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The Beak Basketball Breakdown: Game #3

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The Cards hit the hardwood again on Friday night at 7pm looking to win their 19th straight game and 1700th overall. The game can be seen on WHAS and on ESPN 3. They will play the Cornell Big Red from the Ivy League. This will be the first time that Louisville has ever played a game against the team from Ithaca. The Big Red are 0-3 in the early season and are picked to finish 6th in the Ivy League. They are 5-68 all-time against teams ranked in the top 25.

When I think of Cornell I automatically hear Ed Helms character “Andy Bernard” playing his banjo and singing some silly song. Yup the Nard Dog is Cornell. But apparently they do have a basketball team and one that had the lead 36-22 with 4 minutes left in the first half last Friday against #8 Syracuse. Cornell was 13-18 last season and Coach Bill Courtney has had to replace four starters. Their best player returning first-team All-Ivy forward Shonn Miller continues to recover from offseason surgery to his right shoulder that sidelined him in the preseason. This is a young, inexperienced team but do have some talent on the squad and it starts with knockdown sophomore shooter Nolan Cressler (18.5 points, 5 rebounds a game). The rookie had a very solid 2012-13, shooting over 40% from three-point range. He is the Big Red’s best scoring option and lit up Syracuse last week in that stunning first half scoring 20 points. He shares the backcourt with point guard Devin Cherry (2 points, 4 assist a game) he’s the player in charge of running the offense, guard Robert Hatter (20.5 points a game) another scorer, and senior guard Dominick Scelfo (4.5 points, 1.5 rebounds a game).
The Big Red Front-court is young and depleted. Their go to guy down low early this season has been senior Dwight Tarwater (12.5 points, 6.5 rebounds a game), he is their best rebounder. Their other guy holding down the paint is David Onuorah (6.5 points, 4 rebounds a game), a 6′ 8″ freshman from Atlanta who turned down an SEC offer from Auburn to play in the Ivy League.

Big Red
2013-14 OVERALL RANKINGS
-POINTS PER GAME
74.5
182nd
OVERALL
-REBOUNDS PER GAME
36.0
212th
OVERALL
-ASSISTS PER GAME
14.0
122nd
OVERALL
-FIELD GOAL PCT
.441
175th
OVERALL

Kenpom Ranks
Overall- #299
Defense Adjustment Efficiency
-113.8 ranks 350
Offensive Adjustment Efficiency
-102.1 ranks 180

It is hard to imagine the Cardinals having any trouble with Big Red. Especially with the mismatch in the paint. Not to mention the talent gap. They did have some success and shot 7 of 17 from the 3-point line over the Cuse zone in the first half of that wacky game last Friday, but the Louisville defense won’t give them those looks so I don’t even see a scenario like that happening. It should be another night of getting guys like Luke and Chane some conditioning and another game for this Cardinal group to work on their stuff against another team. I will be watching to see if the rebounding is any better in this game. That has been one area where the Cards have struggled. This Big Red group out-rebounded the much taller Orange 19-16 at one point so they will go after it. I’m looking forward to it. Go Cards!

Coach Pitino Talks Cornell:

Cards Make It “WAYNE” In Win Over Hofstra

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(Photo By: Jeff Reinking | Louisville Athletics)

Tonight was another ceremonial one in the KFC Yum Center and it began with the unveiling of a banner adding coach Rick Pitino to the school’s list of Naismith Memorial Hall of Famers. The Cards would finish this night off winning their 18th game in a row beating Hofstra 97 to 69. The 18 game win streak ties for the longest ever. The Cards are now 2-0 in the early season and 2-0 in the series vs. Hofstra.

Despite some nervous moments early in the second half it was another easy victory tonight by the Cards and they seem to have things rolling right along. Now with all of their pieces back in place they can really start to focus on the little things to get better as they head into some tougher games. Two of those pieces Luke Hancock and Chane Behanan made their returns to the team tonight. The two of them didn’t have much impact on the game as they both still have to work on getting in game shape.
The story on this night would be the play of the Louisville guards and the hot shooting. Chris Jones and Russ 2.0 combined for 50 points, 12 assist and 6 steals. Russ was lights out shooting 12 of 22 from the field including 5 of 12 from beyond the arc. Russ now has 1286 points and passed Chuck Noble tonight moving him into 32nd all-time in scoring at UofL.
Chris Jones got his 20 points but most impressive was the fact he had 7 assist with no turnovers. In 55 minutes played this season he has 12 assist with no turnovers. He has really stepped in and filled that spot nicely. The team as a whole only has 8 turnovers in a two game stretch and that’s the fewest in Coach Pitino’s 13 seasons. This team makes good decisions and takes care of the basketball. That’s a very good thing especially this early.
The shooting was another area that I highlighted in my pre-game article and it was much improved from the last time out. The Cardinals finished 12 of 31 from deep and shot 35 of 68 overall (51.5 percent), a big improvement from the 38-percent last game. One guy who had a hot hand at the right time tonight was Wayne Blackshear who made three straight 3s for nine points to help Louisville break the game open with a 26-2 second-half run. Wayne has had two very solid games for this team and if he continues to produce it is going to be big for the Cards. He would finish with 9 points but most important were his hustle stats 2 blocks and 3 steals.
Montrezl Harrell was abusing the rims again tonight in the KFC Yum Center and was the 3rd leading scorer in the game with 19 points. But his most impressive stat of the night was going 5-5 at the free throw line. With the new foul rules he is going to be spending a lot of time at the charity stripe this season especially as we get into March. His free throw shooting will be critical. Coach Pitino had pointed out that he had started to line out on his improvement due to not having anyone to compete against in practice. With the return of Chane Behanan he will start to be challenged more and this will help him get better.
The area of concern coming out of the last two games and tonight is the rebounding. I look for that to improve as Chane gets more acclimated to the team but right now it is an area that is in need of some answers. I knew coming into this game that Hofstra had some good re-bounders on their team and I pointed that out in my pre-game article. They out-rebounded the Cards tonight 35 to 34. When we start to play more long and athletic teams this is an area that concerns me. One positive is that our guards especially the new guys aren’t afraid to bang and hit the boards. That will help. As a team the Cards did dominate the paint area on offense scoring 44 points to their 16.
Defensively this team is right on track and tonight they forced 22 turnovers leading to 30 points. They have forced 43 turnover in their last two games.

While writing this article I’m looking in on the Kansas vs. Duke game at the time Dick Vitale and the other guys are talking about teams who are real contenders this year. Dick said that “everyone should watch out” for this Louisville team and went on to say that he feels that they can be a team that does repeat this season. I agree with Dick. Now that everyone is back and all the ceremonies and fluff stuff is over its time for these guys to get focused on the task ahead. And there is no better coach in America to make sure that happens than Rick Pitino. This team can repeat but still have a lot of work to be done. They are on the right path and are looking great for a group that has only played two real games together. I like what I’m seeing and can’t wait for the next one. GO CARDS!

U of L coach Rick Pitino after win over Hofstra:

U of L’s Wayne Blackshear after win over Hofstra:

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The Beak Basketball Breakdown: Game #2

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The Cardinal Basketball team takes the floor for game number two on this young season Tuesday night. They will play another team from the Colonial Athletic Association in Hofstra. This game will be the first in the 2013 Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame Tipoff. This feeder tourney will end in a game with North Carolina in a few weeks. The Cardinals hold a 1-0 record against The Pride with Louisville winning the only game played against this team back on November 27, 1977 76-66. The Cards were picked to finish first in the AAC and Hofstra is picked to finish last in the CAA.

Hofstra is in a complete rebuild mode after they hired new head coach Joe Mihalich, who spent the past 15 years as the head coach at Niagara. Hofstra fired coach Mo Cassara on March 22 after a 7-25 season marred by the arrests of four players on charges related to several on-campus burglaries. They are getting a good one in Mihalich. His Niagara team went 19-14 and won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Association regular-season championship. He led the Purple Eagles to two NCAA tournaments and three NITs, and he had a winning record in 12 of his 15 seasons. He will try to recreate that success at Hofstra a program winning a total of just seven conference games over two years.
You can expect the game on Tuesday to be an up and down contest as Mihalich is a coach that likes to play an up tempo style of basketball. His Niagara teams played about 69 possessions a game. Coach Mihalich on his style of play: “I always like to try to play fast,” he said. “It is a fun way to play. A fun style to watch. A fun style to coach.” The Pride will rely on two graduate transfers Zeke Upshaw (14.5 points a game) from Illinois State and Dion Nesmith (12 points a game) from Monmouth to lead in the backcourt, while hoping that their big rebounders Stephen Nwaukoni (7 points, 7 rebounds a game) and Moussa Kone (12 points, 11 rebounds a game) can hold things down in the front-court. Helping to run the offense and setting everyone up will be true freshman guard Chris Jenkins (10.5 points a game) and Jamall Robinson (11.5 points, 4 rebounds a game).

Hofstra
2013-14 OVERALL RANKINGS
-POINTS PER GAME
82.0
90th
OVERALL
-REBOUNDS PER GAME
41.0
105th
OVERALL
-ASSISTS PER GAME
13.0
145th
OVERALL
-FIELD GOAL PCT
.471
109th
OVERALL

Kenpom Ranks
Overall – #303
Defense Adjustment Efficiency
-105.9 ranks 293rd
Offensive Adjustment Efficiency
-94.8 ranks 296th

The storyline Tuesday night will likely be the return of Chane Behanan to the Louisville bench. It’s up in the air on whether or not he will play significant minutes but just him being back with the team will be a welcomed site. Although both have been fully cleared medically Luke Hancock might only see limited time while Kevin Ware will again be held out of this game. Coach Pitino said in his Press conference Tuesday that Kevin is still limping some. Says that he won’t play again until that stops. I will be watching to see if the Cards can get off to a better start on Tuesday night and if they can shoot the ball better. They were settling for jump shots too often in the game Saturday and need to look to running their offense and taking advantage of their size and athleticism over the lesser opponent. This Hofstra team has some guys that rebound well and will challenge Wayne, Van Treese, and Mango. I don’t expect this one to be that much of a contest but will be another good game for the Cards to fine tune some things and to get the new guys more acclimated. Cards will cruise in this one. The only question will be by how much and how well.

It Started With A Banner, & Ended With A Boom

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Today Cardinal fans and the Louisville Basketball team put the exclamation point on the National Championship Run by hanging the 2013 Banner in the Yum Center rafters. The Cards also kept their run from last year going winning their 17th straight game beating the College of Charleston 70-48 in the season opener. With the win the Cardinals start the new season 1-0 and now hold a 4-0 record against the Cougars. Opening at home for the seventh time in the last eight seasons, the Cardinals have won 10 straight season-openers and 19 of the last 21 overall. Saturday’s game was Louisville’s earliest season-opener in school history surpassing the Nov. 11 openers in each of the last two seasons.

I was there when they won it and today I was there when they hung it. Last season was very special to me and the other Cardinal fans who had never got to experience a National Championship of their own. Most of us were kids when the Cards hung the last banner. But now we have our own moment and today we all shared that moment one last time in the KFC yum Center. The pageantry was great with the dedication videos and the speech by coach Pitino. It was all done very well and the University should be commended. Every time we go to a game or attend other events at the Yum Center we can look up and see that 2013 banner and remember how special that season was.

With the celebration behind them the 2013-14 group had business to take care of today against a very formidable foe in the College of Charleston. I think the excitement of the day a perhaps first game jitters got the better of the Cards in the first half and they played sloppy basketball allowing the Cougars to hang around. They hit only 4 of their first 17 shots. They were out-shot, out-hustled and out-rebounded in the first half and only led by two points 29-27. If those locker room walls could talk they probably wouldn’t be able to say in public what Pitino told his team at the half. They came out in the second half and were able to turn the momentum of the game around. The Cougars did hang around until about the 6:55 mark but that’s when we seen what we did many times last year. Duke’s coach Mike Krzyzewski called it the “BOOM”. Today College of Charleston felt that “BOOM” late in the second half when the Cards went on one of their flurries outscoring the cougars 21 to 3 in the closing minutes. It really did feel like last year and it looks like this team could end up having that same trademark.

Six Cardinals made their career debut in the Louisville uniform today Chris Jones, Mangok Mathiang, Terry Rozier, Anton Gill, Akoy Agau and David Levitch. Chris and Mango made the biggest impact out of this group. Jones is gonna be really big for the Cardinals this year and I really love his game. He had 12 points and 6 rebounds with 5 assist. The “Mango” looked really promising in his debut as well. This kid has exceptional speed for his size and his vertical leaping ability is also very good. We needed somebody to step up in the front-court and this guy just may be the one. He had 7 points and 10 rebounds. Russ 2.0 hasn’t missed a beat and got to the basket when he wanted and pretty much took over the game scoring 21 points with 5 assist. I’m so glad I get to watch this kid play another entire year. It will be fun seeing other coaches try to stop him. I was also very impressed with Montrezl, Wayne and Stephan. These guys combined for 27 points and 21 rebounds. I had been critical of Wayne and Stephan earlier in the scrimmages but today they put together a great game. Both of them played very aggressive and assertive. If we can get this from them every week that will be a game changer.

I thought the team looked pretty good today considering all the new pieces and considering that some of the most important pieces are still not on the floor. Chane will be back in a few weeks, Luke starts to practice on the 15th and Ware will be good to go in a few weeks. This is going to be a very good basketball team folks. Barring injury or any other suspensions we could all be gathering in the Yum Center next year to hang number four. We should get a good feel to where we are at in a couple of weeks when the Cards play UNC. It was another great day to be a Cardinal Fan. Go Cards!

Rick Pitino on the banner ceremony before the game:

U of L coach Rick Pitino on beating Charleston in opener:

My video turned out terrible but The University’s video is incredible so here it is:

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UCONN’t Be Serious

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Tonight wasn’t one of the most exciting games of the year, but our Cards got the job done playing in front of a sparse crowd of disinterested UCONN fans winning the game that seemed to last forever 31-10. This marks the end of a series that has seen some of the strangest games ever played and tonight was no exception. I think I can speak on behalf of all Cardinal Nation and say that none of us will miss it. The Cardinals will end the series with a 6 to 4 advantage.

This wasn’t one of the best games that Louisville has played this season by any stretch of the imagination. They had trouble running the ball (81 yards) and the receivers probably dropped more passes than I’ve seen them drop in a long time. But this was the first game of the season with temperatures barely in the 30’s and that could have had an impact on the players. There were some good things that happened. Teddy Bridgewater takes a lot of heat for not walking on water sometimes and tonight was one of those occasions. He did throw for 288 yards with a touchdown and completed 21 of 37 passes. He has thrown 24 touchdown passes this season and has at least one scoring pass in 21 straight games. That’s the second longest streak among BCS-AQ Quarterbacks. The kid is completing almost 74 percent of his passes. I’m just amazed when people disregard what he means to this team, and his ability. I’m sure they’ll see what I mean next year when he’s gone. The defense looked good with three interceptions and a fumble recovery. Terell Floyd had a 17 yard interception for a touchdown, and Charles Gaines with a 7 yard touchdown off a blocked punt. With his 2.5 sacks tonight Defensive end Marcus Smith becomes the national sack leader with 10.5 on the season.

It seems like this Louisville football team is an easy target for people who love to be critical. These guys took a lot of heat tonight for winning a road game by 21 points. I didn’t hear that much when then #15 Michigan escaped with a 3 point win at UCONN a few weeks ago. Our Cards were facing an up hill battle from the glass half empty crowd from the start of this season. It didn’t matter what they did and it still doesn’t matter. I’ve said a million times that all the guys can do is win the games they have in front of them and tonight they did. They are going to a bowl game and are 8-1. Some may want more or expect more but that’s the reality. It could be a lot worse. We could have to wear bags on our heads like the UCONN folks did tonight. I’ve read several times tonight that big time programs give it all they got no matter the opponent. Well big time fan bases support their team no matter what. Let’s be big time Cardinal Nation…

“A Banner Day”

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The pre-season talk, hype, scrimmages and exhibitions are over. Saturday will mark the 100th start of the regular season for Louisville Basketball. The Cards will open their 100th season at 1:00pm against The College of Charleston. The Cardinals have faced the Cougars three times on the basketball court and have won all three games. The last times these teams played was last year down in Charleston and the Cards dominated that game winning 80-38.

The Cougars were 24-11 last season, and they return four starters and a much deeper bench this year. Adjehi Baru (9.8 points, 8.3 rebounds last year), Anthony Stitt (11 points, 2.4 rebounds, 3.3 assist last year), Anthony Thomas (8.5 points, 4.8 rebounds last year), and Willis Hall (7.7 points, 6.4 rebounds), each started at least 30 games for the Cougars a year ago. With veteran Nori Johnson (4.5 points, 1.9 rebounds last year) coming off the bench and the addition of redshirt freshman Canyon Barry (Rick Barry’s son), Tulsa transfer 7’2″ David Wishon and freshman point guard Joe Chealey (top 40 prospect in Florida), and the word is the Cougars might have their deepest roster in several years. This is going to be a great opening game for our Cardinals and we will get to see how they look against some pretty good size, talent and versatility.

There will be a lot of buzz surrounding the season opener for the Cards on Saturday. Starting the 100th season would be special just on its own, but the 2013 Championship banner along with a special banner celebrating Coach Pitino’s Hall of Fame induction will be revealed at 12:45 fifteen minutes before game time. There will be special videos before the reveal and before starting line-ups as well. The Basketball team will bring out the magic sleeved uniforms for this special day and Chane Behanan will make his first appearance on the bench of the season. So Saturday will indeed be a banner day for Cardinal Nation and the Louisville program. And with this much buzz and hype surrounding this game I don’t think it will be much fun for the cougars.

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.

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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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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.

Russ 2.0’s Game Is A Beauty, & Montrezl Is The Beast In First Exhibition

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Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos

Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos

The 2013-14 basketball season is unofficially under way and tonight the defending National Champion Louisville Cardinals took the floor of the KFC Yum Center for the first time against another opponent. They put on an offensive show beating Kentucky Wesleyan 115 to 67 in what will be the first of two exhibitions to start this early season. Coach Happy Osborne said after the game “The good news is we get to cash the check.” But the news for the Cards was much better than that. The players were wearing the Adidas “Rise and Repeat” warm-up shirts tonight and the way things looked that may be an omen.

One thing is for sure about this group of Cardinals and that’s their ability to shoot the basketball. This may turn out to be one of the better offensive groups that Coach Pitino has had. And the two players that stood out tonight were Russ and Montrezl. These guys alone make the Cards a top 10 team. They combined tonight for 37 points. Russ has always been able to cause problems for opposing defenses with his ability to get into the lane and create offense for himself. This year they get to deal with Russ 2.0. He now looks to create scoring opportunities for his team-mates and looks to be playing much more under control. Montrezl Harrell is just a monster in the lane. If he is near the rim you can bet he’s going to try and rip it off. He had 8 dunks tonight and had it been a regular game it would have beaten the old record of 7 set by Pervis Ellison in 1988. I don’t think its a stretch to say that record will go down before the season is over. I was also impressed with the new guys. Each of them came into the game at some point and made some really confident plays. I didn’t see any wide eyes and it looks like these guys are learning quick. Jones, Rozier and Gill stood out among the new faces and combined for 47 points and 18 rebounds. Our back-court is going to be one of the best in the country if these guys have as much upside as they appear to have. Mango and Agau did some good things tonight as well and each of them grabbed 8 boards. We are going to need one or both of these guys to emerge for us down low. I was a little disappointed in Blackshear and Van Treese. I would have liked to see them stand out and have more of a presence in the game. The time is now for both of them. We need them to step up. They combined tonight for 6 points and 5 rebounds.

Other than the new foul rule causing a free-throw fest and prolonging the game an extra 40 minutes there wasn’t much to complain about in this first exhibition. These guys stay healthy, continue their progression and gel as a team there’s no reason I shouldn’t be taking an April vacation to Arlington Texas at the end of the season.

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Rick Pitino post game:

(Video courtesy TheCrunchZone.com)