(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!
