My most enjoyable basketball experiences of the current season have not come in Freedom Hall, Rupp Arena, or Assembly Hall. They have come in Knights Hall on the campus of Bellarmine University, where everything about Coach Scott Davenport’s program reflects college basketball as it was meant to be.
Let’s begin with the concept of the student-athlete, […]

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There was the time in 1979 when I was covering the Super Bowl in Miami and Bobby Stallings was playing host to a bunch of our fellow sports derelicts at his condo in Fort Lauderdale. I can’t remember everybody who was there, but I know that Tommy Musselman, Lynn Griffin, and Don “Lefty” Fightmaster were […]

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Now that it looks as if Louisville will make the NCAA field – the win over Syracuse was a huge step in that direction – you can bet that the selection committee, bless their devilish hearts, will find a way to put the Cardinals somewhere in Kentucky’s path to the Final Four.
A rematch between the […]

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Let me get this straight: Some of the same people who opposed a major-college football playoff because it’s “not in the best interests of the student-athlete” are in <a href=’http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/2010/02/08/2010-02-08_coaches_eye_bigger_tourney.html’ >favor of expanding</a> the NCAA men’s Division I basketball tournament from 65 teams to 96, which would add another layer to the tournament.
What is this […]

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The New Orleans Saints didn’t beat the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl as much as bad karma did. You should not mess around with Mother Nature, or, apparently the gods of football. The Colts should never have blown off their opportunity to go unbeaten.
By winning their first 14 regular-season games, the Colts put themselves […]

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Sources at Georgetown College tell me they hope Coach Happy Osborne’s Tigers will be the University of Louisville’s first exhibition opponent in the downtown arena. However, I’m sure Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport is lobbying ex-boss Rick Pitino for the same honor.
I’ll be surprised if U of L plays any exhibition games before the official grand […]

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Muhammad Ali will be in the house Saturday afternoon when Louisville entertains Rutgers at 4 p.m. in a Big East Conference game. I can’t speak for younger fans, but to me that trumps the LeBron James appearance at last Saturday’s UK-Vanderbilt game in Rupp Arena.
Of Ali’s first 10 professional fights, five were held in Freedom […]

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Short Shots from the Sports Whirl…
* The world’s best basketball player, Lebron James, sat opposite the UK bench during Saturday’s game against Vanderbilt and came on the floor to do the “Y” when the UK cheerleaders spelled out Kentucky. I wonder how many of the players were more awed by being in Lebron’s presence than […]

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