Louisville ties it’s own AAC record of largest margin of victory (39) with the win over USF tonight. The Cards took the lead against the Bulls early and never looked back beating them 86-47. With the win over the Bulls tonight, Cards will improve to 60-10 since that senior night loss to USF on Feb. 29, 2012. Our Cards now move to 6-1 in conference play and 17-3 overall winning four straight. They will have 8 days to prepare for a big home showdown with Cincy for what will be a battle for first place in the conference.

The Cardinals have found their starting line-up with Hancock, Harrell, Mango, Russ and Terry. Hancock has returned to the player that walked off that floor in Atlanta the NCAA Tourney MVP. You can tell that he has got his confidence back and that old man swagger has returned. He went 4 of 9 behind the three point line tonight for 14 points. Harrell has become a double-double machine with his fourth in 5 games tonight with 10 rebounds and 14 points. Mango’s development has been slow, but I think that coach Pitino’s patience with the big fella has paid off. He isn’t stuffing the stat sheet, and he’s not going to dazzle you with his performance, but he is giving this team some good minutes. He is a nice presence down low for the defense. Tonight he had 2 steals, 2 rebounds and 10 points. Russ is back to being Russ but in a good way. He has figured out a way to keep himself under control while at the same time taking over a possession when he needs to. He is always going to have those “Russdiculous” moments but I’ll take the bad with the good all day long in this case. He had 6 assist with 12 points tonight. My admiration for Terry Rozier is well documented in my scribbling. He has brought a sense of control and stability to the offense and since he was injected into the starting line-up the offense has become much more efficient. He had 5 assist, 3 steals and 9 points tonight. Coach Pitino was asked after the game if U of L is better without Chris Jones: “100 percent not true. We need Chris Jones.” So it will be interesting to see how he proceeds with the starting line-up when Chris returns. For the record I also think we need Chris. Just don’t need him in the starting line-up.

It is important to develop a starting line-up, but it is just as important to determine who that sixth man will be. Wayne Blackshear has flourished as that first guy coming off of the bench. Since he jumped in his new role of coming off the bench he is 9-14 from the three point line for 64%, has grabbed 13 rebounds, has 4 assist and 48 points. He has also led the team in scoring in two of the last three games coming off the bench. When we look back on this season this may be considered the best decision that Coach Pitino made. Very happy for Wayne and hope his good play continues.

This was the farewell game in this series vs the USF Bulls in South Florida. We only have one game remaining with them and I can gladly say that I won’t miss playing them in any sport. They may finally get it together but right now that just isn’t a very good athletic program. They need a lot of work. But I wish them well. Biggest thing to take away from this dominate performance tonight was how the Cardinals maintained their intensity throughout. Even with a big lead they never stopped playing hard. That stays a lot about this teams development over the past couple of weeks. And that attitude will pay off down the road. Usually if you continue to play hard good things happen. A lot of good thing are ahead for this group of Cards. Can’t wait to play those Bearcats in 8 days! Go Cards !