The return of RussDiculous to the Louisville basketball program means a national title repeat is not a ridiculous premise.

Russ Smith averaged 18.7 points for the Cardinals last season. (USA Today Sports)Russ Smith’s decision to forgo the NBA draft should place the Cardinals solidly at No. 2 in the preseason rankings for 2013-14, behind obscenely loaded (but very young) rival Kentucky. With apologies to Tobacco Road, that also keeps the Bluegrass State firmly entrenched as the epicenter of college basketball.

It also should make Smith a preseason first-team All-American and early favorite for national Player of the Year by a narrow margin over Marcus Smart of Oklahoma State, Doug McDermott of Creighton and Mitch McGary of Michigan. (Freshmen candidates to be named later, when we actually get to see them play collegiately.)

Smith is that good. But he can get better, which is why he’s coming back.

At 6 feet (maybe) and 165 pounds (maybe), there is only one position for Smith in the NBA and that’s point guard. Russ has proved to be a very potent scoring guard, but has

PASADENA, Calif. – Let’s salute the big winner in sports Tuesday. Kudos to Premier Sports Management of Overland Park, Kan.

That’s the consulting group the BCS hired to help name and brand its long-awaited college football playoff.

The winning name: College Football Playoff. Bill Hancock, executive director of the Bowl Championship Series, introduces the new name. (AP)

Clever, isn’t it?

I figure the folks at Premier Sports spent 15 minutes on that job, then called it a day and hit the golf course. Next day they put in a solid 30 minutes coming up with four clunky logo choices and one populist brainstorm – let’s have the fans vote for the logo of their choice! – before going fishing.

For their tireless efforts they cashed what is presumed to be a fat BCS check.

The minimalist, literalist triumph that is College Football Playoff left even the commissioners and athletic directors here at the BCS meetings smirking. They know the name is something a kindergarten class or Ryan Lochte would dream up. They don’t really care, since the trappings are far less

With Rutgers' reported hiring of Eddie Jordan Thursday, the primary activity is over for the spring on the college basketball coaching carousel.

All things considered, it was a really boring year for coaching moves.

Only eight major jobs turned over, and that's including the Mountain West and Atlantic-10 along with the putative big-six conferences. Of the eight, exactly one (UCLA) has legitimate cachet as a basketball power.

Somehow, the Southeastern Conference fired nobody despite one of its worst seasons ever. Neither did the Atlantic Coast Conference, which placed just four teams in the NCAA tournament. The only turnover in the Big 12 – another league that did not distinguish itself – was Texas Tech ridding itself of an interim coach. The Big East's lone coaching change was precipitated by scandal, not wins and losses.

[More: Notre Dame's Jack Cooley proposes during team banquet]

What does the lack of movement mean? Could be a couple of things.

There is

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Tuesday meeting of the licensing committee of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) was a revealing look at the skullduggery that can exist in thoroughbred racing.

One man came before the committee seeking reinstatement of his trainer’s license three years after he was banned, in part, for having an employee who was found with a vodka-filled syringe in a horse’s stall at Turfway Park. Jeffrey Scott Raley, the trainer in question, had his request denied. 

Vyjack, shown with jockey Joel Rosario, will be saddled by Rudy Rodriguez on May 4.But a license was granted to the man who was the feature attraction of this meeting. That was Rudolpho “Rudy” Rodriguez, who was seeking his license so he can saddle Gotham Stakes winner Vyjack in the Kentucky Derby on May 4. That dream now will come true, but with an unprecedented order for 24-hour video surveillance of the horse’s stall in Barn 4 at Churchill Downs – something Rodriguez requested himself during an occasionally contentious two-hour hearing.

At a time when American racing is trying

ATLANTA – The net was around Kevin Ware's neck in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. His fingers kept feeling the nylon as he talked.

"I can't stop touching it, you know?" the Louisville guard said. "I don't want to take it off my neck for nobody."

About an hour earlier, Ware had watched his teammates slice off small segments of net for themselves. They are the traditional spoils of basketball victory, but the Cardinals declined to cut them after winning the Big East tournament and Midwest regional. They only wanted the last nets of the season, the ones in the Georgia Dome. When it was Ware's turn, the Georgia Dome basket was lowered to court level so the injured Cardinal could cut the final cords. Kevin Ware embraces teammate Peyton Siva following Monday night's victory. (AP)

The usual method is to climb up a ladder, of course, but Ware's surgically repaired right leg prevented any of that. He's a high flyer when healthy but ground-bound now. So the net came to him.

With crutches still clamped in his armpits, the sophomore was handed a pair of

Luke Hancock has helped guide the Cardinals into the NCAA title game. (USA Today Sports)

ATLANTA – After Luke Hancock saved the Louisville season Saturday night, he did the obligatory postgame CBS interview at midcourt.

And after telling a national audience about his brilliant, 20-point performance against Wichita State, Luke had to make one more stop on the way to the locker room: the front row of Georgia Dome seats behind the Louisville bench.

"How was that?" the junior forward asked the frail, 70-year-old man standing before him.

And so Luke embraced his father, Bill, who willed himself to be at this Final Four. In a Louisville tournament run awash in emotion, this was the most poignant moment nobody knew about.

Kevin Ware's shocking broken leg and reaction to it captivated America, largely because it played out in plain sight. Luke Hancock's anguish over his gravely ill father has been a private issue until now. That's the way Luke has kept it, submerging his emotions and playing on, his teammates watching in amazement.

"He's so strong, it's

ATLANTA – Down 12 points with 13 minutes to play in the Final Four, Louisville needed to find a hero in a hurry.

The one who stepped forward was the least likely guy on the floor.

Walk-on Tim Henderson, who had to mount a letter-writing campaign in high school to even get Rick Pitino to consider taking him, somehow became Mr. Big Shot. Pressed into service after the horrific broken leg suffered last Sunday by Kevin Ware, Henderson swished a corner 3-pointer off a feed from Luke Hancock. Forty-two seconds later, Henderson swished another 3 from the same spot off a feed from Russ Smith.

Six points, his total for the game, in 42 seconds? Henderson hadn't scored six points in the last two months. A garbage-time 3 against Duke last week was his first basket since January.

Luke Hancock (11) and Tim Henderson react to a play against Wichita State during the second half. (AP) Final Four stars don't get any more unlikely than Tim Henderson. This was straight Disney movie.

"It's amazing," Henderson said, looking a bit astonished to find so much media crowding around his

ATLANTA – Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich stood in the Georgia Dome Friday afternoon, watching his Final Four Cardinals go through a light, laughter-filled open practice.

Sunday, he will be in New Orleans to watch his other Final Four Cardinals – the women's basketball team – play California. He will fly between sites as long as the Cardinals are playing.

Things are looking up for Rick Pitino and the entire Louisville program. (AP)When basketball season ends, Jurich will go home to watch his Sugar Bowl champion football team and its Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback finish spring drills in preparation of starting the 2013 season ranked in the top 10. He will check in on a baseball team ranked anywhere from 9th to 14th, depending on the poll. The 11th-ranked softball team will merit watching, too. Last week, Louisville had a men's swimmer win an NCAA individual championship in Indianapolis – the second straight year a Cardinal swimmer has done so.

The brag sheet goes on from there. No wonder this man is smiling.

"Obviously, it's a