completely, utterly and completely on our backcourt. In the backcourt, in the frontcourt, and defensively. Every highlight we're about to be treated to the rest of the year will be with Perry, Cunningham and McMahon screwing up.

I realize that FSU is way superior as far as athleticism but so many turnovers were unforced and senseless. Plain and simple - we choked. The team and the staff. We didn’t get into anything in the half court. We should have back cut the living shit out of them. Instead, we succumbed to their ball pressure. Inexcusable, that’s on the entire staff, including my boy (who I love) Chris Mack.

Football players definitely learning there is a new Sheriff in town. In an article in CJ this morning they said a player was 2 minutes late for a meeting. The whole defense did 100 up and downs. I love it.

fire the Brohm curse back up!!!

The ball is going to have to bounce our way tonight. That could happen as easy as not. Johnny Dawkins thought they were a lock in "86. GO CARDS!!!

Could have won a tonnnnnn of $$ with IU fans preseason on that bet for guessing the mid February bracketology.

It is funny to think about the preseason mindsets of both fan bases and where we are now. Again - hats off to Coach of the Year candidate HCCM and how little the impact of Romeos decision affected things. Coaching is everything in CBB.

According to WDRB as of now the 3 rd street ramp from I 64 westbound is open to continue straight onto 3rd street. River road is closed. Having lived in this city my entire life, the river will continue to rise today and police may close the ramp entirely before tonight's game. If you are going just plan on not using the freeway ramps on the river side of YUM center.

Bass pro shop has nice looking black life jacket / ski vests if you are going and want to keep up with the blackout theme. : )

Has anyone seen a list of visitors for the game tonight?

...Jimmy Dykes is doing color for tonight's broadcast.

I would have thought--hoped actually--that he would be slobbering on Calipari's poorly color coordinated light brown shoes with his blue suit for the UK/LSU game instead of doing ours.

Anything? Anybody?

Dave had an article on newly-offered 2020 DB Carrington Valentine earlier this week. Below is more from Carrington ahead of tonight's visit for the basketball game.

https://n.rivals.com/news/cincinnati-db-carrington-valentine-lands-first-p5-offers

Made it for 3 innings today before the Pitt game.
Ok,so what did I see? Britton is playing the outfield now. A logjam at the catcher spot and a need for outfielders has pushed Britton to right field. He might have the best arm out there and he looked very comfortable.
As stated before,there are some youngsters that will impact this team. Binelas(freshman) hit a dinger to dead center that Campbell nearly robbed on an ESPY worthy play by inches. Benefield (freshman) looking like Brooks Robinson on a play at 3rd to rob a sure double. I saw maybe half a dozen highlights in an hour or so.
Maybe a hundred brave souls,but the weather might be warmer tomorrow at noon. The kids would love to see a crowd I'm sure.

Not sure if this made it up here at the end of last week

How new Power Five coaches fared in their first recruiting class

Why do the U of L guards think they have to pass to each other in the back court. Inbound the ball..... dribble down the court . It's pretty simple fellas

This was a battle. Louisville struggling early, finding their game in the second quarter, losing their game skills at the end of the third and holding off the Hokies in the fourth to go to 10-1 in ACC play and 23-1 overall.

No hokey-pokey yesterday. Asia and Sam tripping the light fantastic, though, with 55 combined points and the being the difference in the battle of Blacksburg.

So, let's put our left foot in, let's take our...aw, forget it. Never could dance. Let's just walk over to...


FIVE THINGS ABOUT THIS GAME

5) I AM SAM, I AM. Doing her best Myisha Hines-Allen impersonation, Ms. Fuehring rocked "the castle" at Cassell Coliseum with 21 points and 13 rebounds. Getting wide open for easy layups at crucial moments, getting hurled to the floor by Techies. Getting the last laugh over a "we-ain't ready-to-go-home-yet" Virginia Tech squad. If you're going to wage a war on the road in the ACC, it's mandatory that you employ the Cards Sherman tank. Sam, I salute you! Rest, easy -- solider Sam.

4) OOPS, DID WE DO THAT? What was up with the end of the third quarter? Louisville lost a 20-point lead by allowing VT to go on an ominous 11-0 end-of-quarter run. Walz stormed, stammered, shouted and stalked the sidelines but refused to stop the action with a T.O., baby. He wanted them to figure it out by themselves. What did they learn? Maybe the need for concentration and focus.

3) HITTING THE FREE ONES. VT resorted to the foul method of basketball late and the Cards responded with 7-7 second half free throw finesse. 13 of 14 overall and neither Sam nor Asia missed from the line in 12 attempts. Asia with four huge makes late in the battle. Why, it's almost if Ryan McMahon had...no, let's not go there...the Cards eventually said "nite-nite" to their hosts from the charity stripe.

2) THIS IS A 2-8 CONFERENCE SQUAD? You do have to give the Hokies the ol' "chuck on the shoulder, heck of a game" kudos. They just wouldn't go away. Scary to think that Dana Mabrey will be running the point for them three more years. As Walz pointed out : "Take 10 minutes total out of their 10 conference games and they're probably 7-3 instead of 2-8. Louisville was staring into the abyss late but found themselves, prevailed late and managed a 21-21 tie in the fourth quarter. Regan Magarity is a Swedish superlative. I feel sorry for who draws them in the ACC Tournament.

1) THEY CALL HER NITE-NITE. Asia with 34 points ( a season high) and knocking down threes, mid-range jumpers -- doing Asia Durr-type things. She credited her coaches and teammates for her success. All she was trying to do was "make some plays", according to her. Yeah, I think she succeeded, how about you? So quick on the release, exuding confidence throughout. Showing why she's the #1 player in women's college basketball. Take the week off, Asia and Cards. You earned it. Nite-nite, Virginia.

Miami muscles in on February 17th. They are no joke, a top-notch, top 25 squad. Walz would love to see 13,000 hit the YUM! for that 3 p.m. performance. Bring a buddy, phone a friend and attend.

-- Sonja --

Saw this tweet ...

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A pretty solid list of programs with solid college football tradition. Others that have found themselves in the top ten recruiting rankings, and won national titles in the recent past:

Clemson
Notre Dame
USC
Florida State
Miami
LSU
Nebraska
Oregon
Washington
Tennessee

That's 20 ....

Add in other "football schools" like these:

Michigan State
Oklahoma State
TCU
Stanford
Wisconsin
Iowa
BYU
Boise State

I would argue that most of the time, "recruiting rankers" will give these guys the nod over us. So realistically ...

We should tickled pink with any ranking of 25 - 35 ... Given the difficulty in truly ranking recruiting classes, If we consistently find ourselves there, we should be able to compete with anyone, as long as we have solid coaching.

The Alliance of American Football kicked off yesterday with 2 games, and 2 games are being played today. I found a place where all 8 team's rosters were, to see if there were any Louisville players playing, and also discovered some cool rules changes to the game being tried out. The 8 teams are EAST - Memphis, Orlando, Birmingham, Atlanta WEST - San Antonio, Arizona, Salt Lake City, San Diego

Real quick ... some interesting rules differences ..

.... NO KICKOFFS. Ball is set at the 25 yard line. On sides kicks obviously are no more, BUT there is a way to try to keep the ball ... which I will get to in a sec.

.... NO EXTRA POINTS. After TD's always go for 2.

... What replaces ON SIDES KICKS? A 4th and 12 from your 38 yard line. (I kinda like this a lot more than the on sides kick attempt, which rarely works).

... OVERTIME - college rules, but starts at the 10. I don't think FG is an option though. And there is only 1 OT period, so ties can happen.


LOUISVILLE PLAYERS IN THE LEAGUE, and their team:

Gerald Christian, TE, Arizona Hotshots

James Quick, WR, Atlanta Legends
Charles Standberry Jr, TE, Atlanta Legends
Keith Towbridge, TE, Atlanta Legends


That's it. That's the list.

The AAF has some coaches you have heard of though.

Steve Spurrier is coaching the Orlando Apollos.
Rick Neuheisel is coaching the Arizona Hotshots.
Mike Singletary is coaching the Memphis Express.
Dennis Erickson is coaching the Salt Lake Stallions.
Mike Martz is coaching the Sand Diego Fleet.
Mike Riley is coaching the San Antonio Commanders.
Tim Lewis (who?) is coaching the Birmingham Iron.
Kevin Coyle (vaguely familiar) is coaching the Atlanta Legends.

Here's a link to some info on the league, if you are curious:

https://www.cbssports.com/aaf/news/...for-new-alliance-of-american-football-league/

Rosters can be found here - some LPT dudes, Western Ky dudes, and Louisvillian and Cincy Bearcat Mekale McKay are some interesting local angles:

https://www.cbssports.com/aaf/news/...t-teams-in-the-alliance-of-american-football/

the women went to VATech and won today. Asia Durr was nothing short of fantastic along with Fuerhing (sp) and others. But I have to say that until the Women’s game gets competent officiating there will always be a credibility gap between the women’s and the men’s games. The lack of a foul being called on the “jump ball” situation at the end of today’s game was a perfect example of “no guts” by the officials in Blacksburg today. That “non” call was just beyond stupid. WTH even the announcers had to laugh and say that “there might (chuckle) a foul there”. Maybe the women’s officials should be paid like the men are, but I don’t know what the difference is. Perhaps someone could inform us about that situation.

GO CARDS - BEAT EVERYBODY!!! God Bless America!!!

UofL alum and Arizona TE Gerald Christian scored the Arizona Hotshots’ first touchdown last night as Arizona beat Salt Lake City 38-22 in the first week of Alliance of American Football (AAF) action. Christian caught 3 passes for 44 yards in the game.

Fellow UofL alum Charles Standberry, Jr. caught 2 passes for 20 yards in the Atlanta Legends’ 40-6 loss to the Orlando Apollos. James Quick is also on the Atlanta roster, but did not play.

I watched a little of the Memphis Express game against the Birmingham Iron on the CBS Sports Network. It was pretty good, hard nosed football. No PAT kicks - you have to go for 2. No kickoffs - ball is placed at the 25 yard lines unless a team wants the ball back after scoring. In order to keep the ball, they must convert a 4th and 12 from their own 28 yard line instead of recovering an onside kick. Also, only 35 seconds between plays instead of 40 in the NFL. The games are expected to last 2.5 hours instead of 3.

I want to get some observation on Ryan McMahon on his shooting situation. Granted this is just my opinion which doesn't mean absolutely anything at the end of the day but I would be curious to hear some of the thoughts out there.

It seems to me that the coaching staff needs to be working with him in practice more about effectively moving without the ball, shooting in transition, and staying within his "effective" shooting range. I say this as unless he is dead a$$ open, and I do mean dead , and his feet are cemented in place for a few secs he can't really be consistent. And he doesn't have the handles,size or hops so he just can't shake and or raise up over a defender and get off a quality shot.

More times than not and this may be on the coaching staff about conditioning and or talking to him about range but it seems to me like he is more or less heaving the ball instead of naturally shooting.To me when he shoots the first question that comes to mind is not if its going to go in or not , it's whether or not if it's going to even make the rim. Now I know everyone these days including these kids are caught up on the three ball and maybe I'm old but going back to transition, I see so many easy 2 pointers that Ryan could pull up and bust in the gap when we are on the run that would go along way. Sometimes it's easier to get into a rhythm with a few close bunnies and then start busting them from long range. This can have a ripple effect as now the other team has to keep a honest body on you as now they know " hey be careful as he can bust you in the gap and from the 3 " Last I checked 2 points still counts. Go Cards !

I'm so frustrated watching Ryan not draw fouls on his 3 pt shot. That last shot he took against FSU would have been a perfect time to draw the foul. They sold out on him shooting the 3 to tie the game and Ryan just flung the shot up.

It was not his normal shot and FSU wasn't going to give it to him. A pump fake and lean in could have gotten him three FT's.

It's not easy to do and is a skill. Ryan needs to master it because opponents are going to be up all in his face, especially when he's hit a couple.

I was only able to see parts of the second half and the ending of this game. Was there a reason the Cards didn't/couldn't pass the ball into the post for an inside/out look on offense? The offensive plays I saw were the Cards struggling to get anything going, draining the shot clock, and then hoisting three pointers.

Was there something that happened earlier that I missed? Why no passes inside to Enoch to try to get a bit of post game going?

Katina should never leave home without that wig! Dumb seems to just get dumb and dumber.

https://www.wdrb.com/news/katina-po...-2af2-11e9-92a8-5f446735369e.html?mode=nowapp