Card Chronicle

The Waters Of Lexington Turn Infra-Red

2012-05-16T19:59:15Z

So the powers that be in Lexington attempted to die the water in their downtown fountains pink today in support of breast cancer awareness. Instead, the dye was somehow "messed up," and the water throughout the city's downtown area now appears a suspiciously familiar shade of red.

Second photo via Brett Dawson

I'm not saying God did this, but I'm also not saying God didn't do this.

Basketball Legends Earn U of L Diplomas

2012-05-16T17:52:00Z

This is guaranteed to brighten your day:

U of L Celebrates Senior Day With 8-3 Win Over Morehead State

2012-05-16T16:58:56Z

Sophomore outfielder Adam Engel had two hits, two RBI and two stolen bases while senior Stewart Ijames added a three-run double as Louisville pounded Morehead State 8-3 in its final regular season home game.

Members of the Big East-champion Louisville softball team threw out the ceremonial first pitch(es) of the game.

The 22nd-ranked Cards improved to 36-17 overall as they head into their final weekend series of the year. U of L will play the first of three games at Pittsburgh Thursday night at 6 p.m.

Ijames, one of four seniors honored during a ceremony before the game, moved into second place on U of L's career RBI list with 206. He is now just 12 behind first-place Chris Dominguez's total of 218.

Louisville trails Big East-leader St. John's by a single game heading into this final weekend of the regular season.

Peyton Siva Talks Louisville Basketball On National Radio

2012-05-16T14:49:45Z

Peyton Siva appeared on the Inside College Basketball radio program with Jeff Goodman (and special co-host Robbie Hummel) Tuesday night and talked about the biggest keys for next season, how the team was able to turn it around last season, and how it will handle lofty expectations heading into next year.

As far as preparing the younger guys on the team as Louisville heads into a season where it is expected to start off ranked in the top five, Siva says humility is key.

"We've got to keep hem level-headed and not let last year's Final Four success go to their heads," Siva said. "Especially in today's world where you've got Twitter and Facebook and everybody's going to tell you how good you are. You can easily get sidetracked by rankings and what other people say, but everybody's got to stick together. It's our job as captains to get them mentally prepared."

You can listen to Peyton's full interview right here.

Louisville Now The Second Choice To Win It All In 2012-13

2012-05-15T20:41:36Z

The latest odds on college basketball's 2013 national champion are in from Vegas, and Louisville sits as the second choice to win it all, trailing only Indiana.

Odds to win the 2012-2013 Men's NCAA Basketball Championship

Indiana 7/1
Louisville 8/1
Kentucky 10/1
Duke 15/1
Florida 15/1
North Carolina 15/1
UCLA 15/1
Kansas 18/1
Michigan 20/1
North Carolina State 20/1
Ohio State 20/1
Syracuse 20/1
Michigan State 22/1
Arizona 25/1
Baylor 25/1
Memphis 25/1
Creighton 30/1
St. John's 30/1
Missouri 35/1
Texas 35/1
Florida State 40/1
Georgetown 40/1
Pittsburgh 40/1
Stanford 40/1
UNLV 40/1
Wisconsin 40/1
Alabama 50/1
Cincinnati 50/1
Colorado 50/1
Notre Dame 50/1
San Diego State 50/1
Tennessee 50/1
Texas A&M 50/1
West Virginia 50/1
California 60/1
Gonzaga 60/1
Marquette 60/1
Washington 60/1
Butler 65/1
Vanderbilt 65/1
Villanova 65/1
Illinois 75/1
Kansas State 75/1
Miami FL 75/1
Minnesota 75/1
New Mexico 75/1
Oklahoma 75/1
Oregon 75/1
St. Louis 75/1
VCU 75/1
Virginia 75/1
Wichita State 75/1

Not pictured: DePaul at 4,000/1.

Jump on the Demons at that price while you can.

Tuesday Afternoon Cardinal News And Notes

2012-05-15T18:12:00Z

Beautiful. You are truly an artist, John Allen.

Our man Dark Slime makes it official:

The cat is out of the bag so I will go ahead and say it. I will be a guard at the university of louisville next season #L1C4 #CardNation
— Michael Baffour (@Born_R3ady) May 15, 2012

Huge news in the world of the U of L women's basketball team, where starters Monique Reid and Tia Gibbs have each been granted a medical hardship waiver and will be eligible to play next season.

The Cards are officially contenders.

It's Senior Night for the Louisville baseball team, which will host Morehead State at Jim Patterson Stadium this evening. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m., but there will be a ceremony for the seniors held prior to that.

It's almost a guarantee that the Cards will not host a regional or, potentially, a super regional, so this is more than likely your last chance to catch the boys at home this season.

I'll fully admit that the vast majority of the financial details pertaining to athletic programs across the country that were released by USA Today on Monday goes way over my head. Thankfully, Eric Crawford is here to make sense of the whole thing.

Most notable in Crawford's blog post (at least for people like me...who are dumb) is the following chart comparing the numbers for U of L and UK:

If this still hasn't left you sated, then check out Eric's Twitter timeline from last night for even more information and interpretation.

Did you know John Calipari makes more than the entire athletic budget of five Division-I programs? Did you know I have a band-aid on my left ring finger right now? I just knocked two things out of your brain to make space for those pair of bad boys.

Peyton Siva will be one of the guests tonight on Inside College Basketball with Jeff Goodman on SiriusXM Channel 91. The show runs from 7-10 p.m., but no word what time Peyton will be on.

Finished Graduating Marques Maybin:

The Sporting News continues its positional rankings of the best returning players in college basketball, and has Chane Behanan as the No. 9 power forward...three spots behind Kyle Wiltjer.

9. Chane Behanan, Louisville

The question with Behanan remains not his talent, which would appear to be unquestioned after he reached double-figure scoring in five consecutive NCAA Tournament games, or his effort for the same reason.

The only issue now is whether a true power player can be a star for coach Rick Pitino - without having the sort of long-range skills Jamal Mashburn and Antoine Walker demonstrated for him at Kentucky. Behanan does his deal along the baseline, and he was huge in the Cardinals' Final Four run. If he sees the ball enough, he could be a tip-to-buzzer star.

Mike Moser at 10 is also seems borderline insane, but whatever, it's May and at least we're being given something to talk about...but yeah, that's wrong.

On the center front, Mike DeCourcy has The Gorgster at No. 3.

3. Gorgui Dieng, Louisville

Dieng is a case study in the value of NCAA basketball. At a time when pro franchises have fallen so in love with the sounds of their own voices as to ignore the obvious evidence they do a terrible job of training players, Dieng walked into Louisville essentially unskilled. He was 205 pounds in high school, ranked as a 4-star prospect because of his height and shot-blocking.

He shot just 53.8 percent from the foul line as a freshman and scored in double-figures only three times. Now look at him. As a sophomore, his foul shooting improved to 67.6 percent. He became a factor on offense with a 9.1 scoring average. And his defensive command along the baseline helped lead the Cardinals to the Final Four. This kind of rapid progress rarely happens in any other basketball venue, but hardly anyone bothers to emphasize this.

Jody Demling has a solid pair of recaps (one and two) from last weekend's May Classic AAU event which saw the Louisville Magic fall to the Eric Gordon All-Stars in the championship game.

Indiana and North Carolina may have both been dropped by Kentucky, but the two powerhouse programs will get to square off against one another in the headline game of the 2012 ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

Here's the full slate of matchups for this year's event.

The Michael Porter news is disturbing.

Chris Smith posing with Nolan Smith's mom following his graduation from U of L:

I've also been told that CS5 did a little shimmy on stage after receiving his diploma. I'm gonna miss that guy. I'm gonna miss that style.

The latest ESPN college baseball bracketology has Louisville as the two seed in a regional hosted by Kentucky.

The College Football Hall of Fame's class of 2012 was inducted today, and that class did not include Howard Schnellenberger solely because his all-time record does not meet their minimum winning percentage requirement.

In a related story, the College Football Hall of Fame is a joke.

Why didn't Scar just kill Simba himself? There was literally no one around besides the hyenas when he was guilt-tripping the prince into running away after Mufasa's death. Pretty sure Ed would have had no objection to that power move.

Luke Winn with a great piece on the different three-point defense philosophies.

Notre Dame's Scott Martin has been granted a medical hardship waiver by the NCAA and is eligible for a sixth season. I can only assume his issue was emotional trauma stemming from an incident in South Bend in February of 2010.

And finally, Yahoo names Gorgui Dieng as the starting center on its "All Junior" team for next season.

C Gorgui Dieng, Louisville

Key 2011-12 stats: 32.8 mpg, 9.1 ppg, 52.5 FG%, 9.1 rpg, 3.2 bpg, 1.2 spg
Buzz: He has a chance to be the biggest defensive difference-maker in the nation next season. Dieng never is going to be a smooth offensive player and his offensive ceiling is limited, but he more than makes up for it on the boards and on defense. He is athletic and runs the floor well, too.

They forgot to add...

Which is equally important.

Who Is New Cardinal Michael Baffour?

2012-05-15T15:34:21Z

In this day and age where what the Cards are eating for lunch is reported with as much fervor as season-ending injuries were three decades ago, it seems impossible that Rick Pitino could slip a player onto the U of L roster without all of Card Nation taking notice.

And yet, that's precisely the situation most of us were faced with when we noticed the name Michael Baffour - the man who will apparently assume the walk-on role previously held by Elisha Justice - in the middle of Pitino's first offseason write-up.

So just who is this Michael Baffour? Let's explore.

The Basics

--Baffour is a 6-3 combo guard out of Bryan Station High School in Lexington.

--Graduated high school in 2010, so he will be a junior this season.

--Averaged 5.4 points per game as a junior at Bryan Station. Can't find anything on his senior season.

--Was also a standout in baseball and track and field.

--The younger brother of Tony Baffour, a track star at U of L from 2007-2010.

--Was born in Ghana.

A Little Deeper

--He believes college athletes should be paid.

--Is a graduate of the Russ Smith School for the Arts.

--Also goes by "Mike."

--Majoring in sports administration

--Can be found on Twitter at @Born_R3ady

Dark Slime

--Pitino notes that Baffour has been nicknamed "Dark Slime" by Russ.

--A quick Google search reveals that Dark Slime is "a recurring monster in the Dragon Quest series."

--Dark Slime is a female monster. This is what she looks like.

--My assumption is that this is not the bedrock of the nickname in this instance.

--At a time appropriately near the end of the first blowout of the season, a "Slime Time" chant will be conducted by the student section. This happens or the season is a failure before Big East play even starts.

--Slime Time shirts and signs will also be produced.

Welcome to the squad, DS.

Bloggin' Rick Rises

2012-05-15T13:59:06Z

Louisville's most famous blogger is back for his first offseason installment, complete with areas where he'd like to see each player improve, a look back at last March's improbable postseason run, and the same surprising "LOL" drops that established him as the best in the biz.

Here's a snippet:

Gorgui Dieng

- Strength and weight gain

-Turning over his right shoulder with low post moves

-3pt shooting- One make per game (have to keep the big fella happy).

Chane Behanan

- Balance on jumpshot. Release out and above head instead of behind his head.

-One on one moves. What we call straight line body to body moves, bullying defense to the basket.

-Defensive footwork

Russdiculous

-Introduce him to passing (lol)

-Improve balance on jumpshot

-Recognize high percentage shots vs. low percentage ones

-Improve his 3pt shooting

Peyton Siva

-Just continue what we started the last month of the season.

-He has made great strides with is technique on jumper.

- Passionate worker!

Luke Hancock

-Rehab until August.

-Move his jumpshot more on right side of head.

-It will take him all of September to regain form.

-Like Peyton, passionate worker!

Zach Price

-Free throw shooting improvement a must

-Arc on jumpshot

-Low post moves, turning over left shoulder

-Passing vs. pressure

-Conditioning is his biggest weakness

Angel Nunez

-Strength

-Defensive footwork

-Like Russdiculous, will introduce him to the art of passing

-Developing consistency with his jumpshot.

Tim Henderson

-Arc on jumper, major key to improvement on his shot.

-Buy him a hair brush so he can brush once a month

-Also passionate worker

Michael Baffour

-AKA (Dark Slime) Don't ask, Russ's nickname.

-Newest walk on from Lexington, will replace the Bullet.

-Have to determine what his best position will be.

Rock and Mike Marra

-Will continue rehab and quickness drills.

Stephan Van Treese

- Like Zach, arc on jumper

- Conditioning

- Turning over right shoulder in low post

I've been saying we have to find a position for Michael Baffour ever since I found out he was on the team 45 seconds ago. Classic Dark Slime.