This is the time of year when the name on the jersey doesn’t mean anything when the ball is tipped at center court. This is the time of year when you gotta bring your game and not just your name if you want to survive and advance to the next round. Today the fans turned out in force to represent the Louisville name and the team brought their game as they overwhelmed a scrappy Colorado St team beating them 82-56 in Rupp Arena to advance to the Sweet 16. The Cardinals have now won twelve straight games and this will be the 25th time that they have advanced to the Sweet 16. Coach Pitino is unbeaten in 10 Sweet 16 appearances, his average winning margin is 19.8 points. At Louisville that average margin has been 21.3.
Coach Rick Pitino: “We can play much better,””This is the best we have played so far at both ends of the floor. But we can definitely get better and improve.”
This group of Cardinals have made their name on defense this season. It has been the foundation from which this team thrives. They have been considered the best defensive team in the country all season including having the lowest adj efficiency in the history of Kenpom’s system. To think this defensive could get any better is crazy but it has. If fact every game they play the defense just keeps getting better. This Louisville team has now recorded more steals than their opponent for 15 consecutive games and have 31 steals so far in the the NCAA tournament. Today they had 11 steals with 5 players that had 2 each. The Cardinals defense also forced the Rams into 19 turnovers. They have forced 32 turnovers in the last two games. In a game where they faced the number one rebounding team in the country the Cards also won that battle 25 to 22 and rebounded 9 of their 24 missed shots for 37.5%. It was a great team effort on the boards as seven players would get three or more. I knew that our front-court would be hard for the Rams to handle due to the Cardinals physical style of play and they completely dominated them in the paint 42 to 14. With the defense being so great it is easy to overlook a offense that also keeps getting better and better. The Cards have become much more efficient on the offensive end of the floor and have been been taking better shots. They shot and impressive 56.4% from the floor tonight and 55.6% from the three. And this team has been clutch from the charity stripe. Tonight they shot 83.3%
Colorado State coach Larry Eustachy: “I don’t want to put the pressure on Rick and his guys, but they’re special,””They need a little luck like everybody does to win it all, but that’s as impressive team as I’ve been against, certainly.”
Russ Smith has had a great start to the NCAA tournament. He has performed so well in Rupp Arena over the past couple of day that Louisville fans renamed the place Russ Arena. He had a awesome stat line tonight with 27 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assist and 2 steals. Rick Pitino was talking about Russ after the game and said that he has really grown up over the season. He said that the old Russ would have tried to get 50 tonight. He really has come a long way since November. Not only is he the best player on this Louisville team but he has become one of the best players in the country. And is one of the most effective players left in the NCAA tournament. Russ had 50 points, 5 assist and 10 steals in the first two games of the NCAA tourney.
Our fearless leader of this team Peyton Siva had another very effective game. He did a great job at driving into the lane to score and finding the open man. He had one highlight reel play with a give and go alley oop play with Montrezl Harrell. You can see that in the pictures below. He had 10 points, 5 assist and 2 steals tonight and did a very good job at controlling the pace of the game for the Cards. He had 13 assist and 6 steals in the first two games of the NCAA tourney.
Gorgui, Wayne and Chane had very solid nights for the Cards. Their athleticism, size and agility was really a lot for the Colorado State front-court to to handle and when they are playing well will be a lot for any team to handle. Between these three guys they accounted for 10 rebounds and 23 points. These guys are going to be very important as we move further down the line. An it appears that they are up for the challenge.
Another great night for the Louisville bench as they outscore the Rams bench 22 to 16. Montrezl lead the way in bench scoring with 11 points and 4 rebounds. This kid has become a very good source of energy for this team. When he gets into the game it seems like the level of intensity goes through the roof. He is one of those players that just has the type of motor that never stops. We also got very good minutes from Stephan, Luke and Kevin. These guys accounted for 11 points, 5 steals and 5 rebounds. This bench is a big reason for the current twelve game winning streak and will a big reason I think we cut down the nets here in a few weeks.
There were 20,600 folks in Rupp Arena tonight and probably 19,000 of them were Louisville fans. Earlier in the week I called on the Cardinal Nation to turn Rupp red and you answered that call. It was a really great environment and was awesome to see the building that is usually blue be red. This team now moves to the next round in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium to face the Pac 12 Oregon Ducks in the Sweet 16. 2 games down and 4 more to go Cardinal fans. Lets continue to get out there and support these guys all the way. Go Cards!
