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What to read while resisting the urge to write a satirical Kragthorpe vs. Wannstedt post

By Mike Rutherford

Technically it's still "football season," and the next technical "football game" is Saturday against Pittsburgh. If you're looking to keep up with everything Pitt during "game week," then you should find your way over to Pitt Blather, the best Panther blog on the net.

Brendon Desrochers of SNY.tv is breaking down each of the 16 Big East teams' schedules in a four-part series. Part I and Part II are already out, and Desrochers believes U of L will play the toughest non-con schedule in the league, and has the fifth toughest Big East slate.

Outlook: Rick Pitino has never been one to duck non-conference opponents and, with this team, why would he anyway? This winter's schedule has a distinctly western feel with games against UNLV, BYU and New Mexico State, all NCAA teams a year ago. BYU and NMSU remain favorites to win their conferences, while UNLV may fall off a bit. If Louisville does defeat BYU in Las Vegas, the Cards are likely to play North Carolina in the Las Vegas Invitational Final. UNC and Memphis (the Tigers face Georgetown) are a pair of interesting tests for the two teams expected to head the Big East. Sandwiched between seven games at Freedom Hall is a Louisville trip to Indianapolis to play a Purdue team that is expected to fight for an NCAA Tournament berth. As always, the game to circle on Louisville's schedule is the matchup with Kentucky. This one is at Rupp Arena and marks a rematch of sorts, as former Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie takes on Pitino and the Louisville team his Aggies knocked out of the NCAA's in a March thriller. Louisville should be a standard-bearer for the conference this year, so a big splash out of conference would help the entire league.

The Big East did a good job to make sure that neither Georgetown nor Louisville had a distinct schedule advantage. Rick Pitino would argue that having to play Marquette and Georgetown (two teams who are usually joined to Louisville as the preseason top three in the league) is unfair, but how much of a difference is there between Marquette and Syracuse, a team the Hoyas play twice? Pitino also complained about having to travel to Connecticut, Providence and Pittsburgh for Louisville's only encounter with those teams, but Georgetown also heads to Providence and Pittsburgh. To put it in perspective, Louisville and Georgetown only differ in three road opponents this season. The Cardinals get Seton Hall, USF and UConn; the Hoyas travel to Syracuse, St. John's and West Virginia. Which would you say is tougher?

According to Rivals.com, Central Catholic High School (Pittsburgh) quarterback Tino Sunseri is starting to look at other schools again. Sunseri became Steve Kragthorpe's first commitment when he verballed to Louisville on May 18. Fantastic.

Big East commish Mike Tranghese has punished the world's worst referee, but won't elaborate on what the penalty entailed.

The NCAA is instituting a no tolerance policy on foul language this season. If a curse word is uttered by a coach or player, then a technical fouls is going to immediately be called. I think I might drive all the way to Lubbock if it means I get to hear Bobby Knight say "gosh dangit" with a straight face.

Congrats to former Cardinal great Wiley Brown, who landed the head coaching job at IU Southeast this week.

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