(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: