The Floyd Street Tribune: Deciding the greatest Cards squad of all-time ... with a simulator

Inside: Bereft of much hoops to discuss at the moment, I sought an answer to the burning question of which Louisville men's hoops team is the all-time best.

Miss the last newsletter? I laid out the immediate problems for Louisville basketball. For just $7 a month, paid subscribers receive each newsletter in full and have access to each newsletter via the main TFST page.

Have you ever wondered what might happen if the very best Louisville men’s basketball squads, in some alternate universe, squared off in a game? How would 2012-13 Russ Smith fare against 2013-14 Russ? What about Griff vs. Milt, or Denny vs. Rick?

Sometime ago, a friend of mine brought WhatIfSports.com to my attention. The website’s algorithm runs simulations in a way that allows you to pit teams from different seasons against one another, such as, say, the 1995-96 UMass Minutemen against the 2008-09 Pitt Panthers — my two all-time favorite college hoops teams. (Pitt won, by the way, thanks to 17 points and 14 rebounds from DeJuan Blair, my all-time favorite basketball player.)

Well, I don’t know what the hell to write about with this current Louisville Cardinals team, so instead I’m going to use this week’s newsletter as a basketball escape while you all celebrate the excellent football coaching hire. Maybe you’d like to come with me on this journey.

Let’s get right to it: 16 teams, four groups for round-robin play, the top two in each group move on to an eight-team single-game elimination tournament to claim The All-Time Cards Cup.