Big Blue Madness Rocked Out and the #8 Louisville Cardinals Fell

Jan 26, 2013; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari reacts during the game against the LSU Tigers in the second half at Rupp Arena. Kentucky defeated LSU 75-70. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports

Notorious troll, Doug Gottlieb recently ranked the 2013-2014 Kentucky Wildcats as #7 on his preseason Top 25 which begs the question: why?  Yes he picked them against every other CBS Sports colleague who chose UK as #1 but it still doesn’t add up unless you take into account that he is a UK Hating Troll, but Mike DeCourcy of Sporting News gave it a shot anyway.

"2) CBS Sports’ Doug Gottlieb ranked Kentucky No. 7, while all of his other cohorts picked the Wildcats No. 1. Is he smart, and the rest of America stupid? DeCourcy: Oh, Doug is definitely smart. I love listening to his commentary on games and hate reading the columns he writes for CBSSports.com, because someone who just writes a piece here and there shouldn’t be able to do it as well as he does. It’s like somebody sitting down at a piano without lessons and suddenly pounding out coherent Tchaikovsky. Whatever Big Blue fans will say about Doug’s ranking, and a lot of it isn’t technically printable unless we’re writing for Deadspin, there is no correct answer at this point. If he’d stood apart from the crowd last year and said predicting UK to become a top-five team was not only wrong, it was insanity, he’d have been right. He says he did say that, so that was an excellent call. Gottlieb believes North Carolina and Oklahoma State will have better seasons than UK and Kansas, the two most talented teams in college basketball. He projected the Jayhawks to finish 10th. He very well could turn out to be right. Obviously, our publication does not agree. If anything, after watching KU in practice twice last week, I’d move the Jayhawks up from No. 6, possibly even as high as No. 2. I don’t get to play that mulligan, though. Where I don’t agree with Gottlieb is in the defense he presented of these projections, pointing to last year’s results—UK’s failure to make the NCAAs, its NIT loss to Robert Morris. This is the 2014 season, not 1994. Past performance is not an indicator of future results. When John Calipari took over UK in 2009-10, the Wildcats were coming off an NIT appearance and loss to Notre Dame. With John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins making All-America, the Wildcats won 35 games in his first season and reached the Elite Eight. Adding great talent can turn around a team instantly, and the NBA Draft and recruiting analysts all insist UK added great talent. Gottlieb also expressed concern about the Harrison twins and whether they would blend comfortably into the chemistry of a championship team. They’ll have to prove they can, just as Amile Jefferson and Marshall Plumlee will have to demonstrate they can hold down the center spot for Gottlieb’s No. 3 team (Duke), just as Chris Jones will have to adjust to Division I playmaking and lack of height will have to be overcome by his No. 2 team (Louisville), and Keith Appling will have to distribute the basketball after two seasons in which he did not for Gottlieb’s No. 1 (Michigan State)."

And to finish off a near perfect (Perfect if the St. Louis Cardinals had lost) Friday of sports, the #8 Louisville Cardinals football team was knocked from among the ranks of the undefeated.  This loss marks the official end to the BCS Championship potential that never existed in the first place.  I watched much of this game, including all of the second half and it was pretty clear that coaching was an issue in this one.  With the University of Central Florida (UCF) driving in UL territory on 3rd down, Louisville caused a 4th down but then UCF was called for a holding penalty.  Instead of accepting the penalty, and adding yards to an already lengthy 3rd down, Charlie Strong declined it setting up a 4th down which forced UCF into a Field Goal.  Shawn Moffitt hit a chip shop 34 yarder to go ahead by 3.  Louisville lost by 3.  See what I mean?  Accept the penalty and see what happens but don’t give UCF cheap points.  Now I know that one play doesn’t dictate the outcome of a game so don’t think I’m short sighted here but that was a crucial decision that failed miserably.  And that was the straw that broke the Cardinals back because all that momentum had, being up 3 TDs was gone and they looked lost.  Then Teddy Bridgewater’s 10 second scramble with 23 seconds left in the game with a mile of field still left to eat up for even a tie didn’t help their cause.  Who knows whose fault that was.  And again, though they lost their undefeated season, with that weak schedule there was no way they sniffed the BCS Championship even if they went undefeated.  Remember Auburn, 2004?

"LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Blake Bortles and Central Florida had one last rally left, and it was enough to topple Teddy Bridgewater and No. 8 Louisville. Bortles threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Jeff Godfrey with 23 seconds remaining and the Knights stunned the Cardinals with a 38-35 victory on Friday night, ending Louisville’s perfect start. “I said, `Let’s get some 2-minute calls ready,” Bortles said. “We knew we were going to have to go 2-minute. … Our offensive line did a great job and our receivers did a great job of getting yards after the catch.” Down 28-7 midway through the third quarter, the Knights (5-1, 2-0 American Athletic Conference) responded with three touchdowns in a 7:22 span. Storm Johnson had a 1-yard TD run and a 20-yard reception for another score, and William Stanback ran 12 yards for the tying TD. UCF then went in front on Shawn Moffitt‘s 34-yard field goal with 7:36 remaining. Louisville (6-1, 2-1) reclaimed the lead on Dominique Brown‘s 15-yard run with three minutes to go, but the Knights drove 75 yards in 11 plays to take the lead for good on Bortles’ TD and then held off the Cardinals’ comeback attempt. Bridgewater made one last desperate heave into the end zone as time expired, but the Heisman Trophy contender was unable to find anyone. The Knights then rushed the field in jubilation as a small gathering of fans in one section chanted “UCF, UCF!” “What can you say? It was a heck of a game,” Knights coach George O’Leary said. “Both teams played their hearts out. That was a great drive and it was a great win in a tough environment. “Obviously, it’s a big win. It’s a big win because of the conference. We had great effort and great execution. … We could have hung our heads, but we got after it.”"