The 2013 NBA Draft will be held on June 27th, but until then all we have to go on will be mock drafts.  Gorgui is a guarantee to be selected in the first round, and his stock has been trending towards the late lottery.  Siva, as stated below, is seeing his stock rise after a great showing at the Combine last week.  Currently, NBADraft.net has Gorgui going 24th to the Knicks and Siva going 48th to the Lakers.  DraftExpress.com sees Gorgs going 20th to the Bulls and Siva going 52nd to the Timberwolves.  While these two sites aren’t perfect in their predictions, but they get many more right than wrong, so it’s great to see Peyton getting some second round love.  Even CBSSports.com got into the mix, as Jeff Goodman released his too.  He projects Dieng to the Knicks at 24 and Siva to the Timberwolves at 59.   Check out the results from Siva putting in work at the Combine, finishing in the Top 20 in all six categories.  (Only he, Isiah Canaan, and Tim Hardaway, Jr. accomplished that feat.)

via @TheRyanFeldman

Photo – ESPN.com

Prior to last week’s annual NBA draft combine, former Louisville point guard Peyton Siva was a longshot at best to have his name called by the commissioner (or deputy commissioner) on June 27th. That’s the date of the 2013 draft and Siva was not projected as a first or second round pick by any of the major scouting services or mock drafts. However, after a very strong showing last week in Chicago, Siva has likely changed his fortunes and now appears to be well within the confines of that second round.  In fact, Draft Express now has him projected as the 52nd overall pick in their post-combine rankings. So What changed?

Well, for starters, Siva measured in at a solid 6’1 with shoes on, instantly squashing all the rumors of his sub-six-foot frame. He also impressed scouts during the athletic testing when he showed off a 41.5″ max vertical leap and finished a hair behind Miami’s Shane Larkin as the camp’s fastest overall player. He even shot over 60% in a pair of catch-and-shoot drills designed to show how the prospects can get off their shot while under duress. That jump shot could still prove to be the one thing that holds him back from moving even further up the draft boards, but the fact that he’s a proven winner and leader at the absolute highest levels should certainly counterbalance any potential negativity surrounding his stock.

I have always been one who has been intrigued by stats and numbers and this post is a microcosm of that.  After pouring over numerous numbers and statistics, here are some of the more interesting numbers from Louisville’s championship year.

*Louisville is now one of just 8 teams to win at least 3 national championships

*Louisville is just one of 7 programs to have been to at least 10 Final Fours

*Louisville’s point differential of +97 is the 5th highest in the 6-game tournament era

*Russ Smith’s 748 points this year was second all-time for most points in a season (Griffith, 825)

*Peyton Siva’s 228 assists this year is now the single-season record

*UofL’s 70 NCAA Tournament wins are 6th most all-time

*UofL’s 39 NCAA Tournament appearances are 5th most all-time

*UofL has been ranked in the AP Top 25 548 times, 6th most all-time

*UofL now has 1,697 wins, 18th all-time

*Louisville’s 65 1,000-point scorers ranks second all-time (UNC – 67)

*Louisville was 9-3 vs. teams in he final AP Poll; 8-3 against teams in the final Coaches Poll

*Louisville’s schedule was 4th toughest in the nation according to the RPI

*UofL had their 7th 30-win season this year and 4th under Pitino

*UofL’s season-ending winning streak of 16 ties the 4th longest all-time

Photo – Boston Herald

Former University of Louisville star forward Terence Williams was arrested yesterday afternoon back near his hometown of Seattle, Washington (the incident actually occurred in neighboring Kent, WA.). The oft-troubled Williams appeared to have his life – both on and off the court – back on track after an impressive stint with the Boston Celtics late in the 2012-2013 campaign. With a season-ending injury to Louisville native Rajon Rondo, the Celtics signed Williams to a 10-day deal and then kept him on the roster until they were eliminated two weeks ago in the first round of the playoffs. Williams filled in admirably at both the point guard and small forward positions and provided Boston with a solid two-way presence that they had been missing. Unfortunately, his days in the NBA could now be numbered. According to Seattle news reporter Chris Daniels, Williams was taken into custody yesterday afternoon for waiving a gun and making threats during a child visitation. Daniels also reported that T-Will was eventually booked at the King County Jail.

At about 1:55 p.m., officers were dispatched to meet the victim who resides in the downtown Kent area. The victim reported that the father of her 10-year-old son in common, identified as NBA basketball player Terrence D. Williams, arrived to her home for a scheduled visitation exchange of their son. She said during the exchange in the parking lot area an argument ensued. The victim reported that during the argument Williams brandished a firearm and made threats.

…

“We investigate and treat all cases such as this very seriously regardless of the status of those involved” said Police Detective Melanie Frazier.

Since being drafted as the 11th overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft, Williams has struggled to make things work in the professional ranks. His initial stint with the New Jersey Nets was short-lived  after numerous clashes with then-head coach Avery Johnson. Williams was repeatedly late for practices and team meetings and then Johnson sent him to the D-League for 2 weeks as punishment. The two never saw eye-to-eye from that point on and the Nets ended up dealing him to Houston in a three-way trade in December of 2010. His stay in Houston was also short-lived and he was released by the Rockets in late 2011. The Sacramento Kings scooped up the free agent in March of 2012 and he played sparingly for the final month of the season before being released that summer. Williams toiled in China this past season before Boston picked him up in March.

As Louisville fans (and family) you never want to see something like this happen. All we can do is hope that T-Will gets his life back in order before the train gets any further off the tracks. Otherwise he could potentially become another number in a long history of promising athletes that never realized their full potential.

Photo – Courier Journal

The four main contributors to the CBS college basketball page recently posted an article citing several players they believe are ready for breakout season’s in 2013-2014. Louisville’s Montrezl Harrell made an appearance twice, mentioned by both Jeff Goodman and Gary Parrish. Given the ultra-aggressive nature of Harrell’s style of play, it’s not too surprising that he caught the eye of the national media last year. He showed flashes of brilliance, particularly against Syracuse in the Big East Championship when he played the lion’s share of minutes over Chane Behanan and poured in 20 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. Despite averaging only 16 minutes per game last season, he still managed to average 6 points and 4 boards all while contributing an invaluable burst of energy every time he stepped on the floor. In these days of divas and entitled teenagers, it’s pretty rare that you see a kid come along with talent, work ethic and a motor that won’t ever stop.

With the departure of Gorgui Dieng, it’ll be interesting to see how Rick Pitino uses Harrell this coming season. Both Stephan Van Treese and Zach Price have the size and bulk to play the 5, but they also have deficiencies that could hold them back from really being special players. Redshirt freshman Mangok Mathiang will also have limitations and appears to be more of a finesse, European perimeter type of big man. So does Pitino slide Harrell to the center position at times and play him alongside Behanan? I think he’ll have to, therefore probably splitting time at the 4 and 5. Because one things for sure, he’s going to average way more than 16 minutes next season.

Jeff Goodman

Montrezl Harrell, 6-8, F, Louisville — Came off the bench last season, but will likely become a starter and fill the void left by the departure of Gorgui Dieng. Harrell is long, athletic, can block shots and run the floor. He’s not polished offensive, but what he does is get the ball off the glass (on both ends) and finish in transition.

Last season: 5.7 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 16.2 mpg

Gary Parrish

Montrezl Harrell, 6-8, F, Louisville — Louisville was so good and deep this past season that Harrell only averaged 16.2 minutes per game. But there were flashes of brilliance from this 6-foot-8 athlete, and he’ll have an opportunity to develop into an All Big East-caliber player next season now that Gorgui Dieng is off to the NBA.

Last season: 5.7 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 16.2 mpg

CrumsRevenge recently released two videos taking us back through the Cards’ epic tourney run.  This time, his highlights are accompanied with audio from UofL’s radio guys Paul Rogers and Bob Valvano.  They both are must watches if you haven’t checked them out already.

National Champion point guard Peyton Siva talks about his first day at the NBA Combine.

*Here’s his NBA Draft Profile, complete with stats and videos

(Wayne & Chane Need to Really Step Up if the Cards Hope to Repeat)

It has been 37 days now since the Louisville Cardinals cut down the nets in Atlanta after beating Michigan in the national championship. It was one of the most dramatic and exciting championships in NCAA history and truly a gift for every Cards fan who had waited so long for that moment of victory. Eventually, though, Louisville will have to start looking at next season just as every other team that came up short was doing over a month ago. As Ethan points out below, Adam Himmelsbach of the Courier-Journal wrote a piece debating which team in the state, Kentucky or Louisville, should be #1. Now, if I can go a bit off topic for a moment, I may be the only person on the planet who is continuously rolling his eyes at the prospects of Kentucky being a lock for preseason #1. They will be extremely talented, but also extremely young, untested and those that return had their issues last season. When Andrew Wiggins committed to Kansas, it should have completely excluded the Cats from consideration. It did not. These “analysts” calling them the best team without even seeing them play are providing either no logic or terrible logic for their argument. Factor in that (despite what UK fans want to believe) John Calipari is not exactly an X’s and O’s genius, it just does not add up. I have no problem putting UK in the top 10 due to that talent, but if they flop again, there needs to be a major overhaul in the field of college basketball “experts.” However, if the same folks that thought UK and UCLA were top 3 teams this year think UK will be so dominant this  year with no substance to back it up, so be it. Back to topic, though. The point is that with the return of leading scorer and Player of the Year candidate Russ Smith, Louisville makes as strong of a case as any to keep the crown of college basketaball’s best in 2014. For a team that loses just 2 key players and returns every other key player plus welcomes a top 10 recruiting class, the Cards should be an obvious favorite. However, while the team does not have as many question marks as Kentucky, there are still some holes on the roster (particularly the ones left by the 2 exiting players) that could drastically alter the Cards’ chances for better or for worse.

WHAT MUST HAPPEN

Team remains healthy. First things first. While the team did suffer some injuries, they happened early enough (obviously not including Kevin Ware here) in the year as to not affect the Cards’ postseason chances. Luke Hancock had his shoulder surgery in the offseason and bounced back at the perfect time, while Gorgui Dieng suffered a wrist injury in November. That is very uncharacteristic of a Pitino squad, who once made headlines for having players wear helmets in practice. Over the last several years, this team always seemed to have serious injuries that impacted the season. From Taquan Dean and Juan Palacios early on up to Wayne Blackshear and Peyton Siva last season, fans have almost come to mentally factor in a key injury every preseason. This season was either a lucky, isolated incident or a turn for the better. Cards fans better hope for the latter.

Chris Jones proves to be the real deal. On paper, he looks the part. A junior college All-American and 2-time defending National JUCO Player of the Year, he is regarded as one of the best JUCO prospects in years. He is definitely undersized at 5-8, but is lightning quick and fill up the scoreboard fast. Peyton Siva was the ultimate team player, and his last season and a half he was arguably one of the top 3 floor generals in the country. Not the type of player who would always put up huge numbers, he instead was the type of guy who created opportunities for his teammates. He was the guy who guys would feed off of and follow loyally. One of the critiques of Jones’ game since his high school has been his shoot-first, pass-second mentality and lack of getting teammates involved. In that sense, Siva and Jones are extremely talented, but also have very different games. For the transition to be smooth (and keep in mind, it may not be smooth right away), Jones will have to play more like a true point guard as opposed to just a scoring guard. One thing he will have to look forward to is replacing Siva on defense. That may be most difficult of all. While it did get him in trouble at times, Siva in the press paired up with Russ was as suffocating as it gets. Jones better be ready to play D. If all that happens, the Cards may just end up with the best backcourt in the country.

Wayne & Chane go from supporting cast to marquee players. When Louisville received commitments from Wayne Blackshear and Chane Behanan following the Sypher-plagued 2010 season, they were expected to be go-to type of guys who would lead Louisville back to the promised land. Yet, while both players played key roles in Louisville’s national championship run, neither has had the career that fans expected of them. At least not yet. Behanan has been the better of the 2, and his performance in the championship game will immortalize him as a Louisville legend. Yet, if he does not want 1 game to define him (but honestly, if he did want one game to, that is 1 to pick), he needs to play more consistently this season. There were too many games last season where Chane would just disappear. His decision to return to Louisville was a wise one for his future basketball-playing career, and he will need to play much more like he did against Michigan and less like he did through the majority of March. Blackshear, on the other hand, never really got off the ground when a shoulder injury sidelined him most of his freshman year. Since his return to the court, he has not quite found his comfort zone and has resorted at times to being a spot-up shooter who just floated around the three-point arch. He needs to rediscover the game that made him such a highly regarded recruit. The game that led some  Louisville fans to believe he would be a one-and-done lottery pick. Despite his somewhat lack of production thus far in his Louisville career, his talents are obvious and he still has the ability to take over a game. After taking his lumps in his first full year, it is time for the growing pains to fade away and for him to turn into the dominant player he can be.

Tournament Luke comes to play every game. This is the thing that probably concerns me the least. It is no secret that Luke Hancock played the role of favorite punching bag for Cards fans the first half of the season. Hell, the entire regular season really. When he turned it on in March, the fans who had been so harsh about his game were suddenly silent. It is that Luke that needs to show up next season for Louisville to have a chance at a repeat. This should be the least of any fans’ worries. The beginning of the year, he was injured, adjusting to a new venue and was still working on getting his physical game to catch back up with his mental. Once all that was passed, the real Luke Hancock showed up. The one that led the Cards to a national championship. His basketball IQ is off the charts, his clutch gene is borderline unnatural and his leadership ability is beyond obvious. He will come to play.

Russ continues to play smarter and shoots at a high percentage. When Russ Smith announced his return to Louisville, it immediately moved the Cards from having an outside chance to being a legitimate favorite to repeat. When the defending national champion returns its leading scorer and a huge chunk of the rest of the roster, you would think that team would be a lock for preseason #1. However, according to all the college basketball “experts” out there who are ignoring this past season, recruiting rankings are all that matter, so that is not the case. Russ definitely puts Louisville on another level. He has gone from a lovable, entertaining sophomore to one of the most dangerous guards in the country as a junior. As a senior, he will need to continue to prove his all-around game. As a junior, he improved his shooting percentage, his passing ability and his decision making, but still has room to grow. Last season, especially in the Final Four, he made far too many hasty decisions and was quick to shoot, passing up teammates in the process. He needs to make the full transition to combo guard, rather than purely a scoring guard. If he can be a team leader and create more opportunities for his teammates rather than just himself, this team will be in good shape to repeat.

Read the rest of this entry »

Photo – NBC Sports

With the departures of Peyton Siva and Gorgui Dieng, the 2013-2014 Louisville basketball team will have to find a way to fill some awfully big shoes. Siva had perhaps the most successful 4-year run of any point guard in the history of the program and was an invaluable floor leader throughout the Cards’ back-to-back Big East titles, 2 Final Fours and National Championship. Dieng was the taller equivalent of Siva: a cerebral force capable of directing traffic in the post, hitting keys shots, all while providing a menacing defensive presence throughout his three years on campus. Both players, in short, are irreplaceable. However, I think most pundits and Louisville fans would agree that Siva’s successor, Chris Jones, is more than capable of taking the reigns and becoming a major factor right off the bat. The two-time Juco player of the year is mentally and physically tough as nails and a proven winner. But a quick look down the roster for next season shows that there really isn’t someone that can step right in and adequately fill the void left by Dieng. The Cards will of course bring back Stephan Van Treese and Zach Price, but both are limited and certainly not what I call a “feature center.” Rick Pitino will also introduce redshirt freshman Mangok Mathiang, though his slight frame and style of play are better suited on the wing or in the high post as a pick-and-pop type center. He’s not going to grind on the blocks and use his weight to throw anybody around.

So where does this leave the Cards? Without a doubt, the one and only question mark surrounding this team as they go into the summer is how they’ll end up faring at the center position. Therefore, in my eyes, and apparently also in the eyes of Myron Medcalf and the folks at ESPN, someone else in the frontcourt has to step up. That someone needs to be Chane Behanan. The junior-to-be has a reputation for stepping up in big games (Regional MOP as a freshman, his outstanding work in the Final Four last month, etc) but now he has to find a way to become more consistent. That sort of sustained effort needs to become a priority and he’ll need to take things up a notch and emerge as more of a leader and someone the team can depend on in the clutch. No more missed bunnies around the rim. No more suspect free-throw shooting. No more disappearing acts. If Behanan has true aspirations of playing in the NBA as an undersized power forward, he’ll need to step up and silence all his critics. And in the end, it could be the difference between just another deep run in the NCAA Tournament and becoming back-to-back NCAA Champions.

Entering 2013-14, the preseason favorite to win the national title will be the best team in Kentucky. And the Cardinals have a case in the debate, even though Kentucky coach John Calipari essentially signed the Charlotte Bobcats.

Smith and Co. can repeat.

But there’s a lot of pressure on Behanan, the most important returnee for the team.

When focused, he’s a terrorizing post presence. We saw that in the Final Four.

Hancock earned most outstanding player honors but Behanan was a stabilizer for the program in the Final Four. He had 10 points and nine rebounds in his team’s victory over Wichita State in the national semifinals. He had 15 points, 12 rebounds and a steal in Louisville’s national championship game victory over Michigan.

In those two games, we witnessed the potential that could make Behanan a preseason All-American. He’s a rugged forward who will be expected to give Louisville productive minutes next year.

It’s difficult to single out one contributor on a roster with Louisville’s talent.

Sure, they’ll miss Peyton Siva and Gorgui Dieng. But the Cardinals are stacked again.

And with Harrell and Blackshear playing bigger roles, they’re possibly a more versatile squad.

Behanan, however, has to be a catalyst. A reliable catalyst. He’s better than the 9.8 PPG and 6.5 RPG he averaged last season.

He can be a double-double guy – consistently – for Pitino. He can be a more stubborn interior defender, too.

Photo – 247 Sports

Louisville native and highly-touted 2014 shooting guard D’Angelo Russell had quite the junior year. His Montverde (FL) Academy prep school won the National High School ESPN Invitational Tournament last season and his AAU squad, the Louisville Magic, had a nice little run of their own the previous spring and summer. The 6-4, 185 lb unanimous 5-star standout has recently picked up offers from Florida and North Carolina, and according to this piece from Adam Zagoria, the reigning National Champions are also still firmly in the mix to land his services.

“Coach [Roy] Williams is a winning coach,” Russell said of the Carolina coach. “His program is a winning program. It’s a big-time scholarship to have on the table. If it’s the right place for me to go, God will lead me that way.”

As for Florida, he said: “Talking about Billy Donovan, I haven’t watched Florida as much. I just know they are a winning school and Billy Donovan is great with his player development.”

Russell is a Louisville native and said he’s also being courted by the reigning NCAA champs.

“I mean, all the schools that are recruiting me, I’m high with now,” he said. “That they won the national tournament, I mean I felt like they were going to win it from the start. It was just a good group of guys and they were a family from the start. I don’t feel like that has raised them higher than any other school, honestly.”

Overall, Russell remains open and hasn’t trimmed his list as of yet.

Russell is apparently in no hurry to sign a letter of intent and reportedly will not make a decision until next spring. That will obviously put Louisville in a bit of a tough situation. The staff has made it crystal clear that Evansville (IN) combo guard JaQuan Lyle is also at the top of their list, and his decision should come this fall. So if Lyle were to hypothetically sign with Louisville first, would it have any impact on Russell’s ultimate decision? Not according to Fox Sports’ national recruiting analyst Evan Daniels who appeared on our radio show last week and said he believes that Rick Pitino will continue to aggressively pursue both players in hopes of landing the duo as a package.

The AAU season is heating up so there will be plenty more on Russell’s recruitment to come in the following weeks. As always, stay tuned tothe site for any potential updates.