Athlon Magazine, which features Peyton Siva on this season’s cover, picked the University of Louisville basketball team to finish 10th in the Big East Conference and to do no better than the National Invitation Tournament during the upcoming season.
But that was before the following occurred, in no particular order:
- Justin Coleman declared ineligible.
- Robert Sallie, an expected transfer from Memphis, failed to enroll.
- Gorgui Dieng declared ineligible by the NCAA clearinghouse.
- Russ Smith out eight to 12 weeks with an ankle injury.
- Jared Swopshire out for six weeks with a sports hernia injury.
One has to wonder how much confidence the Athlon scribes would have today in their original predictions.
Between Strong, Kragthorpe and Pitino Louisville is spending about $5,000,000.00 in salaries to head coaches that have no current expectations from their boss to win. The future is what it is, but right now this is a pretty dreary time. At least the games are easier to watch. A lot less stress. Expect the worst, hope for the best seems to be the UL motto right now.
This after finishing the season before last ranked No. 1 following the regular season and the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Too easy to forget.
I hear people quote this all the time. What YOU forget is that we underachieved in the only area that mattered that year. Getting bounced in the elite 8 as the top 1 seed should be considered a failure.
I read the Crawford article and it sounds like Pitino is selling a “bridge season”..? A bridge to nowhere? – The academic oversights are sloppy the injuries are a crap shoot. Wow! I will be biting my nails again this season…
At least I have good seats for the other events at KFC Yum Center.
If the 2011 class doesn’t sign as they have indicated and BE ELIGIBLE we could / should (readers’ choice) be looking at some major changes in the coaching staff. All the way up.
The trend is definitely downward. But then again the season hasn’t started yet.
Mr. Justice, whom originally agreed to be a walk on, is the only member of the 2010 recruiting class. This is particularly painful if the NBA has a lockout next year and no member of any colleges’ 2010 class leave after their freshman season. Is it just me, or did I live through this with Cardinal basketball in the 1990’s?
Have to agree with you wilkie. My feeling right now is that this is going to be one of those “Kragthorpian” seasons with many losses on the court and the fans going after Pitino, Jurich and each other and could get ugly again. If that 2011 recruiting class falls apart like several others have, Pitino is going to have some major challenges. In fact, it has contracted and expanded like an accordion several times already.
We are not getting a good return on our $4-million a year invested in coaching expense in my opinion.