A Hoopaholic’s Monday Fret

Basketball

Saturday was the first of many to come when the warm joy of early spring morphs to unbearable humidity.

Really humid. One didn’t need a Temperature Humidity Index to know.

Air that inquires, like what am I doing wandering outside when my shirt feels like dank dishrag?

The calendar said early June.

The weather read mid August.

But, I got out of the house anyway —  a man can’t survive by HVAC alone — checking out the Butchertown Fair. A couple of blocks of booths of knick knacks and some real art mixed in. Accompanied by a C & W cover band.

I ended up buying something that spoke to a fellow for whom eight decades of doubts linger in every nook and cranny of an aging body.

A refrigerator magnet.

“You are Enough.” Continue reading A Hoopaholic’s Monday Fret →

Love the Ones You’re With

Basketball,

And now-uh let’s meet your-a University of-a Loo-uh-vullllllll!!!! Cardinals.*

John Tong voice.

At guard from Tuscaloosa, Alabama . . . Adrian Wooley.

AW* is the lone holdover who saw action for the Cards last season. Playing 22 minutes a game, the 6-4 PG/SG averaged 8.7 ppg and 3.9 rpg. 35% from long range. 62 assists vs. 39 turnovers. 24 steals.

*When keeping in game notes, I use players initials as shorthand. Given there are no duplicates, it may/ probably will carry over to GameCaps. Deal with it.

At guard from Norcross, Georgia . . . London Johnson.

The redshirted 6-3 former ****/ Georgia state champion/ G League player is U of L’s wild card mystery baller. To say the least. In ’21 he played for Jamaica in the FIBA CentroBasket U17 tourney. Averaged 36 ppg in five tilts. Continue reading Love the Ones You’re With →

Hoopaholic’s Gazette: Monday, Monday

Basketball,

And, so the long obsessional wait in the Land of the Dark & Bloody Ground continues.

As of 9:43 AM Monday June 1, addled fans with no other life of the Louisville Cardinals and Wildcats — Kentucky and Arizona — continue to hold their breath.

The Pride of Pewaukee, Wisconsin, three point marksman Milan Momcilovic has yet to reveal at which college he might be participating as a member of the basketball team next season.

It’s an odd one.

Reports surfaced on Saturday, most on UK fan sites, that MM had advised U of L and UK of his decision.

Could be true.

Very well might not be fact. Continue reading Hoopaholic’s Gazette: Monday, Monday →

Hoopaholic’s Gazette: NBA Withdrawal Dreadline

Basketball, ,

How does the line go?

He played ’em like a Stradivarius?

Something like that.

I’m thinking about Milan Momcilovic (and his very adroit financial team).

By waiting until the last moment to report he shall return to college hoops, he shall be reaping the benefits of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

His ability to deposit a basketball through the netting in the basket from long range, combined with his perception of the situation shall make him a very wealthy college student.

It is said that the Universities of Kentucky, Arizona, St. John’s and Louisville are those competing for his talents.

One senses that the NIL offers have increased by the day.

Let me be very clear. I would love for him to be wearing a University of Louisville uniform next season.

But how much is he really worth? Continue reading Hoopaholic’s Gazette: NBA Withdrawal Dreadline →

Bidunga & Other Pending Decisions

Basketball, ,

Even though I have not seen a statement from Flory Bidunga himself, or his agent, the reports are so many that he is withdrawing from the NBA Draft, such that I feel more comfortable this May morning that he’ll suit up for the Cardinals come autumn.

Earlier reports that he “signed” with the Cardinals were too sketchy for this former prosecutor. I have remained skeptical.

Even though the current reportage is also hearsay, it has the appearance  of validity. Ah, how one’s standards slip in retirement.

Am I being cautious with my emotions? Continue reading Bidunga & Other Pending Decisions →

Pigskin Prattle: Lookin’ Ahead

Football,

I don’t always think about football in May. But when I do, I drink Dr. Brown’s Diet Cream Soda. 

Stay thirsty, my friends.

So, yeah, it’s drizzly, as it is most every Memorial Day weekend it seems. Didn’t there used to be a Reggae Fest at the Water Tower that would get rained upon more often than not.

So, an old man turns his back on hoops, for a second anyway, and contemplates the upcoming pigskin campaign.

Which is just 100 days away, give or take a few moon circumnavigations.

 * * * * *

Thinking about the Cards first and foremost.

Jeff Brohm’s got a new contract.

$8 mill a year.

We’ll see if he can get the Cards into the Dandy Dozen Playoff? Continue reading Pigskin Prattle: Lookin’ Ahead →

Almost Official, Sorta, Maybe, Probably: Bidunga Watch

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I now dodder.

I get confused.

I’ve eaten with the same two guys every Wednesday for a couple decades now. We rotate who chooses where.

When Mr. B proclaimed the venue in our text feed yesterday, I immediately confused it with two other restaurants along Frankfort Avenue.

It happens more often than ever. Which is bracing.

This morning I awoke to a couple of headlines that Flory Bidunga has “signed” with U of L.

A Letter of Intent? His NIL deal? His scholarship papers? His request for admittance?

The reports further advise he has not officially withdrawn yet from the NBA draft.

So, tell me Mr. Wizard, what does it mean? Really mean? Continue reading Almost Official, Sorta, Maybe, Probably: Bidunga Watch →

Hoopaholic’s Gazette: The Waiting Game

Basketball,

From the moment of my fist keystroke here, there are 10 days, 10 hours and 34 minutes until the NBA Draft withdrawal deadline for college underclassman, those wishing to continue their undergraduate eduction at an institution of higher learning.

Flory Bidunga, you are on the clock.

And now the Louisville Cardinal fanbase, after enduring a week of quiet burgeoning anxiety, which followed a furious couple months of anticipation and good news, sits and waits.

Tick Tock. Tick Tock. Tick Tock.

Like the opening of “60 Minutes,” only a whole lot longer.

And we wonder, what if the “#1 Player in the Portal,” opts to stay and roll the dice. As The Professor, may he Rest in Peace, would opine, “Perhaps the kid simply doesn’t want to endure the ‘Theoretical Thereminology 368′ class he’d need for graduation.”

If rational thinking doesn’t prevail and he leaves his talent in the 2d round pool, what are the Cardinals to do?

It would leave them with enough largesse to make a necessarily absurd offer to Milan Momcilovic. Which would certainly help the Cards’ chance for real marksmanship. But leave them for the second season in a row bereft of depth underneath.

Oh the pluses and minuses of this obsession. Continue reading Hoopaholic’s Gazette: The Waiting Game →

Hoopaholic’s Gazette: I Am Verklempt

Basketball, ,

When awakening to the news, my inner Linda Richman (Mike Myers) kicked in.

Like the day she and her bestie Liz Rosenberg (Madonna) were kvelling about all matters Streisand and then were visited by Barbra herself during an episode of “Coffee Talk.” Vapors ensued.

Pat Kelsey, who has done more than any reasonable diehard could have possibly hoped for so far in this off season, bagged another under the radar sleeper.

Huānying Boyuan Zhang.

Sturdy. SF/PF. Another southpaw, meaning the Cards will be able to attack from the Brooklyn side. Shooter with both a long range and pull up game, described by one recruiting guru as “lethal.” Under the radar because he didn’t play on the AAU circuit last summer while still in his home country.

He joins our recent kaabo to Nigerian native, Obinna Ekezie Jr., and our bienvenido to Spaniard Alvaro Folgueiras, and — draft pending — bienvenue to Congolese big Flory Bidunga. (Who measured shorter than expected 6-7 3/4 at the Combine.)*

*Wes Unseld wasn’t that tall.

Given the multi-continental UN-ish nature of the new roster, do we refer to the Cards’ mentor as Secretary General Kelsey? Continue reading Hoopaholic’s Gazette: I Am Verklempt →

Isaac Ellis, Come on Down

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Isaac Ellis, 6-1 PG, who was committed for Class of ’27 has reclassified.

Another weekend, another new Louisville Cardinal.

Briefly. (‘Cause it’s all I know on a Saturday afternoon.)

Playing in the Overtime Elite league:

29.3 ppg.

8.9 apg.

4.9 rpg.

1.9 steals.

Or, depending on the source, 30.4 points, 8.0 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 2.0 steals

He put up a fiftyburger + a half dozen in November.

— c d kaplan