Monthly Archives: November 2013

Back “WARE” He Belongs

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Tonight in the KFC Yum Center it was a night of returns as the Cards beat Pikeville 90 to 61 in the final exhibition of the early season. This was the 3rd game in a series between these teams that were all pretty much dominated by Louisville. The Pikeville group should do very well this year and they do have some pretty good athletes on their team. One of those athletes was “The Bullet” Elisha Justice. The former Cardinal made his final appearance in the Yum Center tonight as a player and perhaps the excitement might have got to him a little as he would only score one point in the game. Going into this second and final exhibition it looked like “The Bullet’s” return would be the headline for most of the post-game stories, but it was another guy that stole the show in this one.

“The Moment”

220 days and roughly 7 months ago Cardinal Nation stood silent in Lucas Oil Stadium as one of our own lay on the court with a gruesome injury. You could hear a pin drop in that place on that day and it was one of the most emotional games that I’ve ever attended. Tonight it was a different story and Cardinal Nation roared when Kevin Ware got up off the bench to check into the game during the second half. When he took his first three point shot and hit it you couldn’t hear yourself think among the 19,000 fans in the Yum Center. It was one of the most inspirational moments that I’ve witnessed during a ball game. Kevin has put in the hard work and the dedication to recover from an injury like he suffered and it has been a remarkable recovery. Kevin has said many times and again tonight that he was inspired by having the Cardinal fans support him through his emotional journey back to the court and it was great hearing all those folks at the game tonight be so moved by his return. Kevin would score 6 points and grab 4 rebounds in his return tonight and it looks like he is back where he belongs with his brothers playing basketball.

Cardinal Nation was in the mood to celebrate after the excitement of Kevin’s return and the win but Coach Pitino wasn’t in that type of mood at all. He seemed concerned about the performance on the court. In particular he didn’t like that his guys only out-rebounded Pikeville 44 to 40 and was concerned about the energy of some of his players. He said again tonight in his post-game press conference that this Louisville team is several weeks behind from where they should be and says that there have been way too many distractions leading to this. Coach Pitino remains positive about the back-court and he should be because this is one of the deepest, talented, and most versatile groups in the country. Jones, Russ 2.0 and Rozier lead the way tonight in this group. It was good to see Russ have 7 assist, Jones was a scoring machine with a team high 19 points and Rozier looked very poised again playing like a veteran with 8 points and 5 rebounds. Coach Pitino attributes the competition in practice between these guys as the reason they are doing so well early on. All eyes seem to be focused on the front-court where the Cards are a little light especially with Behanan out. There is one guy in that group that’s doing pretty well and that’s Montrezl Harrell. In the last two exhibitions he has only missed 2 shots and tonight he was the second leading scorer with 18 points but did have a disappointing 6 rebounds. Coach Pitino said tonight that Montrezl has leveled off because unlike the back-court isn’t getting challenged enough in practice. Mango did a decent job on the boards tonight with 9 rebounds but does need to look for his offense more. Wayne had a decent night production wise but he is the one player on the team struggling with the new foul rule and has been in foul trouble the last two games.

A lot of good vibes in the KFC Yum center tonight and really not that much to complain about from a fan standpoint. These guys will get all the kinks worked out and from the way it sounds should have everybody back real soon including Chane Behanan who is currently working out privately with Wayne Turner, but hasn’t been welcomed back in practice yet. That is info that came out of the locker room tonight. The next time our Cardinals hit the floor it will be for real. They will face a very good College of Charleston team on Saturday. Saturday will also be the day where the National Championship banner will be revealed.

Home » Back "WARE" He Belongs » UofL vs Pikeville 11/6 » UofL vs Pikeville 11/6
   
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Coach Pitino Post game:

Kevin Ware talks about his first game back:

The Beak Football Breakdown: Cards vs. Huskies

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Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos

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It’s back to action for the Cardinals football team after a bye week. It will be Friday night lights this week as the Cards travel to UCONN for an end of the week battle on ESPN2 at 8:30pm. Louisville leads this series with UCONN 5 to 4 but the Huskies have won the last 4 out of six including that three overtime stunner last year at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium 23-20. This will be the last meeting on the gridiron between these teams for the foreseeable future. The Cards enter this game ranked No. 20 in the Associated Press poll and No. 17 in the USA Today coaches’ poll. The Cardinals have a 7-1 record and are 3-1 in the American while the Huskies are 0-7 overall and 0-3 in the American.

Coach Strong previews UCONN:

(Video courtesy Courier Journal) Not available on mobile devices

The Huskies entered the 2013 season looking to put two consecutive 5-7 seasons behind them and make a return to post-season play. But that isn’t going to happen and once again they are a struggling football team. And the program faces a total rebuild after coach Paul Pasqualoni and associate head coach George DeLeone were fired and offensive coordinator T.J. Weist took over as interim coach. The Huskies are last in the AAC in rushing offense (76.3) and second-to-last in total offense (293.3) and scoring offense (16.4). Weist has already made some big changes to his offense by simplifying some of their blocking schemes in an effort to kick start a running game that ranks dead last in the FBS, averaging just less than 46 yards. And he took the red shirt off highly touted freshman quarterback Tim Boyle. Boyle has run the Huskies no huddle offense for the last three games and has 506 yards with 5 interceptions. Leading the Huskies rushing attack is Lyle McCombs. A former freshman All-American McCombs has rushed for 466 yards and 4 touchdowns this season. Anchoring the receiving group is junior Geremy Davis who has 544 yards on the season and the other top target Shakim Phillips has 314 yards with 3 touchdowns on the season.
Louisville’s #2 ranked defense is looking to keep things rolling and after practice on Tuesday Preston Brown said the Louisville Defense pays lots of attention to the coveted Michigan State defense. “We’re shooting for that number 1 spot.” I don’t think they’ll have any hiccups in that quest this week.

The UCONN defense was one of the best in the country last season but moves into a rebuild mode of sorts. Although they may have the most talented line-backing corps in the AAC this season with consensus all big east first team Yawin Smallwood and his 79 tackles leading the way. He was named as a semi-finalist for the 2013 Butkus Award. The Huskies have given up just 78 points in the past 17 games in the first quarter, including the six games this season and 35 of those points coming in the last four games. Their group this year isn’t as good as the group last year but they are tough and have shown signs of a very good defense.
The Louisville offensive group had a week to get some of their nagging injuries healed up and Teddy and company will be hungry to get their shot to shine in the prime time again Friday night. They won’t push this UCONN group around I don’t think, but they shouldn’t have much of a problem with them either. I look for big numbers.

Yawin Smallwood Previews The Louisville Game:

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The last time the Huskies were on national TV, they gave Michigan a scare on ABC before losing 24-21 at Rentschler in the third game of the season. UConn led 21-7 at the half. This Huskies group has nothing to lose and their interim coach is playing that card. He has tried to light a fire under this team and is hoping to use the nationally ranked Cards and national TV as their springboard into the off season. Coach T.J. Weist on using Louisville to motivate the team: “I think there is a lot of hype for it and a lot of players are fired up. It’s a nationally covered game and a Friday night game. I tell them the same things; if we can make more plays than them, we’re going to win the game. That’s got to be our focus. You have to use that hype, that momentum and intensity on the football field to make good decisions, to be physical, and to make plays. That’s what it comes down to.” They won’t go to a bowl game so the game Friday is a big one for them. If they can force turnovers they may have a shot. I don’t think it will happen but I do think they’ll use the electric atmosphere of this game to keep it interesting for a while. In the end Cards have too much talent on both ends of the ball and will prevail.

The Beak Prediction:
Louisville 45 UCONN 10

“The Bullet” Returns In Exhibition #2

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For the third straight season the Pikeville Bears will travel to Louisville for an exhibition on Wednesday night at 7pm. The game will be televised on WHAS 11. UPIKE is 0-2 in the young series losing 93-57 in 2012 and 74-55 in 2011. The Bears were ranked seventh in the NAIA Coaches’ Preseason Top-25 poll and chosen by the coaches to finish 2nd in the Mid-South Conference. They return just one starter from a 26-7 campaign and 15-5 mark in the MSC.

One guy who will be counted on heavily this year to run the Bears offense is a familiar face to Cardinal Nation. UPIKE senior Elisha Justice was held back last year due to a leg injury but emerged as a contributor late in the season, scoring a season-high 18 points in an MSC Tournament win over Georgetown.
We all know Elisha as “The Bullet” and he played two seasons for Louisville before transferring to Pikeville to play for the hometown Bears. He averaged 2.4 points and 1.1 assists per game as a freshman and 0.9 points for Louisville’s Final Four team in 2011-12. His most memorable games in Louisville are when he scored 12 points with six rebounds against Butler in his first game as a Cardinal and when he played 12 minutes against Marquette contributing two assists during the Cards’ 18-point comeback in the closing 5:44 in the miracle on main.

Elisha is a kid that was raised to always put god and family first. When his grandfather was diagnosed with cancer during his sophomore season at Louisville “The Bullet” decided to move back home to be with his family. He will always be the kid that brought some red into the part of Eastern Kentucky dominated by the blue. My wife was raised in Pikeville Kentucky and during our visits to her neck of the woods those University of Kentucky basketball billboards dominated our drive. But during “The Bullet’s” Louisville run I got to see some red on those billboards and it was glorious. My wife’s relatives know Elisha and his family and it was great to see them all excited about Louisville basketball. They had been all UK before. His pledge to Louisville really made an impact in that rural part of Kentucky. I’m certain that there will be others from that area that follow in the footsteps “The Bullet” laid for them.
It’s always great when one of our own comes home and on Wednesday night “The Bullet” will come back home. Let’s be sure to give him a nice reception. Louisville First, Cardinal Forever!

This game will serve as the final warm-up before things start to count for real on Saturday. This Pikeville group should be a little more challenging than KWC was. The Bears have some guys that could have, or have played D1 basketball. Coach Kelly Wells just won his 150th game as the Bears head coach and they are rolling into Louisville 2-0 on the season. They are a very well coached and competitive group. The Cardinal’s Beak will be covering this game from top to bottom and will have post game photos, videos and interviews. I’m looking forward to seeing the Cardinals progression since the last time out.