It's been quite an adventure this year for Louisville athletics (lists all the accomplishments of the various U of L sports teams this year). We're the most profitable program in the country again and Louisville is the most profitable athletic program in the country making more than $300 million, which Kenny gets half of.
--We tried to make this schedule as difficult as any in my 15 years here.
--We're opening with two teams in Evansville and William & Mary that were top 100 in the RPI and return three starters.
--Louisville will play Eastern Kentucky this year.
--Cards will play Indiana on New Year's Eve, but they're still not sure about the game time yet. Still a few details to be ironed out between the two programs there, but the game will likely be played in the afternoon.
--The Kentucky game will be on Dec. 21.
--Louisville's two exhibition games will be against Bellarmine and Kentucky Wesleyan.
--We don't have anywhere near the talent of the 1996 national championship team from Kentucky, but we're hoping to emulate that team in terms of style of play.
--Mangok and Quentin will be the team captains.
--Deng Adel was so good at the end of last season and I really think because of the improvements he's made so far this offseason that he can be one of the best players I've coached at Louisville.
--We certainly wish the best for Nanu at the next level, but we think that we have three very capable centers and that we'll still be just as good without him. I never get involved in the draft process with players unless they ask me to, and in this case Chinanu didn't ask me.
--Personally I'm not concerned about any additional NCAA punishments, but that's just me. We paid a hefty price last year sitting out the NCAA Tournament, missing out on a chance to potentially go to the Final Four and win a national champion, and we lost a lot of money as a program because of that.
--We plan on imposing the two scholarship hit this season just so we can get as much of this behind us as we can.
--We called Canyon Barry, but we already have Deng Adel and VJ King, so we're pretty set at that position. As far as his comments about the investigation and us potentially having to sit out the postseason again, I think that's mostly just other programs telling him that.
--We told VJ King when we were recruiting him that there was a chance that we'd be dealing with NCAA penalties, because we didn't know at the time that we'd be self-imposing for last season, and he still chose to sign with us. He is a super talent and a terrific competitor. It's going to be a lot of fun watching him go up against Deng Adel, who has an edge on him because of his experience.
--Anas is 100% and ready to go for this season. Mangok had a little bit of a setback, but he'll be fine.
--(What do you think about the UK game being on a weeknight?) I think it means we're definitely going to win. No, I don't know why that is, but I'm sure it'll still be sold out and they'll still get five or six thousand of their fans in the building.
--Adidas has never once gotten me a basketball player in my 15 years. Nike and Under Armour have these camps and they can get players to certain schools. Adidas isn't like that, they don't promote their schools the way Nike and Under Armour do, maybe because they're more European-based. Adidas hasn't once gotten me a player, and I've never asked them to. As I've said before, I wish we could get the shoe companies out of the game.
--(On who's backing up Quentin Snider) I need to see more of Tony Hicks, and we need to see how far Ryan McMahon's come, because he's the best shooter on the team. And then we always have Mr. Dependable, David Levitch.
--(On Ray Spalding) He's come a long way, because I came in here at 11:30 last night and he was in the gym working out, playing 1-on-1 ... with a girl. So he's come a long way. He was losing, though. That was the thing that worried me.
