Monthly Archives: February 2014

Hairy Cards Dominate The Knight

Posted on by

Uploaded from the Photobucket <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> iPhone App

photo 4538EDD3-8DDA-455E-BB3B-1A2FC77FB162_zpsiqudwlxr.jpg
(Photo Scott Utterback)

Tonight marked the end of the Louisville and Rutgers series and the Cardinals sent them out in style by handing them a 48 point loss 102-54. The Cardinals finish this series with a 13-1 advantage. Louisville improves to 21-4, 10-2 in the AAC and have now won 32 straight over unranked teams.

Coach Pitino said after the game “We’ve kept our focus and we’re getting better as a basketball team. I like what I see.” And this game had just about everything you’d want out of a great performance and this team has now put together two great back to back victories. And some may argue that the competition level wasn’t that high, but Temple just beat #23 SMU today on the very same floor they got manhandled by Louisville on Friday night. And this Rutgers team isn’t that great but a 48 point conference win is impressive no matter who you play. Coach Pitino on the teams win “Our guys just nailed their focus…they just focus in on winning the game.” I tweeted out tonight that the mojo right now with this group of guys is really good. Coach Pitino won over this team on that nine day off stretch and he has them playing inspired basketball at the perfect time. Coach Pitino: “In the dog days of February we have to make sure we have fun, it’s a tough month.”

Just how great was this night from a statistical standpoint? The Cardinals shot 56.7% from the field, 53.3% from the three point line, and hit 16 three point shots. 12 guys got their names in the scoring column tonight and were led by Luke Hancock who had a career high 25 points. Pitino said about Luke after the game “Luke is a big catalyst for us like Francisco was for us years ago.” Also with a big night was Terry Rozier who had 16 points and was 4-7 from three. Stephan and Mango have stepped up recently and tonight they combined for 16 points with 9 rebounds from that 5 spot. Pitino said after the game “We’re getting better.” Says he puts Louisville in mix of top-tier teams and credits improvement of Mangok and Stephan. And the guy we are now calling the “Baby faced assassin” David Levtich stole the end of the show with a three point shot and a great assist. The Cards are now 13-0 when he plays. Coach Pitino after the game on Levitch “Eventually he’ll be very good. His offensive skill set really is tremendous.”

The Cards had 23 assist tonight on 34 made baskets, out rebounded them 39-24, had 5 blocked shots and 11 steals. Louisville came into this game generating an average of 21.9 points per game off turnovers. Tonight they had 23 points off turnovers. You can tell a lot about the culture of a basketball program by watching the players on the bench. Great teams have energetic reserves. Tonight the Cards bench had 49 points.

This was a fun one to watch and it really is great when you see a team start to come together. The Cards win and continue to get hairier No Shave Till Texas. Go Cards!

Rick Pitino news conference after 102-54 win over Rutgers:

Luke Hancock after blowout of Rutgers:

Terry Rozier after blowout win over Rutgers:

Russ Smith after 102-54 win over Rutgers:

David Levitch after his career high four points:

photo C7989973-AAB1-4F95-BA42-696A9B26A793_zpsttofkdzj.jpg

The Beak Basketball Breakdown: Scarlet Knights Part 2

Posted on by

Uploaded from the Photobucket <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> iPhone App

photo BasketballBreakdownrutgers_zps22a26ea6.jpg

Our Cardinals have won seven out of their last nine and will be looking for another one Sunday when they return to the Yum Center to take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. The game is at 6PM and will be broadcast on ESPN2. Sunday evening’s contest marks the 14th meeting between the schools dating back to 1975, with the Cardinals holding a 12-1 advantage in victories. The Cardinals and Scarlet Knights faced each other back on January 4th at the RAC. The Cards won that game 83-76. Rutgers is 4-8 in the AAC and 7th place in the conference. The Cards are 9-2 in the AAC and 2nd place in the conference just one game back from Cincy.

There hasn’t been a college program in the country with more trouble surrounding it during this past year. And the Rutgers basketball program was the top story. I’m sure you’ve see the video of former basketball coach Mike Rice throwing balls at his players. So now new head coach Eddie Jordan has the task of completely turning it around. There were a lot of defections from the Rice turmoil but the cupboard isn’t completely bare.
They do have some proven scorers back this season who are leading Jordan’s hybrid Princeton style offense.

Myles Mack (15.8 ppg, 2.6 rpg), Kadeem Jack (14.4 ppg, 6.9 rpg), J.J. Moore (11.4 ppg, 3.2 rpg), Jerome Seagears (9.0 ppg, 2.4 rpg), Junior Etou (5.8 ppg, 4.6 rpg) and Wally Judge (7.7 ppg, 6.3 rpg).
Mack is their do everything guy and their leader. He is seventh in AAC in scoring and first in FT% (.888). Jack was named Conference player of the week earlier this season. He’s a very good rebounder and versatile player. He ranks seventh in AAC in rebounding, 12th in scoring. Moore is a transfer from Pitt and has give them a big lift with his scoring ability. He ranks 22nd in the AAC in scoring. Seagears is not as good of a scorer, but really does well on the defensive end of the floor and is great at getting his teammates involved in the game on the offensive end. He Ranks 1st in AAC in assist/t-over ratio (2.5) & 9th in assists (3.7/g). Judge is 11th in AAC in rebounding.

Rutgers comes into Sundays game averaging 74.5 points-per-game, while shooting 43.8% from the floor and 34.8% from 3-point range. The Knights are converting 70.5% of their attempts from the free-throw line. Defensively, Rutgers is allowing 76.4 points-per-game as the opposition is shooting 44.1% from the floor. The Knights are getting out-rebounding by their opponents 899-900 with a rebounding margin of 0.0 averaging 36 boards-per-contest.

Rutgers
2013-14 OVERALL RANKINGS
-POINTS PER GAME
74.5
93rd
OVERALL
-REBOUNDS PER GAME
36
134th
OVERALL
-ASSISTS PER GAME
13.2
148th
OVERALL
-FIELD GOAL PCT
.438
221st
OVERALL

Kenpom Ranks
Overall – #180
Defense Adjustment Efficiency
-107.3 ranks 233rd
Offensive Adjustment Efficiency
-106.1 ranks 144th

Our Cards played one of their most complete games of the season on Friday night. They looked solid in every aspect of the game. They lead the American in scoring (82.3 ppg) and scoring margin (+20.1). Hopefully they are peaking at the right time and this game will just be another one to perfect things. Should not be any problems in this one. Cards win big and the beards keep growing.

Harrell Dunking His Way Into Louisville Record Book

Posted on by

Uploaded from the Photobucket <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> iPhone App

photo MontrezlDunks_zps9c7fed2f.jpg

During the mid 1980’s Cardinal fans were entertained by one of the best to ever lace em up for the Cards in Pervis Ellison. He went hard from tip to the final buzzer and If he got the ball down low he was going to make sure he got two points. He would go for the slam dunk every chance he got. Pervis holds the record for most dunks in a season (59), most dunks in a career (162), and most dunks in a game (7). Darrell Griffith and Alvin Sims were also great at going hard and rocking the rim. Griffith is 2nd and Sims is 3rd all-time in career dunks. Most recently Chane Behanan was a player who liked to try and rip the rim off every chance he got and tied Pervis’s record of slam dunks in a season with 59. He is 5th all-time in career dunks and even got the slam dunk of the year award last season.

photo 8DC140D4-87A6-47E6-A07D-DBA7FD643CD8_zpsuuigkg3w.jpg
(UofL Sports)

This season we are going to see a new name emerge as the slam dunk king in a single season as Montrezl Harrell is leaving rims bent in every gym across the country. On Friday night against Temple he had six monster dunks. Harrell’s six dunks were one shy of Louisville’s single-game record set by Pervis Ellison in 1988. On Sunday night against Rutgers he tied the single season record of 59 and is on pace to eclipse Ellison’s and Behanan’s season records of 59. If he keeps having nights like he did against Temple on Friday night he will also keep moving up the list for dunks in a career. He has passed Marques Maybin and is now 7th all-time. Harrell should break the single season record on Tuesday night when the Cardinals play USF.

Back in the summer during a basketball game that Harrell was playing in for the U-19 USA team the announcer of the game used “Enthusiasm Personified” to describe Montrezl on a basketball court. Coming into his college career some thought he would be in a little bit of position limbo, but with Pitino’s style of play and his physical growth he has been a nightmare matchup for a small forward and a unique match-up for a bigger guy. He has shown in just the last couple of months that he is developing his game more in the post and also improving his ball skills. With his size coming out of high school he had to become a more skilled player and he is doing just that. The raw materials are there and when he plays he goes hard, real hard (“Enthusiasm Personified”) . Not only is Montrezl going to dunk himself into the Louisville record books there’s a great chance that he dunks our Cards right into the Final Four and to a NBA contract this summer.

In honor of the NBA Dunk contest the guys on SportsCenter decided to grade some of Montrezl’s dunks during the highlight segment of the Temple game. It was good stuff. You can check it out below.

Tonight Was A Hoot For The Cards

Posted on by

Uploaded from the Photobucket <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> iPhone App

photo 6F14E841-EE97-46BF-94F7-E41335C22F7E_zpsqchatrnb.jpg
(UofL Sports)

After 9 days without Cardinal basketball it was well worth the wait, and Cardinal fans were treated to a Valentines Day massacre. Louisville improves to 20-4, 9-2 with the 82-58 win over Temple. This gives the Cardinals their 7th road win of the season and they have now won 31 straight against unranked teams. The Louisville basketball program has now won 20 or more games in 12 straight seasons good for the 8th longest active streak and 41 of the last 45 years.

The guys in Vegas came out today with their version of Bracketology and they named Louisville as a one seed. Tonight the Cardinals looked like they may be on their way to making the Vegas guys right again. It was apparent while watching them play tonight that they put in a lot of work on the nine day hiatus. They looked great on offense and the spacing, passing and shooting were on point. 16 assist, only 7 turnovers on 51.6% shooting from the field. They also looked very solid on the defensive end of the floor communicating, coming off screens and closing out. They had 8 steals, 6 blocked shots holding the Owls to 37.3% shooting from the field. It was a very cohesive unit on that court in Philly tonight.

Montrezl Harrell led all scorers and had a career high 22 points with 10 rebounds. When he plays like he did tonight it really puts this team on another level. Russ Smith scored 15 points and played very poised basketball. Luke Hancock had 11 points. In just his second game back Chris Jones had 9 points, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds. It looks like he is starting to understand what his role on this team is and the break seemed to really benefit him. Wayne Blackshear had 13 points off the bench and was 2 for 3 from the three point line. David Levitch who has become a symbol of greatness for this Cardinal team scored two points tonight. They are 12-0 when he plays.

It really was a hoot to finally get to watch our Cardinals play basketball tonight after the long break and even better that they played so well.
We also found out tonight that the Louisville coaching staff has vowed not to shave again until the Cardinals lose a game. Rick Pitino said he’s never had a beard before and “wants to let this grow out. I didn’t want to lose the first game.” I really believe the magical facial hair helped our Cards go on that run last year, it can’t hurt to try again this year. No shave until Texas Cardinal Fans. Go Cards!

photo 506210ED-AB64-443F-A817-AB7F09EB9D21_zps9yqxb3tn.jpg

The Beak Basketball Breakdown: The Owls

Posted on by

Uploaded from the Photobucket <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> iPhone App

photo TempleOwls_zpse6685a17.jpg

After a 9 day lay off the Cardinals take to the court for a showdown with Temple on Friday at 6pm on ESPN2. The game was postponed due to the winter storm in the Northeast. These teams don’t really have a long history and have only met five times overall. Which makes it seem very odd that this game is featured on ESPN’s rivalry week. Temple leads the all-time series 4-1 and has won the last four meetings. The most recent matchup came on March 19, 2002, as the Owls prevailed 65-62 over the Cardinals in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament in Freedom Hall. The last time Temple and Louisville met in Philadelphia was on Feb. 2, 1997 at the Spectrum, when the unranked Owls upset the 14th-ranked Cardinals, 67-44.

Temple has a history of being a good program and their fans are used to 20+ win seasons and good basketball. Those days seem like a like a long time ago and a team that was once thought to contend for the AAC title is struggling to get wins against anybody in the conference. Things have gone south fast in Philly and that doesn’t look likely to change in the near future. Despite being the only school in Division I to have four players averaging 14 or more points per game, ranking eighth in the country in fewest turnovers and 13th in turnovers per game Temple has dropped its last three contests. They are 6-16 overall, including 1-9 in conference play. This is a team struggling to score points and struggling to find the consistency they once had with their feard match-up zone defense.

The Owls are lead by Dalton Pepper (17.5ppg, 5.2rpg, 2.4apg), Will Cummings (16.4ppg, 3.2rpg, 4.4apg), Quenton DeCosey (15.2ppg, 3.5rpg, 2.2apg), and Anthony Lee (14ppg, 9.2rpg, 0.7apg).
Pepper is 4th in the AAC in scoring, 1st in the AAC in three pointers made and 10th in the AAC in three point percentage. Cummins is 5th in the league in scoring. DeCosey is 9th in the AAC in scoring and has had double figure scoring in 20 of 22 games. Lee leads the conference in rebounding, and has 10 double-doubles on the season. These guys are getting it done but not getting much help from the rest of the team.

Temple comes into Thursdays game averaging 74.6 points-per-game, while shooting 43.4% from the floor and 35% from 3-point range. The Owls are converting 69.1% of their attempts from the free-throw line. Defensively, Houston is allowing 77.8 points-per-game as the opposition is shooting 46.4% from the floor. The Owls are getting out-rebounding by their opponents 787-851 with a rebounding margin of -2.9 averaging 35.8 boards-per-contest.

Temple
2013-14 OVERALL RANKINGS
-POINTS PER GAME
74.6
94th
OVERALL
-REBOUNDS PER GAME
35.8
144th
OVERALL
-ASSISTS PER GAME
13.5
125th
OVERALL
-FIELD GOAL PCT
.434
236th
OVERALL

Kenpom Ranks
Overall – #173
Defense Adjustment Efficiency
– 111.3 ranks 295th
Offensive Adjustment Efficiency
– 110.8 ranks 58th

This is the type of team that our Cards have matched up well against this season. They aren’t a big, tall and athletic team but do have some solid players. Coach Pitino has had eight days to prepare for this game but in the AAC this year teams remain winless after a six or more game lay-off. The break did give our guys a chance to work on the defense and give them a chance to get healthy. Wayne Blackshear is back to 100% and will play Thursday night. I can see this being a big game for him. We really have the edge at every position on the court, but the real advantage comes with our bench play.
Temple is pulling out all the tricks for this one including making it their annual white-out game, but unless they’ve developed two or three more scorers over this past week this one isn’t going to be close. Our Cards should have a big night and it will be great to finally be watching them play again. Our wait is almost over Cardinal fans. Go Cards!

Saturday Basketball Scrimmage

Posted on by

Uploaded from the Photobucket <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> iPhone App

photo 0FD83062-0579-4DA1-BDC8-A30F0D24E59C_zpscflojpwd.jpg

It’s another weekend without the Cardinals playing basketball. The crazy conference schedule of the AAC has given us too many basketballess weekends. The last eight day break seemed to set the Cardinals back more than it helped them so this weekend coach Pitino held a scrimmage to keep his team sharp.

It was the starters against the reserves. Stephan VanTreese played in place of Wayne Blackshear who sat out still getting over a concussion. Terry Meiners was at the scrimmage and was gracious enough to keep us basketball hungry fans updated through his twitter account:

photo EB4E6BF7-F8CB-4657-91F2-ED4A0DDF859E_zps0q7ut2bh.jpg

photo 0AE81F42-9F6D-4DA2-827B-19732ED5B13F_zpslasi9hyw.jpg

photo E514FB25-0D34-4324-818B-538323BF99A8_zpsu2zwnyxa.jpg

photo 53B4D812-0D37-40C9-A0B9-25F4AB07E202_zps7dap43ai.jpg

photo D1723A19-696A-4B20-BAF7-C5F8C9A5E7CC_zpsrdq1ftgz.jpg

photo A987E5E6-A3DC-409B-96DC-9EB4165916BA_zpsvm0au2q1.jpg

photo 0DE5BED3-9A27-4F73-8D34-1C459E728FB1_zpswwsfandi.jpg

Looks like Anton Gill had a good day and him and Hendo kept the Red team in it with their three point shooting. Sounds like these guys were really going at each other today. Good competition in practice usually translates to good execution in the games. They will be ready to go on Thursday when they travel to play Temple. They will be looking for their 7th road win of the season.

Right now the Cards are 19-4 overall and 8-2 in the AAC, are ranked 14th in the AP poll, 10th in the Coaches poll, they are No. 2 in the nation in turnover margin (+6.8), No. 5 in steals per game (9.5), 29th in FG% defense, and 25th in total defense.

Cards Have No Problem In Houston

Posted on by

Uploaded from the Photobucket <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> iPhone App

photo BDB02745-095A-4EFA-AE48-88502F1B8ADA_zpszwxe03dr.jpg
(Photo Troy Taormina USA Today)

Despite a little fight late in the game from the cougars our Cardinals had no problem winning the second game of the season against Houston 77-62. This gives the Cardinals their 6th road win of the season and they have now won 30 straight against unranked teams. The Cards are now 19-4 overall and 8-2 in the AAC and will now get back in the gym and go back to work as they have 8 days off to prepare for the next one.

With Wayne Blackshear out with a concussion the Cards were a little thin tonight and coach Pitino had to shuffle the starting line-up. Stephan, Luke, Montrezl, Russ and Chris got the nod. We needed some solid minutes tonight from VanTreese and while he’s not going to “wow” anyone with his offensive game he does hustle when he’s on the floor. His hustle stats tonight were 4 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal. And he did manage 4 points. Still not good enough but at least it’s something from that 5 spot.
Luke has to be the play maker for this team and if they are to have any success he’s got to play that role every night out. He has to be like Francisco was for that 2005 group. Tonight he had some careless turnovers but did manage 15 points, led the team in rebounds with 7, and had 2 assist with one steal. He also went 8-9 from the charity stripe.
Montrezl has to start going after rebounds with the same enthusiasm that he has when he dunks a basketball. No reason he should be out-rebounded by Luke or any guy on the team. And he was 1-7 on the free throw line. That’s not going to win games in March. He finished with 15 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assist and 2 steals. And I’m probably being hard on him, but nobody is as hard on Trez as he is himself. He will keep getting better.
Russ can be, and most of the time will be the best player on the floor. When he is making the right decisions the team is usually on a good run in the game. But when he decides to make a few knuckle head decisions with the ball that usually gives the opposing team a chance to break the run and go on one of their own. Tonight Russ made good decisions and led the team with 17 points, 2 rebounds and 6 assist.
At one sequence in the late stages of the game (6:22) Chris Jones hit a three point shot then gets the steal on the inbounds and hits another jumper. This stopped a Houston run that had them within nine points and got the Cards back up 14. This defines what kind of player Chris is. He is a game changer. He had 14 points, 3 assist and 5 steals tonight.
Terry had a good night coming off the bench proving that he is a team player and went just as hard as if he had started. He finished with 9 points and 5 rebounds.

This Louisville team is still in a learning process. They will play one half of basketball where they could go toe to toe with anyone in the country. Tonight they shot just under 70 percent from the field in the first half, including 6 of 10 from behind the arc in building a 19-point halftime lead.
But then they will have a half where they could get beat by anyone in the country. Tonight late in the second half they looked gassed at times and made some bad decisions with the ball. And they had defensive lapses. This allowed Houston to make a game of it down the stretch.
With the Cards this year it’s one half of awesome basketball and one half of survival basketball. They must maintain that kill instinct on defense for the full forty minutes like they did last year.

This team will now get 8 days to recoup, regroup and regain some more knowledge from Coach Pitino. When they return to the court we will be coming down the stretch. Big games against Memphis and Cincy await on their home floors. And then it’s tourney time!

photo F1266DAE-1346-4A34-8BAA-9149E10CC6FC_zpspdqx3pav.jpg

The Beak Basketball Breakdown: The Cougars Part 2

Posted on by

Uploaded from the Photobucket <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> iPhone App

photo BB6EB9A0-8394-4170-8896-B88D72CD728D-2642-00000123815E1149_zps81ef9a7d.jpg

Our Cardinals will continue their conference grind on Wednesday night and travel to the Lone star State to face Houston. We have reached that point in the season where the conference return games are starting to be played. This is the second time the Cardinals have faced Houston this season. The Cardinals won the first game 91-52 last month, and have won two straight in the series they lead 14-5. The Cougars have dropped their last four overall by 22.5 per game. They do have a few things working in their favor as in they have won their last two home games against ranked teams and they haven’t lost five games in a row since the 2010-11 season. The Cards have won 29 in a row over unranked teams.

Coach James Dickey’s team was expected to be a sleeper in the AAC race this season but really haven’t lived up to those expectations. They have one decent win against UCONN under their belt and have been a competitive team in spurts. Due to some injury issues they have struggled with finding their team chemistry and maintaining any kind of consistency. Since playing the Cardinals last month they have got LJ Rose (8.5ppg, 1.9rpg, 4.9apg), Danuel House (12.8ppg, 5.4 rpg, 1.7 apg) and JJ Richardson (4.4ppg, 2.0rpg, 0.5apg) back in their line-up.

Houston uses an athletic, versatile, high-octane offensive attack that finished tenth in the nation in scoring a year ago. And they are led by TaShawn Thomas (15.9ppg, 8.8rpg, 1.7apg) , the above mentioned House and Rose, Jherrod Stiggers (9.4ppg 2.8rpg, 1.1apg), Danrad Knowles (8.0ppg, 5.1rpg, 0.7apg), Brandon Morris (6.5ppg, 2.2rpg, 1.1apg), and Tione Womack (4.1ppg, 2.4rpg, 2.2apg).
Thomas is the only player to rank among the league’s top-4 leaders in both scoring and rebounding. Stiggers is the team’s top three-point threat. Knowles has already earned conference freshman of the week honors this season. He has a unique skillset for a 6-9 player in that he can shoot the ball from the outside, handle the rock, and his length makes him a factor on the defensive end. Morris and Womack are sold players and have the experience edge.

Houston comes into Wednesdays game averaging 69.1 points-per-game, while shooting 44% from the floor and 33.7% from 3-point range. The Cougars are converting 65.6% of its attempts from the free-throw line. Defensively, Houston is allowing 70.7 points-per-game as the opposition is shooting 43% from the floor. The Cougars are getting out-rebounded by their opponents 808-791 with a rebounding margin of -0.8 averaging 36 boards-per-contest. The Cougars are 13th nationally in blocked shots, swatting 6 per game.

Houston
2013-14 OVERALL RANKINGS
-POINTS PER GAME
69.1
240th
OVERALL
-REBOUNDS PER GAME
36.0
143rd
OVERALL
-ASSISTS PER GAME
14.0
99th
OVERALL
-FIELD GOAL PCT
.440
193rd
OVERALL

Kenpom Ranks
Overall – #163
Defense Adjustment Efficiency
– 103.7 ranks 156th
Offensive Adjustment Efficiency
– 103.5 ranks 189th

This team doesn’t jump off the page at you when breaking them down and they haven’t looked very good as of late. But when our Cardinals roll into town teams are going to have their game face on and are going give our guys their best shot. Houston is hungry for a win and are looking to get things back on track. They are calling the night Guy Lewis night and will be honoring their former “Hall of Fame” coach in a ceremony. This will also add a little extra fire to the team and the home crowd.

We found out on Wednesday that Blackshear is not traveling with the team to Houston due to a concussion he got in practice. That’s about 10 points we will have to make up for and we’ll need someone to step up on offense. Wayne was the leading scorer the last game against Houston and had a career high 23 points. Chris Jones will return to the starting line-up and he and Russ will have to do a good job at setting the pace early and keeping the offense settled if Houston does start hot riding the emotions of the night. Montrezl and Luke have had some great two man game working in the last couple of outings. They will need to keep that going against a very athletic and long Houston front-court. Houston is giving up over 80 points a game and our Cards are averaging a little over 80 while winning all four road games as AAC members by an average of 20.8 points. The Cardinals shouldn’t have trouble getting the win, but this Houston team is capable of pulling off the upset and on the road nothing comes easy. I look for a competitive game with Cards pulling away late. Go Cards!

Luke Hancock Making A Difference

Posted on by

Uploaded from the Photobucket <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> iPhone App

photo 5803B6AF-9535-4DAC-BB79-36E56B318E7C_zpsh712k9ey.jpg

Luke Hancock was awarded the Final Four Most Outstanding Player and his clutch shooting played a major role in Louisville’s NCAA title run. There isn’t a person in the country who doesn’t know that. What athletes do on the court or field of play is always well documented and sometimes too much. A lot of times it’s what these athletes do when their not making three point shots, touchdowns or home runs that gets overlooked.

Luke Hancock has been the under dog for most of his basketball playing days and has overcome some long odds to get to the level he is at today. He is an outstanding basketball player but what people should know about Luke is that he’s an outstanding person as well. When he’s not in the gym working on his jump shot or in the Yum Center making three point shots he’s out trying to make a difference in the world or trying to make someone else’s day better.

This past weekend Luke was at Kosair’s Children Hospital spending some quality time with a very special Cardinal fan named Jackson. It was a day that young man will never forget and a moment that defines the kind of person Luke Hancock is. He will no doubt leave his mark on the Louisville basketball program but it’s the mark he leaves on the world that matters most to Luke.

Back in November Luke was recognized in an article written in the New York Times. The article was written to thank those in the sports world for doing great and inspirational things in a sports year dominated by those who have done just the opposite. The title of the article was “Here’s to the Better Angels of the Sports World.” Here’s to the Angel of our sports world.. Very proud that we have a young man like Luke Hancock representing the University of Louisville Basketball Program. He has and continues to make us all very proud. I’m looking forward to watching him finish out his senior season. Hey Luke thanks for being AWESOME!

Cardinals Rule The Knight

Posted on by

Uploaded from the Photobucket <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> iPhone App

photo 78A5C4DF-A04F-47D1-8C79-E3D292E79394_zpsjtl5u0v4.jpg
(Photo: Matt Stone)

The best thing about this one is that’s it’s over. And with it the series with UCF will come to and as well. The Cardinals pull off a clean sweep of the Knights and improve to 18-4 on the season with the 87-70 win. They are now 7-2 in the AAC.

Coach Pitino said tonight after the game “With Wayne at the 4, it gives us more scoring options. I’d sacrifice rebounds for more points, right now.” And tonight his starting line-up reflected that sentiment as he went with Russ, Terry in back, Luke, Wayne on the wings and Montrezl at the 5. It did help the scoring as all of these guys were in double digits except Terry.
Russ led the way tonight with 27 points and 5 rebounds. Rick said after the game that “He thought tonight was his KD moment.” Luke Hancock had 16 points, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds. Pitino said about him after the game “This team can’t survive without Luke Hancock because he makes smart plays.” Montrezl Harrell had 14 points and 7 reb. He is really starting to develop a pretty nice post game. Blackshear had 10 points and 6 rebounds after getting the start. I was also really impressed with the play of Stephan Van Treese. He made a lot of good things happen with his hustle and quietly got his 6 boards and 6 points.

Pitino said after the game “We did some good things. A lot of areas for improvement, but we’ll keep working at those.” At times they did look dysfunctional, but like coach Pitino said they did do some things well. They forced 16 turnovers and only had 9 of their own. Louisville shot 32-62 (51.6%) and held UCF to 21-55 (38.2%) and they had 15 assists. Tonight in my pre-game post I said that it was all about the E’s. Energy, Enthusiasm, Effort and Execution. The first three were very apparent tonight, but Rick had this to say tonight about execution “We’re right where we were (compared to last year) in terms of record…but not in terms of execution.” Again tonight they had those times where they just didn’t execute a possession and times where they didn’t execute on defense. That allowed UCF several opportunities to climb back in the game. And when that happens against good teams you get beat. Prolly why this team hasn’t got a win over a ranked opponent yet. Execution is everything. Pitino would say of this group tonight “Our team has to work to win, but I’m very confident in their potential.” The Cards head back on the road Wednesday for a tough game at Houston.

Luke after the game:

Stephan after the game:

Russ after the game:

Montrezl after the game:

photo B8F588DE-0D19-4946-A232-4C69EB92A887_zpshvc6fq4u.jpg