Friday Evening Cardinal News And Notes

by Mike Rutherford on Dec 9, 2011 4:11 PM EST in News

Prissy_medium

Prissy the Yorkie is all dolled up for an upscale, Cards-themed Christmas party tonight. She's got the scarf working and the pose down.

SI's Luke Winn is back with more power rankings, and this week the Cards are up one spot to No. 9.

Louisville Cardinals (8-0)

The Cardinals' defense is so stout that they've managed to remain undefeated (and in the top 10 of the Power Rankings!) despite the fact they routinely struggle to score. As Courier-Journal columnist Rick Bozich wrote of the nation's No. 68 team in adjusted offensive efficiency, "This season [Rick] Pitino is dealing with an issue that rarely has been a problem for his teams: U of L hasn't looked like a team primed to make the scoreboard tilt. Points have been a problem."

From an advanced-stats standpoint, look how far the Cards lag behind fellow, ranked Big East teams in spot-up and post-up efficiency, according to Synergy Sports Technology:

Spot-Up PPP (% of overall offense)
Pitt: 1.241 (21.4%)
Marquette: 1.107 (25.3%)
Georgetown: 1.090 (25.3%)
UConn: 1.065 (20.1%)
Syracuse: 1.025 (21.2%)
Louisville: 0.872 (21.3)

Post-Up PPP (% of overall offense)
Pitt: 1.167 (3.5%)
Syracuse: 1.037 (3.7%)
Marquette: 0.904 (8.3%)
Georgetown: 0.903 (11.7%)
UConn: 0.857 (7.9%)
Louisville: 0.656 (9.8%)

The Cards have been abysmal in the post, despite taking shots from there with more than double the frequency of Pitt or Syracuse. It'll be worth monitoring whether efficiency improves once 6-foot-8 forward Rakeem Buckles, who just returned from an ACL injury, is integrated into the rotation.

When you're covering a sport without a meaningful postseason, you can do things like offer up an early top 25 for next season before this season's postseason has even begun. That's exactly what Athlon did with its very early top 25 for 2012, a list that includes Louisville at No. 23.

23. Louisville – The Cardinals came up just short of winning the outright Big East title this season. However, the future looks very bright. Louisville had a plethora of young players see time this season, including true freshman quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. The offensive line struggled this year, but should be better in 2012 with a full season from center Mario Benavides. With West Virginia off to the Big 12, the Cardinals should be the favorite to win the Big East.

A new company called Deuce Brand has started producing the following U of L watches:

Uofl_medium

For more info, you can check out the Deuce Brand website.

Paul Petrino is headed back to Arkansas and Jeff Brohm will run the Illinois offense in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. Best of luck to both.

Understand I received a shoutout on The League last night. Just wish it had been from anyone other than Taco.

ESPN'a Andrea Adelson recaps Louisville's 2011 season.

Offensive MVP: Bridgewater. Bridgewater came on in relief of Will Stein against Kentucky and led the Cardinals to a win over their in-state rivals. He never relinquished the starting job, and set a school record for passing yards by a freshman with 1,855.

Defensive MVP: Dexter Heyman, LB. Heyman led the team with 83 tackles and also ranked No. 3 in the Big East with 15.5 tackles for loss. He was consistent all season and the big-time leader of a very young group. He also was one of the few who were able to stay healthy for the entire season.

Turning Point: A 16-14 win over Rutgers. The season hung in the balance heading into this game, as the Cardinals had dropped three straight, including their Big East opener to rival Cincinnati. After watching cornerback Anthony Conner go down with a broken neck, Louisville played with an added sense of urgency and that carried over for the rest of the season. This win launched the comeback and helped the Cardinals close with wins in five of their final six games.

Scout.com released its latest class rankings for 2012, and of particular note is Houston strolling in at No. 19. This comes on the Heels of ESPN ranking the class - headlined by top 100 players Danuel House and Danrad "Chicken" Knowles - No. 12 and dubbing it the best non-BCS class in the country.

Now my intelligence tells me that House would have ended up committing wherever Chicken did, and we all know what would have happened had Chicken been offered a scholarship by U of L. So basically, Card Chronicle landed a top 20 recruiting class all on its own.

Update your resumes accordingly.

At some point on Tuesday, CC eclipsed the 10 million page view mark. What's remarkable about that is well over half of those hits have come over the past 12 months.

You people...

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Check out this tweet from class of 2013 QB commit (and budding Twitter star) Kyle Bolin from Lexington Catholic:

Screen_shot_2011-12-09_at_3

Congrats to Jerry Smith, who has been signed to the New Jersey Nets' training camp roster.

It's been a big week for Louisville sports icons and babies. The following pic was tweeted to me on Tuesday night from the Butler/Bullitt East game:

Pitino-baby_medium

Speaking of that game, here's a better video of the much-discussed Pitino/Calipari interaction from HSreplays.

Least Cool Person of 2010-2011 Brandon Bender is at it again, serving as the "mentor" for Arizona recruit Ray Kasongo. Might be a red flag, Sean Miller.

A nice piece from Newsday on how injured Cardinal CB Anthony Conner helped turn the season around.

And finally, I'm not sure there's ever been this much man in one photograph:

Manly_medium

Happy holidays, ladies.

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Comments

I missed The League last night

what did the shoutout reference?

by whitacreky on Dec 9, 2011 4:29 PM EST reply actions

Taco just said something like "I'd like to thank .....(said a few names).... and Mike Rutherford"

He was thanking those people because he found a bunch of ties for his neckflix service (netflix for ties).

by gbpackers94 on Dec 9, 2011 4:59 PM EST up reply actions

Close, but no Gurkha. The names were

Phil Collins, Tony Banks (or maybe Peter Gabriel I don’t remember), and to a lesser extent, Mike Rutherford.

He was thanking those people because he stole a bunch of neckties from a cult named the Light of Genesis. Those names are the members of the band Genesis. Much funnier on the actual show.

by Squidbones on Dec 9, 2011 5:25 PM EST up reply actions

Booo

Luke Winn and CNNSI…
The annoying Seth Davis had us ranked No.8 in his AP ballot this week. The majority of other voters appeared to have seen things differently.

by FrankensteinsJacket on Dec 9, 2011 4:45 PM EST reply actions

That baby is in awe of Pitino

his expression is priceless.

by CardChick on Dec 9, 2011 4:58 PM EST reply actions 1 recs

+ 1

________________________________________________
www.lordkayoss.com

by LORD KAYOSS on Dec 9, 2011 5:02 PM EST up reply actions

and his mom looks just like my dental hygienist.

"...and the present, for us, is something that we really look forward to."
- Rick Pitino

by rickmbari on Dec 10, 2011 12:45 AM EST up reply actions

The photo I want for Christmas:

Chane, Pey Pey, Pey Pey Sr. Gorgui, Rak, and HCCS.

Too much to ask?

by CardChick on Dec 9, 2011 5:00 PM EST reply actions

So I see you like all the hotties, too.

Why don’t we slip a little CS5 in there and be done with it.

by GOCARDSATTITUDE on Dec 9, 2011 5:50 PM EST up reply actions

slow down, girl

you ain’t got to hit the gas like that.

"...and the present, for us, is something that we really look forward to."
- Rick Pitino

by rickmbari on Dec 9, 2011 6:56 PM EST up reply actions

Now, that right there

That’s funny

Not a "TRUE" fan

by mclade01 on Dec 10, 2011 4:56 AM EST up reply actions

Over 10 Million served

Today the internet, tomorrow the WORLD!

by twistedenglish77 on Dec 9, 2011 5:12 PM EST reply actions

does anybody else ignore everything that Andrea Adelson says

She just seems very anti-uofl, not giving strong coach of the year, and not questioning the lack of cards on the all big east team. plus constantly picking against us and seemingly angry when we won

by gunner921 on Dec 9, 2011 5:23 PM EST reply actions

Noticed she ripped on the BE after the expansion teams were announced.

She does seem inconsistent when she does the power rankings. But I’m sure covering the Big East is probably not all that exciting.

by CardinalDude on Dec 9, 2011 5:46 PM EST up reply actions

I'm John Calipari and I have to take a police escort with me everywhere like I'm the fucking Pope. What a joke.

by AllHailUofL on Dec 9, 2011 5:47 PM EST via mobile reply actions

Pope

The Pope flies into NY for a visit at St. Pat’s (the cathedral, not the high school basketball team). He is met at the airport by a chauffeur driving a Rolls. The Pope is astounded and has never seen such a car.

He walks around it, admiring it. Then when the chauffeur opens the door the Pope says he has always wanted to drive such a car. After discussion he convinces the chauffeur to let him drive. He gets behind the wheel and the chauffeur gets in the back.

His Holiness is driving on the expressway and loves the car so much that he is going faster and faster and faster. And sure enough a state trooper pulls over the Rolls. The trooper walks up to the driver’s window and does a double take.

He walks back to his car and radios in that he is over his head. He needs help. This is too big for him. The radio comes back with “Who do you have there? The Mayor?” The trooper says “Bigger, much bigger.” The radio comes back with “The Governor? Is it the Governor?” The trooper says “No! Bigger, Much bigger!”

The radio says "Well, who is it?’ The trooper says “I don’t know. But he’s gotta be big. The Pope is his chauffeur!!!!”

by cbcard on Dec 9, 2011 6:33 PM EST up reply actions 2 recs

Lol

Let out a nice chuckle on that one. How long have you been waiting for someone to mention the pope?

by 5-0card on Dec 9, 2011 11:28 PM EST via mobile up reply actions

It's an old joke that just popped into my head

by cbcard on Dec 10, 2011 9:56 AM EST up reply actions

I stole it...

GO! CARDS!
BEAT!
PURDUE!

by 4ul4life on Dec 9, 2011 11:36 PM EST up reply actions

THAT PICTURE

IS TOO POWERFUL.
……………………………….boom.

by GOCARDSATTITUDE on Dec 9, 2011 5:49 PM EST reply actions

I've never agreed with you more. That IS the manliest sight of all time.

It hurts to look it’s so beautiful. Glory glory. Oh my goodness

by GOCARDSATTITUDE on Dec 9, 2011 5:51 PM EST reply actions

Jerry Smith!!!!!

Can someone tell me what being signed to the training camp roster means… Will be play regular season games or just workout until the season starts.

Either way im happy for Smith… and all his towel waving encouragement.

"Winning gets you where you want to go"
-CS5-

by lvl1 on Dec 9, 2011 6:09 PM EST reply actions

I miss his towels.

by GOCARDSATTITUDE on Dec 9, 2011 6:25 PM EST via iPhone app up reply actions

It means he is on an extended roster

For the preseason (are they even having a preseason this year?) but the team has to cut the roster prior to the start of real games. This is how Samardo made the Cavs last year, but the chances are pretty slim unless he performs extremely well (example: after his senior year David Padgett made the Heats training camp roster but still got cut despite high praise AND winning their rookie dance competition). If nothing else though, this probably means he can sign with a higher profile international team.

by whitacreky on Dec 9, 2011 7:20 PM EST via mobile up reply actions