Handels

Two vids for a Friday evening, inspired by the newest Cardinal currently cruising the campus, Russell Smith.

I either made a great decision, or a horrible one, in deciding to follow his Twitter account. The kid is a motor mouth, often hilarious, often incomprehensible (to me anyways, apparently he does pretty well for himself in the female department). Either way, he's extremely pleased to be here and the program is always eager for larger-than-life personalities. Welcome, Russ.

The first video isn't a traditional hi-flying montage, but it displays Smith's most notable talent, his handle, his ability to control the rock with ease and flair. The second is a small piece by the great Baroque composer Handel. Worth a listen. Let's class this place up, assholes. As your guide, I suggest muting the first vid while listening to the second as young Russ is in motion. Quite pleasant.

Get your seats and get there...early?

I'm fully supportive of the culture change being spurred by our leader, but that was before he was asking me to do anything. If Strong can get the vast majority of Cards fans to cut short our precious tailgaiting to get in by kickoff, then we'll know for sure we've found ourselves a miracle worker.



(Hat tip: Ditchball)

***P.S.***

If you're looking for one article to encapsulate the LeBronapocalypse, for what it's worth, I think JA Adande nailed it.

With friends like these...

Meet Stephen Netherton. According to the CJ, the multiple felon...

Plead guilty in 2007 to taking more than $250,000 from 14 investors, banks and businesses through a variety of schemes that involved stolen identities, theft and check kiting. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison but placed on probation on the condition that he pay about $40,000 annually in restitution

He's also the individual immersed in the Steve Masiello Derby ticket scam that you can get used to reading about in the paper.

This is more Mr. Black's soap box than mine, but since it's mostly stating the obvious, I'll go ahead and co-opt his point. The dumbest side-business that anyone involved in coaching could get into is the buying and selling of tickets. It opens up soo many unethical possibilities.

Couple that with getting involved with a con-man like Netherton, and Masiello should be canned for sheer stupidity.

Tickets, get your tickets!

No, Steve, this doesn't involve you, dammit.

The attendance stats for last season are out. The Cards rank #3 behind UK and Syracuse; Louisville averaged 19,397 a game.

Don't tell the fire marshall, but the only two schools with average attendance above the listed stadium capacity are the Cards and the Cats. Perhaps the only moment you'll find a temporary truce between camps is when arguing that the Bluegrass is the true cradle of college basketball passion, not Tobacco Road. So, for what it's worth, there's another bullet in that chamber.

Expect the Cards to take a step up next year with the opening of the new arena.

Selective Amnesia

Louisvillian Rajon Rondo has taken over the NBA playoffs. No joke, the story of the Celtics-Cavs series thus far has not been the collective efforts of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen trying to neutralize league MVP Lebron James. It's been Rondo taking on LeBron single-handedly. And Rondo's winning.

Loyal readers will recall that much to Mr. Red's disgust, I'm bit of a wishful Rondo revisionist. Over cigars on Sunday night, Mr. Red and I realized that the Eastern High product would have been a freshman on the '05 team, playing alongside Francisco Garcia and Taquean Dean before teaming up with T-Will in 2006, had Pitino gone after him instead of Sebastian Telfair. Sigh.

Cards fans, forget for an evening that Rondo's a former Cat and tune in tonight to Game 5 between the Celtics and Cavs. The kid's a Louisvillian, and seriously, he's playing incredible ball right now, as entertaining as has been seen in some time, so much so that comparisons are being made to Larry Bird -- albeit in a 6 foot 1 frame, longer shorts (thank God) and a backwards headband instead of a backwoods moustache. Absence of a kickass stache aside, Louisville should take pride.

Bury me at the Woodford Reserve Club

In a poor economy, the Kayefsseum is still finding sponsors. Brown-Forman has ponied up for the Woodford Reserve Club at the new arena, a full-service bar overlooking the river. While it's kind of difficult to get all warm and fuzzy over corporate naming rights, I do think it's pretty cool that local businesses continue to step up to the plate.

Ending the Samardo "Era"

It's the beginning of another lazy summer so typical to Kentucky; as such, perhaps I can take pride in failing to post in a timely manner with regard to Samardo Samuels. Since Samardo's Cardinal career never blossomed the way we all had once hoped, maybe it's only appropriate that the attention we pay his departure is equally lackluster. Samardo, best of luck to you. Despite the fact that nearly everyone on planet basketball questions your judgment on this one, we really are rooting for you to succeed, maybe even wriggle your way into the pros one day. I would be remiss if I didn't include a few of the different perspectives I read last week, before washing my hands clean of the episode.

Meanwhile, I agree with much of what Mr. Red has written recently, that the Louisville basketball program (and this has started at the top) has taken on a new sense of rugged optimism and a renewed focus on overachieving, now that the spectre of a Teague one-and-done season and a Samardo junior season are off the books. This is not to make light of the loss of Samardo, our most consistent and gifted point producer and presence down low. We are a less talented team without him. Nonetheless, it may now be easier for Pitino to adopt his "back to basics" approach both in style and in mindset. This article from the AP neatly encapsulates all the past events and how it has left the program, somehow, a bit more spry (this article is also good... thinking of our bet, I might note to Mr. Red the projected starter list at the bottom. Hat tip: Ditchball).

Moving forward, I think it's important to note the types of teams that have a track record of Final Four runs, which is, after all, the ultimate objective of the basketball program (as opposed to landing the greatest number of players in the NBA draft), at least it is here in Louisville, allegedly also in Lexington. Our vaunted 2009 team, full of top talent, couldn't make it to the Final Four. UK's semi-pro team this past year also failed to advance past the Elite Eight. In the past decade, as far as Kentuckian squads go, it was only the 2005 Cardinals that made it all the way to college basketball's final weekend.

Looking elsewhere, how about Michigan State's track record at making Final Fours? The Spartans hardly could claim to have fielded a Teague or Wall type in recent years, yet Tom Izzo's teams have now made it to two straight Final Fours, including the year they slayed T-Will and company. Overall, Michigan State reached four Final Fours during the 2000s. These Michigan State teams, as well as our own Final Four team, were less talented versions than the '09 Cards or '10 Cats. Though full of capable and strong recruits, they were not made up of the blue-chip, one-and-done athletes dominating our news lately. But they were more driven, more cohesive and more clutch than any of the teams recently fielded in these parts (with the exception of Butler, which if included, also supports my point).

The '05 Cards were defense-obsessed scrappers who overachieved, in the process reaching greater heights than Wall, Cousins & Company or Williams, Clark & Company. They are the type of players and type of team to which Peyton, Preston and TJ should now aspire.