John Clay's Sidelines

Update: The original post appears to have been removed from KSR and Card Chronicle. No explanation why.

I’m not going to swipe the pic, but I am going to lift out this blog comment:

Thought everyone in BBN would appreciate this. Terrence Williams (T-Will) from Louisville did an autograph signing last night, and one signature he signed his name and “John Wall Sucks” – link to picture folllow:

http://www.cardchronicle.com/2009/12/11/1196622/terrence-williams-is-not-buying

I’m just sayin….

Go Cats!
# 4 DonInFlorida December 11, 2009 at 5:30 pm

Hoops Links for Monday:

• At FoxSports.com, Jeff Goodman writes on Louisville’s Terrence Williams. Goodman: “Williams said the season turned around prior to the last-second victory at home against Kentucky a few weeks back in which Edgar Sosa hit the game-winner. “We knew something had to change,” he said.

• Courier-Journal columnist Eric Crawford writes from U of L’s win at Syracuse. Crawford: “And this big start should re-focus College Basketball Nation on U of L, if it hadn’t drawn that focus already. In running to a 6-0 Big East start, the Cards have beaten four ranked teams in their past five games, including back-to-back wins over top-10 teams. Duke is playing well right now and will probably be No. 1 today. Connecticut is fantastic and should be No. 1. U of L is playing as well or better than both. And the Cardinals may have more room for improvement than both.”

• Bud Poliquin of the Syracuse Post Standard writes that Orange got stuck in the Big East grinder. Poliquin: ” Let the record show that the 57 points represented the lowest amount scored in any one outing by Syracuse this season; meanwhile, Louisville has come up short of 67 four times thus far in this campaign . . . and, instructively, has lost on three of those occasions. As such, this exercise that pitted two Top 10 outfits coached by two guys (Boeheim and Rick Pitino) packing 1,324 career triumphs between them was to scoring what liverwurst is to dining, what corns are to toe rings, what a washboard is to the symphony.”

• In his Weekly Watch column, ESPN’s Andy Katz throws some love at Oregon State. Katz: “(Craig) Robinson had had no idea the Beavers would be one of the hottest teams in the Pac-10 after an improbable road sweep of Cal and Stanford. He’d had no clue the Beavers would have three Pac-10 victories, including a home win over USC. That’s one more conference win than Arizona, three more than winless rival Oregon, and as many as Stanford and Washington State.”

• In the Cincinnati Enquirer, Shannon Russell writes that Xavier took care of business last week. Russell: “In beating LSU, the Muskies dispatched a second Southeastern Conference opponent this season. They defeated Auburn 81-74 on Dec. 3 at Cintas Center. There were plenty of positives to take away from the road victory, which snapped LSU’s 17-game home winning streak. The Tigers were held without a field goal during a nine-minute second-half stretch and never regained their composure.”

Continue reading ‘HL: Williams flies as Louisville grinds’

As we stumble into the New Year, good to know some things remain resolutely unchanged. On the final day of 2008, I earned confirmation with my trip to Freedom Hall to scout out the Louisville Cardinals in advance of Sunday’s annual Cats-Cards mash-up, only to witness Rick Pitino’s team take an unexpected pratfall and lose to a UNLV team minus its best player.

I admit that my admiration of Rick has grown with both time and distance, but losses still bring out the more petulant Pitino. Thinking that Terrence Williams was fouled on his final drive (in vain), Rick eschewed the post-game handshake with Vegas coach Lon Kruger to go after the official he believed blindly failed to make the deciding call in his favor. When the striped bandit proceeded off the floor and on to his New Year’s Eve plans without giving Rick the time of day, Pitino just continued on to the tunnel, head down.

Then in the post-game press conference, WLKY sports anchor Fred Cowgill asked the coach if Terrence Williams must shoot well for the Cards to shoot well. It was an obvious question with an obvious answer. Williams was a dreadful two-of-15 from the floor, and the rock-throwing ‘Ville wound up shooting a ghastly 29.6 percent on the way to its third loss of the season.

But, being the ultra-competitor, Pitino wasn’t having any of the media’s half-cocked theroies, even the correct ones. So Rick snapped, “No. That has nothing to do with it.”

In Pitino’s defense, this Louisville team could put Mother Theresa in a bad mood. The Cards are blessed with talent but cursed by a lack of early-season chemistry. You thought Kentucky had a point guard problem, Louisville has point guards but no one who plays the point, at least effectively. The Cardinal offense is disjointed, at best. Edgar Sosa is the key the way Rodrick Rhodes was often a key to Rick’s Kentucky teams. In 13 minutes last night, Sosa contributed four turnovers without finding his way to an assist.

So, in the spirit of the New Year, we’ll cut Rick a break. After all, he did end the press conference by wishing us a Happy New Year. His hope is that the new year will bring him a new and better team.

TiVo-ed last Saturday’s Louisville-UAB game to see U of L’s 82-62 win accomplished with the Cardinals’ top player, Earl Clark, glued to the bench at the tipoff.

Did Billy Gillispie suddenly become the U of L coach?

Kidding.

The Cards own talented cargo but very little cohesion. With Clark as a sub, Pitino started freshman forward Jared Swopshire, who contributed some effective minutes. He also tried the combo of Jerry Smith and Preston Knowles in the backcourt, keeping regular point guards Andre McGee and Edgar Sosa fastened to their seats. The Cards took control with a 10-2 run at the end of the first half and never looked back.

Three thoughts:

• Pitino’s obviously in full search-party mode for a point guard. Sosa appears to be the next Roderick Rhodes candidate, a talented prepster who can’t keep his head straight as a collegian. Even as a junior, Sosa’s hoops IQ often goes south and he’s not quite as dead-eye a perimeter shooter as he himself believes. Knowles, though more of an off guard, gets more done on both ends of the floor. Pitino indicated Saturday he wants to stick with the Smith-Knowles backcourt to see what happens.

Continue reading ‘An early look at Louisville’