Daily Archives: December 16, 2013

“Year of the Cardinal” Special To Air On ESPNU

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I’ve been waiting a lifetime for a year like the University of Louisville’s athletic program had this past season. Like all of you I suffered through football games in old Cardinal Stadium, was tortured during the “bridge years” of our basketball program and remember when other sports at Louisville struggled to stay afloat. But this past season all of that suffering and torture was well worth it and “The Year of the Cardinal” was the best of my life. We are done thinking about those days of the past and now seem to be stuck in a vortex of greatness. There is an incredible future on the horizon for the Louisville athletic program and I can’t wait to see what the next 30 years brings.

Since we have such an incredible year to remember all we needed was for there to be a special on the ESPN Networks to cement this awesome year. Well that has become a reality and on Thursday night December 19th 7:30PM ESPNU will feature a 1 hour special “The Year of the Cardinal”. Cardinal fans just had a year to remember and now we have a documentary for the ages. This is going to be a great program and one that we can save and look back on when we are in the long years of our lives. Our grand-kids will hopefully look on this past year as the spark that ignited a beast. Gather the family around the TV set on Thursday night make some popcorn and relive “The Year of the Cardinal”

The Beak Basketball Breakdown: The Bears

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Our Louisville Cardinals will play in front of a national audience at 9:00pm Tuesday night on ESPN 2 when they face the Missouri State Bears. This will be the second game in the series between these schools. The Cardinals have met the Bears just once on the hardwood coming away with a 74-56 Cardinals victory at Freedom Hall in the quarterfinals of the 2006 NIT (3/22/06). The Cardinals come into this game on a four game winning streak and 9-1 on the season. The Bears have won their last two games, are 8-1 and were picked to finish 5th in the Missouri Valley conference.

Coach Paul Lusk has a roster deep with talent and rich with potential. And last season’s most inexperienced Valley team boast one of the deepest benches in the country, sharing the national lead with 12 players averaging 10.0 minutes per game or more. The Bears reserves have accounted for 322 points this season which translates to 46.4 percent of the team’s 694 total points. MSU is getting 35.8 points per game from its bench players. After an 11-22 rebuilding campaign a year ago, Paul Lusk’s troops have turned things around with their first 8-1 start since 2006-07. The club’s current .889 win-loss percentage is an increase of .556 over last year’s .333 percentage.

Leading this team is Sr Jarmar Gulley (13.7 points, 5.7 rebounds) and Soph Marcus Marshall (13.4 points, 2.6 rebounds). Marshall last year’s Missouri Valley Freshman of the Year is a decent scorer, who can hurt you with his jump shot and ability to get to the rim, whereas Gulley is a powerful inside scorer and the team’s best rebounder who missed last season as a medical redshirt.
Other players who are big for the bears are Sr Keith Pickens (5 points, 4.2 rebounds) a decent scorer, but his real ability lies in his defensive prowess, Jr Christian Kirk (8.7 points, 4.9 rebounds) the most productive player coming off their bench, Fr Austin Ruder (8 points, 1.8 rebounds) has knocked down multiple 3-pointers in six of his first nine college ball games. He ranks 6th in the MVC in 3-point accuracy (.442) and 3rd in treys per game (2.1). Jr Ron Mvouika (6.8 points, 2.9 rebounds) a community college transfer who has a size advantage over many at his position and injects offense into this team.

This team is averaging 77.1 points a game with a scoring margin of +8.2 and they average 7.2 three pointers a game at 37%. They have a -0.6 rebounding margin. They do a good job at sharing and taking care of the ball averaging 12.3 assist a game, just 9.9 turnovers a game with a turnover margin of +3.4. Their assist/turnover ratio is 1.25.

Missouri State
2013-14 OVERALL RANKINGS
-POINTS PER GAME
77.1
93rd
OVERALL
-REBOUNDS PER GAME
34.9
212th
OVERALL
-ASSISTS PER GAME
12.3
219th
OVERALL
-FIELD GOAL PCT
.449
170th
OVERALL

Kenpom Ranks
Overall – #123
Defense Adjustment Efficiency
-102.4 ranks 150th
Offensive Adjustment Efficiency
-105.6 ranks 130th

Coach Pitino was emphatic in his post-game on Saturday about Cardinal Nation being at the game on Tuesday night saying this would be one of our toughest games up to this point in the season. Deep teams are always a little more dangerous because they can keep fresh guys coming into the game and it takes away that fatigue factor. This is an aspect of the ball game the Cardinals emphasize. Chris Jones is expected to play in this one so the Cards will have their second leading scorer back. His minutes may be limited in his first game back and if so it will be another opportunity for some other guys to step up and get quality time. This is going to be a game that will test the Cardinals efficiency and we’ll see if Mango can keep trending upwards. Since being injected into the Cardinals line-up he is starting to measure up to some of Gorgui’s numbers. Dieng had a block rate of 9.4 percent and committed 3.3 fouls per 40 minutes, and Mathiang’s block rate is 8.2 percent and he’s fouling 3.6 times per 40 minutes. This game might be close and competitive for the first half but eventually the Cards have too much talent and will run away with this one.

Screenings For Red V Blue Film Announced

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For 24 long years the frustration and anger built up between the two major universities in the State of Kentucky. The University of Louisville’s basketball program had caught up with the University of Kentucky who at the time was the ultimate measuring stick. However, the Wildcats continued to deny the Cardinals the chance to prove just how powerful they had become. This rejection was about basketball but included race, demographics, country, city, tradition, and the nouveau.

Then by the fate of the 1983 NCAA Tournament the 24 years of frustration would come to a head when these teams would meet in the Regional Final. ESPN recently named this game as one of their top 75 moments of the Tournament but for the folks of the state of Kentucky it was dubbed the “Dream Game.” It was a defining moment that would ignite a feud that has become one of the greatest rivalries in all of college sports.

There has now been a movie made documenting this great rivalry. “The Rivalry: Red V. Blue” is a movie made by the rivals for the rivalry and is something that many UK and UofL fans were a part of. The folks who made this great documentary needed the help of the fans for the completion of principal photography as well as the post-production and distribution expenses of Red V. Blue. They set up a page on Kick Starter where Louisville and Kentucky fans donated $40,000 to help make this film happen.

And the moment we have all been waiting for is here…
On Sunday night the folks who made the film announced an opening weekend screening schedule for Red V. Blue. The very first screening will take place on December 27th at the Lexington Opera House and this will be an invite only event, but some tickets will also be given away. The second screening will take place on December 29th at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville. There will be two showings on this night in Louisville. The first will be at 7PM and the other at 9PM. The 7PM screening will be for folks that have won free tickets and the 9PM screening will be a general admission event. The third screening will take place on December 30th for the folks in Eastern Kentucky and it will be at the historic SIPP Theater in downtown Paintsville Kentucky. The time of this screening will be at 7PM and it will also be a general admission event. Information on where and how to purchase tickets to these events as well as opportunities to win tickets to these screenings can be found by following @redvblue on twitter.com and on the official Red V Blue website.

If you have grown up in the state of Kentucky and you are a sports fan this rivalry has been a part of your life. I can’t say that for the last 27 years I have enjoyed the entire constant back and forth between me and my friends that cheer for Kentucky. But rivalries are what define sports and every competition needs a great rivalry. We have one of the best rivalries in all of sports and it deserves the credit that this movie will give it. The Rivalry has given us many enjoyable moments and this film will be another one of those moments.

Here’s the official Red V. Blue Theatrical Trailer from Rory Owen Delaney on Vimeo