S.O.S.

Save our Samuels. He's the only light shining around UofL basketball at the moment. Samardo has gone from sub-par and soft, to a fan favorite that can't be guarded without a double team (at one point tripled), all in a brief few months. His jump hook is becoming unguardable. He earned his stripes with the disgruntled as the only player that showed up against St. John's yesterday. Life's a trip, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but the biggest concern for Louisville basketball at the moment is that Samuels goes pro after this season. Based on his ability, the way he runs the floor, all the sudden it looms realistic. His quotes about his state of mind, and his body language, they don't seem to suggest he's in love with the idea of a junior year.

Thoughts while wandering the wilderness...

* Do they keep stats on the number of potential steals a team creates, but then can't corral the ball, so it ends up as a jump ball? If so, the Cards have to lead the nation.

* The greatest maxim that Charlie Strong has repeated is the simple, "We're going to teach 'em how to win"-line. Our basketball team hasn't learned that lesson, and Rick Pitino seems incapable of teaching it. Samardo Samuels, 14 quick first half points, finishes with 18. Don't get suckered into the thinking that this team just isn't gifted enough. There's plenty of talent on the team, it's inability to perform consistently is an abomination.

* At the bar where I watched, there was an audible cheer when Mike Marra was finally taken out of the game. I'd like to up my wager, please.

* Whatever happened to Mike Jarvis at St. John's?  He was like the Suge Knight of college basketball (I know, I know, there's no way I'm the first person to make that joke).

* I'm compelled by this Nets story. I love "backchannel" intrigue. But in reality, how does the rubber meet the road in these situations? Is Steve Masiello handing off notes to T-Will to hand to the Nets GM? I need to know these things.

* This UofL team is the softest interior defensive team in years. Watching the Johnnies score another and-one bucket as two UofL defenders swat helplessly at air, after awhile it just turned comical. A dark, dark comedy.

* I'm guessing that Samardo Samuels has a terrible poker face.

* Madison Square Gardens gets hyped as the greatest venue on earth, even I got caught up in the slurp-fest yesterday, but really, what's the big deal? I'm over this whole NYC is the epitome of everything mantra. Speaking of which, that new Jay-Z song "New York" is terrible. It sounds like it was written by Carrie Bradshaw.

* Final game in Freedom Hall is going to be an NIT game. Why don't you go ahead and take a crap on my grandpa's grave while you're at it.

The Tell-tale Quotes

Pitino never addressed the team about the rumors.
      -CL Brown's report

We couldn’t get to the spots we wanted to get to. They took us out of everything.
     --Reginald Delk

We didn’t do anything extraordinary. All we did was play very, very hard.
     --St. John's coach Norm Roberts

I've been at Louisville nine years, and I'm hoping to go to 65, and I hope it's at Louisville, and I hope they want to have me. Maybe after tonight they want me to coach a pro team.
     --Rick Pitino

Haha, haha, haha, ahhhhhhh. Good one, Rick. But it's been revealed through phone records that last season, right before the Final Four, that was one of the times that Karen Sypher was laying extortion pressure. You were then subsequently, and undoubtedly, outcoached by Tom Izzo.

Correlation with yesterday's outcome, with another puzzling outcome after a distraction, or coincidence? Whichever, it's certainly a fair question at this point.

On Crawford's Column

Eric Crawford dedicates his column inches today to well-written reasons why Rick Pitino going to the NBA makes no sense. I agree with every point (and so does the NBA, apparently). But he presupposes the idea that our head coach, and his inside circle, are rational actors.

With all the sensationalism, with all the circus, it's no stretch that the "ids" and "ads" of the Pitino-synapses are firing incorrectly. It's not a situation likely to see a triumph of pure Socratic reasoning...

A decade ago...
   "Rick Pitino to Louisville???? You gotta be crazy, baby!!!!"

A decade later....
   "I can't believe I'm still employed with this schtick!!! Pitino still in Louisville after this season?!? They gotta be crazy, baby!!!

Point being. Anybody that says that anything is "ridiculous", at this point, is "ridiculous". And yes, I do believe parting ways with Pitino, NEXT SEASON, is very much on the table.

Nobody puts Mr. Red in a corner.

The worst 24 hours in Cardinal basketball history

Hyperbole, say you? I defy you to name one worse. Losing a game is one thing, it can be stomached...

But imagine waking up feeling like P-Diddy. You're getting yourself psyched for another back-against-the-wall game at iconic Madison Square Gardens, we'll gain some momentum to snatch a win against Syracuse on Sunday.

Then at 9:30am you learn your head coach has been mentioned in rumors as the next head coach of the New Jersey Nets.

You think that may be the worst feeling a fan can have, but it's not. The worst feeling is that there are reports of your head coach sending out feelers for this job, but that that organization (one of the worst in NBA history) has no interest in him whatsoever. This is the second time this has occurred.

Then you watch Sportcenter as others pick up the story throughout the day, and people start to snicker.

Then you watch Louisville basketball get demeaned on Around the Horn and Pardon the Interuption, perhaps the most important opinion sports shows in the country. You get to hear our beloved and once proud program be referred to as "middling", "not high-profile enough", and got a national stamp on the idea that "Calipari owns the state" and that "Pitino is scared to go against him". But wait, it gets better...

Then you get to watch your charlatan coach change the starting lineup of a team starting to gel to avoid "slow starts" (we've jumped to early leads in the last two wins) only to watch the Cards lay an egg for the first 6 minutes of play. Samuels powered the team back into contention to no avail, and our squad, better at every position mind you, got HAMMERRED by a St. John's team that had lost 5 in a row.

Oh, and this likely ends our tournament hopes.

Hyperbole? Cards fans, meet our new friend Rock and his friend Bottom.

***UPDATE***
Samardo Samuels on the coaching rumors...

I just heard about it for the first time this morning when I woke up. It's none of my business. It ain't got nothin' to do with me. 

Dis-fucking-functional.

Some goosebumps to go with your bourbon...

It's been a bad day, a bourbon day. Watching as UofL basketball goes through the national media circuit for the wrong reasons (we got slaughtered on Around the Horn and PTI) is a miserable feeling. And now, an important game for the Cards tonight, at the Mecca of all Basketball, will be marred by distracting analyst chatter.

This stinks. Speaking of stinks, did you know that the "And what the hell's that SMELL?!?!"-line that Will Smith yells at the comatose alien that he drags through the desert was unscripted? It was filmed near the Great Salt Lake in Utah, home to millions of brine shrimp. When they die, their decomposed bodies sink to the bottom of the shallow lake, and when the wind blows a horrid stench is spread. Captain Steve Hiller was unprepared.

Forget the rest, get this win, Cards. And yes, drag your coach home with you. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh C ! A ! R ! D! S! CARDS!!!

Counter Heiser

Tom  Heiser, UL blogger for the CJ, writes this about the Pitino-Nets scenario...

If he's considering a return to the pros in pursuit of its boundless lucre, I begrudge him nothing. He's making $2.3 million now -- could make closer to $4 with the Nets (with the added luxury of returning to New York City).

Really? You begrudge an existing multimillionaire nothing to break his contract, his repeated public statements, and leave a university and AD that stood by him steadfastly while he going through the most trying and humiliating episode of his life? Really, nothing? You're quite the capitalist, Mr. Heiser.

If the dollar is indeed, almighty, if "that's the way it is", then fine. But we don't need to laud it as a virtue. I'll begrudge the hell out of it.

ESPN on Pitino-Nets

Saying the right things

Rick Pitino came out with a strong denial against his interest in the Nets job. Relevant quotes from the CJ here. He sure sounds forceful, but that's not the same as truthful. 

Like I said before, we're never going to know what transpired. What you say to the media when denying rumors is much the same as what you say when you get caught flirting with other jobs. Complete denial, happy where I am, yada yada yada. So what to believe? Well, I don't think the New York Daily News and Newark Star-Ledger woke up and decided to print a baseless Pitino story. So yes, I think there were kernels of truth in there somewhere, just like there was to the Sacramento rumors during the summer.

Needless to say, entering perhaps the most crucial 72-hour stretch remaining in the season, this is the worst possible timing for another distraction. Many fans are getting tired of the endless drama and headlines that have become the substance of having Pitino as coach. Whenever his tenure at Louisville is over, even if the Cards experience a major dropoff, it'll still be refreshing to talk basketball and only basketball.

Frankly, the situation has become embarassing for Pitino, and for UofL by extension. For Pitino because there doesn't seem to be much interest out there in hiring him, at least not as much as he believes. For UofL, because our AD and our fans keep going to bat in support of a coach that quite possibly doesn't want to be here.

The only good thing that could come from this episode is that Tom Jurich and others should start thinking about the future, and the best way to transition to post-Pitino Louisville basketball. Even his most ardent supporters don't believe he will be coaching in Louisville 4 or 5 seasons from now. Ask yourself this. What if the rumors had been true, and the New Jersey Nets were extremely interested in Pitino? He coaches out the season (or not?) and moves on, along with our chances at Justin Coleman, Wayne Blackshear, Michael Chandler, and Marquis Teague? I hope Tom Jurich and Rick Pitino sit down and have a candid conversation about his future, and the best way to ensure a smooth transfer of power, whenever the time comes.

In conclusion, am I happy that he shot down the rumors? Yes. But I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with the fact that shooting down rumors is such a common occurrence around Cardinal basketball.

P.S. What's the over-under on T-Will being the mastermind behind this whole thing?

Pitino cont'd

Crawford offers his perspective here. Will Pitino go after these rumors in his presser tonight, as he suggests? Exactly what we DON'T need to be focusing on...

Pitino to Nets?

Rumor mill churning once again. Latest is that preparing for St. John's and Syracuse isn't all Rick Pitino has been doing in the Big Apple. Reports have it the Pitino reached out through intermediaries while in town, expressing interest in coaching the New Jersey Nets. The Nets have refuted. Out of obligation, we'll bring you the latest info. This is getting old.

***UPDATE***
Pitino, through Kenny Klein, has denied the rumor. Klein's statement...

There's absolutely no truth to it. In the nine years that he's been here, he's never – and I repeat never – had any dialogue with any pro teams. Period.

This, of course, is probably true. As the original report stated, the "reaching out" was done through intermediaries. Dialogue would not happen until much later. We'll never know exactly what, if anything, transpired.

But I do find it curious that Rick Pitino seems to be one of the only coaches constantly plagued by such rumors. Even if there is no truth to them, the appearance that our coach may have a wandering eye has reached a level to where it could have an impact on recruiting. It's at least worthy of a meeting between Jurich and Pitino on the issue. Jurich has been a loyal ally to Pitino, Pitino owes him that much.

Step in the right direction

We must move forward, not backward! Upward, not forward! And always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom!!! 

--Kodos, running for president in The Simpson's Treehouse of Horror VII

The 2010 football schedule was released today. Seven home games in our new-and improved home, kicked off with the rivalry matchup against the Wildcats on September 4th. One of the changes that's looked to in anticipation as we inch back to respectablility, good football, and games with, what's that called, attendance, are some new, exciting matchups.

The conference schedule is what it is, and next season has shaped up for some intense home games (WVU, UConn revenge, UK, etc.) The Cards are in no position to throw stones at Big East football, since it was our perennial prominence that was once thought to be the strength of the conference.

But as far as nonconference goes, we need to step it up (in future years, but for next year, and a rebuilding team, we've got our hands full). I know that there's backroom politicking involved to which I am not privy, but our nonconference schedule has lacked sizzle for a couple of trips around the Sun now.

UK, without saying, is a resolute yearly matchup (until we win again and the Cats want to move the game to Christmas Eve). I do love the Memphis Tigers on the calendar (and would for basketball as well). With the suckitude on display in some of the major conferences, combined with the ill-will felt by many towards the BCS and the way TCU and Boise St. were jobbed from a shot at the national title, I think the Cards should look into a contract with another proven, intense, non-BCS program. Louisville, back to the Petrino years, still has name recognition in that regard, as an overlooked power.

Sure, the Cards may lose, especially at first. But there's 55,000 reasons to rise to the challenge, and schedule a doppelganger, a program that harbors similar aspirations of overthrowing the college titans, and on a yearly basis.

Swop-d In

Jared Swopshire is back in the starting lineup tomorrow at St. John's, Coach Pitino citing "slow starts" as the reason for the switch. This move baffles me; not only because the Cards haven't really had slow starts lately. If playing Samuels and Jennings is the key, which I thought everyone was on board with at this point, it seems to me the idea is to play them together as much as possible, working the kinks out against the weaker opponents on our schedule. More Pitino mind games at work? Jennings back in the dog house? Your guess is as good as mine, but it seems to me another case of Pitino out-thinking himself in these situations.

Uh Oh

I think I've spotted my fiance's future Cardinal crush. Her heart was once possessed truly and completely by Larry O'Bannon, until the torch was handed off to Peyton Siva (after briefly being possessed by a werewolf named Jacob).

Enter preferred future walk-on, Elisha Justice, who is the subject of a featured article in the CJ today. He's playing out of his mind in his senior season at Shelby Valley High School. He's averaging 19.5 ppg, 6.6 assists, 4.4 rbs, and 4 steals a game, all while shooting 80% from the free throw line, 63% frim inside the arc, and 36% from long range. With those hazel eyes, I can hear her heart beating from here. Or is that my own? Errr, end transmission...

Who needs a jersey?

Marra transfarra?

For those of you that didn't study the classics, that's Latin for, "will Mike Marra transfer at the end of the season?" I should preface this by saying I have ZERO inside information, and my opinion is 100% SHEER SPECULATION. But I do have a good track record for spotting those that weren't destined to finish their careers as Cardinals. Most of the time it's a player that I really liked too, like Lorenzo Wade or Jonathan Huffman.

You look for someone with considerable talent (not someone that's just happy to be on the squad). You look for someone with meager playing time, one with sporadic scoring spurts, individual hustle but little "team interaction", and a vaguely checked out look on his face. Marra fits the bill for most, if not all of these.

I hope it's not the case. Marra has a lot of untapped potential; and a faux-hawked, tattooed, sharpshooter has fan-love potential that't yet to be scratched. Imagine him splitting time at wing with Justin Coleman next season, adding different wrinkles when he's on the floor; it remains an intriguing possiblility. But I shan't be surprised at season's summation if he should split for a smaller school and shinier star-status swimmin' in a smaller sea.

Gorgui

Slow news day for the Cards, and I've got to switch to Lost mode soon. But, Jody Demling has linked a video of 6'10'' prospect Gorgui Dieng from Senegal that's worth checking out. The phenom is teammates with Justin Coleman, who says that Dieng is now "leaning towards" the Cardinals. I had expressed reservations about Dieng before, mostly based on the number of "project" big men from overseas that end up as busts. But watch the video, and if you had similar fears, they'll soon be erased. He's really athletic, has a strong frame (but still needs to get stronger), and even displays a shooting touch, with an over-the-shoulder pass in there for good measure.

Stats breakdown

Scanning the box score from the Cards' victory over Rutgers, ostensibly the most encouraging team statistic -- and usually the second stat I check after three point shooting -- is rebounding. The Cards pulled down 36 rebounds, while the Scarlet Knights managed 27. However, The Knights actually outrebounded us on the offensive glass, 12 to 9. Now, that might be a result of us shooting a far better percentage than they did (54 percent to 38 percent). But at the least, we should expect better than the goose-egg that Terrence Jennings laid for rebounds, offensive or defensive. I guess part of the fallout from that Chinese scouting report.

36 percent from beyond the arc... about the bare minimum percentage for the three point attack to work effectively in Pitinoland. It helps when the threes you hit are, finally, the big ones down the stretch, like Sosa's long three that effectively sent Rutgers on their way. Interior shooting was far more impressive, with Samardo and TJ going a combined 9 for 12... underscoring a critical concern expressed immediately afterward both by Mr. Red and myself (and which, before we give ourselves too much credit, is probably pretty damn obvious to all Cards fans across the Commonwealth, but somehow lost on our ballhandlers): our guys need to do a better job feeding the ball into the post, especially when playing with a lead.

The most alarming statistic, with the biggest implications for winning the magic five of our last eight, is turnovers -- 15 for Louisville, 10 for Rutgers. I'm not certain if fifteen is so terrible a number overall, especially when compared to some of our performances earlier in the season. But the haunting image it underscores is that of an experienced backcourt that has trouble getting the ball past midcourt. We saw that during Louisville's three game skid, we saw it at Kentucky, and we saw it sporadically against Rutgers. Full court pressure on the dribbler is, to me, the most obvious scouting report on how to beat us, or at least to kill our momentum. Sosa, Smith, Siva and Knowles have to avoid traps, not pick up their dribble in bad places, and most of all not panic, if we are to avoid other teams exploiting our bevy of shooting guards (young Siva the exception) playing at the point.

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.