It has been nothing but great news for Louisville fans and we have all been stuck in the vortex of greatness. But it can’t all be candy and nuts and on Wednesday CardinalNation found out that Quentin Snider a 2014 basketball recruit had de-committed from the program. He had been committed to Louisville since Aug. 4, 2011 and is a local product that seemed destined to play for the home team.

Quentin said in a tweet “I’d love to be a card but at this time it’s time I think it’s better to look at other options to make sure it’s right fit.”
Quentin’s father also commented on his sons de-commitment saying “He’s been kind of going back and forth this past month,” “There’s just a lot of guards. Everybody still wants him to go to Louisville. The family does, and we hope Louisville still recruits him. I don’t know if they will or not, but he just wants to make sure it’s the best fit for him basically.”

Speculation was running wild after the news broke on Wednesday and most think that playing time was a concern for Snider and his father. Louisville will be very guard heavy for the next few years and Quentin would have likely been sitting behind a senior like Peyton Siva did during his first year. Louisville’s backcourt this season will be elite with Russ Smith, Terry Rozier, and Chris Jones. Smith will graduate, but enter JaQuan Lyle. A lot of players nowadays are hungry for the ball as soon as they come out of high school and most expect major minutes right away. Can’t really blame them and each kid has to go with what feels right for them and their family. It is a very big decision and I hope Snider finds what is right for him. I really hope he ends up at Louisville but in situations like this its highly unlikely it works out that way.

Here’s how some of the hoops folks on twitter reacted to the Snider news:

There will be a lot of speculation as to where Louisville will go next in their recruitment process. They have been actively recruiting several big guys to fill out the 2014 class and now they may just go big to finish out. If they do look at other guards to recruit you may see Kelly Oubre, Dante Exum, or Ahmed Hill come into play. Exum back in April told several folks at the Nike Hoop Summit that Louisville was one of the leaders for his services in 2014. Also said that Louisville was coming on very strong. You can keep up to date with all the news on Louisville’s targets on my recruiting page.

AAC Media Guide

It has already been a big start to the week for Cardinal fans with Teddy Bridgewater taking over the ESPN studios on Monday and that is just the beginning. On Tuesday the Louisville football team will participate in their first and last American Athletic Conference media days. It will be an awkward season of transition for our athletic program and I’m sure there will be some awkward moments this week at the media days. Rutgers and Louisville are here, but for just one year, one headed to the Big Ten in a year’s time, the other to the ACC. And that doesn’t even account for Cincinnati and Connecticut. Both are in the American, but both would jump in a heartbeat if a better deal came calling.

Regardless of the awkwardness football season is upon us and Cardinal fans are counting down the days to kickoff. Coach Charlie Strong will be accompanied to AAC media days by Teddy Bridgewater, Hakeem Smith, Damian Copeland, and Preston Brown. For complete digital coverage of the event, fans are asked to visit www.TheAmerican.org/Kickoff. The event will also be covered live on ESPN3.

Louisville interviews start at 10:00am

Are you ready for some football? How about some Teddy Bridgewater to get you through your Monday blues. And if you have to work tomorrow it would be a great time to grab one of the many apps that will let you watch ESPN on your phone because the Louisville QB will spend the day at the ESPN studios on Monday.

ESPN will be must see TV on Monday morning and afternoon and will be wall to wall Teddy QB coverage. Be sure to tune in and check out what personalities like Skip Bayless and Scott Van Pelt have in store for our star QB. Should be a interesting morning and a great way to start off the week for Cardinal fans.

Here’s Teddy’s ESPN schedule for Monday:

(H/T @Whas11Lefkoe)

College basketball recruiting is the main event of the summer. Fans go crazy for the latest buzz on recruits considering their school. College sports fans go through withdrawal type symptoms during the summer months. After the NBA draft there is not anything to look forward to until college football starts. The summer really is a dead time for college sports fans. However, starting in July they can get their fix as college basketball recruits from around the country compete in AAU tournaments.

In July there are three five-day segments spread out over three weeks where coaches are going all over the country trying to see as many recruits as possible. But it’s not just coaches who are watching the recruits.
Different scouts from various online sources log thousands of miles every year going to watch high school kids evaluating them, ranking them, and following them through their recruiting process. This is something the average basketball fan cannot do. But the sports hungry college basketball fans thirst for the information. And some pay big money for it. With the combination of social media and the internet, there is all kinds of information available.

Coach Pitino has been working hard this summer and made his trip around the country during this July evaluation period checking out big guys to round out the 2014 class. He has watched Goodluck Okonoboh, Jaylen Johnson, Elbert Robinson, Leron Black, Trey Lyles, Cliff Alexander, Angel Delgado, Myles Turner and Juco Cinmeon Bowers. Coach Pitino will likely take a 4 and 5 player from this group and in my opinion we can’t go wrong with any 2 players from the bunch. You can check out their profiles on my recruiting page and I will try to keep you updated with news from multiple sources surrounding each of them.

I’ve been waiting a lifetime for a year like the University of Louisville’s athletic program had this past season. Like all of you I suffered through football games in old Cardinal Stadium, was tortured during the “bridge years” of our basketball program and remember when other sports at Louisville struggled to stay afloat. But this past season all of that suffering and torture was well worth it and “The Year of the Cardinal” was the best of my life. We are done thinking about those days of the past and now seem to be stuck in a vortex of greatness. There is an incredible future on the horizon for the Louisville athletic program and I can’t wait to see what the next 30 years brings.

Since we have such an incredible year to remember all we needed was for there to be someone with the artistic ability to document it. This past season there was a guy who’s videos kept our hearts pounding through every 3 point shot, every home run, every goal and every touchdown. @Crumsrevenge has captured all the moments in his incredible videos and today has released his masterpiece. Cardinal fans just had a year to remember and now we have a video for the ages. Thank you Mike for all of your hard work this past season and thank you for giving us a video we can look back on when we are in the long years of our lives. Our grand-kids will hopefully look on this past year as the spark that ignited a beast.

Folks take the time to watch this video and share it with other Cardianl fans. Mike (@CrumsRevenge) and others have also launched a new website today called the CrunchZone. Be sure to add those guys to your daily reading and visit www.thecrunchzone.com

(Photo cred @uoflfootball)

The annual battle for state bragging rights on the gridiron won’t take place until the third week of the season, and that is far enough away that coaches and dignitaries from both Louisville and Kentucky’s program will be able to get along long enough to get a round of golf in today. But Before hitting the links during the Governor’s Cup Luncheon both Charlie Strong and Mark Stoops spoke to the media for a few minutes.

The game will take place this year on September 14th at 1:00pm in Commonwealth Stadium. The Cards will start their season as favorites to win the newly formed AAC conference while the Cats look at another season expected to finish last in a powerful SEC. Expectations for both teams will be high with the fan-bases. Cardinal Nation is riding high off of an incredible year and a big win over Florida in the Sugar Bowl while Big Blue Nation has high hopes due to the recruiting spark Stoops has put into their program over the past couple of months.

Coach Strong will have to manage his teams expectations while keeping them focused on each opponent they will face this season. Not only are they going to be big time favorites to beat UK they will probably be favored in every game this season. Here are some of Coach Strong’s comments:

Coach Strong: “I am happy with this football team, we know what is ahead of us and what needs to get done.”

Coach Strong: “You would like to think the team has matured. They understand the work ethic and they know they have to improve.”

Coach Strong: “We like the expectations. When you want to be a top notch program, this is where you want to be.”

Coach Strong seems really excited about this team and when he was asked in a round-about way about Michael Dyer he said “no new members of my program” right now. But did say in regards to transfers “Anytime we bring a young man in we hope to influence his life in a positive way”, “We need to make sure we have an impact on a player’s life. He’s going to become us, we aren’t going to become him.”

Coach Strong on the team’s overall health,“we are fairly healthy.” and notes that DeAngelo Brown has an Achilles injury & Jamaine Brooks a knee injury.

The only comments of Mark Stoops I payed any attention to was when he said “I’d like to congratulate Coach Strong, he has done a fantastic job.”

39 days Cardinal…..

(Photo cred @kkcards, @ulflyingcard, @vinniegoodtimes)

It has become an annual tradition for the NCAA Championship basketball team and football team to take a visit to the White House to meet the President of the United States. For the second year in a row there has been a team from the Bluegrass State make that trip. This time it was the Red teams turn to take the trip. And if you are like me then you know that the White House sure looks better in Red.

(Photo cred @mark_jurich)

President Obama seems to really enjoy these visits and maybe more so than others who have held the office. Obama is an avid sports fan and fills out his NCAA bracket every year in front of the nation. This year he picked Indiana to be the National Champion and Luke Hancock earlier in the week joked that he was going to ask the President “why he didn’t pick us.” I seriously doubt that happened as I know these young men were in awe of the moment. To many it is a dream situation to get a chance to shake hands with a President and today the young men of the Louisville Basketball team got to live that dream.

(Photo cred @dandryphoto)

It was a very cool moment to see those guys standing up there bursting with pride and it was a great way for the fans and that team to top off the incredible basketball season we shared. I hope this next season will bring even more special moments and maybe a repeat trip to the White House.