All I’ve heard from U of L fans — including some real good long time friends — for the last couple of days is how much color commentator Doris Burke disrespected the Cardinals during the telecast of their semi-final W over Ooooooooooklahoma (where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain). How she kept calling Louisville the “lesser team.” Etc, etc, blah, blah, blah.

One guy’s opinion: The woman pictured to the right is not U of L’s enemy.

First, I didn’t hear it like many fans apparently did. Perhaps I was too into the action to be paying that much attention to the announcers. Besides, I have an inner volume dimmer when Mike Patrick is calling a game, so the volume goes way down whether I touch the clicker or not. Second, when I heard Burke use the term “lesser team” I felt sure she meant “lesser talented team.” Which U of L was, against the Sooners as well as Maryland frankly.

Besides, I’m disinclined to fall in the trap of this why-does-the-media-always-disrespect-my-team syndrome. It’s everywhere, whether you root for Carolina or the Cats or Texas or IU or Duke or  . . .

It’s so boring.

Also, I think Burke really knows her hoops, but her personality is more than a bit stiff. So it doesn’t come easy for her to properly express what she means, or to be glib. And she played on the women’s team at Providence when The Rick coached there, so I doubt she has any negative animus toward Louisville.

All of which is to say, whether you feel she dissed our Cards or not, it’s time to give it up and move on. Enough already.

Here’s Burke’s assessment of the championship game, quoted from espn.com. (One guy’s opinion is that it presents a reasonable take on the game and is pretty respectful toward U of L.):

“Louisville has shown tremendous heart, guts, determination, grit and commitment to Jeff Walz’s scouting reports every game. But the Cardinals will need every bit of that and more in their next meeting against UConn. Louisville did not have the talent level of its opponents in its past two games, yet the Cardinals reached the national championship game by outplaying and outworking them. But no one has outplayed or outworked Connecticut this season. Pick: Connecticut.”

– Seedy K