When you are a Cardinal fan there is no such thing as time off. And there are no slow news days. Today is especially not a slow one. Today Coach Pitino had a press conference to talk about his Makers Mark bottle being released this Friday the 7th. But like any press conference other topics were discussed.

The Makers Mark bottles will be on store shelves starting Friday and there will be a bottle signing that will happen on June 13th at 5:00pm in the KFC Yum Center. Tickets will go on sale for that signing on the 10th and will cost 1 dollar. Here are some of Coach Pitino’s comments about Makers Mark:

Coach Pitino on being on Maker’s bottle: “it has happened before……in a different color.”

Coach Pitino: “we couldn’t do what we are doing for our student athletes without sponsors like maker’s mark.”

Anyone who hasn’t been under a rock over the past couple of weeks are very familiar with the controversy surrounding comments made by the Ohio State President Gordon Gee. Coach Pitino made headlines last week when he shared some very choice words for Mr Gee. Today Coach Pitino had some other things to share about this controversy:

Coach Pitino: “Gordon Gee has agreed to a gift of $500,000 for the academic center (jokingly).”

Coach Pitino on Gee’s apology being genuine: “No, he did it because the board of directors made him.”

Coach Pitino on Gee: “it is a pompous attitude.”

Coach Pitino: “it is low self esteem, jealously, we’ll need a psychologist to determine.”

During the press conference Coach Pitino updated everyone on some of the players and talked about the success of the athletic program. It sounds like Kevin is making great progress, all the incoming guys are on schedule, Russ playing ball in Spain, NBA GMs are amazed at genuine attitude of Gorgui/Peyton and one of the big shockers of the day Zach Price is moving on. Here are some of the comments from Coach:

Coach Pitino: “we are 3rd in the Capital Cup with half of the sports.”

Coach Pitino: “it is unusual to see so much success in a single year.”

Coach Pitino: “Kevin is shooting jump shots.”

Coach Pitino: “Kevin is just off crutches two weeks ago.”

Coach Pitino: “everyone is on campus but Rozier and Hancock. Rozier will be here soon.”

Coach Pitino: “I don’t like my guys playing pick-up basketball.”

Coach Pitino: “Russ may go to Spain to play on a touring team.”

Coach Pitino: “Rozier will be here this week.”

Coach Pitino on Zach Price: “I’d say he is gone, because our players don’t tweet.”

Coach Pitino on Gorgui and Peyton: “GMs ask me if this is fake, are these guys this nice?”

Coach Pitino closed it out today by talking about some of his activities during the break. He mentioned his fishing trip and talked about his horse not winning the Derby and hanging out with Pitt Bull.

Coach Pitino on his fishing trip: “it was great fun, but the chances of me going again are remote. Kenny couldn’t catch the big fish.”

Coach Pitino on Goldencents: “I am a bad loser, since didn’t win the derby haven’t paid attention. been hanging out with Pitbull on the west coast.”

Coach Pitino will be making an appearance at the Cardinal Caravan tonight at Captain’s Quarters in Louisville at 6:30pm. The Caravan started today and will be making stops around the Bluegrass area over the next 3 days. Below is a schedule of the stops. The Cardinal’s Beak will be at a few of these stops along the way and I will have video and photos from the event.

Just as the Pitino press conference came to an end twitter started to buzz about the news of Louisville Football’s 2014 schedule. We learned today that the Cards will be playing Notre Dame, Florida State, Miami, Clemson, NC State, Kentucky, BC, Virginia, among others in 2014. It’s going to be tough during this transition year but great things await for the football team and the fans in the future. Below is the crossover schedule of future ACC football opponents:

(Special Thanks and H/T to @UofLSheriff50 for all of his great updates via Twitter. Cards Fans go give him a follow)

We’ve seen a lot of teams show off their championship rings in the past couple of weeks, but perhaps one of the teams that deserves to boast about its accomplishments in jewelry form the most has finally released its cubic zirconia-laden masterpieces. Today the University Louisville football team received their Big East and Sugar Bowl Championship rings.

Last year’s spark plug back-up QB Will Stein was the first to tweet out a picture of the Cardinal’s simple yet very shiny new bling. The Big East ring features the Louisville Old English “L” inside a football on top, while the Sugar Bowl ring features the Allstate Sugar Bowl logo.

The football team will look very good sporting their new rings and this will give them a little extra time of celebration before the work starts again here in a few months. Let’s hope this time next year the Football team is getting a few more rings.

It was a great weekend of baseball in Louisville at Jim Patterson Stadium. Thousands of Cardinal fans were in attendance to watch the Cards baseball team win three games straight and advance to the Super Regional of the NCAA Tournament.

I don’t know how next weekend will go for this team as they will face a very strong Vandy team, but one thing that I’m sure of is that the University of Louisville program has cemented itself as a national power in the world of college baseball.

We are officially 93 days away from kicking off a new football season and the Cardinals will also be starting play in the new American Athletic Conference. Louisville will play one season in the American Athletic Conference before leaving to join the ACC. They will be replaced by East Carolina, Tulane and Tusla for the 2014-15 academic year.

Today the new AAC conference unveiled its new logo. It was another step forward for the former Big East to rebrand the image of the conference before the official launch on July 1. It looks like something you might see on the front page of a Marvel’s Comic Book, but I suppose it will be good enough for a year. Most Cardinal fans including myself just want to get through this season of transition and get to the ACC. I think the American Athletic Conference feels the same way as they omitted Louisville from their conversations in league meetings this summer and also make no mention of the Cards on their new website. They don’t even include them in the header.

“Awkward!”

A few weeks ago a legend was born among the ranks of the Louisville basketball program when Luke Hancock shot his way into our hearts and earned himself the Most Outstanding Player award in the Final Four in route to Louisville’s third national title. Since Luke Hancock helped Louisville climb it’s way back to the top of the mountain in college basketball he has earned many kudos and has been recognized probably as much as any other player on the team. Tuesday those kudos reached new heights when back in his hometown of Roanoke County Virginia they decalared May 28, 2013 as Luke Hancock Day. He is a 2009 graduate of Hidden Valley High School in Roanoke, VA.

Luke Hancock will be remembered forever as a part of Cardinal Lore and will go down as a fan favorite, but nothing will ever be as big as being honored by his hometown and making the people who raised him so proud. Luke Hancock will not only be a legend in Louisville Kentucky, but their will now be little kids shooting baskets in Roanoke County VA pretending they are Luke hitting the game winning shot in the NCAA Tourney. Congrats Luke!

Everyone join me in banging three fingers to the side of your head and all together say Happy Luke Hancock Day!

The Cardinals baseball team didnt fair so well in the Big East Baseball tournament this past week but they still had a great season winning the Big East regular-season title outright, their fourth regular-season championship in the last five years. They won 16 straight games which was the nation’s longest active streak at the time and Louisville’s longest since 1950. They also matched the school record for regular-season victories (46) set in 2010.

The Cardinals now look to a run in the NCAA Baseball tournament and they found out Sunday night they will host postseason baseball for the 4th time in 7 seasons. This is the 3rd NCAA Regional host in 5 seasons (’13, ’10, ’09). The Regional pairings, including the 3 teams that will join the Cardinals at the Louisville Regional, were announced today at 12:00PM on ESPNU. The Regional will begin on Friday, May 31 with games on FRI, SAT, and SUN, (MON if necessary). First Round Regional action starts Friday at 2PM: Oklahoma State v. Miami (FL). Then at 6PM: Louisville v. Bowling Green.

Regional Tickets will be available online at GoCards.com starting Monday morning or by phone starting Tuesday at 9 a.m.

Make plans to get out to Jim Patterson Stadium and support this team. Lets let the college baseball world see what CardNation is about. Good Luck Cards!

We are a little over a month away from the annual NASCAR race at the Kentucky Speedway. This year the race track has a special offer for Louisville Cardinal fans who want to be a part of the Quaker State 400 on June 29th. They are calling it the “Cardinal Takeover” and that seems very appropriate considering the year our athletic program has had. This special package being offered to Cardinal Fans will cost around 135.00 and will include a hospitality area, special tours, concert and pre/post race access to the Pit area.

This isn’t the first time that the Louisville program has been involved in the festivities at the speedway in Sparta, Ky. Coach Rick Pitino was honored by the track back in 2008 during the Nationwide series Meijer 300 when he got to unleash the ultimate fast break and waved the green flag for that race. To my knowledge though this is the first time the track has had a promotion for this type of Cardinal celebration. The track had a similar promotion last year for the University of Kentucky and Michael Waltrip Racing also honored the cats by having a UK national title paint scheme on one of his cars. I’m hoping that the PR folks at UofL reach out to Waltrip Racing or one of the other Race Teams to work out a deal for one of them to race with a UofL paint scheme this year. It would be fitting seeing how Cardinal Nation will be one of the guest of honor.

I’m hoping that Cardinal fans take advantage of this special promotion and that we have a huge turnout for this event. If you have never been to one of these races this is a perfect excuse to experience it for the first time. I know I’m looking forward to throwing back a few cold ones with the Cardinal Nation and watching some racing. Below is the information from the Kentucky Speedway site and their link to purchase tickets for this promotion.

Click here to visit The Kentucky Speedway website and to purchase your tickets to “The Cardinal Takeover”

It has been an outstanding year for the University of Louisville in the world of college sports. And behind great athletic departments and teams are great athletic directors and coaches. At Louisville we have the best Athletic Director in the country in Tom Jurich and we have one of the greatest coaches in college basketball in Rick Pitino. Wednesday night these two men will be honored for their great achievements over the past year.

First Tom Jurich is nominated for Athletic Director of the year at the Sports Business Awards Ceremony. The Sports Business Awards, a night celebrating excellence in sports business, will be held at the New York Marriott Marquis at Times Square in New York City. The winners among nominees will be announced live at this event.
Launched in 2008, the Sports Business Awards were established by SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily to celebrate and recognize the leaders, visionaries and day-to-day practitioners who personify excellence in the business of sports. The 2013 nominees and winners are being recognized for excellence and outstanding achievement in the business of sports for the period from March 1, 2012 – February 28, 2013.
I don’t think anyone deserves this award more than Jurich and I don’t see how he doesn’t claim it. The other nominees for Athletic Director of the Year are Mike Holder Oklahoma State University, Mal Moore University of Alabama, and Jim Phillips Northwestern University.

Also on Wednesday night Coach Rick Pitino will be presented with the New York Athletic Club’s Winged Foot Award. The Award was established in 1996 by the NYAC and is presented annually to the winning coaches of the men’s and women’s NCAA Division I Basketball Tournaments. The function will be hosted at the NYAC’s City House in mid-town Manhattan. The evening will feature a cocktail reception, dinner, speeches and the presentation of the Awards. Celebrated sportscaster, Billy Packer will MC the ceremonies, as he has done since the Award’s inception.
The Winged Foot Award came into being in the mid-1990s when the New York Athletic Club, an iconic presence in the world of amateur sport, noted that there was no official award to honor the head coaches of the victorious NCAA men’s and women’s basketball teams. The Club presented the first men’s trophy to Rick Pitino in 1996.

Two great men and two great honors. Good luck to Tom Jurich and congrats to Coach Pitino.