Thursday Morning Cardinal News And Notes

This is Thorgood "Thor" Baker, and apparently he's having a hard time letting go of the Juan Palacios era. According to his owner, Phil: "he was his bro."

I believe this is also the first blatant genitalia flash in CC history. I'll appreciate all of you who help not make this a trend.

Good stuff from Carolina Cardinal on Louisville's one-and-one free-throw shooting so far this year:

Through last nights game here are the stats:

Team - 27 of 49 - 55%
Dieng - 6 of 12 - 50%
Siva - 7 of 9 - 78%
C Smith - 7 of 9 - 78%
R Smith - 3 of 7 - 43%
Price - 0 of 3 - 0%
Buckles - 0 of 2 - 0%
Chane - 1 of 2 - 50%
Kuric - 2 of 2 - 100%
Justice - 1 of 1 for 100%
SVT - 0 for 1 - 0%
Swop - 0 for 1 - 0%

These figures are actually up a little from prior weeks but still need improvement. Hard to explain why Russ shoots so poorly, but kudos to Siva and Chris Smith for the big improvements. These three guys, plus Dieng have taken 37 of the 49 attempts. And note that on the second free throw these guys are much better:
Dieng - 4 of 6 - 67%
Siva - 6 of 7 - 86%
C Smith - 6 of 7 - 86%
R Smith - 3 of 3 - 100%

In fact, as a team we are 23 of 27 for 85% on the second shot. If only we could shoot those first.

Peyton Siva is one of 20 finalists for the Bob Cousy Collegiate Point Guard of the Year Award. Here's the list:

Pierre Jackson, Baylor
Shabazz Napier, UConn
Ray McCallum, Detroit
Seth Curry, Duke
Erving Walker, Florida
Scott Machado, Iona
Casper Ware, Long Beach State
Peyton Siva, Louisville
Trey Burke, Michigan
Dee Bost, Mississippi State
Phil Pressey, Missouri
Kendall Marshall, North Carolina
Aaron Craft, Ohio State
D.J. Cooper, Ohio
Zack Rosen, Pennsylvania
Ashton Gibbs, Pittsburgh
Scoop Jardine, Syracuse
Damian Lillard, Weber State
Jordan Taylor, Wisconsin
Tu Holloway, Xavier

Class of 2013 commit Kyle Bolin (QB/Lex Cath) has his junior highlight video ready for viewing:

And if you're Jonesin' for more 2013 commit videos, here's Anton Gill for the basketball crowd:

Junior right-hander Justin Amlung was named Big East preseason Pitcher of the Year on Wednesday. Amlung (who redshirted a year) flirted with signing with the Cincinnati Reds during the offseason, but ultimately chose to return to U of L for another season.

Senior outfielder Stewart Ijames was a preseason All-Big East honoree for the third time in his career.

The Cardinals, as a team, were picked to finish second in the Big East in 2012.

Recent linebacker commit James Burgess Jr. will reportedly enroll at U of L this month and be good to go for spring ball. That's always a huge head start.

Apparently Baron Davis is dealing with a rather serious injury.

If you have a free hour or so and are in a position where your uncontrollable laughter will go mostly unjudged, I highly suggest checking out 50 best sports GIF's of 2011.

DaMarcus Smith has not yet enrolled at Western Kentucky, but that is his intention at the moment. If it happens, big get for the 'Tops.

Don't listen to Brandon Bender, kids.

West Virginia just beat Clemson 70-33 in the Orange Bowl. It could have been worse.

I'm not sure if I should be proud because it's the Big East walloping on the ACC again. Angry because the Mountaineers are heading to the Big 12. Depressed because that could have been us. Or still just pissed off at Uconn, because...dammit, UConn.

Actually, this is my only response to every aspect of the Orange Bowl:

Four-star Miami Norland linebacker Keith Brown is officially no longer committed to Illinois. He'll choose between the Illini, Louisville and Miami on Saturday.

This could end up being a ridiculous recruiting week.

There are now people in some parts of the country who were born in 1998 and can obtain a driver's license. If they weren't even alive to witness Titanic shatter every box office record imaginable, I don't want 'em on my streets. I don't want 'em anywhere near my streets.

You'll never truly know what love is, low-riding 14-year-olds.

Jefferson County state senator Tim Shaughnessy has tacked a provision onto a bill that would require the University of Kentucky and Louisville to play ever season in men’s basketball and football.

This likely comes in response to talk that, if the SEC expands to a 9-game schedule, it might seek to make some other arrangement with the yearly U of L rivalry game. And UK hoops coach John Calipari polled fans last month on which game they might be able to live without on the UK schedule, including U of L on the list.

But I’ve heard no real move toward stopping the series from UK in either sport, and U of L athletic director Tom Jurich has told me point-blank that U of L has no interest in discontinuing the series in either sport.

So I don’t know that the law is necessary, and I doubt the provision gets much support.

But I’m in agreement with its content — the two should play every year. Let’s hope it doesn’t ever (again) take action from government to help bring it about.

If we're just tacking stuff onto bills now, can we throw the whole "RUSS" on the back of Russ Smith's jersey thing somewhere? Look for a bill that's centered around a water issue. No one reads that shit. Trust me, I know people.

Louisville hosts Kentucky in football in 240 days.

Whiffed on it yesterday, but the Louisville women improved to 2-0 in the Big East and 13-2 overall by beating Marquette 70-53 on Tuesday. Shoni Schimmel led the way with 17 points while Bria Smith added 16.

The Kerry Rhodes on Dancing with the Stars produced another great Titus photoshop, and I'm never not going to post those.

And finally, Samardo Samuels was in the news on Wednesday for a fairly embarrassing reason. It appears the big man could not locate his passport yesterday, which wouldn't have been a big deal if the Cleveland Cavaliers - the team he plays for - hadn't been playing in Toronto that night.

"I'm going to chalk it up to youth and inexperience," Scott said. "Hopefully he learned his lesson and it never happens again."

The travel snafu marks the latest problem in a trying two weeks for Samuels. Scott criticized the 6-9, 260-pounder for arriving at training camp out of shape and sat him for the season opener. Samuels responded with a 17-point effort in the Dec. 28 win at Detroit, but he's has had three sub-par games in the past week.

By the time he failed to box out Charlotte's Byron Mullens, allowing him a third-quarter offensive rebound, Scott had seen enough. The coach was asked whether his knowledge of Samuels' travel issues prompted him to play Ryan Hollins in the fourth quarter as a warm-up for the Raptors game.

"It would seem that way, huh?" said Scott, who's known for weeks about the missing document. "But it wasn't. I just wasn't happy with the way [Samuels] was playing. ... I just didn't think his head was in the game."

Classic Sam.