In a battle between a couple of evenly matched teams, it can take but a quick interlude of momentary superiority for separation.

On the court, peripherals factor to a degree.

That one team is without its best player with injury.

That the other wants revenge for losing less than a week ago in its final home tilt of the season.

That one spilled blood in the 1st. Eye gash. Lip split. Eye poke.

That the other was iffy for the most part at the FT line, but hit key ones.

That one turned it over too much, and the other cashed in.

That one, out of sync, never lost its grit, stayed scrappy.

Surely those subliminals matter for the entire affair.

 * * * * *

Except for a minute and thirty four seconds soon right after halftime, all that and more was a wash. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Miami (Fla) →

I walk 47 miles of barbed wire/ I use a cobra-snake for a necktie/ I got a brand new house on the roadside/ Made from rattlesnake hide/ I got a brand new chimney made on top/ Made out of a human skull/ Now come on take a walk with me, Arlene/ And tell me, who do you love?

Why on earth, one might legitimately inquire, am I quoting the opening lyrics to Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love?”

Because I am as addled with rock & roll as I am with the Louisville Cardinals, and I’ve always considered these to be the nastiest lyrics in rock.

And when it mattered most in order to eek out as dumbfounding a Cardinal victory as I can recall in the ACC tourney opener, it was thanks to the fella whom Coach Pat Kelsey called upon several games back, for come the “nasty.”

Call it the Greek Tweak.

Vangelis Zougris.

Yo, Zoug, some gal named Arlene’s on the line, wants to take a walk.

 * * * * *

Louisville 62, Southern Methodist 58. Continue reading U of L CardFile: SMU →

Caveat Emptor: Your venerable Cardinal chronicler takes no responsibility if what you read makes zero sense, nor for any of the typos which may be contained herein.

My fingers have the hippy hippy shakes.

I have skipped a light fandango, turned cartwheels ‘cross the floor to get to my keyboard. I am exhausted. 

I am exhilarated.

Because these are the afternoons fans pray for. 

I rarely reference betting lines, but . . .

. . . for some unfathomable reason, the Louisville Cardinals, staggering to the finish line of the regular season, hobbled by injury and illness, opened as a one and a half point favorite.

Huh?

Which soon experienced a three point flip to + 1.5.

Well, ladies and gents, U of L was a toke, an Adrian Wooley trey and a pair of Ryan Conwell FTs over the line.

Louisville, fashioning its best effort of the campaign bested surging Miami, winners of 9 of their last 11.

Cardinals 92, Miami 89. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Miami →

There have been some scintillating encounters among the now 35 times Louisville and Syracuse have met.

That harbinger of a championship on the horizon in January of ’86. When the alleged juggernaut Orange led by Pearl Washington and Rony Seikaly were ranked #4 in the land but shuffled out of an electric Freedom Hall on the short end of a 83-73 whipping.

Of course, there’s the etched in lore Cards dunkathon W in their finale at the Hall in ’10. 78-68. When Boeheim’s Army came in ranked #1 and met Kyle Kuric.

So too that comeback from a gazillion down for a 78-61 beatdown in the ’13 Big East tourney, on the way to the school’s third natty.

Boffo Basketball those battles were.

Tuesday night, not so much.

But, in the context of a season slip sliding away, significant. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Syracuse →

My name is Seedy K and I’m a hoopaholic.

A lifelong Louisville Cardinals diehard hoopaholic.

With an opinion. Or ten.

All of which kicked in this morning, which is why I needed to share here at Hoopaholic’s Anonymous.

This morning at theathletic.com, b-ball scribe Scott Dochterman ranked the Top 50 rivalries in college basketball.

U of L vs. UK was the runner up to Duke/ North Carolina.*

*I do not have an issue with that order of things. I’m a hoops junkie, and loathe the Tobacco Road acolytes as I might, and how ESPN hypes it to the hilt, that rivalry does most always deliver scintillating hoops.

Which Cards vs. Cats does not always do.

But I did have a knee jerk relapse into my hoopaholism when the scribe listed his take on the “Biggest Game” in the series.

I trust I’m not alone.

Here’s what Dochterman wrote: Continue reading Hoopaholic’s Gazette: A Diehard Dissents →

The regression continues.

Louisville remains ofer Littlejohn.

Clemson had lost four in a row coming in. Including Ls to underwhelming Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.

No problem against a Cardinal team that has lost its way.

If in truth it knew where it was going ever.

It’s like the agent at AAA gave them the wrong TripTik.

And they stayed the route anyway.

Clemson 80, Louisville 75.

Let there be no confusement.
Continue reading U of L CardFile: Clemson →

Too little. Too late.

That’s the cliché, right?

Applies here.

Louisville 74, North Carolina 77.

Just thinkin’ out loud.

You gotta play with energy and passion and a hint of fire The Whole Game, not just the last little bit to make it look closer than it really was.

At the 16:27 mark of the 2d, the Tar Heels drained a triple, which extended their one point halftime advantage to 9 at 49-40.

The Cardinals answered — actually didn’t — with a hurried airball from beyond the arc.

At which point, I wrote these words in my game notes: “GAME OVER!”.

Carolina netted seven more in a row for a 56-40 margin. Continue reading U of L CardFile: North Carolina →