You stay classy West Virginia

Bob Huggins had to ask the home crowd to stop throwing things on the floor during the West Virginia-Pitt game last Wednesday. Apparently it didn't work because a Pitt assistant coach was hit in the face with what appeared to be a quarter a few minutes later. Accompanying article here. (Hat tip: C.L. Brown)

Others on Justin Coleman

"Above the rim. I like to finish above the rim.” -- Justin Coleman

Says enough for me, but here's what other sources have said about our 5-star commit...

* ESPN's Scout, Inc (from May, 09)

Coleman is an aggressive wing that can score in bunches. He is an above the rim finisher in transition and can hit the open three with regularity. He has a smooth stroke and shoots with great confidence. Threes off the catch or dribble are not a problem for Coleman, he does a great job of spotting up on the side of the floor where dribble penetration is occurring and he sprints off screens locked and loaded. The one or two dribble mid-range pull up is also in the scoring package. Coleman has great size and strength to get to the rim as well. He is a good enough ball handler to beat his defender off the dribble with spin moves and he is strong enough to attack the lane and score through contact or draw the foul.

* Huntington Prep Coach Rob Fulford

We have 11 Division I prospects on this team. Each one was the main player on the team he came here from. Justin is still adjusting to being just one of several scorers. He'll still be our leading scorer most of the time, and he'll definitely play in the NBA one day. One of these days, he's going to find himself guarding the likes of Kobe [Bryant] and LeBron [James]. He needs to get used to giving that kind of effort now.

* More from Coach Fulford

Justin is a freak athlete. It just comes down to him learning to play hard for 32 minutes. If his desire to play matches his athletic ability, he has just so much potential. If he plays hard, he is an All-American caliber player.

* http://www.slamonline.com/ (reviewing the best seniors at the Flyin' To the Rim Tournament)

Coleman didn’t have the best game in Dayton, seemingly never getting in a groove offensively. Though the insane athleticism he possesses was evident both in warm-ups and on the defensive end, where his nasty bounce was on display. The powerfully built guard couldn’t get a jumper from beyond the arc to drop offensively and struggled handling the rock, but it just appeared to be an off game for this elite recruit. The Virginia native has shown far long enough that he’s a bigtime player with crazy upside, which is why many of the nation’s top teams are still recruiting him.

On Justin Coleman

I've spent the past 48 hours reading whatever articles the three major search engines could spit out on Justin Coleman, until on page nine I began being directed towards his epilepsy advice. I'm tremendously excited, but also wary.

I'm excited because he seems to provide exactly what this roster needs next season. A physical, strong, athletic small forward that plays above the rim, but also has a refined shooting stoke. Suddenly Cards fans aren't waiting till 2011 for help to arrive, but are looking at a possible lineup next year of Siva-Knowles-Coleman-Samuels-Jennings and saying, hey. Heyyyyy....

But I'm also wary, and not just because of his academic issues.

(Random aside, my favorite player with "academic issues" story. Remember the final days of the Denny Crum years, when things were starting to get bad, and Troy Jackson was a corpulent yet embarrassingly important cog for our team? Jackson was suspended for academic issues, and Denny insisted in multiple press conferences that all he had to do was finish this one project, that was the sticking point for him to be reinstated. Well, Troy must have been working on string theory or something, because he never played another game in a Cardinals uniform. To this day, when things get really bad, Mr. Black and I still console each other with a standard "Don't worry, once Troy gets that project in, things'll turnaround" line).

Anyways, I'm also wary. For such a lauded prospect, Coleman is still an unknown. He burst onto the scene with a remarkable performance at the NBA Player's Association camp. He was a late bloomer, an under the radar sort of player, and the major programs didn't start looking at him till recently. No one questions his athleticism, and maybe this is just my own bleak outlook speaking, but there must be something there to explain his low profile. Some of his quotes have a certain, hard to explain, lethargic quality to them. Even his coach admits that his biggest challenge is "learning to play for 32 minutes" (high school length).

Normally, it wouldn't bother me. Get him qualified, get him on campus, get him motivated. That's what coaches are paid big bucks for. But Pitino has shown weakness in that regard, and sometimes takes a frustrating "pro" outlook towards these situations. A: "Well, he is who he is, and he's going to do what he's going to do" approach, rather than a: "Listen kid, this is who you're going to be, and you will become it, and you will be better for it" approach. Since his early days in Louisville with Carlos Hurt and Brandon Bender, to the infamous Derrick Caracter saga, to his current coldness towards Terrence Jennings, Pitino has a history of not getting the best out of of these certain sort of players. Even Earl Clark, a success story, never reached his true "potential" while he was here.

Justin Coleman. Explosive, athletic, tough, and talented. Reading about his game reminds he of a young Ron Artest, but I hope that's where the similarities end. His arrival will present a tremendous opportunity for Louisville basketball, for Coach Pitino, and for himself.

Bumfuzzled

I owe an apology to Edgar Sosa. Eight assists? That's quite a number, one that went unappreciated in my amateurish first go around. There were some bad decisions in there, I stick by that, but if he can post these kind of numbers for the rest of the season, jerks like me can sit on our hands. Cards fans love ya Edgar, we really do, and I am sorry. Keep it up.

Pitino: "Swop, Jerry and Samardo played a really intelligent basketball game."

Follow the link to see tape of Pitino's postgame press conference.

Sosa, Smith, Samardo, Swop, Siva...

With a few bumps along the way, Louisville took care of business by knocking down Rutgers 76-60. Sosa notches 13 points and an impressive 8 assists. Still trying to erase the memory of some of his late-game play last month, Sosa hit critical shots down the stretch including a long three pointer with the shot clock winding down. Nonetheless, he should have sent some of those possessions into the post... Samardo was begging. Samardo posted a double-double with 14 points and 11 boards, while Swop looked good with 13 points and 8 rebounds. Siva showed flashes of brilliance (finishing that drive with his left hand!) but also made some poor decisions. Typical of a freshman, the kid shines one possession then falters the next. But, encouragingly, he never gets his head down. Turnover stats were atrocious (Sosa 6, Swopshire 4, several with 2), but we'll save that for another day. Above all, let's hope this game against Rutgers will be remembered as the moment when Jerry Smith snapped out of his season-long funk: 16 points, 4-7 from three point land, 7 rebounds, 3 steals. Sosa and Smith led the way... it feels good to say that. Go Cards!

Cards Win

A hard-fought victory, harder perhaps than it should have been. But most importantly, the Cards took care of business. Initials...

* Bad Sosa. Bad, bad Sosa. We had this team overmatched, but Sosa wasn't capable of exploiting it. He jacked from long range, drove and popped too early, had suspect turnovers. Listen, there's nothing that can be said that hasn't been said, and nothing's going to change at this point. This team can take, and perhaps needs, some bad Edgar. But it cannot take really bad Edgar. Against a mediocre opponent, Sosa's ups-and-downs were just absorbed into the greater context of the game. But against a quality opponent, we cannot afford that style of play.

* Samuels is doin' work! We still can't feed him appropriately. No player has gone from bust to boom in such a short period, but this team needs to get on board quick.

Patronizing Papa

Papa John's has been good to our city, and UofL athletics. Dastardly Dominos, in its latest attempt to fend off the dreaded "cardboard" label, is meekly fighting back during the Super Bowl tomorrow. I can't say I completely follow this blurb, but here's the latest on the war from the CJ....

Domino's Pizza is taking on Louisville-based Papa John's International and its "Better Ingredients. Better Pizza," tagline in an advertisement slated to run ahead of the Super Bowl.

In a sneak peek, Dow Jones Newswires reported that Domino's cites a recent taste test in which it beat Papa John's.

Domino's head chef Brandon Solano digs up a 10-year-old legal battle of Papa John's, where a court ruled the chain could continue using the slogan, calling it "puffery" but not misleading.

Solano's retort: "Our pizzas taste better and that's not puffery. That's proven."

I don't know who this Brandon Solano clown is, but frankly, he sounds made up. If you're ordering tomorrow, know that the Papa has the highly-coveted Cardinal Laws endorsement.

Some goosebumps to go with your coffee...

In the spirit of the New Orleans Saints' trek to the Super Bowl, did you know that the part of uber-annoying sidekick, Captain Jimmy "Raven" Wilder, played by native son Harry Connick Jr., was supposed to go to Matthew Perry? Perry had to back out due to scheduling conflicts (though his father got a bit part as a Secret Service agent). Not enough, say you? Very well...

* Did you know that Harry Connick Jr. is also an inventor. He holds the patent for an electronic sheet music distribution system, sort of a notes teleprompter for entertainers. It's not known how much he has made from the invention, but it's assumed to be a considerable fortune.

* Did you know his mother was a Louisiana Supreme Court justice? She passed away when Harry was 13.

* Did you know that his father won election to serve as New Orleans Parish district attorney in 1973, beating out then-sitting DA Jim Garrison. The latter name is familiar to conspiracy and film buffs, the same Jim Garrison that launched an investigation into the JFK assassination, and was dramatized in Oliver Stone's award-winning film "JFK".

Get this win, Cards. As Jimmy "Raven" Wilder said (before tragically dying): "Let's kick the tires and light the fires big daddy!" Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh C! A! R! D! S! CARDS!!!!

Well, hello there!

Seems like reports of the demise of Rick Pitino's recruiting prowess have been greatly exaggerated (yes, I know, some from me). Justin Coleman, a 6'4'', 215lbs guard, a top 25 talent, has committed to UofL. That's for next season, FYI. Much more to come, this changes the landscape. Welcome aboard, young man!

On Building and Bellamy

Kudos to Jody Demling at the CJ for excellent coverage of Signing Day. Thanks to his reporting, what we know from the aftermath is that Coach Strong is working towards building a program, keeping an eye on the present and the future. He filled immediate needs with the class, but also picked up players who won't pay dividends till much later. Players like Dylan Curry and Quan Weaver have been asked to redshirt (or grayshirt, the new term de jure); to get stronger and healthier before coming in to contribute.

Others will be asked to produce immediately. JUCO transfer Josh Bellamy, a former 3-star athlete from Florida, has been a journeyman; once committed to South Florida before struggling with academic issues, then transferring to Butte Community College, then taking online courses and staying in shape to get back into major college football. He came on board after Strong's hiring, and said of his future...

I didn't know a whole lot about Louisville but I knew coach Strong before. I went up there after I talked to him and it's a cool place, I loved the town. I can't wait to finally get into school and get going. Now, I have just been working out a lot. I am faster and stronger.

At 20-years old, he has the physical maturity to step in and play immediately. as you can see below, he's got some game.

Watch out for that trap door...

Short clip of Rutgers fans doing it their way. Bad mojo to post a short video taken from Rutgers' slaughter of the Cards in football two years ago? Maybe, but I'm hoping that the basketball-playing Scarlet Knights are about as graceful as their fan base, especially that Knight on the left. P.S. Don't miss the guy playing air guitar, that's a nice touch at the end.