Seedy K’s GameCap: Jersey Tech

Transparency in reportage: I wasn’t in the Yum! to cover the Thanksgiving Eve Cardinals game.

Several reasons. 9:00 Tip off was at my normal bedtime. The game was against a Bottom Ten ranked school. Driving home late at night on one of the biggest bar nights of the year is not optimal for an old fart wearing trifocals.

And, as my Uncle Nate would describe such an ailment, I got the lumbago.

So, I watched on the telly, like apparently a lot of other fans. Listening to the announcers fawn over U of L like Dick Vitale does for the the Blue Devils. Able to watch the entire game on my regular TV because U of L volleyball was swept at Pitt in the prelim, and there was no need to stream.

* * * * *

Now onto the game, a 104-47 blowout . . .

. . . but first the following bit of folly.

A quiz of sorts. Jeopardy style.

* * * * *

Astronauts for $600.

Who was the only American to fly into space for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs?

Yes, you the guy in the red and black plaid shirt meeting his pals at Seidenfaden’s after the game.

Who is Wally Schirra?

Correct.

Famous Judicial Phrases for $800.

What jurist is noted for saying “Beauty fades. Dumb is forever.”

Yes, you the coed in the student section a Russdiculous sweatshirt.

Who is Judge Judy?

Correct, Judy Sheindlin is known for her put down wit on her TV show.

* * * * *

I trust some of you will intuit what if anything the above has to do with the game. And are still patiently waiting for some actual discussion of last night’s exercise which mildly represented a competitive basketball contest.

Which is that Schirra and Sheindlin are the two well known alums of the New Jersey Institute of Technology. The rest listed are all academics.

Say a writer stops taking game notes at the first media timeout, his team up 11-2 against a squad looking like a pick up team on Wednesday night at the Y for open gym.

He wants to find something reasonably engaging to say about the game, so he starts googling up ideas during media stoppages.

I thought of commencing a phenomenological dialog about why such an institution would brand itself with initials athletically instead of the more Clair Bee/ Gil Thorpian Jersey Tech.

Instead I just decided to call them that myself and leave it alone.

Nickname: Highlanders.

Which squad dropped two spots in the Ken Pomeroy Ratings after losing by 57 to the Cards, from 345 (of 365) to 347.

Louisville remained overall #7, it’s AOE still #2, and its adjusted D ranking up to #27.

* * * * *

Louisville was up 22 at halftime.

When it had already netted 11 treys in 23 tries. And had 14 assists on its 18 made FGs.

It was obvious this was nothing but a workout before the Arkansas > Indiana > Memphis State > Tennessee Bataan Death March.

Nobody was hurt. Though Kasean Pryor sat again in concussion protocol.

The Cardinals for the most part stayed focused. Only wet behind the ears Mikel Brown fell prey now and again to his rookieitis, needing to score.

Though he did lead the Cardinals in +/- at +40.

Such was the nature of this beatdown not much can be learned from the numbers.

I’ll mention a few, if only to confirm I did pay attention to the game until the buzzer.

24 assists on 36 FGs.

20 of which buckets were from Tripledom. On 48 tries. 42%. Many, most actually, uncontested. Shooting drill.

Kobe Rodgers tied Ryan Conwell with 9 for the team lead in RBs.

12/14 at the line.

Conwell also had 6 assists, while scoring 32 on boffo shooting.

Louisville grabbed 59 boards to 21 for the hapless visitors. Absurd.*

*Playing these types of games is a given. No school plays a Top 25 schedule every night non-conference. But this foe, why, it has me scratching my head.

The exclamation point of the 104-47 win came from a walk on.

Spencer Legg on a third chance follow.

Happy Turkey.

— c d kaplan