All Entries Tagged With: "Louisville basketball"

Groundhog day once more for Louisville basketball

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Arena coming around

Still tons of work remaining on the University of Louisville’s new basketball home but the KFC Yum Center is already providing indications of why it will be a dynamic part of the riverfront. Less than 50 days until the completion date of Oct. 10, and things should start to shape up quickly. Construction crews finally removed the ugly blue cover on the extension overlooking the river. Getting rid of the chain link fence will be a good next step. Click on photo to ENLARGE

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Sypher ensnared in her own net

Karen Sypher just couldn’t help herself. The woman believed she could manipulate the male species indefinitely, having her way with so many men in her life.

A sexual machine, a source of gratification for many.

Two documented cases of shakedowns, unconfirmed reports of others. Using people her sense of normalcy.

Decides to add Rick Pitino, the University of Louisville basketball coach, among the used. After thinking about it for six years.

Big mistake. The beginning of the end.

• Causing threatening telephone calls to Pitino with intent to extort.

• Causing delivery of communications of demands to Pitino with intent to extort.

• Causing a letter to be mailed with threat of exposure.

• Making a false statement to FBI about telephone calls.

• Making a false statement about nature of relationship with a fellow suspect.

• Retaliating against a victim, accusing Pitino of rape.

Guilty of all counts. Game over.

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So who’s really on trial in U.S. vs. Sypher

Karen Sypher is the one on trial, officially.

But other than a prison sentence, she doesn’t have much to lose. Her reputation was soiled a long time ago. Even people who blame her accuser for allowing himself to be seduced have a difficult time giving Sypher any respect.

The allegations against Sypher and the activities in which Rick Pitino was involved have been hashed and rehashed. Time had softened the initial shock of having a University of Louisville coach involved in the sordid affair.

As the trial nears the halfway point, the wounds have been re-opened, exposing the raw and sensitive nerve endings.

While the federal government portrays Pitino as the victim, he is very much on trial in the arena of public opinion. All the ugliness came spewing out during the first week. The details of how Pitino reacted to her demands are not gaining him much sympathy.

There will be no happy ending, whether Sypher is convicted or not. She may want to be the leading lady, but she will always play only a supporting role in the retelling of this drama.

Pitino has already apologized once to his family, the university, the community and his team. But that was a year ago — a long, long time ago, with all these new details staring us in the face. He will be compelled to apologize all over again when this trial finally concludes.

That’s unfortunate because Karen Sypher will never apologize to anyone.

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Another Deuce Bello dunking video

The University of Louisville’s 2011 basketball recruiting class is like an accordion, expanding and contracting with each new summer scouting/recruiting analysis.

Enter now Deuce Bello and friends, who have recruiting junkies, as well as the professional analysts, speculating that U of L may indeed be on the verge of a breakthrough class.

They are dissecting every move this 6-foot-3, 175-pound forward from High Point, N.C. makes, on and off the court.

Facebook. Twitter. Water Cooler?  Yes.

For good reason. Dunking seems to come as naturally as breathing. No running starts necessary. Blocks shots with ease, shoots with confidence. And lots of good friends that excel in basketball.

Notably, Bello is close friends with super stars Tony Wroten and Quincy Miller. Equally important, all of them have good relationships with Tim Fuller, the new U of L assistant.

Here’s new video of Bello:

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U of L message boards in tight race for unique visitors

Click to ENLARGE

Which of the two major University of Louisville message boards is the most popular, Cardinal Sports/Rivals or Inside The Ville? (Rivals is the green line, ITV the blue line on the graph.)

The site were almost even in terms of unique visitors during the most recent tracking period, according to Compete.com. They each attracted about 33,000 unique visitors in May. The number of return visitors is, of course, a different issue, and access to those numbers entails a fee.

What’s really interesting is that the unique visitors for both sites appear to peak in mid-April and May — after the football and basketball seasons are over. One possible explanation is that  conference expansion debate was in full swing at the time.

Somewhat surprising in a number of ways. What’s your take?

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U of L connections at Jtown

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