“ALL RISE!!! Court is now in session. The honorable Bucket Hat King LJ tha Fiasco presiding. Please be seated and come to order”
Settle down, settle down you crazy hooligans. The bourbon has been flowing heavily in the midst of this five game winning streak. You guys have been here before, act like it. Oh alright, I will allow it.
The Cards keep winning, we keep celebrating. Not only did they notch their third win over a ranked team. They also got some sweet, hard earned, revenge against a team they have owned for the past 8 years. What a week it was .
The BHK returned to the YUM! center this week to cover both games for TCZ and the atmosphere was as crazy as you would imagine. It’s always a great day to be a Card, but it is even better now that Louisville Basketball is once again…..FUN. This time last year we were trying to stay off the bubble and trying to salvage an severely damaged program. This season is vastly different and in so many ways.
With a brutal month starting on Friday and ranked team after ranked team on the schedule lets just say we all should refill our blood pressure and anxiety meds now. There aren’t anymore Georgia Tech’s or Miami’s left on the schedule.
To the notes!!
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Any outbursts and you will be removed by Kylo Ren (@peppermayne). She has extremely strong food takes and never smiles in any of her pics because there is nothing funny about CardNation. I love it. She also has went toe to toe with the BHK when it comes to Kit-Kat’s…..that took guts…….I like guts…..we NEED guts. Salute to Kylo, a true friend to the throne.
- If I were to start a petition to keep Christen Cunningham at Louisville for another season, would that be something you would be interested in? Of course I am aware that is an NCAA violation but if we are going down for the sins of the past staff we may as well go down swinging.
Sorry, got carried away there. CC is the heartbeat of this team and carries himself as such. Years ago, a certain Louisville coach coined the phrase “Face of the Program”. If Chris Mack were to do the same, I would imagine Cunningham would be that guy. He never panics, is a calm floor leader, and can do things like this:
Yea…..that is a no-look alley-oop pass and that is also why you need to sign the damn petition and stop asking about possible violations. Worse come to worse I have $300 bucks in an offshore account and I can get us a good public defender. Take the pen.
- Jordan Nwora has been in a bit of a shooting slump the past two games but the good thing is he has still contributed in other areas. Credit to Mack and the staff. Last season Nwora wouldn’t play much defense and would only look to score. Its a prime example of why I cannot stand all the VJ bashing. Just because you are not scoring buckets doesn’t mean you can’t help your team win games.
- Speaking of King, he continues to do the small things when on the court. After only playing 5 minutes and scoring two points against NC State, King appeared in the Pitt game grabbing 3 rebs, assisting on one bucket and scoring two points on a nifty putback. It is not a stat-line that will knock you off your feet, but every little bit helps. Like I have said before, it’s the intangible things that add up in wins.
- The EnochNess Monster or 3NOCH (whichever you prefer) is beginning to realize he is a beast in the paint. As Coach Mack stated in the presser, Enoch has a chance to be a great player in this league. He is a skilled big man and has an amazing shooting stroke when at the free throw line. Typically, you don’t get great free throw shooting from the five spot. Credit to Mike Pegues for working with the big men on this team.
- Not a great week for the Swiss Army knife Dewayne Sutton but just like Nwora he found other ways to help the team win. With teams starting to focus on Nwora more there will be games where guys on this team will need to step up. Look no further than what Sutton has done on the season.
- In the case of Darius ‘The Bulldog” Perry I not going to get on here and pile on the kid. But one thing I will say is Darius has to mature some on and off the court. Being late to a shoot-around is not a great look, especially when you have been struggling here of lately. Perry is still one of my favorite players and I hope he can break out in the next few games. It doesn’t need to be stated how important he will be for this team next season. Perry very well may be our starting point guard so he has to grow up and fast.
- I would talk about Ryan McMahon but some of you would just snitch and tell Rose. Just know the game had to be stopped twice because of his antics. One more season of this nonsense…..
- Very happy that the Cards were able to win on a day where we honored the son of our assistant strength coach Andy Kettler and his wife Kim. The Jaxsen’s Journey shoes, shirts, and wrist bracelet were a nice touch and it was a great way to combat cancer. Coaches vs Cancer continues to be a great movement and I for one hope and pray that we will see a cure for this trash disease in our lifetime. F*** Cancer.
- Let me just say this. If you tweet a pic that could enrage a group of people while delighting another group, don’t get upset when said tweet gets a ton of negative comments on it. While I do not condone personal attacks on one’s appearance, when a pic is placed on social media for the world to see it is subject to all types of reactions. You are fully aware of what you are doing when you take a pic of a rival fanbase dissing CardNation, let’s not get all self-righteous once the pic gets a negative reaction. Have that same energy you possessed when you were posting on your Twitter page. And I am a huge fan of the work they have done, they take some amazing photos. I am just saying that if I take a pic of me dissing BBN and tweet it, I can’t be upset with the comments from their fans who take offense.
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I will now open the courtroom for questioning and statements:
Bass Ackwards (@ChadinJax): Which hurts worse; heartbreak, or a toothache?
A toothache can be fixed. You can’t mend the hole in my heart. Certain things have ripped my heart out before. The refs in the 2005 Louisville/West Virginia game. Michigan State in 2009. Tuck rules. Pillsbury for discontinuing their blueberry Grands biscuits. The Soprano’s series finale ending. Dexter. Bojangles. You want to talk heartbreak, grab a chair and a bottle. I got all day.
Bitter Beer Face (@kevinw502): Are you worried about Louisville’s ability to handle backcourt traps/press?
Extremely. We has seen the press work so well over the last 17 years because it was our identity as Cards fans. But now it sucks to see other teams do it to us. Now I know how everyone else felt. It is very concerning to see us either willingly dribble into the trap or struggle to get across halfcourt. Boston College figured it out late a few weeks ago and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them use it when we visit them in late February. This is why there is an urgency for Darius Perry to get better at the point to be able to navigate us through next season.
Jimmy (@jrnall2): Are you surprised that Skee-Lo didn’t turn into a bigger star after releasing the hip-hop classic “I Wish”?
@kevinw502: Yo, if we’re gonna keep it a stack, the Skee-Lo album was actually dope. Skee-Lo could have flourished in today’s rap landscape, but in that era, there was no lane for a non-gangsta L.A rapper.
Typically I ignore Jimmy because he is a UK fan and I don’t allow blue in the courtroom. But he posed a decent hip-hop question and the music fan in me won’t let it go unanswered. Kev made a great point, Skee-Lo was ahead of his time. If he would have came out in this era he would have had a longer run and may have even went platinum.
Eathy Clark (@eathyuofl): Are you concerned at all with Darius? Doesn’t sound like him to be late.
Not at all, this is your classic case of “Sophomore Slump”. Darius is trying to learn to play point gurad in a new system. He is also still trying to become polished in other areas of his game. I think he is frustrated with his play and just trying to play through it. I also think next season he will be better and more mature to play in this system. Darius is fine, just hitting a rough patch.
L’ville Lich Lord (@jasonmillerprod): Do you think that with how well Nwora is playing he will try his hand at the NBA draft? I know the money is the main factor but I’d love to see him with the talent coming in next year. Also do you see Darius Perry transferring?
I sort of answered this last week. I think Nwora will test the waters but not hire an agent. If he receives a guarantee that he is a first round pick, then he definitely is gone. For all the mock drafts I have seen, he has not been listed in any. I think we get one more year out of him regardless but who knows. I hope he comes back, that would make next years team even more dynamic.
As far as Darius goes, I highly doubt he transfers. As I said above, he is merely going through a slump and will see an increase in playing time next season as he will be our lone returning point guard.
Chris Radlein (@CA_Radlein) Why do our fans watch UK games when we’re not playing them? Being serious. Just trying to understand why both fan bases do this. All Hail the Bucket Hat King! Go Cards!
Easy question, because I am a fan of the game and I assume others are as well. Yes I hate UK with every bone in my body, but they played a marquee game against a top ten Kansas team and it was a game I was interested in. Same goes for football. If UK is playing a marquee game against a quality opponent I am going to tune in to watch.
Now granted I wont be as invested in it and I will probably be surfing Instagram while watching because I don’t care if they win or lose. I also hate the Patriots but will still watch the Superbowl. My motto…..”love the game, hate the team”.
Bryan Lockard (@Byn_Locster): Are you going to create a second twitter account to flame white knights? Because I would follow, just sayin.
No, I don’t do burner accounts. I want you to know it was me that did this to you.
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Person(s) or things who earned a plate of smoked wings from Momma’s Mustard, Pickles, & BBQ:
- Jordan Nwora
- CC’s court vision and no-look skills
- EnochNess Monster sightings
- Ryan McMahon celebration pics
- VJ King’s “small things on the court”
- Jaxsen’s Journey https://www.jaxensjourney.com/
- The Louisville Women’s team
- Wu-Tang docs
- Louisville football recruiting weekends
- BMW of Louisville. (Way to right a wrong)
- The goons.
- Rent-free living in our rivals head
Person(s) or things who earned some cold, sauceless boneless wings from Zaxby’s:
- Kaleb from Twitter
- #L’sdowngate
- “Beat the traffic” fans. We are clinging to a lead, your car is fine.
- The movie “Downsizing”. Really want those two hours back.
- Polar vortexes. Any wind chill that can kill me is dumb.
- Amand Seales comedy specials. Comedy is supposed to make me laugh, not put me in a deep coma.
- Matt McGavic just because he thinks the insults will stop because baseball is about to start. Nah……it goes year round fam.
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And in closing, we have an awesome week of basketball on deck. The Cards travel to last place Wake Forest on Wednesday before returning home for a rematch with UNC on Saturday. That game is a “White-Out” game so you have a week to buy some white gear if you don’t have it already. A t-shirt, a polo, a dress shirt, it doesn’t matter. MAKE SURE IT IS WHITE DAMN IT!!!
Huge games are on the horizon. Feels like we are watching the coming attraction trailers at the movies right now. Blockbuster game after blockbuster game. This is what we have been missing, this is why we are fans. Regardless of the outcomes, this has been some of the best seasons for Louisville basketball.
I remember thinking it would take years to get back on track. All it took was a great coaching staff and players who believed from the start. Perfect combination. Let’s do this.
Be cool in this hot city.
Court adjourned (bangs gavel)
LJ Nesbitt
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