Cup O' Jones : ND Gameday

A few golden nuggets of info to get you through the long day of anticipation for tonight's match-up with the Irish. Picture courtesy of Dugan Ryan's facebook profile...

- Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the football team is a complete wreck right now. For a guy to be hired as solo defensive coordinator here and bolt to become CO- defensive coordinator at Kansas is absurd. BF Mangino has built a school known for their offense - not defense - in a conference that plays very little and is a haven for high-powered offenses. I understand coach Miller wants to be closer to family, but if he had the right pieces to build a good defense, I guarantee he would have stayed. Now I'm hearing that strength coach and player favorite Joe Kenn is leaving for the Jacksonville Jaguars and, as TC said a couple days ago, Jeff Brohm is shopping himself around as well. Also, Krag's prized recruit coming next year, LB Mike Privott, was a Miller guy and could possibly be wavering on his decision. I expect at least 5 more players to transfer or quit before spring ball starts. Tom Jurich needs to address this immediately because people are starting to lose trust fast in this program.

- Back to Brohm, I have heard a rumor from a very reliable source that Brohm may be headed to Florida Atlantic to become assistant / head-coach-in-waiting under Coach Schnellenberger. It's a popular treand in college football right now with schools like Florida St., Kentucky, and Texas already appointing who will replace their current coach. That is the best bet for Brohm's future. Another option is Minnesota, where Brohm may have recently interviewed for the offensive coordinator job. All I'm hearing is that Brohm is as good as gone, possibly an official announcement today. It's a shame that we are letting such a loyal guy leave without a fight. Just mark it down as another casualty from the debacle known as the Krag Era.

- Make sure you read Trevor's preview and break-down of the game. The Cards need to do two things to come out on top tonight: 1) Keep ND off the offensive glass 2) Shoot better than 12% from 3-point range. If we do those two things, victory is ours. Frankengody loves the rims at Freedom Hall as he just lit the place up last year in defeat. The match-up between PG Torey Jackson and the Louisville pressure will also be a key. If he penetrates and gets his teammates wide-open looks from outside it could be an uphill battle for the Cards. I see the Cards coming out on top, buy not by much.

- The best announcing team around will be doing the game tonight on ESPN. It doesn't get any better than Sean McDonough, Jay Bilas and Bill Raftery when it comes to calling college hoops. McDonough is one of the best in the business and sometimes his quips about Raftery's drinking habits are hilarious. Bilas is the best analyst in the biz right now with crazy amounts of knowledge to spew. Raftery cracks me up with his sayings like "mantoman", "the keees" and "onions!". all three put together a team that makes watching the game more enjoyable.

- Pitino had a press conference yesterday to preview tonight's game. The audio can be found on the official UofL website.

- The lovely Dana O'Neil had a good write up on the Louisville-Villanova game on ESPN.com. A couple pretty good quotes quotes from T-Will in there about his shooting woes and the GW shot. Also an interesting quote from the postgame press conference where Pitino was talking about how hard the BIG EAST is this season:

“I’ve looked forward to this year more than any other,” Pitino said. “You’ll never see 12, 13 teams as tough as this. It’s special, I’ll tell you that. I’m getting the hell out of here after this year, I’m telling you that.”

Some people might call that foreshadowing, I say it's Coach P trying to emphasize the point of how tough the conference is in a tongue-and-cheek way. I really don't see Coach leaving after this year, something that people a misconstruing after seeing this quote. It is getting to that point though where we need to be on guard for a possible Pitino departure, but with the guys we have coming in I don't see it being anytime soon.