Our Louisville Cardinals got back to their winning ways Monday night. With a starter and a reserve out for the game the Cards got the monkey off their back beating Pittsburgh 64-61. Louisville has now won four straight over the Panthers, leading the all-time series 8-5 and are now 5-3 in the Big East.

When the polls came out early Monday afternoon the voters showed their confidence in the Cardinals. After their 3 game losing skid the Cards still received enough votes to remain just outside the top 10 ranked at 12 and 13 respectively. The Cards responded well to that confidence Monday night as they got back to doing the things that had them sitting at the top of those polls a few weeks ago.

It all starts with defense when you are talking about success with the Cards. And Monday night the defense did a good job at disrupting a very efficient Pitt offense. They forced them into taking quick shots at times and forced 15 turnovers with 7 steals. For much of the game the Cardinals didn’t let Pitt get into any kind of offensive rhythm. Peyton Siva looked a lot more like himself as he was coming off screens, getting into creases and dishing it off to open teammates. He ended up with a very impressive 10 assist. Russ Smith was back to being “Russdiculous”. He had that competitive ego back making athletic plays all over the court both defensively and offensively as he finished with 20 points. Gorgui Dieng looked as confident as I’ve seen him since coming back from his injury. He was very aggressive in the post and went blow for blow with a very tall and competitive Pitt front court. He had his 5th double-double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds. He also had 5 blocked shots. Luke Hancock is ranked 6th in 3 point field goal percentage in the Big East and we know he can shot the ball but tonight he showed that he could also play some solid defense making some great plays. He had 3 steals and played a very effective role in the press. Chane Behanan seemed to have some of his swagger back as he was hitting the boards and making plays in the paint. He scored 12 points and grabbed 5 boards. The bench scored 11 points with Montrezl Harrell again leading the way with 8 points. Tim Henderson scored 3 points as he and Michael Baffour provided some quality minutes in lieu of Wayne Blackshear being out with a shoulder injury and Kevin Ware’s suspension.

Coach Pitino: “This was a great win for us. We needed it. Obviously you don’t want to lose at home. But we’ve got another great game coming up.”

It was really nice seeing our Cards get back to their winning ways and to do it against one of the Big East’s hottest teams was even more impressive. Hopefully this restored some of the confidence lost and they take that into Sunday as it will be another tough battle against Marquette.

It was another rough Saturday for Louisville fans as our beloved Cardinals lose to Georgetown 53-51 and drop their third straight game in Big East play. The last time the Cardinals lost their third game straight it was against Seton Hall on January 21st 2010.

For as long as I can remember Louisville Basketball has always had times during the regular season when they hit a bump in the road. Even when Coach Crum was at the helm I can remember him reassuring Cardinal fans during those rough stretches that the team would be ready for March. It seems to be a constant theme throughout my time being a fan. Today Coach Pitino said after the game “Some people panic. We don’t panic at Louisville. We’re judged in March.” And after last season why would we doubt this?
Last year the Cardinals started the season 12-0 and rose to No. 4 in the nation in both major polls. They ended the year in the Final Four; of course, riding an 8-0 run that included a Big East tournament title. In their other 20 games the Cards went 10-10. If you take out those two losses to that great UK team the Cards were 10-8. In other words, the games the Cards played during the Big East regular season. You can go back and see this pattern play out many times in the past. Coach Crum always had this program peaking at the right time and Coach Pitino has carried on that legacy.

The story of the game today however, was the overall struggles of the Cardinals’ offense. The point total for Louisville ended up being a whopping 24 points below their season average. Our Cardinals set season lows for field goals made and total points. I really don’t understand how a player of Peyton Siva’s caliber only attempts 2 field goals and goes scoreless. But I have no doubt that he will get it together. It was good to see Luke Hancock have a good shooting day, but Wayne Blackshear was 0 for 5 from the three. Would like to see these guys jump into the role that Kyle Kuric and Chris Smith played last year. Those guys hit 36 percent of their 399 attempted threes last season. If we could get that type of production out of Luke and Wayne it would be huge for this team. And those guys are very capable. The free-throw shooting was better for the first part of the game today as the Cardinals went 12 for 12 from the line in the first half but just 4 for 10 in the second, echoing a problem from recent games.

Even though the offensive struggles of this team have been very apparent during this three game losing streak the defense seems to be holding steady and is a big reason why Cardinal Nation should remain optimistic. The Cardinal defense held the Hoyas to 38% from the field, 29% from 3, had 10 steals and forced 16 turnovers. The Cards defense still ranks 2nd in the nation in turnover margin at +7.2, 3rd in steals per game at 11.3 and they are in the top 20 in the nation in scoring defense.

Defense wins in the post season folks and if you have any doubt about that all you have to do is look to last year. The Cardinal offense during that incredible 8 game post season win streak was dismal as they were averaging basically one point per possession and were just 140-for-315 from inside the arc. Guess what they won anyway because their defense was great.

Hopefully this team and the fan base can put this past week behind us and move forward. We get to return home to the friendly confines of the Yum Center to face Pittsburgh on Monday.

Our Cards have now dropped 2 games straight after climbing to the number one spot in the country. Losing last night to Villanova 73-64. The Wildcats are now 10-2 on this season when holding their opponents under 70 points.

Very disappointing night for Louisville fans and maybe a hard dose of reality as well. This is the time of year when a team’s flaws start to come into focus and in my opinion when the real basketball season begins. Our conference foes know Louisville just as well as they know themselves. And they know the recipe for beating our Cards. It looks like that recipe is pretty simple just protect the ball and keep the Cards from getting out in transition. Force them to beat you in the half court. It also seems that Louisville is losing focus at the end of games and is struggling to close teams out. They had two very crucial turnovers in the last two minutes against Cuse and had two key turnovers last night in the closing minutes. It just adds to this teams struggle when they don’t take care of the ball. Last night they turned the ball over 17 times, up from their team average of 12. Our All-American/Player of the year backcourt of Peyton Siva and Russ Smith combined for eight of those turnovers. Another big part of this Louisville team’s success is getting to the free-throw line. Last night The Cardinals forced Villanova into foul trouble and got to the line, but was unable to convert shooting just 12-of-24 for 50 percent. To me missing free-throws is the ultimate sign of loss of focus.

Not all was lost last night as Peyton Siva had 13 assist, and the Wayne Blackshear I’ve been looking for all season finally showed up and seemed to have what was his best effort of the season. He was 5 of 8 from 3pt range and had 4 steals to go along with his 17 points. I hope this was his coming out party and we will see this type of production out of him going forward. And Montrezl Harrell continues to provide quality minutes off of the bench as he grabbed 6 rebounds and scored 6 points. But his good deeds are being overshadowed by his poor free-throw shooting.

It’s time for all the hype talk to stop and please Sports Illustrated stay away from our team. It’s time for these guys to regroup, refocus and get back to work. It’s not time to hit the panic button as this time last year the Cards had a 16-5 record and were 4-4 in the Big East. And we all know how that worked out. I just think this team needed a reality check. Hopefully these last two games have gotten their attention.

It never gets any easier when you play in the Big East and our Cards will continue the battle Saturday as they will travel to Washington DC to face Georgetown. Another team with their back against the wall and looking for a quality win.

The winning streak and the #1 ranking ended yesterday in the Yum Center as our Cards were knocked off in a tough one to a gritty Syracuse team 70-68. Cards are now 16-2 and 4-1 in the Big East. It was a great big time atmosphere with 22,814 Cards fans screaming the whole time.

After getting showered and dressed yesterday, Russ Smith was walking back into the locker room and was asked, “How long will it take you guys to get over this?” His answer, “I’m already over it.” I loved seeing this yesterday when Eric Crawford posted it on his Facebook page. I think we all got over it pretty quickly. It was tough to watch our Cards lose that number one ranking but when you put things in perspective, it really isn’t that big of a deal at all. This time last year, Louisville was coming off a difficult 74-63 loss at Marquette and was 14-5 with a 2-4 standing in the Big East. And we all know how last season finished out. The team this year is miles ahead of where that one was last year.

The Cards had several opportunities’ to finish out that game yesterday but lack of execution and missed free throws were the reason they did not. And I’m sure that all of those things were addressed in the post game meeting with Coach Pitino and the team. When a team is winning and ranked number one in the country there aren’t many opportunities for those teaching moments that coaches love. After yesterday, there will be plenty of teaching moments for Coach Pitino. The Defense looked great and the job done on that end of the floor was worthy of a victory. The Cards scored 21 points off 16 turnovers and had 12 steals. Our bench had a solid showing yesterday as well as that group scored 18 points and provided some solid minutes. It seemed like Coach Pitino used guys more than usual. He may be at the point in the season where he is going to start developing other players for the end of the season run. Russ Smith had another solid performance and was the player of the game for the Cards. He had 25 points, 4 assist and was 7-7 from the free throw line.

Time to move on from this one with another tough Big East game looming on Tuesday night as the Cards will go on the road to face Villanova. If there was, any doubt that this years Big East would not be as tough as previous seasons it was put to rest yesterday. Our loss to Cuse, USF beat Georgetown, Providence beat Nova, and Cincy took down Marquette. Yup!

Our Cards made it to the top of the college basketball rankings today for the second time in program history and only the first time during the regular season. And tonight was the first time they have had to defend a number one ranking in a regular season game. And they did just that as they outscored Uconn in the second half 45-24 to cruise to a 73-58 victory and now lead this series 8 to 6. Cards have now won their 11th straight and are 16-1 on the season, 4-0 in the Big East.

It was a very impressive win for the Cards. A quick turnaround after just playing on Saturday, on the road in hostile environment, good Uconn team, flew into Connecticut this morning, didn’t have a shoot around, and overcame a 10 point deficit at halftime. That is what you would expect from a great team. Behind every great team is great players. Russ Smith was on a mission tonight and he single-handedly kept the Cards in the game tonight in the first half. He finished with 23 points in one of his most impressive games of the season. ESPN’s Jay Williams said after the game “Can we start talking about Russ Smith in the POY conversation? Can we? I mean, he’s the POY right now.” Chane Behanan was another guy with passion in his eyes as he dominated the paint area on the offensive end of the floor. He had 16 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assist. Gorgui Dieng is proving to be a rebounding machine as he now has 57 in Big East play. He tied his season high tonight with 16. It looked like Peyton was going to be slowed down tonight as he picked up some cheap fouls early in the first half and spent most of it on the bench. But he came out and did a great job in the second half leading the Cards to the victory. He finished with 11 points and 4 assist. He is now tied for second all-time in assist with TWILL. LaBradford Smith is the top assist guy in the history of Louisville basketball with 713. There are 168 assist separating him from Siva and Williams. The Cardinal defense came up big again tonight as they forced 16 turnovers and had 10 steals. Really good job on the boards out-rebounding the Huskies 33 to 25. Cardinal bench was quiet tonight as Luke Hancock was the only scorer with 8 points.

Cardinal fans have to be very excited about this team and about the opportunity it has to become one of the best ever. But still a long way to go and the schedule doesn’t get any easier as the Cards will return home this Saturday to face #6 Syracuse.

The Cards could be the number one college basketball team in the country on Monday afternoon when the new rankings come out. And they played like the number one team today putting a thrashing on the South Florida Bulls 64-38. The Cards have now won 10 straight and their 15th game overall. They are now 3-0 in Big East play. South Florida drops to 0-3 and are now 2-40 all-time against teams ranked in the top 10.

Coach Stan Heath on Louisville: “That was a wow, that’s a very good team.””They keep bringing guys in and bringing guys in, changing defenses from zone to man.””They’re legitimate to win it all.”

Last year the Cards were booed off of the court at the end of the South Florida game as they lost on senior day 58-51. But today, perhaps with revenge on their minds came out early and took the bull by the horns and never let go. Louisville now leads this series 26 to 4, and held the Bulls to their lowest Big East point total ever. I mentioned in my pregame breakdown that the Cardinal front-court players would have to step up big today and boy did they ever. Gorgui Dieng had 12 points, and 16 boards. It was Dieng’s 4th double-double of the year and his 3rd in a row having one in every Big East game so far. Chane Behanan in his return from an ankle injury had 7 points and 12 rebounds. It was Behanan’s 3 game with double digit rebounds for the season. Freshman Montrezl Harrell got the start today and provided some valuable minutes scoring 2 points and grabbing 4 rebounds. Cards scored 36 of their 64 points in the paint. It was a huge day for senior Peyton Siva as he led all scorers with 17 points and became the 64th Louisville player to reach the 1000 mark. Russ had a productive but quite day with 8 points. The Louisville bench had a big day today with 21 points.

The Cards came into this game today ranked 2nd nationally in turnover margin at +8.1 and forcing 20.3 turnovers a game. They are scoring 34% of their points this season off of those turnovers. Today they forced the Bulls into 17 turnovers and scored 17 points off of those turnovers. The Cards came into this game today ranked 3rd nationally in steals with 11.5 per game with Siva and Smith averaging 4.8 of those. Today the Cards got 6 steals and Siva had 3 of those. Smith didn’t have any steals today. Another thing mentioned in my pregame breakdown was the fact that South Florida had done such a poor job on the glass in their previous Big East games. That trend continued today as the Cards out-rebounded them 49 to 24. The Cards really looked good today on the defensive end of the floor in what might have been their best defensive outing of the season. Coach Pitino was really happy with the defensive effort today saying “We’re getting a lot better at the defensive end. From Seton Hall halftime to now, I can’t be any more pleased.” He also said of the defense “As a team, we had a group of young men start the Seton Hall game, and came out of it as a group of tough men.”

With a Michigan loss tomorrow its a pretty sure bet that the Cards will be the number one team in the country come Monday. But they won’t get long to enjoy it as they have to travel to Hartford for a Big Monday match-up with a UCONN team that is have a very decent season of their own. They just beat Notre Dame today ending their long home winning streak. Will be a very tough road battle but just another night in the Big East.

There are no easy wins when college basketball reaches this point in the season. Conference play is a different monster and what seems to be a mismatch often isn’t when the ball is tipped, especially on the road. Tonight was another perfect example of that as the Seton Hall Pirates hung tough with the Cards only to fall at the end 73-58.

With this Cardinal team I never feel like they are in danger of losing a game. They always seem to find a way to dig it out and get the job done. They have so many weapons and have so many ways of using them. Our Cards lacked their usual sharpness tonight but were able to win their 9th straight and 14th overall. They did it behind another solid defensive effort getting 12 steals and forcing 16 turnovers. They also held the Pirates to just 34.7% shooting from the field. The Cards were also able to hold the Pirates offensive catalyst Fuquan Edwin to just 13 points and most of those came when the game was out of reach. He came into this game averaging 18 points (fourth best in the Big East). Luke Hancock and Montrezl Harrell followed their defensive game plan perfectly keeping Edwin from getting his usual looks at the basket.

The Cards who struggled at times themselves to make baskets due to Seton Hall’s effective defense were able to win this one going away thanks to a second half surge that was spurred by two big three point shots from Luke Hancock. He would finish with 7 points and from a big play and defensive aspect had one of his best games of the season in my opinion. With Chane Behanan out of the line up Gorgui and Montrezl really stepped up their play tonight. Dieng led all scores with a season high 16 points and he also recorded his second and consecutive double-double as he grabbed 14 rebounds. Harrell tied his career best with 14 points and he grabbed 3 rebounds. The Cards back court duo of Siva and Smith were held to 4 of 17 shooting and just 18 points between them, but did do a great job at getting other guys involved as they had 13 assist. They also rebounded the ball well grabbing 11 between them.

It wasn’t pretty at times tonight but like I mentioned earlier it never really felt like the Cards were ever going to lose this game. I don’t remember a season ever feeling as confident in a group as I do this one. And it’s just January. I can only imagine what this group is going to look like after they are completely fine tuned. And that’s what I love about the Big East conference. You know it is going to get these guys prepared for that final run.

Our Cards will now bring their 2-0 Big East record back to the friendly confines of the KFC Yum Center for a 4PM match-up Saturday with South Florida.

Last night on a national stage, the University of Louisville football program shocked the world. And showed them that basketball is not the only thing in Louisville worthy of national stature. Louisville (11-2, 5-2 Big East) dominated every aspect and nearly every moment of the game, leaving Florida (11-2, 7-1 SEC) shell-shocked, 33-23. The victory was all the more impressive in that it came at the expense of one of college football’s more storied programs. It was one of Florida’s worst drubbings in a bowl game.

Florida was just simply unable to match the Louisville intensity in this game. Our Cards came into this one with a chip on their shoulder and with something to prove. They wanted to shock the world and they wanted to get this win for their coach and their city. This group of young men has made their impact and their names will now live forever in Cardinal Lore. Just like that group in 1991 they have vaulted this program to that next level. Their next goal is obvious as they should be ranked in the Top 10 to start next season and will be in the conversation and mix for a national championship.

“This program is on a collision course with the national championship. The only variable is time.” -Howard Schnellenberger

Last night our #4 ranked Cards won their first Big East basketball game for their 8th straight victory putting away the Providence Friars 80-62 in front of 21,305 fans at the KFC Yum Center. The Big East opener is a big deal but last night it was an appetizer to the much-anticipated Sugar Bowl. I do not think I have ever wanted a basketball game to be over so quickly. And folks were running to the exits of the Yum Center to get to the local watering holes to watch the big football game.

Coach Pitino: “We’re continuing to win with offense, But our defense is nowhere near where we want it to be.” “Once our defense catches up to our offense, we have a chance to be a really special team.”

A big reason for the Cards offensive output this season is Russ Smith. Last night he had another big game coming off the bench scoring 23 points, grabbing 4 rebounds with 3 assist. He was 4-5 from 3-point range. It was an impressive offensive night for the Cards as four other players would score in double digits. Chane with 10 points , Peyton with 10 points, Luke with 11 points, and Gorgui with 11 points. Gorgui had his first double double of the season as he also had 11 rebounds. The Cards had 22 assist and only 8 turnovers. Wayne and Kevin had a few good plays between them but I still don’t think they have reached anywhere near their potential this season. And I know I keep harping on these guys but it’s only because I know we will need their efforts if we are to win a National Title.

And I know that Coach said that the offense is ahead of the defense but it wasn’t awful. The Cards forced the Friars into 16 turnovers and scored 27 points off them. They also had 10 steals. Our backcourt players had their share of foul trouble again in this one as Ware had 3, Smith had 3 and Siva had 4. Really hope to see this area improve in the next couple of weeks.

Cards will get this weekend off then head to New Jersey next Wednesday for a battle with Seton Hall.