Instead of saying, "You suck" they will use such phrases as "Y'all tried really hard, but it just wasn't enough." That latter phrase certainly applies to the Louisville Cardinals after their loss to Kentucky. After watching the game, I just want to say to the Louisville fans, "Well, bless your little hearts, y'all tried really hard, but it just wasn't enough."
Russ Smith and the Jones kid are Louisville's best players. There is no question about it. Smith's dunk on Randle is worthy of an ESPN play of the day. Both are quicker than the Harrison twins. Even Cal mentioned Chris Jones in his post game presser, wondering how he missed him on the recruiting trail since Jones is from Memphis. The problem with Smith and Jones is that they're small compared to our guards. The fact is that Kentucky's size across the board had an influence on Louisville's offensive production. Kentucky's size also had a negative effect on Louisville's rebounding as Kentucky beat the Cards at both ends of the court.
I don't know if any of you listen to the Matt Jones radio show after the games, but last night's was good. Jones is a Bell County kid who went to school at Duke, but never wavered in his love for UK, particularly UK basketball. He lives in Louisville and absolutely hates (sports variety) UL, Pitino and the Cardinal fan base. He went off on Pitino last night over Pitino's refusal to meet with the media like all the other coaches do after a game at Rupp. Pitino met with a selected few outside the Louisville locker room instead. And, Pitino blamed the Rupp Arena crowd for undue influence on the referees. He also noted the crest-fallen looks on the faces of Rich Bozich and Pat Forde, who claimed that this game was about to different approaches by two different schools and coaches in their respective approaches. You can guess who Forde favored. After all, Forde helped Ol' Slick write a book. Didn't Rick just write a book on humility?
The best part of the show came from a particular Louisville fan who claimed that Louisville will still win another national championship this year and also made the claim that if the game had been played in the Yam Center, the Cards would've won by 15. Yep, you read it right.... The Yam Center. I almost fell out of my chair laughing. Bless their little hearts. We now have another derisive name for the chicken bucket.
I don't usually go to Louisville forums except when the Cats and Cards play and only go there for the humor. Check this one out for laughs.
As you can see, the first poster asks a legitimate question and he is probably right. The humor comes from the second post. Bless their hearts.
One of my favorite posts came from this guy: My take after a trip to corrupt
As Matt Jones predicted, Louisville lost because of the Rupp crowd's influence on the refs. Wonder where he got that? In reading the second paragraph, my first response was, "Oh Really?" I guess his ADHD prevented him from noticing that Randle really didn't play much in the second half and didn't score. Not sure how he can claim that "Randle is their only true weapon." Also, he apparently didn't notice the no-call on Smith's bunny hop. And, finally, you'll note that the race card has been played. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention poor Luke. Y'all tried really hard, but just weren't good enough.
Just think what the score would've been if the Cats had hit their free throws, especially the front ends of a one and a bonus? As Glenn showed us in his Postmortem, Kentucky came out ahead in the four factors of winning. In fact, the game wasn't as close as the score.
With the win, Kentucky goes into 2014 on an upbeat and a win over a Top 25 team, something we never saw last year. Calipari's record is now 77-2 at Rupp. When he was hired, he made the promise that Kentucky would not lose at Rupp. Perfection is rare if not completely unobtainable, but the record is within the bounds of Six Sigma, or near perfection.
Louisville first, Cards forever
You betcha! I'm not sure from where or when this little ditty came, but it has been shortened to L1C4 and is usually accompanied by some gang sign "L." If one were to place that "L" on the forehead, it would have a totally different meaning. Last year it had some meaning for Kentucky fans who made sure the Louisville fan knew the real meaning: Louisville 1 Cats 4 since Calipari came to Kentucky. The burning question now is will L1C4 be changed to L1C5? Seems appropriate to me, bless their hearts.