Emotional win!!!

For those of you who know me you know that every Louisville game, whether a win or a loss, is a big deal and somewhat emotional.  The win that our Cards pulled out today I know meant a lot for the players and fans but especially for myself.  I was caught off guard a few hours prior to this game with the bad news that my grandfather, who had been in the hospital for a while, was in bad shape.  Even before that I was worried about our match-up against a red hot UConn team, now I was barely even in the mood/shape to watch it.  Our season has been an emotional roller coaster and it just seemed as if we didn't have enough left in the tank here at the end of the season, thankfully I was wrong.  Our first half was a very shaky one in which we shot under 40%.  Luckily Kyle Kuric kept us in it with hitting three 3 pointers including one as time expired getting us within 5 points at halftime.  About 5 minutes into the second half I received a call that no one ever wants to get but indeed it was my mother informing me of my grandfathers passing.  Obviously at that moment the game didn't matter anymore and I had some very emotional alone time thinking about him.  Eventually my attention was forced back into the game as the Cards all of a sudden started to fight back in a way I hadn't seen for a long time.  I'm not gonna lie it was very hard to watch the end of this game but it helped me deal with everything that was going on.  As the Cards hit the game winner with just seconds left I couldn't believe it.  They had won it!  I couldn't help but to think that there was someone special looking down on them and helped get them that win.  As I said before this was a very emotional win for me and I will miss my grandfather very much.  I'm sorry because I don't mean for this to be a downer post but I just needed to vent a little and express how amazing my grandfather was and how we had a special relationship.  Lova ya Pap!!! GO CARDS!!!

Cards Preview: Louisville(18-10, 9-6) vs Connecticut(17-11, 7-8) Sun. 2pm est

When the Cards beat UConn a month or so back the Huskies were in the middle of a mid-season collapse and with coach Calhoun out on a medical leave of absence.  The meeting between the 2 teams tomorrow will be a very different situation.  The current longest Big East winning streak doesn't belong to Syracuse or Villanova like you would think, it belongs to UConn who is on a 3 game winning streak beating Villanova, Rutgers, and West Virginia.  No doubt that the return of their coach as well as there determination to make the NCAA tournament are why they are the hottest team in the Big East right now.  This is going to be a very tough game for our Cards who have to play on the road not only in this game but the next as well(we are terrible on the road this season).  Lets just hope that our players know whats a stake in this one and that our seniors will step it up.  To seal the deal on a bid to the tourney we need to pull out a win in this game as well as our game against Marquette(don't count on us beating Syracuse a 2nd time).  With that being said we have to focus on this one first and try and play our way into a tournament bid.  Kemba Walker will be the player to watch out for in this one since he has been the MVP in UConn's recent surge and of course you have to mention Jerome Dyson who averages almost 20 PPG.  We know UConn very well so I don't need to lay out the numbers for this one but if we can get a win we will be able to breathe a little sigh of relief.  Lets GO CARDS!!!!

Top stories in sports this weekend!

Olympics: USA hockey team blasts Finland 6-1 to advance to the gold medal game where Canada mostly likely get another shot at them.  Also Apolo Ohno goes for 2 more possible medals tonight in speed skating. 

NFL Combine: Top WR prospect Dez Bryant won't participate due to a hamstring injury and Tim Tebow won't throw because of a change in his wind-up/throw.

NCAA Basketball: Robbie Hummel out for season with ACL tear for Purdue.  Huge match-ups this weekend include Syracuse vs Villanova, UK vs TENN., ND vs Georgetown, MSU vs Purdue, and UofL vs UConn. 

MLB: Spring training is getting kicked off and more dumb news about McGuire that none of us care about. Go Dodgers!

NFL: Brian Westbrook and LaDanian Tomlinson were both released by their teams this week which raises the question, where will they go?  Also the Rams have a tough decision with their #1 draft pick, QB or Suh? Draft is only 55 days away!

NASCAR: Sprint cup series race at Las Vegas 3pm est

It's that time again!!! Think Blue!!!

Spring training is finally here and I can't wait for the upcoming season!!!!  The Dodgers are looking good but I'm still waiting for a move to be made on 1 more starting pitcher.  Who knows if that will happen but either way I'm excited for baseball to be back!  Also I have some fantasy baseball leagues as well so if you are interested in that please leave a message in the comments section of this post.  Go Dodgers!!! 

Back on the bubble...

Here we go again.  Can we just skip forward to next season because I can't take this back and forth stuff, its bad for my heart.  After a great start tonight we didn't even show up for the second half against Georgetown in the second to last game ever in Freedom Hall.  We looked like our terrible high school style alter-ego tonight and got HANDLED in every possible way in the second half of this one.  This loss is hard to swallow coming off a pretty solid first half which ending with us up by 6 at half.  Sosa lead our team in this game with some great assists and penetrating moves inside but all that went out the window in the second half.  Samardo looked like he did at the start of the season with missing almost every layup/tip-in.  Turns out Georgetown was not ready to have a 3 game losing streak this late in the season and just wanted the win more than us.  Now we are in a very uncomfortable situation with needing at least 1 more Big East win to make sure of having a shot at a NCAA tournament bid.  The problem with that is our final 3 games are gainst 2 teams who are also fighting to get a tournament bid on the road and a final home game against a team that is mad about losing to us at home earlier in the month.  Our best shot at this will be our road game against Marquette even though they are a great team as usual this season.  Uconn will be tough cause we play them on the road and they have been playing light outs lately, not to mention wanting revenge for the previous game against us.  Not much more to say about the game tonight, pretty obvious what went wrong.  Now off to CT to battle a red hot Uconn team.  Need to get that 10th Big East win, quickly!!! GO CARDS!!!!

GAME STATS

With a semi-not-surprising move the San Diego Chargers releases RB LaDainian Tomlinson after 9 years

Some may see this move as a surprise however SD had talked about this last year and LT had been making comments about how he didn't think he would be a round much longer for a while now.  Not to mention he hasn't produced starting running back numbers in the past 2-3 years.  Of course I'm going to say that the Packers should pick him up so they can easy the load on Ryan Grant and use LT in 3rd down and short yardage situations.  Either way I feel as if LT will be with a new team in no time since he seems to have a little left in the tank.  Either way I wouldn't draft him in your fantasy teams next season.  I miss football already, ahhhhhh!

Cards Preview: Louisville vs Georgetown tue. 7pm est

 Well its very simply at this point in the season for our Cards.  They play well and win at least 2 of their final 4 games to move into the post season or play their way out of the NCAA tournament.  One thing is for sure, if the Cards beat Georgetown at Freedom Hall on Tuesday night they will most likely get a spot in the big tourney.  Another important goal for the Cards is trying to get in the top 4 of the Big East regular season standings which would give them a 2 round bye in the Big East tournament at MSG.  Even with our troubles through this season this is a goal that is not out of reach considering we sit in 5th place as of now with 4 games left.  However first things first and we need to focus everything we have on our match-up with the Hoyas this Tuesday.  The one thing we must do to put ourselves in a position to win is containing Georgetown's experienced big man, Greg Monroe.  Don't get me wrong the Hoyas have a lot of great players but the numbers don't lie.  If Monroe plays well they win, if he doesn't they lose.  Our players should come out swinging in this game since this will be the second to last game ever to be played in our beloved Freedom Hall, very sad.  In this game we must win the battle inside as well as rebound well.  I feel like if we can win the rebounding battle against them, we will have a great shot to win!  Our seniors need to step up as their final season as a Cardinal comes to an end! GO CARDS!!!

WOW!!!

All I can say is WOW! We, the USA, have just defeated the Canadians in an Olympic hockey game 5-3!  By wining this game the USA beat the Canadians for the first time since 1960 in Olympic play as well as becoming 3-0 so far in these Vancouver games!  Go USA!!!

Yet another solid Olymic day for the USA!!!

Headlined by our top 2 male speed skaters, Apolo Ohno and Shani Davis, who added to their already impressive career medal count.  Ohno grabbed his 7th total medal in the men's 1,000 meters by earning the bronze which makes him the most successful American Winter Olympian of all-time.  It didn't come easy for Apolo due to a slip with 2 laps left that dropped him back to 5th place.  However he was able to recover and bully his way back onto the podium in 3rd.  Shani Davis ended up with a silver in his strongest event, the 1500 meters.  This is his 4th medal all-time and doesn't seem to be finished racking up Olympic medals!   Lindsay Vonn added a bronze medal to go with her gold she won earlier in these games.  Much more excitement to come tomorrow with all eyes on the USA vs Canada match-up in Ice Hockey.  Go USA!!!

Three straight wins for the cards(5 out of 6 this month) keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive!

We find ourselves in yet another late season surge which has become common practice in Pitino coached teams.  Despite the ridiculous early season losses are we always seem to end each season with momentum heading into the tournaments.  It's pretty amazing how just a week ago we were said to be out of the NCAA tournament after a terrible loss to St John's.  That loss must have really upset our players because since that game we are on a 3 game winning streak which was started with beating the #2 team at the time!  We have finally played ourselves into position to determine our own destiny.  However our final four games will be the toughest of the year as we have to face Georgetown, UConn, Marquette, as well as another game against a revenge hungry Syracuse team which will be a our final home game in our beloved Freedom Hall(red out game).  In today's game we had our hands full with a Depaul team who clearly does not like sitting in last place of the Big East.  I was very surprised at how good this team is, don't let their record deceive you.  If it wouldn't have been for a Louisville surge in the final 2 minutes, the Blue Demons would have had a shot at the upset.  However our Cards pulled through in the end. Led by Sosa and Samuels who played great in the final few minutes despite both spending most of the 2nd half on the bench in foul trouble.  Sosa ended with 13 points and Samuels with 14, however my MVP of this game has to go to Terrence Jennings who played great in Samuels absence in the 2nd half. TJ ended up with 9 points and 9 rebounds as well as 2 huge blocked shots.  With more playing time this season, Jennings is become the player that none of us knew he could be.  I was also glad to see Kyle Kuric finally get the kind of playing time he saw earlier in the season.  He is great shooter and out hustles everyone which leads to rebounds and forced turnovers!  I do want to mention Mac Koshwal of the Blue Demons who had a great game with 26 points and 10 rebounds.  Well like I said before we have set ourselves up nicely for a run at the NCAA tournament, lets see if we can take advantage of this position.  Any thoughts?

GAME STATS

NBA update headlined by a great LeBron vs Carmelo showdown that took overtime to settle!

I have to say this has been a pretty great NBA season so far, headlined by the teams we all knew would dominate the league.  With the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers jumping out to an early Western Conference lead to an amazing 4-way Eastern Conference battle, some exciting basketball has been played so far this season.  Cleveland, Boston, Atlanta, and Orlando are having yet another battle for top dog in the East with plenty of games left to play.  The West has tighten up a bit after the Lakers have given up a huge early season lead with Phoenix, Utah, Denver, and Dallas now on their heels.  This should make for a great finish to the regular season followed up by yet another amazing post season.  With the trade deadline for the 2010 season now passed, there were a handful of big moves among top teams.  Surprisingly the trade of Amare Stoudemire was not the top headline and actually didn't even happen as Phoenix hangs on to him.  However the best trade was made by the Cleveland Cavaliers who acquired PF Antwan Jamison from the Wizards.  Also the Knicks picked up a top player in Tracy McGrady as well as freeing up some money in what everyone thinks will be for a move on LeBron James for the 2011 season.  Finally I must comment on a game I watched last night that matched up arguably the top 2 players of 2010, LeBron James vs Carmelo Anthony.  LeBron seemed to statically dominate this game with racking up a huge triple double halfway through the 4th quarter and finished the game with 43 points, 15 assists, and 13 rebounds.  However it would be Carmelo who would have the last laugh as well as the last (game winning) shot.  LeBron had an amazing offensive game but had problems guarding the elusive Anthony who made his last 2 shots right in LeBron's face and who knows this game may have been a NBA Finals preview.  How is everyone else feeling about this season so far? What are your predictions?

Uh oh, looks like Strong's Cards just got a bit stronger!!!

On a day tarnished by the Tiger Woods circus, the University of Louisville got some amazing recruiting news and is one step closer to finalizing the 2010 class.  Coach Charlie Strong added yet another player to his 2010 roster in 6-3, 285-pound, 4 star defensive tackle De'Antre Rhodes!  Out of Richmond VA and previously committed to VA Tech, Rhodes had a great visit to the Louisville campus this past week highlighted by attending the 2 OT Cards win at Freedom Hall.  Early on Friday morning he decided he would like to officially become a Louisville Cardinal and fill the second to last scholarship spot for Louisville coach Charlie Strong!  Word on the street is that Strong has one last surprise to fill that final scholarship spot, can't wait to hear who that will be! Exciting football news for our up and coming football Cards! Thank you Charlie!!!

2010 incoming recruiting class

Please be over now!!!

We all knew this press conference was coming eventually because in order for Tiger to become a golfer again he must save face in the eye's of the public.  In my eyes he is just constantly taking up too much time on espn with non-sports related issues.  I do like him as a golfer but really could care less what he does off the course, has nothing to do with sports.  I'm ok with say "court tv" holding day-long Tiger coverage but don't cut into my sportscenter time.  Glad to see him getting his life in order with going to rehab and everything but you could have told us that in about 5 mins of airtime, not 4 months worth of it.  If you want some entertaining off course behavior just follow John Daly around with a camera, that would be a TV show(someone call VH1 with that one).  Ok so let the circus be over and play some damn golf, end of story.

USA takes back the medal lead with a HUGE wednesday in Vancouver!

Today was a big day for the USA following a day when Germany had taken the medal lead from us.  That would all change when some of our top Olympic hopefuls did not disappoint as they proved to be the best in the World today!  Congrats to all of the USA Olympians!!!  I love the Olympics!  Below are today's winners:

Shaun White - Gold

Lindsay Vonn - Gold

Shani Davis - Gold

Julia Mancuso - Silver

Scott Lago - Bronze

Chad Hedrick - Bronze

Cardiac Cards give us all a HUGE scare!

This game drained me mentally as well as physically and I can't believe how lucky we were to squeeze out another win against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.  Yelling, sweating, near vomiting, almost giving up, and having to hold back from throwing things through the TV were all things I was guilty of during this one.  In Samardo we trust is all I'm saying!  Samardo had a career high 36 points and fouled out 4 different ND players throughout this game.  As if that wasn't enough he went 16-19 from the FT line, had 6 rebounds, and 2 blocks.  He was without a doubt the only reason we managed to luckily steal that game from ND.  I'm so excited that Samardo has been playing lights out this year and with this only being his sophomore year, I can't wait to see what the future holds!  The great play of Jared Swopshire also continued in this game with him contributing 12 points and 9 rebounds!  I love the way he is developing and should end up being huge for us in the long run.  I still can't believe that we didn't dominate this ND team who was lacking the 24 PPG output of the top scorer, Luke Harangody.  Somehow they were able to break our press easily, get open for easy 3's, and penetrate in the paint.  None of these things should have happen considering our size, depth, and match-up advantages.  I have to give the Irish credit for playing an unbelievable game!  In the end a win is a win and after painfully watching this game I'm going to sit back and breathe a sigh of relief and hope we get back on track Sat. against Depaul.  Any thoughts?

                           Samardo Samuels MVP with 36 pts!

Another Dominant and Wild Year in The Big East!

I'm so glad we(louisville) made the move years back to join The Big East Conference!  Over the past  few years it has been obvious that The Big East Conference has been at the top of the college basketball world!  Since there are so many great teams in The Big East its very hard to predict anything and there are always strange outcomes/upsets throughout each season.  At the start of the season it was pretty obvious that Villanova and West Virginia were gonna be top teams in the conference since they had most returning top players.  That's about all anyone could correctly predict considering what has happened this year.  Syracuse was picked in the pre-season to finish 6th but has proved everyone wrong by being at the top of conference.  UConn who was picked to finish 3rd in the conference has had a very tough year and has fallen toward the bottom of the league.  Louisville was picked to finish 4th and now sits 7th but is on the move up.  So many strange upsets have occurred this season.  From just this week we had Rutgers defeating Georgetown, Louisville defeating Syracuse, and UConn defeating Villanova.  Never a dull moment in the Big East and it makes for some great basketball! What is everyone's thoughts on this season and what are your predictions as the season nears its end?  Check out the links below to compare the preseason and current conference standings!

Preseason Big East Predictions

Current Big East Standings

Cards Preview: ND vs UofL wed. 7pm est

Alright so here we are again back in the mix for a possible NCAA tournament bid. Will we take advantage of it this time or let it slip away once again?  This season has been so inconsistent for our
Cards and once again we go from being out of the NCAA race to possibly back in, as of this week.  After the St. John's blow out I didn't have much hope for our chances for a shot at the tourney but once again the Cards showed us that they aren't quite finished fighting for it.  Prior to our match-up with Syracuse our only road win was against Providence and our best win in general was beating Cincinnati.  This is not good, no matter how well we had played against the tough teams, we had to have a solid win against a ranked team.  In a game that was either going to save or end our season the Cards finally got that big signature win!  Now that we have that win under our belts, and jumped to an RPI ranking of 31, we need to build on our current momentum.  Task #1 will be a home game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on wed. night.  The headline of the week has been the injury to Luke Harangody and the possibility of him being out for the game.  So far from what I have read it seems as if its not likely that Harangody will play.  However he is rehabbing hard to try and play because this is an even bigger game for the Irish since they are in worse shape than we are.  Either way we are gonna have continue where we left off in that win against Syracuse and play like our season is on the line(because it is). GO CARDS!!!

Cards move up to 31st in new RPI Ranking!

Looks like beating Syracuse was just what we needed!  Moving up 20 spots in the current RPI rankings to 31st and according to ESPN getting back into the right side of the tournament bubble! GO CARDS!!!

Finally our Cards get a signature win: Louisville 66 Syracuse 60!

Louisville 66 (16-9, 7-5 Big East)

(2) Syracuse 60 (24-2, 11-2 Big East)

As much as our inconsistent play have driven us all nuts this year, finally we get a big payoff by defeating the #2 Syracuse Orange!  We have surprisingly won 5 straight against Syracuse and this one was just as tough as the previous 4.  I really can't believe that we were only trailing by 1 at half considering we didn't have much success offensively especially with Samardo being shutout.  In the second half we visibly came out to play harder and our offense finally got going.  Mike Marra had a come out game and proved to be the key to victory in the final minutes! He played 29 minutes, had 4 rebounds, and 12 huge points.  Sosa had a 12 point game also but with under 2 minutes missed a key 1 and 1 which was followed up by Syracuse pulling within 2.  At that point all I could think of was our collapse late in the game against Pittsburgh earlier in the season.  Seems as if our players were thinking the same thing and were not gonna let it happen again.  Along with Marra's late 3's, Jerry Smith hit 2 key free throws off an intentional foul, which were his only points and proved to be huge.  The Cards get that must have win over a ranked team and get themselves back on the right side of the bubble for the NCAA tourney.  I don't want to leave out Swopshire who had a quiet 10 points and 5 rebounds off the bench.  Everyone has been on his case lately but  I think he has had a great year and who cares if he shows no emotion, as long as he plays well.  Lots of work to do here at the end of the season for the Cards but this was a great way to bounce back after that unspeakable loss earlier in the week.  Preview for the next game coming soon! GO CARDS!!!!

Olympic update day 1

Olympic Widget by Widgia

Since I'm a huge fan of the Olympics I will be constantly updating about all of the highlights of the 2010 Vancouver Games!  The games got off to a good start with speed skating and skiing mostly on day 1.  Apolo Ohno is the most popular US athlete and could cement himself as the most successful American winter Olympian of all time by the end of these games.  He was in action on the first full day of competition and seemed on track to dominate.   However had to settle for the silver medal in the final race of the day.  He almost finished 4th but on the last turn of the race two Korean skaters, who were 2nd and 3rd at the time, crashed into each other and handing Ohno the silver medal.  The best story in this race was the bronze medalist who was 19 year old American Skater, J.R. Celski.   In the Freestyle Skiing - Ladies' Moguls Hannah Kearney and Shannon Barhke took gold and bronze helping the US dominate the event!  All together a solid start for our American Teams!

Alright race fans here we go! Finally the 2010 Nascar Sprint Cup Series is back and once again gets kicked off at the most famous race of all, the Daytona 500!  In case you were wondering, yes I do follow Nascar and enjoy it very much(I mean come on I am from KY).  I haven't always been a race fan in fact I've only been following about 4-5 years now and was actually turned onto it by my mother.  My favorite and only driver is Kurt Busch who was the 2004 Cup Series Champion!  There are also a few other drivers I like as well such as, Tony Stewart, JR, Kevin Harvick, and Mark Martin.  Should be a very exciting year of racing and lets just hope that Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon don't win, haha.  Below is the official starting grid for the race!

                                                        

1 Mark Martin 5 Chevrolet 2 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 88 Chevrolet 3 Jimmie Johnson 48 Chevrolet 4 Kasey Kahne 9 Ford 5 Kevin Harvick 29 Chevrolet 6 Tony Stewart 14 Chevrolet 7 Kyle Busch 18 Toyota 8 Juan Pablo Montoya 42 Chevrolet 9 Clint Bowyer 33 Chevrolet 10 Kurt Busch 2 Dodge 11 Regan Smith 78 Chevrolet 12 Elliott Sadler 19 Ford 13 Jamie McMurray 1 Chevrolet 14 Martin Truex Jr. 56 Toyota 15 AJ Allmendinger 43 Ford

Cards Preview: With all 9 lives(losses) used up the Cards must upset the #3 team in the nation

Louisville(15-9, 6-5 Big East)

 vs
  (3) Syracuse(24-1, 11-1 Big East)

I will keep this post short because I don't feel as if our team is worth discussing much after that horrible loss to St. John's on Thursday.  All I will say is that not only must we sweep Syracuse but we must upset G-town down the stretch as well.  I won't say this year is a total nightmare since we are still technically a bubble team but it's gonna take a small miracle to get us in the NCAA tourney.  I'm just upset because in the St. John's game you could just see it in our players and our coach's face that we didn't care to win.  So this brings us to our match-up on Sunday at 1pm est against the #3 Syracuse Orangemen.  Not sure what do say about this one other than "oh boy."  Let's just sit back and hope our Cards, especially our seniors, refuse to have there season end at the Big East Tournament.  Really need this one guys, GO CARDS!!!

Sports on deck for this weekend!!!

                              Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games 

-Opening ceremonies fri. 8:45pm est

• What: 2010 All-Star Weekend
• When: Feb. 12-14
  
• Where: Dallas
• Friday: Celebrity Game, ESPN, 7 p.m. ET
• Friday: Rookie Challenge, TNT, ESPN Radio, 9 p.m. ET
• Saturday: Skills Challenge, 3-Point Shootout, Slam Dunk Contest: TNT, 8:30 p.m. ET (ESPN Radio coverage starts 6 p.m. ET)
• Sunday: 59th NBA All-Star Game, Cowboys Stadium: TNT, ESPN Radio, 8 p.m. ET 
  

 College Basketball:
West Virginia vs Pittsburgh fri. 9pm est
Tennessee vs Kentucky sat. 9pm est
Syracuse vs Louisville sun. 1pm est

                                     2010 Daytona 500
                                          Sun. 1pm est

Cards Preview: Louisville vs St. John's @ MSG!!!

Sorry I haven't been updating over the past few days but I have had a internet blackout at my place which has kept me from blogging.  Today started out badly for me as I was woken up with an ESPN report that Rick Pitino was interested in taking the NJ Nets head coaching job.  Since I was half asleep I went into full panic mode and did calm down until they ran the entire report which included Pitino denying the whole thing.  Either way this is troubling since we all know Rick is from NYC and that would place him back home and that's not to mention the money he would make.  To me it doesn't make sense though since A: Pitino didn't do well as the Celtics head coach B: He has said many times he will finish coaching at Louisville and C: Why would you go to the Nets who will in end season with the all-time worst NBA record.  If Pitino wants to someday get in the NCAA Hall of Fame, he needs to settle in which us for the rest of his career and win some more championships.  He has also been recruiting heavily for the 2010, 2011, and even the 2012 seasons.  If we had a coaching change now that would ruin everything with those incoming classes.  Ok enough of that, let's get to previewing tonight's game.  The St. John's Red Storm come into tonight contest at 12-10 overall and 2-8 in the Big East.  Like all of our games this season we must not look past this team.  D.J Kennedy is by far their best player and who we should focus on stopping.  They handled our press pretty well in our first meeting of the season, which I attended, so we must improve in that category.  Jared Swopshire will make yet another return to the starting line-up for us tonight as Pitino still is looking at match-ups as opposed to sticking with the same starters throughout.  Swopshire has shot well as of late but must become more physical at the 4 position.  This should be a good game and one that we must win to keep us in the hunt for march madness, let's hope we prove ourselves worthy.  Follow on the game to come tomorrow, thanks!

Saints prove to be the best in their first Super Bowl win!

In a game that wasn't quite the high scoring exciting fight we had hoped for, the Saints proved everyone wrong by winning Super Bowl XLIV over the Colts 31-17!  The first half of this game was low scoring defensive battle where we saw a combined 3 field goals for a 10-6 halftime score with the Colts on top.  The Saints would have had a halftime lead but failed to convert on a 4th and goal on the 1 yard-line.   However were able to grab a field goal as time expired in the first half.  A wild and risky onside kick by the Saints to start the second half was pretty much the turning point in the game.  Shortly thereafter the saints grabbed the lead and would never look back.  The colts played well and in fact were on the move and about to score to tie the game at 24 when Manning threw a costly interception.  An interception that was run back for a TD and left the Colts with not enough time to make a comeback.  The dagger was a 4th and goal play with about a minute left to play where Reggie Wayne dropped a pass to seal the win for the Saints.  My predicted score was a little off but I did manage to pick the correct team(check older post).  I feel bad for the Colts but I have to give the Saints credit for a great win especially for their fans.  Hope they don't bring down the city of New Orleans with the party that I'm sure is going down as we speak.  Congrats to both teams on great seasons but a special congrats to the Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints!

                                                   Super Bowl XLIV MVP Drew Brees

Congrats Class of 2010 Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinees!

Headed up by first time ballot and shoe-in inductees, Emmit Smith and Jerry Rice the NFL Hall of Fame class of 2010 were announced today! Here is the list! Congrats!

Guard Russ Grimm 
linebacker Rickey Jackson 
cornerback Dick LeBeau 
running back Floyd Little 
defensive tackle John Randle 
wide receiver Jerry Rice 
running back Emmitt Smith  

Cards get a must win as they move to 6-4 in the Big East!

Despite a tough Rutgers team hanging around for most of the game, our Cards finally put them away to win by 16 and keep us in the hunt for March Madness!  I personally did not like the way we played this game but I will give our Cards praise on how they fought through mistakes and finished off the Scarlet Knights in the end!  The best news from this game was that Jerry Smith finally had a good shooting game and as a team we rebounded very well.  However, what concerns me is that we have been fouling a lot especially away from the ball.  Also turnovers, primarily on bad passes have been a problem for us all year.  Sosa is still driving me nuts with his turnovers, fouls, and bad shot choices.  However he always seems to make up for his mistakes with hitting late game 3's.  Don't get me wrong I love Sosa but he is gonna have to finally tighten up his game as we go into this very important stretch of our season.  I know I sound really negative but I just see us as a better basketball team than how we are playing.  I know some people may call me crazy for complaining when we won by 16 but playing the way way we did today won't get us past Syracuse and G-town.  Ok now that I have vented and complained, lets get to the stats which were actually pretty awesome!  Samardo put in yet another great game with 14 pts and 11 reb and seems to be moving closer to becoming a star.  Jerry lead the team in scoring with 16 pts as well as 7 reb and looked to have come out of his shooting slump, lets hope.  Swopshire also had a solid game putting in 13 pts, 5 ast,  and 8 reb.  Sosa finished with 8 ast which is huge for him even though he still had lots of typical "Sosa" moments.  Our individual stats were awesome and so were our teams stats shooting 54% from the field,  36% 3-pointers, and 81% free throws!  Bummed I was at Freedom Hall for this one to help celebrate the 1975 final four team and Mohammed Ali.  Next up we have St. John's on Thursday, post on that game soon to come.  GO CARDS!!!