I was notified by Cumulus this morning that the operation at Cumulus Louisville would be “suspended indefinitely.”  I really don’t have any more to add than that, other than I will forever be indebted to Cumulus for giving me the opportunity.

And people, PLEASE don’t blame Tom Jurich.  As I said on this very blog back when 93.9 FM (my former on-air home) flipped from sports to classic hits, Jurich did not have anything to do with Cumulus pulling the plug. Tom is a good guy. He would NEVER do anything like this.

Now, there’s no doubt that the University has not enjoyed things that I have said about them at times.  However, I’m totally at peace with how I talked about the Cards–mostly good, but critical when needed–just as I am with how I talked about the Cats and the Hoosiers.  I hope all the schools feel the same way about me.

As far as the stations going dark today, there’s no doubt that it will put a dent in your confidence when something like this happens.  I am no different.  Especially when it’s the third signal that someone has put you on in the same market.

However, I refuse to let it drag me down.  I’d love to get back into it, and NOW!  Maybe something will pop up for me.  Maybe it won’t.  But either way, I’m going to keep on moving.

The future is unknown but, to be honest, I don’t feel that “fear” of the unknown.  In fact, today was a little exciting. Phone calls came in.  So did the e-mails, twitter, facebook, and text messages.  The support was overwhelming, which makes it much easier to look toward the future and not be too sad.

A HUGE thanks to all of the people who have thrown support my way.  And a big thanks to those who listened to the show.  If not for you, I probably would’ve been off a lot sooner.  Also, thanks to all the people that made me look like a decent host–Rick Bozich, Andy Sweeney, Trevor Kelsey (“Bacon”), Bryan Hash, and all the interns along the way.  Very cool!

So, would you all be interested in an occasional live show via the internet?  Could be fun, but I want to gauge interest.

Feel free to leave comments on here if you’d like to chat, or hit me up on Twitter at twitter.com/bigez.

Thanks again to everyone.  I hope to post here a little more often since I have a little extra time (haha).  Talk to you again soon!

Over the last three hours, the big scuttlebutt has been exactly whether or not Samuels has declared for the NBA Draft.  The Jamaican Basketball Association issued a release saying just that (click here to read it).  Disclaimer: please TAKE IT FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH.  There are misspellings and misinformation in the release (I’m pretty sure Louisville didn’t make the Final Four).

According to many mock drafts, Samuels may not even get drafted.  Samuels doesn’t show up in DraftExpress.com’s latest mock draft.

My guess is that he’s just testing the waters–declaring for the draft this year, coming back, then going for sure next year.  But who really knows?  The press release, based on grammar alone, is not nearly enough for me to make a really good guess.  But, it’s a guess nonetheless.

But the bigger story is the perception that was created of some lack of communication between Pitino and, arguably, his best returning player.  Only five hours transpired between Pitino saying all players were coming back, and Samuels declaring for the NBA Draft.  Even if Samuels was only testing the waters, I’m pretty sure Pitino would’ve said something about it at his press conference earlier today.

A very bizarre afternoon in Louisville.

(h/t Adam Zagoria at ZagsBlog.com)

It’s crazy for me.  There’s only a handful of events in my life where I know where I was when that event transpired.

On March 28th, 1992, I was with my grandfather watching the Indiana high school state championship at the old Hoosier Dome (RIP) in Indianapolis.  The game didn’t start until 8pm, but we got back to the arena early to watch the game–Kentucky vs. Duke.

I remember, despite constant grumblings, they wouldn’t show the game on the jumbotron inside the stadium.  So we had to go out to the concourse.

There were more fans crammed in the concourse all the way around the dome watching the classic game than there were in the actual dome itself watching the pregame shootaround for the state’s most important annual basketball game.

It was wild, but you all know that.

What do you think about the schedule?  Comment below.

Now, I caught this video online just like you probably did.  Therefore, I have no frame of reference for how show did comepared to the rest of the field.  But given my high level of expertise in dancing, I hope she continues to improve.  She will need to do so to keep advancing.

(h/t The Big Lead)

Keep in mind that this is using the NIT teams to add the extra 32 teams.  So some teams got in based on winning their conference’s regular season (therefore getting the automatic bid to the NIT).  I didn’t mess with the seeds too much.  I kept most of the seeds the same, except I moved the low-conference automatic bid winners down to seeds 22 through 24, and stuck the NIT teams above that, seeding them solely based on RPI.  Just so you know.

Enjoy.

To me, though, the kind of radio that WFAN’s Mike Francesa tried to pull off yesterday is the definition of “shock jock” (I hate that term).  It’s also some of the same material that has made Francesa a household name to many across the country, especially in the Northeast.

And it’s also the kind of radio that I refuse to do, for better or worse for me personally and professionally.

No need to give it any context, and it is a bit long.  You don’t need to watch the whole thing to get the drift (although the part that really sends me over the edge is at the very end).  It gets more and more tense the further you go.

But after Syracuse’s second-straight loss (losing to Georgetown) and subsequent early exit from the Big East Tournament, I keep hearing the talking heads tell me that Syracuse is still a 1-seed.

If the tourney started today, they’re probably right.

But, as we learned with Louisville last year, wins in the conference tournament can serve as a last-minute caapul to that top line.

That’s two losses in a row for the Orange–still one of the favorites to win it all. Find me another team who entered the dance on a two-game losing streak and was still a 1-seed?

There’s still a lot of conference tourney hoops to be played.

Now, other teams that want that slot have some work to do, but there are a few who I think can swap with the Orange IF AND ONLY IF they win their respective conference tournaments:

- Kansas State
– Purdue
– Ohio State
– West Virginia

All of these teams would’ve theoretically pulled off some monumental wins en route to their conference crown.

And the top line.

So I got tickets, for the whole shebang… and I can’t go.

So I sold my two tickets in the lower level (Row F) for all 15 games of the tournament for $1,500.  I was under the gun, and I let the buyer (a Villanova fan) off with a good deal ($750 per ticket–or $50 per game–compared to what they’ve sold for on StubHub, is a STEAL).

So I decided to check out the average prices for similar tickets at all of the big conference tournaments FOR ALL SESSIONS, to see which ticket was really the most valuable.  Here’s what I came up with.

Big East: $1,695 ($113/game) – Probably could’ve sold mine for a lot closer to this price per ticket if I would’ve moved a little quicker.

SEC: $956 ($87/game)

ACC: $626 ($57/game)

Big 12: $589 ($54/game)

Big Ten: $419 ($42/game)

Pac 10: $340 ($38/game)

So, there you go.  If I’m going for value, I’m heading to Conseco Fieldhouse for the Big Ten Tournament.  I was surprised by the price of the ticket for the SEC Tournament.  Well done, Kentucky (I refuse to give any other team credit for the price of that ticket, not even my man Bruce Pearl).

Howie Lindsey, with CardinalSports.com, send local media a list of games each week for us to pick winners on. I’ve been near the top (at least last I checked), but NOT QUITE THERE.

With it being championship week, instead of picking winners of individual games, it’s time for us to pick conference champions.

Here are my picks:
BIG EAST – WVU
BIG 12 – KANSAS
ACC – DUKE
PAC-10 – WASHINGTON
BIG TEN – MICH ST
MOUNTAIN WEST – BYU
ATLANTIC-10 – RHODE ISLAND
CONFERENCE USA – UAB
SUN BELT – NORTH TEXAS
SEC – KENTUCKY

Where have I gone wrong? Let me know.