All Entries in the "Downtown Arena" Category

Pick Your Louisville Arena Seat

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Louisville Arena By Night

The lights are on  at the construction site of the new downtown arena, which will serve as the new home of the University of Louisville basketball team. The opening will be Nov. 1, 2010, a mere 486 days away. President James Ramsey awarded the U of L Presidential  Medal to Chairman Jim Host and board members of the Louisville Arena Authority this week. Here’s a link to the arena web cam.

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Louisville Gear Attracts Friends, Foes

By Paul Sykes

Wear the gear and people will comment. We recently went on a “mini-vacation” to Nashville and Gatlinburg…a chance to relax, get away from it all and enjoy the splendor of the Great Smokies. I packed several Cardinal hats and shirts and proudly wore the colors as we toured.

More than ever, total strangers were coming up to me out of the blue to discuss University of Louisville sports. I heard several positive comments about Lady Cards hoops, the baseball team and the prospects of Earl Clark and T-Will in the NBA draft. An Atlanta resident informed me she was so happy that Angel McCoughtry was playing for the Atlanta Dream.

One young man, wearing a questionable pink University of Kentucky baseball cap, assured me that UK would sweep football and basketball this year. I laughed good-naturedly and commented that he looked good in pink, which drew the laughter of his sidekicks and produced a scowl and verbal obscenity from him as he slinked off.

A young lady later that evening, sporting a John Calipari T-shirt, smugly informed me “those Cardinals weren’t no damn good.” I chuckled and offered her a couple of dollars to take off the Calipari shirt and let me use it to clean off the table where we were sitting.

Rejected.

We were in an English pub on the outskirts of Gatlinburg, sampling some very tasty porters and stouts, when the proprietor of the pub walked over to our table, grinning broadly and informed me he was a transplanted Cardinal and bought our next round. Discussion turned eventually to the prospects of the football team. “Joe” isn’t a candidate to start the Gatlinburg Steve Kragthorpe fan club, believe me. If you read this, Joe, remember Sonja’s motto: Love the players, love the game.

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Minutes later, the news flashed about Michael Jackson. For the rest of the night, the sudden death of the “King of Pop” was the buzz of the city.  The band playing in the bar even played a nicely done four or five-song tribute to the icon. Say what you will about the headline grabbing Mr. Jackson, “Rock With You” and “She’s Out of My Life” are two songs that will always bring back the memories of the beginnings of my life long love affair with the cagey lady who shyly agreed to go out on a date with me over 3o years ago.

The album “Off The Wall” was released in 1979 and several months later,  UofL won its first National Championship in basketball. It’s the only Jackson recording I’ve ever bought. I’ve even owned it in eight-track, cassette and CD.  Good times.

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Kragthorpe Sorry For Missing Football Camp

The apology tour has begun for Coach Steve Kragthorpe after inexcusably missing an opportunity to represent the University of Louisville program at the Kentucky Football Coaches Clinic on Thursday. About 120 high school football coaches were stood up when Kragthorpe failed to make an appearance.

The observer was reminded of his first impression of Coach K about two weeks after he took the U of L post, the coach showing up more than an hour late for his first meeting with fans at the Neutral Zone in Middletown. Said he couldn’t find the place. Bad omen, the observer was thinking at the time. New guy, new town, let this one pass.

But this latest faux pas is flat out embarrassing. Take it, Coach K:

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Mixing It Up, Cards Style

Advance Ready Mix knows how to customize the cement mixing vehicles for its work on the construction project, scheduled to be completed in November 2010. The same company decorated its trucks in a similar fashion following U of L’s first NCAA basketball championship in 1980.

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The Ralph Willard Choice At Louisville

Probably the best thing about Rick Pitino’s decision to hire Ralph Willard of Holy Cross as his new assistant at the University of Louisville is that Pitino did not stoop to hiring a friend of William Wesley’s (a.k.a. World Wide Wes) in an effort to plug in to that pipeline of controversial connections to high school basketball talent. That was believed to be an option.

The regrettable part is that Wiley Brown, an integral part of U of L’s 1980 championship team, was not the choice. Brown’s credentials have never been questioned and he has paid his dues, serving as strength coach for Pitino and getting successful coaching experience under his belt at Indiana-Southeast with a 24-6 won-lost record last season.

Like many of his decisions, Pitino makes the least predictable one, this time choosing a head coach to become his assistant, a post usually reserved for up and coming coaches. Twenty-one of Pitino’s former assistants or players have become college head coaches. So what do we know about Ralph Willard:

• The 63-year-old is Pitino’s best friend. Pitino actually presented a surprised Kevin Willard, Ralph’s son, with a Rolex watch when his Iona team played U of L two years ago.
• The elder Willard, an assistant to Pitino at the New York Knicks and the University of Kentucky, hired Tom Crean (Indiana coach) as an assistant at Western Kentucky University.His coaching record is 303-213.
• While Willard has had health issues — prostate cancer in 2002 and a heart condition in 2008 — he says the fire still burns within him.  “To me, it’s all about teaching and winning and relationships. To me, that’s what coaching is all about.”
• Obviously, Willard is not pursuing an easier lifestyle by choosing to work with Pitino, as anyone who has worked closely with Pitino will attest. Pitino has plenty of challenges at present and has always expected people he works with to keep up with his frantic pace.

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Ironically, a blogger for the Albany (NY) Times-Union predicted that Willard’s son, Kevin, would get the recently-vacated University of Southern California job, and would hire his father as his top assistant.

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Sean Moth: Clear And Concise

By Paul Sykes

It is late in the game against Cal State Fullerton and Sean Moth is recapping the action for fans that might have just tuned in. Not a pleasurable or easy thing to do, since the Cards are down 11-2 and on the verge of elimination of the NCAA Tournament. Still, Moth gives a dutiful and accurate review of the previous action, keeping to the statistics and avoiding any personal commentary.

Sean Moth from his perch at Jim Patterson Stadium.

Not that many fans are listening, since the game is on national television and the Cards are way down early. Also, the low watt radio station isn’t easy to pick up in most areas of the Louisville area. Despite the blowout and hopelessness of the situation, Moth handles the duties with skill and professionalism.

This is Sean Moth. Talk about a multitude of hats to wear! Not only is he the public address announcer for football, men and women’s basketball, he does the announcing for soccer, volleyball and is sports information director for baseball and soccer. All this from a guy who was doing Colorado Avalanche hockey and Denver Nuggets basketball eight years ago. What prompted the move from the mile high city to Derby town?

Simple. We all know that Tom Jurich gets who and what he wants. Having met when both were at Colorado State, Jurich was well familiar with the professional delivery and photographic knowledge Moth possessed when it came to sports. With the death of long time Cardinal public address announcer John Tong, and a request from backup P.A. man, the late Jack Tennant, for less responsibility, Jurich knew he needed someone that could evoke a little emotion from the fans while giving a clear and concise account of the action on the turf and hardwood.

Moth was the clear choice, and his trademark lines of “that’s good for another CARDS-FIRST-DOWN” chant and the long extended “threeeeeeee” after a long-range shot hitting the mark have become Cardinal favorites over the years.

Now that baseball has ended, Moth gets a brief announcing break for the summer. A chance to do a little fly-fishing and maybe a trip or two to Churchill to watch some racing. A rest well deserved for the University of Louisville’s most audible guy. The tag, “Voice of the Cards” will always belong to Paul Rogers…but for Sean the title “Man on the Mike” seems to fit just fine.

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