Friday Squawks: Dabo, Roy, K, & the ’86 Title

Basketball, Sports,

Because I’m an inveterate Louisville Cardinal fan, because I still shake my head in awe that the Cards now compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and because I’m justifiably accused of being OCD, I tuned into the premier evening of the ACC Network.

(Besides I’m not a huge fan of the LLWS, and the episode of “Texas Metal” on MotorTrend Channel didn’t intrigue me.)

It was mostly just Show & Tell, since there was no actual live sports action.

Here are a few of the things I learned: Continue reading Friday Squawks: Dabo, Roy, K, & the ’86 Title →

Seedy K’s Peerless Pigskin Prognostications: Week 0

Football, Gaming

Before diving in with this week’s winners, I feel compelled to advise I simply cannot get my hands around either the concept or the designation “Week 0?”

Who came up with this strange moniker for this opening college football weekend? Some ESPN assistant producer’s kindergartner?

Even the Google can’t give an answer.

“Ice Station Zero.” Now that makes sense. The rescue mission ’68 flick featured not only Rock Hudson and Ernest Borgnine, but also the GOAT Jim Brown. Who was then only 32 years old and retired from the NFL yet could still crush Dick Butkus.

(Since I’ve been corrected by an eagle eyed reader, advising that the film’s actual title is “Ice Station Zebra,” thereby undermining my shtick, allow me this addendum.) “Less than Zero” Now that makes sense. The cinema version of too much drugs among the rich and famous in Hollywoodland.

“Zero Sum” I also understand. Or, think I do. Though please don’t ask for an explanation. I’m not the greatest at arithmetic.

“Love Minus Zero/ No Limit.” It’s 60’s Dylan fawning over his bride Sara during his finest years of wordsmithery. Thinking about that title for a second allows it to come clear. Somewhat.

But Week 0. Weak.

Anyway, what the arrival of, ahem, Week 0 means is there’s college football to be viewed.

As for that Saturday evening dinner engagement your significant other is planning with the new neighbors. Fuhgettaboutit.

All of which means the triumphant, heralded return of the highly analytical, insanely accurate, vigorously heralded, most intensely dissected, and sooner or later award winning college football predictioneering on the interweb: Seedy K’s Peerless Pigskin Prognostication. Continue reading Seedy K’s Peerless Pigskin Prognostications: Week 0 →

Seedy K’s Peerless Preseason Pigskin Prognostications: Final Four

Football

Yeah, that’s right, my fellow chinstrappers, it’s time to thaw out the brats and get ready for some pigskin. Week 0 is upon us.

(And, whether you like Johnsonville or Usinger’s or some other Best in Brats wannabe, my go to guy when it comes to processed oink in a tube — that would be Badger Billy — advises to feed those to your schnauzer, even if his name is Johnny U. The only way to go, says he, is Miesfeld’s in Sheboygan. That’s in Wisconsin. But they ship. Just sayin’. Either you care or you don’t.)

So much for tailgating advice.

Here’s what ‘s going to happen inside the stadia.

The probability of Clemson and Alabama meeting in the Final Four for the fourth year in a row is pretty much a given, but does not faze me one iota. I first became aware of baseball in the early 50s as a youth, and my dad had to explain to me why the Giants and Indians contested the Series in ’54. I thought the Dodgers and Yankees just played in it every year. Like, you know, Clemson and Alabama.

So I’m almost a bit excited for Swinney vs. Saban, Part Quatre. Though I would be even more pleased to see some upstart come from out of the blue to dazzle the pigskin planet next January.

So, to maintain even a modicum of props, to underscore that I have at least partially a clue what I’m talking about, I’m predicting the Tide and Tigers will perform as expected and make it to the semis. I learned my lesson. Mea culpa. I’m sure none of you remember that I didn’t pick Alabama last year, giving way too much weight to coaching changeover and untested secondary in Tuscaloosa.

Burned once, shame on me burned twice etc, etc, etc.

Anyway, here are the four teams that will have our attention after we’ve savored the hors d’oeuvres of the First Responder Bowl, Gasparilla Bowl and Quick Lane Bowl. Continue reading Seedy K’s Peerless Preseason Pigskin Prognostications: Final Four →

A Curious Week in CardinaLand

Basketball

Seriously now, David Grissom, what the fazook were you thinking?

Though you haven’t practiced law for decades, you are an attorney. Didn’t you remember enough from your Trial Practice seminar to let your counsel prepare you for your deposition? Advise you how to effectively answer open ended questions like the one to which you dropped a stink bomb of an answer?

Were you too cocky? Too Type AAA, too “I can handle this?”

Did you think, as one diehard Card fan has mentioned to me a couple of times, that you figured you could control things in the deposition because you were “the smartest guy in the room?”

Well, dude, you weren’t. Ann Oldfather is as intelligent as she is assertive, a top shelf counselor at the bar.

But, ya know, she was just fishin’. The answer she was probably hoping for was something along the lines of “I don’t specifically recall anything Ramsey knew that he should have shared with the Board, but didn’t.” That would have plenty for her and her client.

But noooooooooooooooooo!!! Continue reading A Curious Week in CardinaLand →

U of L Football Media Day Musings

Football,

Last week, as one is too often wont to do with a bit of idle time on his/her hands, I found myself surfing aimlessly across the Google.

I arrived at a light bulb moment of sorts after hangin’ ten from a B/W video of Nina
Simone’s simmering “Sinnerman” to an illuminating video comparison of Jackie Chan’s exemplary work in Asian films with his lesser American movies, ending up somehow at a highlight reel of what is generally regarded as the college pigskin equivalent of Chaminade over Ralph Sampson and UVa.

Appalachian State 34, Michigan 32. In the Big House. In the first game ever televised on the BTN.

New Louisville Cardinal coach Scott Satterfied mentored the QBs on that overachieving Mountaineer squad. On App State’s first score, their southpaw signal caller found a wideout in a hole in the Maize and Blue zone. He then blew past several Wolverine DBs who thought they had him cornered, and crossed the goal line for six.

What immediately popped into my mind was this name: Tutu Atwell, U of L’s seriously speedy wideout. Continue reading U of L Football Media Day Musings →

Cards on the 9s: Strange ’09 Campaign ends in Elite Eight

Basketball, ,

This is last of a series of remembrances of U of L basketball seasons for years ending in 9.

Reality first struck as I sat in the ginormous media room of Lucas Oil Stadium before the Cardinals ’09 matchup with Sparty for a trip to the Final Four in Motown.

Expectations soaring after #1 seed U of L drew and quartered Arizona by 39 in the Sweet Sixteen, and with my belly full of Shapiro’s pastrami, potato latkes and carrot cake, I poured over Michigan State data for the first time.

My confidence quickly abated. I recall reading the numbers, looking up, staring into the middle distance, and thinking, “Louisville could lose this. Izzo’s team is good.”

And damned if I wasn’t prescient. The truth struck with terrible swift sword.

Michigan State 64, Louisville 52.

Louisville’s season and 13 game winning skein and strangest of seasons had fizzed out. Continue reading Cards on the 9s: Strange ’09 Campaign ends in Elite Eight →

Cards on the 9s: W over Cats highlights ’99 Campaign

Basketball, ,

This is another in a series of remembrances of Louisville Cardinal basketball teams in years ending in 9.

It’s difficult, and not wise really, to talk about this specific ’98-’99 campaign, without providing context.

Finishing with a record of 12-20, the season before was not only the first losing one of beloved Hall of Famer Denny Crum’s career, it was the first for U of L since the Cards went 7-10 in ’41-’42.

How much did we love the graphic the networks would put on the screen during every national telecast, “Louisville has had 56 consecutive winning seasons.” A matter of pride had been shattered.

After two more seasons, including another 12-19 clunker in ’00-’01, the two-time national champion mentor, who at the top of his game was as good as any who ever coached, would be gone, becoming an ambassador for the university, and giving his time and lending his stature to many charities in the community.

But before that, something not so good was happening to U of L hoops, and nobody really knew exactly what it was.

There are lots of theories. Continue reading Cards on the 9s: W over Cats highlights ’99 Campaign →

Cards on the 9s: Unexceptional Campaign is Pervis’ Farewell

Basketball,

This is the fourth in a series of remembrances of past Cardinal hoops seasons in years ending in 9.

So when I pitched Glorious Editor on the idea of this series, three campaigns of significance came to mind.

’59, when the Cards gained a toehold in the nation’s consciousness. ’79, the season before The Season. And ’09, when there was all sorts of stuff undermining the team we only learned about after the fact.

Some of the other campaigns, upon further examination, turned out to be, well, meh. Nothing, as we say, to write home about.

Like ’88-’89, which opened with an unexpected L to Xavier, denying the Cards and fans a Thanksgiving trip to the Big Apple, and ended abruptly with a 14 point loss to #3 Illinois in the Regional Semi.

In between there were some highlights. At one juncture, after 14 straight victories in December and January, including a 22 point beatdown of UK, and triumphs over Top 20 Georgia Tech and UNLV, Louisville was ranked in the Top 5. Yet the Cards faltered in February, going 5-4. (More on that free fall in a bit.)

Most of all, the campaign shall be remembered by most simply as the last go round for Pervis Ellison, a national champion, Final Four MOP as a rookie,  an unequivocal Cardinal great, and first pick in the ’89 NBA draft. But a fellow who never really became an endearing fan favorite. Continue reading Cards on the 9s: Unexceptional Campaign is Pervis’ Farewell →

Cards on the 9s: ’79 ends with Too Little Too Late

Basketball,

(Third in a series of remembrances of U of L basketball seasons, from years ending in 9. Next: ’89.)

The 1978-79 season, despite the 24 wins against only 8 losses, never found a groove.

It was, to coin a phrase, a winter of discontent.

For the team, especially leader Darrell Griffith.

For Coach Denny Crum.

For the fan base, growing restless.

For the third season in a row, Darrell & Bobby (Turner), local legends since their early teen days at DuValle Jr. High and exploits for Chocolate City in the Dirt Bowl as prepsters, failed to meet heightened expectations. Wunderkind mentor Crum had led the Cards to the Final Four in his rookie season, again in ’75, and the arrival of that duo had the fan base frothing at the mouth in anticipation of more better success.

U of L lost 4 of its final 6 in ’76. Anticipation notwithstanding, the arrival of the wunderkinds didn’t immediately help. The ’77 campaign ended with 5 Ls in the last 8 games; ’78 with an OT defeat to Dave Corzine and DePaul in the MW Regional.

But a hopefully more mature Griffith and Turner, crafty senior Larry Williams, along with a heralded group of newcomers — Scooter McCray, Jerry Eaves, Derek Smith, Wiley Brown — had all pumped for a return to the final weekend of the season. Continue reading Cards on the 9s: ’79 ends with Too Little Too Late →

On the 9s: ’69 Cards were a Scrappy Success

Basketball

This is the second in a series, remembering U of L Cardinal teams of the past, in years ending in 9.

John Dromo was pissed.

The second year head coach of the U of L Cardinals certainly let the sports editor of The Cardinal know of his displeasure about a story in the student newspaper.

“Oh yes, I remember,” advises said editor Fred Smart a half century after the dressing down.

“Dromo said his wife was on the verge of tears.”

What possibly could have irked the hoops mentor so?

At that juncture of the season, the surprising Cardinals had moved on from the graduation of Westley Unseld, who was then fashioning a Rookie of the Year, NBA MVP campaign for the Baltimore Bullets, while showing off the greatest outlet pass in the history of the game.

Yes, Louisville’s ’68-’69 season had an ignominious beginning. The varsity had been throttled at Freedom Hall in the then annual rookies vs. varsity preseason clash by the precocious incoming freshman gang of Jim Price, Henry Bacon, Al Vilchek, Mike Lawhon and Larry Carter. 107-90 was the final tally, favor of the newbies. The varsity had turned it over 15 times in the first half.

But the Cards got their act together, and at the time of Dromo’s ire in mid February were 16-3 and atop the Missouri Valley Conference standings.

What was it then that got Dromo so upset? Continue reading On the 9s: ’69 Cards were a Scrappy Success →