The Louisville Cardinals notched another important road win today against a young and struggling UConn.

With the win, Louisville locked down a first round bye in the Big East tournament and now sits alone at third in the Big East at 11-4.

Louisville worked through first half foul trouble when David Padgett picked up two quick fouls in the first 5 minutes of the game. As we’ve seen in his recent games, freshman Derrick Caracter came off the bench and dominated the UConn big men by scoring 16 points in the remaining minutes of the first half. His input was crucial as the Cards shot terribly from the three point line making only 1 of 9 three point attempts in the first half. Despite their struggle from beyond the arc, Louisville led by 9 at half 38-29.

The Huskies remained in the game and challenged late in the half thanks mainly to some silly fouls committed by the Cards and surprising three point accuracy from their guards. As we’ve seen lately, the freshman anchored the team late. With the scored tied at 60 with about 3 minutes to go, freshman forward Earl Clark fearlessly stuck a three point shot from the wing and Louisville didn’t look back. The final dagger came from Edgar Sosa, who sat much of the game with foul trouble. With about 1:15 remaining, Sosa hit three from the corner after a flurry of drives and kick-outs from teammates putting Louisville up 5. The final minute saw UConn having to foul and Louisville hit 6 straight free throws to ice the game.

Louisville outscored Connecticut in the paint by an astonishing 46-22 and outrebounded the much taller UConn 32-24. Louisville now gets a full week off as Seton Hall will visit Louisville at Freedom Hall next Sunday.

Although the Cards looked a little shaky down the stretch, the growing maturity of this team showed up with very unselfish play in the last 10 minutes of the second half.  Despite their lack of success from three for most of the game, the Cards continued to shoot from beyond the arc when it was open while working their offense. A perfect example was Terrancwe Williams making a three from the wing after a slashing Clark passed to Sosa on the opposite corner and three quick passes around the perimeter found T-Will wide open as he calmly knocked it down to silence the UConn home crowd.

I made an omlette scramble this morning.

I started with half a dozen fresh brussel sprouts quartered and sauteed them in a tablespoon of butter and a dash of lemon juice with salt and pepper over medium heat.

Once lightly brown and tender, I tossed in two heaping tablespoons of my favorite fresh salsa and then added two beaten eggs.

Let the eggs set and then sprinkle your favorite shredded cheese on one side and fold the other side over after about 3 minutes.

Slide out, serve and enjoy. Any green veggie would work as a sub for the brussel sprouts such as asparagus, broccoli, zucchini, you name it. 

It’s not often you get so many nuggets in the news media in 24 hours, so let me recap.

Anna Nicole Smith continues to occupy a lot of airtime on all news networks with live coverage of the “custody of her remains” hearing. Has anyone ever seen a judge pimping himself more than the joker presiding over this thing? Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin was auditioning for his new tabloid TV court show “Your Folksy Honor”. Judge Larry’s performance should go down in the history of whoring as one of the truly great performances. And when all is said and done, the Bahamas are going to get two new islands.

If it isn’t Anna, it’s Britney.

The bouncing ball of mental breakdown that is Ms. Spears has ricocheted back into rehab, and one can only hope that she stays there for the full 28 days. Of all the snarky commentary spewed over every outlet, MSNBC probably got the best sound bites from that bastion of journalism ; Danny Bonaduce. In a serious discussion of Britney’s recent woes, Bonaduce was being serious when he said that he was very worried about Spears. Having been a character of some career highs and lows himself, he shared that unlike himself, when he hit rock bottom living out of a car parked behind Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Britney still has money enough to end herself. A sobering thought from a guy who has been there and filmed it.

Bonaduce also took advantage of his airtime to slag the new epidemic in Hollywood that starts with “patient zero”: Paris Hilton. After dumping on Paris, Lindsey and Britney, his sumary was dead on, Bonaduce said “This is the first generation to revel in both their addictions and their stupidity.”

Also, my hat is off to Craig Fergusen of the Late Late Show on CBS. He called for an end to all of the jokes about Britney.

If you haven’t seen Mike Judge’s movie “Idiocracy”, you might want to rent it just for the first 10 minutes in which he explains the film’s premise with a short evolutionary theory. Truly, he’s beginning to look like a prophet. (Once that part of the movie is over though, you can stop watching).

St Johns looked good for the first 10 minutes and then we stopped them from scoring a basket for 15 minutes.

A nice game overall, with lots of assists and the freshman looking good. 10 wins in the BEast and we should probably win our last two. We should be a lock for a bye in the first round of the BEast tourney and the team is gellin’ like a felon.

I did not see this coming a month ago.

We won by 20+ and it was never close in the second half.

No, I didn’t misspell chivalry.

My 86 year old mom (doing just fine after her hip re-replacement surgery) happened to mention an article in a magazine she’d just read about “shivarees”. It took me about 5 minutes to realize that this wasn’t a mispronounciation of some other word, but an experience that was apparently very common back in the 20s, 30s and 40s.

I don’t know about you, but finding a word that I’ve never heard of before is like tasting some new and bizarre food that just blows you away. 

What, pray-tell, is a shivaree?

It’s an Amercanization of a French folk custom called charivari that entails the freinds of a newlywed couple serenading them very loudly. And without the newlyweds’ knowledge that the serenade is going to take place. So essentially, embarrass them relentlessly until they wake up in their house, greet you and serve the shivaree participants some sort of refreshment.

Does this happen anymore? I was amazed I’d never heard of this. Have you ever participated in a shivaree?

I’d love to hear about it. How this custom disappeared from popular culture would also be an interesting tale.

(It is also called “belling” or “horning” in some parts of the States and Canada.)

I’ve seen the replay of that winning shot by Jerry Smith from Saturday quite enough times on ESPN.

I enjoy it more each time they show it. Marquette must think we enjoy doing that to them. Reece Gaines did it against Dwayne Wade (actually, Gaines completely dominated him, amazing how those two’s fortunes reversed) and Francisco Gargia did it to them 2 years ago.

I just can’t get rid of this stupid grin.

And it is on ESPNU!!! I hate it when ESPN does this. Local cable doesn’t provide it.

If we win at Marquette, we’re in the big dance. Period.

UPDATE: Down 4 wint 2:39 to go, not looking good.

UPDATE 2: Down one with 20 seconds to go

UPDATE 3: 58-58 with 11 seconds to go

Dammit, we lost by one.

Check that, we WON!!!! I hate watching games online!

ESPN Real Time which is a pay service for those with the Insider subscription called the game for Marquette, but the refs looked at the film and Louisville’s freshman Jerry Smith hit a 3 at the buzzer for the win. Wowzers.

Look, let me just say it up front.

I’m a foodie.

I love to cook. I shop at gourmet food stores and asian markets and basically anywhere I can buy something I’ve never had before. I’ve even made my own sushi by ordering quality seafood online. I make bread and even bagels from scratch.

I LOVE the Food Network. And I probably watch it more than any other channel.

But damn they’re not as good as they used to be.

I’d like to point out 3 shows that seriously suck ass.

At first, I thought Rachel Ray was cute, and her 30 Minute Meals, although not spectacular, were not terrible. But she became a phenomenon, and every time I turned around, she was there. With her horsey voice and her goddamn “E V O O” (honey, we all know what it fucking means, quit explaining it every show). If I see her cook “CHAAAAAAAOPS ” again I may scream. And she dares to call shit healthy that would require a followup angioplasty for most people.

Which brings me to the diabetic nightmare that is Paula Dean.

Paula, you are marginally cute for an older lady, but cut the Southern Belle bullshit , ok y’all? Every goddamn show features food that looks like it’s prepared for a marathon runner carbo-loading for a triathalon. Even healthy ingredients like fish get dipped in lard, coated in pretzels and deep fried in coconut oil. For christ-sake, do you have cardiologists on call? Sprinkle a pound of cheese on it while you’re at it ok? Or maybe some brown sugar? I’ve never seen anyone more carb friendly than this hefty senior chef. I think her new husband is loaded and she’s a golddigger trying to kill him with food. Butter is a medium, not an entree.

Last, but not least, is Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee. Look honey, we know you’re a boozer (every show has a drink recipe) and we know you’re lazy (every show features pre-processed food of some kind) but these two things are not virtues for a food show! Here’s an idea, 100% homemade is always better than semi-homemade. Deal with it.

On the flip side, I miss the Two Fat Ladies terribly. Or even The Two Hot Tamales. And Bobby Flay is an arrogant ass. But he’s a damn fine cook from what I can tell. And Mario Batali is the Mick Jagger of the Food Network. I read the Book “Heat” (see the books in the right margin).

The best series of the last 2 years? The Road Food Alton Brown show. Outstanding.

Alabama basketball coach gets caught on national TV.