Kendal Lippy practicing her Mike Marra right fist pump before tomorrow night's game.

Thank you very much, Miss Lippy.

Louisville has opened as a one-point underdog tomorrow night at Seton Hall.

Loved this story from C. Ray Hall on the superfans who spend their winters in Louisville solely so they can attend Cardinal basketball games.

"Most of my girlfriends think that I'm crazier than him because I come and do this with him," Bobbie Hilleary said. "But you know what? I like it just as much as he does."

Woman of my dreams. Age is just a number, Bobbie. Drop me a line whenever. Email address is right there on the left side of the site (*whispers* it's AOL...wink).

Things have not gone well for Shenard Holton since he left the Louisville football program.

This from the Bowling Green Daily indictment reports:

Shenard Dequan Holton, 21, 1520 W. Hill St., Louisville, second-degree burglary, tampering with physical evidence, theft by unlawful taking of property valued at $500 or more but less than $10,000, $5,000 cash bond.

Get it together, man.

Rick Pitino may be going up against former assistant Kevin Willard tomorrow night, but that's definitely not going to be on his mind while their two teams are playing.

Kevin Willard: Virginia Rutherford lamaze class alumnus.

The woman brings in the stars.

ESPN's Andrea Adelson hands out some grades to the Louisville football team for its 2011 season, and ultimately hands the Cardinals a B overall.

Overall: Things appeared headed for doom when Louisville opened the season 2-4, with losses to FIU and Marshall. But the Cardinals were able to overcome the slow start and pick up a huge win at West Virginia, along with a share of the Big East title for the first time since 2006. Did things go perfectly? No. There were some bad losses, and some good wins as this team figured out how to mature and grow up. Seeing Bridgewater and his young receivers get better was a positive. But there were also times when this team appeared to be unfocused and unable to capitalize on some of its success. Do you give Louisville a great grade for winning a share of the league or do you downgrade for the overall 7-6 record? I give more weight to the conference crown and the way the season finished up. After all, this team far exceeded expectations.

Grade: B.

Adelson also names Greg Scruggs to her all-interview team.

Louisville defensive end Greg Scruggs. Every time I talked to him, he had something interesting to say. I was as surprised as most everybody when he found himself in trouble at the end of the season, but I give him a major amount of credit for issuing this apology.

Lost Letterman says Louisville has the eighth-worst uniforms in college basketball. In our defense though, both their lists (best and worst) are awful.

It seems Louisville may have dodged a bullet when Justin Coleman failed to qualify. The former Cardinal signee was kicked off the team at Marshall on Thursday.

Speaking of Coleman, check out this forgotten clip of Soccer Gorgs:

Congrats to Keith Brown on his first team All-Dade County nod.

Keith is already enrolled and already excited.

Apparently BBC just got a $100,000 loan from the city. All right, well I've got more than four times as many Twitter followers as BBC...so I'll just take that $400,0000 + check whenever you find a couple of spare minutes.

OK, can I get like $1,000? Or maybe just a $2,0000 voucher to BBC? How about a miniature Louisville slugger? That pen that doesn't have any ink in it?

I can't wait until I'm finally in charge of everything and instead of dedicating buildings and monuments to people, I start giving them derogatory names based off of anyone who has ever crossed me.

When that bridge finally does get built, it WILL be the "Blow Me Goodman."

"Heavy traffic if you're crossing the Blow Me Goodman into Louisville this morning. Motorists may want to think about utilizing the U. S. Reed Sucks exit ramp onto My Third Grade Teacher Mr. Conner Was a Huge Dick Street."

This is the world I dream about. This is the world I'm working for.

Times Square welcomes Navy to the Big East fold.

Mark Ennis effectively takes Chuck Neinas to task.

Jeff Goodman, he of 2031 bridge dedication fame, talks about the Louisville basketball team settling down in the wake of so many injuries. He also shafts us a pair of wins, of course.

I suppose there are worse things to be remembered for, although I can't think of any off the top of my head.

The drawing for this year's Kentucky high school Sweet 16 tournament took place, and Louisville's 6th and 7th regions drew each other in the first round.

Well, that's typical.

The Louisville baseball team has earned its fourth preseason top 25 ranking. The Cardinals also got their season underway today with a pair of open scrimmages.

In the wake of Greg Schiano's departure, Charlie Strong might very well end up with the Big East's best recruiting class for a second straight season.

Louisville has reportedly offered a scholarship to class of 2013 point guard Zach LaVine. Pitino and company are ging after a lot of floor generals for the second year in a row.

And finally, check out the Louisville basketball drinking game. Good timing with a Saturday night game on the horizon.

Happy weekend, all.

Language is not safe for work or children at all.

He comes so close to staying semi-professional, and then just can't bring himself to hang up the phone.

From the special C-J section we discussed earlier:

Ohhhh C.........A........HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH............KEEP IT AWAY FROM ME..........FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAKE IT STOP WALKING TOWARDS ME...........I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT IS IN ITS HAND BUT I REALLY DON'T WANT TO FIND OUT........

Video available from the C-J.

--Seton Hall has an explosive 3-point attack, they're great at getting steals and they have a lot of senior leadership in Theodore and Pope. They're going to have their largest crowd of the season and it's going to be a very difficult environment to come out of with a win.

--Seton Hall switches from man to zone a lot. Notre Dame handled that very well. They also sagged on defense and the Pirates had an off shooting night.

--Not surprised at all by the success Kevin Willard has had at Seton Hall.

--"Kevin's like a son to me."

--It's not difficult to not focus on the opposing coach, because during the game you're so focused on what's happening on the court.

--Outside of Gorgui, it really doesn't matter who we start. Russ Smith starting against Villanova was a situational thing, it will vary game-by-game.

--Herb Pope is very good on the perimeter off the bounce, which makes him very difficult to guard.

--Our fouls against Villanova were not good ones. We were trying to get Chane out of the game before he got his 4th foul, so he should have known better. Gorgui is getting better at not fouling and is working hard on that.

--Chris Smith has been steady all year long. "Chris is Chris. He is what he is; a Steady performer who gives you everything he has every night out."

--Russ Smith is very funny. We've had fun all year as a team, except when we've lost.

--The players wouldn't have had a team meeting after the Providence game if Richard hadn't told them they needed to.

--Apparently Russ does a a very good impression of Pitino. "Francisco used to mimic me too. I have no problem laughing at myself."

--Aaron Cosby is a good spot-up shooter. About 75% of his shots are threes.

--Peyton hitting jump shots doesn't help the offense, but it helps him. When guys make shots they feel better about themselves and start playing better defense and more confident on offense.

--Peyton shoots the ball great in practice.

--The only guy whose game doesn't change when he's not making shots is Russ. Kyle had a bad shooting night against Villanova, and as a result he didn't rebound and he wasn't running the floor.

--Kyle was just a little off on Wednesday night. "We've talked about, and there were reasons why he was a little off, but we've corrected those problems."

--Doesn't think the players read the Internet. People don't believe him, but he himself doesn't even know how to read stuff on the Internet. He reads the New York Post on the Internet to keep up with the area basketball teams but that's it. He doesn't read blogs, he doesn't watch local news and he hasn't read a local newspaper in years.

--If Stephan Van Treese comes back at all this season, it will be in March.

--Wayne keeps getting stomach viruses, mostly from drinking milk. They keep telling him to stop and he keeps drinking it and getting sick. We've put a "missing in action" picture of Wayne to show the players because he's been away so much.

--"Wayne is an accident waiting to happen."

--Angel and Zach are both improving dramatically. Zach's getting very close to putting himself in a position where I'm not afraid to play him. I'm still afraid to play Angel because of passing and defense, but Angel probably has the most potential of all four freshmen. His shot his there, but he just has to gain strength and learn how to pass and play defense.

--We're recruiting some guys right now who will definitely be ready to play right away as freshmen.

Obviously, I wanted to get to this sooner, but it's been a busy couple of days at the dot com and this death flu forced me to throw a Nyquil party (the worst kind of party) around 8 o'clock last night.

Anyway, I'm going to rehash the lead-in I typed out Wednesday night and then we'll hit on what took place relatively quickly...

The biggest step in making the jump from "in a rut" to "on a run" is restoring confidence.

From Louisville hitting eight straight free-throws with the game in the balance, to Peyton Siva burying four outside jumpers, to Jared Swopshire making two key offensive plays in the closing minutes, to Chane Behanan dominating the paint in the second half; U of L's 84-74 win over Villanova was far more important than the final score indicates.

Is this where we hoped the Cards would be on Jan. 25? Absolutely not, but this team is just now learning how to play with the pieces it has, and because of that these last two games could not have been more valuable.

At 2-4 in the Big East and with so many players out or dealing with injuries, I think all most of us wanted was for this group to give us somehope that substantial success in February and March was at least possible. I think that's happened now.

Double digit wins over Pitt and Villanova aren't anything to write home about, but Peyton Siva looking like a guy with restored confidence,Gorgui Dieng getting 13 and 14 rebounds a night, Russ Smith learning when to make a pass in transition; those things are.

You don't have to strain so much anymore to see the light. It may not be as bright as any of us hoped it would be before the season, but that doesn't change the fact that it's there.

Peyton learned how to shoot. Uh-oh.

Major shoutout to Rob Hickerson, aka "Jacket Waiver" for making his triumphant return and absolutely owning the crowd in the second half. The Cards controlled the game from that point on, and the Yum Center faithful were as vocal as they've been all year.

You're the man, Jacket Waiver.

Speaking of the crowd reaction, seeing this when I got home from the game made me pretty upset:

Right, because other major programs clap politely after enormous shots against non-top ten opponents.

Nevermind that this team has struggled recently because of a rash of injuries, or that the player who drilled the dagger is a well-liked veteran who has seen his playing time drop drastically after dealing with his own injuries, OR the fact that the opponent in question has been one of Louisville's biggest nemeses since joining the Big East.

Whatever, man.

Glockner's one of the worst "take shots at passionate fan bases to get attention" offenders in the national media, and this is the third or fourth blatant case of him doing so with U of L this season. I'd say the best thing to do is ignore him, but now that would obviously be a "do as I say, not as I do" situation.

Louisville fell in love without itself a little after racing out to a 19-11 lead, and result was an extremely offensively talented Villanova team dropping 44 in the first half and carrying a five-point lead into the locker room. It was really encouraging to see the Cards regroup and hold the Wildcats to just one field goal over the first six minutes of the second half.

This team has to win games with its defense, and it's important for them to remember that even on nights when their shots are falling.

The biggest evolution in Chane Behanan's game over the past couple of weeks has been the elimination of "The Samardo Power Dribble." Three times he was fed the ball around the rim with a chance to score, he dunked it twice and scored and got fouled the other time. On none of these occasions did he put the ball on the floor. It's a hard habit to break for big guys, but it's really helped Chane's finishing ability recently.

It also appears Rick Pitino did in fact make an appearance at Chane's class the next morning:

Pretty cool.

Easily the worst officiated game of the season, and I would have said that if we'd lost or won by 40. Those guys were absolutely pitiful.

At one point, one of the officials was defending himself to a fan in the crowd while 'Nova was shooting free-throws. Because that's professional.

With its offensive confidence lacking, I'm not sure Louisville could have faced a better pair of opponents than Pitt and Villanova. Both teams play really, really poor defense, and the result is several Cardinals heading into this key stretch feeling much more confident about their games.

It sounds weird to say, but U of L is going to get a much stronger defensive test from Seton Hall(?) than either the Panthers or Wildcats gave them.

Another solid effort from Gorgui Dieng, but he didn't find the same balance between cautious and aggressive that he did against Pitt. There were at least three times where Gorgs allowed his man to catch the ball deep in the lane and then just sort of let him score because he didn't want to foul. Obviously we need Dieng on the floor, but not if he's just going to surrender two points.

You have to remind yourself that Gorgui is only a sophomore who is still learning how to play basketball. Looking at how far he's come in just the last 14 months or so is remarkable, and one of the biggest reasons to be optimistic about the future of Louisville basketball after this season.

The crowd was terrific as a whole, but I'm going to call out the student section really quick for only being about 16% full during the national anthem. I know it was rainy and traffic was bad, but that was pretty pathetic. You brought in when you had to, but that section should be at capacity by the time ten 'til rolls around.

Three words: Black Suit Mike.

It was good to see the team put up 84 points and win by double digits on a night when Kyle Kuric didn't give his best shooting performance. You have to be able to win in a multitude of different ways to be successful in the Big East, and this team is finally coming around in that regard.

Russ Smith: five assists and four rebounds in just 16 minutes. I was floored that he found Chris Smith for a three on that first half breakout. I would have bet just abou every dollar I own on his going up with that ball, but it appears Passin' Russ is here to stay.

I love New Russ.

Pitino said after the game that they wanted to goad Maalik Wayns into picking up some offensive fouls and that's how two of his four came. Great job by the staff to recognize that tendency in him and by the players to make that plan come to fruition.

Also, he's one hell of a scorer.

Russ kind of looks like a soccer player here:

Digging the undershirt backcourt though.

Underguards? No? We'll keep working. It's a long season.

Outside of the Scottie Reynolds game, it seems like someone totally random for them goes off on us every year. That said, James Bell's 14-point, 13-rebound game does not surprise me at all.

I'm not sure a shirt, bag of peanuts or ball has been tossed within 100 feet of me at a home game all season. We haven't lost with me in attendance since the UK game on New Year's Eve, 2010. Show some respect. Throw me some damn peanuts.

I'd forgotten how much I'd missed Swop's voice until I heard him on the radio after the game.

I'd like it known that if this illness kills me, my only wish is for Jared Swopshire to speak at my funeral. I don't care what he says or if he even mentions my name, I just want him there and speaking into a microphone for at least two minutes.

Russ missed his first two jumpers short, so on his third he put what appeared to be his entire body into the shot, over-exaggerated his follow through, and missed long by approximately seven feet.

At least he recognizes problems and tries to fix them.

For all the fan unrest and "issues" surrounding the team, Louisville is 16-5 and winners of three out of its last four.

Find a way to finally win at the Prudential Center, and suddenly some cautious optimism is going to start re-spreading throughout the Derby City.

The Louisville basketball program will be celebrating its 100th birthday on Saturday when the Cards face Seton Hall, and in honor of the occasion the Courier has a special online section loaded with goodies.

The section includes:

• Louisville Basketball at 100 | U of L men's basketball coaches since 1944
• Louisville Basketball at 100 | Conference roll call
• Louisville Basketball at 100 | U of L’s championship runs
• Louisville Basketball at 100 | Five big comebacks
• Louisville Basketball at 100 | Freedom Hall
• Louisville Basketball at 100 | Player statistics
• Louisville Basketball at 100 | Long shots and late shots
• Louisville Basketball at 100 | High scorers
• Louisville Basketball at 100 | The record book
• Louisville Basketball at 100 | History of opponents
• Louisville Basketball at 100 | Retired numbers

The easiest way to make friends or fans is to rip on the local paper, but this is really good stuff. Could have gone for an "Internet Memes" section, but whatever, I'm not going to be bratty about it.

What the headline says.

Also, I'm feeling like absolute death, so bear with me today...and bring me a sandwich.

Today Scout.com released their 2014 class position rankings for the first time and local product and Louisville commitment Quentin Snider was rated as the ninth best PG prospect of 2014.

At this time, Scout.com has only ranked the top 10 players in the 2014 class for PG, SG, SF and PF and the top 5 players for C. Of the 45 players who were ranked in their position, Quentin Snider is one of only three players who have committed to a school. Indiana and Virginia also have one top ranked 2014 commitment.

Louisville is also listed as a "School of Interest" for several other top prospects including #3 PG D'Angelo Russell, #2 SG Jaquan Lyle, #5 SF Jalen Lindsay, #7 SF Shaqquan Aaron and #2 C Dakari Johnson. Of these prospects, Louisville has only offered Russell, who played at Central High School and for the Louisville Magic AAU team before moving to Florida before his sophomore year.

Here are the links to the Scout.com position rankings:

2014 Point Guards

2014 Shooting Guards

2014 Small Forwards

2014 Power Forwards

2014 Centers