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More later on the specifics of this year's game, but amazingly there are still national articles being written about this game despite every possible angle being explored just a few months ago.
ESPN's Dana O'Neil checks in with an article about What It All Means and probably the most interesting tidbit is at the end (spoiler alert):
"It's tough for a Northeast person to understand, I think," Pitino said. "We grew up with the Knicks, the Yankees, but we would never get that worked up over a game. Sports are a meaningful distraction to people there. Here, it's not a distraction. It's their life."
And then Pitino paused, realizing that his most clarifying moment was also the most puzzling.
"You know I've lived here 20 years," he said, "and I guess I still don't get it."
USA Today takes the "playing in front of parents for first time" angle on Gorgui, a week too late to affect Gorgui's vote in the dreaded Teddy v. Gorgui thing that we'd all just as soon forget so I'm glad I brought it up:
Lesley Thomas said Dieng sent her a text message that said, "I have never been this excited in my whole life."
"We all cried," Lesley Thomas said. "It made our Christmas. We were blessed to be able to do it. My little ones (Luke, Clayton) cannot wait to meet his parents. Gorgui is part of us.
Lesley and Scott Thomas, along with sons Luke and Clayton, will be making the trip to Louisville this weekend to meet Dieng's parents.
"I know I am going to be crying a lot, when I see [Dieng] come out and see his mom and papa there," Lesley Thomas said. "It will be tears of joy. Gorgui is not an investment. To us, he is our family. And we will be forever attached. God sends people in our lives. And we are in theirs. We always say, everything happens for a reason."
Bleacher Report does its thing. Surprisingly, they had trouble finding a Louisville player who did anything overtly villainous.
The Courier-Journal follows up that post about Strong's demands Louisville become more like Tennessee with the next installment of its Thought Experiment Series, a boring, non-alcoholic egg nog induced hallucination by the sports editor. I guess I get it, if you are going for "what your eldest uncle thinks it means to Tweeter something."
And finally the best writer the CJ employed in 2012, Eric Crawford, takes advantage of "the internet" to write a long, detailed look at Gorgui Dieng's impact on the game.
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Luke Winn says Louisville will win it all in 2013.