Tag Archives: Louisville Cardinals

Cardinal Hoops Best E1: Rebounder

Basketball,

This is the first of an as yet undetermined number of episodes which shall be posted intermittently in the weeks to come. In which I provide totally subjective opinionations about Cardinal Hoops superlatives through the decades.

E1: Best Rebounder

Something fascinating happened after the 71-72 season when undersized but oh so strong Ron Thomas averaged 13.5 rbg. Since then there have only been two campaigns when the Cards leading retriever has averaged double digits. Both times it was Clifford Rozier in consecutive years in the early 90s.

In the days of yesteryore, a team’s rebounders snared most of the misses. Or, so the numbers would seem to indicate.

Who was the best ever rebounder to wear the Red & Black is clearly beyond peradventure a two man consideration.

Between Charlie Tyra — a JM Atherton HS alum  — and Westley Unseld, a Seneca grad before heading to the Belknap Campus. Continue reading Cardinal Hoops Best E1: Rebounder →

Midweek Dis & Data

Baseball, Basketball, College Sports, Football, ,

I wanted to start with U of L football.

Honest, I really really did.

But just have to mention that film clip first.

You know the one. Pat Kelsey answering a question posed by ACC Network’s Wes Durham. (I think it was him.) Glorious Editor posted it in his last News & Notes. I trust that all true Cardinal fans have watched it, or at least heard about it by now.

Responding to what’s your favorite movie, PK immediately responds “Hoosiers.”

Imagine our surprise.

Then tells how a HS teammate and he watched the b-ball parts of flick every single day after practice one post season.

Then he shares that the Bobby Plump character Jimmy Chitwood netted 44 of 49 shots for Hickory High he took in the beloved film. Continue reading Midweek Dis & Data →

A Hoopaholic Hyperventilates

Basketball,

Breathe, Chuck, breathe.

Long. Calm. Deep. Breaths.

Yes, you’re still hearing fireworks from the 4th. Literally, thanks to the yahoos in your neighborhood, setting off bottle rockets here after midnight a couple of days later.

But those other fireworks; they’re in your head.

I’ll let you be in my dream, if I can be in yours.

A packed to the gills Yum! exploding in mid February during a visit from the Evil Empire Blue Devils.

Cards with the ball, down 2 with seconds on the clock. Mikel Brown Jr. with preternatural calm brings the rock past midcourt. Finds Aly Khalifa in the post, who immediately kicks it to the corner.

Isaac McNeely drains a triple. (Will we be calling him Isaac McThreely by then? Don’t bet against it.)

Clock strikes 00:00. Continue reading A Hoopaholic Hyperventilates →

Phone Numbers, Pool Tables: Tales From Cardinal Pigskin Past

Football,

I know for sure you’ve never read these stories in this space, even though you might know them from elsewhere.

Because your self proclaimed not such a Louisville football expert just heard them yesterday, when I ran into an old neighbor and former member of the football staff. From the beginning of the Schnell era when hired on as a GA, through the miscalculation of Cooper, partway through the resurgence of John L..

 * * * * *

Let’s start with Schnell’s engagement with Mick Jagger in the summer of ’89, such as it was. (About which, to be honest, I had heard stories but not from someone who was actually in the room.)

The Stones’ Steel Wheels tour landed at Fairgrounds Stadium in September ’89.

Apparently, such was the cloud of contractual secrecy surrounding the construction of that monstrous stage, that nobody outside the entourage could view it. Even though they’d already played eight dates. Which major inconvenience, as is easy to imagine, didn’t sit well with the Pipe, since it was the middle of the football season. Continue reading Phone Numbers, Pool Tables: Tales From Cardinal Pigskin Past →

What If The GOAT Coached Cardinal Football?

College Sports, Football,

Truth in Reportage. The whole idea for this post was generated by Matt Baker’s contemplation this morning at theathletic.com. 

Which fascinating it’s-the-off-season-so-whatever-to-write-about rabbit hole boiled down to this query: Which school is the worst of the eventual best of list  — Arizona State, North Carolina, , Louisville, South Carolina, Stanford, Utah, Wisconsin — that Nick Saban could reasonably have led to a national title?

I hearken back for just a moment to my last post, where I not totally regrettably asked my readers to suggest article topics for these fallow summer months on the collegiate sports scene. Baker, and we’re far from alone, obviously is searching for stuff to keep readers interested until games kickoff in August.

It worked.

After going through a bunch of metrical data points, Baker arrived at those possible schools.

Of course, you must have realized by now, the winner is the University of Louisville Cardinals. Continue reading What If The GOAT Coached Cardinal Football? →

A Pundit’s Legit Request — Honest!!!

College Sports, Sportswriting

There are some things that are just hard, often impossible to figure out how to accomplish.

Like how to fold a fitted sheet.

Before eventually giving up — thankfully — realizing creases are OK, nobody’s looking and you simply ball it up and put it in the linens drawer.

With impunity and mostly free of guilt. (Sorry, mom.)

Which is all well and good until sheet changing day arrives, and you always fit one corner on, then realize you’re attempting to fit the short end lengthwise over your mattress. Therefore having to start all over.

More to the point, here’s what else is difficult to figure out: How during the hazy lazy daze of summer to keep these engagements coming between yours truly and you, his Cardinal obsessive fan base.

The athletic year is over, not to return for another couple months. Continue reading A Pundit’s Legit Request — Honest!!! →

U of L CardFile: Coastal Carolina

Baseball,

The Louisville Cardinal Nine’s magic carpet ride to and in the CWS was, for all intents and purposes, crash landed at 2:34 EDT Wednesday afternoon.

Less than a half an hour after opening pitch.

At which juncture, the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers had plated 5.

The Cardinals, who didn’t tally in the top of the 1st, had yet to get a guy out yet in the bottom.

How such happens at this time of the season is somewhat explicable.

To win a title in college baseball, a school needs depth, experience and strategic acuity. Luck helps too.

CC started Riley Eikhoff.

Sixth year senior.

6-2 on the campaign. 2.90 ERA. 63 Ks. 10 BBs. In 80 2/3 innings on the mound.

Dan McDonnell chose not to start ace Patrick Forbes, despite the fact he had four full days rest. (Forbes, who had an injury plagued season, did throw 100+ pitches in that last outing.)

Instead a fellow named Colton Hartman took to the bump. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Coastal Carolina →

Cardinal CWS Chatter

Baseball,

The Louisville Cardinal Nine has jammed their way to college baseball’s Final Four.

This is the equivalent of making it to the last Saturday of Hoops with Ian, Grant and Bill on the call.

Like ascending to the CFP semis with Chris and Herbie in the booth.

It’s way cool.

Which is why even I, Mr. Throw Up Some Diversionary Smoke Screen in the Lede, knows better.

And, which meandering I declined the propensity to do after hearing a live version this morning of Bob Marley’s “Jammin'” with a reference to Zion I could have play around with.

The Cards are jammin’.

And hope the fans are jammin’ too.

And hoping the jam is going to last. Continue reading Cardinal CWS Chatter →

U of L CardFile: Oregon State II

Baseball,

In a game as fuhrcackta* as U of L’s 7-6 walk off over Oregon State to stay alive in the CWS, it seems here not as obvious as it may seem to designate the key factor for the victory.

*It’s a Yiddish word, probably misspelled, but I doubt I need to define it for you, if you were tuned into the 9th inning. (If not, shame on ya.)

Of course, slugger Eddie King Jr.’s gotta have RBI sac fly was the clincher.

But in an exciting game in which the Cards’ blunders in the top of the last allowed the Beavers to catch up, and a couple of miscues by OSU in the bottom set the stage for the good guys to steal it back, there have to be some small moments along the way which informed how these schools got there.

Or so I would opine.

Consider how it all ended for Alex Alicia. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Oregon State II →

U of L CardFile: Arizona

Baseball,

There’s a reason why this deep dive into the Cardinals survival W over Arizona won’t be so deep, or such a dive into the nuances. A reason why it will be scattershot.

Because the manner of how U of L extended its stay in Omaha was so dipsy doodle, so whirly twirly, so psychedelic.

Back in the day, we who imbibed were advised that in the years, decades to come we would experience flashbacks.

Few and far between they’ve been, but cherished nonetheless.

The bottom of the 8th was the latest, psychedelic. I can think of no more appropriate descriptor.

The Cardinals, down 2-3 with six outs to play with, plated a half dozen.

A sixburger.

Actually three double cheeseburgers, one with everything, one with mayo and pickles no onions, one with lettuce and tomato and Savannah Banana peppers. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Arizona →