Say what you will about the Louisville Cardinals 4 seed, rather deserved or not, but it is of no consequence now. Its time to dance. We all remember Louisvilles remarkable finish ending with the national championship to put an exclamation point on the “year of the Cardinals”. What are the Cardinals chances at a repeat performance?
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Let’s have some fun projecting the NCAA’s top 4 seeds for the Big Dance. This is based on what the Confidential thinks will happen tomorrow. We limit it to the seeded teams.
Following an overtime loss to Notre Dame last season Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino promised his players that he would get a tatoo if they didn’t lose another game. Soon after they won the national championship he got a tatoo on the back of his left shoulder to honor thier accomplishment. To inspire his team to finish strong this season the whole program has decided to stop shaving until they lose. The power of the beard has become a popular and successful practice in sports, mainly in baseball. Only a few games in and Pitino appeares to be sporting a 5 o’clock shadow. By the end of the year I am hopeing they are styleing beards more like ZZ Top than Duck Dynasty.
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So, here we are… a few years after the Big 10 went on a colonization imperialistic expansion spree. The expectation was that the Big 10 would leverage Ohio State/Michigan and its history to catch up to the SEC in that sport (the money sport). Here we are in 2013-2014 and it does not appear to be shaping up that way. Instead, it appears that the Big 10’s basketball has passed its football, the ACC has set up its football to pass its basketball. For this year anyway. Consider:
An interesting point was made by acaffrey in the comments section of his recent article regarding potential division realignment in the ACC and the ramifications of moving to a schedule with 10 conference games.
The schools that pack their stadiums need 6 or 7 home games a year.
Coincidentally, I started compiling the attendance data for ACC home games just before the end of the regular season but never got around to completing a full post. So, it was a good reminder and a perfect opportunity to look deeper at which schools can boast the best attendance. Read more…
The Cards are set to begin a new era as they join the ACC this July and now they will have to do it with a new head football coach. Former coach Charlie Strong was named the new head coach of the Texas Longhorns. At Louisville, Strong went 37-15 & 22-3 the last two years. He certainly left the program in better shape than he found it, both on the field and in the classroom. Despite it not seemingly to be the right fit for Texas we wish Strong well and hope he succeeds at his dream job. Go Stronghorns!
With his departure Louisville AD Tom Jurich will need to find Strongs replacement in a hurry with the recruiting dead period coming to an end soon. So far a vast majority of the Cards commitments are staying with the Cards but decision time is rapidly approaching. Jurich is known to be well prepared in his coaching searches but this time around it will be different. This time his pool of candidates will be larger with the additional draw and resources that comes with the ACC. There has been dozens of names thrown out by the media but only Jurich knows who’s on his list. Lets take a look at the probable favorites.
It seems that every time I start to write about this something changes and rewrites the story. The media has mentioned Texas and Louisville HC Charlie Strong together a lot lately. First it was Vegas naming Strong as the odds on favorite to replace retirink Mack Brown. Since the two dont seem like a logical pairing many disregarded it. Sometimes though the illogical turns out to be the most logical. This story has grown many legs.
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This past weekend featured two huge match ups for Louisville which culminated into one epic Saturday. First up was the hardwood rivalry game with Kentucky in corRUPPt arena. N Carolina and Duke is the greatest basketball conference rivalry but Kentucky and Louisville is the greatest non conference hoops rivalry. Playing your rival ONCE a year adds a little extra to the game, in my opinion. From the time they tipped off shortly after 4pm until the buzzer sounded around 6:30 it was a dog fight. Ultimately it was the Cards coming out on the losing end of the 66-73 final score.
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Check out @GoCards’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/GoCards/status/413351765577187328
The votes are in. It is time to reveal this week’s Confidential Basketball Poll. As a reminder, if you want to be part of our football bowl Pick’em, head over to Yahoo and group 20211. Returning to hoops, here is the top 10:
1. Syracuse, 10-0, 59 Points (5 first place votes). The Orange are off to a great start, winning Maui and nice wins over Indiana and St. Johns. Next big game: Villanova on 12/28.
2. Pitt, 10-0, 50 points (1 first place vote). The Panthers make it 1-2 for former Big East teams atop the ACC standings. Next big game: Right now, vs. Cincinnati!
3. Louisville, 9-1 (47 points). More former Big East action, as the Cardinals slot in at #3. The sole Cards loss was to UNC. Next big game: @ Kentucky on 12/28.
4. Duke, 8-2 (43 points). The Blue Devils have losses to #1 Arizona and Kentucky. And a nice win over Michigan. Next big game: UCLA on 12/18.
5. North Carolina, 7-2 (39 points). The Tar Heels have losses to Belmont and UAB. Wins over MSU, Louisville, and Kentucky make this team quite an enigma. Next big game: Texas on 12/18.
6. Wake Forest, 8-2 (30 points). Not sure the Demon Deacons deserve the #6 spot with few quality wins, but there is a lot of mediocrity between #6 and #12 right now. Next big game: @ Xavier on 12/28.
7. Notre Dame, 8-3 (20 points). The Fighting Irish have some really bad losses. But that win over Indiana seems to have folks excited again. Next big game: Ohio State on 12/21.
8. North Carolina State, 7-2 (13 points). The Wolfpack are looking for a really good win to help offset some tough losses. The chances will come. Next big game: @ Tennessee on 12/18.
9. Virginia, 7-3 (10 points). Like the teams immediately above it, hard to find a good win for Virginia. Not hard to find some bad losses. Next big game: @ Tennessee on 12/30.
10. Clemson, 8-2 (7 points). At first, this looks like a football record and pick. But Clemson has a nice win over Temple and acquitted itself well against Arkansas. Next big game: @ Auburn on 12/19.
The rest: Florida State (5 points), Georgia Tech (4 points), Maryland (4 points), and Virginia Tech (1 point). Miami and Boston College did not receive votes.
What do you think? Feel free to share your poll.
The Confidential 