I BLAME ALL OF YOU

Nice ponytail, Mike.  I think it was that kind of pansyness (or fruityness) that got us chewed up in the paint.  They played the previous day, but our guys (some of them) are the ones that looked tired.  I hate being negative, so I'll end with GOOD GAME EARL & JUAN!

I'm afraid the 'Ville may have peaked too early.

Late in this game, there was no leader who took this game over and/or put this team on his back.  Couple that with bad foul shooting, and they are looking like a very marginal tournament ready team.  

Plus, and you cannot deny this, Blair owned the paint and Padgett, T-will couldn't finish as he has been, and our lack of consistent guard play was a killer.  Pitt is a very average tournament team who just beat us for the third straight year when it really counted at MSG.  

Good grief.  

-- Pitt played really well.  When Padgett got the ball inside, it seemed like there were 6 defenders on the court.  Usually, it's a virtually indefensible move as a double-team results in a 3 and one-on-one results in a basket.

-- I don't like the fact that we have guys in a funk.  Smith has been playing really poorly.  I'd like to see his shooting percentages home vs away.

-- Knowles is the most amazing on-ball defender I have ever seen.  Truly.  In-your-face defense and quick hands.

-- Did you notice the time that McGee cut to the basket on a fast break and everyone in the arena knew it was gonna get blocked?  Why does McGee cut to the basket on a fast break but T-Will never does?

-- Palacios dribbling the ball with any forward momentum is an absolute trainwreck.

-- It seemed like not one single drive by Williams resulted in a single point.  For some reason, he doesn't draw fouls (or make runners).

-- How frustrating was that stretch when Pitt couldn't miss a shot?

-- They kept showing statistics that Sam Young was currently shooting 6/17 from the field.  Did it seem to anyone else that he was about 10/12 from the field -- all 16-footers?

-- Celebrity sightings:  Taquan Dean, Dave Wanstedt, Steve Kerr.

-- I don't like the downward vibe going on right now with weird substitutions by Pitino:  Williams on the bench at key times, McGee/Sosa and a weird one in which Caracter was on the court with like 2-3 minutes left.

-- I can't see it that closely, but it seems like in both the Georgetown and Pitt games that Clark has a layup impaired in a way which HAS to be a foul -- somehow they're not calling it.

-- Pitt "Travis Diener"-ed UofL about 15 times in which they dribbled up the court leaning into the defender (whose hands are up in the air as if to signal "not me") ultimately drawing a foul.  

-- My 6:00am flight to NYC for the weekend tomorrow hangs in serious doubt....

whats there to say , it sucks.
i dont want to sound like an optimist, but this loss may have helped the cards, and me too.
we will take a 4 or 5 seed. win the first one and then bring on the 4 or 5( depending if we are a 4 or 5 also). then we can take on memphis, unc, or ucla. lets get this over with. im so pissed now, as are the cards im sure, that i want the toughest road possible. we play better when we are road dogs.
you heard it here first.
bobby in sarasota

And what a surprise, sPintino is gonna let the Cards fold again!

Why doesn't everyone else see it?

-Year after year of constant lies! Why does he treat us, the fans, like we're idiots?

-Year after year of consistent underachievement. Let's take a look:

In his last seven years as Louisville's head coach, Denny Crum went to two sweet sixteens. In his first seven years as Louisville's head coach, Rick sPintino has gone to one. And don't give me crap about how it was a final four; Denny would've had a final four if Dejuan hadn't been hurt. So why did we fire that guy for this one again?

Let's face it, the Cards will be out before the first weekend of the tournament, and I'm certain the only answer is poor talent management. We need a new coach, and badly. Rick lies out his ass, and you're all sucker enough to stay on the bandwagon. Anyone with any sense will recognize that the time is now:

FIRE PITINO!

Not good.  

Positives:
Earl. DC.  Preston.  Earl again.  That's it.

Negatives:

Jerry.  Not just his shooting, but bad passes and out of sync.  And still those dumb fouls.

David and TWill.  Our All-Big East performers absolutely disappeared tonight (second game in a row for David), while Sam Young showed up big.  

Biting on pump fakes.

Toughness.

Smart decisions down the stretch.  It was nice to force overtime, but we absolutely blew the first 3 or 4 possessions while giving them easy baskets and free throws.  

The fact that you all think I'm an idiot just proves to me that you're the sheep I think you are. Go ahead and swallow sPintino's excuses just like you have every batch of Kool-Aid that the guy's served up on a weekly basis since he's been here. Personally, I'll look at the results. And the results are clear:

Denny Crum's Last 7 Years: 2 Sweet Sixteens
Rick sPintino's First 7: Just 1.

He's washed up, folks. Why we fired Denny to bring this guy in is beyond me - at least Denny got us past the first weekend on a semi-regular basis. Can't exactly say the same for Rick! Just what makes you so eager to keep him around?

An average NCAA tournament seed of 6.5 (in the years he makes it, that is)?
A consistent peak-too-early followed by the all too predictable fold-when-it-counts?
The fact that he's had more recruits transfer away than NCAA tournament victories?
His propensity to lie to the media (and thus the fan base) at any given opportunity?
His quickness to blame anyone else - the players, the fans, the opposing team - when those lies are uncovered?
Or was it that "one shining moment" when we actually overachieved and hit the final four, which even Rick admitted was "ahead of schedule?" I guess even blind squirrels find nuts, and I'd really like to know if Rick's "schedule" involved us collapsing every March right on cue.

You see, he's done very little to merit your support. In fact, when you stack all the evidence up, his tenure here has been decidedly mediocre. The recruiting's been terrible, the execution poor, and the prominent collapses on the national stage plentiful. Essentially, it comes down to 2 words:

FIRE PITINO!

I'm as die-hard a Cards fan as anybody, but I ceased being a sPintino fan a long time ago (say, the year we went to the NIT 9 months after Rick told us we'd "never" drop outside the top 20 again...I guess he got the words "drop out of" confused with "be in"). And because he's at the helm, I'll have us losing first or second round in my bracket (depending on the matchup) just like every year at the Ville. But hey, at least we have football season! Or are you all so dedicated to Kragthorpe that you think he should get a decade to prove he's not a clown?