All posts by seedyk

Hoopaholic’s Gazette: Selection Sunday

Warning: This was posted before Sunday’s conference finals.

Let the madness commence.

Oh yeah, it already has.

But first, a didactic riff on my annual admonition.

I had the opportunity the other day to advise a friend of  Seedy K’s College Hoops Post Season Rule #1.

At our regular weekly lunch on Wednesday, Mike mentioned how he’d already set his DVR to record Kentucky vs. Tennessee in the SEC title game.

At which instant, after a spit take, it was time to set him straight.

Understand this fellow knows his basketball. He played in HS, and claims to have gotten the best of Wes Unseld, once anyway, which he shares with sort of a wink. He was a senior. Wes was still learning how to play early in his first varsity year.

What gives a scintilla of credence, if that, to my pal’s claim is he owns that a couple of months later Unseld turned him over under sideways down.

My guy also played collegiately, albeit in the Ivy League.

But I digress. (As those of my ilk are inclined to do these days as we anxiously await the announcement that Coach X will be coaching the now coachless University of YouKnowWhomI’mTalkingAbout next season.) Continue reading Hoopaholic’s Gazette: Selection Sunday

U of L CardFile: NC State

Josh Heird . . .

You. Are. On. The. Clock.

President Kim Schatzel . . .

You. Are. On. The. Clock.

Mary Nixon . . .

You (and the rest of the Board of Trustees). Are. On. The. Clock.

There was no reason to bury the lede.

It’s time.

Speak.

 * * * * *

There is a sort of symmetry for U of L, the ACC tourney being played in D.C. and all.

The last time the post season get together was there was 2016. Continue reading U of L CardFile: NC State

U of L CardFile: Boston College

They blast classic rock tuneage out of loud speakers at one of the nightspots along Washington Street in the block adjacent to the Home of the Cards.

As I’m walking into the Yum! on Senior Night, Tom Petty’s “Free Falling” is reverberating loudly.

How appropriate an anthem for the final regular season tilt for Kenny Payne’s woeful Louisville Cardinals.

Cards 61, Boston College 67.

Louisville’s 7th straight defeat to end the campaign.

Four of the Ls at home. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Boston College

U of L CardFile: Virginia Tech

You may say to yourself/ “This is not my beautiful house”  

It is: Not the same as it ever was.

Louisville loses again at home in the Yum!

This time 64-80 to a Virginia Tech team with only one previous road W on the season, a losing record in the ACC, and not within a case of Double Bubble of making the Dance.

Louisville netted a respectable nine triples on the night.

But . . . on six of those, including the first of Zan Payne’s career threeballs, the Hokies immediately answered on the ensuing possession with three of their own.

Five times from beyond the arc. Once with the conversion of an old fashioned +1.

VT drained 13 treys of their own in 29 attempts.

So, if the context is this season, not U of L all time, yeah . . .

Same as it ever was/ Same as it ever was Continue reading U of L CardFile: Virginia Tech

U of L CardFile: Syracuse

There have been some magnificently exciting U of L/ Syracuse games through the decades.

In no particular order:

When Syracuse, then #4 led by Pearl Washington and Rony Seikaly, arrived to a jammed packed and raucous Freedom Hall for a Saturday afternoon national TV game. (When that meant something.)

And left with their orange burnt.

Cards 83-73.

There was the greatest 2d half Cardinal comeback I can recall in the Big East tourney during the ’13 championship season. Hello Trez.

Cards 78-61.

And, of course, when Syracuse was #1, in what shall be remembered forever and always as the Kyle Kuric game. In ’10, a sweet kiss goodbye to the greatest hoops arena ever, Freedom Hall.

During U of L’s slamfest in the 2d, the SRO throng was singing the body electric. It was the loudest ever in the Cardinal’s storied history in the Grande Dame.

Cards 78-68.

Saturday night in a moribund Yum! Center, uh, well . . . Continue reading U of L CardFile: Syracuse

No, No, No, NoCAA

Word is filtering out more and more that the powers that be are legitimately considering a ruination of the singular thing they do right.

The NCAA basketball tournament.

Expansion.

To as many as 96 schools.

Cue the Barret Strong: “Money/ That’s what I want.”

It is perhaps the worst idea since, oh, the beginning of ideas. Or, at least, the Edsel.

I keep thinking of a fellow who helped guide me through the early days of my recovery.

One of his go to sayings, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Which he would say with such stentorian conviction that you’d think he invented the catchphrase. Continue reading No, No, No, NoCAA

U of L CardFile: Duke

A personal parable, if you will indulge.

And, it does apply for me anyway, to the current state of Louisville Cardinal hoops.

At 7:50 Monday morning, my 79th birthday, I was in the cardiologist’s office. Where I’d been referred, out of caution, by another specialist last Friday, to whom I’d been referred by my primary care doc earlier that week.

I know, I know, stick with me here.

And don’t be rollin’ your eyes. You live to this age it’s the nature of the beast. Trust me, I hope you’re lucky enough to be around to complain about your aches and pains. Which shall become more than a small part of any lunch conversations.

At any rate, those visits were, as I said out of caution. All seems to be OK. At least for an old fart.

Stick around I’m going to get to hoops. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Duke

U of L CardFile: Notre Dame

At the media timeout with 7:52 left in Louisville’s eventual 22 point laydown to fellow ACC bottom feeder Notre Dame, the Cards had run off 6 in a row to cut the Irish advantage to 45-53.

Though they’d never led for a nanosecond, against a foe as close to inept as U of L as any in the conference, with both Skyy Clark, though I haven’t the slightest clue how he could play as he did with a broken rib, and Ty-Laur Johnson again on the hardwood, the game seemed within reach. (I know, it’s a seriously run on sentence.)

But, ya know — silly me — not really. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Notre Dame

Hoopaholics Gazette: Ever Rickdiculous

Former Louisville Cardinal coach Rick Pitino changed his hair color after taking the reins this season at St. John’s.

But his true colors bled out like a shvitzing Rudy Giuliani after the Johnnies dropped their 8th game in the last ten to Seton Hall. Blowing a 12 point halftime advantage in the process.

The Rick is an acknowledged good coach.

He is charismatic.

But, one guy’s opinion — mine — he is an insufferable egotist.

I’m grateful for the title he fashioned at U of L. And, as sad as I am about the aftermath the Cardinal program is still suffering, which harkens back to the Pitino era when it germinated, I am grateful he is not coaching my team.

So, yes, I couldn’t stop smiling this morning when I chased down the rabbit hole of reportage about his post game tirade last evening. Continue reading Hoopaholics Gazette: Ever Rickdiculous

U of L CardFile: Pittsburgh

It has surely been more than a half century since Joel Needle, a fellow a year ahead of me at JM Atherton HS, crossed my mind.

But such was one of the curiosities of Louisville’s 59-86 loss to Pitt Saturday night at the Oakland Zoo, I couldn’t help myself.

Needle was a funny guy. Aptly named, given his propensity to provoke and annoy with glee.

The moment that actually does have some relevance to the Panthers victory came in Freddie Allen’s history class. Allen was the Rebels basketball coach.

The night before JMA had fallen to Male High. The Bulldogs were led by their star that year, one Monroe Phelps, who, if memory serves, tallied 46 in the W. The Rebs netted 45 in toto.

Before Mr. Allen entered the classroom, Needle had written “Beat Phelps” on the blackboard. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Pittsburgh