Today’s new word learned while reading too much stuff during breakfast: Anvilicious.
Which I am using to describe “having an experience so harsh so vile that it’s like being hit with extreme prejudice over the head with an anvil.”
Like watching the Cardinals getting drawn and quartered at Cameron Indoor as if Mel Gibson in a Clan Buchanan kilt was ordering the punishment.
The evening was, shall we say, bracing.
Sobering.
And, eventually, having escaped the emotional detritus, having recovered somewhat from the numbness, now come moments of assessment, contemplation.
Coach, good on you for not sugar coating the massacre. For not prevaricating. For advising the weather and travel issues had nothing to do with it. For owning your responsibility as captain of the ship.
But, Coach, it was more than a butt kicking.
This was the Free Birds, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Lou Thesz, Captain Lou Albino and Hillbilly Jim wailing away on the Cardinals all at once.
A full body MRI and full body CAT Scan are necessary.
We hope to see are short term tweaks — this season with personnel and staff on hand — and long term resolution.
Looking forward, to use the favorite terminology of the commentariat, to Adjustments.
* * * * *
Louisville, despite the obvious difficulties with bigger, stronger, more aggressive teams, is still a tourney squad.
#19 in the NCAA NET, #18 in Ken Pomeroy, etc. etc.
It is the direction — a spiraling swoon — that worries.
Fascinating it shall be to see what Kelsey and his staff might change moving forward. The rest of the tilts are winnable, though that swing to visit Carolina and Clemson doesn’t look like fun.
A heart transplant might help.
Find a Yellow Brick Road somewhere?
But ya know, Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man that he didn’t, didn’t already have.
Unless there’s some Ellis Myles/ Charles Jones clone who somehow earns immediate eligibility, the Cards’ frontline is the Cards’ frontline for the remainder of this season.
Mikel Brown is young, and will still be young in March. Lacking experience, he will not be morphing into Chucky Hepburn ’25, Peyton Siva ’13 or Phil Bond ’75.
I am not astute enough a hoops technician to suggest what changes need to be made this campaign. When my car needs work I take it to a mechanic.
Other than fighting all the way to the buzzer should there be another throttlement on the horizon.
I am just hopeful that the train gets back on the tracks.
* * * * *
Even more I look forward to seeing how Pat Kelsey adjusts — that word again — heading into next year and beyond?
Roster construction.
Modus operandi.
Coaching staff.
Nothing changes if nothing changes.
* * * * *
I do know the next right thing.
Beat Southern Methodist.
— c d kaplan
All this criticism on message boards of Kelsey is rediculous ,he has taken a program that was unwatchable to one that is no worse than very decent
Not his fault that Prior apparently has not recovered from a very bad injury Rooths is sick or that Brown jr had a bad back injury
It is after all basketball, not life or death
Been a Cards fan since 1966 when Wes Unseld and Butch Beard roamed the court and I think he will figure it out
What you say is true about the improvement over Payne, but that is a really really low bar. There are lots of seasoned basketball watchers here that can point out some very obvious flaws in his approach. That doesn’t mean he won’t figure it out, but we don’t know he will. We are allowed to give our take on it. We are Louisville, and we are allowed to set the bar extremely high.
For instance, why do he have 6 guards on the payroll while sufferering so much in the front court? One of those guards, Johnson, is a former G league player who is getting paid to sit out with a redshirt. How does that make sense in the age of yearly roster rebuilding with the portal? Is Johnson even going to stay here and play, or will he transfer and we pay him for nothing?
There are some major mistakes being made. That’s just a fact. Yes PK may, or even likely, will figure it out, but for right now the criticism is both warranted, and spot on.
I’m with you Gar!
👍🏀
These more physically-talented teams put us in a figure-four leg lock, followed by an atomic elbow and a pile-driver. Bring on Classy Freddie Blassie as an assistant coach. (Lou Albino!)
Mr. Hoopaholic, I have an off the wall, totally irrelevant question I hope you or your crew might answer. Why do the refs make such a big deal about uniform shirttails? Why must the players keep them tucked in? (OK, that’s two questions)
I remember the 1977 champion Marquette Warriors designed their own uniforms, and that part of the design was to leave the shirttail untucked. The refs didn’t seem to care then.
Before reading the last paragraph, I immediately thought of those Bo Ellis designed Marquette unis. Which, if memory serves, were banned by the NCAA after a few wearings because of the issue you present.
I have not the slightest idea why there’s such a rule. I surmise it is “strictly” enforced because the refs can, and to let players know who has authority.
Marquette wore those unis for several seasons into the early 80’s. While officially banned in 1984, they somehow got away with wearing the ’77 replica jerseys for a single 1992 game.