theHoff Takes the Yum by Storm... kinda... part II

Note: theHoff is a special contributor to Cardinal Laws. Part I of his tale can be found here.

After the beer stand screwed us, we strolled out to find our seats. I will say that the signage was easy to read (actually a big gripe of mine) and we found our seats with no problem... except for the rather large woman in one of our seats. The couple was nice, and slid over to their proper seats.

Actually, let's start with this.... no one in our section seemed to be able to 'find' or actually sit in their assigned seats. And it wasn't the fault of the Yum but the ticket-holder. It's simple: there is a number on your ticket. There is a number on the seat. Sit There! We literally had 4 different sets of people sit in the seats in front of us throughout the game. But I digress...

Our seats were in the lower level in one of the corners. We were in the last row, but it was actually a blessing in disguise. My buddy and I could easily turn around, climb over our seats, and be right on the little concourse. We still had a great vantage point of the game, as long as the lights turned back on after intros. They didn't. Yum was not happy about all the blue in the arena!

As far as the seating .... wow. I'm an average-built guy and my knees were almost in the back of the seat in front of me. Something I expect in the 'cheap' seats, but not lower level. They REALLY packed this place in. I'm talking bare minimum to meet code kinda stuff. The seats themselves were really nice... actually, too nice. I can see how it might be tough to get MeeMaw out of her seat to make some noise at a crucial point in the game.

View from theHoff's seat
(click to enlarge)

We made it for the player intros. Same old story. I was impressed by the quality of the video boards/ rings. I just think the budget for the DomRep/ Pros kept anything inspiring from showing up there. The one thing that I'll remember about this game was the lights not coming back on after intros. Cal gave a little distraction talk while we all waited for the lights. Still nothing.

Then the Mayor stepped up to the plate in what has to be the most awkward moment I've seen 16,000 people witness simultaneously. I'm sure you've heard about it by now. He was basically trying to tell us about some international fest downtown and equated that with the DomRep team. The he said something to the effect of '...come to WorldFest and see all our Dominicans, and our Chinese, and our Mexicans....' . I believe everyone's reaction in the place was to look immediately to their left and right. Even the little girl, no older than 8, looked puzzled. She wasn't even paying attention.

What makes this whole thing even funnier is that I picture Fischer as the character in SNL that can't control the volume of his voice.... dude is loud. Had to get that in there.

The game itself was just.... weird. The first 6-7 minutes of play were in the dark. Sadly, that couldn't be used to explain the poor shooting; that was the entire game. They were playing 10 minute quarters. Apparently there's also an international rule where once the ball hits the rim it's free game... weird. The crowd stayed into it most of the game, mostly because we were all waiting for something to happen. It never really did.

I did find myself looking around the place a lot. I had seen those columns rise from the ground. I saw them placing seats in the arena even before the roof was done, but I never envisioned the upper deck looking so ominous. Those seats looked like they needed seatbelts! I could only imagine, that if my seat was tight, what those might be like. Seating like that is the byproduct of double stacking your luxury boxes and a limited site. I do think UL fans were spoiled by the vast openness of Freedom Hall. You simply can't build an arena like that today, nor would you. The place is paid for by the luxury boxes. Your comfortable seat in section 322 doesn't really mean jack in the grand scheme of things.

All in all, I think the Yum Center is a beautiful place. There isn't really any history there yet, minus a few big games, but history takes time. The gem of our revamping downtown is something that we can all be proud of. Hopefully the upcoming NCAA events (regionals in men's basketball, and I believe the NCAA women's volleyball Final Four) will put it on a bigger map as well. I hope that it continues to breathe fresh air into downtown and make it more of a destination for those that don't visit that often.

The Arena is amazing, but the experience was even better.

I'll hollar at ya'll soon with College Football starting up!

UofL's Miami recruits, cnt'd

I'm still pushing back against the agenda-driven message from some that tries to put the recent UofL recruits from the Miami area under an umbrella of suspicion. Because the notion that UofL simply couldn't steal talented prospects from the Sunshine state without shenanigans just doesn't jive with reality, or history. Here's a list of the former Cardinals from the area...

FROM MIAMI: Curry Burns, Elvis Dumervil, Nate Harris, Bruce Armstrong, Michaelee Harris, Andrell Smith, Kenneth Jaboin, Chris Acosta, Jamaine Brooks, Trey Eaton, James Green

FROM FLORIDA: Sam Madison, Richard Owens, Kolby Smith, Jason Spitz, Josh Bellamy, Brandon Heath, Damien Copeland, Preston Pace, Bilal Powell, Johnny Patrick, Jeremy Wright, Champ Lee, George Durant, Kamran Joyner, Hunter Stout, Hector Hernandez, Ryan Kessling, Rodney Gnat, Anthony Allen, Mozell Axson, Jonathan Holston, Nate Nord, Gary Barnridge, Jeremy Baker, Danny Barlowe, Johnny Burns, Chris Campa, Pat Carter, Bryant Davis, Hunter Altman, Abe Brown, Rodney Carter, Josh Deer, Antwan Benson

And these lists only go back to 2003, before I remembered I'm a grown ass man with real-world responsibilities. But the fact is, Louisville has been recruiting Florida hard for years. In the Petrino era, damn near half the roster was from the Sunshine state, with 5 players from Miami. Furthermore, the recent success can largely be attributed to Louisville being the right place at the right time after the Randy Shannon firing.

With Teddy Bridgewater in particular. Randy Shannon was an old, close friend of Bridgewater's family, going all the way back to his mother's high school days. So when Shannon was let go, Teddy said he felt a bit betrayed. Here's the relevant excerpt from the Sun Sentinel about TB's decision...

Feeling betrayed by Miami, Bridgewater had loyalty high on his list as he searched for another school and he thinks he has found that in head coach Charlie Strong's group at Louisville. 

Strong, the former Florida defensive coordinator, had already known Bridgewater and Rogers from his UF recruiting days. 

Bridgewater had several reasons for picking the Cardinals, he wrote in a text Monday morning. One was Louisville's lack of depth at quarterback, but the rest were about comfort. 

"I feel comfortable around the coaches and players," Bridgewater texted. "I like the city, the school, atmosphere and the fans' loyalty to the program." 

Rogers also cited atmosphere in his text message. "It feels like a family and the best opportunity for me," Rogers texted. He also said Strong was another influence because he is a "great role model." 

It's just a reminder that people need to be a little more careful before hurling accusations towards players without a scintilla of proof.

Rick's a blogger, we're just linkers

Simple as that. I prefer linking rather than cut and pasting his comments, just so you can experience the bizarre audio track that serves as the backdrop for your reading leisure.

Most of the blog is typical in its rickishness, but I did note his use of the underscore when stating that Russ Smith will contribute this year. Kid's gonna get PT, he's earning it. It's going to be crowded on the perimeter this season.

UofL's Miami recruits

One of quips I've heard repeated over the last 48 hours is that, suddenly, current UofL players that come from the Miami area should be put under a cloud of suspicion. The line of thinking is that it couldn't possibly be a coincidence that after Louisville hires a former Miami coach, four recruits miraculously appear from the Miami-Dade area. Open your eyes, people!!!

Umm, I don't find that fact inherently suspicious, miraculous, or even coincidental. In fact, Clint Hurtt was hired for that precise reason, to recruit Florida and the Dade County area heavily. So no, I didn't utter a gasp when it dawned on me that some of Hurtt's first recruits came from Miami, with kids he had contact and relationships with for years. That was kind of, you know, the whole point.

Two, such a suggestion of impropriety during his Louisville tenure doesn't even make logical sense. If Hurtt's recruiting success was solely or partly due to a shady alliance with Nevin Shapiro, how would Hurtt's success transfer over so seamlessly to UofL? Obviously, Nevin Shapiro doesn't give a shit about the Cardinals, he was a Miami booster. So, the implication would have to be that after Hurtt left Miami for Louisville he quickly developed a similarly symbiotic relationship with some anonymous Cardinal booster in his first couple months on the job, and that those practices led UofL to land four talented recruits from the Miami area. If this scenario sounds far-fetched, I hope so. Is it theoretically possible? Sure, I guess. But it just doesn't add up on a number of levels.

Three, of course, a lot of the suspicion being cast around here is coming from UK. It's a story they relish because on one hand they can enjoy the reversal of Louisville being put in a perceived position of defending shady recruiting, and on the other they can claim, "Of course Clint Hurtt is a dirty scumbag, how else would a player like Teddy Bridgewater go to a school like Louisville".

It's classic defensive posturing, a preemptive reaction to the leapfrogging of their program that UofL appears primed to do this year or the next. It also ignores what is apparent to most, that when Louisville football is humming, its ceiling is much higher than that of UK's. With the conference alignments as they stand now, it just is.

So the argument that a stud like Bridgewater would never go to a school like Louisville without shenanigans is self-serving for UK, obviously, but it also ignores certain realities. Facts like that Teddy Bridgewater decommited from the Hurricanes only after Randy Shannon was fired and began searching for a new school, that Charlie Strong has a reputation as a powerful recruiter in his own right, that at that time Louisville was completely rebuilding and the carrot of immediate playing time could be dangled in front of recruits, that the Cards were experiencing an uptick in recruiting in all areas under Strong, not just from Miami, and that even going back to the Petrino years, Louisville has had a recruiting presence in Florida and have wooed many touted prospects from the area.

So no, I don't think it's beyond the pale that lowly Louisville can get studs out of Miami, especially after the Randy Shannon fallout. UK personalities may be able to garner sway with fans by depicting the very existence of  UofL as a joke, but it's just a contrivance, a bubble. It's clear that the Cards can and do get good players from anywhere, in every sport. Teddy Bridgewater was a huge get, but it was huge because of where we were coming from under Kragthorpe. Historically, getting talented players from Florida isn't anything new.

And finally, if there was ever an example of Pitino's famous "microwave society", we're witnessing it around here with this story. While the investigation itself appears to have been very thorough, the demand by Crawford and Bozich for the UofL Athletic Department to offer immediate answers is downright laughable.

Chill pill, everyone, relax. It reminds me of the Simpsons episode when Mayor Joe Qwimby was experiencing a crisis and said: "At the urging of my constituency, we will respond with massive and blind retaliation."

FIRE HURTT! PUT STRONG ON NOTICE! SUSPEND BRIDGEWATER AS A PRECAUTION! IT'S THE ONLY WAY WE'RE GOING TO WIN THE MEANINGLESS SPIN CYCLE FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS!

Luckily, we have an AD in Tom Jurich who seems to relish the role of being a responsible adult in these situations. I don't expect anything to happen until Jurich has had time to thoroughly evaluate the situation, and when he is satisfied that a particular course is in the best interest of UofL.

theHoff takes the Yum by storm... kinda... part I

Note: thehoff is a special contributor to Cardinal Laws

Disclaimer - This might come as a surprise to some of you, but I am not actually a Cards fan. Mr. Red and Mr. Black do as good of a job as anyone covering the, well, Red and Black. They occasionally allow me to voice my opinions, but I usually try to stay away from issues regarding UofL. NFL, college football, horse racing, and the occasional random thought is what I usually focus on. Mr. Red did ask me to give my opinions on my first visit to the Yum, so here ya go...

I've worked downtown for almost 5 years, so I was here for the entire construction of the arena. Being a design professional, I was excited to see anything new pop up downtown, but with anything new there is also trepidation. Would the new arena succeed? I probably walked around the construction site 3-5 days a week, from demo to opening. It was a pretty amazing thing to watch develop, but I had never set foot inside. This was my chance. A buddy and I bought tickets for the Dominican/ Pros game a couple weeks ago. I saw it as an excuse to a) see the new facility b) watch potentially the only 'NBA' game I'll ever see and c) have a few beers on a Tuesday night(more on that later).

Pregame - Our group ended up going to Impellizeri's before the game. I love the layout of the place, especially when the front can be opened up. Good beer prices and great food. We probably ordered one more bucket than we should have because our 7:00 departure time was pushed back to 7:15 or so.

We scurried across the street to see a mass of people out front. Luckily, I knew there was an entrance below the 2nd street bridge. It was just a question of whether our tickets were allowed to enter there. Success. Actually, coming in from that entrance lets you really be 'wow-ed' as you enter into the huge atrium. There was a sense of compression as you come up the escalator, and then as you reach the top everything opens up. The bright terrazzo floor kept you moving, and the massive glass 'mural' was a great distraction on the second escalator ride (I would have loved to be the salesman that got that escalator contract).

A game at the Yum last season
(click to enlarge)

I thought the concourse around the lower level was nice, but not necessarily crowd gathering (I'm looking at you, PJ Stadium). The views of the 2nd Street Bridge and out the back of the Woodford room were the gems of the concourse area. It really embraces the fabric of the city and doesn't turn a blind eye like most cookie-cutter urban arenas. We walked around a bit, looking at all the little details here and there... of course three architects together are going to debate the merits of exposed fasteners. Yes, we're weird.

Anyway, we bought our beers and moved in to find our seats. $7.50. Wait... what?... yeah, $7.50 beers. That caught me a little off guard. I immediately texted Mr. Red to ask if this was the Yum's way of getting back at all these UK fans. Yum-1, Wallet-0.

More on the actual game and 'guts' of the arena tomorrow....

Is Schadenfreude the word?

With Miami's football program now in tatters, one would think you would have to start feeling sorry for them at some point, right? Especially feel bad for the new coaching staff brought in to reboot this program, only now confronted with the perhaps impossible task of navigating in the face of certain and severe, even "death"-like penalties from the NCAA?

Nah.

Sorry to all to come off as unsympathetic -- it probably doesn't help that the scandal is tainting our program even from a distance. And to be clear, I feel badly for those players that will suffer the consequences having had nothing to do with this.

But when I think about Miami football program as a whole, really the only thing coming to mind (besides the fact that one of my Dad's best friends, with whom he grew up in Louisville's south end, somehow ended up a die-hard "U" fan... I do feel genuinely sorry for that Irishman, though he should have known better) is my memory of the Hurricanes stomping on the Cardinal logo at midfield of Papa John's Cardinal Stadium in 2006.

After the eruption of that pregame kerfuffle (in which an enraged Bobby Petrino, the tiniest man on the field coaches included, can be seen going after the Hurricanes players), the Cards soundly defeated, in fact destroyed the Hurricanes 31-7. Many would later look at that moment as one of many signs that the Miami football collapse had begun. To think that they were cheating rampantly during that era, only to produce, um, that on the field, is not so much enraging as it is sad.

But my memory isn't of the victory; it's of that stomp on the bird. And to this day when I see the video it gets my blood boiling all over again.

Dumb like a fox?

DaMarcus Smith has failed to qualify academically, and therefore will be released from his Letter of Intent to the UCF Knights, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Now, if my understanding is correct, all DaMarcus has to do is get past the NCAA clearinghouse next time around and he can enroll in any school he wants come January.

His mom expresses outrage over the situation in some quotes from the article, but with DaMarcus, you never know. Smith has struck me as a lot of things, but dumb, someone who couldn't cut it academically, was never one of them. Recall, this was a kid who once upon a time was rushing to finish coursework to get early enrollment at UofL.

So what's going on? Nobody has a damn clue. But I'll still welcome Louisville's prodigal son with open arms.

On meaning what you say...

Why do UofL fans love Charlie Strong so much? It's a simple but interesting question, one that has a myriad of answers, no doubt.

His pedigree. His national championships. His recruiting prowess. His turnaround bowl season in his first year. His ability to benchpress a baby hippo.

Factors, for sure, but not the real reason. The real reason can be traced back to what was revealed in Strong's very first press conference as Louisville's head coach. It can be traced to the moment when the man choked back tears, paused for a long time to compose himself, and continued to speak of how meaningful the opportunity was for he and his family (him and his family? I dunno. Get over yourself, dork).

That was it. That was the moment. After seasons of listening to Bobby Petrino's priggish coachspeak and Steve Kragthorpe's shellshocked coachspeak, it was that one moment that delivered something absent around Louisville football for a long time. It was a human moment.

And it snowballed from there. Strong's reputation has grown because of his integrity, his plain talk, and because of the novel idea that when the man says something, he sincerely means it. That may sound silly, but it's a rare feature for a public figure these days. Strong has the ability to make you suspend your cynicism, to dream the impossible dream. Maybe it is possible. Maybe you can be a standup guy and a standout coach.

I was thinking about these things while Charlie Strong spoke at the Kickoff Luncheon yesterday. The repeated use of words like, honesty, integrity, graduate, character. He talked about these things at length, long before any X and O football talk. In what I thought was a veiled reference to the Darius Ashley situation, Strong said how difficult it is for him to simply kick a player off the team, because that would be too easy. That would simply be throwing him to the wolves rather than investing in his future. That the young man will likely become a statistic rather than a success story.

And I believe Charlie Strong when he says these things. That's why this Miami-Hurtt story is so potentially damaging. Let me be clear, THIS IS NOT A LOUISVILLE SCANDAL. IT'S A MIAMI SCANDAL. But you don't have to be the program staring at "the death penalty" to be damaged by it.

And it's particularly damaging to Strong because if any of the allegations made about Clint Hurtt are revealed to be true, it begins to erode the pillars of what has endeared him so fully to the Louisville faithful. Rather than not "throwing players to the wolves", it's possible we have a wolf in our midst.

The Louisville Train is full steam ahead under Charlie Strong. That cannot be stopped, not by the likes of Nevin Shapiro or even Clint Hurtt. But as this unfolds, we're going to learn something about our conductor.

Edgar Sosa is better than John Wall, cnt'd

The much-ballyhooed "UK Legends" game has come and gone. Denny Crum helped coach the UK team, the earth didn't spin off its axis. The Kayefseum still stands. All is again right with the world.

And surprisingly, the Dominicans won both outings against the "UK Legends (the majority of whom spent 7 months in Lexington and have their names in none of their significant records books)" led by Francisco Garcia and Edgar Sosa.

We all knew what Garcia was capable of, but Sosa was perhaps the most shocking, the MVP of the two contests. And, I can't find the image from the CJ website, but Sosa has gotten biiiiig. He looks like he's put on about 12 pounds of muscle without losing his speed. A very impressive run for Edgar.

He was, and always will be, the one who threw "The Dagger".

Bozich's two cents

Rick Bozich adds his voice to the growing chorus saying that UofL athletic department's "no comment" approach to the Miami scandal isn't going to cut it. Agreed.

But the story is only about 12 hours old, I think we can give Jurich/Strong/Hurtt and Co. a little bit of time to wrap their heads around the situation before holding a formal press conference.

Yesterday, Charlie Strong made some prescient comments at the Kickoff Luncheon, essentially stating the need for his players to be honest with him. He must have mentioned it five times. Whatever the transgression, he said, being forthright is priority number one to building trust, to building a team.

Well, the same needs to be applied to Clint Hurtt. An extremely candid conversation needs to take place between Strong, Jurich, and Hurtt soon. And Hurtt's job should hang in the balance when it comes to his complete honesty. UofL cannot allow the actions of one person to threaten everything Charlie Strong has done and the train he finally has rolling.

What happens next for U of L and Clint Hurtt? Crawford's take

Here's Eric Crawford's assessment:

Clearly, the big question here is what U of L does about Hurtt, if anything. It appears already the strategy will be to be quiet and do nothing in a "wait-and-see" mode. The statement released from the school today (according to Rivals.com): "We are not going to respond to any alleged accusations."

Forget, for a moment, the redundancy of this statement. The duck-and-cover mentality in this situation isn’t acceptable. Come out and defend your guy, or don’t, or say you don’t know enough of the facts, something.

The key of course is what Hurtt’s conduct has been at Louisville. (One prized U of L freshman, Teddy Bridgewater, is mentioned in the report in passing as having been taken to Shapiro’s suite. That in itself is nothing that would affect a player’s eligibility.)

Regardless, if there’s truth to what Shapiro said, then Hurtt willfully broke NCAA rules and U of L will have to think hard about some kind of action, if not his future in such a key role. If they think there’s more to the story to mitigate his involvmement, they need to tell their fan base and explain where things stand.

My guess is that they circle the wagons and hang onto Hurtt so long as the school itself is not at risk. But that might be tricky to sell, and the silent treatment won’t make it easier. As for Hurtt, his best option no doubt is to be forthright with the NCAA if it comes looking for information — and, by all means, stay away from booster mansions and yachts.

And if much more detail surfaces than what already has — and that’s often the case — retaining him will become untenable for U of L.

Full blog post available here.

A Hurricane in Miami and the skinny on Clint Hurtt's involvement

The specific allegations and evidence presented against Louisville Recruiting Coordinator and former Miami Coach Clint Hurtt, presented as one of several supplement web links to the Yahoo! Sports article alleging massive NCAA violations by the Miami football program, is not reassuring.

Like seemingly everyone else implicated in this story, which slammed (wait for it) like a Hurricane (there it is) against the shores of the college football world this evening, the evidence on Hurtt seems definitive, complete with PDFs of Miami booster/Ponzi schemer Nevin Shapiro's signed checks written out to Hurtt and Shapiro phone records sprinkled with Hurtt's cell number.

That an improper relationship between Shapiro and Hurtt existed is almost undeniable. The most serious charges, it seems, are that Hurtt allowed Shapiro to arrange and buy dinner for football recruits at Cafe Grazie in South Beach, and that Shapiro provided Hurtt with an interest-free loan for $5,000. (Hence the pdf of the check).

It's important to note that neither Hurtt nor the Louisville athletic department have yet responded to the story. It is also unclear, at least to me, exactly what would happen, or what actions could or should be taken, if the allegations against Hurtt are ultimately judged to be credible. But this whole Miami debacle is turning out to be the biggest scandal in college football in quite some time. And our megawatt all-star recruiting coordinator has been implicated. It's not a good moment.

Meanwhile, Rick Bozich along with many others are guessing that this latest strike will serve as the death knell plummeting the long-troubled Miami program into extinction. And Dan Wetzel does an outstanding job summing up the severity of Miami's sins.

The alleged involvement of Hurtt is detailed here.

New face of the program

Strong's famous phrasing. Taking the mantle from Bilal Powell, next season's face of the program is VIC ANDERSON, announced today at the luncheon. At least I think he did, Strong singled out a bunch of guys, Josh Bellamy, Chichester, Scruggs. But I'm pretty sure that it was Vic Anderson that dons the famous "face of the program" honor for this season.

If there were any doubts, you can expect big things from Anderson this season. He's going to get every chance to create and cap a legacy. NFL scouts take notice.

Quote of the Day

"Those guys don't like missing practice (Bellamy, A. Smith), cause they know if those freshman come in they may not get their jobs back".

--Charlie Strong, on freshman wideouts DeVante Parker and Eli Rogers

Kickoff luncheon live

Here.

Edgar Sosa is better than John Wall

Since the game turned out to be such a big deal, I think UofL fans are feeling a bit of satisfaction this morning after the Dominican National team took down the "UK Legends" team 106-88 last night. Francisco Garcia dropped 30 and Edgar Sosa torched for 29 points after being roundly booed by the UK faithful. Well done, young men.

Also, Demarcus Cousins is still a piece of shit. Garcia and Cousins are teammates, mind you, on the Sacramento Kings, and Garcia was one of the few Kings that went to bat for Demarcus during a tumultuous rookie year when many of his teammates wanted to ban him from the team plane.

Programming notes

Hello loyal readers. We want to call attention to a few changes around the premises.

First, you will notice this morning that we've revamped our page header, retiring the gray face of our beloved cardinal and expanding our logo. As I've written before, we favor simplicity and clarity over gaudiness, gimmicks and blinking lights, and we feel that the new logo delivers in that respect. May every visitor to this web site bask in the stunning declaration upon arrival that they, connoisseur of blogs and fine wine, have reached CARDINAL LAWS. You're welcome.

Second, we're introducing some new functionality to the web site thanks to the powerful sorcerer ways of Mark Zuckerberg. It is now possible to "like" our blog on facebook by clicking on the button immediately below our header. A few posts below that, you will find a link to a new Cardinal Laws facebook page. If you go to that page and "like" that, then you should, I think, possibly, maybe, receive occasional updates of our posts in your facebook news feed. Plus, you and I shall be linked forever. Or until you de-friend.

Why the changes? Well, besides helping us convince our wives/fiancees that we actually do have readers, and that this whole blogging experiment hasn't been a two-year-long online love letter between myself and Mr. Red, we're excited about the added facebook stuff because of this upcoming Cardinal athletic season about to begin: a football team that we think will surprise the remaining naysayers, a basketball team with the potential to maybe deliver on all our hopes and dreams, not to mention a promising Lady Cards squad and a soccer team preseason-ranked #1. We're pumped and we are ready, and as this new season dawns and events inevitably take their turn for the worst, breaking our spirits and sending us scurrying to the blog wires to pour out our hearts, we want to be able to get out the word. Because it's going to be spectacular.

So if you can find it within you, "like" us. Like the living bejesus out of us, like you've never liked before. Reckless abandon, I say. And our fates shall become one. Now, back to the Cards...

You almost can't spell BAHAMAS without HOBBS

We know you've missed him.

Miami Vice: Hurtt's name brought up in Hurricane gift scandal

NCAA officials are visiting the University of Miami campus today, investigating a laundry list of transgressions involving Ponzi schemes, yachts, and football players. Yuck.

Click the link for the whole backstory. But the gist of it is, convicted con-man Nevin Shapiro is sitting in his jail cell and is very willing to spill/create dirt on his dealings with the Miami Hurricanes.

The time-frame he's describing includes the seasons that current UofL coach and chief recruiter Clint Hurtt spent at Miami in a similar position, and indeed Shapiro has named Hurtt as one of his "close relationships" during his period of improprieties.

Nothing is alleged yet, much less proven. But still, it's not good.

**UPDATE**

I have absolutely no way of confirming the veracity of Shapiro's claims, but just upon reading the article, the guy sounds like a flake with a tenuous grip on reality. My favorite...

"Once the players became pros, they turned their back on me. It made me feel like a used friend."

Really? You felt the friendships between recruit and creepy/old rich booster were lifelong? And then you got your feelers hurt when the cool kids didn't return your phone calls? Someone page Dr. Freud.

A weird guy, a weird story, and a bad situation for Miami. I just hope Clint Hurtt, and Louisville by association, isn't swept up in the net.