If you have come here for some new perspective about University of Louisville Men’s Basketball, some insight you haven’t already consumed from another long time hoops scribe, or an analytical perspective from a whipper snapper computer wiz, perhaps an opinion that might differ from the the average chat room dude with a moniker like Herb&Milt86 with no real insight or insider info, think again.
I honestly haven’t a clue.
I’m as flabbergasted as anybody who might actually be tuning in here the day after another headscratching clunker from the Cardinals.
This time a no show in Pittsburgh.
53 Cardinals, 65 Panthers
What I do know is this whole situation, not just the on court ineptitude, and whatever might be going on in the locker room, the whole schmear is an absolute and total discombobuliteration.
You know that Johnny Cash song about working in a car factory, and stealing a part at a time from different models and different years and building a new conglomeration of a vehicle? And how of course it doesn’t work?
That’s how this mess appears.
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I’d really like to get some sense of what’s going on in the players’ minds?
And, mea culpa, that’s something I could have tried to find out, but didn’t.
So, my apologies.
I should have attended Chris Mack’s pregame press conference on Friday.
I’d like to believe, as a former prosecutor, I’d have been at least slightly more assertive in my questioning than those who were there.
The first query was something to the effect of, what was the message to the team after the loss to NC State and the next day at practice, and what was the team’s response, how are they handling this?
Mack sort of answered the first part, watch film, etc etc.
He did not address the team’s state of mind.
No media person in attendance followed up and held his feet to the fire.
My bad.
Not that it would make any difference if we did know.
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After a couple of back and forth runs early on, Pitt took a lead at 23-22, and never looked back.
U of L didn’t score in the last 4:16 of the 1st. The winners were up four at intermission. The Cardinals never closed an inch of that gap in the 2d.
From the 10:30 mark in the 2d until the buzzer, Louisville was never within single digits.
I texted Doc, asking if we could request a running clock?
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When U of L was down 24-25 at 3:53 in the opening 20, I jotted this in my notes: ” The Question > WILL CARDS WIN? No feel for it.”
In retrospect, I was obviously whistling past the graveyard. OK, I was lying to myself.
I know now that I knew then.
Given what I/ We were watching, the loss was inevitable.
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It’s time for some BIG decisions.
Inside the program. And outside, for the interim powers that be who control the program’s future.
Is Mack up to rethinking his whole M O, and trying something new that might work? Whatever that might be, and I have no expert suggestions.
Are the players ready to work through the issues, come together as a team and give it their all?
Is it time for a bold change coming down from the main office behind The Thinker?
?????
Nothing changes if nothing changes.
— c d kaplan
I switched to the NFL playoff game at the half. Couldn’t take it anymore. You are right, something has to change. Can we get Russ back?
Too bad Stan Frager’s not still around. Do you recall the last basket Louisville made? Malik chased down yet another miss, bouncing to the sideline. He picked it up, turned and shot from the corner. He never shoots from the corner. It was a total “I’m pissed and I don’t give a shit if this lands within five feet of the basket” toss. It went in. Like as in “Swish.” My point is these kids are so afraid of missing a shot, so afraid of missing a defensive assignment, so tight, so anxious that, as Charles Barkley once described an NBA rookie who had missed a critical free throw, “you couldn’t have pounded a pin up his ass with a jackhammer.” These guys need a psychological intervention. They also need to get rid of Ross McMains and whatever this new offensive scheme is, and just start ballin’. I think they’re scared of Chris Mack and they need help.
Well said, Smart Guy. The team looks scared, anxious and afraid. They definitely need a psychological intervention. McMains’ “system” is garbage; this bum needs to be shown the door NOW!! The offense just stands around the 3 point line waiting for… what??! Mack’s defensive strategy here has been an utter failure. Now, he sits on the bench or in pressers with dead eyes, no answers, not a single clue and seemingly uninterested trying to fix this. The staff/team just tries the same things over and over, meet the same dismal result, and try the same thing again. The very definition of insanity. I believe we’re going to eat the 12 million buyout. Chris Mack is a loathsome ineffective “coach.” Start the walk ons.
I have nothing I can add to what has been written here. We as fans if we are to save this program, must loudly speak out.
Even if mistakes were made in the team selection process , and there were, we should leave the kids out of this except those who refuse to want to improve or to be coached.
Petition the administration, start a go fund me page to assist in a settlement or buy out( really a symbolic gesture) send out a general request for interest to our basketball alumni while working the coach back channels to land a coach. As Madonna said, ” don’t settle for second best baby…” And as much as this causes collateral damage which I hate, stay out of the Yum.
You know how bad this is? It has by comparison reached the Cooper/Kraigthorp level to the second power. My dear suffering fans, over and out.
Seed, what did you think of Tim Sullivan’s article in the C-J this morning ?////
Seed, what did you think of Tim Sullivan’s article in the C-J this morning ?
Woulda, coulda, shoulda. A big ass “Oy Vey.”