Baa baa Blackshear

I don't know how else to say it, but I hope he's all Cardinal.

He's been my favorite for a LONG time (and I have the texts sent to an asshole UK friend of mine 19 months ago to prove it). (Well, not actually, those are lost to history, but if he were strapped to a lie detector, and if I were strapped to a truth detector, the transcript, approved by Robert De Niro's character in "Meet the Parents" mind you, would show that I've always valued Blackshear a bigger prize than Marquis Teague).

Anyways, he's silky, he's smooth, he should have Louisville typed on his birth certificate, tatooed on his ass, take a glug of champagne and then re-christen the Belle of Louisville.

What I'm trying to say is, he fits. This program, its history, its style.

But what if that doesn't happen?

(FOR THE RECORD, FROM HERE ON OUT THIS IS PURELY HYPOTHETICAL BLATHER TO COMMENT ON THE STATE OF COLLEGE BASKETBALL IN THIS COMMONWEALTH AND FOR THAT PURPOSE ONLY).

Would Cardinal basketball be done for? Umm, is it illegal to end a sentence with a preposition?

No.

This is college, these are teams, these are talented kids we're talking about after all.

UK fans rightfully rejoice over every new stud recruit because, well, they have to right now. For the forseeable future, they're staring at a new team every season and feel the need to make Ubermensch out of 17-year olds, even if they've barely seen them play a minute of ball.

Big Blue may have turned into NBA-AAU, but once the hyper-bowl clears, does that make Knight better than Siva next year? Poole better than Knowles? Jones better than Buckles?

Maybe, maybe not. I'm not discounting the talents of anyone, I'm just discounting the quasi-science of evaluating kids that are yet to pass quasi-science, by which I mean, high school chemistry.

Till Calipari produces banners (that still furl) at half the rate he produces draft picks, well, till then, I'll take my team as I take my prostitutes. Talented, but with a little experience.

Except for Blackshear. He's unguardable. In Time, Space or Trojan condom. He's all man.

(Hat tip: Ditchball)

Champs

The baseball Cards are Big East Champs, in dramatic fashion once again, with a double-header sweep of Luke Harangody and Notre Dame. I won't pretend to be the biggest baseball fan, but the Louisville Boys of Summer have been sensational, the bandwagon is chuggin' along, and I plan on hopping on real soon.

But for more authentic coverage, Charlie Springer is on top of it over at Card Game.

Go Cards.

Fans in the stands = scouts on the outs

(Readers: it took me half an hour to come up with the clever, rhyming title of this post, so I don't want to hear any crap about it!)

Following yesterday's post on Charlie Strong's attempt to "put fans in the stands" by kickoff, it occurred to me just how incredibly far attitudes about the program have come in a single offseason. The conversation has changed drastically from last year, when the Cards posted record single-game and season attendance lows at Papa John's due to fans' frustration and protestation of the Steve Kragthorpe era. Back then, the athletic department was forced to hope against hope that fans would put their hard feelings aside and show up to the final few games. Now, not only it is rightly taken for granted that all fans will gravitate to their red chairs throughout the season, but the head coach responsible for this transformation encourages -- and, subtly enough, admonishes -- us to assemble in a more timely and respectable manner.

As if to flesh out this contrast a bit further, I was reminded of an anecdote that we posted last season right when the bottom fell out and things turned from bad to worse for the football team (I speak of course of the Pitt Disaster, though you can be forgiven for mistakenly considering one of the season's many other painful moments). The post can be seen in its original form here, but it's worth reposting below in full. From October 19:

Here's an anecdote for you.

Following the Pitt disaster, my father donated the rest of his season tickets to the Boy Scouts. Had he reached his breaking point? Not exactly. Although frustrated with the program and sick of the coaching staff, he still enjoys watching the game. At any rate, he loves the tailgating. He may have given away his football tickets, but Dad certainly held on to his green lot parking pass.

So for Southern Miss, Dad -- minus a ticket in to Papa John's -- showed up for tailgating as if it were any other game. When kickoff came around, my ticketless father walked up to the gate, and... well, let's just say that extra tickets weren't hard to come by. Inside the stadium, Dad decided to stop by his old section to say hello, only to find that his former seats were empty. The Boy Scouts hadn't shown up.

Settling down in his usual seat, my Dad explained what he had done to his longtime pal. After hearing the generous donation story, pal responded, "so what do you have against the Boy Scouts?"

If needless to say, it is nonetheless to my satisfaction, and reflective of my charmed optimism at this point, that I predict confidently: the Boy Scouts will not become the benefactors of similar charity this fall.

Argh!!!

From Steve Kragthorpe's speaking tour...

"When I got fired at Louisville, which by the way, was a great blessing, my wife said 'I'm moving to Tulsa, Oklahoma or College Station. You can come visit me if you want to live someplace else,'" Kragthorpe said with a smile.

In the words of John Hammond, creator of Jurassic Park: "I really hate that man".

(Hat tip: CardChronicle)

Culture Shock

In more ways than one, head coach Charlie Strong is changing the way the Cards do football. Besides demanding a better product on the field, he has said that football players will wear a coat and tie before and after every game. The players are being pushed to be better students, and Strong recently reported that 39 players posted GPAs above 3.0 for the spring semester. He's also said that if Cards fans want to show their true support for the program, they need to be in their seats by halftime. Here's the summary from Card Game here, our coverage here, interesting discussion board on it here.

As far as the players' pregame dress is concerned, it's an open-and-shut case since whatever Charlie says is law. The early signs indicate that by now, Strong has stamped his imprimatur on nearly every aspect of the Louisville football program. During interviews, our players channel him. On campus, he shows up randomly in his players' classroom. It's the same reason why the team has apparently boosted its effort there as it has on the gridiron.

Perhaps the greater drama is whether Cards fans can be coaxed to curtail their beloved tailgating (it also occurs to me, with the stadium expanded to 57,000, where will the additional 17,000 park and how will that affect tailgating? Save for another post). A commenter in the Card Game post rightly points out that getting fans in their seats by game-time has always been a problem for Louisville football head coaches. You can include in this category the program's patron saint former head coach Howard Schnellenberger, for whom many fans would have actually laid down in traffic upon request (at least I would). There also was Bobby Petrino, who could never push us into our seats despite unparalleled football excellence. (Though I don't remember many direct pleas asking the Cardinal football family to do a better job supporting one another from Mr. Warm and Fuzzy).

But I disagree that fans can't be convinced to change their culture. Tailgaters and players share exactly one trait in common: they respond to leadership. If Strong truly believes that this will greatly strengthen the program, and if he keeps making the case, Cards fans will respond. It will help, of course, if the product on the field improves as anticipated, not so much according to wins and losses at least through Strong's first season, but as measured by our functionality and fluidity on the field. So keep harping on this, Charlie. If you build it, we will come. On time, more or less.

On the Great Wall

* Peyton Siva twittered out a couple of cool pics from his b-ball trip to China. As someone who's hiked the Great Wall, it's an unforgettable experience, so good for him. I know there's fan hate out there, but anyone that doesn't like Peyton Siva really, really has issues.

* I'm sure you're aware, but no football Cardinals were selected in the past NFL draft. I don't want to reopen old wounds, but to conclusively close any argument that Krags was treated unfairly, there's the grisly evidence.

Anyways, two players from last year's squad still with NFL aspirations are Joe Tronzo and Trent Guy.  Tronzo found the right place in Cinci; the Bengals have ZERO reliable fullbacks, and he is still on their roster. It's a long shot, but here's hoping he can prove himself valuable in camp and make the team. Trent Guy, on the other hand, is no longer with the Raiders, and is now working out with the Carolina Panthers. Both deserve to play more meaningful football.

* The picture above provides me an opportunity to get something off my chest. The freshman year of John "The Great" Wall vs. Peyton Siva was a common topic in most UofL-UK debates last year. Cats fans love to claim that "Siva is better than Wall" was a central tenet of UofL fandom, despite the fact that I, for one, never heard a single fan claim that (the occassional message board nut notwithstanding, and if we all must account for every said nut, I don't think that's a box UK fans want to open).

What I did hear Louisville fans say, myself included, was that Siva would have a better college career. I still believe that.

I understand that much of this is sheer numbers; of course a four-year player will have more impact than a one-and-doner. But then where has this rivalry turned exactly? Perhaps while Cal is still coaching in the Commonwealth we need to redefine success into terms of amorphous hype (come to think of it, wasn't there an AD around here somewhere that talked about "overhype and underperformance"? My, how the tables have turned).

This is a COLLEGE basketball rivalry, after all. And as it stands, a scrapper like Taquan Dean had more success as a college player than John Wall did, he played on a Final Four squad. So, contrived and rushed mythmaking notwithstanding, I fully believe the Peyton Siva Era will be more lasting and more genuine. And you can quote me on that.

Rama Jama Yella Hamma give 'em hell Alabama!

Bull market

So did you hear the rumor that LeBron-Samardo-Calipari are headed to the Bulls in package deal, or something to that effect?

Cardinals first. Samardo IS working out for the Chicago Bulls, here's what he had to say about his try out...

I think I bring physicality with my size. A good low post presence, guy who connects on the 15-footer consistently. Coach (Rick) Pitino made me tough, being on me every day. Pushing me to get better.

And before you feel the need to make a snarky comment, here's what he had to say about his decision to make the jump...

As of right now, I’m just working hard. Whatever team I land, I land. Wherever it is, I know it will be the best situation for me. It was tough. It came down to my family situation back home in Jamaica and what was best for them at the time. I loved playing for Rick Pitino. He’s a great coach. It was tough for me. I’m just trying to help my family.

I feel bad for Mardo, kinda like how Jerry felt towards Babu as he watched his ill-fated restaurant open-up from across the street. I want him to do well, he's in it for the right reasons, but it seems like he'll be the last person to realize it just ain't gonna happen.

And in other news, the Chicago-Tribune is reporting that an unknown connection in Cal's camp is acting on the UK coach's behalf, and sending out feelers to Bulls management about a possible Calipari-LeBron package deal.

The story is obviously false, since everyone knows that he would never consort with such a shadowy mystery man, let alone go back on his word that he would be staying in Lexington. Not a man of Cal's integrity.