In somewhat surprising news, Evansville Memorial sharpshooter Kyle Kuric announced yesterday that he would sign with Louisville on Monday, and that he will come to the university on a full basketball scholarship.

This latest bit of news means that if both Derrick Caracter and Clarence Holloway return to the team next season, Louisville will have 14 players on scholarship. Since that's against NCAA rules, I think it's safe to say that Rick Pitino isn't planning on coaching Caracter, Holloway, or both ever again.

It should be an interesting month or so.

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According to Brian Bennett of the C-J, Stu Miller has picked his new school.

I'm not sure if Lincoln does promotional videos for its basketball team, but if so, I think this has to be part of the script: "My name is Stuart Miller. I go to Lincoln Memorial University. I play the two spot. We the Railsplitters. And nobody's f&%#in' wit' us."

The ending was cheap, Ray Allen was decent at best, but I still love He Got Game.

Best of luck to Stu at Lincoln Memorial.

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It's an all-Big East duel in our concluding quarterfinal clash of the uncool. A spot in the semis against a UK rep to be determined is what's at stake.

Good Lord I'm excited. This must be how Jim Lehrer feels every day.

3) BOBBY GONZALEZ - Head Coach, Seton Hall

Rap Sheet:

--Did everything this side of a naked headstand to get attention during his team's 92-82 upset victory over Louisville on Jan. 19.

--Got into a fist fight with an assistant during halftime of an eventual loss to West Virginia on Feb. 17.

--Got into an altercation with Rutgers head coach Fred Hill during a regular season-ending loss to the Scarlet Knights, and then harshly criticized the officials during his postgame press conference. His actions led Seton Hall AD Joe Quinlan to suspend him for the first Big East game of next season.

--Called a reporter to berate him for a piece he had written, and then asked him if Rick Pitino had put him up to it.

--Basically acted like himself for six months.

Redeeming Qualities:

--Did come out looking pretty good in one of the more hilarious announcer flubs of the season.

--Guided his team to nine losses in its final 11 games and failed to make the NIT.

6) MIKE TRANGHESE - Commissioner, Big East Conference

Rap Sheet:

--His poor postseason tie-ins led to 6-6 Louisville staying home while 6-6 Nevada and 6-6 Oklahoma State (among others) went bowling.

--Said that he doesn't "think a playoff is in the best interest of college football," after being one of the commissioners who rejected the proposed plus-one format last week.

--Assembled the worst collection of officials in the history of college football, and then sat back and watched the chaos unfold.

--Reprimanded the official who botched the unfair catch play in the Uconn game, but chose not to reveal what the punishment entailed (although this has allowed me to hold out hope for waterboarding).

Redeeming Qualities:

--The move to an 18-game league schedule in basketball deserves at least partial credit for the Big East getting a record-tying eight teams into this year's NCAA tournament.

--Made the brilliant (in my eyes) move to include all 16 teams in the Big East Tournament, beginning next season.

So which denizen of the nation's best conference will claim the final spot in the semifinals? It's all on your shoulders.

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We begin day two of quarterfinal action in just about the least cool manner imaginable: talking about a pair of representatives from Lexington University.

Let's get it on (monster truck rally voice, not sweet, smooth, there's nothing wrong with the world Marvin Gaye voice)!

2) MITCH BARNHART - Director of Athletics, Kentucky

Rap Sheet:

--Put spite ahead of the well-being of his own program when he declined ESPN's offer to air the Louisville/Kentucky football game on Labor Day evening, presumably because it was what Tom Jurich wanted.

--When turning down the offer to have his team play in the time slot previously reserved for the Miami/Florida State rivalry, Barnhart used the excuse that playing on Monday would make Kentucky vulnerable for the following Saturday's home game against Norfolk State. Tennessee and UCLA ultimately accepted an offer to play the Labor Day evening game.

--Once again refused to sobbingly beg for forgiveness for his "we will own this state" and "some programs overmarket and underperform" statements.

Redeeming Qualities:

--I thought he handled the multitude of Tubby/Gillispie situations well (the ones that stretched into this academic year).

Rap Sheet:

--Hauled in the game-winning 57-yard touchdown pass with 28 seconds to go in the '07 Battle for the Governor's Cup.

--On Aug. 30, Johnson was arrested and charged with driving without a license, driving with expired tags, driving without insurance, not wearing a seatbelt and resisting arrest after struggling with a police officer who had just informed him that he had a warrant out for failing to appear in court for a previous traffic violation. He was not suspended, and took the field against Louisville three weeks later.

--Appeared to briefly slow down before crossing the goalline against the Cards.

--Sucks at rap. Still does it.

Redeeming Qualities:

--I do think the hair is cool.

--He actually ran a pretty simple go route to get wide open for the winning score against U of L. It isn't his fault that the former Cardinal secondary couldn't cover a boiling pot.

So which blue-clad male was more anti-Fonzie in '07-'08? Cast your vote to help decide.

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All right, the tourney opener was the massacre we all could have predicted it was going to be (Catraiva Givens is just that cool), but now it's time for what I believe should be a highly competitive 4/5 tilt.

4) TYLER HANSBROUGH - Forward, North Carolina

Rap Sheet:

--Scored 28 points including several key outside jumpers late in the game to almost single-handedly guide North Carolina past Louisville in the Elite Eight.

--Unofficially committed 72 fouls that went uncalled.

--His monster follow-up dunk was pretty embarrassing and enormously deflating.

--Annoying North Carolina fans love him.

Redeeming Qualities:

--Only uncool thing he really did was play amazingly well against us in a big game.

--Would likely be considered highly cool if he played for us.

Rap Sheet:

--Hit 8-of-14 three-pointers and scored 29 points in a shocking 92-82 upset loss to the Pirates.

--Averaged just 12.8 ppg and shot 33% from deep for the season.

--Gave Bobby Gonzalez reason to act like a tool.

--Held his right hand up a little too long after several of his second-half treys.

--Was a 22-year-old freshman (kind of uncool).

Redeeming Qualities:

--Plays for non-rival and non-major competitor in the Big East.

--Like Hansbrough, didn't really do anything highly uncool besides have a career night against our favorite team.

So who will move on to face the extremely impressive Larry Taylor in the second round? Your votes will decide.

UPDATE: Your winner by a single vote (121/120)....TYLER HANSBROUGH

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A couple of notes before we get started:

--No members of the Louisville athletic department made the field, since being a member of the Louisville athletic department automatically makes you cooler than anyone who isn't (besides Michael Cera).

--I thought briefly about lumping all ESPNU announcers whose names I couldn't remember into one entry, but ultimately decided that this would violate the single-entity theme of the tournament.

So now, onto your first matchup...

1) LARRY TAYLOR - Punt Returner, Connecticut

Rap Sheet:

--Blatantly called for a fair catch before returning the ball 70-yards for a touchdown when the officials didn't blow the play dead.

--Play very well may have cost Louisville the game, and ultimately a bowl bid.

--Had the nerve to claim that he had planned the act beforehand, and had made the official aware of his intentions.

--Attempted to repeat the maneuver multiple times in subsequent games, getting away with it twice against Cincinnati.

Redeeming Qualities:

--Plays for the relatively harmless and respectable Connecticut football program.

8) CATRAIVA GIVENS - Guard, Jackson State

Rap Sheet:

--Charged into David Padgett and broke his right kneecap in the second game of the season, forcing the Cardinal center to miss five weeks of action.

--Without Padgett, Louisville dropped games to BYU, Dayton and Purdue.

--Winning two or three of those games could have improved U of L's seed, or at least kept them from having to play North Carolina in Charlotte, which would have drastically increased their chances of advancing to the Final Four.

Redeeming Qualities:

--Didn't actually mean to hurt Padgett.

--Went 0-for-10 from the field and scored zero points in the 31-point loss to the Cards.

So now it's all up to you. Who was less cool in 2007-2008, Larry Taylor or Catraiva Givens?

The poll will close at 5 p.m.

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Looking for more playing time in his final two collegiate seasons, walk-on guard Stuart Miller will transfer from Louisville. No word on where he'll end up, but a non-Division I school is a pretty safe bet.

Miller appeared in eight games as a sophomore, including the Cards' NCAA Tournament wins over Boise State and Oklahoma. In two seasons at U of L, he knocked down 4-of-7 shots and scored a total of 14 points.

As a senior at Middlesboro High School, Miller averaged 29.4 ppg, and buried a total of 173 three-pointers, a mark that was easily the best in the state and fifth-best in the nation. His 475 career three-pointers is the fourth-highest total in American high school basketball history.

Miller's departure is an especially large hit to the contingent of fans who enjoy having an easy name to prematurely call for near the end of home blowouts. I love Lee Steiden as much as all of you, but we'd be kidding ourselves if we didn't admit that screaming "LLLeeeee" is about 1/4 as fun as screaming "SSStttuuuu."

Best of luck to Stu wherever he chooses to take his sweet stroke and his equally enviable facial hair.

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The harsh reality of post-Derby May in Louisville is officially upon us.

Sure, the weather is unrivaled and I find it comforting to have a baseball game to watch casually on weeknights again, but there isn't a soul among us who is not brutally aware of the fact that the sound of pads colliding inside Papa John's Cardinal Stadium will not be heard for another four months, and the sound of sneakers squeaking inside Freedom Hall for another two months after that. This is when things like what I'm about to describe happen.

I am now accepting your nominations for the eight competitors in the Least Cool Person of 2007-2008 Tournament (pertaining to Louisville sports, of course). We're (I'm) looking for the people who had the biggest role in preventing your Cardinal-related happiness, who did something outrageously annoying, or who you just felt like fork-stabbing because they acted like themselves.

The first five names that immediately jumped out at me were:

Larry Taylor (unfair catch)
Tyler Hansbrough (almost single-handedly killed the dream in Charlotte)
Jeremy Hazell (out-of-body performance in huge upset)
Mike Tranghese (poor bowl tie-ins/recent BCS comments)
Steve Johnson (winning TD catch in first loss to UK in five years)

So now it's up to you to throw out some more names and create a field less cool than Scotty Smalls (I don't care if he's the main character, the kid - and man - really is an L-7 weenie). I'd like to start this thing tomorrow so that we'll have something at least semi-interesting to do as soon as possible.

One piece of advise: don't be afraid to nominate Crean...or - in the rare case that she drunkenly threw your hat on the ground and embarrassed you in front of a large group of people outside of a Charlotte bar (hi Dan) - a random girl.

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We just might be in for some more early summer excitement afterall.

After a weekend sweep of Georgetown, the Louisville baseball team has now won seven-straight games to position itself for a run at its second NCAA tournament at-large bid in as many years.

With nine games remaining in the season, the Cards currently sit at 13-8 in the Big East, and 31-16 overall. U of L squeaked into the dance a year ago with a final regular season mark of 40-20.

Of course Louisville can put to bed any doubt regarding its postseason fate by being the last team standing when the Big East tournament ends on May 24. The Cards would be the four seed if the eight-team double-elimination tourney began today, but that might not keep them from being the favorite in an extremely wide-open field.

In addition to non-conference games with Indiana, Butler and Ball State, the Cardinal Nine will end the regular season with weekend sets against sixth-place West Virginia (11-10), and a Rutgers (9-12) squad that figures to still be right in the middle of an intense race for the No. 8 seed.

WEEKEND REVIEW

Game One

Justin Marks continued his spectacular sophomore season by striking out a career-best 10 hitters over eight innings, as the Cards took the series opener in Bethesda 4-3.

Down 3-2 in the top of the 7th, Cardinal DH Tyler Mickits singled up the middle to start the rally. Following a pair of outs and a bunt single by Drew Haynes, freshmen right fielder Stewart Ijames drilled a double into the gap that put the Cards on top for good.

B.J. Rosenberg struck out a pair in the bottom of the ninth, and picked up his fifth save of the season.

For the game, Marks allowed just six hits and two earned runs. He surrendered no walks, and retired the final ten hitters he faced.

Game Two

A pair of RBI singles in the top of the ninth by catcher Jeff Arnold and designated hitter Phil Wunderlich proved to be the difference, as Louisville rallied to take game two from Georgetown 5-3.

Reigning Big East Pitcher of the Year Zack Pitts gave perhaps his best performance of the season, allowing four hits and no runs over seven innings. But Pitts's effort was ruined in the eighth when the Hoyas were able to touch freshmen Thomas Royse for three runs and knot the score.

Stewart Ijames, the hero of Friday night's win, had another big day, going 4-for-5 with two runs scored and another run knocked in. Chris Dominguez also scored two and knocked in one, finishing the night 2-for-5 with a triple and a double.

Game Three

The pitching trio of Bob Revesz, Gabriel Shaw and Gavin Logsdon combined to toss a two-hitter as Louisville completed a weekend sweep of Georgetown with a 9-2 victory.

Revesz continued to improve upon his solid freshman season by allowing just two hits and two runs over seven innings. Shaw and Logsdon then came in to retire the final six Hoya hitters in order.

Second baseman Justin McClanahan belted his eigth home run of the season, and finished the day 2-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scored. First baseman Andrew Clark also went deep, and shortsop John Dao had two hits and drove a pair of runs in.

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Oh boy.

For me, it's always been Christmas, the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament and then Derby as far as favorite holiday/time of the year goes, but all three are special for very different reasons.

It's generally considered in poor taste to start drinking at 8:30 on Christmas morning, and you don't ordinarily see outrageous public nudity at B-dubs on the first Thursday afternoon of the big dance. Both fly tomorrow.

I'm rolling to Churchill with a fairly large group of people, and I fully expect to have no idea where any of them are between the hours of 2-5. So if you see a guy walking around in shorts and a shirt, make sure to ask him if he runs a semi-popular Louisville sports blog. If it's me, I'll take out a small loan and buy you half a beer.

1. Court Vision
   
2. Monba
   
3. Tale of Ekati

Enjoy the day, all.

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ESPNU is showing 15 hours of Louisville football and basketball games from the past two (academic) years beginning tonight at midnight.

The full lineup looks like this:

Midnight: West Virginia at Louisville (football/2006)

3 a.m.: Big East tournament semifinal: Louisville vs. West Virginia (women's basketball/2008) (Ed. Note: If you're awake and on the fence, Marc Bulger's little sister played for WVU, and she's pretty hot)

4:30 a.m.: Marquette at Louisville (men's basketball/2008)

6 a.m.: Syracuse at Louisville (men's basketball/2008)

7:30 a.m.: Louisville at Marquette (men's basketball/2008)

9 a.m.: Notre Dame at Louisville (men's basketball/2008)

10:30 a.m.: Georgetown at Louisville (men's basketball/2008)

7 p.m.: Rutgers at Louisville (football/2007)

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Just in case you hadn't heard, things aren't exactly peachy keen up I-65 (and over some interesting backroads) in Bloomington.

With Holman and DeAndre Thomas (the fat one) transferring, Armon Bassett and JaMarcus Ellis dismissed from the program, Eric Gordon headed to the NBA, and D.J. White and Lance Stemler graduating, Indiana now has just three returning players for the 2008-2009 season: Jordan Crawford, Kyle Taber and Brandon McGee.

I'll say it again, Kelvin Sampson was the worst hire in collegiate athletics in the past 15 years. And I'll also say this again: please, please, please renew this series.

I will support Eli Holman wherever he chooses to take his game.

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