I'm back!!!

Sorry for the lack of blogging this past week, all of my time was taken up by the South By Southwest Festival in Austin, TX.  This year was an amazing time as usual.  I saw a bunch of great music as well as a bunch of great friends all while eating too much amazing food.  The only thing that went wrong this past week was the season ending showing in the NCAA tournament by my Louisville Cardinals.  Oh well, it was a up and down season that kept us all frustrated.  Bring on next year as well as Justin Coleman and company(incoming freshman class).  My bracket is pretty busted however I still could end up having some elite 8 as well as final 4 teams in there.  I'm currently blogging from my bunk in our tour bus so my internet isn't the fastest.  I will be blogging more asap I promise.  I will leave you with a quick picture from SXSW!

My view from stage while we played the Mess with Texas showcase at SXSW!

All seeds are set and ready to go in the 2010 NCAA Tournament: Cards get in as a 9 seed, set to face #8 seed Cal.

Its finally here!!!  So now its time to get your brackets filled out and pull out all of you favorite teams gear and put it on.  This is the best time of year for basketball, right after the tournament seeds are announced and before it actually begins.  I'm so excited for this years tourney and hope that my Cards can put together a good run!  Anyone could take this tournament really because all teams except UK and Kansas have shown signs of having major flaws at times.  Should be an interesting one and there will for sure be most post to come!

Congrats to West Virginia on their first Big East Tournament Championship!!!

This was an amazing Big East Tournament showdown and came down to yet another Da'Sean Butler game winner!  It was an amazing game to watch and confirms that the Big East is the most intense and talented conference in the nation.  On we move to the NCAA Tournament!!! Go Cards!!!

A late Congrats shout out to my NASCAR driver Kurt Busch for his win last week at Atlanta!!!

I know I'm almost a full week late on blogging about this but I can't tell you how excited I was when I watched my driver, Kurt Busch, get his first win of the season while at a bar in the Tulsa, OK airport last weekend.  After leading for most of the day Busch took a pit stop to get 4 new tires with only a few laps left which gave him the edge leading into the green, white, checkered finish to come.  Finally after a few more wrecks that prolonged the finish they were a go with Busch leading headed into the final lap.  Luckily he was able to hold off the field and get his first win of the season in only the 4th race of the year.  Lets hope that this is a sign a great things to come for the Miller Lite #2 Kurt Busch racing team this season!

Congrats to the Cats on a 30 win season!!!

Don't be surprised when you see me posting about the UK Wildcats, just because I'm a UofL fan doesn't mean I dislike UK.  In fact I pull for UK every day of the year except for 1.  I support all the teams coming out of Kentucky and have never had bad feeling toward them.  I just wanted to say congrats to the UK Wildcats on a great season and getting their 30th win before the tournament even starts.  Keep up the good work and represent Kentucky well, yes that means you too Cousins. 

Getting ready to head out again. First stop, SXSW!

Sorry everyone for my lack of posts lately but as I had hinted in previous posts I had some family stuff to take care of as well and getting ready to hit the road for the year.  I will be leaving this coming sunday and heading to SXSW in Austin, TX first, then a USA tour followed up by the UK and Europe.  Don't worry, just because I will be out doesn't mean I won't be posting because I will!  March Madness has already begun and I'm so excited and can't wait to post about all of the crazy things that will happen.  If anyone is at SXSW let me know and we can grab a drink!  Below is a flyer from one of many shows we will be playing at SXSW! List of others SXSW shows!

The Perfect Send-off !!!

It's only fitting that the best most amazing game I have ever seen at Freedom Hall happened to be the very last ever to be played there!  I have been attending Louisville Cardinal games in Freedom Hall my entire life and have had a million amazing memories throughout those years.  However nothing compares to the atmosphere and pure joy that we all felt on that final day in Freedom Hall as we upset the #1 team in the nation.  I had to unexpectedly fly to Louisville a few days prior to the game for my grandfathers funeral which as you can imagine was already very emotional.  So being able to go to the game before I left town made it even more special/emotional than it already was.  

For as far back as I can remember my father and I had attended UofL games together at Freedom Hall so of course we had to close it out by going together for this amazing finale.  Freedom Hall has always meant a lot for the whole city of Louisville and we needed to have the best send off possible to a building that has given us so much.  Words can not describe how amazing and emotional this day was to everyone there and watching at home.  The day started for me getting in line to enter the hall at around 10:45am and getting in shortly after.  Free posters and towels were given out at the door and the 1980 as well as the 1986 championship teams held an autograph signing which drew an insane crowd early.  I have to be honest there was a different feeling and vibe to that day, so many people there walking around and soaking it all in, sad but excited for the future.  The senior day celebration started around 1:40pm and included Pitino talking about each player, an emotional video montage, handing out of jerseys, and a well deserved standing ovation!  Seniors included Chris Brickley, Reggie Delk, Jerry Smith, and Edgar Sosa!

The energy in the building that day was unbelievable and explosive way before tip off.  By the time the game begun the Hall was rocking like never before and was so loud from the energy of the eager fans.  It was finally here, the last one.  It was game time!  There were something like 12 missed shots to start the game by both teams combined before jerry ripped of 8 straight points for the Cards.  However when he scored his eighth point on a huge dunk, he injured his hand and never returned to the game.  I was nervous during the first half because their bigs seemed to dominate the paint while we couldn't even get a look inside.  Luckily we had enough 3's drop to keep us within 5 by halftime.

I feel like at halftime the team as well as Pitino were feeling the pressure of the fans, the ex-players in the house, the fact that it was the final game in Freedom Hall, and most importantly our chance to play in the NCAA tournament.  It seems as if the players knew what was at stake because they came out in the second half with a different look in their eyes.  We scored the first 5 points in the 2nd half pretty quickly to even up the score.  From there the rest of the game seemed to almost not be real.  Shots went in, rebounds found their way into our hands, the #1 team in the nation missed shots, and Kyle Kuric cemented his name into the legend of Freedom Hall by scoring all of his career high 22 points in the second half.  It was amazing!  He rebounded, out hustled everyone, made almost every shot, and finished up with a couple of dunks that literally brought the house down.

The final 2:30 of the game was the best feeling I've ever had at Freedom Hall and by the way it looked and sounded in there, I would bet I wasn't the only who felt that way.  As the time expired and an amazing era of basketball came to a close at our legendary Freedom Hall I couldn't help to think that we really could not have asked for a better ending.  Beating the #1 team in the nation in front of a record crowd with all of our legendary coaches and players in attendance and sealing the deal on a NCAA tournament bid was something we will never forget and will talk about for the rest of our lives.  After the game it was a scene that none of us had experienced before with not a single person in attendance leaving for over an hour.  Speaking to the fans one last time were all of the former players, current seniors, coach Pitino, and Denny Crum who had the final words in Freedom Hall which was very emotional.  Through this and all of these amazing years, there is one thing for certain. Freedom Hall will forever live on in our Cardinal hearts!

Here are a few really good Freedom Hall links:
Freedom Hall on CJ
Freedom Hall's Wikipedia
CJ article
Freedom Hall pics and wrap-up

Nuff Said...

Been on a plane all day and have family stuff this week but will still get some posts in very soon, promise!  By the way Joe Lunardi is nuts! He had us on the bubble last week to being an 8 seed in the NCAA tourney, his bracketology is ridiculous.