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.
Coach Pitino Post game:
Kevin Ware talks about his first game back: