I am starting to become a very nervous University Of Louisville Cardinal fan, and what follows is a series of disjointed insights that, when compounded together, help to explain my anxiety.

1.  I believe that this UofL basketball team's shooting skills will rival those of the Final Four team of Garcia, Dean, and O'Bannon.  The long range shooting potential that exists between Jerry, Preston, Marra, Delk, Edgar, Kyle, even "Rock," is exciting just to think about.

2.  I believe that this UofL basketball team's rebounding skills will rival those of the team that lost Garcia, O'Bannon, Miles, and Otis and entered the Big East.  That team's inability to rebound was painful to watch, and I fear that this year's team will struggle mightily on the boards.

3.  After considering those two points at the same time, I am beginning to think that the key to our team's success will be the guards' ability to play together, sub in and out seamlessly, and score score score unconciously.

4.  On a busy sports night across the land (World Series clincher, NBA games coast to coast, etc.), 20% of Sportscenter's Top 10 Plays was dedicated to your boy, my boy, OUR BOY Peyton Siva.  Coming in at #7 was Peyton coming from the other side of the lane and jumping 26 feet in the air to block a Bellarmine shot.  At #2, Siva reverse slamming a Jerry layup that rolled off the front of the rim.

5.  Here is my concern.  I hope that every person affiliated with Cardinal basketball gets a chance to see the Top 10.  The fans, the coaches, Peyton himself along with his teammates, everyone.  Well... everyone but one special player that has become so near and dear to our hearts.  I hope that Edgar "Get fouled,score the bucket, check to make sure that you're ready for the camera, pose for the camera during the middle of a Sweet 16 game" Sosa forgot to pay his cable bill and never gets the opportunity to witness Siva's national media exposure (which Edgar so violently craves) before we even tip the ball off when it counts.  My concern is that this team's success hinges on the ability of our guards to play unselfishly, to think team, to make the extra pass, to not dribble into the lane without a plan and cross your fingers for a bail out foul, to play team defense; ultimately, to do all the things that seem to come so naturally to freshman Siva, but seem to escape senior Sosa.  I am willing to bet that if you sat and had lunch with Sosa and Siva together without having any previous knowledge of either, you'd be able to tell in less than a minute which was the senior and which was the freshman.  In other words, I am sure that during his time at UofL, Edgar has matured into a great young man.  But I'm also sure that Edgar Sosa did not come to Louisville to pursue a degree in Upstaging a Freshman in Maturity Level at a Hypothetical Lunch; he came to get better as a basketball player.  

6.  I'm just starting to think that by conference time, playing Peyton a majority of the game will be the high percentage choice, and I just don't know how either Edgar or Pitino will react to that reality.  And if this scenario does in fact become a reality, Edgar's ability to adjust to a role playing spot up shooter in his senior year may be the difference between a good year and a special year.  I just hope that this year, Edgar's last, is the year that he begins to make mature decisions on the court for the betterment of his team.