Tag Archives: College Hoops

A Hoopaholic’s Recruiting Regret

Basketball, ,

Of all the self help vows I’ve made, it is one of the most important for my continued sanity.

A resolution I must admit, I break Every Single Year.

Do not allow the whims of teenaged basketball players to effect your serenity and well being.

Yet, here I am again. At once, proud that I’m holding off joining yet another group that follows such roster building stuff microscopically.

Still checking my computer every half hour or so to see if there are updates.

I beseech thee, Naismithius, allow your gentle countenance to shine upon me and grant me peace.

 * * * * *

As wacky as this season turned into decades ago with the advent of recruiting gurus and services, it is even more so now. Continue reading A Hoopaholic’s Recruiting Regret →

Hoopaholic’s FF Final: Big i$ Big

Basketball, College Sports,

The Days of Future are Passed.

What only the most McLuhans amongst us might have discerned on that first day of September back in ’07 is the Now.

The medium is the message.

And more.

On that day on the nascent and curious wager that was the Big Ten Network debuted. App State upset the Mighty Wolverines in the Big House.

Only the prescient knew then what would be wrought.

Certainly not, one must suppose, Jolin Zhu, age 12, then residing in her homeland of China.

But she is also part of the coalesce that has changed college sports forever. Continue reading Hoopaholic’s FF Final: Big i$ Big →

Cards Commence Sea Change Season

Basketball, ,

Talking on the phone the other day with a pal who follows the sport, but not with the obsessiveness of most of you readers or your scribe, he asked how I was faring now that the season is over?

To which I admonished, first the season isn’t over given the little matter of the upcoming Final Four.

Besides said I, the off season is now a season unto its own self.

One that matters. A lot.

Call it the Sea Change Season.

Most all the schools in or aspiring to the upper echelon of hoops will have a transformed roster next campaign, some a total makeover, others coaching staff shifts of significance.

The carousel for coaches has been in full swing for awhile.

The portal doesn’t technically open until next week, but agents and meddling schools have been chatting for a long while, and players throughout the land are starting to announce their intentions to stay — like thankfully the core of Jeff Walz’s women — or leave.

Like a couple of Cardinals on the men’s team. Continue reading Cards Commence Sea Change Season →

Through the Looking Glass and What Seedy K Found There

Basketball,

Highway 19 slips into southwest North Carolina at Belleview, creeps its way northwesterly through Burnsville, Mars Hill, Asheville up to Cane River, where it splits into 19E and 19W, both of which meander off into Tennessee.

Unfortunately, some of the poesy is lost because it doesn’t jackknife through the heart of Tobacco Road, the corridor between Chapel Hill and Durham.

Which are the homes of a couple of iconic college hoops franchises.

Both of which in The Year of Our Lord 2026 suffered eerily similar ignominious defeats in the NCAA tournament.

Blowing 19 point leads.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Haters amongst ya, unite. Can’t get much better than this. Continue reading Through the Looking Glass and What Seedy K Found There →

Hoopaholic’s Gazette: 68 >> 16

Basketball,

Now for some musings on a weekend vacationing in the Land of Overinflated Balls.

Otherwise known as the Greatest Weekend in Sports, the opening two rounds of the NCAA tournament.

Have no comments on the testicularity of it all. But can say from a personal standpoint, my eyes are crying for a rest, and my stomach is yelping, “Enough with the popcorn.”

 * * * * *

As for the hoops, a significant dialog has been the lament over the demise of Cinderfellas.

Which is, frankly, the foreseeable and inevitable Now of college hoops, given NIL and Transfer Portal machinations.

You think 20-12 Alabama Birmingham might have had a few more dubs and been dancing had one of the Blazers’ starting forwards gone by the name Yaxel Lendeborg?

So, yeah, it’s the way of world these days.

We still had High Point. And VCU coming back from 19 down to beat North Carolina, biggest deficit overcome in 1st round history. And St. Louis turning Georgia over under sideways down. Continue reading Hoopaholic’s Gazette: 68 >> 16 →

U of L CardFile: Michigan State

Basketball, ,

As disconsolate as I may feel in the immediate aftermath of Louisville’s season ending 69-77  loss to Michigan State, I am consoled by contextualizing a sad moment with this heartening reality.

It came on March 21.

It came in the second round of the NCAA tournament, a place the Cardinals had not resided in for nine years.

It came against a Michigan State Spartan program which always always peaks come Dance time. And were objectively, simply better than Louisville in 2026.

Against a mentor, Tom Izzo, who was coaching in his 35th Round of 32 game. In which he now stands 26-9. With 7 of those Ls coming as an #8 or #9 seed to a #1 seed.

Pat Kelsey, whose learning curve continues, won his first ever game in the tournament.

It was his 24th W of his second season on Floyd Street.

The 51st of his growing time as U of L coach.

You know what former coaches didn’t win that many in their first two seasons? Continue reading U of L CardFile: Michigan State →

Hoopaholic’s Gazette: Second Thoughts

Basketball, ,

Just a few things.

Shame shame shame on me for not singing the praises of Kobe Rodgers in my GameCap.

My sincerest apologies.

Both Coach and players mentioned him the victory’s post game presser.

Pointing to the importance of his hugely significant rebound of a Bull miss with 1:25 left and the Cards clinging to a rapidly diminishing six point lead at 78-72.

It provided 30 seconds of oxygen for U of L when they were gasping for breath.

Plus plus plus . . . Continue reading Hoopaholic’s Gazette: Second Thoughts →

U of L CardFile: South Florida

Basketball, ,

You wander in the desert for 3290 days, and it makes sense that you might get nervous when you finally spy the promised land.

Louisville 83, South Florida 79.

For the first time since March 17, 2017, the Louisville Cardinals face a 48 hour turnaround to play in the NCAA Round of 32.

So, all you nagging nabobs of negativitude, those of you all over the telly and the interweb and at coffee pots across the land who were oh so bullish on South Florida as the most trendy and surefire of opening round upsetters, gotta question for you.

Who’s your matador now?

The resilient U of L Cards, that’s whom.

Olè Olè.

Continue reading U of L CardFile: South Florida →

Hoopaholic’s Gazette: Let’s Dance!

Basketball, ,

The Cokes are in the icebox/ The popcorn’s on the table

Sam Cooke got it right. Figuratively speaking.

Actually tis Vernor’s and Dr. Brown’s in the fridge. With a tournament level supply of Black Jewell Slightly Buttered ordered and on the way.

It’s time.

We’re havin’ a party.

Everybody’s swingin’/ We’re dancin’ to the music, yeah

Oh yeah.

Don’t be expecting a significant amount of substance in today’s exercise.

Really just killing time until First Four tips tonight in Dayton.

Where I’m glad fellow ACC member SMU made it to Dayton. But really hoping insufferable, terminal ingrate Andy Enfield and his Mustangs fall to Miam (Oh). Which RedHawks should have some fans in the gym since it’s 42 miles from campus.

 * * * * *

Some more this and that about this and that. Continue reading Hoopaholic’s Gazette: Let’s Dance! →

U of L CardFile: Miami (Fla)

Basketball,

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) →