When awakening to the news, my inner Linda Richman (Mike Myers) kicked in.

Like the day she and her bestie Liz Rosenberg (Madonna) were kvelling about all matters Streisand and then were visited by Barbra herself during an episode of “Coffee Talk.” Vapors ensued.

Pat Kelsey, who has done more than any reasonable diehard could have possibly hoped for so far in this off season, bagged another under the radar sleeper.

Huānying Boyuan Zhang.

Sturdy. SF/PF. Another southpaw, meaning the Cards will be able to attack from the Brooklyn side. Shooter with both a long range and pull up game, described by one recruiting guru as “lethal.” Under the radar because he didn’t play on the AAU circuit last summer while still in his home country.

He joins our recent kaabo to Nigerian native, Obinna Ekezie Jr., and our bienvenido to Spaniard Alvaro Folgueiras, and — draft pending — bienvenue to Congolese big Flory Bidunga. (Who measured shorter than expected 6-7 3/4 at the Combine.)*

*Wes Unseld wasn’t that tall.

Given the multi-continental UN-ish nature of the new roster, do we refer to the Cards’ mentor as Secretary General Kelsey? Continue reading Hoopaholic’s Gazette: I Am Verklempt →

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 →

Even the most optimistic of Louisville hoops fanatics understand the Cardinals have fallen short of expectations.

Thus, as they say in support group settings, said expectations unrealized have led to resentments.

Thereby, despite a 20-8 record and a fairly firm grasp of an invite to the Dance, the natives are restless.

Not without some justification.

As we say, the honeymoon is over for Pat Kelsey.

Questions about his roster construction, queries about his strategy to eschew any FG attempts other than threes and layups, defensive setups, concerns about roster rotation are all legitimate.

But, as I’ve personally offered to all who inquire, it’s what happens between this season and next that will be most telling.

How future rosters are assembled. An experienced PG to run the show. A significantly greater inside presence. Guys with a better handle who can get it to the hoop, and finish. Etc, etc.

So, yeah, fans have questions. So do I. Continue reading Hoopaholic’s Gazette: Cardinal Coaching Consternation →

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. Continue reading Hoopaholic’s Gazette: Thinking Past the Bedevilment →

Not sure there’s anything that’ll get a charter member of the Cardinal Chapter of Hoopaholic’s Anonymous more fired up.

A presser on the 16th of July. Coach Pat Kelsey. J’Vonne Hadley. Aly Khalifa. Kobe Rodgers. Mikel Brown Jr.

So ratcheted up is my anticipation for tip off of the season — still literally months away — I couldn’t begin immediately to share my observations. Though I did give a heads up to fellow hoopaholic Smarts, who is out of town on babysitting duty.

As well as my ex- who had waffled until deadline whether to reup on her seats. “I have just come from a basketball press conference. And you are going to be very glad that you are getting your tickets for next season.”

I know, I know, I’m easy.

But there was something about the four very articulate players presence, their sense of confidence that I wasn’t prepared for. Continue reading Card Hoops Presser: Savoring the Morsels →

What is this?

This is . . .

. . . Fa fa fa fa, fa fa fa fa fa fantastic.

I happened upon a videocast yesterday from Field of 68, on which insider’s insider Jeff Goodman and another fellow were interviewing new UVa coach Ryan Odom and Pat Kelsey.

When the subject of the week’s transfer portal haul came up, PK was all PK.

With that frat boy/ fan boy kind of enthusiasm, he said something to the effect, “Last year this time, we had zero stinkin’ recruits.”

As I recall, it was well into May, or later, when some announcements came. Like this year, in a flurry.

In 2025 starting on April Fool’s Day — joke not on Cardinal Nation . . .

. . . Pat Kelsey = Portal Kelsey = P(ortal) K(iller).

That’s what it is what it is. Continue reading P(ortal) K(iller), Qu’est-ce que c’est? →

Been rereading what I along with many others consider among the best primers on the process of writing.

Anne Lamott’s “Bird by Bird.”

It’s aimed at those wanting to write fiction, novels, short stories. But, there are more than a few observers believe fiction is what appears in this space a lot of the time.

One of her bits of wisdom is to follow where the story, plot development and flushing out of characters take the writer. Don’t be stubborn, locked in to what you thought might happen when you started typing.

On occasion in advance of a Cardinal game, a GameCap lede will come to me in advance, be it peripheral or pertinent. Sometimes it works win or lose. Like that I used for the Cal game the final week of the season.

Other times, it is victory specific. Which, for superstitious reasons, I’ll never write in advance.

Such as what was swirling around in my my hippocampus and amygdala  before the Creighton tilt.

The whole bird thing. Cardinals vs. Blue Jays. Which bird was tougher, meaner? If that could be researched? I had in mind throwing  in some college board lingo, the French term oiseaux, along with probably the term ornithological.

Well, given the result that wasn’t going to happen.

In the car the day after, a tune by a group called Futurebirds came on Sirius XM’s Jam Band site. Continue reading The Cardinals: Who’s Got Next? →