Rick Bozich speaks with Kevin Ware about leaving Louisville:

It has been a pretty eventful week here in the Cardinal Nation. We got news on Monday that Montrezl Harrell would return for his junior season. Montrezl is another in a long line of recent players that really get the concept of belonging to a community. He considers himself not only a player for the University of Louisville, but has become a member of the Cardinal family. On Wednesday Montrezl did something pretty amazing and gave back to that community.

What an awesome gesture from this awesome young man. Folks we have been really blessed with some outstanding athletes coming through the program over the last few years. At the end of the day making a difference in people’s lives is what matters most. Our student athletes are winning on the field of play and in life. Way to go Montrezl! If you would like to follow Trez’s awesome gesture and get on the donor list just click on the hyper link in the article for more information. You may be able to help Cruz.

Louisville 2014 signees Quentin Snider, Chinanu Onuaku and Jaylen Johnson will headline the Derby Festival Classic for Louisville fans in the annual event held at Freedom Hall this Friday, April 18 at 7:00 p.m. Each of these guys had great senior seasons and will be entering the Louisville program with high praise.

Back last summer during a basketball game that Montrezl Harrell was playing in for the U-19 USA team (where he won gold) the announcer of the game used “Enthusiasm Personified” to describe Montrezl on a basketball court. I haven’t heard anything better to describe what he does on a basketball floor since. In my 30 plus years of watching college basketball I haven’t seen anyone with a motor like he has. Today an ordinary Monday became an extraordinary one when Montrezl tweeted out the he was bringing his “Enthusiasm Personified” back to Louisville for his Junior season.

I’ve been writing about how Montrezl Harrell was close to breaking the single season dunk record for a couple of days now. Well last light it happened in a flash as Montrezl slammed number 60 home on a play early in the first half. He would have three more monster dunks on the evening to add to the record that now stands at 63. Montrezl passed both Chane Behanan and Pervis Ellison who are now at number 2 with 60.

Legendary Louisville radio play-by-play Paul Rodgers with the call

Montrezl also continues to move up the list for dunks in a career. He now has 107 career dunks and has passes Rodney McCray at number 6 all-time. As the season winds down it is very possible that he could end up at number 3 all-time in career dunks a position now held by Alvin Sims with 123.

It’s really special that Montrezl has had this many dunks with such limited playing time as a freshman. If he wasn’t a player who will more than likely take his game to the next level next season there’s no doubt he’d shatter all the dunk records. Even if he doesn’t hold the career record he will go down as probably one of the best Dunkers in Louisville’s history. Glad I got to be witness.

Montrezl talks about his record breaking night:

Coach Pitino talks briefly about “Dunk Hungry” Montrezl Harrell:

Luke Hancock’s beard became a symbol of great superstition during the Cards 16 game winning streak and Championship season a year ago. Other players and fans including myself decided to grow out our beards in solidarity with Luke because we started to believe in the power of that magical facial hair.

Coach Pitino Talks about the team growing beards at the 2:41 mark of this video:

Last Friday Coach Pitino and his staff decided to throw caution to the wind and just maybe reclaim some of the mojo that the magical facial hair provided last year. The Coaching staff and the players agreed before Friday nights game against Rutgers that they would not shave again until they lost a game. Call it superstition or just call it a coincidence, but the Cardinals have played the two best and most complete games of the season since deciding not to shave.

Last night Coach Pitino talked about the no shave pledge and throwed out a challenge to the media in attendance during his post game press conference “We are going to have fun, we dont know how long it will last, if you were worth any grain of salt, you would join in.”

I’m in and yes I do believe that things like this can be great motivation especially during the grind of a long season. And I challenge all of CardNation to join in and let’s grow our beards out until we cut down those nets again in Dallas. I think this team has another magical run left in them and I can put up with some itchy facial hair to prove it. Let’s go Cardinal fans are you in? #NoShaveTillDallas

It’s another weekend without the Cardinals playing basketball. The crazy conference schedule of the AAC has given us too many basketballess weekends. The last eight day break seemed to set the Cardinals back more than it helped them so this weekend coach Pitino held a scrimmage to keep his team sharp.

It was the starters against the reserves. Stephan VanTreese played in place of Wayne Blackshear who sat out still getting over a concussion. Terry Meiners was at the scrimmage and was gracious enough to keep us basketball hungry fans updated through his twitter account:

Looks like Anton Gill had a good day and him and Hendo kept the Red team in it with their three point shooting. Sounds like these guys were really going at each other today. Good competition in practice usually translates to good execution in the games. They will be ready to go on Thursday when they travel to play Temple. They will be looking for their 7th road win of the season.

Right now the Cards are 19-4 overall and 8-2 in the AAC, are ranked 14th in the AP poll, 10th in the Coaches poll, they are No. 2 in the nation in turnover margin (+6.8), No. 5 in steals per game (9.5), 29th in FG% defense, and 25th in total defense.

Luke Hancock was awarded the Final Four Most Outstanding Player and his clutch shooting played a major role in Louisville’s NCAA title run. There isn’t a person in the country who doesn’t know that. What athletes do on the court or field of play is always well documented and sometimes too much. A lot of times it’s what these athletes do when their not making three point shots, touchdowns or home runs that gets overlooked.

Luke Hancock has been the under dog for most of his basketball playing days and has overcome some long odds to get to the level he is at today. He is an outstanding basketball player but what people should know about Luke is that he’s an outstanding person as well. When he’s not in the gym working on his jump shot or in the Yum Center making three point shots he’s out trying to make a difference in the world or trying to make someone else’s day better.

This past weekend Luke was at Kosair’s Children Hospital spending some quality time with a very special Cardinal fan named Jackson. It was a day that young man will never forget and a moment that defines the kind of person Luke Hancock is. He will no doubt leave his mark on the Louisville basketball program but it’s the mark he leaves on the world that matters most to Luke.

Back in November Luke was recognized in an article written in the New York Times. The article was written to thank those in the sports world for doing great and inspirational things in a sports year dominated by those who have done just the opposite. The title of the article was “Here’s to the Better Angels of the Sports World.” Here’s to the Angel of our sports world.. Very proud that we have a young man like Luke Hancock representing the University of Louisville Basketball Program. He has and continues to make us all very proud. I’m looking forward to watching him finish out his senior season. Hey Luke thanks for being AWESOME!