alley? Petrino II?”

Tough call, there.

But the point here is the fellow whose name never entered the discussion.

Yesterday while cherishing the Cardinals’ fifth W in their last six, Smart Guy wondered sarcastically, “Do you think Satt’s off the hot seat?”

Your scribe replied he never thought SS was really sitting on one.

Which is to underscore there was a turn of fortunes for this edition of U of L Football after the dismal L in Chestnut Hills.

Whatever happened — systematic tweaks, personnel switches, psychological motivation — it worked. Bigly. More bigly than Morgan & Morgan.

There’s an applicable descriptor for the phenomenon.

Coaching. Continue reading Seedy K’s GameCap: NC State →

A Hoopaholic’s Perspective on The Cardinals

Basketball, Fandom,

To help move on from some unhealthy habits decades ago, among other things, I took to accepting the benefits of what I’d previously and derisively referred to as “fix me books.”

To great benefit.

Among my favorites remains Richard Carlson’s “Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff . . . and it’s all small stuff.”

Short chapters. Quick reads. Sage wisdom to cope with the exigencies of daily life.

Given my days short of seven decade love affair with U of L hoops, for better or worse, through richer or poorer, it has been difficult in the recent troubled years for the program to find Carlson’s sense of perspective to it all.

The not fun, admittedly discouraging start of the Kenny Payne Era hasn’t helped.

I am as dismayed as any.

Those healthier than I am can deal with it more calmly.

In these knee jerk times when many, frustrated, live in ten minute cycles, there are fans mired in fury.

I have been preaching patience.

As much for myself as for those who might listen.

Though I truly am of the opinion that we won’t know for several seasons whether Kenny Payne is as good a coach as he is a decent human being. Continue reading A Hoopaholic’s Perspective on The Cardinals →