Missed Opportunities

        By Travis Williams
         With less than two seconds remaining in the Louisville Cardinals' game today against Pittsburgh and the Panther's Brad Wannemaker at the free throw line, you could hear the city of Louisville let out a collective $*&#*!"

         Wannemaker's free throws sent the game into overtime and shortly after that, the expletives were too loud and too many to be distinguished. 
           "Outside of Duke and Christian Laettner, this is the worst loss I've experienced, watching a team play so well and put itself in a position to win," Rick Pitino said after the game.

         It was that bad. 
         For the second game in a row the Cards played well enough to win but couldn't close the game.  Earlier this week it was the inablity to stop Villanova's Scottie Reynolds second half one man show.  This time it was piss-poor (yea I said piss poor) free throw shooting that did Louisville in.  Edgar Sosa was 1-5 from the line in the final two minutes of regulation.  At least one of those misses came on the front end of a one and one.  Jared Swopshire, who is an 83% free throw shooter, also missed the front end of a bonus attempt. $*&#*!
         Sorry.  Had to let another one out.

         If Sosa or Swopshire hits just one of those free throws then this blog changes to how the Cards have matured and how they can now close out games.  On the bright side, sophomore Samardo Samuels is starting to resemble the player he was billed to be.  Only problem is now his teammates seem reluctant to give him the ball in crucial situations.  Samuels finished with 25 points but was a non factor late in regulation and overtime. 
         In the end, a made free throw here or a defensive stop there and Louisville is 4-1 in conference play.  Instead, they're 3-2 and searching for something or someone to count on....$*&#*!

Say Goodbye to the Bad Guy

         By Travis Williams
         The Lane Kiffin hate ship continues to sail full steam ahead while aided by strong winds from the south.  The new University of Southern California coach and staff are being heckled for allegedly contacting current Tennessee recruits (some who are committed or already enrolled at UT) and atttempting to persuade them to follow Kiffin to U.S.C.

Yea of course it sounds dirty.  But big time college sports has become a dirty game.
        We're talking about a mult-billion dollar industry were you are paid to win.  And to win, you need players.  No one made this big a fuss when John Calipari packed up half of his Memphis recruiting class and moved them to Lexington.  He's now the darling of college basketball. 

           Sure what Kiffin and his staff did was unethical, but it was perfectly legal (unless they did indeed contact players already enrolled at UT) and the right thing to do if he wants to keep that cushy U.S.C job.  We are talking about a coach with a not-so-impressive record of 12-21, so securing top players is a neccessity.
         If Kiffin keeps the Southern Cal program atop the national polls and Pac-10, look for this to be forgotten quicker than a Flavor of Love winner.  If he fails miserabley, then expect the Kiffin ship go all Pirates of the Carribbean and sail to the ends of the Earth.

Bluegrass MMA

Its 8pm on a Friday night in Louisville Kentucky and the Main Event Sports crew is in the heart of city’s red light district. But not for the conventional red light district reasons. Just past the gentleman clubs and rundown bars sits the Expo 5 Center, one of best locations in the city for quality MMA action. From the looks on the outside, it's not the most glamorous establishment in the world. But as soon as you step foot inside you feel an energy that reverberates through the walls. If it were an NBA game Hubie Brown would be right there calling it a "playoff atmosphere."

Our own boxing fanatic Carlos quietly admits, “this is better than boxing,” and the first fight hadn’t even started yet. But he was right. This runt sized venue packed with a bunch of little-known fighters, solidified my opinion that MMA is the future and boxing is slowly fading into obscurity.

While the biggest boxing match of the year in Manny Pacquiao/Floyd Mayweather has been cancelled, The Expo 5 proved you don't have to go far to find an MMW mega fight.

Unlike most modern day boxing matches, there wasn't a single match that wreaked of a fighter fighting not to lose or just to win on points. There were some flat-out battles in that place. The most entertaining of the night came from Daniel Fisher. Fisher's superior hand speed and some savvy ground and pound made him one of our favorites of the night. He scored a first round win with a triangle choke stopping Greg Holmes. At one point Fisher dominated Holmes on the ground, let his opponent up, only to knock him back down with a vicious one-two combo.

         Former Main Event guest Ron Francisco captured the lightweight title in the final fight after his opponent verbally submitted.  Francisco (red and black shorts) was impressive and the ME crew had to take some credit in his win.  Message to all fighters, coming on our show dramatically increases your chances to win.

Here are a few other pics from the nights activities.

What if Cousins Had Been Ejected?

          Talk about upset.  In case you missed today's show, the ongoing theme was outrage over the blatant elbow Demarcus Cousins landed on the jaw of Jared Swopshire.  As mush as my co host Carlos tried to defend Cousins I'm pretty sure even he knew that forearm had malicious intent behind it.  Even CBS analyst Seth Davis tweeted after the exchange: "Cousins will be thrown out of the game for that. You watch."

         But as it turns out, Cousins wasn't tossed and went on to have a monster game.  As in an 18 points and 18 rebounds monster game.  He definitely was a key in an ugly game which saw 51 fouls called and five techincals.  Two of those technicals came withing the first 45 seconds of play.

         But the Cousins' play stands out due to the apparent intent to cause harm and also the referees prolonged deliberation at the replay monitors afterwards.  I thnk everyone at home who saw the play was certain Cousins was gone (those in attendance weren't privied to the replay).  But there he was, still on the court late in the second half putting the finishing touches on the game with a breakaway dunk.

         

        So what would've happened had he been ejected and you take away his numbers?
         I'd hate to it, but I don't think the outcome would've been much different.  Louisville didn't seem to have an answer for any of the Kentucky big men.  Sophomore Samardo Samuels struggled with Cousins and fellow freshman Daniel Orton equally. Both muscled, out-positioned and outplayed Samuels througout the game. 
         Samuels finished the game with nine points and nine boards, but he was also had four turnovers and countless point blank misses at the rim. 

        Coming into the game most UofL fans were concerned about John Wall having a big night.  But in the end UK exploited (among many other things) one of Louisville's more prominent weaknesses.  A lack of a legit low post scorer. 

         If Rick Pitino wants his team to compete with the other Big East teams and future UK teams, he'd better find a true post player who can free up Samuels and let him move to a more natural four position.  The UK game emphatically showed that neither Samuels or Jennings is polished enough to contend with big time competition yet.