The Floyd Street Tribune: A survey, a horrific stat, some recruiting chatter and two big thoughts

Inside: Let's just call this a down week for Louisville men's basketball, with COVID-19 after a rough loss. We dive into Chris Mack's status, the IARP, the ACC and more.

Happy holidays and Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! Thanks for reading The Floyd Street Tribune — this will be the final edition for the calendar year. In the previous edition, we talked about Louisville missing lots of open shots. By the way, if you enjoy this newsletter, consider gifting a subscription to other Cards fans as the perfect stocking stuffer!

Now, onto this week’s post …

One Big Ask

I started this newsletter in January. The response from a passionate fan base hungry for Louisville men’s hoops content has been overwhelming and awesome. That said, I crave improvement and want to make the best possible newsletter each week. If you can spare a few minutes, please complete as much as possible of my reader survey — your answers can go a long way toward tailoring TSFT content to your preferences, so be honest. Tell me what you like and don’t like. Tell me what you want to see more. Thanks!

The annual Floyd Street Tribune subscriber survey

A Christmas Rapid-Fire Column

What I think and what I know are two different things. And that’s an important distinction before I stake out some space on two significant — and not unrelated — topics involving Louisville men’s basketball.

Let’s start here: Yes, I do think the IARP ruling on NC State is a good sign for Louisville. The panel emphasized punishments for NC State that didn’t hurt current players, doling out scholarship reductions, recruiting restrictions, vacation of records (lol), show cause orders for two former coaches and fines. Importantly missing from that list: postseason bans.

Louisville’s case is different from the others because the program was on probation when the alleged wrongdoing occurred in the FBI case. But U of L fired all parties involved, and, unlike NC State, none of players implicated in the impropriety ever played a second for Louisville. That’s in addition to shaky evidence and testimony that cash for players was ever actually exchanged by Louisville staff members. The more recently alleged violations stemming from the Dino Gaudio extortion attempt were also dampened by the NCAA’s efforts to actually allow the very things Mack was accused of illegally doing — permitting GAs on the floor in practice and making personalized videos for recruits. I have a hard time imagining the IARP agreeing with those Level 2 violations, or the coach responsibility charges, in this case.

I don’t have to lay out all the different elements of this case — against their wishes, Louisville fans know the ins and outs of this infractions case. The situation is so complicated that forecasting specific punishments from an IARP that just issued its very first ruling is difficult. That said, there has been a noticeable movement away from postseason bans and other punishments that hurt uninvolved parties by the NCAA and now the IARP, and that is a very good thing for Louisville.

Let’s get to some rapid fire: