In a big pick up for the bouncing ball Cards, Rick and Richard Pitino got a commitment from Indianapolis North Lawrence Center Stephen Van Treese last night.

 Jody Demling reports the full story and it looks like the 2009 class is rounding into for nicely with Van Treese (6'9" 220) as the big, Rakeem Buckles as a scoring swing player, sharp-shooter Mike Marra, and road-runner point guard Peyton Siva. 

Van Treese is a nice insurance policy if Samardo goes one and done.  If he does stay, the depth on the '09-'10 team would be substantial and leave us in great position to make a run ath the National Title.

OK, take it easy.  Come off that ledge.  This is not the end of the world. 

I know you've had a bad day, we all did.  What we witnessed today was a passing, a passing of passing, if you will.  Nobody died, it was just our passing game that passed, or was it?

What we witnessed today was probably the worst display of quarterbacking in Papa John's Cardinal Stadium History.  Our past decade has been filled with exhibitions of the art of quarterbacking by a procession of NFLqb's almost unmatched in the college football landscape.  From Chris Redman to Dave Ragone to Stefan Lefors to Brian Bhrom we were blessed to have the chance of seeing how the position should be played, and what we saw today was not how the quarterback position should be played, we all know that. 

Hey Hunter, just so you know, throwing lightning bolts makes you Zeus, not a quarterback!

But Hunter's bad day doesn't mean he's the end of an era.  The backfield and receiving corp today that Hunter had to work with was probably the thinnest ever.  Can anyone remember a weaker and less experienced group than the group of rookies we had playing today.  Along with Hunter starting his first game as a starting quarterback, we had 2 new tailbacks, 1 new fullback, 3 new recievers, and 2 new tight ends.  When was the last time we went into a game, let alone a season, with no clear returning starter at any skill position on offense?  Cause I sure as hell can't remember. 

But we've got to forget about the past because as bad as everything was today, there were some bright spots for the future, and that's why we can't all go wiggin' out over this loss. 

Doug Beaumont and Josh Chichester showed us something today...heart.  Even Victor Anderson a little bit as too.  Some of you may disagree, but the play calling was actually very solid by Jeff Brohm today.  If you watch a replay of the game with slo-mo you'll see that lots, if not most all, of the major mistakes were due to bad execution and not bad schemes.  I'm not saying he called a perfect game today, but the playcalling put our guys in position to make plays, it's just that no one did.

This group can get better, lots better.  It may not be soon but these guys can get there, it'll just take some time.  The defense will hold their own as long as English is in charge.   What we saw today by-no-means minimizes the potential of individual players or this team as a whole. What it may have shown us though that it could be anywhere from a few games to an entire season before this squad gels.  For Hunter's sake he'd better do his best to make it happen sooner rather than later or Kragthorpe might have to experiment with a younger option at his position.

Hang tough Card Nation, don't go wiggin' out...

...because after watching Bilal jog around like he did today, we all know that Mike has been wiggin' out enough for the rest of us.

More games for their "former" or "future" team next year? 

I think that with all the wierdness surrounding the entirity of U of L Sports at this time that we should have some fun with it.  Feel free to add any others to this list. 

The only criteria I used was that there must be a decenct chance that they play exactly zero games this upcoming season and there must be an equal  chance for them to play most all of their team's games in the upcoming seasons.

And so the plot thickens.  The CJ is reporting good news for the CC's favorite son. None other than Donut Dunkin' Derrick Caracter has wiggled his way back into Rick's good-ish graces and may ultimately be competing with Samardo Samuels for PT on our Final Four contending hoop squad. 

I for one am glad DC apparently has weaseled his way back into Pitinoland

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080715/SPORTS02/80715041

Let's hope Mike's head doesn't explode!

So I had a chance happening today, one that I would have never expected to happen.  It's not like I met the Pope or ran into Tom Cruise, but I met a minor celebrity  this morning, one who had much insight into an event that rocked the friends of CardChronicle to the core this past football season, so I thought I'd pass it along

As we all know UConn football player Larry Taylor was recently voted the Least Cool Person of 2007-2008.  He recieved this honor due to an episode of blatant cheating...or was it? 

This morning, I met Louisvillian Desi Cullen who is a kicker/punter of the same UConn football team.  He, as a special teamer, informed me that Taylor was one of his best friends on the team and had told him the real story about the Unfairest Catch.

According to Cullen, Taylor was approached earlier in the game by the backjudge referee after a fair catch he made earlier in the game.  At that point the referee told him that his fair catch signal was incomplete and that he needed to wave his hand back and forth to make the fair catch count.  Taylor was told that if he didn't make a proper signal, no whistle would be blown and the play would continue.

With that in mind, Taylor decided to test this referee on the next punt.  So, with Bilal Powell barrelling down on him, he threw up one hand and waved to the crowd.  Powell, seeing the exact same signal that was called a fair catch earlier in the game stopped short, for fear of making contact and drawing a penalty. 

After hearing this story I am starting to feel like Taylor may be a bit cooler than we previously believed and it may actually be the Ref who deserves the vengence of Cardinal Nation.  What I'm seeing in the story is that the Ref, not Taylor is the one who screwed us over.  The ref is the one who changed the rules of the game and only informed one player. 

Taylor may be a little uncool, for taking advantage of this inadvertant rule change, but he was only doing what he was told to do.  The referee on the other hand really screwed us over.  By calling the play one way then calling the same action another way later in the game, he is the one who put us at the disadvantage.  Unless he went up to Coach K after the first bogus fair catch and informed him that he had screwed up and was not going to do it again, he gave Taylor a huge advantage, that if he had to take.

I still think Taylor blows hard, its just that the Ref may have been the one who taught him how to suck the chrome off the provberbial trailer hitch.

It probably was wierd for UK fans to see their Mr. Wildcat in Freedom Hall during One Shining Moment last night...but what about the travesty that UNC fans had to endure.

Their Coach, Roy Freakin' Williams showed up to the National Championship game with a giant Jayhawk Logo on his chest.  

Could you imagine the backlash if UK knocked us out of the final four and Pitino showed up to the championship with a WildCat Logo beaming from his lapel...

What would do you think would happen if Slick
Rick pulled a stunt like that aound here?

Here's my best guess.

Best case scenario: U of L Fans ream him on his last call-in show of the season and then picket the athletic office demanding he be fired.

Worst Case Scenario:  His house would be burned to the ground before his plane landed back here in Louisville.  A rowdy crowd of Cardinal fans meet him at the airport and slash the tires to his limo. He's then tarred, feathered (with red cardinal feathers), and made to walk barefoot all the way back to lexington where he is hung by his toes outside the Wildcat Lodge while the mob beats him like a pinata.  Richard Pitino is made new head coach!

just my 2 cents, what yours?

OK, so apparently there is this stat out there called the PASE - Performance Against Seed Expectations - that evaluates a coach/team/conference in how well they live up to or exceed tournament expectations according to their seeding (ie. do you lose games that you should win a la Bill Self or are you a cinderella that makes a run every time you get to the Big Dance).  

This assumes that a #1 seed should always beat a #2, #3 always should beat a #4, and a #5 should always beat a #12.  Or in other words, a #2 should never beat a #1, etc.  

So apparently someone over at the WWL compiled that stat for this tourney and discovered that due to Pitino's PASE of +.740 (meaning he averages getting .740 more wins than expected each tourney) No one, not even UNC, can touch us.

Anyways here's the story...and one more reason to love that we have The Biggest Rick at the party!

http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/insider/news/story?id=3299189

Las Vegas Sports Consultants has released this week's version of its Top 30, a poll based on LVSC's power ratings and certainly one that varies greatly with the national rankings you see.

We're #7 in this week's LVSC poll.

We may not get respect from people who make money talking about (#18) or coaching (#23) college basketball...

But we are getting respect from the guys make money by actually knowing about college b-ball.

check it out

http://www.vegasinsider.com/college-basketball/story.cfm/story/678264

I heard a new rumor tonight and I think its worth investigating.

The rumor was that according to people (i.e. BIG $$ BOOSTERS) who regularly travel with Jurich to away games, said that after the NC State game Jurich did not immediately return to Louisville with the rest of the group.

Instead, they say that Jurich actually went somewhere in Florida to recruit a possible new coach.  I don't know the exact details, and this may all be a total fabrication, but WOW!  The story was that Jurich has been more dismayed about the off field problems and other scuttlebutt than the actual on field problems.

What if this is true?

How could he congratulate Kragthorpe after the win then go look for someone to replace him?  

After so many schools came after Pertino during the season, how could he do the same to another coach?

What would it take for him to dump Kragthorpe before the season is over?  

Who is he going after?

Could he really steal a big name co-ordinator like Jimbo Fisher (FSU) or Charlie Strong (UF)?

What does Go Cards Baby think about all of this?

I was one of the MANY loyal fans who made the trek down to Carter-Finley stadium this weekend and I'm so glad to have been rewarded with such a solid performance by our beloveed Cards.

The Ville fans were awesome.  We obviously annoyed the Fudge Pack faithful and actually helped our boys this time.  Numerous times Rod Council turned to us and asked for our help and I'm proud to say the the 5000+ Cardfans in attendance made it seem like there was 20000.

Whenever the D needed a big stop at our end or the field the entire crowd got on their feet and (along with the pressure from the front 7) forced the NC State QB into mistakes.  I don't think that it was a coincidence both interceptions happened right in front of the U of L cheering section.

I said last week that the time for booing, bitching, and complaining has past.  This weekend proved to me that with a little positive reinforcement from our fans this squad can grow into a winner.  They need us much more than we need them.

p.s. The tailgate was a joke compared to Papa's.  There was a shooting at their tailgate 3 years ago apparently so everyone now has to have a permit to get a spot.  Also they wouldn't let you into the lot more than 4 hours before the game.

Hence there was no rowdy Fratters shotgunning beers at 8AM , the RVs (aka the real tailgaters) had to park in a separate lot across the street, and no one had the balls to bring a set of 45" speakers and blare AC/DC across the parking lot all afternoon.  And worst of all their spreads basically just consisted of a bucket of Bojangles Chicken and biscuits...I mean really who are they kidding.  

The only redeeming quality was that they let you head back out to your cars at halftime.  I guess they figured that if they want any fans to stick around and watch this dismal team they'd better let you go freshen up you buzz so you can survive another 30 minutes of beatdown.