A pal once dubbed me a Not So Accidental Tourist.

Our families were traveling together in Spain. In Granada we’d visited the Alhambra, and were walking back to our hotel after having dinner at a restaurant in a nearby neighborhood.

Night had fallen, and we didn’t know the exact route and were sort of wandering about to get our bearings. I, among us, got nervous with the unknown. Even though the area was safe by all accounts.

I like to know what’s ahead. At every moment.

Not a great character trait. For too many reasons to enumerate.

Spent too much of my life worrying about what might happen, instead of just diving in.

Which is not an especially healthy thing for a hoopaholic diehard who for way too long now has allowed the athletic performance of 19 year olds dictate my sense of well being.*

*I’m getting better now mired in my dotage. But I’m far from cured.

So, as heartening as recent evidence would indicate the future of my beloved Louisville Cardinals will be, I’m having trouble diving fully in. Continue reading Coping With These Cardinals →

The train kept movin’ all night long/ The train kept a-rollin’ all night long/ With a heave and a ho . . .

That Burnett Brothers tune came to me sometime during this rock fight of a hoops encounter. Jotted it down. Just in case, ya know, the University of Louisville Cardinals pulled it out.

Well, Johnny and Dorsey and that gal from NYC made stops in Albuquerque and El Paso.

The Cards stopped in Pittsburgh on their way to Syracuse.

Took the time to quiet the wildebeests in the Oakland Zoo.

And those sillies thought it was feeding time.

Louisville 82, Pitt 78. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Pittsburgh →

OK, there’s an iconic SNL sketch, where the characters are sitting around kvelling about Barbra. I think Mike Meyers might have been in it.

Anyway, unbeknownst to them ahead of time, Streisand herself is on hand and walks into the scene.

They are verklempt.*

*Yiddish for “overcome with emotion.”

Louisville (11-5, 4-1) 74, Clemson, still ofer for Derbytown, 64.

I am absolutely, positively, VERKLEMPT.

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I really oughta shoula start with J’Vonne Hadley, but rest assured I shall get to him soon enough.

But I want to begin with what seems here to be the biggest moment in the game.

After Kader Traore had made consecutive dunks early in the 2d, the Cards led. 56-45.

Then Clemson connected on three consecutive triples. Without an answer. The margin was two. Louisville looked as wobbly as they had all night, as they had been since the EKU game.

At which juncture, the only rookie on the squad, Khani Rooths, the only Cardinal to play but single digit minutes, drained his only bucket of the game. Mark it, three.

Consider it triage. Bleeding stopped. 59-54. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Clemson →

Here is what we learned a posteriori about Kader Traore.

He makes a difference.

The Cards missed him while he was out with a broken arm.

In U of L’s Oh My! 70-50 evisceration of UVa in Charlottesville, Traore scored 15 points on 6/10 shooting, hit his only triple and both FTs. He grabbed 8 rebounds.

In only 16 minutes of action.

So it is now clear beyond peradventure that KT helps the surging 10-5, 3-1 Louisville Cardinals.

 * * * * *

Though there is still not an overabundance of evidence, I should know better by now than to question Pat Kelsey.

I mean I have been the guy since mid summer who tells all willing to hear my pontifications that he was the perfect hire for Louisville in this transitional time of college sports. More so than those others U of L chased to no avail. Continue reading U of L CardFile: UVa →

Ladies and gentleman, Louisville’s way too harrowing than it oughta been 78-76 escape over Eastern Kentucky shall be known in my neck of the woods as a Rubenstein.

The Card’s jailbreak W came at the hands of Noah Waterman and his driving baseline layup at the end of a bumper car harum-scarum last chance possession.

The dagger was plunged when the clock read :01.2.

Why a Rubenstein?

Read on.

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Your history lesson.

January 4, 1961. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Eastern Ky →

Love, reign o’er me/ Love, reign o’er me/ Reyne on me, Reyne on me

Have I mentioned before how much I love the Louisville Cardinals?

Of course, I have.

In defeat as much as victory.

But ya know with performances like Saturday afternoon’s in Tallahassee, the heart is even more full.

Louisville 90, Florida State 76.

This is a game U of L needs to win.

Cardinals did just that.

A conference W on the road is always to be admired, regardless of the foe. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Florida State →

Yeah, Texas Western.

If for some reason you don’t know the reference, there’s therapy for that.

Ask you grandpa.

And, while not the ’66 national champion Miners, this rebranded  school did come into the game leading the land in steals per game and forced turnovers per game.

When U of L coughed it up five times way early on, it took me back to Cole Fieldhouse  in ’66, watching in person Bobby Joe Hill pick Little Louie Dampier’s pocket repeatedly at mid court.

At any rate, in this one, an inelegantly contested basketball game we must admit, it was the Miners who gave it away more on the night than the Cards, who steadied (at least somewhat). 15 giveaways for the visitors, only 11 for Louisville, which ended up +3 points off of stat.

U of L escaped by the hair on their chinny chin chins.

77-74. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Texas Western →