vs. Lipscomb at home: 14,197

Average thru the first 3rd of eighteen regular season games down 16.2% compared to last year at this point.

And my wife is amicably jawing with the guy sitting in the Sec 101 row behind us about the best way to get cheap seats in the lower arena on their phone apps.

Welcome to men's basketball 2018.

(BTW, last nite's attendance was almost 8,000 below arena capacity...amazing stuff.)

OK ...

Sultan has started something. There is definitely interest in doing this. But as usual, various holiday schedules are making it tough to gravitate to one date.

Maybe .... we have a couple of informal gatherings, depending on when people can make it.

Rules for the poll:

You can vote multiple times.
Your vote is public for the world to see.
Once we see data on this, we will organize something.

https://www.wdrb.com/sports/bozich-...cle_482a6a88-ff1f-11e8-b968-036d7aaa03c9.html


LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Louisville will be favored to beat Kentucky on Dec. 29.

Save your nasty notes or love letters.

Or send them to Jeff Sagarin, Erik Haslam, Bart Torvik, the NCAA and other creators of the six college basketball computer rankings that featured Chris Mack’s team ranked ahead of John Calipari’s team Thursday.

No misfire. I said six of seven power formulas rank the Cardinals ahead of the Wildcats.

Calipari should send a fruit basket to Ken Pomeroy ASAP. Of the seven computer rankings I checked, Pomeroy’s formula was the only one that had Kentucky ranked ahead of Louisville on Thursday.

Even that came with fine print. Over the last 10 days, the script has flipped. Pomeroy’s formula now projects the Cardinals to defeat the Wildcats, 75-74.

I know, these are just computer numbers. They guarantee nothing. Reasonable question:

Why are they more impactful Thursday than they were four, six or eight weeks ago when Kentucky was ranked miles ahead of Louisville? If they weren’t accurate then, why would they be accurate now?

Totally reasonable.

But here is a better question: What has changed?

You know the list. The Wildcats were run out of Bankers Life Fieldhouse by Duke. The Blue Devils beat Kentucky by 34 but only beat Yale by 33, Hartford by 33 and Army by 22.

Louisville won on Seton Hall’s home court in Newark by five. Kentucky lost to Seton Hall by one in overtime on a neutral court in Manhattan.

Louisville has three wins against Top-75 opponents in Pomeroy’s rankings. Kentucky does not have any.

Kentucky has an issue with turnovers. The Wildcats have lost the ball on more than 20 percent of their possessions, ranking No. 262 in turnover percentage.

Their three-point defense also must improve. Through nine games, opposing teams have made a ridiculous 40 percent of their shots from distance.

Here is a factor the computers are unlikely to quantify: Louisville is no longer coached by a guy who breaks out in a rash and hyperventilates at the idea of trying to defeat Kentucky.

For eight seasons, Calipari took up so much space in Rick Pitino’s psyche that Calipari paid property tax.

The final tally was Calipari 8, Pitino 2, but that scoreboard remains an inadequate way to capture Calipari’s dominance. UK’s average margin of victory during that stretch was close to eight points per game while Louisville defeated Kentucky by three and three.

Remember last Dec. 29?

The primary takeaway from the game the teams played last season in Rupp Arena was Louisville was likely to struggle to make the NCAA Tournament. The 29-point defeat was the largest margin of the 14 games the Cardinals lost in 2017-18.

More than a month into this season, the numbers from the computer power formulas have tilted decisively toward Mack’s 7-3 squad.

The NCAA’s newly created NET formula, which will be used by the Tournament Selection Committee when they select and seed the field in March, ranks Louisville No. 20, 19 spots ahead of Kentucky.

Jeff Sagarin’s Predictor formula has Louisville ranked 21st, Kentucky 30th.

Bart Torvik’s formula makes it Louisville No. 26, Kentucky No. 30.

Erik Haslam has Louisville 31st, Kentucky 75th.

Kevin Pauga likes Louisville more than any formula, raking the Cardinals 14th, ahead of Indiana, Auburn, North Carolina and others, while placing Kentucky 73rd.

In the old school Ratings Percentage Index, which the NCAA has dropped but lives on at other web sites, Louisville is No. 16, Kentucky No. 126.

Pomeroy remains the primary holdout for the Wildcats, ranking Kentucky No. 18 with Louisville No. 40.

But, as I noted earlier, even Pomeroy’s numbers have trended toward Mack’s team. Kentucky began the season ranked No. 6. Louisville started the season ranked No. 63.

Kentucky has two games to get it right: in Rupp Arena Saturday when Utah visits and Dec. 22 when the Wildcats play North Carolina in Chicago.

But even if they do, the prediction here is that Louisville, not Kentucky, will be favored when the teams gather at the KFC Yum! Center on Dec. 29.

Certainly good news, and lot of people breathing easier.

UofL accreditation reaffirmed through 2027

JP

I haven't personally met Coach Mack but as the Louisville basketball coach I think he is a swell guy. Here's some of the reasons:
He want's to be here. Not just at UofL but in Louisville. Our former coach said he wanted to be here but as soon as basketball season was over he left town. Mack also doesn't lament leaving a former school as "the worse decision I ever made".
He's a 'straight shooter'. He doesn't try to dazzle the press and fans with foolish statements such as "he's the greatest 3-point shooter ever" or "he's the best point guard I've ever coached". He just tells it like it is.
He lets players play through mistakes. He doesn't jerk them from the game after one mistake. He let's the players learn and get better.
He doesn't bench young players that have defensive lapses. He weighs the offensive benefits of certain players against their defensive deficiencies and lets them play so they can get better. You can't improve getting splinters.
His players play hard.
His players improve.
His players have a good attitude.
His players don't like to lose.
He has a good sideline demeanor.
All-in-all I really like this guy.

NC State offensive coordinator Eliah Drinkwitz will the new App St head coach. Doeren's staff getting picked over

Appears they are hiring NC State's OC. This will be interesting for a number reasons,
1.) Impact on NC ST team and their recruits,
2.) Triston Miller, does this improve our chances to land this OT recruit,
3.) How many other staff members from App St join us after their bowl game on12/15,
4.)How App St plays in their bowl game,
5.)With turmoil at NC ST and NC does that help our new coaches (from NC) recruit.

Will be fun to watch.

A report out there he will be officially visiting Friday.

I'm going to go with a list of

• Ty Murray
• Zach Williamson
• Aidan Robbins
• Evan Conley
• Jamie Pettway

Nothing too far out of left field for me. What about you guys?

Another question for Chris or Dave... Does BYU have a decent chance of flipping Robbins?

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I spoke with a source on the Louisville side of Pettway's recruitment and was told the in-home visit with Coach Satterfield and Bryan Brown went very well. Pettway and his parents were very impressed with coach Satterfield and said he is the right man for the job. As I stated previously, FAU was scheduled to get an official visit from three star linebacker but that has been canceled. A new official visit to Louisville has not been finalized yet because Pettway has a basketball game Friday that has complicated matters.

Louisville is still trying to arrange for him to come for an official Saturday and leave Sunday.

I'm not ready to change my pick from Mizzou yet but if he ends up on Floyd St. this weekend all bets are off.

I'll have more on this a things develop.

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Hard to tell what really is going on anymore. I live in California now but still try to stay current on all things Louisville by coming back to visit as frequent as possible and having conversations with my large family and friends that reside around town but I understand their biases so I do try to read information from different sources I.e. Business Insider, the CJ, and a couple others and sheesh, it’s hard to eliminate the noise of opinion and get the facts.

are offensively challenged!

Before the coaching selection, did Tyra "promise or guarantee" existing football commitments to UofL would be "honored"? IOW, did Satterfield "undo" an assurance by Tyra?

Peace

It's a busy time in the world of Louisville football so I wanted to open things up for people to get their questions answered. Just as a side note I'll be out of town from this Friday until just after Christmas so I may not be around quite as often as normal but will definitely be in and out every once in a while.

Fire away!

Talk about marrying up. Didn't get the money for his hotel and went after UofL because of that.

I love when the recruiting picks up enough to start making these posts with multiple bits of info in them and I have a feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg.

- Louisville definitely wants at least 1 quarterback in the class of 2019. I know Louisville has reached out to JUCO QB Messiah deWeaver to express interest but nothing really beyond that has been communicated to him. Without assistant coaches this is not surprising whatsoever so we will see if one of the new hires reaches out to him after they are announced.

- Speaking of QB's, keep an eye on Appalachian St. QB commit Evan Conley. He hasn't heard from Louisville yet but considering he was recruited by Bryan Brown at App. St., again, that isn't surprising. He did tell me he would be extremely interested in Louisville if they came calling. Don't get caught up in his 2-star ranking because he can play ball and I think could compete for a job at Louisville right away.

- An interesting note on Dwayne Ledford, Louisville's reported new OL coach from NC State. Former Louisville OL commit Jamari Williams (current Arizona commit) messaged me yesterday curious about the coaches Satterfield was getting and when I mentioned Ledford, Williams stated he recruited him hard to NC State and was a "hell of a coach". I asked Williams if he would reconsider Louisville with Ledford here but it was clear that wasn't an option Williams wanted to even consider. Just wanted to pass along that bit of info on Ledford from a recruits point of view.

- I'm monitoring Charles Njoku to see if Louisville may happen to get involved with him as an athletic tight end prospect. We'll see if anything materializes there.

- I'm continuing to monitor 3-star TE/OL Jimmy Fritzsche who at this point is waiting to see which coaches from Appalachian State join Satterfield's staff at Louisville. Fritzsche is currently the size of a tight end but someone they believe could grow into a very athletic offensive tackle at the college level. Regardless which one he plays, Louisville needs both.

- I know there is a lot of talk about JJ Weaver recently. I know the reports that say he is 100% UK and that he is just signing in February to sign with his teammates. With that being said, TECHNICALLY it still leaves the door open for Louisville to recruit him. Any analysis of his recruitment or status is dependent on the current situation at both schools. Let me be clear that I am not predicting Louisville will flip him whatsoever. What I am saying is that when dominoes start falling a lot of things can change. I'm definitely interested in watching this play out over the next couple months.

- I tweeted this out yesterday and wanted to expand on it a little.
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This isn't sour grapes or trying to be overly positive just because. It is important to remember that the immediate impact had Brohm come to Louisville would have been substantially greater than Satterfield coming as far as transfers coming here (Rondale Moore?) and local recruits (Wandale Robinson, Milton Wright, etc.). With that being said, I'm venturing to say that the staff Satterfield is in the process of assembling (including some names I've heard thrown around) could easily be better than that Brohm would have assembled. I know there were talks about how people weren't 100% sold on Nick Holt as the DC and for good reason as Purdue wasn't a defensive juggernaut. Now, Louisville will have a young DC that led App. St. to a top 5 defense in 2018. The same could be said with offensive line coaches. Would anyone really have preferred Dale Williams over Dwayne Ledford? I think this theme will continue as more names emerge and while we are talking actual vs. theoretical I think the case could be easily made that Satterfield's staff is going to be better than the staff Brohm would have assembled.

Edit: One more quick note I forgot in my original post... I reached out to Jordan Travis and he states he has not heard from Satterfield or anyone yet so unless something changes I'm expecting the staff to go in another direction, which I think is the right move.

looks like he is off and running. Hated to see the scholly's pulled from the 3 kids, especially the Larue County kid, but to be expected. Systems are night and day different and with so few scolarships available, I'm sure he was looking for specific positions. I watched some of an App St game from earlier this year and their offensive linemen get out in space a lot! I've heard the zone blocking scheme requires that, but didn't realize just how much these guys are moving around. Folks have talked about a rebuild, but this is a retool/rebuild+.

We need this guy. Jody or Chris, is this a possible? We win at least five or six games next year with someone of his skills.


http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/25519933

He’s posted a couple of things on his instagram feed about his visit today. Not sure that anything changes but, kudos to Coach Satterfield for getting him over to check things out.

lose this game!!! Lose to Lipscomb at home and the selection committee will punish us!!!

Shadon Brown, Safties, he knows the state. Ponce, Quarterbacks, has strong ties to Florida. Bryan Brown, DC, coached a top 10 defense this year. Satt and Ponce are in Florida now.

https://gocards.com/sports/2018/12/4/louisville-football-coaching-staff.aspx

A veteran of the coaching profession and a Kentucky native, ShaDon Brown has been hired as the safeties coach at the University of Louisville, head coach Scott Satterfield announced.


Brown has spent the last two seasons as part of Mike MacIntyre’s staff at Colorado as the secondary coach, and was promoted to defensive passing game coordinator for the 2018 season.


The Colorado secondary thrived over the last two years, allowing opponents to complete just 56.2 percent of passes. The Buffaloes led the Pac-12 Conference in opposing completion percentage (56.7 percent) this season and ranked fourth in 2017.


Brown coached a pair of All-Conference selections at Colorado with Evan Worthington garnering honorable mention honors in 2018. Isaiah Oliver was a first team All-Pac-12 selection in 2017 and was a second round selection by the Atlanta Falcons in the 2018 National Football League draft.


Prior to his time in Boulder, Brown spent the 2016 season coaching cornerbacks at Army. The Black Knights had one of the top defensive back units in the country, ranking sixth nationally in passing defense (170.2 yards per game), 11th in interceptions (17) and 17th in pass efficiency defense (115.12 rating).


Brown was part of Army’s turnaround from 2-10 in 2015 to an 8-5 record in 2016 that included a win over North Texas in the Heart of Dallas Bowl.


Brown spent five seasons (2011-15) at Wofford College, the first four as cornerbacks coach before switching to the safeties in his final year there. Brown was also the special teams coordinator during the 2013-14 seasons and was promoted to recruiting coordinator in the spring of 2015. He coached three all-conference corners at Wofford, including Blake Wylie who earned third-team All-American honors in 2012.


In the summer of 2015, he participated in the NFL’s program for minority coaches by interning with the Super Bowl 50 runner-up Carolina Panthers, where he worked with the defensive backs.


Before joining the Wofford staff, Brown was a coach in the Kentucky high school ranks. From 2008-10 he was head coach at Rowan County High School, where he led the Vikings to the 2010 Class 4A District 8 Championship, the school’s first title since 1982. He was named the Kentucky Class 4A District 8 Coach of the Year for that season, and 10 of his players at went on to play college football. He was an assistant coach at Boyle County High for the 2007 season.


As a player himself, Brown started at linebacker for Campbellsville University, which won a school record 10 games in 2001, reached the NAIA quarterfinals for the first time and finished the season ranked No. 10. He served as a team captain as a senior in 2002.


After graduating in 2002 with a bachelor's degree in Physical Education, he started his coaching career in 2003 as a graduate assistant helping tutor the linebackers at the University of the Cumberlands. After one year, he was promoted to the full-time assistant coach for the inside linebackers for the 2004-05 seasons, helping lead the Patriot football team to a ranking as high as No. 5 in the nation. In 2006, he returned to his alma mater as the inside linebackers coach for one season.


Brown is a native of Danville and graduated from Danville High School. He and his wife, Rhonda, have a daughter, Shaelyn, and two sons, Braylon and Keenan.


BROWN AT A GLANCE
Coaching Experience
2003: University of the Cumberlands (graduate assistant/outside linebackers)

2004-05: University of the Cumberlands (inside linebackers)

2006: Campbellsville University (inside linebackers)

2007: Boyle County High School (assistant coach)

2008-10: Rowan County High School (head coach)

2011-15: Wofford (cornerbacks ‘11-‘14 / safeties ’15)

2015: Carolina Panthers (summer intern / secondary)

2016: Army (cornerbacks)

2017: Colorado (secondary)

2018: Colorado (defensive passing game coordinator / safeties)


Playing ExperienceCampbellsville (LB)

Alma Mater: Campbellsville, 2003
Hometown: Danville, Ky.
Birthdate: 11/20/79
Wife: Rhonda
Daughter: Shaelyn
Sons: Braylon, Keenan

For those of you with DirecTv....I get Fox Ohio not Fox South. Anyone know why that’s the case?

Tennessee beat Gonzaga. We are not really too far off the mark.

Here we go, cards vs bison