Dec. 9 Issue

VOLUME XV • NUMBER 17DECEMBER 9, 2010

$3.00

LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT DECEMBER 9, 2010

DECEMBER 9, 2010 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 3

E D I T O R I A L S T A F F

GENERAL MANAGER - Jack Coffee

SENIOR WRITER AND EDITOR - Russ Brown

OPERATIONS MANAGER - Howie Lindsey

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES - Mickey Clark, Betty Olsen and Blanche Kitchen

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS - Dave Klotz, Shelley Feller, Gail Kamenish,

Howie Lindsey and Chuck Feist

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNISTS - Matt Willinger, Jeff Wafford,

Jason Puckett and Rick Cushing

DESIGNER - Scott Stortz

COPY EDITOR - Rick Cushing

The Louisville SportsReport is printed in Kentucky and based in Louisville. It is published weekly in January, February and March, monthly in April, May, June and July and weekly mid-August through late December by Louisville Sports News, L.L.C., in Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville Sports News, L.L.C.: Owner and General Manager - Jack Coffee. The SportsReport was founded in 1996. United States Postal Number: 015255

POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Louisville SportsReport, P.O. Box 17464, Louisville, KY 40217. Four weeks advance notice is required on old addresses as well as new. Periodicals Postage paid at Louisville, Ky. Subscriptions are priced at $56.95 each (plus 6% Ky. tax) for 38 issues. Members of the University of Louisville’s Cardinal Athletic Fund receive a special group rate of $39.75 for their initial subscriptions and that amount is applied from each annual donation. Year-round first-class mailing is available for an additional $53 per year. Please call for Canadian and overseas rates. Not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs unless accompanied by return postage. Publisher reserves right to accept or reject advertisements. Copyright 2008 by Louisville Sports News, L.L.C. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. For subscriber information or circulation questions call 1-502-636-4330. Office hours at 2805 S. Floyd St. in Louisville: Mon-Wed. from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

VOLUME XV, NUMBER 17DECEMBER 9, 2010

THE NEXT ISSUE OF THE

SPORTSREPORT WILL BE MAILED

DEC. 14

CSPACOLLEGESPORTS

PUBLISHERSASSOCIATION

COVER PHOTO BY HOWIE LINDSEYDESIGN BY SCOTT STORTZ

AMERICA’S FOREMOST AUTHORITY ONUNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE ATHLETICS®

For advertising information call (502) 636-4330 in Louisville, or send correspondence to the:

Louisville SportsReportP.O. Box 17464

Louisville, KY 40217

Office Phone: (502) 636-4330Fax: (502) 636-9265

E-mail: [email protected]

Official Web site:www.cardinalsports.com

13 NOT ONE DIMENSIONALKnown primarily as a shooter as a high schooler,

sophomore Mike Marra had a rough freshman year last season. This season, however, Marra has been stellar as a shooter and a passer. “He’s a very, very smart player,”

Louisville coach Rick Pitino said.

Louisville coach Charlie Strong celebrated a good defensive play during his team’s win at Rutgers. The 40-13 win over the Scarlet Knights made Louisville bowl eligible. The Cardinals accepted a bid to the Beef’O’Brady’s Bowl on Sunday. The bowl will pit the Cardinals vs. Southern Miss on Tuesday, Dec. 21 in St. Petersburg, Fla. Call (502) 852-5151 for tickets. - photo by Dave Klotz

W H A T ’ S I N S I D E

4 VOLLEYCARDS BREAK MTSU’S SPELL BUT FALL TO PURDUE By Howie Lindsey5 CARDS GET BEST-CASE SCENARIO: WARM-WEATHER BOWL By Russ Brown6 MEN’S SOCCER: 2010 NCAA TOURNAMENT BRACKET7 MEN’S SOCCER: By Howie Lindsey8 CAN THE BCS TRANSITION FROM BEING ALL ABOUT THE CASH

TO GETTING IT RIGHT? By Jack Coffee9 SOCCER: HORTON’S GAME-WINNER WAS A THING OF BEAUTY By Howie Lindsey10 THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY By Howie Lindsey & Russ Brown11 CARDS LOOKING FORWARD TO MAJOR TEST FROM UNLV By Russ Brown12 LOUISVILLE BASKETBALL PHOTO GALLERY13 MARRA A MAN OF MANY DIMENSIONS FOR CARDINALS By Russ Brown

16 HALL OF FAME NOMINATION TOOK PITINO BY SURPRISE By Russ Brown17 CARDINAL AUTHENTIC GIVES FANS A HIP, HIGH-END OPTION By Howie Lindsey18 MEN’S AND WOMEN’S BASKETBALL SCHEDULES19 UNLV PREVIEW By Rick Cushing20 FIU IS DOA AS CARDS BREEZE IN ANOTHER ROUT By Russ Brown21 BOWL LOCATION - ST. PETE - FIGURES TO BE GOOD NEWS FOR

RECRUITING By Jeff Wafford22-23 BIG EAST: CARDS ALSO CAN TAKE PRIDE IN UCONN’S BCS FEAT By Russ Brown24 TOP TOM LANE25 A YEAR MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE FOR CARDS IN ROUT OF

NO. 8 CATS By Howie Lindsey28 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PHOTO GALLERY

FEATURES AND CONTENT:

25 CARDS CLOBBER THE CATSLouisville women’s basketball used runs of 12-0,

11-0 and 13-3 to blow past archrival Kentucky Sunday in front of 22,152 fans at the KFC Yum! Center. Louisville won 78-52 with the help of 26

points by Shoni Schimmel and 21 by Becky Burke.

5 BEST-CASE SCENARIOSenior Doug Beaumont and the Cardinals will

be headed south for the Beef ’O’ Brady’s Bowl in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Dec. 21. “We wanted to

get somewhere warm,” Beaumont said. Mission accomplished. UofL will leave early next week.

By Howie LIndseyLouisville volleyball fi nally got the MTSU

monkey off its back in the fi rst round the 2010 NCAA Tournament Friday in West Lafayette, Ind., but the Cardinals (23-8) couldn’t get back to the Sweet 16.

Louisville, the 2010 Big East Tournament champions, beat Middle Tennessee 3-0 in the opening round of the 64-team tourna-ment, but fell 3-1 to host Purdue Saturday.

“We got beat by a better team tonight, that is all there is to it,” coach Leonid Ye-lin said. “But overall, I cannot complain. Purdue did what they had to do and my young team will take away a great lesson from this. I would like to do research on how many teams starting three freshmen advanced this far.”

Yelin’s team certainly over-achieved in 2010. The Cardinals started three freshmen for much of the season, and their top star was sophomore Lola Arslanbekova. Despite their youth, the team won the league tour-nament to secure an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament, and advanced to the second round for the ninth time in school history.

The Cardinals lose just one senior starter, blocker Amanda Simmons, and one top re-serve, libero Lindsey Mango, for next sea-

son. They’ll likely be favored to win the Big East title for the sixth straight season.

PURDUE TOO TOUGHJunior Gwen Rucker’s career-high 13

kills and four blocks and freshman Cait-lin Welch’s career-high four aces were not enough as UofL bowed out of the NCAA Second Round with a 3-1 loss to host Pur-due Saturday night.

UofL fell 26-24, 25-23, 18-25, 25-15 and fi nish the season at 23-8. Purdue ad-

vanced to the Austin, Texas Regional and is now 23-10 going into the Sweet Sixteen, its third time in school history.

“Defensively we did not do as well as we usually do,” Yelin said. “With everything on the line and so emotional we tried too hard. We pressed. I would remind them at tim-eouts that they were ahead and to relax.”

Rucker fi nished the match hitting .522 and teamed up with freshmen Emily Juhl and Taylor Brauneis in the fourth set to give the Cardinals back-to-back blocks to open

the set. Her 13 kills broke her old career-high of 12 set against Miami (OH) in 2008and Ohio this season. Purdue was led byTiffany Fisher’s team high 12 kills.

“We had a tough time blocking Fisher,” Rucker said. “She made the biggest differ-ence for them. Purdue just made runs. Involleyball you make runs, that is what youdo. They made theirs at key times and wehad trouble stopping them. “

CARDS SWEEP MTSULouisville met MTSU in the fi rst round of

the NCAA Tournament for the third time infi ve years Friday night. The Cardinals fi nallybroke their two-game losing skid to theBlue Raiders with an emphatic 3-0 sweep.

Arslanbekova had 17 kills to lead the Cardinals to their fi rst NCAA Tournamentwin in fi ve seasons. Middle Tennessee (29-6) folded 25-22, 25-21, 25-17.

“It feels so good to fi nally break the trend and make it past the fi rst round,” Simmonssaid. “We are taking it one set at a time andone match at a time. We are enjoying everyminute of the ride.”

Arslanbekova led the offensive attack for the Cardinals (23-7) with 17 kills whileposting a .381 hitting percentage.

PAGE 4 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT DECEMBER 9, 2010

RECRUITING NOTEBOOK10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASONLOUISVILLE VOLLEYBALL

VOLLEYCARDS BREAK MTSU’S SPELL, BUT FALL TO PURDUE

Lola Arslanbekova had 17 kills against MTSU Friday in West Lafayettte, Ind., as Louisville beat the Blue Raiders 3-0 in the fi rst round of the NCAA Tournament. - photo by Shelley Feller

By Russ BrownA year ago, as the Christmas holidays ap-

proached, the University of Louisville football players were, as wide receiver Doug Beau-mont noted, “sitting home bored” for the third straight year while 72 other teams were involved in bowl games.

There will be no boredom this December. Only sunshine and a tussle with an old rival.

UofL’s 6-6 record in its fi rst season under head coach Charlie Strong earned the Cardi-nals a trip to St. Petersburg, Fla., for the Dec. 21 Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl, where they’ll meet Southern Mississippi (8-4) of Conference USA at 8 p.m. (ESPN) in Tropicana Field.

It’s a good matchup and a desirable destina-tion for UofL, especially because there had been rumors that the Cards would wind up in De-troit for the Little Cae-sar’s Bowl on Dec. 26 or the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, on Dec. 31 -- on the same day of the UofL-

Kentucky basketball game.Naturally, the players are thrilled to be go-

ing to the Sunshine State, but they would have been happy to be anywhere but home, particularly the 25 seniors to whom 2010 represented their last chance for postseason play.

“You know what, beggars can’t be choos-ers,” senior quarterback Justin Burke said. “I’ll go to Detroit the day after Christmas or I’ll go to St. Petersburg on Dec. 21. I don’t care, as long as we’re playing in December. We’re just happy to go to a bowl game at this point.”

When push came to shove, though, “We wanted to get somewhere warm,” Beau-mont said.

The bowl bid is especially rewarding for Burke, a fi fth-year senior from Lexington, Ky., who transferred to UofL from North Carolina State and has had four head coaches in fi ve seasons of college football.

“Me personally, I’ve never been to a bowl. I’m 38 years old, so I think it’s about time,” said Burke, who actually is only 23. “I was paranoid not knowing if we were going to one. I was making all my friends paranoid, and they were getting pretty angry with me. It’s good to fi nally have it set and know where we’re going. We would have been happy with any bowl, but St. Petersburg in December is nice.”

For Strong, who has coached in 20 bowl games -- including two BCS national champi-onship bowls as Florida’s defensive coordina-tor -- this bowl trip offers numerous rewards. They include two weeks of extra practice that will benefi t UofL’s young returning players, an opportunity to play in a state that forms the base for his recruiting efforts, and his satisfaction at having reached his oft-stated goal of getting the seniors to a bowl game.

“You like the senior class for the work they put into it,” he said. “And they found the leadership for this program to take the steps we needed to take to get to a bowl game.”

Nevertheless, Burke said Strong didn’t show much emotion when he found out about the bowl.

“He’s excited for us and for the seniors, but he’s kind of the same guy every day,”

Burke said. “Like, ‘Should have been there anyway.’ He’s not surprised, I know that.”

Thirteen of those seniors were on the team when UofL made its last bowl appear-ance, but they were being redshirted and didn’t play in the fi fth-ranked Cards’ 24-13 victory over No. 12 Wake Forest in the 2007 Orange Bowl.

Beaumont said that when Strong took over, he told the players that he was impa-tient and wasn’t willing to wait for success.

“He told us from the beginning that we were going to turn things around and we were going to start right now,” Beaumont said. “He expected us to win a lot of games and get bowl eligibility.”

Beaumont added that the seniors take ex-tra pride in believing they have established a good foundation for the program’s future success.

“It’s just a stepping-stone to become suc-cessful down the road, and that’s what we wanted to do,” he said. “We didn’t want this to just be a rebuilding year.”

For a long time during the season, though, UofL’s bowl prospects were anything but cer-tain. The Cards were picked to fi nish last in the Big East, and had they not beaten Rut-gers in their regular-season fi nale, that’s ex-actly where they would have fi nished -- in a three-way tie with Cincinnati and Rutgers at 2-5. But UofL, which had lost three of its previous four games, rose to the occasion and blitzed the Scarlet Knights 40-13 in Rut-gers Stadium to become bowl eligible.

Then came the waiting game before they learned Sunday afternoon that they had been chosen for the three-year-old Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl. Both of the previous ‘O’ Bra-dy’s bowls have been won by Big East teams, with South Florida beating Memphis 41-14 in 2008 and Rutgers defeating Central Flori-da 45-24 last year.

UofL and Southern Miss have had a long, and sometimes bitter, rivalry that dates all the way back to 1949. This will be the 29th meeting, with USM leading the series 18-9-1.

Last year’s battle in Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium was typical of the hard-fought ri-valry, as Trent Guy’s 64-yard kickoff return set up Ryan Payne’s 32-yard fi eld goal with 30 seconds left to give UofL a 25-23 victory. The teams are scheduled to meet again in 2012 in Hattiesburg.

Strong and USM head coach Larry Fedora were on the Florida staff at the same time in 2003 and ‘04, with Strong serving as de-fensive coordinator both seasons and Fedora rising to offensive coordinator in 2004.

“Charlie is a heck of a football coach,” Fedora said. “He has done a tremendous job with those guys, getting them to a bowl game. I know they’re excited about coming down to St. Petersburg and playing.”

Fedora also coached with UofL defensive coordinator Vance Bedford at Oklahoma State.

“I haven’t had a chance to see them play this season, but I know Charlie and I know what kind of coach he is,” Fedora said. “I know he’s aggressive, and he’ll get after it on defense. He’s got those kids believing in the system and playing well.”

Prior to UofL’s joining the Big East for the 2005 season, the Cards and Golden Eagles were usually the cream of the crop in C-USA, with their game often deciding the league championship. From 1996 through 2004, either UofL or USM won all but two of the nine C-USA titles.

In the early analysis, the game shapes up as USM’s high-powered offense against Uo-fL’s stingy defense, but it’s diffi cult to get a true picture because the Golden Eagles play in a conference that values offense over de-fense, and Louisville’s defense thrived in the offensively challenged Big East.

USM ranks 15th nationally among FBS schools in total offense, averaging 458.17 yards per game, and also is 15th in scoring at 37.58 points per game. The Golden Eagles average 203.4 rushing yards per game (21st) while scoring 27 touchdowns, and they aver-age 254.75 passing ypg (31st) with 21 TDs.

Meanwhile, Louisville ranks 12th in total

defense in the FBS, allowing 304.67 ypg,and 15th in scoring defense at 18.67 ppg.

USM’s defense is another matter. The Golden Eagles are 81st nationally in scoringdefense (29.4 ppg) and No. 55 in total de-fense (362.17 ypg, 46 TDs). They have beenparticularly vulnerable to the pass. They havegiven up 248.8 ypg in the air, 103rd nation-ally, along with 26 touchdowns. But theyhave 16 interceptions, which ties them withseven other teams for No. 21 in the country,and they are No. 13 in rushing defense, sur-rendering only 113.33 ypg.

Southern Miss scored 40 or more points seven times but lost three of those games,including a 56-50 shootout at Tulsa in theseason fi nale. The Golden Eagles also lost50-49 to UAB in double overtime and 44-43to East Carolina to fi nish 5-3 in C-USA.

The Golden Eagles’ best win was a 31-21 upset of No. 25 Central Florida, the eventualC-USA champion, on Nov. 13 in Orlando.

BURKE UPDATES STATUSWith Adam Froman sidelined with a leg

injury, Burke started the last four games ofthe season. But he left the Rutgers game inthe fi rst half with back spasms and said hedoesn’t know whether he’ll get the startingnod against USM. Sophomore Will Stein re-placed Burke at Rutgers and led the Cardson four scoring drives, and Froman could behealthy by the bowl game.

“We never know (about starters),” Burke said. “We have three who are very quali-fi ed. Adam won us four games this year andplayed really well, and he’s got extra timeto get healthy. And Will came in and did agreat job at Rutgers. It’s kind of a day-to-daything.

“I’m 38 and my back gives out. It’s one of those deals, if I bend over too quickly ortry to lift heavy objects, it blows out. I did iton the Wednesday before Rutgers, and theexact same thing happened in the game. Butwe’ve got full faith in Will to go in and do agreat job. It just goes to show that our baseand what we’ve been taught works.”


RECRUITING NOTEBOOK10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASONCARDINAL FOOTBALL

Coach Charlie Strong was all smiles as he shared his joy with Ryan Kessling, left, and Mohamed

Kourouma after one of the Cards’ six wins earlier this season. - photo by Dave Klotz

CARDS GET BEST-CASE SCENARIO: WARM-WEATHER BOWL

RUSS BROWNRUSS BROWN


MEN’S SOCCER NCAA TOURNAMENT BRACKET


10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASON10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASONMEN’S SOCCER

By Howie LIndseyLouisville’s undefeated season appeared

to be coming to a close in the fi rst half of its NCAA Tournament Elite Eight game against No. 6 UCLA Saturday night. The Bruins took a quick 2-0 lead, scoring on their only shots on goal, and had the top-ranked Cardinals on the ropes.

The Cardinals (19-0-3) hadn’t trailed by two goals all season. In fact, they hadn’t even given up two goals in any game this season. But here they were, less than 90 min-utes away from the program’s fi rst trip to the College Cup, soccer’s version of basketball’s

Final Four, and they were down and nearly out.

An unassisted goal on a free kick by UofL junior All-American Colin Rolfe in the 29th minute cut the UCLA to 2-1, but the Bru-ins added to the potential for panic three minutes later when Chandler

Hoffman took a long run down the center of the fi eld after a loose ball and scored to make it 3-1.

Teams that haven’t lost before the tour-nament sometimes don’t know how to handle adversity. In fact, the Cards not only hadn’t lost, they’d trailed for a total of only 64 minutes, 32 seconds during the entire 2,076-minute season.

But UofL didn’t panic. The players came together after UCLA’s third goal and remind-ed each other to stay focused - and keep working.

“This is the kind of thing we have been talking about all year,” junior defender Aus-tin Berry said. “We work to get into the mindset that nothing can phase us. Referee calls, goals, opposing fans - I give a lot of credit to our guys for pulling each other in after that fi rst and second goal. We said, ‘Let’s work hard and let’s get it back.’”

That’s what they did. Louisville kept at-tacking the UCLA defense and got a goal at 39:10 from Charlie Campbell on a pen-alty kick. That cut UCLA’s halftime lead to a more-manageable one goal and gave the Cardinals an extra kick in their step heading into the locker room.

“Our talk at halftime was, ‘We’re OK, and all we need to do is go out and play the way we can,’” coach Ken Lolla said. “We have a team full of character that continues to come through for us.”

Lolla believed his team still had a chance because he saw his team outplay the Bruins in the fi rst half even though it trailed on the scoreboard.

“That longer shot, and then the PK, I thought those were the turning moments in the game,” Lolla said. “We were going in one goal down, and we felt pretty good about it. We had a lot of chances. We felt in the second half we would get more chanc-es.”

Lolla knew that if his players kept their ef-fort up, and if they could get another goal to excite the massive, overfl ow crowd of 5,467, they could still win the match.

“There were points where we were down a couple of goals, and there is no ques-tion in my mind that the fans had a lot to do with our win,” Lolla said. “It was clear that our fans willed us on to victory tonight. They were as much a part of that happen-ing, as much a part of pushing us on ... there are very few things in life as powerful as a positive push from somebody else. We got it from 5,500 fans tonight, and that made the difference.”

And that is exactly what happened. Just two minutes after halftime Rolfe scored his second goal of the game when he headed in a 40-yard looping free kick from Paolo DelPiccolo to tie the score at 3.

“Louisville scored at opportune times,” UCLA coach Jorge Salcedo said. “If you think about the free kick, and the bizarre way it went in. That was an important time. We scored again to make it 3-1, and then there was the penalty kick. Their fi rst three goals were from set pieces. At the beginning of the game I thought they were doing a good job on their run of play, and soccer is like that sometimes.”

Now Louisville had the momentum. The fans were chanting, cheering and stomp-ing their feet, and the team seemed to pick up the tempo. In the 56th minute, a cross by Campbell nearly hit the goal post on the right side. Rolfe avoided UCLA keeper Rowe and played the ball back across the face of the goal quickly to Nick DeLeon, who easily found the back of the net for the go-ahead goal. That sent the crowd into a frenzy.

But UCLA (16-5-1) wasn’t done yet. At 80:31, the Bruins scored on a throw-in. Vic-tor Chavez defl ected a throw-in by Joe Sofi a to tie it at 4.

“I give them a lot of credit for handling the weather ... and also putting up a really good fi ght for us,” Lolla said of the near-

constant snowfall before the game and the ice-cold temperatures after halftime.

With less than 10 minutes left in regula-tion, the Louisville fans could sense the game slipping away and started cheering more emphatically. The team, undaunted, began attacking the UCLA defense more fervently. That pressure paid off with just under a min-ute left when freshman reserve Aaron Horton weaved through fi ve defenders and rocketed a shot into the back of the net. Horton’s goal ignited a wild celebration on the fi eld and in the stands.

“I couldn’t be more proud of our guys but, to be honest with you, I’m not surprised either,” Lolla said. “This is a group that has shown tremendous character all year long.”

Louisville still had to defend for the fi nal minute, and the Bruins almost played the role of spoiler when they had a point-blank shot on goal in the fi nal seconds. But UofL keeper Andre Boudreaux defl ected the shot, and a Cardinals defender kicked the ball out near midfi eld as the fi nal 10 seconds were counted off the clock by the crowd and the public address announcer.

“It was one of those situations where they have it point blank and you try to make yourself as big as possible,” Boudreaux said. “It hit me right in the chest. Those guys had been bringing it all game long, and we did what we needed to do.”

As the ball bounced near midfi eld, the fi nal horn sounded and thousands of Cardi-nals fans ran onto the fi eld.

“I did not expect the whole stands to come out,” Berry said. “I turned around and hugged Andre and then I turn around again and there are 1,000 people running onto the fi eld. I’m trying to celebrate with my team, and I’m high-fi ving strangers and it was wild. It was phenomenal.”

Louisville will face No. 4 North Carolina Friday at 8:30 p.m. EST in Santa Barbara, Ca-lif. If the Cards win, they’ll face the winner between No. 2 Akron and No. 10 Michigan Sunday at 4 p.m. for the national title.

“This is an unbelievable team with unbe-lievable character,” DeLeon said. “We havetwo more games, and we’re going to get itdone. We want to come home with the na-tional title.”

TOO MANY GOALSBoudreaux came into Saturday’s game

with a 0.53 goals-against average, but hegave up four goals to the Bruins. Boudreaux,who took Yoga all summer to improve hisfl exibility and focus, said giving up four goalswas not how he envisioned winning in theElite Eight.

“This was not how I visualized it,” he said. “But, as a goalkeeper, so much of the gameis mental. They had two chances early in thefi rst half, and they scored on both. You can’tdwell on that because you have to keepyourself in the game. You just have to pre-tend it never happened.”

Salcedo said he thought it could be that type of a game when he saw the snowy fi eldand two teams that like to push the attack.

“I said before the game that this game could be 5-5 or 6-5, and I was prophetic, justfor the wrong team,” he said.

LOLLA LIKES CHARACTERLolla said he learned quite a bit about

his team. lessons he may be able to use thisweek in the College Cup.

“Before the game, I told our guys, ‘What excites me most about the next three gamesis that it provides us the opportunity to reachour potential and for maximum growth,’” hesaid. “When you play against the best teamsin the country, it creates the greatest chal-lenges. It is in those challenges that we havethe opportunity for the greatest growth. To-night was exactly that - we found ourselvesin situations where we were against the runof play and down two goals twice, to comeback, take the lead and then end up giving itback. And then to win the thing shows a tre-mendous amount of character on our part.”

L O U I S V I L L E S O C C E R J U S T T W O W I N S A W A Y F R O M N A T I O N A L T I T L E

CARDS ROAR BACK TO BEAT BRUINS 5-4, ADVANCE TO COLLEGE CUP

HOWIE LINDSEYHOWIE LINDSEY

Junior defender Austin Berry plugged his nose and had blood stains on his shirt after a wild celebration after UofL beat UCLA Saturday.

Louisville fans rushed the fi eld to celebrate the Cardinals’ fi rst-ever appearance in the College Cup. The Cardinals advanced to the four-team Cup with a win over No. 6 UCLA Saturday night. - photo by Howie Lindsey


Only President’s Award Winner in Greater Louisville 10 out of 11 years!

448-2802www.bobmontgomery.com

Top 10 Certified Used Car Dealer in the Nation

448-2820

5340 Wide Wide Dixie Highway

BOB MONTGOM E RY HAS BE E N S E RVI NG TH E COM M U N IT Y S I NCE 1960 .

It’s no wonder that BCS has become a bad word. Instituted as a method to better determine a “true” national champion, the Bowl Championship Series is a result of an initial failed attempt by the major conferences, bowl game committees and Notre Dame to form a Bowl Coalition to have the nation’s two best teams meet in the fi nal game of the season. In the years prior there was much consternation among fans, media and slighted schools because the two best teams often did not meet in a bowl game.

In 1992 the BC was formed and stayed in existence until 1994 and included the SEC, Big East, Southwest, ACC and Pac-10 but failed due to the total exclusion of non-conference teams from the system and the unwillingness of the Rose Bowl to release the Big Ten and Pac-10 from their annual New Year’s Day obligations.

In 1995 the Bowl Coalition was restructured to the Bowl Alliance but did not include the Pac-10 and Big 10 champions because they were still committed to the Rose Bowl. It also did not include any non-conference teams and was hindered by the demise of the Southwest Con-ference and lasted only three seasons. In spite of these two attempts to correct the problem of a “true” national champion, the solution was no better as Penn State and Nebraska both went undefeated in 1994 but did not play because of Penn State’s Rose Bowl commitment. Nebraska became the de facto champion as it was ranked No. 1 in both major polls. Needless to say this result did not sit well with Penn State or the Big Ten, and the cries became louder to correct the Rose Bowl “problem.”

In the last two years of the Bowl Alliance, the possibility still existed for a split national cham-pionship. In 1997, No. 1 Florida State played No. 3 Florida in the Sugar Bowl for the national championship as No. 2 and Pac-10 champion Arizona State was locked into playing in the Rose Bowl against No. 4 Ohio State. In 1998, No. 1 and Big Ten champion Michigan was committed to playing No. 8 Washington State in the Rose Bowl. In 1997 Arizona State lost to Ohio State, spoiling the opportunity for a split national championship. In 1998 a split national champion-ship scenario was set up as Michigan was No. 1 in both the Associated Press and coaches’ polls entering the bowl season, and this meant that no matter how well Michigan did against Wash-ington State in the Rose Bowl, the Wolverines likely would lose the No. 1 coaches’ ranking to either No. 2 Nebraska or No. 3 Tennessee after their Orange Bowl game.

The remedy for the problem was the formation of the BCS after protracted negotiations with the Rose Bowl Committee. The new system would allow both the Pac-10 and the Big Ten champions to be relieved of their Rose Bowl obligations if either qualifi ed for a national championship game. An example is Pac-10 champ Oregon this season, with the Ducks playing in the BCS title game against Auburn while No. 3 TCU of the MWC takes on Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl due to a tweak in the BCS system (the Pac-10’s No. 2 team, No. 4 Stanford, is going to the Orange Bowl).

In the early years of the BCS the non-BCS conferences were still excluded from the four major bowls and the national championship, but due to public outcry and anti-trust threats from prominent politicians (including Mitch McConnell) the BCS was forced to include non-BCS schools under certain criteria. That fi rst happened in 2004 when undefeated Utah was invited to the 2005 Fiesta Bowl and walloped Big East champ Pittsburgh. In 2007 a fi fth bowl game was added at one of the four bowl sites (Sugar, Fiesta, Orange and Rose) for the national championship game, and any non-BCS team in the top 12 of the BCS rankings was invited to a BCS game. In 2007, the same year Louisville played in the Orange Bowl, No. 8 Boise State beat No. 10 Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl 43-42 in overtime. The following year Hawaii was crushed 41-10 by Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. In 2009 Utah and in 2010 Boise were non-BCS teams in-vited to BCS bowl games. This season for the fi rst time a non-BCS team was in the running for the national championship game as TCU went into the fi nal week of the season ranked No. 3, and a loss by either Auburn or Oregon in their fi nal games would have put TCU in the national championship game.

The potential of that happening brought out the howls from the vested interests, including Ohio State president Gordon Gee, who said that TCU and Boise State (which was No. 4 before losing to Nevada two weeks ago) owed their perfect records to playing “The Little Sisters of the Poor.” His arrogance is only exceeded by his ignorance as even I know that the LSP doesn’t fi eld football teams but only helps those in need, which should include Dr. Gee. Those comments only served to reinforce the perception by many that the BCS was formed by the major confer-ences in a bid to control collegiate football at the highest levels and retain their stranglehold, especially by the Big Ten and SEC, on the national championship.

And their stranglehold on the money. That’s really what the BCS is all about – cash. Cold, hard cash. It was originally designed to make sure the rich get richer. Actually, I don’t have a problem with that as long as every team has an equal chance. It seems that with the probable inclusion of the MWC in 2014 and the move by such former MWC schools as TCU to the Big East, virtually all eligible schools will have a chance to play for the national championship.

That’s why the BCS was formed: to decide a true national champion. If it took a while to get the system right, so be it. We may fi nally be getting to a place where all teams have a chance.

CAN THE BCS TRANSITION FROM BEING ALL ABOUT THE CASH TO

GETTING IT RIGHT?

COMMENTARY BY JACK COFFEE [email protected]

Louisville vice president for athletics Tom Jurich and his wife Terilynn celebrated with soccer coach Ken Lolla after the No. 1 Cardinals advanced to the NCAA College Cup (Final Four) for the fi rst time in school history. Prior to Jurich’s hiring Lolla, the Cardinals had only won one NCAA Tournament game ever. - photo by Howie Lindsey


MEN’S SOCCER

By Howie LIndseyCall it a premonition or call it a hunch, but

the University of Louisville soccer coaches knew it would happen.

Before freshman reserve forward Aaron Hor-ton ran onto the fi eld to replace starter Colin Rolfe in the fi nal moments of top-ranked UofL’s NCAA Elite Eight match with No. 6 UCLA, the coaches called him over for a quick chat.

“The coaching staff said, ‘Look, you are go-ing to get a chance tonight. You are going to get a chance, and you need to be ready for it,’” UofL head coach Ken Lolla said.

And sure enough, Horton got a chance that few soccer players will ever have.

“They told me, ‘You are going to score, you are going to get a chance,’” Horton said.

With the Cards and Bruins tied at 4, Horton took a pass from Charlie Campbell, dribbled around and through fi ve defenders and rock-eted a shot into the back of the net for the game-winner with about a minute to go.

The shot was impressive. The dribbling was spectacular. His inital touch came with UCLA defender Matt Wiet on his hip. Horton dribbled through Shawn Singh and Andy Rose, then did a round-about pivot as two more UCLA de-fenders and goalkeeper Brian Rowe rushed to meet his challenge just outside the box. That’s when he sharply spun his hips and sent the shot into the back of the net.

“Pretty much Charlie (Campbell) is the one that gave me the ball, and I started cutting de-fenders that I saw,” Horton said. “I placed it in the far corner, and the next thing I know I was celebrating with my team because we were going to the Final Four.”

Horton’s goal came just seconds after the stadium public address announcer sounded the call for one minute left. The Cardinals cel-ebrated their goal but had to quickly get back

on defense to stop UCLA from getting the ty-ing goal in the fi nal seconds.

The Cardinals (19-0-3) held off the fi nal challenge of the Bruins (16-5-1), and Horton was immediately lifted onto the shoulders of hundreds of fans who rushed the fi eld. The 5-foot-8 freshman reserve from Lewis Center, Ohio, scored on his only shot.

“Every day we go through the same kind of training,” Horton said. “The coaches have us work on scoring chances every day. So every day I think about scoring a big goal or scoring a game-winning goal. I always think it will come. Today I got that chance, and I took it like I take it in my visualization.”

So how did Lolla and his coaches know that Horton would get a shot to win the game?

“We have the belief that we are going to get a chance, and that we have to be prepared for the chance we are going to get,” Lolla said. “Aaron was prepared for the chance he had.”

Lolla, who strongly believes in the power of positive thinking and visualization, smiled and explained one of the fundamental principles of

his team-building method.“It is our belief that something good will

happen,” he said. “Sometimes faith is the vic-tory. Sometimes just having that faith and be-lief in what can happen is strong - in all areas of our life, not just in a sporting event. It really frees you to have expectations in life. If you have a choice why not believe, because the al-ternative doesn’t help.”

But did he know that Horton’s chance would be the shot that won the game?

“A lot of things we do is we see our destiny, but not necessarily how it is going to happen,” Lolla explained. “All we can do is prepare for the opportunities we have to make it happen. Like Aaron was saying, him getting that one moment was because of all the things we’ve done to make that happen. He was prepared to take that chance at the end, and we, as a team, were prepared to put him in that oppor-tunity.”

Horton broke his high school record for goals in a season with 30 last year. A prep all-star, he’s played with the U.S. Soccer Residency

Program and for the U17 National Team in2007.

“Right, he’s special. He is,” Lolla said. “And his growth this year, especially off the fi eld asa person, has been tremendous. That goal hescored is a product of that growth. He’s grownin a lot of different ways.”

Part of Horton’s growth was realizing he’s no longer the star of the show as he was inhigh school. He’ll likely be a star in the comingyears, but this season he’s behind Rolfe, a 2009All-American.

“I am very proud of him, and I think he is going to have a great career,” Lolla said of Hor-ton. “He is overshadowed right now by Colin.In another program maybe he is playing moreminutes and has a bigger impact, but he has agreat attitude. He doesn’t question it. He doeswhat we ask of him, and he does it with a greatattitude.”

That great attitude makes it easy for Lolla to put him into the game in a crucial situa-tion like Saturday night. When asked how hewould rank the goal compared to the othershe’s scored in his young career, Horton didn’thesitate.

“Number 1,” he said. “It doesn’t get better than that.”

BAD DEFENSE?Sometimes goals come as a result of great

offense or bad defense. In Horton’s case, nearlyall of the 5,467 Cardinals fans in attendancewould say it was due to great offense. Not sur-prisingly, UCLA coach Jorge Salcedo thoughthis team should have defended better.

“I thought we could have done a lot bet-ter on our individual defending on that play,”Salcedo said. “He does a great job, and he fi n-ished with a minute left. That’s a diffi cult pill toswallow. Any goal scored with a minute left towin the game is a great goal.”

Freshman Aaron Horton weaved through at least four defenders on his way to the game-winning

goal Saturday. - photos by Howie Lindsey

HORTON’S GAME-WINNER WAS A THING OF BEAUTY


CARDINAL FOOTBALL VS. RUTGERS PHOTO GALLERY

Wow, what a weekend! Louisville men’s basketball improved to 6-0 with a victory over South Alabama and entered this week’s AP poll at No. 24. Women’s basketball crushed archrival

Kentucky (which was rated No. 8 last week) by 26 points. And top-ranked men’s soccer beat No. 6 UCLA to advance to the NCAA College Cup in Santa Barbara, Calif. It was an amazing weekend to be a UofL fan. The one letdown was volleyball, which lost to Purdue Saturday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. But even that can’t be considered too bad of a loss because the Cardinals have an extremely young team, and they finally swatted that MTSU monkey off their backs in the opening round Friday night.

The best part of the weekend for our staff was the soccer game. Yes, it was freezing cold, and the cold bleachers aren’t the best place to watch a game from. And yes, many people

didn’t even have a bleacher seat because the place was so packed. But the atmosphere at the game was absolutely spectacular. Even when Louisville trailed 2-0 and then 3-1 in the first half, the crowd willed the team on to victory. It was an amazing game to watch, and one that young soccer fans in attendance won’t soon forget. After a final-minute goal by freshman Aaron Horton, the fans rushed the field and celebrated with the team at midfield. It was like March Madness in the dead of winter.

The weather may have been UGLY, but the crowd that showed up at Cardinal Stadium to cheer on the Cardinals soccer team against UCLA was not only GOOD but the BEST of the season as

5,467 hardy souls showed up in 33-degree weather and a blizzard at kick-off. For the previous game against Ohio State 5,562 came through the gates or sat on the berm on the east side of the field to support the team, but the 48 degrees and lack of wind made a much easier environment for fans. The average of 5,409 fans for the three-game regional put Louisville at the top of attendance for the four regionals held at Maryland, Akron, North Carolina and on the UofL campus. The average attendance for the other regionals was 2,718 at Maryland, 1,058 at North Carolina and 3,164 at Akron. Tom Jurich may be on to something when he says Louisville is the best college sports town in America. What other college town could pack three venues for three different sports in the span of 24 hours?

Here’s a GOOD plan for the hardy Cardinals basketball fan. If you have tickets to the men’s games and are going to next Saturday’s game against UNLV at noon, make plans to attend the

women’s game at 5 p.m. Between games check out some of the fi ne restaurants near the arena. If you haven’t checked out Jeff Walz’ team, you’re missing a treat as these women play an exciting brand of basketball. Against Kentucky Shoni Schimmel and Becky Burke were 12 of 21 from behind the three-point line. Many were under close guarding and well behind the line and might have been the best three-point shooting in UofL history. When Schimmel’s teammates learn to expect her behind-the-back passes, she could be the most dazzling player in college basketball.

Louisville Trinity High School beat Louisville Male High 38-0 in the Kentucky 6-A state championship game Saturday. The Shamrocks won their 20th state title, but the BAD thing is that

only 9,000 fans were there to see it happen. Because the KHSAA moved the state title games from Louisville’s Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium to Bowling Green’s Houchens Stadium, the crowd was much smaller than it could have been. We know the KHSAA said it had difficulty reserving the time at PJCS because of the Big East schedule, but we wonder what sense it makes to schedule that event in Bowling Green instead of Louisville given that around a third of the entire state’s population lives in or around Louisville. Yes, we know the state finals had 13,000 in attendance the night before, but take that 13,000 and add it to the 9,000 from the next day and you still don’t have half of Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium.

Can you believe the same UConn team that lost to Louisville 26-0 is heading to a BCS bowl as the Big East’s champion? Amazing, right? “It just shows that anything can happen,”

senior wideout Doug Beaumont said. “I mean, we probably could have made the Fiesta Bowl or wherever if we would have won the games we were so close to. We were just one step away, one inch away, one win away. It is exciting to know that we competed with the team that won the Big East. I mean, we beat them and shut them out, too.”

Randy Shannon may not have been perfect at Miami. We’re sure he made mistakes. But he earned a big-time boost in our book with the way he handled being fired as the Hurricanes

coach last week. Shannon wrote a personal note to every player on the team. The ‘U’ postcards started showing up in their lockers last weekend. “He wrote me a personal letter, as he did the entire team,” cornerback Ryan Hill said, adding that he personally knows of 20 teammates who have received letters so far. “That’s how Coach Shannon is. He’s a great man, does great things. He said just keep working. His message is different for everybody. He wrote letters from freshmen all the way to the seniors. He told me to keep pushing, have a great career, that he loves me. What, we’ve got 102 guys? For him to take time to sit there (and write them), it shows his compassion, the character of him. That’s something people may not always see. He took time to do that, and I really appreciate it. We’re going to talk, and I’m going to tell him, ‘Man, I don’t need all this sad stuff anymore.’ That’s just how he does it. I’m going to joke with him - he’s not dead. I don’t want anyone to get that feeling.” LT Orlando Franklin said he enjoyed Shannon’s letter so much that, “I’m going to re-wrap it and put it under my Christmas tree so I can open it on Christmas day. I felt real nice when I saw it in my locker. It was the nicest thing he ever said to me. He was just telling me to keep my head up, don’t get sidetracked.”

How would you vote for the Heisman Trophy if you had a vote this year? Would you give it to Cameron Newton from Auburn despite the scandal that seems to implicate his family

in asking for money for his recruitment? Would you choose another player just to spite Auburn and Newton? Do you believe Newton and Auburn when they say they had no idea of his father’s dealings? What a mess, right? Votes were due for the Heisman Monday afternoon, and more than a few voters said they would not vote for Newton - presuming he’s guilty of taking money for play. Michael Bradley of MSNBC said: “Every time I cast my ballot, I do so with a sharp eye on the Trophy’s unique place in the American sporting culture. There are those who argue the Heisman has lost significance, but anyone who watches the ceremony and sees the distinguished lineup of former winners assembled to welcome the latest conscript into their unique fraternity understands it remains a tremendous tribute. The Heisman is more than a symbol of individual excellence. It signifies the sport’s great history and tradition.... Heisman winners are special, just like the award itself. And that’s why I’m not voting for Cam Newton.”

How petty is it that Kentucky changed the court at Freedom Hall into a blue replica of their court at Rupp Arena for Wednesday’s game against Notre Dame? Was the actual Freedom Hall court

just not good enough? Was it worth the extra time and trouble to make the court blue? And here’s a question, too. How long does UK continue to play games in Louisville if they continue to not sell out? Last year’s game in Louisville (a 37-point blowout of winless UNC-Asheville) was attended by 15,368 fans. The game in 2008 (a win over Appalachian State) drew just 10,173 fans. Is it worth gigging your rival (by playing a game in its city) to continue to take a home game away from the fans?

Speaking of Kentucky, the Wildcats are squaring off against Pittsburgh in the BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., on Jan. 8. That bowl could be renamed the Disappointment Bowl

because both fan bases are completely disgusted with the way their teams played this season. Pittsburgh fans thought this was the year the Panthers would finish in the top 10, win the Big East title and go to another BCS bowl. They finished a disappointing 7-5 and are stuck in the Big East’s fourth-place bowl. UK fans thought this was the year the Cats were going to challenge for the SEC East title. But, after knocking off South Carolina they finished with just two conference wins and stumbled to a 6-6 final record that included a 26th-straight loss to rival Tennessee. How many fans are going to make the trip to Birmingham for either school?

UGLY

GOOD

BAD

BAD

BAD

BAD

GOOD

BAD

GOOD

GOOD

CONDO FOR RENT AT MADEIRA BAY ON THE GULF OF MEXICO TWENTY MINUTES FROM TROPICANA FIELD. TWO BEDROOM, TWO BATH 1300 SQ. FT. WITH COVERED PARKING NEXT TO JOHN’S PASS MARINA.

FULL KITCHEN AND LARGE LIVING AREA AND TWO DECKS OVERLOOKING MADEIRA BAY, ACROSS FROM GULF OF MEXICO. JUST $100 PER NIGHT. CALL (502) 548-7166.

R E N T F O R F O U R N I G H T S , G E T T W O F R E E T I C K E T S T O T H E B E E F ’ O ’ B R A D Y ’ S B O W L


LOUISVILLE BASKETBALL

CARDINAL FOOTBALL

By Russ BrownBlowouts have become a way of life for

the University of Louisville, the latest be-ing a 97-70 rout of South Alabama last Saturday, but a challenge -- fi nally -- is on the way.

The undefeated UNLV Runnin’ Reb-els (8-0 going into Wednesday’s game against Boise State) will bring their No. 19/20 national ranking and high-intensity,

full-court pressure de-fense into the KFC Yum! Center Saturday to face No. 24 UofL in a high noon showdown of un-beatens on ESPNU.

Before that, the Car-dinals (6-0) were to meet San Francisco (3-4)

Wednesday night, but that fi gured to be another no-sweat win similar to most of the others they’ve played so far.

UofL coach Rick Pitino called UNLV the second- or third-best team he’s seen this season, surpassed only by top-ranked Duke.

“We’re going to run into one of the two or three best teams I’ve seen play so far this year,” Pitino said. “We’re trying to get our team ready for an all-out assault by them. They’re really, really good, probably the best team Lon (coach Lon Kruger) has had. And this is not me building a team up. UNLV is as tough a team as we’ll face, and that in-cludes the whole Big East.”

UofL has won its fi rst six non-conference games against woefully weak competition -- with the exception of then-No. 16 Butler -- by a staggering average of 25 points. It has seldom even trailed in a game, let alone been pushed to any extent.

“Obviously, we realize that we’ve had some games where we’ve been the bet-ter basketball team,” Pitino said. “But I’m not sure that we were that much better in terms of the lopsided score(s). I think that’s great focus by the players.”

Still, with those kinds of lopsided roll-overs it’s diffi cult to get a handle on just how good UofL is, so Vegas will provide a much better gauge, and the Cards say they’re eager to see how they stack up.

After UNLV, Louisville will get back to December business as usual with visits by Drexel and Gardner-Webb before a trip to Western Kentucky on Dec. 22. Kentucky will serve as the Cards’ fi nal tuneup on Dec. 31 before they embark on Big East play by hosting Seton Hall on Jan. 5.

“I’m defi nitely looking forward to play-ing UNLV,” forward Mike Marra said. “They’re a veteran team and they’re go-ing to pressure the ball a lot, so we really have to prepare well for them. I’m really excited to get out there and play a really solid team.”

Marra agreed that UNLV, along with

UK, and to a lesser extent, Western Ken-tucky, will provide a measuring stick of sorts before UofL gets into the meat of its schedule.

“For sure,” he said. “If we win those three games, it’s really going to put our name out there on the board and that type of stuff.”

Forward Rakeem Buckles, asked if he was looking forward to playing Vegas, re-plied: “Oh yeah, most defi nitely. It’s going to be a big challenge for us. That’s a big game. We’ll have to get ready for their traps and pressure. We watched them last week against Virginia Tech (a 71-59 win) and they’re pretty impressive -- the way they press and play so hard. They play tough. When you go against a great op-ponent, you see what problems you have and what your faults are.”

Said guard Peyton Siva: “It’s going to be a great test to show how good we are. We’ve got to be mentally and physically tough.”

The Rebels, who will be seeking their third straight win over the Cards, re-turned their top three scorers from last year’s 25-9 team that beat UofL 76-71 Thanksgiving weekend in the Thomas & Mack Center in Vegas. The last game in the four-year series will be played next season in Sin City.

In all, UNLV returns six players who started games last season: senior guards Tre’Von Willis and Derrick Jasper, junior

guard Oscar Bellfi eld, junior forward Chace Stanback, junior center Brice Mas-samba and sophomore guard Anthony Marshall.

Those players combined for 51 points, 20 rebounds and 19 assists in last year’s win over UofL, led by Willis’ 16 points, nine assists and six boards.

Willis had a troubled summer. He was arrested June 29 for allegedly choking a female friend, and on Sept. 28 he plead-ed no contest to misdemeanor battery-domestic violence. He was suspended for four games -- two exhibitions and the fi rst two regular-season games.

Willis, who was the Rebels’ lead-ing scorer last season at 17.2 points per game, has averaged 8.8 points off the bench this year.

Stanback, a 6-8 junior who began his career at UCLA, leads UNLV in scoring at 14.4 ppg and is shooting 60 percent from the fi eld. The Rebels’ only other double-fi gure scorer is Bellfi eld (13.0 ppg), who is shooting 54.5 percent (18 of 38) from three-point range and leads the team in assists at 4.2 per game.

The Rebels are road-tested, having played just three of their fi rst nine games in the Thomas & Mack. They have depth, too, with Kruger using a nine-man rota-tion.

UNLV also has become bigger because of two players who redshirted last season -- 6-11 freshman forward Carlos Lopez

and 6-8 sophomore Quintrell Thomas, a transfer from Kansas. Despite playing only 15 minutes per game, Lopez leads UNLV in blocks with 11 and is third in rebounds (3.8 rpg).

“Depth has been a key for us,” Kruger said.

UNLV, ignored in the preseason polls and picked to fi nish fourth in the Moun-tain West Conference behind San Diego State, BYU and New Mexico, has been one of the early-season surprises in col-lege basketball. The Rebels beat Wiscon-sin 68-65 on Nov. 20, then broke into the top 25 after victories over Murray State, Virginia Tech and Tulsa.

“People out there know that Murray State won 31 games last year and has all those guys back, and they know how good Virginia Tech is supposed to be in the ACC,” Kruger said. “I think it got some folks’ attention.

“The ranking doesn’t mean too much in the end, but it’s an indication of mak-ing progress and the guys playing well. A lot of people took note.”

UNLV is shooting 53.9 percent, includ-ing 38.0 percent from beyond the arc, and holding opponents to 36.0 percent overall and 31.8 from long-range.

“This is a veteran team,” Willis said. “Our focus is getting better every day.”

MARRA LEADS VICTORYMarra led UofL’s win over South Ala-

bama by scoring a career-high 23 points, while Buckles added 12 points and a ca-reer-best 14 rebounds and Siva contrib-uted 15 points and four assists.

Marra, who hit four of his fi rst fi ve three-point shots, became the fi rst Lou-isville player to top 20 points in a game this season, with the previous high 18 by Preston Knowles against Florida Interna-tional.

Marra’s performance made him the balanced Cards’ leading scorer on the season with an average orf 13.0 ppg. The 6-5 sophomore averaged just 3.1 ppg in limited action last year.

The win kept Louisville perfect through six games for the fi rst time since 2005-06 when the Cards started 6-0 and 10-1 but fi nished 21-13 (6-10 Big East) and missed the NCAA Tournament.

Marra drilled back-to-back treys to ig-nite a 14-3 burst that gave Louisville a 31-16 lead midway through the fi rst half. The Cards were on top 48-30 at halftime.

“Louisville is supposed to be in a down year, but there is no such thing for them,” South Alabama coach Ronnie Arrow said. “They may turn out to be one of Coach Pitino’s best teams. They play so hard and so well together, and they’re not selfi sh. He (Pitino) is going to have a lot of fun with that team; they play too hard not to have fun.”


Freshman Gorgui Dieng blocked this shot by South Alabama’s P.J. Reyes

in UofL’s 97-70 victory last Saturday. Dieng is second on the team with

13 blocks this season although he’s averaging fewer than 13 minutes a

game. - photo by Dave Klotz

B A T T L E O F U N B E A T E N S L O O M S S A T U R D A Y

CARDS LOOKING FORWARD TO MAJOR TEST FROM UNLV


LOUISVILLE BASKETBALL PHOTO GALLERY

Freshman Gorgui Dieng brought a smile to coach Rick Pitino’s face upon leaving the fl oor after fouling out against South

Alabama. Dieng told Pitino that he had only three fouls and that the offi cial scorer had it wrong. - all photos by Dave Klotz

Terrence Jennings shot from in close against South

Alabama. He fi nished with 10 points, eight rebounds, three

assists and three blocks.

Freshman Elisha Justice battled for a loose ball

against the Jaguars. Justice scored only one point but

had four assists with no turnovers and a steal.

Peyton Siva went up for a dunk against South

Alabama. He had 15 points, four assists,

three steals and just one turnover in 25 minutes.

Chris Smith looked for a shot while being guarded by South Alabama’s Allyn

Cooks. Smith came off the bench to score 11 points.



By Russ BrownMike Marra came to the University of

Louisville two years ago with a reputation as a shooter -- and not much else -- thanks in large part to coach Rick Pitino’s label-ing of him as one of the best high school marksmen he had ever seen.

But this season the 6-5 sophomore for-ward is proving he’s by no means one-di-mensional.

Going into this week’s two games against San Francisco Wednesday and UNLV Satur-day, Marra not only leads the balanced Car-dinals in scoring at 13.0 points per game but is tied with point guard Peyton Siva for the most assists with 23. He also has nine steals and just nine turnovers.

Marra ranks sixth in the Big East in assist-to-turnover ratio, and all fi ve players ahead of him are guards.

Marra, who bears a striking resemblance to former North Carolina State star and NBA guard Vinny Del Negro, has started every game and is logging a team-high 28.3 minutes per game, almost triple his playing time as a freshman.

“He’s a very, very smart player,” Pitino said.

As an example, Pitino cited a play in Saturday’s 97-70 victory over South Ala-bama. Marra had hit four of his fi rst fi ve three-pointers en route to a career-high 23 points. But his stroke deserted him in the second half, and he even launched a cou-ple of air balls. So when he found himself open on the wing, he shot-faked the clos-est defender, drove past him and fl ushed a one-handed dunk.

“Honestly, I was just tired,” Marra said. “I couldn’t get the ball to the rim, so I was just trying to create and look for other guys, and I had the layup so I took it.”

Said Pitino: “He didn’t have his shot in the second half, so he did other things to make the team better. He went to the rim, and he passed the ball.”

The dunk was one of several he had dur-ing the game. So what gives him the bigger thrill -- a dunk or hitting a three-pointer?

“It’s all situational,” Marra said. “You hit a big three at a key moment, it’s always exciting. But dunks are fun, too; it gets the crowd going, and that gets us going.”

Marra is aware that most Louisville fans, and probably even his teammates too, originally regarded him as a shooting spe-cialist. But he feels he has become a well-rounded player this season, and the stats back him up.

“I was defi nitely looked at as a shooter, and that’s what I was, really, when I came into the game last year,” he said. “I was just looking to shoot. I wasn’t looking to create or anything like that.”

Even with his assist total, Marra still

leads UofL in three-pointers made with 17, but his shooting percentage of 32.7 on threes is six to eight percentage points below where he is capable of landing as his career progresses.

Marra, whose body is covered with tat-toos -- many courtesy of his brother, who is a tattoo artist -- said Louisville’s up-tempo, less-structured style of play this season fi ts him well and has led to his improved pass-ing.

“I think it has a lot to do with the style we’re playing this year as far as getting out in the open court and just playing more than trying to run through sets,” he said. “I think passing is something I’ve always been good at. I’ve always been able to see the court well, and with this style it really opens the court up and makes it easy to see guys. It has to do with age, too, being older, knowing what I can do and what I can’t do.”

Marra suspects that his athletic ability -- he’s one of the best leapers on the team -- catches opponents by surprise.

“I don’t look like the most athletic per-son, but I can do some things,” he said.

Just ask teammate Rakeem Buckles, a sophomore forward who is one of the ben-efi ciaries of Marra’s passing ability.

“He’s a great passer, that’s what people don’t know,” Buckles said. “You defi nitely have to be prepared when he’s got the ball in his hands. He can do a lot of things. No-body thinks he can jump or pass like that, but he can do it all.”

Marra’s on-court leadership and his abil-ity to absorb a scouting report and put it into action also has impressed his coaches. In that way, Pitino compares Marra to for-mer Cardinals center David Padgett, who is now an assistant strength coach for the team.

“Not since David Padgett have I seen the leadership and verbal skills that Mike Mar-ra has,” Pitino said. “He gets everybody in their right places, he knows the game like David. Breaking down a scouting report, Padgett and Marra are in a class by them-selves in terms of how smart they are as basketball players.”

Pitino said Marra has developed his skills through hard work since coming to UofL from Northfi eld Mount Herman School in Smithfi eld, R. I., where he once hit 10 of 11 three-point shots in a game.

“I think it’s the work,” Pitino said. “I don’t think he was that way in high school. I don’t think he was a good leader; nobody ever talked about his verbal skills. I think that’s something he’s acquired here be-cause he understands how important it is. Mike’s going to be a very good basketball player, just like David Padgett was.”

He is certainly well on his way.

Sophomore Mike Marra registered a dunk against South Alabama for two of

his game- and career-high 23 points. He made fi ve three-point shots and had three

assists and is tied with Siva for the team lead with 23 assists. - photo by Dave Klotz

S O P H O M O R E N O L O N G E R K N O W N A S J U S T A S H O O T E R

MARRA A MAN OF MANY DIMENSIONS FOR CARDINALS


LOUISVILLE VS. UCONN PHOTO GALLERY


HALL OF FAME NOMINATION TOOK PITINO BY SURPRISELOUISVILLE BASKETBALL

By Russ BrownRick Pitino is among a group of 26 former

players, coaches and contributors who were nominated last week for induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, but don’t expect the University of Louisville coach to get very excited about it.

At least not right now.Asked about the hon-

or by LSR at his regular press conference Friday afternoon, Pitino said he didn’t even know about it until his son, Christopher, offered him congratula-tions Thursday evening, two days after the an-nouncement was made.

“I said, ‘Congratulations on what?’” Pi-tino said. “I didn’t think it was true. I haven’t thought about it, I really haven’t.”

Asked to think about it, Pitino replied, “I’d rather think about South Albama (Uo-fL’s opponent the following day).”

Pitino is in his 25th season as a collegiate head coach. He is in his 10th season at UofL, having taken over from Hall of Famer Denny Crum for the 2001-02 season. Pitino, 58, formerly coached at Boston University, Prov-idence and Kentucky, as well as stints with the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics of the NBA.

Pitino, who led UK to the 1996 national

championship, has compiled an overall col-legiate record of 578-210 (226-86 at UofL) and is the only coach to take three different schools to the Final Four (Providence, 1987; UK, 1993, ‘96 and ‘97; and Louisville, 2005).

The nominees will be reduced to a list of fi nalists during the NBA’s All-Star weekend, Feb. 18-20 in Los Angeles, with the induct-ees to be announced the weekend of the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four April 2-4 in Houston.

Other nominees from the Hall of Fame’s North American committee include former UK coach Joe B. Hall, players Reggie Miller, Mark Jackson, Bernard King, Chris Mul-lin, Don Nelson, Dennis Rodman, Maurice Lucas, Jamaal Wilkes, Rudy Tomjanovich, Spencer Haywood, Maurice Cheeks, Ralph Sampson and Bill Fitch, referee Dick Bavetta, coaches Jim Valvano, Cotton Fitzsimmons, Tex Winter and George Raveling, and Marty Blake, the longtime head of the NBA scout-ing bureau.

Chet Walker was nominated by the Vet-eran’s committee. Arvyda Sabonis and Sar-unas Marciulionis were candidates from the International committee, while Tara VanDer-veer and Teresa Edwards were nominated by the Women’s committee.

Nominees must receive approval on at least seven of the nine ballots in the North American group, and fi ve of seven in the others, to become a fi nalist.

UofL coach Rick Pitino didn’t even realize he had been nominated for induction to the Naismith Memorial Basketball

Hall of Fame on Tuesday until his son Christopher offered him congratulations

on Thursday. - photo by Dave Klotz


2007 CARDINAL CARAVAN10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASON10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASONLOUISVILLE ATHLETICS

CARDINAL AUTHENTIC GIVES FANS A HIP, HIGH-END OPTION


By Howie LindseyThe new Cardinal Authentic stores at Papa

John’s Cardinal Stadium and the KFC Yum! Center aren’t your average clothing and ap-parel stores for sports fans. With the help of some new designer lines of clothing and ac-cessories, the Cardinal Authentic stores have become the gold standard for Louisville Car-dinals fashion.

“We’ve been working to rebrand Cardinal merchandise,” Lainey Jurich said. “In doing so, we took a look at what the top retailers in the nation are doing. While we know game day apparel will always be a part of our stores, we also know that fans want apparel and ac-cessories they can incorporate into their every day lives.”

The new store still has all the favorites for guys - game jerseys, hats and golf shirts - but they also carry a wide variety of new styles for women and children.

“Women and children are a huge part of our business, and, traditionally, fan cloth-ing stores haven’t focused on their needs,” Jurich said. “Our goal is to bring something unique to our stores such as fashion items - things that are more form-fi tting, more fash-ion-forward and we’re looking to take cues from major retailers who have put out lines for women like Alyssa Milano, Victoria Secret and others. Women loves sports just as much as men, but we also like to incorporate fash-ion into our game day experience.”

Jurich said there are some great items she’d recommend fans who are looking for something special should seek out at the next home game.

For little girls: “I’d say every little girl needs a cheerleading uniform. We have gone above and beyond to bring new, fresh, dar-ling cotton cheerleading uniforms to our store. We are trying to get away from the old polyester uniform sets you may fi nd in a chain store, and bring something that is more com-fortable and cute. We also have an adorable line of pink merchandise.”

For boys: “We fi nd that the best look for boys is a miniature version of what their Dad is wearing to the game. We have several hoodies and pullovers that match the bigger men’s styles exactly.”

For women: “We have a new line called C-Styles that myself and the head of our com-pany for merchandising has been working on designing. You will see everything from rhine-stones to cashmere sweaters. We want to ap-peal to every woman out there whether they are my age, my mother’s age or my grand-mother’s age. I’ll be honest, anything with rhinestones will make a statement.”

Gift items: “I have two amazing new items. We are now carrying a great line of jewelry in gold and silver, and we are bringing in a custom line of Louisville Stoneware being created for us. You have to come by and see these items.”



2010-11 WOMEN’S SCHEDULE

DATE OPPONENT SITE TIME RECORD OCTOBER 30 Indiana Wesleyan (Exh) KFC Yum! Center W, 67-42

NOVEMBER 12 TENNESSEE KFC Yum! Center L, 63-50 0-114 at Ohio University Athens, Ohio W, 84-47 1-117 HOUSTON BAPTIST KFC Yum! Center W, 100-34 2-1 19 SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE KFC Yum! Center W, 97-43 3-123 at Xavier Cincinnati, Ohio L, 71-59 3-226 at Old Dominion Norfolk, Va. L, 69-65 3-329 at IPFW Fort Wayne, Ind. W, 100-74 4-3

DECEMBER 2 MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE KFC Yum! Center W, 96-37 5-35 KENTUCKY KFC Yum! Center W, 78-52 6-311 DAYTON KFC Yum! Center 5 p.m. 15 at Cincinnati Cincinnati, Ohio 7 p.m.18-20 Dual in the Desert Las Vegas, Nev. 18 vs. Marist Las Vegas, Nev. 4:30 p.m. 19 vs. Houston Las Vegas, Nev. 7:00 p.m. 20 vs. Nebraska Las Vegas, Nev. 9:30 p.m. 28 UT-MARTIN KFC Yum! Center 7:00 p.m.

JANUARY 4 ST. JOHN’S KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m. 9 PITTSBURGH KFC Yum! Center NOON 12 at Notre Dame South Bend, Ind. 7 p.m. 15 at Connecticut Hartford, Conn NOON22 CINCINNATI KFC Yum! Center 2 p.m. 26 at Marquette Milwaukee, Wis. 8 p.m. 29 RUTGERS KFC Yum! Center 6 p.m.

FEBRUARY 1 GEORGETOWN KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m.6 at Villanova Philadelphia, Pa. 2 p.m. 13 WEST VIRGINIA KFC Yum! Center 5 p.m. 16 at Syracuse Syracuse, NY 7 p.m. 19 at USF Tampa, Fla. 2 p.m.23 DEPAUL KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m. 26 SETON HALL KFC Yum! Center 2 p.m.28 at Providence Providence, RI 7 p.m.

MARCH

4-8 BIG EAST Tournament Hartford, Conn. TBA

2010-11 MEN’S SCHEDULE DATE OPPONENT (TELEVISION) SITE TIME/RES RECORDOCTOBER Sun. 31 NORTHERN KENTUCKY / exhibition KFC Yum! Center W, 83-66 --

NOVEMBER Thur. 11 KENTUCKY WESLEYAN / exhibition KFC Yum! Center W, 96-54 -- Tues. 16 BUTLER (ESPN) KFC Yum! Center W, 88-73 1-0 GLOBAL SPORTS SHOOTOUTSat. 20 JACKSON STATE KFC Yum! Center W, 62-45 2-0Mon. 22 CHATTANOOGA KFC Yum! Center W, 106-65 3-0Sat. 27 MARSHALL KFC Yum! Center W, 80-66 4-0

DECEMBER Wed. 1 FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL KFC Yum! Center W, 92-55 5-0 in GLOBAL SPORTS SHOOTOUT Sat. 4 SOUTH ALABAMA KFC Yum! Center W, 97-70 6-0 Wed. 8 SAN FRANCISCO KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m. 12-18 Sat. 11 UNLV (ESPNU) KFC Yum! Center Noon 25-9 NCAA in BILLY MINARDI CLASSIC Tues. 14 DREXEL (ESPNU) KFC Yum! Center 9 p.m. 16-16 Sat. 18 GARDNER-WEBB KFC Yum! Center 3:30 p.m. 8-21 Wed. 22 at Western Kentucky Bowling Green, Ky. 8 p.m. 21-13 Mon. 27 MORGAN STATE KFC Yum! Center 8 p.m. 27-10 NCAA Fri. 31 KENTUCKY (CBS) KFC Yum! Center Noon 35-3 NCAA

JANUARY Wed. 5 SETON HALL (ESPNU) KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m. 19-13 NIT Sun. 9 at USF Tampa, Fla. Noon 20-13 NIT Wed. 12 at Villanova (ESPN/2) Philadelphia, Pa. 7 p.m. 25-8 NCAA Sat. 15 MARQUETTE (ESPN2) KFC Yum! Center 11 a.m. 22-12 NCAA Wed. 19 ST. JOHN’S KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m. 17-16 NIT Sat. 22 at Providence (ESPNU) Providence, R.I. 5 p.m. 12-19 Wed. 26 WEST VIRGINIA (ESPNU) KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m. 31-7 NCAA Sat. 29 at Connecticut Storrs, Conn. Noon 18-16 NIT Mon. 31 at Georgetown (ESPN) Washington, D.C. 7 p.m. 23-11 NCAA

FEBRUARY Sat. 5 DEPAUL KFC Yum! Center 8 p.m. 8-23 Wed. 9 at Notre Dame (ESPNU) South Bend, Ind. 7 p.m. 23-12 NCAA Sat. 12 SYRACUSE (ESPN/2) KFC Yum! Center Noon 30-5 NCAA Wed. 16 at Cincinnati (ESPN/2) Cincinnati, Ohio 7 p.m. 19-16 NIT Fri. 18 CONNECTICUT (ESPN) KFC Yum! Center 9 p.m. 18-16 NIT Tues. 22 at Rutgers (ESPNU) Piscataway, N.J. 9 p.m. 15-17 Sun. 27 PITTSBURGH (CBS) KFC Yum! Center 2 p.m. 25-9 NCAA

MARCH Wed. 2 PROVIDENCE KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m. 12-19 Sat. 5 at West Virginia (ESPN/2) Morgantown, W. Va. Noon 31-7 NCAA Tues. 8-Sat. 12 Big East Championship at Madison Square Garden New York City


UNLV PREVIEW

By Rick Cushing

SEASON SO FAR...

The Runnin’ Rebels are off to an 8-0 start and are

ranked No. 19/20 in the country. They have had only

one close game, a 68-65 victory over visiting Wiscon-

sin on Nov. 20 in Las Vegas. They are coming off an

82-70 victory over host Nevada-Reno last Saturday

for their best start since the 1990-91 team went 34-0

before losing to Duke in the NCAA semifi nals. They

will play Boise State Wednesday on a neutral court

before taking on the Cardinals Saturday.

UNLV, which plays in the Mountain West Confer-

ence, returned all fi ve starters and 83 percent of its

offense from a team that was 25-9 last season, los-

ing 69-66 in the fi rst round of the NCAA Tournament to

Northern Iowa on a long buzzer-beating three-pointer

by Ali Farokhmanesh. One of those returnees – lead-

ing scorer and all-MWC fi rst-teamer Tre’Von Willis,

a 6-4 senior guard -- was ineligible at the start of

the season after being charged with felony domestic

battery last summer. The charge was reduced to a

misdemeanor, Willis pleaded no contest in late Sep-

tember, and he was reinstated after two games.

Another returnee – part-time starter Matt Shaw

(7.0 ppg), a 6-8 senior – fl unked his drug test and

saw his college career come to an end.

Nevertheless, coach Lon Kruger has said this team

has the potential to be the best he’s had since taking

over at UNLV in 2004. He’s taken the Runnin’ Rebels

to the NCAA Tournament three times, all in the past

four seasons.

One of the reasons for Kruger’s optimism is the

shut-down defense UNLV is playing. The Rebels rank

ninth in the nation in fi eld-goal defense at 36.0 per-

cent, and they held Nevada-Reno scoreless for eight

minutes and without a basket for almost 11 minutes

while building a 22-2 lead.

“They come at you every possession like a swarm

of bees,” Nevada’s Deonte Burton said of the Rebels’

pressing defense. “They don’t stop. You can’t get rid

of them.”

UNLV is forcing 17.1 turnovers per game while

making 12.6.

UNLV also is shooting the ball very well. Against

Nevada the Runnin’ Rebels shot 53.7 percent (29 of

54), including 46.2 percent from three-point range (6

of 13). For the season they’re shooting 53.9 percent

overall, 38.0 percent from three-point range.

COACH:

Kruger is in his 25th season overall and had a

455-295 record at the start of this season. The highly

respected 58-year-old Kruger coached previously at

Texas-Pan Am, Kansas State, Florida and Illinois,

then for 2½ seasons with the Atlanta Hawks before

taking over at UNLV. He is one of fi ve coaches who

has taken four teams to the NCAA Tournament, and

in 1994 he took Florida to the Final Four. He also took

Kansas State to the Elite Eight in 1988, and UNLV to

the Sweet Sixteen in 2007.

In 2003 while at Atlanta Kruger guaranteed

season-ticket holders that the Hawks would make

the playoffs or get a $125 refund. The Hawks failed

to make the playoffs, and Kruger was fi red midway

through the season.

GUARDS:

Oscar Bellfi eld, a 6-2 junior, is second on the team

in scoring at 13.0 ppg and leads in assists at 4.1

apg. He’s shooting 52.1 percent overall, an astound-

ing 54.5 percent from three-point range. Against

Nevada-Reno he made 5 of 6 three-point shots and

scored a career-high 24 points while adding four as-

sists and two steals. He led UNLV against UofL last

year with 17 points.

Joining Bellfi eld in the three-man backcourt is 6-3

sophomore Anthony Marshall, who’s third on the team

at 9.3 ppg and second at 3.1 apg. He’s also second

with six blocked shots.

The third guard on the team is 6-6 senior Derrick

Jasper, a transfer from the University of Kentucky,

which mistakenly tried to use him as a point guard.

Jasper is fi fth on the team at 8.5 ppg and leads at 5.9

rpg. He’s fourth at 2.1 apg.

Willis gives UNLV a potent bench as he is fourth

on the team at 8.8 ppg and third at 2.8 apg. He’s not

shooting well, however, at 42.9 percent. He had 16

points, nine assists and six rebounds against UofL

last year.

Another quality reserve is 6-3 sophomore Justin

Hawkins (6.0 ppg).

BIG MEN:

Chace Stanback, a 6-8 junior, leads the team

in scoring at 14.4 ppg and is making 60 percent of

his shots. He’s not much of a rebounder, however, at

just 3.9 rpg. Rebounding has been Kruger’s primary

concern. UNLV is outrebounding its foes 35.2 rpg to

32.0, but on the offensive board the opponents hold

an edge – 13.9 per game to UNLV’s 11.1. Look for the

Cards to crash the offensive board.

UNLV’s other starter up front is 6-8 sophomore

Quintrell Thomas, a transfer from Kansas who’s sixth

on the team at 6.9 ppg and fourth at 3.6 rpg. He’s

shooting an amazing 72.7 percent (24 of 33) but

rarely strays far from the basket (no three-point at-

tempts).

Providing quality reserve strength up front are

6-11 freshman Carlos Lopez (5.4 ppg, 3.8 rpg, team-

leading 11 blocks) and 6-10 junior Brice Massamba

(5.8 ppg, 2.8 rpg). Both stay close to the basket and

are shooting 53.6 and 66.7 percent respectively.

MISC:

An Achilles’ heel of the Runnin’ Rebels is free-

throw shooting -- 66.5 percent. Stanback (82.4 per-

cent), Bellfi eld (83.3) and Marshall (84.0) are reli-

able, but Thomas is at 36.8 percent, Jasper at 58.3

and Massamba at 56.0.

QUICK NOTES:

UofL and UNLV have met 10 times in a series that

dates to 1977, with each team having fi ve wins. UNLV

won the past two meetings, including 76-71 in Las

Vegas last year.

UNLV is known as the Runnin’ Rebels, and the teams

coached by Jerry Tarkanian -- aka “Tark the Shark” –

lived up to that name. In the fi rst fi ve meetings – from

1977-93 – the winner scored at least 90 points, with

UNLV taking the inaugural meeting 99-96.

UNLV has won one national championship – in

1990 – and has had several great players, includ-

ing former UofL assistant coach Reggie Theus, Larry

Johnson, Stacey Augmon, Sidney Green and Greg An-

thony.

Coach: Lon KrugerLast season: 25-9, NCAA Tournament

25 year coaching veteran (Kansas State, Florida and Illinois)

Rebels will be the second ranked team Louisville has faced this season.

DATE OPPONENT TIME NOVEMBER Nov. 12, 2010 Cal Davis W 85-41 Nov. 17, 2010 SE Louisiana W 92-56 Nov. 20, 2010 Wisconsin (Versus) W 68-65 Nov. 25, 2010 Tulsa1 (ESPN2) W 80-71 Nov. 26, 2010 at Murray St.2 W 69-55 Nov. 28, 2010 at Virginia Tech3 W 71-59

DECEMBER Dec. 1, 2010 at Illinois St. W 82-51 Dec. 4, 2010 at Nevada W 82-70 Dec. 8, 2010 Boise State 10:00 pm Dec. 11, 2010 at Louisville (ESPNU) 12:00 pm Dec. 15, 2010 UC Santa Barbara 10:00 pm Dec. 18, 2010 Southern Utah (MTN) 10:00 pm Dec. 21, 2010 at Kansas State (ESPN2) 9:00 pm Dec. 30, 2010 Cent. Michigan 10:00 pm

JANUARY Jan. 5, 2011 BYU (CBSC) 10:00 pm Jan. 8, 2011 TCU (MTN) 10:00 pm Jan. 12, 2011 at San Diego St. (CBSC) 10:00 pm Jan. 15, 2011 at Air Force (MTN) 6:00 pm Jan. 19, 2011 Colorado State (MTN) 10:30 pm Jan. 22, 2011 New Mexico (CBSC) 4:00 pm Jan. 25, 2011 at Wyoming (MTN) 10:00 pm

FEBRUARY Feb. 2, 2011 Utah (MTN) 10:30 pm Feb. 5, 2011 at BYU (Versus) 4:00 pm Feb. 9, 2011 at TCU 8:00 pm Feb. 12, 2011 San Diego St. (CBSC) 8:00 pm Feb. 15, 2011 Air Force (MTN) 10:30 pm Feb. 19, 2011 at Colorado State (MTN) 7:00 pm Feb. 23, 2011 at New Mexico (CBSC) 9:00 pm Feb. 26, 2011 Wyoming (MTN) 10:00 pm

MARCH Mar. 5, 2011 at Utah (Versus) 4:00 pm

2010-11 SCHEDULE


By Russ BrownUsually, it’s a lopsided defeat that causes

a coach to be at a loss for words, but this time the tables were turned and the Uni-versity of Louisville’s Rick Pitino found him-self searching for ways to describe UofL’s 92-55 romp past Florida International last Wednesday night in the KFC Yum! Cen-

ter.“I’m really not too

sure what to say,” Pitino said after watching his team raise its record to 5-0 against the hapless visitors from Miami.

Say this: It amounted to little more than a glo-

rifi ed practice session for the Cardinals, with Pitino clearing his bench early and of-ten while ordering some work on their 2-3 zone defense.

Of course, this year’s fast start has more to do with the poor quality of competition than anything else. The Cards started the season with an impressive 88-73 victory over then-No. 16 Butler, but the 2010 na-tional runner-up has been an early-season disappointment and dropped out of the top 25 after a homecourt loss to Evansville on Nov. 27.

Then came four overmatched stat-stuff-ing teams in the Global Sports Shootout, resulting in four UofL routs by an average of 27 points. So the Cards still haven’t faced the kind of challenge that would even come close to preparing them for the night-in, night-out rigors of the Big East.

So what could they hope to gain from their latest blowout?

“Just get the victory and move on,” Pi-tino said. “It was one of those nights when nothing worked well for them, so we will just move on. It was a very entertaining game for you guys, but for us it wasn’t, with what we got out of it.”

Well, not so entertaining, really. Most everyone in the arena had lost interest by halftime, including FIU coach and former Indiana University/Detroit Pistons star Isiah Thomas, who sat calmly on the bench looking as bored as the 20,866 fans.

You know you’re in trouble when the best player on your team would be your 49-year-old coach if he were allowed to suit up.

It was over in the fi rst minute when Pres-ton Knowles drilled back-to-back three-pointers. UofL went on to build leads of 19-2 and 29-4 and was on top 48-15 at in-termission. By that time Pitino already had used all 13 of his available players.

Unfortunately, there is no mercy rule in college basketball, so the formality of the fi nal 20 minutes had to follow. If it had been a chess match, Thomas could have knocked over his king and said, “I surren-

der.”As it was, Pitino did show mercy, con-

tinuing to make liberal use of his bench throughout the second half.

“Like Coach said at halftime, he just wanted to build on little things and try to get better as a team,” sophomore forward Stephan Van Treese said. “Obviously, we were blowing them out, and we’ve got to not focus on the score and focus on get-ting better.”

Eleven Cards played seven minutes or more, and the subs outscored the starters 52-40. Knowles, who had been in a shoot-ing slump, scored a game-high 18 points while hitting 6 of 13 shots, including 4 of 8 beyond the arc. He also posted season highs with six rebounds, three assists and four treys.

“I thought this was his most complete game,” Pitino said.

Freshman guard Elisha Justice hit his fi rst three treys and fi nished with 12 points, while rookie center Gorgui Dieng made his fi rst fi ve shots -- three of them dunks --

en route to season highs of 15 points and seven blocks. Dieng’s blocks were the most by a Cardinal since Samaki Walker set the school record with 11 against Pitino’s fi fth-ranked Kentucky team in an 88-86 victory on Jan. 1, 1995.

FIU, coming off a 7-25 season and picked to fi nish fi fth in the six-team East Division of the Sun Belt Conference, put up little resistance. The Golden Panthers shot 28.3 percent (15 of 53, 2 of 13 on threes) and committed 22 turnovers

“It’s defi nitely the worst game we’ve played this year,” Thomas said. “I didn’t recognize my team the fi rst 10 minutes. Our guys were a little shellshocked, and as the game wore on we were quickly out of it.”

CARDS IMPRESS THOMASWe’ll have a better idea of where UofL

stands when undefeated, No. 19/20 UNLV visits Saturday, and an even more accurate notion when No. 10/11 Kentucky comes to town on Dec. 31, but Thomas -- a college and NBA Hall of Fame player as well as a

former NBA coach -- has already formed an opinion.

“They have a chance to be in the top 25 or 30 teams in the country,” he said. “I think they can play against anybody in the country. From what I’ve been watching on television and the teams we’ve played against, Louisville is just as good as any of the other teams.

“I like what they’re doing, the way they shoot the ball, their three-point shooting. They play with a collective will, and they’re playing with great confi dence. They get into their stuff pretty quickly. I think play-ing so many games at home has really helped them, and it’s given them a great confi dence and a great sense of aware-ness. That’s what you see in them right now.”

KURIC HAS CONCUSSIONJunior swingman Kyle Kuric played only

fi ve minutes due to a mild concussion suf-fered in a collision with an FIU player in the fi rst half. As a precautionary measure, Kuric was to sit out last Saturday’s game against South Alabama but is expected to return Wednesday against San Francisco.

Junior Chris Smith benefi ted most from Kuric’s absence, playing a season-high 19 minutes. He had 10 points, fi ve rebounds and three assists, all season bests, and hit 4 of 7 shots.

“He was dazed,” Pitino said of Kuric. “But Chris Smith is playing well, and it was good he got a chance to play tonight.”

RUSS SMITH DEBUTSFreshman guard Russ Smith saw his

fi rst action since recovering from a broken foot, playing eight minutes and scoring four points. He also had two steals and an assist. Russ Smith and Justice will compete for playing time as starter Peyton Smith’s backup at point guard.

“They are both really good players,” Pitino said. “Russ has got to learn some things and get in shape. But they are both really good, and we are lucky to have both of them.”

VAN TREESE EARNS STARTVan Treese earned the fi rst start of his

college career at power forward in place of Rakeem Buckles. Van Treese had two points and six rebounds in 16 minutes, while Buckles had nine points, eight boards and three assists in 22 minutes, but Pitino wasn’t particularly pleased with ei-ther player.

“The reason I started Stephan is be-cause we are trying to get some blocking out at the power forward spot,” Pitino said. “That is where we are breaking down the most, with blocking out and rebound-ing. But Stephan didn’t block out either. Neither he or Rakeem did.”


FIU IS DOA AS CARDS BREEZE IN ANOTHER ROUTSenior captain Preston Knowles

scored a team-high 18 points against Florida International to

go along with six rebounds, three assists and three steals. That added up to a jolly good time.

- photo by Dave Klotz



RECRUITING NOTEBOOK

By Jeff WaffordUniversity of Louisville football coach

Charlie Strong and his staff were happy to accept a bid to the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl, and one of the reasons was its potential impact on recruiting. Just getting to a bowl game is a sign of improvement for the Cardinals, and it’s something coaches can sell to recruits. In addition, this particular bowl game is the only game on television on Tuesday, Dec. 21, so the coaches can so inform recruits and make sure they’re watching on that night.

“It’s great that it is another recruiting edge for you,” Strong said of just being invit-ed to a bowl. “Now you can tell recruits that we need you here to get to that next bowl game. But it is also good be-cause we can get our young guys out there and practice. And you also have something

out there for them - some more practices to look forward to.”

In addition to the aforementioned ad-vantages, the game is in St. Petersburg, Fla., which is within driving distance of a num-ber of recruits the Cardinals have targeted.

While UofL can’t provide tickets to re-cruits for the bowl game, it is allowed to have recruits come to watch practice and get an up-close look at what the Cards are doing. Many bowl teams also invite high school coaching staffs and teams out to watch, even if they aren’t technically “re-cruits.”

All of that exposure is invaluable, es-pecially when the UofL campus is so far away from the fertile recruiting ground of Florida. A quick search of the Rivals.com database shows that nearly 30 players who have scholarship offers from UofL live within 100 miles of St. Petersburg.

Extend that out even farther to 250 miles from St. Pete and that number in-creases to close to 100 prospects who have offers from the Cardinals. Add that to a Tuesday night game during Christmas break, and it’s a safe bet the UofL staff is licking its chops and already writing let-ters, making phone calls, and making any kind of legal contact they can to let play-ers know they’ll be in St. Pete for close to a week in just a few weeks.

Furthermore, those numbers refl ect just the 2011 class, it doesn’t account for younger recruits who may get a chance to get their fi rst look at the UofL team in person.

Players from Florida already with of-fers from UofL who live within a two-drive of St. Pete include Gionni Paul (6-0, 210, LB), Quinton Pompey (6-3, 275, DT), Keith Lewis (6-2, 216, LB), Javess Blue (5-11, 180) and Giovanni Francois (6-2, 220, DE).

Paul, a three-star player from Kathleen H.S. (Lakeland), made a visit to Louisville on Oct. 22 and lists the Cards among his top four, along with Auburn, LSU and Ten-nessee. He also has visited Florida in re-cent weeks, but he has spent most of his time concentrating on fi nishing out the playoffs with his high school team.

Pompey, a three-star player from Mana-tee H.S. (Bradenton), has not taken any offi cial visits at this point in the recruiting process, but he has scholarship offers from Louisville, Marshall, Miami (Fla.), Missouri, Ohio and Penn State.

“Had he had his grades right, he would be one of the top kids in the country,” said Manatee defensive line coach Steve Gulash. “Every coach that has seen this kid play says, ‘My God.’ I have had four coaches in the past few days tell me that you don’t fi nd a kid like this very often.

“Now that word is getting around to these coaches that this kid is going to qualify, things are starting to pop up all over the place.”

Lewis, a three-star player from Freedom H.S. (Orlando), is rated as the No. 52 line-backer in the class of 2011. He visited Ole Miss last weekend, and he said he plans to visit North Carolina. With three offi cial visits left, he’s also considering offers from

UofL, Auburn, Cincinnati, Colorado, Mich-igan, Nebraska and numerous others.

Blue, a three-star receiver from Lake Wales H.S. (Lake Wales), is rated as the No. 54 receiver in the class of 2011 and No. 83 player in Florida. He’s kind of a hidden gem at this point in the recruiting process, with offers from East Carolina, Kansas, Louisville, South Florida and Texas Tech.

Francois, a three-star player from South-east H.S. (Bradenton), is currently consid-ering offers from Florida International, Rutgers, Louisville and Western Kentucky.

Those are just a few of the 30 or so se-niors from within 100 miles of the Beef ‘O’Brady’s Bowl who have offers from the

Cardinals. Strong and his staff alreadyhave verbal commitments from four play-ers who live within 3-to-4 hours of St. Pe-tersburg, and they have their sights set onseveral more within that distance.

Port St. Lucie is only about three hours from St. Petersburg, and Terrell Floyd (5-10, 186, DB/WR) and Mike Romano (6-4,269, OL) both have verbally committed tothe Cardinals.

“I had the utmost faith in Charlie Strong,” said Romano, a product of Trea-sure Coast H.S. “I knew we were going toget to a bowl game this year. I was happy(when I found out where they were play-ing). I was ecstatic. It was awesome, and Iwas excited when I found out about it.”

While Romano said he won’t be able to attend the bowl game itself because he’splaying in the North Florida vs. South Flor-ida All-Star game on that same night, hedid say he may try and make it to a practiceso he can take a look at his future team.Romano did admit he may take a visit toSouthern Miss, which has been recruitinghim heavily. But he maintains that he’s stilla fi rm commitment to the Cardinals.

Floyd is a versatile athlete from Port St. Lucie H.S. Much like Romano, he said hewould try to make it to see his future teamin action, if at all possible. Also like Ro-mano, Floyd said he wasn’t surprised theCardinals were able to get back to a bowlgame so quickly under Strong.

“Charlie Strong, he’s been at a winning program, and I would expect he knowshow to win,” Floyd said, adding thathe talks to the Cardinals’ coaches up tothree times a week when it’s within NCAAguidelines for them to be in contact. Floydsaid that despite the fact that Purdue isworking hard to sway his commitment, heremains a fi rm pledge to UofL.

And while this may be a little bit of a long shot, don’t count out players fromMiami making the four-hour trip for thegame or for a day of watching the Car-dinals practice. Louisville already has twocommitments from the Miami area inCharles Gaines (5-11, 181, WR) and JohnMiller (6-2, 295, OL), who are teammatesat Miami Central H.S.

JEFF WAFFORDJEFF WAFFORD

2011 FOOTBALL COMMITMENTSPROSPECT POS HOMETOWN HIGH SCHOOL HT. WT. 40 RECRUITING NOTE Jamon Brown DT Louisville Fern Creek 6-3 305 - Kentucky Top 10, city’s top linemanChris Dukes DB Cincinnati Colerain 5-10 184 4.43 Fast and physical cornerbackAaron Epps OL Tucker, Ga. Tucker 6-6 238 4.9 Tall, lean TE could be an OL in collegeTerrell Floyd DB Port St. Lucie, Fla. Port St. Lucie 5-10 186 4.5 No. 63 ATH in the nation, No. 99 overall Fla.Charles Gaines WR Miami Miami Central 6-1 190 4.42 Offers from Florida State, Arkansas, S. CarolinaJalen Harrington SS/LB Louisville Fern Creek 6-3 215 4.7 Kentucky Top 15, top sleeper in the cityEddie Johnson LB Selma, Ala. Selma 6-2 218 4.6 Big linebacker just moved schoolsJacquese Kirk DB Jasper, Ala. Walker 5-11 160 4.4 Alabama Top 25, elite recruitRyan Mack OL Memphis, Tn. Wooddale 6-4 310 -- Tennessee Top 10, elite recruitJohn Miller OL/DL Miami, Fla. Miami Central 6-2 295 -- Short but productive linemanJerrell Moore RB Louisville Fern Creek 5-11 175 4.4 Kentucky Top 10Deiontrez Mount DE Ft. Walton Beach, Fla. FWB High 6-6 202 4.7 No. 26 Weakside defensive end in the nationDeVante Parker WR Louisville Ballard 6-2 180 4.49 Kentucky Top 5, top WR in KentuckyCalvin Pryor DB Port St. Joe, Fla. Port St. Joe 6-1 190 4.5 No. 28 safety in America, No. 62 in Fla.Eric Robinson-Berry DB Indianapolis Warren Central 6-1 175 4.45 Fast DB with great football IQMike Romano OL Pt. St. Lucie, Fla. Treasure Coast 6-4 269 5.1 Solid-bodied OLZay Sharp RB Griffi n, Ga. Spalding 6-2 200 4.5 Great speed, sizeDaMarcus Smith QB Louisville Seneca 6-1 180 4.5 Elite 11 QB, top QB in KentuckyRobert Terrell LB Russellvile, Ala. Russellville 6-1 249 4.6 Alabama Top 40John Wallace K Cecilia, Ky. Central Hardin 6-1 175 -- Ky.’s top kicker

BOWL LOCATION – ST. PETE – FIGURES TO BE GOOD NEWS FOR RECRUITING


KFC Yum! Center OPENING PHOTO GALLERYSELECTED FALL SPORTS SCHEDULESBIG EAST NOTEBOOK

By Russ BrownThere are at least 48,591 people who are

probably still in a state of shock to see Con-necticut representing the Big East in a BCS bowl. That’s the number of fans who watched Louisville totally dominate and humble the Huskies 26-0 in Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium on Oct. 23 to drop them to 0-2 in the confer-ence and 3-4 overall.

The Cards rendered UConn 100 percent in-effective in that game, but the Huskies haven’t

lost since, winning fi ve in a row to earn a share of the Big East championship and crash the BCS party. The newly ranked (AP) No. 25 Huskies (8-4) will face No. 9/8 Oklahoma (11-2) in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., on New Year’s Day, becoming the fi rst four-loss team to make it to a BCS bowl.

For the Cardinals, UConn’s accomplishment has special meaning.

“It just shows that anything can happen,” senior wide receiver Doug Beaumont said. “We probably could have played in the Fiesta Bowl because we were so close in a lot of our games. It was just one step away, one inch away, what-ever you want to say about it. It’s just exciting that we were able to shut out the team that won the Big East.”

Said senior quarterback Justin Burke: “It’s kind of a nice little feather in our hat. We’re happy for them to get where they’re at. They’ve been a different team since we beat them, but we’re also a different team. So you never re-ally know. It’s all about week-to-week and how you prepare and how you go into the game.”

UConn got its BCS spot by beating South Florida 19-16 last Saturday night in Tampa without scoring an offensive touchdown. Dave Teggart kicked four fi eld goals, the last one a 52-yard game-winner with 17 seconds remain-ing after the Huskies had squandered a 16-6 fourth-quarter lead.

Many may be making fun of UConn’s ap-pearance in a BCS bowl, but coach Randy Ed-sall isn’t embarrassed, although he may well be after the Sooners get fi nished with his team.

“We played by the rules,” he said. “The bot-tom line is we won the Big East. So we get the BCS. That’s what the rules are. Nobody is going to take anything away from us.”

Said quarterback Zach Frazer: “People have already said a lot of things about us. That’s fi ne. We know we deserve to be there.”

UConn tied West Virginia and Pittsburgh for the league title at 5-2 but won the tie-breaker by virtue of having beaten both of those teams. Besides UofL, the Huskies somehow managed to also lose to Rutgers, 27-24, the last victory for the Scarlet Knights before they embarked on a six-game losing streak. UConn made the jump from Division 1-AA to 1-A just 10 years ago.

The Huskies joined the Big East in football in 2004 and before this season had just one win-ning record in league play. Their overall confer-ence mark before 2010 was 17-24.

“It’s something I dreamed about,” Edsall said of the BCS berth. “It’s one of the pyramids we have in our offi ces, something to achieve. It’s there, but the reality of it really happening -- as much as you want it to happen and think it can -- for it to actually happen, I think is almost impossible. This is a remarkable hurdle.

“To be heading to a BCS game and to win the Big East championship within seven years

of being in this league and really, the short time we’ve been a Division 1-A program, says a lot about the character, the resolve, the work ethic of all these people that are in the program now and the guys who came before. So I couldn’t be happier for everybody and the people in the state.”

Or for Teggart, whose pressure-packed 52-yarder was a career-long.

“You dream about those situations all the time as a kicker,” said Teggart, who had nailed a 50-yarder earlier in the game. “We kickers don’t get on the fi eld that much, so you want to make the most of your opportunities when you’re out there. I just tried to keep my focus. Lots of adrenalin.... I knew it wasn’t going to be short. It was a matter of it’s going straight or not. It was a great moment.”

Edsall said he has confi dence in Teggart’s ac-curacy up to 58 yards and he wasn’t about to punt the ball and try to win in overtime.

“There was no way I was going to try to punt and say, ‘OK, let’s wait ‘til overtime.’ ... Bull crap.”

Said UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma about the school’s football accomplishment: “For people who’ve been here a long time, it’s just unfathomable. You have to have been up on the hill (at old Me-morial Stadium) when we were trying to beat Rhode Island. People screaming, ‘Are we going to beat Maine today?’ Now people are going to turn on their TVs on New Year’s Day and Ohio State’s playing, Oklahoma, and ... who?’ Anybody who is still questioning the move to Division I has to be the dumbest human being on the planet.”

NOT THE BESTAlthough Connecticut will represent the

Big East in the BCS, none of the league’s head coaches who voted in the USA Today coaches’

poll think the Huskies are the best team in the conference.

Louisville’s Charlie Strong, Rutgers’ Greg Schiano, Cincinnati’s Butch Jones and Syra-cuse’s Doug Marrone are among the voters in the coaches’ poll, which released its fi nal regu-lar-season ballots on Sunday.

Jones voted West Virginia No. 22 and did not have UConn in his top 25. Marrone, whose team beat the Mountaineers on the road but lost to the Huskies at home, had West Virginia 22nd and Connecticut No. 25. Schiano, whose team just played West Virginia over the week-end, put the Mountaineers 20th and UConn 25th. Interestingly enough, Strong had the Huskies ranked the highest of any Big East coach at No. 24, even though his Cardinals handed UConn its last loss, a 26-0 shellacking. He had West Virginia at No. 21.

STEWART NOT DISAPPOINTEDAs others have pointed out, West Virginia

has nobody but itself to blame that it’s UConn instead of the Mountaineers who will be spending the holidays in Arizona. WVU had the best defense in the conference and should have been undefeated in league play, but slop-piness with the football cost the Mountaineers narrow losses to Syracuse and UConn and, ulti-mately, a BCS bowl.

Even in its season-ending 35-14 victory over Rutgers in Morgantown, WVU lost three fum-bles inside the Scarlet Knights’ 15-yard line. But the Mountaineers still had far too much offensive fi repower for Rutgers, with quarter-back Geno Smith throwing for a career-high 352 yards and Ryan Clarke rushing for three touchdowns.

Given where things were just fi ve weeks earlier, West Virginia coach Bill Stewart said he won’t concern himself with what might have been. In last place in the Big East on Oct. 30,

WVU won its last four games to grab a shareof the title.

The No. 22/21 Mountaineers (9-3) will play North Carolina State (8-4) in the Champs SportsBowl in Orlando, Fla., on Dec. 28.

“I see no disappointment whatsoever,” Stewart said. “I see some calls from my playersalready, so I know they’re excited. We are BigEast champs. I’m very proud of our record andvery proud of the resolve our seniors and thisfootball team showed these last four games.

“Being 1-2 (in the Big East) at one time and coming out and playing like we have the lastmonth is a real tribute to the young men in ourprogram.”

WANNSTEDT CLAIMS PROGRESSHe undoubtedly won’t get many Pittsburgh

fans to agree with him, but Pitt coach DaveWannstedt contends that even though thePanthers were a disappointing 7-5 and didn’tget into a BCS bowl, they took a few steps for-ward by winning a share of the Big East title.Pitt was the preseason choice to win the leagueoutright, and it started the season ranked 15thnationally.

“You’re always building,” Wannstedt said. “You’re always looking to build on somethingthat is more positive than the year before. Thisyear we’re the Big East champions, so that’sbetter than last year. Our kids got a part ofthat. We’re trying to build year after year afteryear.”

Pitt will play in its eighth bowl in the last 11 years, taking on Kentucky (6-6) in the BBVACompass Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., on Jan. 8.

The Panthers haven’t faced an SEC team since 1983 when Foge Fazio’s club won a regu-lar-season game at Tennessee, 13-3. Pitt playedSouth Carolina in 1984 and ‘85, but the Game-cocks didn’t join the SEC until 1991.

Pitt ended its regular season by beating host Cincinnati 28-10 in snow-covered Nippert Sta-dium as Dion Lewis ran for a career-high 261yards on 42 carries and scored a career-bestfour TDs. It was Lewis’s fi rst career 200-yardgame.

“I knew I was going to get the ball a lot be-cause Ray (Graham) was injured,” said Lewis,who scored on runs of 2, 76, 7 and 21 yards. “Ijust wanted to be able to get in a groove andstay patient and see what the defense was giv-ing me. Whenever you are able to get the ball alot of times, you have a chance to fi gure somethings out with the defense and you get morecomfortable. I just had to stay patient.”

BEARCATS VOW TO IMPROVEIn the wake of the loss to Pittsburgh that

capped a very disappointing season for two-time defending league champion Cincinnati,Bearcats coach Butch Jones promised he willdo everything possible to avoid further slippagein 2011.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Jones said. “As soon as I walk out the door, it’s about re-cruiting, recruiting, recruiting. There will be ab-solutely no off days. This is unacceptable.”

Cincinnati, which was picked to fi nish sec-ond in the Big East, wound up 4-8 overall and2-5 in the conference, next to last. It was themost losses for UC since Rick Minter’s 1999team went 3-8.

Jones and his players have cited leadership issues and complacency as being major factorsin contributing to this year’s record.

“We have to make sure to never let this happen again,” junior QB Zach Collaros said.“We have to improve our leadership. I have toimprove that.”

The Bearcats are losing just 12 seniors, in-cluding only two (non-starters) from the de-


UConn, which earned the Big East’s automatic BCS berth, did so by winning

its fi nal fi ve games following a 26-0 defeat to UofL, which completely throttled the Huskies on Oct. 23.

- photo by Dave Klotz

U O F L W A S L A S T T E A M T O B E A T H U S K I E S

CARDS ALSO CAN TAKE PRIDE IN UCONN’S BCS FEAT


2007 CARDINAL CARAVAN10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASONLOUISVILLE BASKETBALL

fensive two-deep chart. Offensively, much of the onus will be on Collaros, who did not live up to expectations after performing brilliantly as a spot-starter on last year’s 12-1 team. The Bearcats also return 1,000-yard rusher Isiah Pead.

“It’s going to be a long off-season, a produc-tive off-season,” Jones said. “I think we have a bright future. We’re going to get this done.”

Said Pead: “I honestly don’t know what to expect next year. All that most guys knew coming in here were championships and BCS bowls. Now we’re at the bottom of the barrel. It’s safe to say everybody got comfortable with back-to-back BCS games. You forget how to lose.”

SCHIANO WON’T PANICEven with Cincinnati and Pitt not living up

to expectations, no Big East team had a worse season than Rutgers, which lost its last six games to fi nish 4-8 overall and 1-6 in the con-ference. But 10-year coach Greg Schiano said there will be no “knee-jerk” reaction to the Scarlet Knights’ last-place showing.

“I’m going to evaluate it,” said Schiano, whose team was also last in the league in ev-ery major offensive category. “Statistically, it’s already right there on paper. I have to look at -- fi rst, is it players? Is it coaching? Is it a combi-nation? Generally, it’s a combination.

“But there will be no knee-jerk reactions. I think people can rest assured knowing that ev-erything I do is to make this program the best it can be. And that’s what I’ll do once we make the fi nal determinations, but not before. There’s not going to be anything done out of panic. There is no panic. We know what we’re doing.”

Among other shortcomings, Rutgers’ offen-sive line yielded an NCAA-worst 61 sacks.

Schiano said he expects to meet this week with former Louisville recruit Tom Savage about the sophomore quarterback possibly trans-ferring to another program. Savage led the Knights to nine wins last season while earning Freshman All-American honors but was ham-pered by injuries this year and eventually lost the starting job to freshman Chas Dodd.

Savage (6-5, 226), who is from Springfi eld, Pa., and was a high school All-American, turned down scholarship offers from UofL, Georgia, LSU, Miami, Pitt, Tennessee and several other major programs to sign with Rutgers.

Schiano is 59-63 overall and 24-45 in the Big East in his 10 seasons but guided the school to fi ve straight bowls before this season. He is the conference’s highest-paid coach, earning about $2 million a year on a contract that runs through 2016.

Given his mediocre record, Schiano sounds a little delusional when he talks about Rutgers’ future.

“We will not lose here at Rutgers,” he said. “We will consistently win. That will never change. Everybody hits a stretch, or a lull. We hit a lull. It’s unfortunate, but we are going to battle through it. We’re going to do great things.”

VILLANOVA’S PINKSTON SUSPENDEDFreshman power forward JayVaughn Pink-

ston has been suspended from school by 12th-ranked Villanova and will not play for the Wildcats this season. He was suspended from the team last month after he was charged with two counts of simple assault and harassment following a fi ght at an off-campus apartment. He is scheduled to appear in court at a later date.

The 6-6 Pinkston, who cannot take classes in the spring, will retain his eligibility because the suspension is a university sanction and not an NCAA penalty. He can return to Villanova in the summer as a redshirt freshman, with four years left to play.

“I am in support of the university’s decision,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said in a statement. “JayVaughn understands that there are con-

sequences to his actions, and I believe he will continue to handle this in a mature manner. We look forward to his return in June.”

The loss of Pinkston leaves guard-oriented Villanova short-handed on the front line. A McDonald’s All-American out of Bishop Lough-lin High School in New York, Pinkston was expected to contribute immediately alongside Mouphtaou Yarou and Antonio Pena.

HAZELL HAS SURGERYSeton Hall star Jeremy Hazell underwent sur-

gery last week to repair the broken bone in his left wrist and is expected to remain sidelined for at least fi ve more weeks. That means Hazell probably won’t be able to play against UofL when the Pirates visit the KFC Yum! Center for the Cardinals’ Big East opener on Jan. 5.

Hazell suffered the injury last month during an 83-78 victory over Alabama in the Paradise Jam Tournament in the Virgin Islands. The se-nior guard scored 27 points. Hazell, a danger-ous three-point threat, averaged 20.4 points last season and was averaging 24 points this year. He was a fi rst-team preseason all-Big East selection.

First-year Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard did not want to discuss the possibility of a medi-cal redshirt for Hazell, who is 633 points shy of Terry Dehere’s all-time school scoring record.

“Jeez almighty, don’t use the word redshirt and Jeremy,” Willard said with a smile. “We’re expecting him back in fi ve weeks. That’s our goal. That’s right now what it is.”

Willard said his players were in “shock” when they fi rst played without Hazell, a 57-52 overtime loss to Xavier Nov. 21 in the Paradise Jam.

“It’s kind of hard losing 24 points a game in an offense when we’re used to seeing him out there with us,” senior guard Keon Lawrence said. “He bailed us out a lot of times. When he wasn’t out there, it’s hard for us. It’s like, ‘Who’s the go-to guy?’ But now I think every-body is knowing that they’ve got to step up.”

Without Hazell and with time to practice af-ter the island trip, the offense has slowed down and involves more passing and ball movement before a shot is taken.

“Now we put in a new offense where every-body touches the ball,” said junior point guard Jordan Theodore. “It’s not just a two-man game, or every time pick-and-roll. It’s every-body touches the ball and everybody’s happy.”

Herb Pope, last year’s leading rebounder in the Big East, is still recovering from his April collapse and subsequent heart surgery and re-mains rusty.

“Give him time, he was dead for a while,” Willard cracked. “He’s a miracle on Earth.”

DePAUL COACH BUYS MANSIONNew DePaul coach Oliver Purnell has paid

$3.075 million for a 12-room, newly built brick and stone mansion in the Lincoln Park section of Chicago. Purnell, 57, signed a seven-year, $15 million deal in April to head the Blue De-mons.

The fi ve-bedroom, 7,700 square-foot home has four full baths, two half-baths, fi ve fi replac-es, handcrafted woodwork, coffered ceilings, a grand staircase, custom doors, radiant-heated fl oors, a wine cellar with a tasting table, and a custom kitchen.

The house had been listed in 2008 and 2009 for $3.795 million, then $3.5 million, then $3.295 million.

QUOTABLE-- West Virginia coach Bob Huggins says his players aren’t as good as they think. “Every time I look at our guys, I don’t see any pros,” he said. “I see a lot of guys that think they are. I’ve had 22. I think I probably ought to know better than they do.”

MORE HUGS-- ”We’ve done the same kind of things for 30 years, and it has worked pretty good. So it’s not what we’re doing. It’s got to be the guys doing it. I must not be coaching good enough.”

BIG EAST NOTEBOOK

ORDER TODAY AND START YOUR LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT SUBSCRIPTION NOW!

❑ New ❑ Renewal ❑ Address Change

❑ Please send me a one-year subscription (38 issues) for $56.95* ❑ Please send me a two-year subscription (76 issues) for $106.95* ❑ First-Class Delivery - additional $55 per year ❑ one-year ❑ two-years* Add 6% sales tax for Kentucky residents only. SALES TAX: One year ($3.30), Two-years ($6.30)

TOTAL $

❑ My check or money order payable to The Louisville SportsReport is enclosed.

❑ Charge to my: ❑ VISA ❑ Mastercard Expiration Date /

Card Number: I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I l

MY NAME AND ADDRESSSUBSCRIPTION NO.

NAME

ADDRESS

CITY STATE ZIP CODE

PHONE NO.

Please mail payment to: The Louisville SportsReport • P.O. Box 17464 • Louisville, Ky 40217

For additional information; to order a gift subscription or to change your address, please call (502) 636-4330

CALL (502) 636-4330 FOR SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION TODAY!

KEEP UP ON ALL THE LATEST CARDINAL NEWS!AMERICA’S FOREMOST AUTHORITY ON UofL ATHLETICS

The Big East has seven teams in this week’s Associated Press top 25 poll - the most of any conference.

The Big East has four of the top nine teams in the AP poll.

The fi rst edition of the 2010-11 RPI Report lists the Big East’s conference RPI No. 1 among the 33 Division I conferences.

Big East teams are a combined 98-20 in nonconference games this season. The winning percentage of 82.4 is the best percentage of any conference.

As of Monday, there are 19 undefeated teams in Division I men’s basketball. The Big East has seven. No other conference has more than three.

This week’s Big East Player of the Week is Georgetown guard Chris Wright (21.0 ppg, 6.0 apg in wins against No. 9/8 Missouri and Utah State).

The Big East Rookie of the Week is DePaul guard Brandon Young (24.0 ppg in wins against Northern Illinois and Central Michigan).

BIG EAST BASKETBALL NOTES

AP Top 25RK TEAM RECORD PTS1 Duke (65) 8-0 1,6252 Ohio State 6-0 1,5343 Pittsburgh 9-0 1,4944 Kansas 7-0 1,4035 Kansas State 7-1 1,2916 Connecticut 7-0 1,2857 Michigan State 6-2 1,1688 Syracuse 8-0 1,1269 Georgetown 8-0 1,01110 Baylor 6-0 99011 Tennessee 6-0 91412 Villanova 6-1 87013 Memphis 7-0 80214 San Diego State 8-0 75915 Missouri 6-1 72616 Illinois 8-1 71517 Kentucky 5-2 55718 Brigham Young 8-0 51519 Purdue 7-1 43220 UNLV 8-0 42621 Washington 5-2 30222 Minnesota 7-1 29423 Notre Dame 8-0 29124 LOUISVILLE 6-0 16225 Texas 6-2 146

* OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES: Florida 72, Vanderbilt 52, North Carolina 43, Arizona 38, UCF 28, Cleveland State 13, Texas A&M 9, Gonzaga 9, Cincinnati 6, Northwestern 6, Saint Mary’s 5, Temple 3, Wichita State 3


2007 CARDINAL CARAVAN10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASONBIG EAST NOTEBOOK

D

MAKE YOUR PICKSLAST WEEK:

LAST WEEK:_____OVERALL:_______

KENT TAYLORWAVE TV

LAST WEEK: 9-1OVERALL: 90-50

TERRY MEINERSWHAS RADIO


GARRY GUPTONINSIGHT CH 2 TV


RUSS BROWNSPORTSREPORT


FRED COWGILLWLKY TV


TOM LANEWDRB FOX 41


MATT WILLINGERSPORTSREPORT


HOWIE LINDSEYSPORTSREPORT


DREW DEENERWHAS PLAY-BY-PLAY

WKRD RADIOLAST WEEK: 9-1OVERALL: 90-50

Each week members of our esteemed media panel will try to prove they are smarter than sportscaster Tom Lane. Longtime

Louisville SportsReport subscribers will remember that our media members used to test their football knowledge against a dog, but that proved to be far too challenging. The panel will battle it out by trying to pick the winners of 10 games per week during the college football season to earn the honor of top dog

in the LSR’s Top Tom contest.

ZACH McCRITE93.9 THE TICKET


BEEF’O’BRADY’S BOWL: LOUISVILLE VS. SOUTHERN MISS LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE CHAMPS BOWL: NC STATE VS. WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA PINSTRIPE BOWL: KANSAS STATE VS. SYRACUSE KANSAS STATE SYRACUSE KANSAS STATEMEINEKE BOWL: CLEMSON VS. USF CLEMSON CLEMSON CLEMSONCOMPASS BOWL: PITT VS. KENTUCKY PITT KENTUCKY PITTSUN BOWL: MIAMI VS. NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME MIAMI NOTRE DAME FIESTA BOWL: CONNECTICUT VS. OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMAROSE BOWL: TCU VS. WISCONSIN WISCONSIN WISCONSIN TCUORANGE BOWL: STANFORD VS. VIRGINIA TECH STANFORD STANFORD STANFORDBCS TITLE GAME: OREGON VS. AUBURN AUBURN AUBURN AUBURN

JACK COFFEESPORTSREPORT


U OF L PRESIDENTJAMES RAMSEY


JEFF WAFFORDSPORTSREPORT


LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIAKANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE SYRACUSE KANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE

CLEMSON CLEMSON CLEMSON CLEMSON CLEMSON CLEMSON USF CLEMSON CLEMSON CLEMSONKENTUCKY PITT KENTUCKY KENTUCKY KENTUCKY PITT PITT KENTUCKY KENTUCKY PITT

NOTRE DAME MIAMI NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAMEOKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA

TCU TCU TCU WISCONSIN TCU WISCONSIN TCU TCU TCU WISCONSINSTANFORD STANFORD STANFORD VIRGINIA TECH STANFORD STANFORD STANFORD STANFORD STANFORD STANFORDAUBURN OREGON AUBURN AUBURN AUBURN AUBURN AUBURN AUBURN AUBURN AUBURN

DEB HARBSMEIERWHAS TV TEAM


WILL GRAVESASSOCIATED PRESS


TONY CRUISEWHAS RADIO


LACHLAN MCLEANWHAS RADIO


DAVE JENNINGSWHAS RADIO


PAUL ROGERSWHAS RADIO TEAM


TONY VANETTIAFTERNOON UNDERDOGS

WKRD RADIOLAST WEEK: 6-4OVERALL: 81-59

LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA KANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE SYRACUSE KANSAS STATE CLEMSON CLEMSON CLEMSON CLEMSON CLEMSON USF CLEMSON PITT KENTUCKY KENTUCKY KENTUCKY PITT KENTUCKY KENTUCKY NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA WISCONSIN TCU TCU TCU WISCONSIN WISCONSIN TCU STANFORD STANFORD STANFORD STANFORD STANFORD VIRGINIA TECH STANFORD OREGON AUBURN AUBURN AUBURN OREGON AUBURN AUBURN

U C O N N ’ T B E L I E V E I T

Nick DeLeon transferred to Louisville from UNLV this summer. Nick DeLeon transferred to Louisville from UNLV this summer. Now, he and the Cardinals are headed to the College Cup as Now, he and the Cardinals are headed to the College Cup as one of the fi nal four teams in the NCAA Tournament. - photo one of the fi nal four teams in the NCAA Tournament. - photo by Howie Lindseyby Howie Lindsey

PERFECT TRANSFER

Louisville is the last team to beat Big East champion Louisville is the last team to beat Big East champion Connecticut. The Cardinals not only beat the Huskies, they Connecticut. The Cardinals not only beat the Huskies, they shut them out 26-0. One interesting note - UConn and South shut them out 26-0. One interesting note - UConn and South Carolina met in a bowl to end last season with UConn winning Carolina met in a bowl to end last season with UConn winning fairly easily. South Carolina won the SEC East this season. - fairly easily. South Carolina won the SEC East this season. - photo by Dave Klotzphoto by Dave Klotz


WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

By Howie LIndseyWhat a difference a year makes. A season

ago a bruised, battered and short-handed University of Louisville squad was walloped by 36 points at archrival Kentucky. Last Sun-day the Louisville women knocked off the eighth-ranked Wildcats 78-52 in front of an over-capacity crowd of 22,152 at the KFC Yum! Center.

The difference between the two games was staggering. In the 2009 game UofL had just three subs -- all freshmen -- log signifi -cant minutes: Asia Taylor, walk-on Shelby Harper and volleyball player Gwen Rucker. In that game, Louisville turned the ball over a

school-record 38 times. This year the Cardinals

started three new players - freshman center Sher-onne Vails, freshman point guard Shoni Schimmel and sophomore transfer Tia Gibbs, a former Miss Basketball, at guard - and outplayed the Wildcats in

nearly every facet of the game. “It’s nice to have a healthy team,” coach

Jeff Walz said. “It’s nice to have a full comple-ment of players.... When we lost six players to injury (last year) and (Kentucky) continued to press us, we were going to turn the ball over. Now, when we have a healthy squad, we showed we can play.”

Louisville not only showed it can play, it held a double-digit lead on the No. 8 team in the nation for nearly the entire game. The Cardinals came up big from beyond the arc, hitting 12 of 21 three-point shots, including six threes by Schimmel and six by junior Becky Burke. The loss dropped the Wildcats to 5-1 and likely takes them out of the top 10.

“They’re a top-10 team,” Walz said when he was pressed about what the game means to his team. “They’ve got an All-American (senior Victoria Dunlap) on the team. I think it says a lot because you look at who we were able to put on the fl oor and have suc-cess. Shoni’s a freshman, Sheronne is a fresh-man, Monique (Reid) is only a junior, Becky Burke is a junior, Tia Gibbs is a sophomore. We’ve got a lot of our team that is coming back to continue to get better.”

Kentucky may have been ranked higher, but Louisville looked like the better team throughout the game. After the teams traded baskets to start the game and with Louisville up 5-4, the Cardinals went on a 12-0 run that included back-to-back-to-back threes by Schimmel.

“I recruited the kid, it is what she does,” Walz said of Schimmel’s three-point shooting and fl ashy play. “Some of the behind-the-back stuff, she’s learning when and where and how to do it. That’s what her game is; that’s the fl air she brings to the game.”

Schimmel’s fl air, and her ability to spin on a dime and make fl ashy passes, had fans standing and applauding.

“I’ve got a hard time to think if there were any fi rst-time fans who came out to a wom-en’s basketball game tonight who weren’t

impressed with what she does,” Walz said. “I don’t know what else you want.”

After Kentucky cut the Cardinals lead to 17-12 by the 9:44 mark, UofL responded with an 11-0 run to lead 28-12 just three minutes later. That run included the fi rst of what would be three fi rst-half threes by Burke.

Schimmel and Burke each hit three threes in the fi rst half and three more in the sec-ond, many coming at crucial moments of the game.

“Yeah, we were talking about it, we were having a contest to see who could make the most,” Burke said of the two shooters. “We tied, we both had six.”

“I shot a better percentage,” Schimmel added with a smile.

Louisville kept the pressure on the Wild-cats, pushing the lead out to 43-24 with just under two minutes left in the fi rst half on a three by Burke. A late free throw by UK’s Brittany Henderson cut the halftime margin to 18.

“It was a disappointing day, obviously, for us,” UK coach Matthew Mitchell said. “Our style of play is all about hustle and playing tenacious and really playing hard, and we picked a bad day not to play hard defensively. There are a lot of things you can control, and defensive effort would be one of them.... UofL looked like they were much more mo-tivated to win, and that bothers me. I have to take some responsibility for that, and we will see if we can fi gure that out. But it was an absolutely terrible day for us, a tough day. UofL had a lot to do with that.”

Kentucky came out with renewed inten-sity in the second half, cutting the margin to 45-35 by the 16:50 mark with the help of four points from Dunlap and threes by sophomore Adia Mathies and junior Keyla Snowden.

But just as quickly as Kentucky drew with-in 10, Louisville answered the challenge. A

loose-ball layup by Vails, a step-back three by Schimmel and a three by Burke pushed the lead back to 53-35.

“It’s a matter of how we handled their runs,” Walz said. “We’re going to go on some runs, they’re going to go on some runs, but we can’t panic. I thought we did a great job the entire fi rst half of controlling things. Starting out the second half, we didn’t do a good job out there. We panicked and turned the ball over three or four times, but we fi -nally settled down. Shoni got the ball in tran-sition and made a step-back three.”

The Wildcats fought back to trail 55-45 with 9:24 to go. The run was almost entirely Dunlap’s doing as she scored eight points in three minutes.

“Victoria didn’t have a great offensive night, she scored 17 points,” Walz said. “I tell people, Victoria is to their team what An-gel (McCoughtry) was to ours (in 2008). She is on top of the press, she is everywhere. She had 23 boards and 17 points tonight. It’s just amazing what she does.”

But, just as before, Schimmel and Burke came up with an answer. A step-back three by Schimmel broke Kentucky’s scoring run, and a three by Burke a minute later put Lou-isville up 62-47 with 7:57 left.

“Becky comes out and she does exactly what she is supposed to do,” Walz said. “We had 27 fi eld goals and 19 assists. They had 20 fi eld goals and four (assists). We passed the ball. We have a team that can play like a team, and I am really, really proud of that.”

UofL hit back-to-back threes - Schimmel and Burke again - to go up 68-48 with just over six minutes left and coasted the rest of the way to give Walz his fi fth top-10 victory and his fi rst over a ranked team this season. Schimmel fi nished with 26 and Burke had 21 to lead the Cardinals.

SCHIMMEL FRESHMAN OF THE WEEKSchimmel was named Big East Freshman

of the Week after leading the Cardinals tovictories over IPFW, Mississippi Valley Stateand No. 8/9 Kentucky. The 5-10 guard ledthe Cardinals in scoring at 18.7 points pergame last week, and she dished out 20 as-sists while shooting 56.8 percent overall and54.5 percent from behind the arc.

Schimmel scored a career-high 26 points against UK, going 6 of 9 from behind thearc, dishing out six assists and collectingthree steals. In the win over Mississippi ValleyState she had 15 points while hitting 6 of10 three-point shots. She also had seven as-sists and three steals. She had 15 points andseven assists against IPFW.

HUGE CROWD, AGAINWith 22,152 fans at Sunday’s game, Lou-

isville now owns the two largest crowds inwomen’s basketball this season. Their open-ing-game attendance against Tennessee was22,124, which was then the largest ever tosee a Louisville home game.

“I think it is fantastic,” Mitchell said. “What a great job people did of turningout today. It was an exciting atmosphere forUofL. It wasn’t very good for us.”

Louisville rode the crowd’s emotion to scoring spurts of 12-0, 11-0 and 13-3.

“I think we’ve played really well in front of two sold-out crowds,” Walz said. “We lostone, the Tennessee game, but I thought weplayed well. I thought our kids handled thepressure of the crowd well. It’s a tribute tothe great fans in this city. There aren’t manycities where you can get 22,000 to show up,and we’ve done it twice with paid admis-sion.”

TOP-10 WINUofL notched its sixth win over a top-10

team since 1995-96 and fi fth in the fouryears of the Jeff Walz era. The 26-point mar-gin of victory is the largest win over a top-10team in school history.

Freshmamn Shoni Schimmel scored 26 points and hit 6 of 9 three-point shots

against No. 8 Kentucky Sunday at the Yum! Center- photo by Dave Klotz

L O U I S V I L L E F A N S P A C K T H E H O U S E A G A I N - 2 2 , 1 5 9 I S N E W R E C O R D

A YEAR MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE FOR CARDS IN 78-52 ROUT OF NO. 8 CATS

HOWIE LINDSEYHOWIE LINDSEY


2007 CARDINAL CARAVAN

D


WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PHOTO GALLERY

LOUI

SVIL

LE S

PORT

SREP

ORT

• PE

RIOD

ICAL

POS

TAGE

PAI

D - D

ECEM

BER

7, 2

010

Freshman Shoni Schimmel led Louisville with 26 points

against Kentucky Sunday. Schimmel hit 6 of 9 threes and

had six assists, three steals and two rebounds. She also had

eight turnovers, but that will be corrected with experience,

according to coach Jeff Walz. - photo by Shelley Feller

Sophomore Vanderbilt transfer Tia Gibbs defended UK’s A’dia Mathies at the top of the key during

Sunday’s Louisville-Kentucky game at the KFC Yum! Center. Both Gibbs (Butler) and Mathies (Iroqouis)

are from Louisville, and both were named Kentucky Miss Basketball. - photo by Shelley Feller

Junior Becky Burke caught a quick pass from teammate Shoni Schimmel. Burke and Schimmel combined for 12 three-pointers, six apiece. - photo by Shelley Feller

Hines drove past UK’s Dunlap. Despite foul trouble, Hines had six

points and eight rebounds in 20 minutes. She also had three blocks,

a steal and two assists. Dunlap fi nished with 17 points and 23

rebounds. - photo by Shelley Feller

Senior Keshia Hines released a layup before the outstretched arm of UK star Victoria Dunlap

could swat the shot. - photo by Shelley Feller

Dec. 9 Issue

Documents

Transcript of Dec. 9 Issue