It' March and it's time for a jam packed, super duper, awesome, MEGA POST! Enjoy, Sportsthat Nation. The Madness is upon us and the Cats and the Cards have some nice looking ball teams.
Rankings: The latest top 25 rankings came out and the Cats go up to #15 and the Cards fall to #14. Both rankings are pretty fair and accurate at this point in the season. Both teams have 8 losses but the Cards have one more win than the Cats. It will be interesting to see what the teams will be ranked at the end of the season. No predictions from me just yet as far as final overall rankings. I want to see how these conference tournaments fall out.
Looking at both teams as they stand I don't think many people had them this high. Cats fans had lowered expectations since Enes Kanter's unfortunate ruling and Louisville was written off by everyone, including their own coach and fan base. To see both teams ranked this high and in their respective positions is pretty exciting.
Conference Tournaments: The Cats have a first round bye and won't play their first game until Friday at 3:30. I get off work at 3:00, so you all know where I will be. Some bar, drinking myself silly as the Cats defeat either South Carolina or Ole Miss. This is the beginning of my Mardi Gras, St. Patrick's Day, Christmas and Easter all rolled into one holiday.
The Cards play their first game Friday as well at 9:00 p.m. as they sit and wait through their double-bye. The Big East has a ridiculous 16 teams in their conference. The Cards will face either Marquette, Providence or West Virginia.
Brackets: The bracket on NBCsports.com have both the Cats and the Cards as a 4 seed. They have 11 Big East teams and 6 SEC teams getting in, which I think is pretty generous. The Cats are in the West with Notre Dame as the 1 seed and BYU as the 2 seed. The Cards are in the East with Ohio State as the 1 and Duke as the 2. I like this bracket for the Cats. I like it A LOT. BYU is severely beatable and we all know what happened earlier when the Cats faced the Irish on a neutral court early this season.
ESPN also has the Cats and the Cards at 4. ESPN also has the Big East with 11 but only have 4 for the SEC. The Cats are in the Southwest with Pitt at 1 and Texas at 2. Also a favorable bracket but not as good as the NBC version. Louisville ends up with easier ones and twos with Duke as 1 and BYU at 2. Neither Texas nor Pitt scare me in the least bit.
A side note: I find it ludicrous that Michigan State is still in both brackets with 13 losses. I also find in obscene how easy Duke's road is in the ESPN bracket. Take a look at both brackets in the above links. If Michigan State gets in it is because of reputation and ratings. And that is some big BS.
Post Season Awards: The Cats are already racking up awards.
CBS: Brandon Knight is the SEC Freshman of the year. Knight also made the First Team All SEC list with fellow Freshman Terrence Jones.
Louisville has Zippo awards for CBS.
Yahoo!: Terrence Jones received Third Team All American honors. Brandon Knight received a honorable mention and Doron Lamb was the Sixth Man of the Year.
Louisville also received nothing from Yahoo!
Fox Sports: Brandon Knight was named on the Fifth Team All American squad. Knight and Terrence Jones both are on the All Freshman team.
Louisville? You guessed it. Zero.
Big East Conference: Here is some good news Louisville fans! Preston Knowles made the Second Team All Big East roster and Peyton Siva was an Honorable mention. Good for them. I guess.
There will be more awards as the week goes on. The SEC has yet to release their official awards but I am sure that will happen soon.
Recap: A lot going on and even more to come. Next week will be a big week here at the website as the conference tournaments will be over and the actual brackets will come out. Both the Cats and the Cards have a shot at getting all the way up to a 3 seed for the NCAA's. I am sure everyone agrees that Kentucky's road is much easier than Louisville's to accomplish that feet.
And...I'm spent.
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