Despite the fact that it made her father - a Kentucky fan - upset, Claire's still glowing over Saturday's victory. She's far less enthusiastic about conference realignment talk.
With nearly all eyes focused on conference realignment or still glazed over after Saturday's football victory over Kentucky, Rick Pitino and his staff have quietly been shuffling all over the country on a recruiting blitz.
Pitino spent this afternoon in Chicago watching Jabari Parker, the player most consider to be No. 1 in the class of 2013. This a day after assistant Kevin Keatts was in West Virginia to check out the top player in the class of 2014, Huntington Prep's Andrew Wiggins. Checking out Wiggins also gave Keatts the chance to get a look at teammates Elijah Macon (2012) and Xavier Rathan-Mayes (2013).
Additionally, Pitino and assistant Wyking Jones paid an in-house visit to 2012 center Robert Upshaw on Sunday. The Cards are one of seven finalists for the seven-footer from Cali.
Expect John Calipari to do everything listed above at some point over the next week. Oh, Calipari paid Gary Harris an in-house visit last night.
Carmody's Cafe gets into the realignment spirit by releasing its McConference Value Menu.
In case you were wondering if Elvis Dumervil is still cool as hell, the answer is yes.
On Sunday, about an hour and a half before the Broncos game started, a white, stretch Krystal Koach Hummer slid into Sun Valley. Limos don't slip into this neighborhood of housing projects. Not even on home game days, when all manner of party cartwheels and 70-some thousand people descend upon the stadium a little more than a half mile north. The limo hugs Decatur Street until it reaches the Sun Valley Youth Center, where, in the back parking lot, a group of children is going bonkers. The limo is for them. It was donated by A Five Star Limousine and sent by Broncos defensive end Elvis Dumervil, who also got the nine kids jerseys and seats at the game. Seven rows from the field. Dumervil did the same thing for another group of Sun Valley Youth Center kids during the season opener against the Raiders. Let's see. A coach, a gown and a ball. I believe that gives us the first 260-pound fairy godmother nicknamed Doom. Dumervil does this every home game with different groups of children. He started the practice last year, says radio personality Kathy Lee, a friend of his. She helps Dumervil organize his charitable work and asked Red Rocks Church in Golden for help finding children. The church called Kris Rollerson, who runs the Sun Valley Youth Center.
Very, very cool stuff from a guy who should always be one of the most beloved Cardinals ever.
Louisville makes a surprising leap from last all the way up to third in the ESPN Big East power rankings.
3. Louisville (2-1). Beating in-state rival Kentucky for the first time in five years with an impressive performance from offense and defense boosts the Cardinals out of the basement. Yes, they lost to FIU -- but the Panthers are now receiving votes in both polls. That is a solid team.
SBN's Big east bloggers are slightly more cautious, placing the Cards at No. 5. Unlike ESPN, the bloggers have South Florida as the league's top dog.
Former U of L commit Negus Webster-Chan is down to Iowa State and, you guessed it, perennial Southern power Missouri.
Ahem.
Haven't done that in a while. Feels...not great.
Dan McDonnell's recruiting class of 2011 is rated as the 11th-best in the country by Collegiate Baseball newspaper. It's the highest-ranked class in the history of the program.
Coming off a 4-0 thrashing of Butler over the weekend, the once-beaten Louisville soccer team sits at No. 5 in the country according to this set of rankings.
Creighton's No. 1? Don't usually think of soccer when I'm thinking about the Valley. Usually think of the Interlude Dance at Northern Iowa.
The soccer Cards face Ohio State in Columbus tomorrow night at 7 p.m.
Florida International knocked off UCF 17-10 last Friday night despite star T.Y. Hilton (shudder) getting injured in the second quarter. The Golden Panthers are now receiving votes in both polls.
I told you that loss is going to look much better in late November than we ever could have imagined on Sept. 9. Plus, it's really going to help our RPI and potential seeding.
According to a tweet from the four letter network, the three highest-rated ESPN Thursday night college football games of all-time are:
1. Louisville/West Virginia (2006)
2. USC/Oregon State (2008)
3. Louisville/Rutgers (2006)
Kind of cool.
And finally, you can catch video of Charlie Strong's weekly press conference right here.