2011 NCAA Championship Tournament!!!

It's the best time of the year and the bracket is finally all set and ready to begin!!!  After a runner up showing in the Big East tourney, we all thought our Cards might grab a #3 seed going into the big dance.  However I'm not surprised that they gave us a #4 seed and I'm actually ok with that.  However, Cuse being a #3 seed instead and Florida being #2 seed is absolutely ridiculous.  This is one of the hardest brackets I can remember filling out.  So many up in the air games and not really any for sure dominate teams.  Gonna be a wild and amazing tourney.  Good luck to everyone in their pools! Go Cards!!!

Love these Pics!

Love these 2 pictures and I'm very proud of our showing in the 2011 Big East Tourney! Off to the big dance now!!!

Best Thing Ever!!!

Team Updates!!!

I apologize for not blogging that much lately but its due to my hard drive deciding it would much rather become a paper weight and retire to file 13.  However apple care saved me and now I'm back at it.  So here are the things going on in my sports world:
Packers vs Steelers in Super Bowl XLV
So obviously this is the biggest story of the past few weeks, especially for me.  After many years of not really having one of my teams in a Championship game, finally my Green Bay Packers have made it back to the Super Bowl.  Not only that but their opponent will be my 2nd favorite NFL team, the Pittsburgh Steelers!  This will be no doubt be a great/close game but I am 100% confident that the Packers will get the win and add another title to their collection.  I feel strongly about the outcome because our players/coaches are not being recognized for their great play this season.  Aaron Rodgers and Tramon Williams were snubbed for the pro bowl, Clay Mathews was snubbed for Defensive POY, and finally Mike McCarthy not winning coach of the year was one of the worst things ever.  Because of these factors I feel the Packers are here to prove that they are back and want to be on top where they belong.  Making it this far with all of the adversity the team has gone through means we have no intention on losing this.  Go Pack!
Louisville Cardinal Basketball hangin in there!
Much like the Packers, my Cards have gone through an unusual amount of injuries this season.  To be where we are through all of that is amazing considering this was what Pitino called a "bridge year."  Not having a star on this years team has been the key for victory.  I know that sounds crazy but I've never seen a team play more like a well-round actual "team" in my life.  Even through all of the obstacles we find ourselves tied for 2nd in the Big East(preseason picked to finish 8th) and 13th in the nation!  We play a struggling Depaul team this Saturday and I look for us to get a few injured players back follow that game (Dieng/Knowels/Buckles).  Good things to come and keep up that "team" play fellas! GO CARDS!!!
Where are the Lakers?
Wow this month has not been kind to the Lakers as they drope 4 of the last 5 and pushing their record against winning teams to 9-10.  This was all capped off with a horrible last second loss to the Spurs last night.  With living in LA I hear all of the opinions and gripes from everyone out here.  Is the team too old? Are they not tough enough? Not focused?  I personally think they will be fine but they are gonna have to turn things around a little bit before they find themselves fighting for a playoff spot.  To be continued...
Football Cards class of 2011!
Now that national signing day has come and gone we officially locked in the  21st national ranked recruiting class of 2011.  The only hitch in this years recruiting class was DeMarcus Smith deciding that Teddy Bridgewater was too much to compete with and committing to UCF.  That really just makes things easier on the staff choosing the starting QB for next year!  Great job coaching staff!  In Strong we trust!  Go Cards!!!

Cards!!!

Go Cards!!!

LEGIT!!!

Near Perfect Day of Sports!!!!

So the day started with my Louisville Cardinals beating the Marquette Golden Eagles by 1 after trailing by 18 with 6:00 left in the 2nd half.  Literally couldn't believe we won this game!  We went on a 24-5 run in that final 6:00 to grab our 3rd win in Big East play.  This could be considered a season saving comeback in this game due to how tough the Big East road is ahead of us.  In Preston we trust!

Next up was my second favorite NFL team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, taking on the Baltimore Ravens.  Like we all knew it would be, these two teams battled like a heavyweight bout for 4 quarters!  In the end it was the Steelers getting the win 31-24 and moving onto the AFC Championship game!

In the finale of the day it was my Green Bay Packers absolutely destroying the Atlanta Falcons 48-21!  Through all of the injuries this season we are still in the position we had hoped to be in coming into this season, the NFC Championship Game!!!!  Aaron Rodgers played lights out and seemed unstoppable throughout this great win!  Next stop, the SUPER BOWL!!!!!! Go Pack!!!!

So like I said, with all of my teams winning today on such large stages, this is one of the best sports days for me in as long as I can remember! 

Van Treese and Goode must take over Buckles minutes!!!

I have to give credit to a much improved USF team that we had to grind out a win against today!  This team is pretty tough this year!  They are a very large team with a few lights out athletes who can score quickly.  Fortunately for us they are young and don't quite have the depth to compete the full game!  It took us all the way down to the final 5:00 of the game before we wore them down enough to pull away and safely get the W!  MVP without a doubt goes to Stephen Van Treese who finished with 12 points and 14 rebounds.  We will need play like this out of him on a consistent basis until we get Rakeem Buckles back(4 or so weeks).  Go Win! Go Cards!!!

We upset Butler 88-73 in YUM Center opener!!!

I will be honest with you, going into this game I was pretty uncertain on not only how we would perform in this game but also how this whole season will unfold.  I mean after losing our top recruit to UK and our 2nd best recruit to grades we were left with the smallest incoming class I can ever remember us having.  So my first thought of this season was that we would be lacking our usual depth on the team.  Well, it turns out that I was wrong about that, thankfully!  Turns out we played with better depth and more as a team in this season opener than we did all of last year!  The stand out player of the game was Rakeem Buckles who I said all last year would end up being our new Earl Clark!  Elisha Justice was the most impressive freshman of the night looking very comfortable running point especially in the late minutes.  Bottom line is we are young an inexperienced but there is clearly something special about this group.  They play with a spark and seem too work well together.  Lets hope there is more to come of this for the rest of the 2010-11.  Go Cards!!!

New Season, New Era!

We are just a few hours away from tip off of the 2010-11 University of Louisville Men's Basketball season and more importantly the historic first game ever at our brand new downtown Yum Center arena!  Prime time espn coverage begins @ 5pm pst/8pm est where the Cards will take on 17th ranked Butler who was the runner up in last years NCAA  tourney.  Go Cards!

New Era!!!

Funny...

Can't wait for the YUM Center to open!

PRESTON!!!!

Our only 2010-11 senior!!!

T. Will doing what he does!

A good hard fight for the Keg of Nails! Louisville 27 Cincy 35!

Well unfortunately our Cards lose another game on the year to drop us to 3-3 on the year, right at .500.  You could look at this as a negative or you can look at it like me and think about how much better we are compared to the past 3 years!  We look like a confident and well ran winning team now!  Even though it would have been amazing to take back the "keg of nails" at least we now know for sure our team is back on track!  We are finally lighting up the scoreboard like a traditional Cardinal team!  Our running game is amazing thanks to Balil Powell who had 209 yards and 2 TDs!  Adam Froman has settled in and is starting to become much more accurate and seems pretty comfortable in there now!  A loss is never a good thing but I think we can take a lot of positive away from this one and use the motivation/momentum towards next weeks match up.  Stay Strong! Go Cards!

Look at these new bad boys!!!!

The KFC Yum Center aka "The Bucket" finally open for business!!!

Can't wait to watch the Cards to go off here!!!! Check out this video as well, even better than  the one above! Click Here!

Welcome to the Cardinal Family Angel Nunez! In celebration here is the best video ever!!!

I was there going off!!!!

Brad Plays A.D.

This is an open letter to all 2011 incoming freshmen who have the University of Louisville on their list of possible schools.  Join us, help us, win with us, go off with us!  Our school has an unbelievable tradition on winning, education, NBA draft possibilities, and the best fans you will find anywhere.  When you play for us, you become a life-long Cardinal and we will never forget that.  You will always have a home here.  So far our 2011 class is looking great and if we could add you to the team we have an outstanding chance at a national championship!  The time is now, we/you need a championship! We are hungry as a team and a Cardinal family.  All I'm saying is that you all are the best of the best and we are ready to welcome you to the Cardinal family! Lets take over the game, together!!!!

Thanks,

Brad Magers
Ultimate Card
 (attn: Quincy Miller, Deuce Bello, Rodney Hood, Tony Wroten Jr, Tyler Harris, and Angel Nunez)

R.I.P.

Daniel Covington
December 15, 1986 - September 16, 2010
former University of Louisville Cardinal Football Player

Kenny McKinley
January 31, 1987 – September 20, 2010
WR Denver Broncos