Rick Pitino

--Wayne Blackshear is physially healthy, but he's still completely out of shape. Was hoping to have him ready to play by the DePaul game, but getting him back into shape has proven harder than he thought it would be.

--The schedule in the Big East usually dictates where teams struggle and where they have success, and that's what we've seen with West Virginia this year. They're a very good team that has lost some games recently to other good teams.

--Kevin Jones is the best offensive rebounder in the country. He has a tremendous mid-range game and can also make the three. He's very long and will present a number of problems for us. Notre Dame held him in check by slowing the game down and limiting his touches.

--Deniz Kilicili's hook shot is very good and very difficult to defend.

--This will probably be the last time we go to Morgantown. It's a very difficult place to play, but we've always enjoyed going into hostile environments.

--They really need this game, but that's something we're going to hear just about every game for the rest of the season.

--Kyle always leads by example, he's not a vocal leader. The vocal stuff is left more to Peyton Siva.

--Hasn't seen any difference in this team from when they were 12-0, to when they were on the brief losing streak, to now.

--We're winning now because we've been able to keep a healthy team and practice together consistently. The players are all improving because of the increased practice time. We've also done a much better job from the free-throw line.

--Very excited about the addition of Memphis to the Big East. It really helps the rivalry with Louisville. They fit the culture of the Big East. They're an inner-city sports program with a focus on basketball.

--The Big East is going to be different, but it's still going to be great.

--Always thought Memphis and Temple were the two logical additions to help the Big East, and he still thinks that.

--John Marinatto has done a tremendous job getting the football schools out West and now strengthening the conference from a basketball standpoint.

--Admires South Florida for being selfless and allowing UCF to come in and strengthen the league.

--Can't say anything about Louisville's future in the Big East, because he knows it's not up to him. Obviously, he's a Big East guy and he would prefer to stay in the Big East and honor Dave Gavitt's dream, but he knows he doesn't have a say.

--Has never been asked a question by a recruit about Louisville's conference affiliation, and none of the assistants have either. That's the wild thing.

--"Loyalty means a great deal to me, and the Big East gave Louisville a monumental opportunity." Louisville is a top eight basketball program without question, but the big thing they were missing before was a major conference affiliation. The Big East changed all that.

--Really likes the way we're playing, the way we're practicing and how much fun the guys are having right now. We went double sessions yesterday and no one was tired, and that's all because of the attitudes of our players.

--We have seven really tough games left, but we're playing very good basketball right now. We still need to work on our rebounding, and cut down on our turnovers. The turnovers we're making aren't good turnovers, they're unforced turnovers.

--We all see Russ as a funny, jovial guy, but he's a tough kid. He grew up in a tough environment, but even though he's 160-165 lbs, he's very tough.

--Peyton Siva is one of the nicest guys he's ever coached. Kyle is a tremendous person, Gorgui is so much fun to be around, so is Swop...all 13 are terrific guys and coaching them is so fun.

--Ends by saying, "see you in Morgantown for those not afraid to come."

I must admit, a single fan base getting a word to trend on a dictionary website is awfully impressive...and hilarious.

Not sure I could love the fact that "irregardless" is the other recent trend any more.

Shirt of the week: "Envy Our Disposition, Irregardless Of Our Past."

Congrats to all these guys.

RELEASE:

Twenty-two student-athletes from the Louisville football team were named to the 2012 BIG EAST All-Academic Football Team, the conference office announced on Friday.

Senior placekicker Chris Philpott (Manasquan, N.Y.) finished his Louisville career as a three-time BIG EAST All-Academic team member.

In addition, senior OL John Clark, junior FB Bo Eggers, sophomore WR Stephen Goodwin, junior TE Nate Nord, junior QB Will Stein and junior WR Demarcus Topp were recognized on the conference's All-Academic football team for the second time in their careers.

Rounding out Louisville contingent of honorees as first-time All-Academic football team members were freshmen QB Jerry Arlinghaus, Teddy Bridgewater and Luke Brohm. Senior WR Lincoln Carr, red-shirt freshmen LS Grant Donovan, junior FB Nick Heuser, senior OT Ryan Kessling, freshman OT Ryan Mack, freshman S Calvin Pryor, red-shirt freshman OG Jake Smith, freshman OL Josh Stearns, sophomore OL Chris Walker, freshman placekicker John Wallace, sophomore LB Alex Witcpalek and junior LB Christopher Zelli.

To be nominated, a player must have a cumulative grade-point index of at least 3.0 and completed a minimum of two semesters of academic work.

The 2012 Louisville team begins Spring practice on March 21 and concludes with the annual Spring game on April 14 at 1 p.m.

LOUISVILLE (22)

Jerry Arlinghaus Fr. QB Covington, Ky. Physics
Teddy Bridgewater Fr. QB Miami, Fla. Sport Administration
Lucas Brohm Fr. QB Louisville, Ky. Undecided
Lincoln Carr Sr. WR Crestwood, Ky. Marketing
John Clark Sr. OL Louisville, Ky. Justice Administration
Grant Donovan Fr. LS Louisville, Ky. Sport Administration
Herbert Eggers Jr. FB Louisville, Ky. Political Science
Stephen Goodwin So. WR Louisville, Ky. Accounting
Nick Heuser Jr. FB Louisville, Ky. Marketing
Ryan Kessling Sr. OL Tallahassee, Fla. Justice Administration
Ryan Mack Fr. OL Memphis, Tenn. Undecided
Nathan Nord Jr. TE Boca Raton, Fla. Exercise Science
Chris Philpott Sr. K Atlanta, Ga. Communication
Calvin Pryor Fr. S Port St. Joe, Fla. Communication
Will Stein Jr. QB Louisville, Ky. Sport Administration
Jacob Smith RFr. OL Jacksonville, Ala. Undecided
Josh Sterns Fr. OL Louisville, Ky. Justice Administration
Demarcus Topp Jr. WR Paducah, Ky. Management
Christopher Walker So. OL Louisville, Ky. Marketing
John Wallace RFr. P/K Cecila, Ky. Pre Engineering
Alex Witcpalek So. LB Oswego, Ill. Sport Administration
Christopher Zelli Jr. LB Jeffersonville, Ind. Political Science

Teddy Bridgewater: Anndd he can study (Boobie Miles uncle voice).

Will, thoughts?

Agreed.

Can't get enough of this girl.

(Sanchez doesn't play for the Giants).

Apparently this is "Postgame Gorgs with a giant bag of gummy bears hidden under his sweatshirt."...and Jon Blanchard.

Gummy Gorgs has potential.

Obviously, the big tidbit from Rick Pitino's radio show was that Wayne Blackshear has been medically cleared to play in games, but here are a couple of other notes:

--He spent a great deal of time praising the Big East's addition of Memphis and the conference as a whole. I'm sure you can fill in the blanks at this point.

--Says Russ Smith is so bad in practice that if you watched you wouldn't understand why he ever plays in games.

--He was asked what Gorgui has been doing differently in recent weeks to stay out of foul trouble and said that he'd rather not answer.

--Said the same things about Angel and Zach that he's been saying for weeks (both are going to be great, both are getting better, both are terrible passers).

And that was about it.

Kind of a cool moment for me last night as the column I wrote about Duke/North Carolina was on the top of the Twitter national news feed both during and immediately after the game.

You'd think the fact that a piece about Louis Vuitton condoms was just three stories down would dampen my excitement, and, yeah, you'd be right because it kind of did.

Congratulations to Jerry Smith who was named and NBDL All-Star earlier this week. Jerry heads into the break averaging 17.7 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.0 assists for the Springfield Armor.

It appears West Virginia and the Big East are nearing a settlement that will allow the Mountaineers to leave for the Big 12 in all sports for the 2012-13 season.

Obviously, the move would leave the Big East with just seven members for the 2012 football season. One of the proposed resolutions to this problem is reportedly having Syracuse and Rutgers play each other twice. I'm not entirely sure how that proposal came to me (proximity, I assume), but it's...kind of hilarious.

It'll be interesting to see if the league can find a way to get Boise State or someone else on board right away to get back to eight teams.

Follow-up story: This would greatly increase the likelihood of Louisville going from being picked last before the season to preseason favorite in just one year.

Double follow-up story: Charlie Strong.

Charles Dickens writing about the time he spent in Louisville in 1842. He's remarkably lucid and Internet-savvy for someone his age.

Deniz Kilicili as Mr. Larson from Happy Gilmore:

Also, this is Kilicili's Twitter avatar:

Pretty sure he's familiar with the Mountaineer comparisons.

Here's a professional tip for the fellas: If you have an engaged female friend, you can pretty much guilt trip her into doing anything for you simply by saying, "you're gonna be a wife soon."

Does it make you a bad person? Oh, absolutely. But if you're already a bad person, why go to the trouble of getting off the couch to get a paper towel when there's a far easier solution to the issue right there?

Follow-up note: This DOES NOT work after the woman gets married. In fact, it's pretty much the exact opposite. When you do see her - which will be increasingly rare - she's not going to do anything for anyone in the room with a penis.

The words above are indisputable.

Rivals came out with its new top 250 for the class of 2013, and both Trinity's James Quick (194) and Jason Hatcher (221) made the cut. Trinity's Ryan White and Louisville commit Kyle Bolin (Lex Cath) fell out of the rankings.

Eric Wood sums up my thoughts quite well:

It's not just hard to believe, it's inaccurate.

Matt Hayes of the Sporting News joins the crowd of those who believe Louisville will eventually head to the Big 12.

Eventually, the Big 12 will move beyond 10 teams and add Louisville. A BCS source close to the situation told Sporting News the Big 12 is waiting for West Virginia's lawsuit with the Big East to be resolved before moving forward. Despite the Big 12's public comments, it doesn't want to be the only major conference without a championship game-and doesn't want to go much longer without the benefit of revenue the game brings.

I'm not willing to go so far as to say "it's going to happen," because God knows we've seen how quickly things can change, but I'm almost positive that right now the plan is definitely for it to happen.

Bob Huggins was pretty down today in the wake of his team's tough loss to Notre Dame on Wednesday, but he did take a brief moment to talk about Louisville.

"They're good," Huggins said. "Typical of Rick's teams, they get better this time of year. They're very versatile defensively. They can press you. They can play that 2-3 zone. They're very capable of playing man. They're going to put you in a lot of odd-numbered situations because of how well they play the pick and roll."

Jim Burr would have tossed Herb Pope for headbutting last night if Pope didn't suck at headbutting.

Pitino still wants Temple in the Big East. I still want Florida. There's only room enough for one of us in this town.

Best of luck to the 25th-ranked U of L softball team, which will open its season at a tournament in Miami on Friday.

Be careful who you ask to play through the next time you're on the golf course.

A very interesting story on Griffin Uhl, a Division-I football prospect who goes to a high school where they don't play football. Apparently Louisville is among the schools that have expressed interest.

Change the exclamation point to an interrobang and I'm buying 50:

Louisville is back in ESPN's power rankings at No. 22.

Some good stuff on Louisville signee Kevin Houchins.

"Not too many people get this opportunity," Houchins said.

Houchins (6-0, 180) thanked his parents and joked, "They raised a good son."

He picked Louisville over Cincinnati, Toledo, Akron, Miami of Ohio, Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan.

Houchins committed to the Cardinals before the season started, then hurt his knee and missed most of the season. Louisville didn't back away from its interest in the defensive back.

"That made my commitment more solid," Houchins said. "They believe in me as a player. That really sold me on Louisville."

Atwood liked that the Cardinals didn't back away.

"They showed their character by staying with him after the knee injury," Atwood said.

The rosters for this year's McDonald's All-American game were announced Thursday. Louisville commit Terry Rozier did not make the cut.

You know who else wasn't a McDonald's All-American? Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr....Hulk Hogan.

And finally, the official word on FW is out.

"He's been cleared to play in games," Pitino told SiriusXM on Thursday. "We're shooting for another week at DePaul, but I don't want to rush him.

"He's obviously going to be very good down the road and we think he'll make an impact this year, but he won't start for us. He'll be a factor, though."

A factor in me wondering where the hell my pants went.

Sweet little nugget tucked in at the end of this release about the Cards going through mat drills for a second time on Thursday.

Heading the field to stretch at 5:45 a.m., the Cardinals hit the turf for about an hour before most of the team heads to its 8 a.m. classes. Under the direction of head coach Charlie Strong and the rest of the coaching staff, the Cardinals continue to prepare for what hopes be a promising season.

After getting the first session done last Wednesday, the Cardinals were better prepared for what they faced this time. The drills were quicker with less mistakes, which pleased Strong.

"The guys are working hard," said Strong. "They are learning what it's going to take to win another championship, so they are giving good effort. We have a long road ahead of us, but I like the direction we are headed."

Louisville works out Monday-Friday in the weight room and in the practice facility, lifting weights, running and doing other work to prepare them for the start of a new season.

The Cardinals will be back in action next Wednesday at 5:45 a.m. Louisville starts spring practice on March 21. Strong also announced that the first three practices will be open to the public (March 21, March 23, March 24).

If the Cards are still alive and kicking in the NCAA Tournament, then yeah, that week could have potential.

Maybe Charlie will even be wearing a Santa hat. No, no, it's too much, it's too much.

Or...Tim McGraw? Yeah, I can't remember the dad's name.

Great story from my man, your man, our man, Pat Doney of WDRB.

Didn't think I could be a bigger Boo fan before this, but that is pretty tremendous.