2007 U of L athletics words of the year

One of my favorite end of the year traditions is the annual Merriam-Webster "word of the year" that is unveiled each December. The word is sometimes actually a phrase (in 2004 it was "Red State/Blue State"), but it almost always succeeds in encapsulating one of the main themes of the past 12 months.

Letting no good idea go unstolen, I thought it would be fun to think of the ten most important "words" of 2007 in the world of Louisville athletics. Here's the list that I came up with, complete with a very liberal interpretation of the word word...word.

10. "Live Blog"

Though my live blog of the Big East softball championship game was widely considered groundbreaking and thought-provoking, it was Courier-Journal reporter Brian Bennett who produced the country's most talked about live blog in 2007. Bennett was jotting notes on his blog during Louisville's eventual 20-2 victory over Oklahoma State in the third game of the NCAA Tournament super regional when he was kicked out of the press box in the fifth inning for violating the NCAA's rule on live blogging. The event led to widespread criticism of the NCAA, and pushed blogging back to the forefront of sports talk radio conversation for several days.

9. "Ship"

When things started to go bad for first-year Louisville head football coach Steve Kragthorpe in September, his press conferences began to take on a decidedly nautical theme as he consistently preached about "being the captain" and "righting the ship." While it wasn't his desired intent, Kragthorpe in turn placed a plethora of Titanic jokes on a tee and handed the U of L fan base an enormous corked bat.

8. "Angel"

Few Cardinal athletes have had near the type of year that Louisville basketball superstar Angel McCoughtry had in 2007. She became the first player to lead the Big East in scoring, rebounding and steals, and on March 2 she was named the conference's Player of the Year. She lead Louisville to a six seed in the NCAA Tournament and a 26-point first-round victory over BYU. She spent her summer leading the United States Pan American team in scoring and helped the Americans capture their first gold medal at the event in 20 years. And now she's about to head into 2008 as the nation's leader in both points and steals.

There's something about number 35 at U of L.

7. "Return"

Shortly after Louisville's 24-13 win over Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 2, Cardinal underclassmen Malik Jackson, Harry Douglas, Mario Urrutia, and most importantly Brian Brohm all announced that they would be returning to school to pursue a national championship in 2007. Quarterbacks coach Jeff Brohm followed the trend on Jan. 13 when he turned down a position under Nick Saban at Alabama to return to Louisville under the new title of "assistant head coach in charge of the passing game." Bobby Petrino also returned several places in 2007, only none of them were in the vicinity of Churchill Downs.

6. "Freedom Hall East"

After a spectacularly surprising run in February and early March, the Louisville basketball team earned a six seed in the NCAA Tournament, and was selected to play its first two games in Lexington's Rupp Arena. After the Cards rolled over Stanford in front of a rowdy "home" crowd in the first round, Kentucky fan Oscar Combs was quoted referring to Rupp Arena as "Freedom Hall East" in a Pat Forde column. The media ran with the title for the next two days before U of L ironically fell to Texas A&M and eventual Kentucky head coach Billy Gillispie in the round of 32.

5. "Disconnect"

Whether it was describing a lack of understanding between the coaches and the players, the team and the fans, the fans and the fans or the coaches and the coaches, the word disconnect was utilized often in relation to the Louisville football team from early September through late November.

4. "Boo"

Fan loyalty quickly (and surprisingly) became a hot topic for discussion after Louisville fans booed the home team and left early when U of L's 20-game home winning streak was shockingly snapped by 37-point underdog Syracuse on Sept. 22. The media quickly highlighted the behavior in the stands, and message boards and local radio were loaded with debates over whether or not it was appropriate to voice displeasure with the performance of the team you were paying to see. Though audible booing of the home team was heard at Michigan, USC, Ohio State, Notre Dame and Kentucky games in 2007, it didn't generate near the controversy it did in the Derby City, for whatever reason.  

3. "Unfair Catch"

The most infamous play of the brief and squalor-ridden Steve Kragthorpe era came on the night of Oct. 19 when Connecticut punt returner Larry Taylor signaled for a fair catch, but was inexplicably allowed to the return the punt 74 yards for a touchdown to give the Huskies their first points of the evening. Uconn would go on to win the game 21-17, and the loss ended up keeping Louisville out of a bowl game. The easy play-on-words was quickly utilized by Rick Bozich, Eric Crawford and the Cardinal fan base, and is likely to reverberate around these parts for quite some time. Big East officials admitted that a mistake had been made and apologized to U of L three days later, marking the second time in Louisville's three years in the Big East that an apology had to be issued after a blown call in a game the Cardinals lost by a slim margin.

2. "Omaha

The Louisville baseball team accomplished something few around this area believed was possible when they advanced to the College World Series in Omaha this June. Planet Red - in the midst of a four-month slumber to prepare for the widely anticipated football season - was unexpectedly reinvigorated as the high powered Cardinal offense rolled through the regional and super regional. The result was a baseball renaissance in a basketball city as U of L fans hung on every pitch like a jump shot in March or deep ball in November.

1. "Snake"

No one person monopolized 2007 Cardinal conversations in 2007 like Bobby Petrino, and no one word became more synonymous with his name than the one that grabs the top spot. Petrino began the year by guiding Louisville to an Orange Bowl win and then bolting to Atlanta less than a week later, and debate over whether or not his departure was in good taste raged through the summer. His name then burst back onto the scene in September when the football team began to struggle and new head coach Steve Kragthorpe inferred that Petrino had left behind a significant amount of baggage. Fans also debated how much more successful the team would have been had Petrino opted not to leave throughout the season. Things came nearly full circle in December when Petrino announced that he was leaving the Falcons to take the head coaching job at Arkansas, despite the fact that Atlanta still had four games to play.

From January to December, no name was more discussed in Louisville land, and no adjective was more widely utilized. Congratulations?