Category Archives: Basketball

Elam Ending Goes Prime Time

Basketball,

So  without compunction, I’ll steal a great line and paraphrase Jon Landau who, when he was still just a music critic, presciently wrote, “I’ve seen the future of rock & roll, and its name is Bruce Springsteen.”

I’ve seen the future of basketball, and its name is the Elam Ending.

(Landau, as you might know, became Springsteen’s manager. Maybe I’ll be named Grande Poobah of Hoops. Czar Seedy I.)

If you have even a passing obsession with the game we love, you’ve heard of it, right? A new and completely different and scintillating way to end games, developed after years of thought and research by a guy named Nick Elam. Duh!

At the first dead ball after there are less than four minutes to play, the game clock gets turned off. Seven points are added to the total of the winning team, or the score if tied. First team to reach the target wins. Continue reading Elam Ending Goes Prime Time →

Just Cardinal Hoops Talk . . . Really

Basketball, ,

Oy. it’s enough to give a guy heartburn. (Though that might be thanks to the gourmanderizing I perpetrated on myself last night right before bedtime.)

Lawsuits. Now x 2. Fans suing the NCAA. Players suing the NCAA.

Then there’s that litigation of former employees suing the school after being fired.

Now there’s that pizza splatter all over the football program and the university since that Papa J has swan-dived off the side of the mountain onto the rocks below, fashioning his own professional demise, leaving lots of pissed off folks in the U of L community.

So . . . for a breath of fresh air . . . can we talk about some actual Cardinal hoops for a bit? I mean Coach Mack and Jordan Nwora did a meet and greet day before yesterday?

Yes, but one other item first.

Signage. Continue reading Just Cardinal Hoops Talk . . . Really →

Five but Not All ’13 Cards Sue NCAA

Basketball, ,

I am he/ As you are he/ As you are me/ And we are all together

Those would be the lyrics of the Beatles iconic tune that Russ Smith and Peyton Siva and Chane Behanan and Wayne Blackshear and Montrezl Harrell are likely not singing this day, if they’ve digested the gist of the lawsuit filed by their 2013 teammates against the NCAA.

Those plaintiffs are Luke Hancock and Gorgui Dieng and Tim Henderson and Michael Marra and Stephann Van Treese, who have in essence demanded that ruling body of college sports clear their names but not those of their teammates, declare the claimants again champions and winners of the victories taken away.

Maybe it’s just me, but the whole deal smells like those involved in the suit are throwing their teammates under the bus. Where’s the one for all, all for one team spirit?

And who’s the Walrus? Continue reading Five but Not All ’13 Cards Sue NCAA →

College Hoopaholic Goes Pro (And Other Matters)

Basketball

So, there’s this cheese I really like that I can only get at one place in town.

Gouda with truffles. Damn expensive, but so tasty I treat myself more often than I should.

Went to get some the other week, and the store was out, said they’d have another shipment in a month or so. Settled for something else the fromage expert behind the counter suggested . . .

. . . which was OK, but not what I really craved.

You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime you find you get what you need. Continue reading College Hoopaholic Goes Pro (And Other Matters) →

Mitchell, Rozier & the Dean/Jordan Meme

Basketball, ,

So, if you happen to be a Louisville Cardinal fan and happened to be out and about last night and couldn’t watch in real time so you taped the Jazz/Rockets game to view later before bed or today, hoping that our main man in the Beehive State was able to lead his underdogs to another W in the Western semis . . .

. . . well . . . (Spoiler Alert!) fuhgettabout any prolongation of the series.

Buuuuuuuut, if you haven’t watched yet, just fast forward to the 3d Q, during which interlude, one Donovan Mitchell, former matriculator on the Belknap Campus, went . . .

. . . en fuego. (Or if you prefer the first translation Google spit out, en llamas.)

Donovan was, it ain’t hyperbole, Jordanesque. It was a fashion show of twists and swirls and crossovers and Eurosteps and reverses and banks and follows and deuces and treys. He tallied double deuces. Which, to put in proper context, was a greater sum for the period than the entirety of the home team, which just so happened to win more games this season than any other.

Plus he was dishing out no look dimes that were, dare I say it, Magical. Continue reading Mitchell, Rozier & the Dean/Jordan Meme →

Cardinal Hoops: A Look Back & Stepping Ahead

Basketball, ,

There’s something in the air.

And the aroma — despite one last springtime cold front — is as sweet as honeysuckle.

But it came from out of the blue. Xavier blue.

When the in the realm of all matters insignificant memory passed through my mind before Chris Mack’s boffo intro, it should have been obvious then and there how anxious I was, we all were for a reinstitution of hope.

We were, frankly, predisposed to be pumped. Continue reading Cardinal Hoops: A Look Back & Stepping Ahead →

Cardinal Hoops is Back to Where It Once Belonged

Basketball, ,

U of L basketball has turned the page, is starting a new chapter.

The windows have been thrown open, fresh air is circulating the premises.

And, while I’m tossing about worn clichés, it would be easy to fall into the trap of offering this: There’s a new sheriff in town.

Except that this new fella come down from upriver doesn’t seem like the guy who would fling open the swinging doors and swagger into Louie’s Saloon with an air of high authority, making sure all the boys at the bar saw his badge’s gleam in the gaslight. He’s more the dude who shows up late after a long day toiling at the livery stable, has a shot maybe two of sarsaparilla but rarely if ever too many then heads home to buss his bride on the cheek and tumble about with the kids.

So, then I arrive here: to say that a new era in Cardinal hoops has dawned. That the new guy in town, Chris Mack, looked out at the assembled to the phalanx of former hoopsters who thrilled us in the red & black, and proclaimed, “This is your program. I want each of you to know there are no different eras.

“This is Louisville basketball.”  Continue reading Cardinal Hoops is Back to Where It Once Belonged →

Padgett, Pitino & the Cardinal Coaching Carousel Coulda Woulda

Basketball, , , ,

At the top, before I get to opinionizing, conjecturing, rumor mongering, innuendo disseminating and other stuff my phalanx of attorneys have advised me against, let me add my words of praise for David Padgett.

The fellow was dropped into a situation that was extremely difficult at best, and exasperatingly impossible at worst.

At every twist and turn, he comported himself with poise, class and humility.

David Padgett, dare I say it, is a mensch.

University of Louisville fans owe him a debt of gratitude for the stalwart way he handled an untoward situation.

I hold him in nothing short of the highest regard.

He has all the peripherals for a long and successful coaching career. I don’t know a Cardinal fan who doesn’t wish for his success. Continue reading Padgett, Pitino & the Cardinal Coaching Carousel Coulda Woulda →

U of L Men’s Basketball Season Now Rests in Peace

Basketball,

It was more than poetic that on the first day of spring, snow fell.

And so did the Cardinals for the final time this year.

To lay to rest a dissatisfying season that shall be hard to forget though the oh so many adoring fans who showered their appreciation at the Yum! in the last week will wish they could.

The denouement was appropriate.

The moment was allegorical.  Continue reading U of L Men’s Basketball Season Now Rests in Peace →

Louisville CardFile: Middle Tennessee (And a Nod to Walz’s Women)

Basketball,

It was the kind of day that Cardinal fans feel inclined to get poetic, a sunny early spring interlude, a pleasant valley Sunday on the banks of the Ohio.

And, out of respect for our burg’s favorite Derbytime Doublemint twins Cyb and Trish, it was a double your pleasure, double your fun kind of L1C4, #BeTheCardinals kind of day.

At High Noon in the NC2A, U of L’s one-seed distaff hoopsters eviscerated Marquette by 18.

Asia Durr hit her first five shots. Sam Fuehring hit her first five shots. Myisha Hines-Allen hit her first five shots. Jeff Walz’s charges were up 18 at the end of the 1st, and +25 at intermission.

You know what the Professor says?

That’s right, class, you look good when you make your shots.

So, when the guys tipped in the N1IT at 6:30 in front of yet another raucous old days feel of a throng — they actually did the friggin’ WAVE for throwback’s sake, upper deck included — it was as if the boys said, the ladies were so nice, let’s do it twice. Continue reading Louisville CardFile: Middle Tennessee (And a Nod to Walz’s Women) →