What’s with the early start for college basketball?
A high percentage University of Louisville fans are still emotionally invested in football but here’s the basketball team preparing for a fourth game already. Before Thanksgiving.
Charlie Strong’s team in an unbelievable five-way tie for first place, with the tantalizing possibility of participating in a BCS bowl, images of maybe returning to Miami and another Orange Bowl already? Way ahead of schedule if everything falls UofL’s way this weekend.
Here’s Adam Lefkoe, a WHAS-TV sportscaster, breathlessly proclaiming that basketball fever has already reached a fever pitch in Kentucky, apparently oblivious to different mindsets out in the State and here in the Metro.
And there’s Rick Pitino over at the Yum! Practice Center, getting off to an early start on the pontificating, getting philosophical about the continuing string of injuries, and proclaiming the unique greatness of Big East basketball. How dangerous teams like Arkansas State and Long Beach State will be and why they are on the schedule.
Back over at PJCS, Strong is attempting to get his football team to focus on South Florida, reminding them that a UofL football team has never won a game in Tampa Bay. Trying to discourage their young minds from getting ahead of themselves, blanking out visions of BCS rings, at least for now. Mr. Red has a great summation of all the BCS possibilities over at Cardinal Laws by the way.
Hopefully, Strong is also reminding them that a lot of breaks went their way at UConn while breaking the news to them that few breaks ever go Louisville’s way at USF, that the host team always plays possessed against UofL arrives, especially when that UofL team is favored.
To be honest, there was no way this observer was going to let anything divert his attention away from the UofL-UConn football game the other day — although the basketball game against Butler was priority 1B.
Used to be for everything there was a season, a time for every purpose under the sun. Basketball and football seemed to have converged into multi-seasonal conglomeration competing for our emotions, sometimes pitting one against the other.
We’ll make the transition, we promise. Just get us past South Florida.
With this D, I like the Cards even if they start Daniels.
USF QB B.J. Daniels is day-to-day with the shoulder he injured against Miami. IF he’s not able to go, I like Louisville chances to break the streak of losses.