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Angel McCoughtry: Pre-Season All American

“I’m humbled by this honor. It was a dream of mine to bring national recognition to Louisville women’s basketball.” she commented yesterday. Note the wording of the statement. Not about her, not about the pride of the recognition, but about Louisville women’s basketball.

Fool’s Gold vs. Setback U: Take Your Pick

By Steve Springer

“Biggest win of the Kragthorpe era,” “The ship has been righted,” “Congrats Coach K and the Cards,” and so forth. These were some of the proclamations after a win over South Florida.  The next game’s results are greeted by “Coach K must go,” and “What will you do to show your disgust at the Cincinnati game?”

The roller coaster ride that is Steve Kragthorpe Cardinal football flew off the tracks again Saturday. The Syracuse loss was obviously the worse loss since, well, the other Syracuse loss. Gulp.  I never would have dreamed of typing “the other Syracuse loss.” Sorry. Seriously, though, this had to be the biggest disappointment since the loss to UConn.  The other UConn loss, you know.  I didn’t think that the season opening loss to Kentucky could be topped.  You guessed it, the other UK loss.

Sorry to sound somewhat confusing, but these “other” losses are really starting to pile up and become overwhelming.  Kragthorpe’s Cardinals are now a Cooperesque 0-6 against the Orange, Huskies, and Wildcats. I’ll admit it.  I had naively started to believe after the upset of the Bulls a couple of weeks ago.

Now I realize that I have the same feeling in my gut that I did as a child on summer vacation.  My parents took me out west for our annual family vacation in which we headed out west to Yellowstone and stopped in one of those tourist trap old-timey western towns with faux saloons and general stores.  We shopped at one of the local flavor cowboy stores and in one of the bins at eye level with my small eyes, I reached in and pulled out a handful of golden nuggets.

I just knew that I was the family savior and had just found the secret stash to make our family richer than our wildest dreams.  My excitement was tempered when I learned the meaning of the words “iron pyrite.” The man behind the counter might have been named Greg Robinson.  He exposed my treasure for what it was, just as he exposed our newfound Cardinal booty for what it was.

Same old fundamental mistakes.  Same old overly abundant penalty yardage.  Same old defensive lapses.  Same old come-from-behind to catch the rear-end-of-college-football.  These losses have stolen any hope that UofL Football has any hope of ever returning to even, (another gulp) mediocrity.

Athletic Director Tom Jurich is The Man. Some fans also believe he is  the man that is going to let this coach run this huge revenue sport out of The Ville back to Cooperville or beyond.  Unacceptable losses are setbacks to a school that rose from the shadows of a minor league baseball stadium to having its toothed beak in the nest of big time college football elite status. They affect success, which affects fan support, which affects attendance, which affects stadium expansion credibility, which affects recruiting, which affects lack of success and any potential for future success.

Setback U, Fool’s Gold.  Whatever you wanna call it, the boosters, the fans, the players, the potential future players want to be able to call it their football team, not a time-killer until basketball season.

Big Detour For The Tise

Much of the fun of attending University of Louisville women’s basketball games the last two seasons has been watching Chauntise Wright have her way in the middle. With her 6-foot-3 wide body, she is an intimidating force for opposing centers, doing the pushing instead of the relenting, a force with which to be reckoned Unfortunately for Tise and her many fans, Chauntise went down hard Friday, suffering a season-ending torn ligament, a major blow in the gut to the Lady Cards.

By Sonja Sykes

Things that stand out about Chauntise “Tise”  Wright: Off the court are her big smile and playful nature. On the court she is calm and businesslike, a warrior dominating the paint on both ends of the court. Tise will need all of those qualities the next few months as she goes through surgery and rehabilitation … not only to keep mind and demeanor in tact, but for the sake of her teammates who begin the season without her in six days.

For Tise, it’s just one more delay in her journey at the University of Louisville and hopefully not her final destination.  Tom Collen recruited the Forestville, Maryland high schooler to Louisville with hopes of turning her into the type of dominating center that top teams in women’s college basketball usually have on their rosters. Collen already had a pretty decent pivot player already in Jazz Covington but he envisioned a future battleship in the middle.

The first season was delayed, Tise becoming eligible only after the fall semester.  There were things for her to work on — a tuneup, if you will, before she got on the road. Weight to be lost, conditioning to work on, defensive skills to be  improved. There were the shining moments, 23 points and  9 rebounds in one game, but she couldn’t keep pace in games against powerhouse schools.

Tise she continued to work on her game along with Angel McCoughtry, another Maryland freshman, seemingly too skinny to have much of an impact. Angel and Tise began together, and they would be counted on as the journey continued. 

That Ill-Fated UConn Trip

By Sonja

While cleaning up the wind storm damage around the Parrish House this weekend, it was inevitable, with Louisville’s next football game against UConn, that talk would quickly turn to memories of the “fair catch” that completely turned the momentum in last season’s 21-17 loss at Hartford. They go at it again Friday night at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium.

Tom N: ” First, it was an incredibly long trip to get to the game from Manhattan. We left five hours before kickoff and arrived midway thru the first quarter. Friday afternoon trying to leave New York…traffic jams everywhere … howling rainstorms on the freeway and we couldn’t find the game anywhere on the bus radio for the longest time. Finally, we got into the parking lot, flagged down a couple of state troopers and they guided us into the area where buses parked. We arrived just shortly after the UofL Cheerleaders and walked into the stadium dressed in our rain gear right into a howling group of UConn students who definitely weren’t showing us any southern hospitality. We made it to our seats, and an almost eerie mist hung over the stadium, light rain and wet metal bleachers to sit on. We weren’t in PJCS, that was for sure.”

Tom D: “I actually missed the controversial punt return, I had gone to the concession stands to grab a hot dog and a soda and hear the roar from inside the stadium. A UConn fan, listening through his head set, told me that the Huskies had scored on a punt return, but the announcers were saying that it might be reviewed. Then, he told me the play would stand, and there had been some controversy on whether it was a fair catch or not. I heard a lot more about it when I got back to the seats, and how obvious the fair catch signal was. I called a friend back in Louisville watching to TV and she told me it was the biggest blown call in the history of college football, and a play like that was not one subject to review. I handed my soft drink to one of the people sitting with me and went off to buy something a little stronger.

Al P: “It was obvious, no doubt about it. The guy waved his hand, Powell stopped pursuit and then the guy takes off with the ball. Pure and simple dead ball, fair catch called. They could probably hear me on the field, I was so upset. It’s a shame that a blown call like that has to change the momentum and nature of a game. The guy taunting and laughing on the sidelines (punt returner Larry Taylor) didn’t make it any better. He knew he cheated and got away with it.”

Tim J: “I really don’t remember much of the game after that point, I was so upset. We walked back to the bus, scores of UConn fans and students celebrating, some taunting us, and I just wanted to get back to the hotel room, take a shower and go to bed.  It’s a little hole in the wall stadium up there, the fans were rude and the lines were long for everything. Just a another disappointing loss in a long season last year. I think I’ll pass on a return trip in ‘09.”

I hate to be Ms. Obvious here, but it’s clear that a lot of Cardinal fans are still carrying a grudge about last year’s game and are seeking some payback this year. The UConn team that comes into PJCS has had some close games and no longer has the graduated punt returner Larry Taylor, but they’ve only lost once and will be another formidable test for the Cards. And, it’s on Friday night again this year. ESPN will be there again. Poetic justice would be for Bilal Powell to go down on punt coverage, slobber knock the returner into Oldham County and scoop up the fumble and carry it in for a score….running over a referee on the way.

I’ll just settle for a win, no rain and good referees this time.

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