What is your most valued piece of UofL memorabilia?

Watching them tonight against Syracuse and noticing how more basketball IQ they have than Louisville. It's night and day.

They take advantage of the Syracuse zone instead of being flummoxed by it. They execute and they get open shots. They dont dribble around forcing drives against the zone.

The last Cards team that had that good a IQ was the championship team in 2013.

Louisville Women repeat as ACC regular season champs. Let’s hope they can repeat as tournament champs as well.

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Preliminary notifications have been sent out to representatives of both Arizona basketball coach Sean Miller and LSU basketball coach Will Wade that they will be subpoenaed for the April 22 federal basketball corruption trial, multiple sources told Yahoo Sports. These notifications are essentially a courtesy to avoid a public spectacle for the coaches, like getting served in the middle of a game or a practice.

The impending subpoenas mark a potentially dynamic development in the college basketball corruption case. It creates the potential of two high-profile head coaches testifying in federal court about the granular detail of the recruiting underworld – something that never manifested in the initial federal trial last fall. It raises thorny questions for the public universities that employ them, as both the optics of potentially testifying in federal court about basketball recruiting and potential answers that could be given under oath will be a likely cause of consternation for Arizona and LSU administrators.



https://www.google.com/amp/s/sports...federal-hoops-corruption-trial-180149786.html

Here is more evidence that Churchill Down's Historical Racing Machines (slots) are infusing money into horse racing in Kentucky. Increased purses attract horsemen who then are more apt to stable their horses at Churchill Downs which has economic impacts on the city.

Unfortunately our Governor will probably just shrug this off as a drop in the bucket, just like he has responded when asked about allowing for sports gaming or casino gaming to be allowed in Kentucky.


Historical Racing Machines Supercharge Churchill Downs Spring Meet Purses
SPONSORED BY:

by Press Release | 02.28.2019 | 10:26am



Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.


Record prize money for horsemen will be distributed at Churchill Downs' 145th Spring Meet thanks to early returns from state-of-the-art historical racing machines at Derby City Gaming.

The first condition book, which covers the first half of the 38-day Spring Meet at the Louisville, Ky., track, was released Wednesday, and purses for the 189 offered races total $20.1 million – an unprecedented 46 percent increase from last spring's $13.7 million. The daily average is $1,056,842 compared to $722,579 in 2018, or $106,243 per race versus $72,640. All purses include prize money from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund.

Purses for all six days of racing on Derby Week (April 27-May 4) have been supercharged. In years past, only the purses on Oaks and Derby days were boosted. Maiden special weight races will be $100,000. Allowance races will range from $103,000 to $110,000. Total purses on Oaks Day will exceed $3.6 million, and Derby Day prize money will be worth a record $6.9 million.

After Derby Week, maiden special weight races will be worth $85,000 (up from $53,000 in 2018), and allowance races will range from $87,000 to $94,000 (up from $55,000 to $61,000 in 2018). The daily prize money post-Derby Week will average $525,308 compared to $356,769 in 2018, or $55,975 per race versus $38,016 a year ago.

In a change from last year, the winner's share of the purse in all overnight races will be 56 percent (previously 60 percent) and 1.5 percent of the purse will be distributed to the sixth- through last-place finishers (previously 0.5 percent) to incentivize starts and reward owners who run their horses.


More than $30 million in total prize money – $12 million in stakes races and another $18 million in overnight races – is expected to be offered during this year's Spring Meet. Last year, total purses paid during the 372-race Spring Meet was $22.2 million.

“This is such an exciting time to be a part of Kentucky racing,” said Churchill Downs Racetrack President Kevin Flanery. “Our investment into Derby City Gaming, which opened just five months ago, continues to pay immediate dividends to Kentucky horsemen. We have reinforced our Derby Week festival concept, solidified our lucrative stakes program and tremendously strengthened our overnight racing product. We truly believe this growth and methodology will benefit all owners, trainers and jockeys that participate at Churchill Downs and make for an extremely exciting and competitive meet.”

With 75 total racing dates in 2019, Churchill Downs will offer more racing opportunities for horsemen than any other racetrack in Kentucky and increase its purses with more than an additional $10 million as a result of handle generated by Derby City Gaming's initial year of operation. The $65-million facility opened in mid-September at nearby 4520 Poplar Level Road.

Earlier this year, Churchill Downs announced a record 34-race, $12.2 million Spring Meet stakes schedule that included a $1-million boost to the 145th running of the Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve (Grade 1) on Saturday, May 4, making it worth a guaranteed $3 million. Also among the 15 stakes races that received significant increases were the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1), which was raised to $1.25 million, and the Old Forester Turf Classic (G1), which was doubled to $1 million.

Stall applications for the highly-anticipated Spring Meet, which will begin Saturday, April 27, and continue through Saturday, June 29, are due Friday, March 8. The stable area will reopen Tuesday, March 19 and the first scheduled day of training is Friday, March 22.




https://www.paulickreport.com/news/...ercharges-churchill-downs-spring-meet-purses/

Top rebounders per minutes played:
Agau
Williams
Enoch
Nwora
King, Sutton tied

A two weeklong winner take all contest ended last night. Actually, it was a life or death struggle on his part. He was a clever opponent who, on one occasion, was discovered in the dishwasher. His access remains a mystery that still induces caution when opening.

I tried old traps baited with cheese (mild cheddar) and he simply took the cheese. Twice. It was now personal and quickly became a mano a rodentia contest.

I bought new classic traps and baited them with peanut butter. He disregarded one and took the peanut butter from the other. I bought newer style traps baited with an exotic and expensive bait and he cleverly ignored them for several nights. I naively thought he was gone and removed what would be best described as a mouse minefield.

But last night he bodaciously darted across the family room floor in front of Mrs. Wildcard. She declared either the mouse was going or she was going and went upstairs to watch a bedroom TV. I replaced the mouse minefield before retiring and this morning discovered his body in Trap #2.

An honorable and worthy opponent I thought as I deposited him in the trash can.

Peace

There are some impressive prospects visiting Louisville football this Sunday, almost all from the state of California. Here are some of the prospects expected to be in attendance.

Stefon Thompson
Josh Alford
Gary Bryant
Khary Crump Jr.
Gio De Leon
Makell Esteen
Justin Flowe
Ethan Garbers
Ronald Gilliam
Jared Greenfield
Destin Harston
John Humphrey
Kris Hutson
Josh Jackson
Brandon Jones
Justin Livingston
Tyson McWilliams
Justin Pinkney
Mark Redman
Keith Savage
Caine Savage
James Smith
Macen Williams
Bryce Young

will be the only starter next year from this year’s team. I think Mack is fed up with Nwora and his lack of intensity and focus defensively and on the glass.

I never thought much of his coaching while he was at Texas and actually thought Tennessee made a huge mistake when they hired him.

But, I watched them yesterday and his game plan vs PJ Washington was excellent - the big initially guarding him took away him turning to his left and the off ball mid-line defender would help and double when he turned to go right. It forced Washington to kick to shooters opposite ball side for many missed three point opportunities.

I think it’s an excellent blue print (pun intended) to beat the kitties.

ALLEN -- Early in eighth grade, more than four years before she officially signed her letter of intent, Nyah Green told her father, Quinton, that she wanted to go to Louisville. They had already made the trips out to numerous schools, weighed the pros and cons and asked the right questions, making her choice a well-thought-out one.
At the time, that wasn't enough for Quinton. He knew his daughter wouldn't waver, but he needed more. A year later, after a recruiting push from two of the best schools in the country, Quinton had his confirmation.
"What sold it for me was when she said, 'Daddy, I like Baylor and I like South Carolina, but I would always wonder, if I went to Baylor or South Carolina, what it would be like at Louisville,'" Quinton recalled. "She basically said it was her dream school."
On Wednesday, Nyah, a five-star recruit and the No. 12-prospect in the country, according to ESPN, made that dream a reality by signing with the Cardinals, putting an end to a recruiting process that started when she was in sixth grade.
"It finally happened," Nyah said from a signing day celebration at the high school's auxiliary gym, complete with red and black balloons, cupcakes and donuts. "I’ve been committed for a long time and Louisville has always felt like home. It’s where I know I wanted to be."
Playing Division I college was never Nyah's plan. As a kid, she said her focus was simply on playing and improving, not gathering the interest of recruiters. It turns out college coaches had other plans for her, starting in sixth grade. The future five-star guard was 5-foot-10 at the time. Texas offered first. Soon after, over 10 more schools would join the Longhorns in courting Nyah.
"It was weird," Nyah remembered. "Being a sixth grader, I didn't think I was different because it happened to me. I figured it must not be that different, but now that I'm older I see (getting recruited that early) is not normal at all."
Her parents thought the same thing. Immediately, they had to switch their thinking on basketball and help prepare their daughter for years of being recruited. For help, Quinton said he reached out to the parents of former Dallas-area stars Alexis Jones and Moriah Jefferson, both former first round draft picks who still play in the WNBA. They advised him that Nyah should ask questions -- tough ones -- and search for consistency, a similarity between what they said one day and the next. Team rules, graduation rate, culture and conflict management were the big ones.
Eventually, Nyah circled the Cardinals, a decision sealed with No. 5-seed Louisville's upset win over Brittney Griner and No. 1 Baylor back in the 2013 Sweet 16.
"They let their guards go, and I wanted to go to a school where they let their guards play," she said. "That was the best school to be at, coaching-wise and atmosphere."
Before she could verbally commit, however, Nyah's mother, Latrice, had to sign off on it. She took a visit to Louisville and gave her blessing.
"I felt at peace with it," Latrice said. "This is where she was supposed to go."
Quinton said he knew his daughter wouldn't waiver, but he wouldn't be doing his due diligence if he didn't test her. So, every so often, he would figuratively "throw darts at her," he said. He'd tell her something about Baylor, the school she visited the most, or he'd remind her that LSU is just a state away.
"I would always be a devil's advocate," he said, "just to make sure."
Quinton stopped playing that role at the beginning of her junior year. By that point, Nyah's response indicated she had no plans of changing her mind. And on Wednesday, in front of friends and family, she made that decision official, earning a sigh of relief from both her and her parents.
"Been a long time coming," Quinton said. "For her to commit so early, we put it through the ringer to make sure it was the right thing for her, but she never wavered. It’s where she wanted to be."

Louisville WBB held Pitt to their lowest point total of the year. The 40 points Pitt produced are the lowest against the Cards this season. Despite a rocky end to the first quarter, the Cards won each quarter, held Pitt to 32.7% shooting, forced 25 turnovers and got 12 steals. For "oops, I missed it again" situations, swallowed whistles, a board decision/outcome we all can agree with and productive painting, let's put on our gloves, scrape the windows, turn on the defroster and look out the front windshield at:

FIVE THINGS ABOUT THIS GAME

5) Posted in Pitt post offices: A picture of the Louisville defense for theft, burglary and grand larceny.. (Do they still post most wanted pictures in post offices anymore?) The Cards forced 25 Pitt turnovers, made 12 steals, got 21 points off the turnovers and made life rough on Pitt guards Jasmine Whitney and Cassidy Walsh. The defensive pressure and the press worked well and Pitt certainly didn't do much to keep Roc the Panther mascot interested.

4) Hi, Let us grab those for you. When you can't score, maybe --at least -- you can rebound. Nope, not yesterday for Pitt. Out-rebounded 42-29 by the Cards. I swear, on one possession, it looked like Louisville was practicing Volleyball set-up and passing drills -- at least five misses and put-backs.Every Card who played had at least one rebound and Sam, "B" and Kylee combined for 24. I thought for a minute that Pitt head coach Lance White was going to walk over to the Cards bench and ask if he could borrow ex-Pitt player and injured forward Yacine Diop for awhile.

3) Pea missing? Only 26 fouls whistled in this game. No player had more than two. It's almost as refs if Mark Hardcastle, Bob Enterline and Maggie Tieman decided "ho-hum, meaningless game, let's swallow the whistles and get out of here fast". or wanted to head over to Primarti Brothers for a Carnegie stuffed and stacked tall boy sandwich. 16 total free throws. Asia usually shoots more free ones than that while drinking her morning orange juice and scanning Twitter.

2) She's getting better all the time. I am pleased as punch to see the continued improvement of Kylee Shook. If she would just stop bringing the ball down to her waist after a rebound. She was the glass-cleaner yesterday for the Cards along with Bionca (nine each) and is finishing with a lot more success on the put-back shots after a rebound. If the Cards can count on her and Dana as two top-level subs the rest of the way, the Cards are headed to Tampa. And not to check in on Charlie Strong or watch the Rays pre-season.

1) Shots heard! (But not sunk). Louisville was 1-13 at one time in three-point attempts yesterday. They just weren't falling. 36.8% from the floor in the first half. The Cards rallied to finish at 42.6% from the floor -- they got off 19 more shots than the Panthers and finally got some inside rhythm going, winning the points in the paint stat 36-16. Pitt wasn't exactly Annie Oakley - type markswomenship either from the floor. 16 for 49. The adage is that offense fills the seats and defense wins games. The Cards had defense and 1381 people showed up for Pitt Senior Day. The defense rests, your honor. After one spectacular, two-hour trial.

-- Sonja --

If you're looking for something to check out tonight, try "Free Solo" on National Geographic Channel tonight at 9.

Alex Honnold is the world's greatest mountain climber. What he does is seriously crazy, and it is amazing he has survived, quite frankly.

His effort to scale El Capitan's 3000 foot face in Yosemite National Park is filmed by NG.

If you have fear of heights like I do, simply watching this will be a challenge.

The American Athletic Conference is negotiating a new TV rights deal with ESPN right now, and numbers leaked. The Commercial Appeal in Memphis posted a story on this. While the revenue doubles what the league members currently get, it is still leaving them solidly behind the Power 5 conferences.

The 4 year deal, has the league members getting $5 million in 2020, and escalating up to $8.5 million by 2023. So I guess it could look something like this:

2020 - $5 million
2021 - $6 million
2022 - $7 million
2023 - $8.5 million

Interesting to note that this looks like a 4 year deal, and expiring right before some of the major conference deals are set to expire. I have no idea if that means anything or not.

You can read more about it -- and Memphis capital projects -- at this link:

https://www.commercialappeal.com/st...stributions-new-media-rights-deal/3036457002/

https://www.courier-journal.com/sto...averett-not-indicted-rape-charges/1850803002/

Wow, talk about a rollercoaster ride. Wonder if he’ll get another chance.

Weekend win by UofL and loss by UK shakes things up a bit.

Louisville improved their spot moving up to a 7-seed whereas UK's beat down at the hands of UT puts the Vols back as the #1 Seed and bumps UK to a #2.

The bad part of this is that UK lands in the South (Louisville) Regional, but does draw Duke.

I think the only way UK could get bumped out of Louisville as a 2-seed is if Michigan or UNC were to win the B1G and ACC Tournaments and UK bows out in the semi's or the final game of the SEC Tournament. Then you could make an argument that UNC should be in Louisville ahead of UK or even possibly Michigan.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/bracketology/

I was really hoping that VJ would find his game by March and it looks like he may have. Now I don't expect double doubles but his confidence is back and he can energize the team.

He had 10 rebounds today and all but one of his shots were good shots. He's so long on defense and can drive to the goal. If he's over the mental block he had he could be a game changer.

Interesting happenings at Wake Forest. Current AD announced his retirement, with his successor already named ... John Currie. A Wake grad who was most recenty the Tennessee AD that tried to hire Ohio State DC Greg Schiano to be their football coach. The UT fans revolted, and forced Currie out.

But now Currie steps into a similar situation regarding Wake head basketball coach Danny Manning. Can he find a replacement that doesn't send the Demon Deacon faithful into a revolt that costs him another job??

https://www.dukebasketballreport.co...ormer-tennessee-a-d-john-curry-acc-basketball


According to ESPN, Wake Forest A.D. Ron Wellman is set to retire and will be replaced by former Tennessee A.D. John Currie, who is a Wake grad.

Currie has been out of the profession since the search to replace Butch Jones went a bit nuts. You may recall that Currie wanted to hire Greg Schiano, then Ohio State’s defensive coordinator.

A fan revolt forced Tennessee to cancel the hire and then to cancel Currie as well.

Part of the reason for the reaction, but not the only reason, was that Schiano was alleged to have covered for Jerry Sandusky when he was abusing boys at Penn State (the prosecutors said there was no case against him).

That leads to a potentially interesting situation with Danny Manning.

The UT fan revolt was pretty considerable but so was the Wake Forest revolt against former basketball coach Jeff Bzdelik.

Currie will be faced, within a couple of weeks of his hiring, with what to do about Danny Manning (it’s not clear when Wellman is stepping down, incidentally).

Manning apparently has a big buyout clause but if Currie opts to keep him he’ll have to deal with some significant unrest in the fan (and donor) base.

If he does fire him, then he has to figure out who to hire who is relatively cheap and acceptable to the fans.

That might tend to point to UNC-G’s Wes Miller. One major strike against him: he’s a Carolina guy and might be angling for that job when Roy Williams retires. There’s no question that he’s proven to be a solid coach though and he’s already in the Triad. If Wake fans could deal with the UNC part he’d be a promising hire.

It’s fascinating to think that Wake Forest could ignite another fan revolt and equally fascinating to think of Currie going through it a second straight time.

Definitely something for ACC fans to keep an eye on.

Cards may not be lighting it up but my second favorite team (whoever is playing the hayseeds) had a good day today. Can’t get that song out of my head - and I’m not talking “Shallow”.

Allen Love enters transfer portal.

Today’s score vs ND. I’ll say Cards 69-64.

Cards in a game today that will determine to set the stage, first act, final script, of Coach Mack's first team at UL. No question, not many on this board would have thought this game would be about seeding in the ACC/NCAA Tourneys. Reality as I type the morning this Card Team has exceeded expectations of even the most ardent UL fans! So now what happens??

This ND team is competitive, and coached by a veteran coach who has been thru the ACC/ NCAA wars! Cards in a nose dive, coached by a newbie to the ACC grind! Coach Mack does bring a great resume in the Big East. This new Big East, is not on the same level, of this new ACC! To be honest shocked that UL is a 9 point favorite. As I type this getting ready to head towards the Yum it's hard for me to imagine a script where the Cards win by double digits! To quote a famous NFL Coach " Cards are we we though we thought they were" ! So what does that mean for today?? Which Card team are we? The Cards team that won by 20 at NC? Or the Cards Team that lost by 7 at BC? The Cards team that beat MSU at home, or the Cards team that lost by 8 to UVA at home! You get what I am saying, this team is very up and down!

So what does this mean for today?? It's hard for me to imagine the Cards losing at home against this ND team! Pfluger is sitting on the bench for ND. He is there best player, this is a young ND, with nothing on the line, so watch out if the Cards do not bring their A game. Cards simply have more fire power then this ND team! It will not be a double digit win, but It will be a win for the Cards today! Look for a low scoring affair! Cards offense still has work to do. Coach Mack will make sure his team understands defense will win this game. Make it Cards 65 ND 59! Cards cement their spot in the NCAA tourney! Start the walk back up the hill to a competitive run in both ACC/NCAA tourneys! Set the stage for a Redemption Game against VA next week!