Picked up the Volvo S60 for the weekend at my local Volvo dealership. Got a crash course (figuratively I mean) about the car and all the features. It’s going to be a lot of fun to drive — even into a winter storm.

Well, I popped the trunk on the Volvo S60 I get for the weekend thanks to the Biggest Fan in the Big East contest. (Please, vote.) And in there was a box filled with t-shirts, mini-basketballs, beer cozies and hats. Emblazoned with Big East and Volvo logos. Needless to say, I have little corporate goodies to give away tomorrow.

As for the where, I’ll be at Hemingway’s around 6 pm tomorrow. Also definitely going to be there will be at least one of the Bryan’s from PittScript blog. Unfortunately Cardiac Hill almost certainly cannot make it. Please come on over and have a drink (or more) with us.

One of the most frustrating things during this losing streak. At least from my perspective. Has not been the turnovers. Not the lapses in defense. It has been missing the easy ones. The bunnies. The open look. The lay-ups. We saw it against Syracuse. Saw it in several of the games. Point blank misses.

Now comes Louisville to the Pete. Guess who is having similar issues.

As much as the injuries, the plague of bad shooting by these guys is difficult to understand. They’ve missed layups. They’ve missed shots in the paint. And the threes? Woeful.

With Kuric injured, Pitino has only two players on the roster shooting better than 33 percent from the arc. If you’re not going to overwhelm teams with talent (and this team never was), and if your zone defense and ball containment are suspect (and this team’s are), you’d better be able to execute on offense and shoot the basketball.

…

You can draw up all the X-and-O stuff you want. You can discuss personnel all day. If this team doesn’t start making some of the open shots it has been missing, none of the rest will matter. The Cards don’t need a doctor. They need a shot doctor.

Well, Kuric is expected to be ready for the Pitt game, but my god swap out Cards, Kuric and Pitino with Pitt, Woodall and Dixon and you could use it to describe Pitt right now.

While the return of Tray Woodall to the line-up would not be the pure cure-all, it would definitely help. Well, it seems as if Woodall will be doing all he can to be out on the court for Saturday night’s game with Louisville.

Woodall, who has missed 10 of the past 11 games with an abdominal injury, said Thursday he is close to returning to game action.

“I definitely feel like I’m ready to play,” he said after going through a full practice for the first time since a game Dec. 27 at Notre Dame. “I’m not going to beat around the bush. I’m going to go through two more days of practice, see how I’m feeling. Whenever I’m ready to go, I’m ready to go.”

Not exactly definitive, but the general buzz seems to be that Woodall expects to be out there on Saturday.

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