Dec. 16, 2010

VOLUME XV • NUMBER 18DECEMBER 16, 2010

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LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT DECEMBER 16, 2010

DECEMBER 16, 2010 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 3

E D I T O R I A L S T A F F

GENERAL MANAGER - Jack Coffee

SENIOR WRITER AND EDITOR - Russ Brown

OPERATIONS MANAGER - Howie Lindsey

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES - Mickey Clark, Betty Olsen and Blanche Kitchen

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS - Dave Klotz, Shelley Feller, Gail Kamenish,

Howie Lindsey and Chuck Feist

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNISTS - Matt Willinger, Jeff Wafford,

Jason Puckett and Rick Cushing

DESIGNER - Scott Stortz

COPY EDITOR - Rick Cushing

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19 CARDS DEAL VEGAS FIRST LOSSPreston Knowles and the UofL knocked off No. 19 UNLV 77-69 Saturday. After scoring all 20 of his points in the second half, Knowles said, “I saw my team struggling

and basically I just didn’t want to let them down.”

The Louisville Cardinals and the Cardinal Bird loaded up and headed south Wednesday to begin preparation for the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl in St. Petersburg, Fla. It will be Louisville’s fi rst bowl appearance since the 2007 Orange Bowl. - photo by Dave Klotz

W H A T ’ S I N S I D E

4 BOWL GOOD FOR CARDS, WIN WOULD BE EVEN BETTER By Russ Brown4 THEN AND NOW: TWO OF LOUISVILLE’S FIRST BOWL STARS5 BOWL GOOD FOR CARDS, WIN WOULD BE EVEN BETTER By Russ Brown6 2010 LOUISVILLE FOOTBALL STATS7 STRONG LOYAL TO JURICH, UOFL By Russ Brown7 USM SENIORS A PROUD GROUP By Tyler Cleveland, Rivals.com8 A BOWL BID STANDS AS A TRIBUTE TO STRONG AND HIS STAFF By Jack Coffee9 BOWL PREVIEW: BREAKING DOWN THE GOLDEN EAGLES By Rick Cushing10 THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY By Howie Lindsey11 LOUISVILLE’S AMAZING RUN ENDS IN NATIONAL-TITLE GAME By Howie Lindsey12 LOUISVILLE BEATS NO. 4 UNC TO ADVANCE TO FINAL By Howie Lindsey

13 LOUISVILLE LANDS 2012’S TOP POINT GUARD By Howie Lindsey15 LOUISVILLE-UNLV PHOTO GALLERY By Dave Klotz, Shelley Feller and Gail Kamenish16 PITINO SKEPTICAL OF NBA TALK By Russ Brown17 CARDINALS HOST SEVERAL TOP RECRUITS, INCLUDING ELITE QB By Jeff Wafford18 A HEALTHY GEORGE HOPING TO LET GOODE TIMES ROLL By Russ Brown19 FUTURE LOOKS GOOD FOR CARDS AFTER DEALING VEGAS

FIRST LOSS By Russ Brown21 KURIC REBOUNDS FROM CONCUSSION, UNLV NEEDS ASPIRIN By Russ Brown22-23 BIG EAST: STEWART COULD BE OUT AFTER 2011; PITT SEARCHING By Russ Brown25 WINNING UGLY GETS JOB DONE AS CARDS IMPROVE TO 7-3 By Howie Lindsey26 MEN’S AND WOMEN’S BASKETBALL SCHEDULES

FEATURES AND CONTENT:

25 WALZ‘S BUNCH LEARNING QUICKLYLouisville improved to 7-3 with a win over Dayton Saturday at the KFC Yum! Center. “We tried to get

them to be sloppy with the basketball and we were successful with it,” coach Jeff Walz said.

7 STRONG COMMITTED TO UOFLCharlie Strong reaffirmed his commitment to building

UofL’s program Monday. “(Tom Jurich) hired me and gave me the keys to this program, and I owe him a

lot. I will never, ever chase a job,” Strong said.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE: DUE TO THE BOWL BEING ON TUESDAY, OUR NORMAL PRINTING AND MAILING DATE, AND THE LACK OF MAIL DELIVERY DURING THE UPCOMING CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY, THE LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT’S NEXT ISSUE WILL

PRINT AND MAIL TUESDAY, DEC. 28. THERE WILL NOT BE AN ISSUE NEXT WEEK.


RECRUITING NOTEBOOK10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASONCARDINAL ATHLETICS

THEN AND NOW: TWO OF LOUISVILLE’S FIRST BOWL STARS

Mario Cheppo and Ken Porco enjoy a “scholarship” plate of spaghetti and meatballs at Delmonico’s on Floyd St. after defeating Drake in UofL’s fi rst bowl game, the Sun Bowl, in January, 1958. Cheppo and Porco were stars on the 9-1 team coached by Frank Camp and captained by Gil Sturtzel. Porco ran for 119 yards after a fi rst quarter injury sidelined All-American Lenny Lyles. Cheppo and Porco also played on the fi rst undefeated baseball team in 1957 coached by John Heldman. Cheppo would later be an assistant coach in football and head coach of baseball at the university. (Right) Cheppo and Porco are shown swapping stories with their teammates at Wagner’s Deli near campus in December 2010. The Sun Bowl team and the 1956 NIT champs still get together weekly for breakfast at the well-known local eatery near Churchill Downs across from Patterson Stadium.

By Russ BrownAfter his team turned in an impressive per-

formance in defeating then-No. 19/20 UNLV last Saturday, University of Louisville basket-ball coach Rick Pitino said he still saw plenty of things his players needed to work on.

Well, wait until he watches the fi lm of the Cardinals’ subsequent game. The list of areas that need immediate attention will get longer -- much longer.

In one of the more surprising setbacks dur-ing Pitino’s 10-year tenure, Drexel (7-1) of the Colonial Athletic Association -- a Philadelphia institution that former UofL star Milt Wag-ner famously called “one of them academic schools” -- shocked the No. 20 Cards 52-46 Tuesday night in the KFC Yum! Center.

It was UofL’s fi rst loss in its new arena and Drexel’s fi rst win over a ranked, non-confer-ence opponent since beating No. 23 Syracuse 84-79 on Dec. 19, 2006.

“We weren’t going to come in here and lay down,” said Drexel coach Bruiser Flint, the former coach at Pitino’s alma mater, Massa-chusetts. “We think we’ve got a pretty good team, and we knew if we did the right things we could come out of here with a win.”

If Drexel did enough things right, Louisville (8-1) did enough wrong to last it for a few more games. Pitino blamed the loss on the Cards’ timid rebounding, and the 46-26 drub-bing they took on the boards was certainly enough to get them beat.

But there were ugly numbers all up and down the stat sheet for UofL, which will try to bounce back Saturday against Gardner-Webb. Pitino had praised his players’ focus through the fi rst eight games, but for most of Tues-day’s game they looked like they were still cel-ebrating the win over UNLV.

Aside from the battering on the boards, UofL’s starting front line of Rakeem Buckles, Mike Marra and Terrence Jennings scored just

fi ve points in a combined 62 minutes, mak-ing 1 of 10 shots. The starting guards, Preston Knowles and Peyton Siva, scored 13 points apiece, but they had more turnovers (7) than assists (3) and made just 8 of 23 shots.

In all, UofL shot a season-worst 31.9 per-cent (15 of 47), including 4 of 16 (25 percent) from three-point range. The Cards also were miserable from the foul line, making just 12 of 25.

Drexel entered the game ranked third na-tionally in rebounding margin at plus-13.5, and it showed. Starting forwards Daryl McCoy (a 6-9 sophomore) and Samme Givens (a 6-5 junior) almost equaled UofL’s entire team total with 10 rebounds each, and four other play-ers had fi ve or more. Buckles led UofL with six boards, and no one else had more than four.

“Rebounding is one thing we do well,” Flint said. “We’ve been rebounding like that all year, it’s been a staple of this team from the very beginning.”

The Cards sent the crowd of 20,912 home disappointed, even though Drexel commit-ted 22 turnovers and made just 12 of 25 free throws.

“Obviously, this was a disappointing loss,” Pitino said. “We lost the game because we didn’t rebound, it’s very simple. We got de-fl ections, we didn’t turn it over, but 46-26 pretty much tells the story of why we lost.

“They block out terrifi c. Their guys re-bounded the ball and our guys didn’t. When you don’t rebound, you don’t get out on the break and do the little things that help you score. They deserved the victory; you’ve got to give them all the credit.”

The game was played at Drexel’s pace. The Dragons allowed UofL only one fast-break basket, milked the shot clock down to single digits on nearly every possession and shut off UofL’s three-point attack. The Cardinals’ point total was just half their season average, as

was their number of threes.The Cards said Pitino had warned them

that Drexel was capable of beating them if they didn’t bring their “A” game, but they denied resting on the laurels of their victory over Vegas, saying it was just a bad day at the offi ce.

“Today was just an off day all the way around. Period,” Siva said. “It was just one of those days. They overpowered us on the glass. We know what we need to work on, and we just can’t let it happen again. We need to keep on getting into the gym.”

Kyle Kuric and Stephan Van Treese used words like “aggressive” and “relentless” to describe the Dragons’ work on the boards.

“I mean, we are going to learn from it,” Kuric said. “We are going to keep it in our minds and learn that it doesn’t matter who we play, we can get upset on any given night. We have to get tougher, especially on the glass.”

If rebounding was lacking, the Cards’ of-fense wasn’t much better. Knowles called it “stagnant,” and that was especially true down the stretch. After easing in front 42-41 on Knowles’ steal and dunk, UofL managed only one fi eld goal and four points in the fi nal 8 1/2 minutes while missing 12 of its last 13 shots.

Even so, UofL managed to stay within strik-ing distance until almost the bitter end be-cause Drexel was missing both fi eld-goal at-tempts and free throws and turning the ball over. But the Cards couldn’t take advantage due to their own missteps.

Chris Smith’s 18-footer was Louisville’s only basket in the last 8 1/2 minutes and pulled the Cards within 49-46 with 29.4 seconds remaining. But those were UofL’s last points, and Chris Fouch hit two free throws at 0:28.6 that made it 51-46, then UofL missed its last three shots.

“They struggled to get shots late in the game,” said Drexel guard Gerald Colds, wholed the winners with 20 points. “We came inhere thinking we were better than them andwe could beat them.”

“We brought the intensity and kept them playing our game at our pace,” Givens said.“We emphasize defense. One thing Coachmakes sure of is that we play defense and re-bound. That’s our trademark.”

UNLV SERIES MAY CONTINUEWhen UofL visits Las Vegas next season, it

will mark the fi nal game in the current four-game, home-and-home series with the Run-nin’ Rebels, but Pitino said he would like toextend the series because of the challengesUNLV offers.

Pitino said the Rebels help get the Cards ready for Big East play and are particularlysimilar in their style of play to Marquette andVillanova.

“I don’t think there’s any team on the West Coast that could help us like they do becausethey are a Big East team in the way they play,”Pitino said. “They don’t give you your tradi-tional pin-down on offense, your traditionalpost-up. They don’t give you your traditonalpost entry, because they take all that away.

“We have teams in our league that do that, and that’s why they’re a great opponent forus. Take the Villanova uniform off and put iton that team and they’re almost identical inthe way they play.”

Currently, UofL plays UNLV and UK on the road the same year and at home the sameyear, but Pitino said he would like to alternatethose games so that only one is away eachseason. The Cards host UK on Dec. 31.

“I think I’ll call Kentucky and see if they if they’ll come back here next year,” Pitino said,grinning.

N O . 2 0 U O F L S U F F E R S F I R S T L O S S , 5 2 - 4 6

DREXEL BRINGS CARDS CRASHING BACK TO EARTH

By Russ BrownCharlie Strong’s fi rst season as Lou-

isville’s head football coach got off to a rocky start, and he recalls that he won-dered what he had gotten himself into.

In the season opener in front of a ca-pacity crowd in Papa John’s Cardinal Stadi-um eager to see what the new coach had in store, Kentucky needed just two plays to score a touchdown. Strong thought he and his team were in deep trouble.

When UK scored on its third posses-sion to take a 13-0 lead, Strong told his defensive coordinator, Vance Bed-ford, over the headset, “This is going to be a long season.”

Turned out, he was right ... but in the wrong way.

The season is stretch-ing out a month longer than it had in the previous three years because UofL, despite a 23-16 loss to Kentucky, fi nished with a 6-6 record and earned its fi rst bowl trip since 2006.

The Cardinals will take on Southern Mississippi (8-4) of Conference USA in the Beef ‘O’Brady’s Bowl at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Dec. 21 seeking their fi rst winning record since that 2006 season ended with a victory over Wake For-est in the Orange Bowl and a 12-1 mark.

As he has done at other points in the campaign, Strong credits UofL’s senior class, 25 strong, for the team’s success.

“The reason we’re in a bowl game is because our 25 seniors decided to lead this football team,” he said. “This is a re-ward for our seniors. We made tremen-dous strides because of the leadership of our seniors. I didn’t set any goals in terms of wins or losses. I just wanted to put a product on the fi eld everybody would be pleased and happy with. Each game we got better and better.

“It was this football team coming to-gether and playing as a team and truly respecting one another, being totally com-mitted to one another. And that’s why you were able to watch it turn and watch guys play so well. It was exciting to watch us play.

“On Saturdays, I’d say, ‘I just can’t wait for this game to get here because I want to see how well we compete.’ We didn’t back down from anybody. We went out there and competed well.”

Now Strong’s challenge is to keep his players focused on winning one more game and not being satisfi ed with simply getting to a bowl.

“We’ll just talk about winning the foot-ball game, the way we practice and the way we handle ourselves,” Strong said. “It’s good to get to a bowl, that is really big for this program because we needed that. You want something good to hap-

pen in the fi rst year, now you have to go win the bowl. That’s what it’s all about, not just getting there but winning a bowl is really good.”

Although this is Strong’s fi rst bowl trip as a head coach, he has plenty of experi-ence with post-season play, having served as an assistant coach on 20 bowl teams. He also was Florida’s interim head coach for the 2004 Peach Bowl after Ron Zook was fi red. The Gators lost to Miami 27-10.

“That was a really tough bowl experi-ence,” Strong said. “You were dealing with different issues with the coaches, is-sues with the players.”

A couple of Cards said they’ll be ready to put the euphoria of representing UofL in a bowl, and the bowl festivities, behind them when it’s time for the kickoff at 8 p.m.

“This is a blessing,” wide receiver Doug Beaumont said. “We’re not going to be happy just going to a bowl game, we’re going to go out there and prepare for it and try to win.”

“We’ve got to go get a winning record,” quarterback Justin Burke said. “We’ve got to be 7-6.”

Senior Adam Froman, who started the fi rst eight games at quarterback before suffering a thigh bruise and missing the fi nal four games, has returned to practice, but Strong said Burke will make his fi fth straight start against Southern Miss.

However, Strong said he expects Burke and Froman both to play, and sophomore Will Stein will also be available. Stein fi lled in for Burke in the season-ending win at Rutgers when Burke was sidelined late in the fi rst half with back spasms.

“Burke has played well, and he’s still the

starter,” Strong said. “But all three guys understand the system, so you’re comfort-able with whoever the guy might be. All three can play.”

The game shapes up as UofL’s defense against a high-octane Southern Miss of-fense that is averaging 37.5 points and 458 yards per game. Both fi gures rank 15th nationally. UofL, meanwhile, ranks 12th in total defense, allowing 304.67 yards per game, along with just 18.67 ppg, so something has to give.

Strong and Southern Miss coach Larry Fedora are no strangers to each other, hav-ing served on the same staff together at Florida in 2003 and ‘04, with Fedora be-coming offensive coordinator in ‘04 when Strong was the defensive coordinator.

“Larry’s offense has always been very good, so it’s going to be a good challenge for our defense,” Strong said. “We’re go-ing to have to fi nd a way to stop them, or at least slow them down.”

That won’t be easy. Southern Miss scored 40 or more points seven times and has racked up 27 touchdowns rushing and 21 passing. And the Golden Eagles could have an edge in a close game because their place-kicker, Danny Hrapmann, was one of three fi nalists for the Lou Groza Award, which goes to the nation’s top kicker.

Hrapmann made his fi rst 16 fi eld-goal attempts, fi nished 26 of 30 and converted all 51 of his extra-point tries.

USM has a dual-threat quarterback in junior Austin Davis, who has accounted for 3,334 yards and 28 touchdowns. He ranks No. 21 in the FBS in total offense at 277.8 yards per game and has completed 63.2 percent of his passes for 2,898 yards and 18 touchdowns with just six intercep-tions. He also has rushed for 436 yards

and scored 10 touchdowns himself.Davis’ favorite targets are tight end Joh-

drick Morris (46 catches, 663 yards, 4 TDs)and wideout Kelvin Bolden (41/667/6), butseven USM players have caught TD passesand six have 20 or more receptions.

Redshirt freshman Kendrick Hardy leads the Eagles’ rushing attack with 855 yardsand a 6.7 average per carry.

“They’re a spread offense, and their quarterback is a really good football play-er,” Strong said. “But it’s all about mis-matches, personnel matchups. You haveto be smart to make sure you don’t geta linebacker out in the open space on anathletic receiver. Yards after a catch is bigfor them because they can throw the ballon the perimeter and a guy can catch itand take it the distance. We have to keepthe football in front of us, and we’ll haveto tackle those guys.”

If UofL’s defense can’t contain USM’s offense, the game could turn into a high-scoring shootout, because the Golden Ea-gles have been hard-pressed to stop any-body despite returning nine starters fromlast season.

USM lost three of the games in which it scored 40 points or more, including a 56-50 defeat at Tulsa in the season fi nale. TheGolden Eagles also lost 50-49 to UAB indouble overtime and 44-43 to East Caro-lina to fi nish 5-3 in C-USA. USM allowed29.4 points per game, 81st nationally.

The Southern Miss offense was running on all cylinders to close out the regularseason, and Fedora hopes his team cankeep the same pace headed into the bowlgame after a month-long layoff.

USM ended with back-to-back 50-point games, scoring 59 against Houston beforethe 50 against Tulsa. The last time thathappened was in 1952 when the GoldenEagles clobbered Louisiana Tech 52-0, thenthumped Louisville 55-26.

“That’s something you’re always wor-ried about as a coach,” Fedora said. “Wewere clicking and then we had to stop. Itold the team to keep working. This teamhas as much fun as any other team I’vebeen associated with. These guys like be-ing out on the fi eld. If you break continu-ity, you’re worried about how that’s goingto affect the team.”

USM is close to setting a school record for total yardage. The Golden Eagles needonly 138 yards against UofL to surpass theprevious mark of 5,636 yards in 2008.

The Golden Eagles say they’re motivat-ed by last year’s 25-23 loss at Louisville ina game that was decided by Ryan Payne’s32-yard fi eld goal with 32 seconds remain-ing.

“Last year it was a close game where they came through in the end,” defensivetackle John Henderson said. “We’ll puttogether a game plan where we shouldpretty much dominate the whole game.”

UofL is a three-point favorite.


RECRUITING NOTEBOOK10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASONCARDINAL FOOTBALL

Justin Burke is likely to be the starting quarterback when Louisville takes the fi eld against Southern Miss

next Tuesday. - photo by Dave Klotz

RUSS BROWNRUSS BROWN

U O F L M U S T S L O W U S M O F F E N S E I N S T . P E T E

BOWL GOOD FOR CARDS, WIN WOULD BE EVEN BETTER


CARDINAL FOOTBALL

NAME G ATT GAIN LOSS NET AVG TD LG AVG/GPowell, Bilal 11 211 1401 71 1330 6.3 10 85 120.9 Wright, Jeremy 10 54 303 7 296 5.5 4 64 29.6 ANDERSON, Vic 9 64 302 16 286 4.5 0 20 31.8 DONNELL, Blayne 12 25 109 5 104 4.2 0 17 8.7 Froman, Adam 8 36 147 72 75 2.1 2 19 9.4 BROWN, D. 9 20 62 3 59 3.0 0 9 6.6 Stein, Will 3 2 22 0 22 11.0 0 15 7.3 PHILPOTT, Chris 12 1 21 0 21 21.0 0 21 1.8 Bellamy, Josh 12 1 12 0 12 12.0 0 12 1.0 Evans, Zed 11 3 9 8 1 0.3 0 7 0.1 Pascley, Troy 2 1 0 10 -10 -10.0 0 0 -5.0 Burke, Justin 7 17 34 47 -13 -0.8 0 8 -1.9 TEAM 3 8 0 17 -17 -2.1 0 0 -5.7 Total.......... 12 443 2422 256 2166 4.9 16 85 180.5 Opponents...... 12 431 2094 388 1706 4.0 13 67 142.2

LOUISVILLE OPPONENTSCORING 312 224 POINTS PER GAME 26.0 18.7 FIRST DOWNS 229 196 RUSHING 103 89 PASSING 111 88 PENALTY 15 19 RUSHING YARDAGE 2166 1706 YARDS GAINED RUSHING 2422 2094 YARDS LOST RUSHING 256 388 RUSHING ATTEMPTS 443 431 AVERAGE PER RUSH 4.9 4.0 AVERAGE PER GAME 180.5 142.2 TDS RUSHING 16 13 PASSING YARDAGE 2344 1950 COMP-ATT-INT 197-331-8 167-309-9 AVERAGE PER PASS 7.1 6.3 AVERAGE PER CATCH 11.9 11.7 AVERAGE PER GAME 195.3 162.5 TDS PASSING 20 13 TOTAL OFFENSE 4510 3656 TOTAL PLAYS 774 740 AVERAGE PER PLAY 5.8 4.9 AVERAGE PER GAME 375.8 304.7 KICK RETURNS: #-YARDS 41-989 49-1182 PUNT RETURNS: #-YARDS 22-276 19-93 INT RETURNS: #-YARDS 9-104 8-102 KICK RETURN AVERAGE 24.1 24.1 PUNT RETURN AVERAGE 12.5 4.9 INT RETURN AVERAGE 11.6 12.8 FUMBLES-LOST 13-7 15-9 PENALTIES-YARDS 94-775 79-631 AVERAGE PER GAME 64.6 52.6 PUNTS-YARDS 60-2418 67-2877 AVERAGE PER PUNT 40.3 42.9 NET PUNT AVERAGE 37.1 37.6 TIME OF POSSESSION/GAME 31:00 29:00 3RD-DOWN CONVERSIONS 64/163 55/160 3RD-DOWN PCT 39% 34% 4TH-DOWN CONVERSIONS 7/13 3/6 4TH-DOWN PCT 54% 50% SACKS BY-YARDS 37-247 16-123 MISC YARDS 0 0 TOUCHDOWNS SCORED 39 28 FIELD GOALS-ATTEMPTS 13-17 10-18 ON-SIDE KICKS 1-1 1-1 RED-ZONE SCORES (30-36) 83% (22-28) 79% RED-ZONE TOUCHDOWNS (22-36) 61% (15-28) 54% PAT-ATTEMPTS (37-39) 95% (24-25) 96% ATTENDANCE 354537 197317

2010 LOUISVILLE FOOTBALL

SEASON STATISTICST E A M S T A T S

R U S H I N G

PUNT RETURNS NO. YDS AVG TD LONG Beaumont, Doug 13 199 15.3 1 74 Bellamy, Josh 7 63 9.0 0 18 RADCLIFF, Scott 2 14 7.0 0 10 Total.......... 22 276 12.5 1 74 Opponents...... 19 93 4.9 0 28

INTERCEPTIONS NO. YDS AVG TD LONG PATRICK, Johnny 5 99 19.8 1 35 Ashley, Darius 2 2 1.0 0 2 HOLTON, Shenard 1 0 0.0 0 0 Scruggs, Greg 1 3 3.0 0 3 Total.......... 9 104 11.6 1 35 Opponents...... 8 102 12.8 1 80

KICK RETURNS NO. YDS AVG TD LONG Wright, Jeremy 13 355 27.3 0 53 ANDERSON, Vic 12 369 30.8 0 67 Bellamy, Josh 7 167 23.9 0 35 DONNELL, Blayne 4 46 11.5 0 21 BROWN, D. 4 52 13.0 0 15 TEAM 1 0 0.0 0 0 Total.......... 41 989 24.1 0 67 Opponents...... 49 1182 24.1 1 100

R E T U R N S

DEFENSIVE LEADERS GP Solo Ast Total TFL-Yds No-Yds Int-Yds BU PD Qbh Rcv-Yds FF Kick Saf 29 Smith, Hakeem 12 56 24 80 6.0 - 20 1.0 - 7 . 1 1 . 1 - 0 1 . . 36 HOLTON, Shenard 12 47 18 65 2.0 - 8 . 1 - 0 1 2 . . . . . 5 Heath, Brandon 11 41 18 59 7.5 - 22 2.0 - 14 . 2 2 . . . . . 24 Brown, Daniel 12 42 11 53 11.0 - 55 4.0 - 32 . . . 2 1 - 0 1 . . 19 PATRICK, Johnny 12 41 6 47 5.5 - 16 1.0 - 6 5 - 99 11 16 1 . . . . 46 Heyman, Dexter 12 29 15 44 3.5 - 12 2.0 - 9 . 2 2 . . . . . 90 Tatum, Malcolm 12 25 17 42 7.0 - 25 4.5 - 22 . 1 1 1 . 2 . . 42 Burns, Bobby 12 27 8 35 1.0 - 3 . . 3 3 1 1 - 0 . . . 52 CANADY, Antwone 10 16 9 25 1.0 - 10 1.0 - 10 . . . 1 1 - 0 . . . 58 Gnat, Rodney 12 17 7 24 9.5 - 61 9.0 - 59 . 1 1 3 1 - 0 2 . . 44 Butler, B.J. 11 18 4 22 6.0 - 23 2.5 - 14 . . . . . . . . 33 Evans, Mike 12 12 9 21 3.0 - 21 3.0 - 21 . 2 2 . . . . . 8 Ashley, Darius 8 16 4 20 3.0 - 26 3.0 - 26 2 - 2 1 3 . . 1 . . 91 Savoy, William 12 9 7 16 3.0 - 13 1.0 - 9 . 1 1 1 . . . . 92 Dunn, Brandon 10 9 5 14 . . . . . . . . . . 6 Scruggs, Greg 11 9 4 13 5.5 - 23 2.0 - 16 1 - 3 1 2 . 2 - 0 1 . . 93 Philon, Roy 8 7 5 12 0.5 - 1 . . . . 1 . . . . 97 High, Tim 10 6 5 11 . . . . . . . . . . 2 Brown, Preston 12 3 6 9 0.5 - 1 . . . . . . . . . 43 Rogers, Deon 10 3 5 8 0.5 - 0 . . . . . 1 - 0 . . . 23 SIMIEN, Terence 5 5 2 7 1.0 - 3 . . . . . . . . . 32 PERRY, Senorise 8 5 1 6 . . . . . . . . . . 95 Salmon, Randy 7 2 3 5 1.0 - 2 1.0 - 2 . . . . . . . . 41 Sowell, Eugene 7 5 . 5 . . . 1 1 . . . . . 12 PHILPOTT, Chris 12 3 1 4 . . . . . . . . . . 86 Meagher, Zach 8 3 1 4 . . . . . . . . . . 47 MITCHELL, M. 5 1 3 4 1.5 - 7 . . . . . . . . . 26 Evans, Zed 11 2 2 4 . . . . . . . . . . 89 RADCLIFF, Scott 11 2 2 4 . . . . . . . . . .

D E F E N S E

NAME G RUSH REC PR KOR IR TOT AVG/GPowell, Bilal 11 1330 148 0 0 0 1478 134.4 ANDERSON, Vic 9 286 61 0 369 0 716 79.6 Wright, Jeremy 10 296 12 0 355 0 663 66.3 Bellamy, Josh 12 12 372 63 167 0 614 51.2 Beaumont, Doug 10 0 383 199 0 0 582 58.2 GRAHAM, Cameron 12 0 439 0 0 0 439 36.6 Smith, Andrell 12 0 361 0 0 0 361 30.1 CHICHESTER, J. 11 0 290 0 0 0 290 26.4 DONNELL, Blayne 12 104 33 0 46 0 183 15.2 BROWN, D. 9 59 32 0 52 0 143 15.9 COPELAND, D. 7 0 113 0 0 0 113 16.1 Froman, Adam 8 75 27 0 0 0 102 12.8 PATRICK, Johnny 12 0 0 0 0 99 99 8.2 Nord, Nate 9 0 36 0 0 0 36 4.0 Stein, Will 3 22 0 0 0 0 22 7.3 PHILPOTT, Chris 12 21 0 0 0 0 21 1.8 RADCLIFF, Scott 11 0 6 14 0 0 20 1.8 Nochta, Pete 7 0 17 0 0 0 17 2.4 Dominguez, Kai 3 0 4 0 0 0 4 1.3 Scruggs, Greg 11 0 0 0 0 3 3 0.3 Ashley, Darius 8 0 0 0 0 2 2 0.2 Evans, Zed 11 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.1 Burke, Justin 7 -13 0 0 0 0 -13 -1.9 TEAM 3 -17 0 0 0 0 -17 -5.7 Total.......... 12 2166 2344 276 989 104 5879 489.9 Opponents...... 12 1706 1950 93 1182 102 5033 419.4

A L L - P U R P O S E

Name TD FGs Kick Rush Rcv Pass DXP Saf Points Powell, Bilal 13 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 78 PHILPOTT, Chris 0 13-17 37-39 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 76 Bellamy, Josh 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 30 CHICHESTER, J. 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 24 GRAHAM, Cameron 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 24 Wright, Jeremy 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 24 Smith, Andrell 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 18 Froman, Adam 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 12 Beaumont, Doug 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 12 Brown, Daniel 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 6 PATRICK, Johnny 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 6 TEAM 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 2 Total.......... 39 13-17 37-39 0-0 0 0-0 0 1 312 Opponents...... 28 10-18 24-25 1-2 0 0-1 0 0 224

S C O R I N G O F F E N S E

NAME GP EFFIC CMP-ATT-INT PCT YDS TD LONG AVG/GFroman, Adam 8 136.5 132-218-4 60.6 1633 11 57 204.1 Burke, Justin 7 130.7 55-97-3 56.7 612 8 29 87.4 Stein, Will 3 131.1 9-14-0 64.3 72 1 29 24.0 BROWN, D. 9 -200.0 0-1-1 0.0 0 0 0 0.0 Beaumont, Doug 10 326.8 1-1-0 100.0 27 0 27 2.7 Total.......... 12 134.1 197-331-8 59.5 2344 20 57 195.3 Opponents...... 12 115.1 167-309-9 54.0 1950 13 62 162.5

P A S S I N G

NAME G NO. YDS AVG TD TD LONG AVG/GGRAHAM, Cameron 12 37 439 11.9 4 39 36.6 Beaumont, Doug 10 34 383 11.3 1 44 38.3 Bellamy, Josh 12 27 372 13.8 5 44 31.0 Smith, Andrell 12 23 361 15.7 3 42 30.1 CHICHESTER, J. 11 19 290 15.3 4 48 26.4 Powell, Bilal 11 16 148 9.2 3 57 13.5 ANDERSON, Vic 9 11 61 5.5 0 15 6.8 COPELAND, D. 7 8 113 14.1 0 39 16.1 DONNELL, Blayne 12 7 33 4.7 0 10 2.8 Nord, Nate 9 4 36 9.0 0 20 4.0 BROWN, D. 9 3 32 10.7 0 20 3.6 Wright, Jeremy 10 3 12 4.0 0 10 1.2 Froman, Adam 8 1 27 27.0 0 27 3.4 Nochta, Pete 7 1 17 17.0 0 17 2.4 Pascley, Troy 2 1 10 10.0 0 10 5.0 RADCLIFF, Scott 11 1 6 6.0 0 6 0.5 Dominguez, Kai 3 1 4 4.0 0 4 1.3 Total.......... 12 197 2344 11.9 20 57 195.3 Opponents...... 12 167 1950 11.7 13 62 162.5

R E C E I V I N G


10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASON10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASONCARDINAL FOOTBALL

By Russ BrownAs soon as head football coaching vacan-

cies appeared at Miami and Florida, Charlie Strong’s name surfaced in media reports of possible candidates, but the University of Louisville coach said he never thought about pursuing either of the jobs because of his loyalty to athletic director Tom Jurich.

Strong just completed his fi rst regular sea-son as the Cardinals’ coach, directing them

to a 6-6 record, and is preparing his team to play in the Beef ‘O’ Bra-dy’s Bowl Tuesday night at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., against Southern Mississippi (8-4).

Strong said Monday during his fi rst press con-

ference since the end of the regular season last month that he is “locked into” UofL.

“(Jurich) hired me and gave me the keys to this program, and I owe him a lot,” Strong said. “I will never ever chase a job; I am to-tally committed to this job here. When you talk about character, you talk about respect, you talk about sacrifi ce. I don’t see myself

walking out on a program in one year to go chase another job. I have a really good job here, and I want to build this program.”

Strong said he didn’t address any of the rumors -- which is what they turned out to be -- before now because he “didn’t have any answers.”

“They can say whatever they want be-cause of my ties there (in Florida) or what-ever,” Strong said. “But I have an athletic di-rector who gives me everything, a president of this university who believes in me and a community. So when your name pops up, you don’t go chasing. I have a really good job, so what am I chasing?

“My job is right here to get this program turned around. Our fi rst year we go to a bowl game, and we expect even better as we continue to move forward with this pro-gram.”

Earlier, Jurich said he thinks Strong, 50, would be at the top of anyone’s list as a head coach, but that he will do everything pos-sible to keep him at UofL.

“He brings everything to a job from A to Z,” Jurich said. “I will do everything in my power to make sure he stays because he is a perfect fi t for this city and this university.”

C A R D S ’ C O A C H L I K E S H A V I N G A D , P R E S . I N H I S C O R N E R

STRONG LOYAL TO JURICH, UOFL Louisville senior Bilal Powell will be playing in his fi rst bowl game for the Cardinals. Southern MIss seniors will be playing their fourth bowl game. - photo by Dave KLotz


2010 SOUTHERN MISS FOOTBALL

SEASON STATISTICS

NAME G-GS ATT GAIN LOSS NET AVG TD LG AVG/GHARDY, Kendrick 12-2 127 871 16 855 6.7 7 60 71.2 JOHNSON, Desmond 9-0 105 539 30 509 4.8 7 49 56.6 Davis, Austin 12-12 132 571 135 436 3.3 10 29 36.3 Lampley, Tracy 11-6 62 352 3 349 5.6 1 60 31.7 Floyd, V.J. 10-8 69 243 15 228 3.3 2 17 22.8 YOUNG, Martevious 6-0 8 46 3 43 5.4 0 21 7.2 Bolden, Kelvin 11-7 5 35 8 27 5.4 0 20 2.5 HRAPMANN, Danny 12-0 1 19 0 19 19.0 0 19 1.6 Hester, Jeremy 9-0 4 19 0 19 4.8 0 7 2.1 MORRIS, Johdrick 11-10 1 0 9 -9 -9.0 0 0 -0.8 TEAM 6-0 5 0 35 -35 -7.0 0 0 -5.8 Total.......... 12 519 2695 254 2441 4.7 27 60 203.4 Opponents...... 12 376 1654 294 1360 3.6 17 53 113.3

R U S H I N G

NAME G-GS EFFIC CMP-ATT-INT PCT YDS TD LONG AVG/GDavis, Austin 12-12 134.1 259-410-6 63.2 2898 18 67 241.5 YOUNG, Martevious 6-0 106.0 12-23-1 52.2 132 1 29 22.0 Floyd, V.J. 10-8 219.2 1-2-0 50.0 1 1 1 0.1 BALENTINE, Ryan 10-4 -200.0 0-1-1 0.0 0 0 0 0.0 PIERCE, Quentin 11-10 648.4 1-1-0 100.0 26 1 26 2.4 Total.......... 12 133.4 273-437-8 62.5 3057 21 67 254.8 Opponents...... 12 132.9 227-398-17 57.0 2977 26 81 248.1

P A S S I N G

NAME G-GS NO. YDS AVG TD TD LONG AVG/GMORRIS, Johdrick 11-10 46 663 14.4 4 55 60.3 Bolden, Kelvin 11-7 41 667 16.3 6 56 60.6 PIERCE, Quentin 11-10 34 400 11.8 3 67 36.4 Lampley, Tracy 11-6 26 203 7.8 0 53 18.5 SPIGHT, William 12-7 25 219 8.8 0 25 18.2 JOHNSON, Desmond 9-0 23 172 7.5 1 32 19.1 Brown, DeAndre 5-1 16 264 16.5 3 53 52.8 Hodges, Deon 11-1 13 151 11.6 2 35 13.7 Floyd, V.J. 10-8 12 40 3.3 0 13 4.0 BALENTINE, Ryan 10-4 11 82 7.5 0 18 8.2 Total.......... 12 273 3057 11.2 21 67 254.8 Opponents...... 12 227 2977 13.1 26 81 248.1* 10 or more receptions listed

R E C E I V I N G

DEFENSIVE LEADERS G-GS Solo Ast Total TFL-Yds No-Yds Int-Yds BU PD Qbh Rcv-Yds FF Kick Saf

42 WILLIAMS, Korey 12-12 38 42 80 11.0 - 36 3.0 - 20 1 - 4 . 1 3 . 1 . .

22 Collins, Jamie 12-6 41 30 71 2.5 - 11 2.5 - 11 2 - 37 2 4 1 1 - 13 . . .

26 PRESLEY, Kendrick 12-12 46 14 60 4.0 - 7 . 1 - 18 3 4 . . . . .

56 THORNTON, Ronnie 12-8 27 32 59 4.5 - 11 1.0 - 4 . 3 3 2 1 - 0 1 . .

30 Hunter, Chico 12-6 34 19 53 1.5 - 9 1.0 - 8 2 - 4 6 8 1 1 - 0 . . .

49 Law, Cordarro 12-12 27 20 47 11.5 - 63 6.0 - 52 . . . 4 2 - 0 4 . .

95 Gray, Anthony 12-10 17 25 42 5.5 - 21 1.5 - 4 . 1 1 . . . . .

8 Wilson, Justin 12-12 23 15 38 3.0 - 4 . 4 - 17 4 8 . . . . .

7D Wilson, Deron 12-12 25 9 34 2.5 - 7 . 3 - 38 11 14 . . . 1 .

48 HENDERSON, John 12-8 13 15 28 2.5 - 8 0.5 - 4 . . . 2 . . . .

91 JONES, Deddrick 11-10 9 18 27 3.5 - 11 . . . . . . 1 . .

32 Smith, Martez 6-4 10 17 27 3.0 - 8 0.5 - 2 . . . . . 2 . .

2D Bailey, C.J. 10-10 16 9 25 1.0 - 1 . . 3 3 . 1 - 0 . . .

90 Pope, Terrance 12-6 9 13 22 6.0 - 16 2.0 - 9 . 2 2 . . . . .

98 THORNTON, Khyri 12-0 7 10 17 5.0 - 14 2.5 - 11 . . . . . . . .

31 WALTERS, Alexander 10-0 12 5 17 . . 2 - 41 2 4 . . . . .

9 THOMAS, Octavius 12-2 7 10 17 3.5 - 10 1.0 - 5 . . . 1 . . . .

38 SNOWDEN, Jeremy 12-0 8 6 14 0.5 - 3 0.5 - 3 . . . . . . . .

3 O’NEAL, Cameron 11-0 6 8 14 . . . . . . . . . .

9D WHEATON, Marquese 10-2 11 2 13 . . 2 - 0 3 5 . . . . .

28 COTTON, Jacorius 12-0 3 8 11 . . . . . . . . . .

45 Byrd, Roshaad 11-0 6 5 11 4.5 - 21 2.5 - 16 . 2 2 . 1 - 0 . . .

D E F E N S E

By Tyler ClevelandThe Southern Miss football team wrapped up a wet practice at the Joe P. Park

Practice Facility Saturday afternoon, 10 days before it is set to take the fi eld against Louisville in the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Several seniors enjoyed the graduation festivities Friday morning, but it’s the younger players who are getting the bulk of the work in practice in preparation for the bowl trip.

“Today went well, it went well,” Southern Miss head coach Larry Fedora said. “We’re getting good work with the younger guys. The older guys aren’t getting as many reps, but they are getting some good work when they do, and we’re working a lot on fundamentals still early in the process (of preparing for the bowl).”

This senior class of Golden Eagles has a lot to be proud of, including four bowl invitations, a 27-21 regular-season record, a 2-1 bowl record and most importantly one of the nation’s highest graduation rates.

“We’re a lot closer than last year,” senior tight end Johdrick Morris said. “I came in with these guys, we bonded and we’ve developed some great friendships.”

Senior defensive back C.J. Bailey said that four years ago, former Golden Eagle coach Jeff Bower gave him a recruiting pitch, saying the team had been to fi ve straight bowl games. That streak will be at nine after this year’s game, and Fedora said that recruiting pitch has even more resonance now.

“It gives you the power to go in and you say, ‘We’ve won for 17 straight years, we’ve been to 13 bowl games in 14 years and nine straight. You’re going to go to a bowl game every year you are here, and not only that, but you are going to have the opportunity to compete for a conference championship every year. Then when you leave, you’ll do so with a meaningful degree.’”

The team has seven days before heading down to Tampa, and they may be the seven busiest days of the year.

After a team social Sunday at Turtle Creek Mall beginning at 1 p.m., the team will practice in the afternoon, as they will every day until they fl y out Sunday morning.

“Shoot, that’s the biggest difference,” Bailey said with a smile. “We’re getting on a plane - not a bus - to go bowling for the fi rst time since I’ve been here. That’s a big deal.”

USM SENIORS A PROUD GROUP


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BOB MONTGOM E RY HAS BE E N S E RVI NG TH E COM M U N IT Y S I NCE 1960 .

The University of Louisville football team is going to a bowl. I didn’t expect to be writing those words at the end of the season after observing spring practice and summer workouts. I came away thinking there were too many holes on offense and defense that needed fi lling by quality players that just weren’t there to win enough games to get a bowl bid.

How I underestimated this staff and the gift of motivation inherent in coach Charlie Strong and his assistants. They were able to take players who were mediocre in previous seasons and turn them into adequate if not stellar Division I performers.

As I’ve stated before, the strength of this team was the defense. Not only did defensive co-ordinator Vance Bedford and the other defensive assistants squeeze the utmost out of return-ing players, they were able to take freshmen and blend them with last year’s underachievers to produce one of the leading defenses in the Big East. Don’t forget that Strong seemed to be somewhat unhappy with the quality of the recruiting class last February and decided not to have a fan get-together to announce the signings. Also, as I’ve mentioned before, this staff expects to have a stronger recruiting class year-to-year.

So what did this team accomplish besides a .500 record and a bowl bid? In fan attendance the Cards’ 50,648 per-game average moved UofL to third in the league behind West Virginia’s 56,325 and Pitt’s 52,165. The 2010 PJCS average exceeded 2009 by 18,198 per game, a 58.3 percent increase. Last season the Cards were last in the standings and last in attendance in the Big East, their 32,450 average the lowest since entering the league in 2005.

Exciting for the future and encouraging for the fans is that the Cards were competitive in every game, with fi ve of their six losses by fewer than eight points. A 20-3 defeat at Pitt was their only sizable loss. In the topsy-turvy Big East the league champion, UConn, had two league losses, and those came against two of the bottom three teams – to Rutgers and to Louisville, the latter a 26-0 drubbing. But by defeating everyone else UConn goes to the BCS. That’s another encouraging sign for Louisville fans - that the Cards are close to being BCS worthy.

So how did the 2010 Cardinals win six games and earn a bowl bid when things looked bleak at the start of the season? It was a total team effort as the defense, offense and special teams all contributed to the success of the team. On special teams Doug Beaumont was fi rst in the Big East in punt-return average at 15.3 yards, and as a team the Cards were fi rst in punt returns with a 12.4-yard average. The Cards had the fi rst- and third-place fi nishers in kickoff-return yardage, with Vic Anderson fi rst at 30.8 yards per return and Jeremy Wright at 27.3.

On offense Bilal Powell was second in rushing at 120.9 yards per game and third in scoring with 13 touchdowns resulting in 78 points. As a team Louisville was second in sacks allowed with 16 (compared to 37 the previous season), and third in the league in the following cat-egories: total offense (375.8 yards), passing effi ciency (134.1), fi rst downs per game (19.1), turnover margin (+3) and red-zone effi ciency (81.8 percent).

Individual honors on defense went to Rodney Gnat, third in sacks with nine, and to Johnny Patrick, fi rst in passes defended with 11 breakups and fi ve interceptions and third in inter-ceptions. As a team the Cards were fi rst in red-zone defense (57.9 percent); second in pass defense (161.7 ypg), sacks (38), opponents’ fi rst downs (162) and opponents’ third-down conversions (34.8 percent); and third in scoring defense (18.7 ppg) and fourth-down conver-sions (53.8 percent).

As an indication of the total team effort displayed by the Cards, they had no players in the top 10 in tackles and no receivers in the top 10 in receptions or yards. An area of concern is the last-place fi nish in penalties per game. UofL fi nished the regular season with 94 penalties and 775 yards for a 64.6 per-game average.

Encouraging for the future is the return of 14 of the top 21 tacklers on the team, including Hakeem Smith (fi rst), Shenard Holton (second), Daniel Brown (fourth) and Dexter Heyman (sixth). With the addition of a top recruiting class and talented redshirts and transfers, the de-fense should continue to be the strength of the team. Smith was named the Big East Rookie of the Year.

Work needs to be done on offense with the graduation of six offensive linemen and the top two quarterbacks. Running back and receiving should be strong.

Most important is the return of Charlie Strong and his able staff. Strong was honored as co-Big East Coach of the Year, and at his news conference last Monday he seemed strongly committed to the University of Louisville and the guy that hired him, athletic director Tom Jurich. I don’t thing it’s hyper-bole to say that UofL football is on its way back to the top of college football.

A BOWL BID - UNREALISTIC BEFORE THE SEASON - STANDS AS A TRIBUTE

TO STRONG AND HIS STAFF

COMMENTARY BY JACK COFFEE [email protected]

Louisville super sub Chris Smith had 17 points against UNLV Saturday. The transfer from Manhattan is one of Louisville’s top scoring options off the bench. - photo by Dave Klotz

2010 BIG EAST HOME ATTENDANCE

WEST VIRGINIA 56,325PITTSBURGH 52,165LOUISVILLE 50,648RUTGERS 47,013TCU 42,466SOUTH FLORIDA 40,849SYRACUSE 40,064UCONN 38,248CINCINNATI 35,067


BOWL PREVIEW

BY HOWIE LINDSEYSEASON SO FAR...The Golden Eagles, who were picked

in the preseason to win Conference USA, tied for second in the East Divi-sion at 5-3 in the league, 8-4 overall, although they were just four points away from being 7-1 in C-USA and 10-2 overall. East Division champ Central Florida (10-3, 7-1) beat West Division champ SMU 17-7 in the conference championship game,

but Southern Miss handed then-No. 25 Central Florida its only league loss, 31-21 at Central Florida on Nov. 13. USM’s three league losses were by a total of eight points – 44-43 to East Carolina on Oct. 9, 50-49 to UAB in two overtimes on Oct. 30 and 56-50 at Tulsa on Nov. 26 in the regular-season fi nale. The only bad loss suffered by USM was 41-13 at South Carolina on Sept. 2 in the season opener.

Big things were expected for USM this season because the team made a bowl game for the eighth straight time last season, junior quarterback Austin Davis returned af-ter missing the fi nal eight games with an injury, and the defense, which ranked 43rd nationally against the run and 18th in sacks in 2009, returned nine starters.

Davis has had a very good season, ranking 21st in the country in total offense at 277.8 yards per game and be-ing named to the All-C-USA second team, and USM placed three players on the all-conference fi rst team – senior center Cameron Zipp, senior tight end Johdrick Morris and junior place-kicker Danny Hrapmann. But the defense did not hold up its end of the bargain. It ranked 81st in the na-tion in points allowed at 29.42 per game and 103rd in pass defense at 248.83 yards allowed per game. The rushing de-fense was good, ranking 13th in the country at 113.33 yards allowed per game, but that stat is somewhat misleading because opponents didn’t bother trying to run the ball when the passing lanes were so wide open.

“I said at the beginning of the year that the team that plays the best defense will win the league, and there were some games that we did not play defense the way we need-ed to play,” said USM coach Larry Fedora. “In each of the three C-USA games we lost it did not matter that we scored 142 points, we still needed a few more.”

So you can expect UofL to try to exploit USM’s pass de-fense while also trying to establish its running game be-cause coach Charlie Strong is such a believer in that physi-cal facet of offensive football.

DAVIS MAKES USM GODavis (6-2, 208) is a weapon, having passed for 2,898

yards (241.5 a game) and run for 436 (33.3 a game). He has completed 259 of 410 passes (63.2 percent) for 18 touch-downs with six interceptions, and he ran the ball an average of 11 times a game and scored 10 TDs. Furthermore, he has been sacked just 16 times, which ranks 26th in the country. It’s obvious that UofL’s fi rst order of the day will be to rein in Davis. USM is 7-1 when he rushes for 50 yards or more.

OFFENSE IS POTENTUSM can move the ball and score, although its offensive

success may be suspect because it has come in a confer-ence noted for a lack of defense. The Golden Eagles ranked 15th in the country in total offense at 458.17 ypg and 15th in scoring at 37.58 ppg. They rank 21st in rushing at 203.42 ypg and 31st in passing at 254.75 ypg.

FRESHMAN LEADS RUSHING ATTACKRedshirt freshman Kendrick Hardy (6-0, 217) didn’t

become a starter until the fi nal two games of the season but leads the Golden Eagles in rushing with 855 yards on 127 carries (6.7 yards per carry). He ran for seven TDs and headed the C-USA All-Rookie team. USM has not used Hardy in its passing game, however. He has just seven receptions for a total of eight yards.

ZIPP ANCHORS THE O-LINEZipp (6-1, 282) has started in 41 games during his ca-

reer, including his last 38, and has been a big factor in USM’s rushing for more than 2,000 yards in each of the past four seasons. The 2010 team is also on the cusp of break-ing the school record for total offensive yards in a season. That mark will have been established three of the past four years, with Zipp calling the shots on the offensive line.

MORRIS HAS STEPPED UPMorris (6-3, 214) wasn’t even listed on the two-deep

depth chart at the start of the season, but injuries opened up a starting berth, and he is on his way to becoming the fi rst Golden Eagles tight end since Robert Ray Stallings (1985) to lead the team in catches and could become the fi rst since Raymond Powell (1981) to lead in receiving yards. Morris has 46 receptions for 663 yards (14.4 yards per catch, 60.3 per game) and four TDs, with a long of 55 yards. Junior wide receiver Kelvin Bolden (6-0, 161) is second in receptions with 41, fi ve fewer than Morris, and leads in receiving yards with 667, just six more than Morris. Bolden has caught six TD passes, with a long of 56 yards.

DAVIS SPREADS IT AROUNDSeven USM players have caught TD passes, and six have

more than 20 receptions. The third-leading receiver is soph-omore wideout Quentin Pierce (5-11, 180) with 34 catches

for 400 yards (11.8 per catch, 36.4 per game) and three TDs, with a long of 67 yards. Junior wide receiver DeAndre Brown (6-6, 231) was expected to lead the team this season but has been hampered by leg injuries and has played in just fi ve games and started just one (he missed six games before returning two games ago). Nevertheless, he has 16 catches for 264 yards (16.5 a catch, 52.8 a game) and three TDs, with a long of 53 yards. Now that he’s healthy, look for Brown to be a prime target in the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl.

RECEIVERS HAVE THROWN IT FOUR TIMESUSM has had its wide receivers throw four passes this

season and has scored TDs twice. Pierce is 1 for 1, a 26-yard TD, and V.J. Floyd is 1 for 2, a 1-yard TD. Ryan Balen-tine is 0 for 1, an interception.

TURNOVERS A BIG PLUSUSM is 19th in the country in turnover margin at +.75,

having intercepted 17 passes while throwing just eight INTs and losing the same number of fumbles (eight) as it re-covered.

USM ABOVE AVERAGE IN STOPS FOR LOSSThe Golden Eagles do a decent job of making tackles be-

hind the line, ranking tied for 35th in the nation in tackles for a loss at 6.5 a game and 47th in sacks at 2.17 a game. Junior DE Cordarro Law (6-2, 251) is the team’s individual leader in both tackles for a loss and sacks for the second year in a row. This year he has 11.5 TFL, which is tied for 88th in the country, and six sacks, which is tied for 73rd in the country. He made the all-conference second team.

HRAPMANN HAS BEEN TERRIFICHrapmann, a fi nalist for the Lou Groza Award and a fi rst-

team Walter Camp Football Foundation All-American, con-verted 26 of 30 fi eld-goal tries and made all 51 extra points to tie for the lead the nation in made fi eld goals and rank fi fth in scoring at 10.75 ppg. He was 8 for 11 beyond 40 yards, equaled the third-longest fi eld goal in school history at 54 yards and established a school record with fi ve fi eld goals against East Carolina. He has established single-season school records for fi eld goals and extra points made.

SENIOR FREE SAFETY A BALL HAWKJustin Wilson (5-11, 187) is tied for 33rd in the coun-

try with four interceptions this season and is sixth on the school’s all-time list with 12. He was named to the all-con-ference second team.

PUNT RETURNER IS DANGEROUSSophomore Tracy Lampley (5-9, 169) is having a down

year but still ranks 56th in the country at 6.2 yards per punt return. Last season, however, he ranked seventh in the country in punt returns and 15th in kickoff returns and was one of just fi ve players to return both a punt and a kickoff for touchdowns. Lampley still returns kickoffs this year but is averaging just 19.5 yards a return. Junior Reggie Hunt (5-8, 164) has been more productive in that department, averaging 28.8 yards a return, 11th in the country, with a long of 85 yards.

BEWARE PUNT BLOCKSThe Golden Eagles have blocked three punts this season,

the most at USM since the 2001 team blocked three. USM won all three games in which it blocked a punt (Prairie View A&M, Kansas and Marshall).

SHOOTING MARS USM SEASONThree USM players were shot outside a Hattiesburg night-

club the morning of Nov. 14, with senior strongside line-backer Martez Smith paralyzed from the waist down after his spinal cord was severed. Smith (6-0, 222) was a starter at the beginning of the season but suffered a season-end-ing knee injury in the sixth game. Still, he is tied for 11th on the team in tackles with 27 and is second with two forced fumbles. Deddrick Jones, a junior starting defensive line-man, was shot in the chest, and Tim Green, a junior reserve linebacker, was shot in the neck, with neither wound being life-threatening. Jones (6-3, 250) was tied with Smith in tackles with 27, while Green (6-3, 226) had four tackles. The alleged shooter has been arrested. The players were celebrating USM’s victory at Central Florida on Nov. 13.

USM COACH KNOWS UofL COACHFedora, who’s known as an offensive mastermind, is in his

third season at USM and has a 22-16 overall record. He was an assistant for 22 years before taking the USM job, with stints at Baylor, Air Force, Middle Tennessee, Florida and Oklahoma State. He was the offensive coordinator at Okla-homa State for three seasons (2005-07) and at Florida for one season (2004) when Strong was the Gators’ defensive co-ordinator. Fedora was at Oklahoma State in 2007 when UofL defensive coordinator Vance Bedford was the DC there.

COMMON FOEBoth UofL and USM played Memphis this season, and

both beat the Tigers handily. The Cards smashed the visit-ing Tigers 56-0 on Oct. 9, and the Golden Eagles dispatched host Memphis 41-19 the following Saturday. Memphis fi n-ished 1-11, 0-8.

ALL-TIME SERIESUofL and USM have met 28 times in a series that dates

to 1949, with USM holding an 18-9-1 advantage. The Cards have won the last four meetings, however, including 25-23 in 2009 when Ryan Payne kicked a 32-yard fi eld goal with 32 seconds left after Trent Guy returned a kickoff 64 yards to set it up.

HEAD COACHHEAD COACHLARRY FEDORALARRY FEDORA

AUSTIN DAVISAUSTIN DAVIS

2010 SCHEDULEDATE OPPONENT TIME/RESULT RECORDSept. 2, 2010 at South Carolina (ESPN) L, 41-13 0-1

Sept. 11, 2010 Prairie View A&M W, 34-7 1-1

Sept. 17, 2010 Kansas (ESPN) W, 31-16 2-1

Sept. 25, 2010 at Louisiana Tech W, 13-12 3-1

Oct. 2, 2010 Marshall (CBSC) W, 41-16 4-1 (1-0)

Oct. 9, 2010 East Carolina (CSS) L, 44-43 4-2 (1-1)

Oct. 16, 2010 at Memphis (CSS) W, 41-19 5-2 (2-1)

Oct. 30, 2010 UAB (CSS) L, 50-49 5-3 (2-2)

Nov. 6, 2010 at Tulane (Cox) W, 46-30 6-3 (3-2)

Nov. 13, 2010 at UCF (CBSC) W, 31-21 7-3 (4-2)

Nov. 20, 2010 Houston (CBSC) W, 59-41 8-3 (5-2)

Nov. 26, 2010 at Tulsa (CBSC) L, 56-50 8-4 (5-3)

Dec. 21, 2010 vs. Louisville (ESPN) 8:00 pm ET

2009 RESULTSDATE OPPONENT RESULT RECORD Sept. 5, 2009 Alcorn St. W 52-0 1-0 Sept. 12, 2009 UCF W 26-19 2-0 (1-0) Sept. 19, 2009 Virginia (CBSC) W 37-34 3-0 Sept. 26, 2009 at Kansas (FSN) L 35-28 3-1 Oct. 1, 2009 at UAB (CBSC) L 30-17 3-2 (1-1) Oct. 10, 2009 at Louisville L 25-23 3-3 Oct. 17, 2009 Memphis W 36-16 4-3 (2-1) Oct. 24, 2009 Tulane (CSS) W 43-6 5-3 (3-1) Oct. 31, 2009 at Houston (CSS) L 50-43 5-4 (3-2) Nov. 14, 2009 at Marshall W 27-20 6-4 (4-2) Nov. 21, 2009 Tulsa (CBSC) W 44-34 7-4 (5-2) Nov. 28, 2009 at East Carolina L 25-20 7-5 (5-3) Dec. 20, 2009 vs. Middle Tenn. L 42-32 7-6

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FAST FACTS- SOUTHERN MISS HAS BEEN TO A BOWL NINE

STRAIGHT YEARS

- BRETT FAVRE IS THE GOLDEN EAGLE’S MOST-FAMOUS ALUM

TEAM BREAKDOWN

DECEMBER 21, 2010

LOUISVILLEVS.

SOUTHERN MISSST. PETERSBURG, FLA.

8:00 PM


CARDINAL FOOTBALL VS. RUTGERS PHOTO GALLERY

What an amazing run for Louisville’s men’s soccer team. The Cardinals lost to Akron 1-0 in the NCAA championship game on Sunday in Santa Barbara, Calif. Although they didn’t obtain the

trophy they worked so hard to earn, the Cards (20-1-3) ended the year with their fi rst-ever 20-win campaign, fi rst NCAA College Cup (Final Four) appearance and fi rst No. 1 ranking. “I want to start by saying how proud I am of our guys,” coach Ken Lolla said. “It was a tremendous run. Our guys have been resilient all season and set a new standard for our program, not just from the standpoint of wins and the achievements on the fi eld, but by who we are and how we do things.” This Louisville team set the standard for all future soccer teams.

Sophomore Mike Marra had been performing well in the early part of the season, but he was 0 for 9 against UNLV

and was a complete liability on offense. Louisville coach Rick Pitino said Marra was trying to shoot NBA three-pointers and should step into the line to make his shots more makeable. Marra and the Cardinals looked uninspired Tuesday night during a loss to Drexel.

After women’s basketball made the run to the national title game in 2008, the Cardinals took a signifi cant step back without stars Angel McCoughtry and Candyce Bingham the following

season (they also had signifi cant injury problems on an already-shortened roster). But for Louisville men’s soccer, it is entirely possible for them to make another run to the College Cup next season. Louisville graduates just two senior starters, midfi elder/defender J.T. Murray and midfi elder Charlie Campbell. But they bring back nearly all of their scoring, including fi rst-team All-American Colin Rolfe, who will be a senior, and some of the top freshmen performers in program history. Freshman forward Dylan Mares was the team’s second-leading scorer. Freshman forward Aaron Horton had two game-winning goals in the NCAA Tournament. And freshman midfi elder Andrew Farrell was a part-time starter and has a bright future. Louisville is going to be loaded again next season, and those freshmen will only get better with an added year of experience.

Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino might have had the best day he’s had in a long time Saturday. His day started when he got a great phone call from Rodney Purvis. The top point guard in the

class of 2012, Purvis called to say he was committing to Louisville. Three hours later Pitino’s No. 24 Cards took the court and were extremely impressive in a victory over No. 19 UNLV. What a day! Pitino’s current team stayed undefeated and he secures a key piece for his future teams. For more on Purvis, check out the feature story on Page 13.

Pitino made the day of Offi cer Kevin “Jody” Speaks Friday. Speaks was shot in the line of duty Tuesday night as he and fellow offi cer, Jeff Lauder, were responding to a report of a man walking

down the street with a gun in his hand in the Portland area of West Louisville. Speaks was shot in the back and was rushed to the hospital shortly after the incident. The best news is that Speaks is recovering quickly. Other good news is that the suspect was apprehended later that night. Since then, Speaks, who is an avid UofL fan, has heard from several UofL coaches, including Charlie Strong and Ken Lolla, and he got a personal visit from Pitino on Friday. On Sunday, the Speaks family released a statement reading, in part: “Offi cer Kevin ‘Jody’ Speaks and his family would like to take this opportunity let the community know that he is on track to make a full recovery after being shot in the line of duty this past Tuesday night. He is in good condition and progressing well.” After thanking the Fire Department, EMS, police and doctors who helped Speaks that night, the family said they were “very grateful for the support, prayers and encouragement from so many in the community, and thank God that no one was more seriously injured in the shooting. The family asks for your continued thoughts and prayers during the next days and months.”

Speaking of Pitino, he’s taken a lot of snide remarks this season for the Cardinals’ weak out-of-conference schedule. He explained his motivation for the schedule after the UNLV game Saturday.

“We’re building it the right way,” he said. “We know UNLV was coming in, we know Drexel is coming in, we know we have to go to Western (Kentucky), and we know that Kentucky is coming in. But we’re building it the right way to not only let the guys get confi dence, but let them get their fundamentals down because you don’t even have one starter back.” Pitino said his motivation was to challenge his team early with the Butler game and have some other tests before the conference schedule started, but not to break an inexperienced team’s spirit down with a brutal out-of-conference slate.

The Cardinals looked like a top-25 team as they out-worked and out-shot No. 19 UNLV Saturday at the KFC Yum! Center. After the win, Pitino was asked if it changes his perception of what

this team is capable of. “I think it is a bridge team, like I said, but like I told you earlier, the future could be this year,” he answered. “When I say a bridge team, we never say we’re young, we’re just inexperienced. The only way to build something - build a bridge - is to get the experience by practicing hard. This team probably has the best attitude of any team since I’ve been here.” Just as Pitino likes the progress and attitude of this team, the fans are right there with him. Everywhere we go in town the fans we meet are buzzing about the hard-working, blue-collar personality this team projects. The Cardinals lost their way Tuesday night during a loss to Drexel, but we believe that loss was a speed-bump on the road to a better team.

Beyond what they proved to their coach, the Cards proved something to themselves by beating the Runnin’ Rebels Saturday. “That we can play with great competition,” senior captain Preston Knowles said. “I mean, UNLV is a great team. We don’t want to

hang our hats on that victory, but it was a great one.” After the game, senior forward George Goode was asked about the way the team seems to get along, “Yeah, I mean, can’t you see it? There aren’t any names or anybody who needs to get their points. We all talk openly and can work together. There’s a big difference now (over last season).”

OK, on to football. Even though Louisville didn’t have a game last weekend, it was a great weekend for the future of Louisville football. Why? Well, the University of Florida hired Texas defensive

coordinator Will Muschamp as its new coach. Then Miami hired Temple coach Al Golden as its new coach. Regardless of how much truth there was to some of the rumors - not much by most accounts - some fans and opposing coaches were certainly talking about the possibility of Strong being a candidate for both positions. That speculation is over. We took a different take on all the speculation when it began to appear last week. Having uncertainty at both of those programs is GOOD for Louisville recruiting in the state of Florida. And having Strong mentioned as a candidate was good publicity for the Cardinals.

Strong was named Big East co-Coach of the Year last week along with UConn’s Randy Edsall. The Cards were picked to fi nish last in the Big East in a preseason coaches’ poll, but Strong

guided them to a 6-6 record, 3-4 in the Big East -- a two-game turnaround overall and in the league. Louisville was 4-8 and 1-6 in the Big East last season. Strong is the fi rst UofL coach to win the award since the Cardinals joined the league in 2005.

Strong wasn’t the only Cardinals footballer to be honored. Freshman safety Hakeem Smith was named Rookie of the Year, and the Cardinals put four players - offensive guard Mark Wetterer,

running back Bilal Powell, tight end Cameron Graham and cornerback Johnny Patrick - on the All-Big East fi rst team, and two more, Smith and offensive tackle Byron Stingily, on the second team. That’s a remarkable turnaround for a program that had zero fi rst-teamers last season and just one second-team selection. On Monday, Smith was named to Rivals.com’s fi rst-team freshman All-America list.

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C O M M E N T A R Y B Y H O W I E L I N D S E Y


MEN’S SOCCER

CARDINAL FOOTBALL

By Howie Lindsey“Shot! Yes! No! Another shot.... Oh,

NO! Another shot.... Oh, no!”That’s what the fi nal minute of the 2010

NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship sound-ed like to University of Louisville fans who watched the match on ESPN2 last Sunday.

Top-ranked UofL’s fantastic run through the NCAA Tournament ended with a fl urry of empty chances in the fi nal minute at the championship game against No. 3 Akron. The Zips, last year’s runner-up, held off the late-charging Cardinals to triumph 1-0 in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Akron (22-1-2) survived with the help of good goal-keeping and a lot of luck in the fi nal minute of play.

The Cardinals (20-1-3) fell behind with just over 11 minutes to go when Zips forward Scott Caldwell scored on the rebound of his own de-fl ected shot. Trying for

a late goal to tie it, Louisville substituted scorer Aaron Horton for defender Brock Grainger and pressed the action in the fi nal minutes.

With just over a minute to go, the Cards had back-to-back-to-back-to-back scoring chances, with the fi nal attempt - an open-goal shot by Horton - defl ected off the foot of an Akron defender and safely kicked away.

“All season long, it’s a product of what we do for 90 minutes plus -- in our last two games, the last-minute goals,” UofL coach Ken Lolla said, referring to fi nal-minute goals to beat UCLA and North Carolina in the previous two rounds. “It has been a product of what we did in the 89 minutes before that. It’s more to do with the type of people we have associated with our pro-gram -- never say die and always pressing forward. It’s a great characteristic to have.”

Many casual UofL fans were galvanized in their support for Lolla’s team when they watched the Cardinals beat UCLA and North Carolina on exhilirating last-minute goals by Horton. It appeared the same thing was about to happen against Akron.

“I think it was typical of our season and typical of our players that we had a never-say-die attitude,” Lolla said. “We had a per-severance all season. I kept saying to myself on the sideline that we were going to get a chance. I knew we would, and it was just a matter of putting it away. And we got a few chances.”

The agony of each of those fi nal scoring chances being knocked away was one of the hottest topics in the city Sunday night and Monday.

“We got a couple of good chances,” Horton said. “I tried to take my chance again and put it in the net, kept it on goal, and they made a good save off the line.”

Louisville pulled out all the stops, but their best efforts came up just a little short.

“We pressed it quite a bit,” Lolla said.

“We moved Austin up and we played with two forwards. We crowded the box and we put him under, but it was just one of those things that the chances we took we just didn’t get in.”

After the match, Louisville’s players were devastated. Many just sat on the turf. Oth-ers walked slowly back to the locker room. Lolla said his post-match message was fo-cused on lifting his team’s spirits.

“We have tried hard to help them under-stand what they have done,” he said. “Im-mediately after the game we spoke to them about what this season has done for our program and their part in that. I know the sting of not winning it all, especially when we were so close, is with them probably more than anything.”

Lolla said it was diffi cult for his players

to understand the enormity of making the championship game when prior to this sea-son the Cardinals had won only one NCAA Tournament match. Even two days later, when his team was preparing to be hon-ored at the KFC Yum! Center on Tuesday, Lolla said his players are stuck on the result of the fi nal game.

“I think more than anything, our guys are still caught on the last game,” he said. “Had that last game gone differently, I think they probably would think differently. But the disappointment of not fi nishing the way we had expected, I think the emotion is still settling in.”

As the players were introduced during halftime of the Louisville-Drexel game Tues-day night, the fans roared their approval. Lolla had been introduced at previous

games, but his players had been kept out of the limelight.

“There are a couple of kids that opted to go on vacation early, and I don’t think they understand what they are missing,” Lolla said before the game. “The fi rst time I got a chance to walk out there ... it was incred-ible. It was incredible. I don’t think these kids understand what is going to happen at halftime.”

HAND BALL OR NO?In the fi rst half, Louisville appeared to

have an excellent chance at scoring the game’s fi rst goal when a shot ricocheted off an Akron defender’s arm just a few yards from the goal. A hand ball would have re-sulted in a penalty kick for the Cardinals, a likely goal-scoring situation, but no call was made.

The non-call was one of the hottest top-ics among fans after the game.

“It is up to the interpretation of the ref-eree. I don’t dispute his calls,” Lolla said. “He makes the calls as he sees it, and I will leave that one alone.”

A LOOK TO NEXT SEASONOne of the most remarkable things

about Louisville’s run is that many of UofL’s stars will be back next season. The Cardi-nals could be even better than they were this season.

“We expect to be good again,” Lolla said. “Going into this season we expected to be good. The question is really, and I’ll talk a little bit about this at halftime, our growth. How much we grow between now and next season - including the spring and including preseason - will determine how

Louisville stars Charlie Campbell (left with NCAA Runner-Up trophy), Austin Berry (middle with Big East Champions trophy) and J.T. Murray (with Big East Red Division trophy) surveyed the scene at the KFC Yum! Center as coach Ken Lolla thanked the fans for their support. - photo by Howie Lindsey

C A R D S H A V E T H R E E T R O P H I E S T O S H O W F O R B R E A K T H R O U G H S E A S O N

LOUISVILLE’S AMAZING RUN ENDS IN NATIONAL-TITLE GAME

HOWIE LINDSEYHOWIE LINDSEY

More than a thousand UofL fans turned out to send off the UofL

men’s soccer team in style last week at the

KFC Yum! Center. - photo by Howie Lindsey

CONTINUED ON PAGE 12


MEN’S SOCCER

CARDINAL FOOTBALL

By Howie LindseyA last-minute goal by freshman reserve

Aaron Horton helped No. 1 Louisville beat No. 4 North Carolina 2-1 in the NCAA semifi nals Friday night in Santa Barbara, Calif. Horton’s goal sent the Cardinals (20-0-3) into the national championship game Sunday afternoon against Akron.

“It is exciting to be playing for the national championship,” UofL coach Ken Lolla said. “It is where we expected to be all season. We are excited at this point to be able to compete for it.”

The play that spawned Horton’s goal was a thing of beauty. Key reserve Ryan Smith got the ball in be-tween midfi eld and the box. He had some space, then took a stutter-step left and created even more space and paused the defense. Horton, who was sprinting down the fi eld to the left of Smith, saw the de-fense pause and took advantage, scoot-ing ahead of a line of fi ve North Carolina defenders to receive the pass from Smith.

Using his speed to catch up to Smith’s pass a step or two ahead of a group of de-fenders, and with UNC goalkeeper Scott Goodwin coming out to meet him, Hor-ton deftly scored the game-winning goal with a tap on the outside of his right foot. The ball sailed above a diving Goodwin and into the far right corner of the net.

“Basically, Ryan was the one who made the play happen,” Horton humbly said. “He got the ball and started dribbling and took it out wide and slipped it through and I was able to put it away.”

Horton, who has been dubbed “Super Sub,” also scored the game-winning goal against UCLA in the Elite Eight two weeks ago. That goal also came in the fi nal min-ute and gave the Cards a 5-4 victory. Un-like his goal against UNC, however, Hor-ton made his own space against UCLA by dribbling around and through fi ve de-

fenders before scoring. The last undefeated team in the nation,

UofL was making the school’s fi rst trip tothe College Cup. For soccer superpowerNorth Carolina, the Cup was old hat. TheTar Heels were in college soccer’s FinalFour for the third straight season. Still,Louisville appeared to be the more ag-gressive team throughout the match, andthe Cardinals had several good chances toscore in the fi rst half, including a shot ongoal by Charlie Campbell with 28 minutesleft in the half. Despite all of Louisville’schances, the Cardinals and Tar Heels wentinto halftime tied at 0.

“We started a little slow in the fi rst half, played a little tentative,” Lolla said.“But we came out in the second half veryaggressively and stepped up the tempo.We set up a lot of chances and were re-warded late in the game.”

UofL still appeared to be the aggressor in the second half. The Cardinals got onthe scoreboard fi rst when a corner kickwas headed in by junior Austin Berry with31 minutes left in the second half. Thatlead didn’t last long, though, as UNCscored the tying goal three minutes later.

“The goal was one of their few good chances to score,” Louisville goalkeeperAndre Boudreaux said. “We had faith andthe belief we could come back and get another goal.”

The score stayed tied for the next 28 minutes on the game clock until Horton’s game-winner with 51 seconds left.

Lolla said he is proud of his team’s ef-fort all season to reach the national fi nal.

“For this group and this team, it’s a goal we set at the beginning of the sea-son,” he said. “We polished each step every step of the way. I am very proud of this team because they faced a lot of adversity. This is the product of sowing seeds, and we’ve reached the harvest of those seeds. We’re very blessed to reach the harvest of everything we’ve worked hard to do.”

Coach Ken Lolla told the crowd at the KFC Yum! Center that he appreciated their support during Louisville’s run through the NCAA Tournament. - photo by Dave Klotz

LOUISVILLE BEATS NO. 4 UNC TO ADVANCE TO FINAL


good we could be.”But Lolla hinted that fans shouldn’t as-

sume another undefeated season just be-cause the Cardinals completed this regular season undefeated.

“We will have, without a doubt, the toughest schedule we have ever had, and purposely so,” he said. “If ever there was a team that could handle it and needs to handle it, it will be this one. We’re throw-ing it out there and saying, ‘Here it is, let’s go.’”

Lolla said he’ll test his team in the spring as well. The Cardinals are planning to take a trip to Brazil during spring break.

“There will be a lot of challenges for us, but we are looking forward to it,” he said. “In those challenges and in that tough schedule is where we’ll fi nd the most growth.”

BUILDING A FAN BASELouisville led the nation in attendance

during the NCAA Tournament, drawing overfl ow crowds at each of their three home games. UofL vice president for athletics Tom Jurich said he was extremely pleased with how the team handled its run through the tournament.

“From the games at Cardinal Park, shut-ting down I-65, to the games in California, I am so proud of the phenomenal ambas-sadors they have been for our city and this University,” he said.

Lolla’s team had autograph signings be-fore and after their trip to California for the College Cup. They also took time to sign autographs and pose for pictures with fans after each game this season.

“I am proud how our guys represented

not only the city of Louisville, but certainly the University of Louisville and our pro-gram,” Lolla said.

Lolla said he believes the more his program is highlighted, the more fans they’ll gain.

“The kids in the city need to identify with our kids on this team because they are good kids,” he said. “They are very good role models. When we go on road trips with them, we enjoy being on the road with them. We enjoy being around them, and they are such good representatives of our athletic department and the University of Louisville and the city. We are proud of that, and we are proud of the image we represent.”

A SPECIAL RUNLolla, who helped build Akron into a

national power, said one of the best parts of the experience for him was having his friends and family close to him on the trip West to the College Cup.

“I think just being a part of college soc-cer’s greatest event, and really, throughout the past fi ve or 10 years there has probably not been a better Final Four in terms of venue, location and competition,” he said. “To be a part of that, and the teams that were there were such good teams. The dis-play of soccer over the weekend was very, very good.

“The other thing was how many im-portant people in my life were there. The entire staff from Akron was there, and that is where I spent 13 years. This group from UofL who we so much love, and then my family from New Jersey was there as well. At a culmination of a season to have all of those people there at one of the fi nest times of my life was really, really cool.”

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

Ryan Smith and Aaron Horton shared a laugh at center court at the KFC Yum! Center Tuesday night as the Cardinals were introduced to the crowd. Both got a big kick out of how loud the applause was for Horton when he was introduced. Horton had game-winning goals against both UCLA and UNC. - photo by Howie Lindsey


LOUISVILLE BASKETBALL

LOUISVILLE LANDS 2012’S TOP SCORING GUARDLOUISVILLE BASKETBALL

By Howie LindseyA 6-foot-3, 185-pound player with elite

ball-handling skills, phenomenal athleticism and a nice shooting stroke, Raleigh, N.C., point guard Rodney Purvis is truly one of the best guards in any class. He reclassifi ed from 2013 to 2012, and he’s still one of the top fi ve players in the class. Last Saturday morning he made his college pick.

“I’m going to be a Louisville Cardinal,” Purvis tweeted.

Purvis made his pick after visiting quite a few schools, including Lou-isville, in recent weeks. He made his fi nal pick between Louisville and Duke. He also had offers from North Carolina, Kentucky, Xavier, Texas,

Memphis, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Georgia Tech.

“After my visit, I kind of really had my mind made up that I wanted to go there, and it was just the time to commit,” Purvis told The Courier-Journal. “I am just really excited to be a Louisville Cardinal, and I can’t wait to get there.”

He told Rivals.com contributor Adam Zagoria that his familiarity with Louisville

was part of the reason for his commitment.“The coaching staff, the AD, commit-

ment to basketball,” he said. “And it was a great environment.”

Depending on which recruiting rank-ing you subscribe to, Purvis could be the highest-ranked recruit ever to commit to the Cardinals. He was rated the No. 1 point guard in the class of 2013 and the No. 2 overall player, according to Rivals.com be-fore he reclassifi ed to 2012.

In mid-November, Rivals.com national analyst Jerry Meyer was asked to compare Purvis’ game to other elite guards in the class. Meyer was gushing in his praise.

“Simply put, Purvis is one of the best scoring guards I’ve scouted in the eight years I’ve been doing this,” Meyer wrote. “... Even though he has jumped up from the 2013 class to the 2012 class, he is still the top point guard in his new class.”

Meyer continued: “A lot about his game is similar to last year’s No. 1 ranked prospect in the Rivals150, Josh Selby. Purvis might not be quite the explosive leaper at the rim that Selby is, but Purvis is a dynamic scorer like Selby with a similar overall game.”

Although he’s listed as a point guard, the Upper Room Christian junior is an elite scorer.

“Purvis can score in pretty much any way and is adept at knocking down the diffi cult shot,” Meyer wrote. “Although he is best as a scorer, Purvis can also create scoring opportunities with his penetration and passing ability. On the defensive end, he can basically be as good as he wants to be.”

Purvis moved Louisville near the top of his list when the Cardinals hired Tim Fuller

to be an assistant coach last summer. Fuller,who is friends with Chris Paul from theirdays at Wake Forest, has been familiar withPurvis since before high school. Purvis playsfor the CP3 All-Stars, the AAU team Paulsponsors in North Carolina.

Dubbed “the next John Wall” by ESPN Rise magazine, Purvis shys away from thosecomparisons, but many analysts see manycomparisons between the two. Both arebigger point/scoring guards from Christianschools in North Carolina.

“Honestly, just having my name in that category would be great,” he told LexingtonHerald-Leader writer Jerry Tipton this sum-mer. “If you really get into it, you’d prob-ably try to do too much just to try to be JohnWall. That’s something I try not to do.”

Purvis estimated he’s played 100 one-on-one games against Wall. Most believe he couldhave the type of impact Wall had at Kentucky.ESPN has Purvis ranked the No. 2 shootingguard and No. 7 overall player in the class.

“Rodney is a slasher supreme,” ESPN’s evaluation reads. “He is impossible to keepout of the lane at times. He is very strongand a very good athlete. His quickness,strength, size and solid handle allow himto get wherever he wants on the court,whenever he wants.”

Rodney Purvis committed to Louisville Saturday. - photo by Rivals.comHOWIE LINDSEYHOWIE LINDSEY


LOUISVILLE VS. UCONN PHOTO GALLERY


LOUISVILLE-UNLV BASKETBALL PHOTO GALLERY

Point guard Peyton Siva surveyed the scene as he

dribbled upcourt against UNLV. Siva had nine points and seven

assists with fi ve turnovers. - photo by Shelley Feller

Senior captain Preston Knowles scored all 20 of his points in the second half,

including 14 in one fi ve-minute stretch, to help the Cardinals rally to a 77-69 victory

over No. 19/20 UNLV, which led 45-36 early in the second half. - photo by Dave Klotz

UofL’s Terrence Jennings controlled the opening tip over

UNLV’s Quintrell Thomas last Saturday. - photo by Dave Klotz

Junior reserve Chris Smith accepted the award as the MVP

of the Billy Minardi Classic after a brilliant all-round effort against

UNLV -- 17 points, six rebounds, two blocks, two assists and two

steals. - photo by Dave Klotz

Charlie Strong was all smiles after being

introduced to the crowd at the UNLV

game and receiving a loud ovation. -

photo by Dave Klotz



By Russ BrownUniversity of Louisville basketball coach

Rick Pitino is outspoken when it comes to the possibility of the city luring an NBA team to play in the new KFC Yum! Center. Respond-ing to a story in The Courier-Journal last week about the subject, he called the idea

“wacky,” and predicts it won’t happen.

Having coached the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks, Pitino is still an NBA fan and says he doesn’t have a problem with an NBA team com-ing to Louisville. . .he just thinks it isn’t probable.

He says the city couldn’t fi nancially support an NBA franchise.

The Louisvillle Metro Council has paid at-torney J. Bruce Miller $60,000 to explore the possibility of bringing an NBA team to Derby City, and Miller told The C-J that he has a potential billionaire investor, as well as about 12 minority investors, lined up.

“I’m not averse to it,” Pitino said. “But ... you can have an idea and go to the Metro Council and say, ‘Let’s get an NFL team here,’ or a hockey team or an NBA team. But what validity does it have?

“First of all, 50 percent of NBA teams lose money. Second, if you lived in New York City, four tickets will run you about $500. Louis-

ville can’t afford that. Most important, the NBA’s not coming to Louisville because David Stern doesn’t want it to be in Louisville.

“First thing you have to do before you have all these wacky thoughts is somebody go meet with Stern and say, ‘Is there any possibility of this happening?’ and if he says, ‘Let me think about it,’ then you go to work. You don’t try to fi nd guys with money that could buy a team; you fi rst go to Stern and ask if there is any remote possiblity and then you print that gossip in your newspaper.”

Told that Miller says he has had a con-versation with Stern, Pitino replied sarcasti-cally: “I’m sure many times he’s had up-close meetings with him.

“I mean, he’s a big NBA fan and that’s great. You have someone here who is also an NBA fan but doesn’t think the NBA is com-ing to Louisville. I think the ticket prices are too high, too much for Louisville. There are very few people in this town with that kind of money.

“Now Las Vegas would be a great town for an NBA team. Just get Steve Wynn (own-er of the Wynn and Encore casino-hotels in Vegas) to turn loose of some of his stock.”

UofL athletic director Tom Jurich told The C-J that he isn’t opposed to sharing the KFC Yum! Center with an NBA team as long as the university continues to have scheduling priority for its basketball teams.

PITINO SKEPTICAL OF NBA TALK



RECRUITING NOTEBOOK

By Jeff WaffordFlush with the recruiting plus of get-

ting a bowl bid, Charlie Strong and his staff hosted a small but talented group of recruits last weekend, including a trio of players who have already committed to Louisville and a trio of players with big-time scholarship offers the Cards are hop-ing to land. Among the latter was the No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in the class of 2011 -- Teddy Bridgewater.

Bridgewater (6-3, 185), who is rated four stars, is one of the most sought-after recruits in the country. The Miami North-

western H.S. (Fla.) prod-uct has offers from LSU, Florida, Miami, Tennes-see, Louisville and many others.

Originally a com-mitment to Miami, Bridgewater decided to consider other options after the Hurricanes and coach Randy Shannon

parted ways. Bridgewater is rated the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback in Florida, the No. 16 overall recruit in the state and one of the top-100 recruits in the nation (70).

“Bridgewater has excellent arm strength but can also put touch on the ball when needed,” Rivals.com’s Barry Every wrote after watching him play this summer. “He has great pocket presence and the ability to make yards with his feet. He is most dangerous buying time in the pocket while the coverage breaks down. Bridgewater has tremendous confi dence in his abilities and is a natural leader.”

Since the inception of the Rivals.com top-100 system of rating recruits in 2001, Louisville has signed just three recruits out of high school rated among the top 100 - running back Michael Bush, quarterback Brian Brohm and defensive end Peanut Whitehead. Both Bush and Brohm are cur-rently in the NFL, but Whitehead’s career was cut short by injury when he was a sophomore at UofL.

While Bridgewater has remained mum on his recruitment after de-commiting from Miami, a couple of signs point to UofL having a good shot at landing his pledge. He seems to have a good relation-ship with Cardinals assistant coach Clint Hurtt, who recruits the Miami area, and two of his former high school teammates -- Michaelee Harris and Corvin Lamb -- are freshmen at UofL. Harris, a wide receiver, was one of the most heralded recruits in Strong’s fi rst class and was expected to play a prominent role this season but suf-fered a season-ending knee injury in sum-mer practice. Lamb,a running back, red-shirted this season.

In addition, a couple of the other schools recruiting Bridgewater – Florida and LSU – have had things recently that could push him away. UF coach Urban Meyer stepped down last week, and LSU landed a very highly rated junior college quarterback.

Charles Gaines Jr., John Miller and Ter-rell Floyd, who already have pledged their commitments to the Cards, were on hand and all looked to be solid after their of-fi cial visits.

Gaines (5-11, 181), is listed as the No. 35 receiver in the nation and No. 70 player in Florida. The Miami Central H.S. product committed to the Cardinals in September over offers from Duke, FIU, Minnesota, Marshall, UCF and West Virginia.

Gaines, a fast playmaker with solid

hands, has impressed many who have seen him, and some Division I coaches consider him underrated as a three-star player.

Miller (6-2, 295), a three-star offensive lineman, is a teammate of Gaines who committed to the Cardinals in October. He also has offers from FIU, Kansas State, Marshall, UCF and South Florida.

Floyd (5-10, 186), is rated as the No. 71 overall athlete in Florida and a three-star player. The Port St. Lucie H.S. (Fla.) product committed to the Cardinals in September. Before committing he had offers from the likes of Kentucky, Purdue, Rutgers, South Carolina, Central Florida, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

The other two recruits in town the Cards hope to land are Eli Rogers and El-kino Watson.

Rogers (5-10, 180) is a wide receiver

and teammate of Bridgewater’s, meaning there was quite a reunion last weekend as that pair met with Harris and Lamb. Rog-ers has stayed in contact with both play-ers since they made the move to Louisville and received insight to being a student-athlete there.

“They said they enjoy Louisville,” Rog-ers said. “It’s a cool place up there, the whole coaching staff is cool people and coach Strong is a pretty cool guy, too.”

This was Rogers’ fi rst offi cial visit and will not be his last. He plans to check out several more schools before rendering his fi nal decision. “I’m defi nitely going to see more schools - probably UCF, Cincinnati and UM (Miami),” he said. “Another one will probably be scheduled this month, then the rest will probably be in January.”

Rounding out the visit list was Watson

(6-2, 275), a defensive tackle from BookerT. Washington H.S. (Fla.) who has offersfrom Florida, Rutgers, Minnesota, Duke,Central Florida, South Florida, Wake For-est, MTSU, Louisville, Florida State andseveral others.

The three-star recruit is rated the No. 33 defensive tackle in the class of 2011and No. 66 overall in Florida, according toRivals.com. He’s the No. 5 defensive tacklein Florida, a state known for producingplaymakers at that position.

In large part, Watson’s visit to Louisville took place because of Meyer’s departurefrom Florida because Watson was sup-posed to visit Tallahassee last weekend.He’ll take that visit this weekend.

A three-star player who was supposed to visit last weekend but didn’t was Jona-than Battle (6-2, 280), a defensive tacklefrom Americas Sumter H.S. (Ga.) who re-scheduled after talking with UofL assistantcoach Ron Dugans. Battle now will visit thesecond weekend in January. He currentlyhas no other visits scheduled, although hedoes hold offers from Georgia Southernand Arkansas.

“I put a lot of other visits on hold,” Bat-tle said. “I want Louisville to be my fi rstoffi cial visit, so I don’t plan on schedul-ing any more until I schedule my visit upthere.”

Battle bounced back this season after a knee injury that required two differentsurgeries forced him to miss most of hisjunior year. He had eight sacks and morethan 65 tackles this season. One of thereasons Battle continues to stick with theCards is because they stuck with him,which is reminiscent of how they stuckwith current NFL player Dewayne White,who suffered a severe knee injury in highschool before going on to a stellar careeras a defensive end with the Cardinals.

“I love them and it seems like they never really lost hope in me,” Battle said.“They’ve been there before I hurt myselfand during the whole process. I look atthem as being high competition to a lot ofschools because they showed that loyalty.I like the coaching staff; they seem to bevery down to earth.”

JEFF WAFFORDJEFF WAFFORD

2011 FOOTBALL COMMITMENTSPROSPECT POS HOMETOWN HIGH SCHOOL HT. WT. 40 RECRUITING NOTE Jamon Brown DT Louisville Fern Creek 6-3 305 - Kentucky Top 10, city’s top linemanChris Dukes DB Cincinnati Colerain 5-10 184 4.43 Fast and physical cornerbackAaron Epps OL Tucker, Ga. Tucker 6-6 238 4.9 Tall, lean TE could be an OL in collegeTerrell Floyd DB Port St. Lucie, Fla. Port St. Lucie 5-10 186 4.5 No. 63 ATH in the nation, No. 99 overall Fla.Charles Gaines WR Miami Miami Central 6-1 190 4.42 Offers from Florida State, Arkansas, S. CarolinaJalen Harrington SS/LB Louisville Fern Creek 6-3 215 4.7 Kentucky Top 15, top sleeper in the cityEddie Johnson LB Selma, Ala. Selma 6-2 218 4.6 Big linebacker just moved schoolsJacquese Kirk DB Jasper, Ala. Walker 5-11 160 4.4 Alabama Top 25, elite recruitRyan Mack OL Memphis, Tn. Wooddale 6-4 310 -- Tennessee Top 10, elite recruitJohn Miller OL/DL Miami, Fla. Miami Central 6-2 295 -- Short but productive linemanJerrell Moore RB Louisville Fern Creek 5-11 175 4.4 Kentucky Top 10Deiontrez Mount DE Ft. Walton Beach, Fla. FWB High 6-6 202 4.7 No. 26 Weakside defensive end in the nationDeVante Parker WR Louisville Ballard 6-2 180 4.49 Kentucky Top 5, top WR in KentuckyCalvin Pryor DB Port St. Joe, Fla. Port St. Joe 6-1 190 4.5 No. 28 safety in America, No. 62 in Fla.Eric Robinson-Berry DB Indianapolis Warren Central 6-1 175 4.45 Fast DB with great football IQMike Romano OL Pt. St. Lucie, Fla. Treasure Coast 6-4 269 5.1 Solid-bodied OLZay Sharp RB Griffi n, Ga. Spalding 6-2 200 4.5 Great speed, sizeDaMarcus Smith QB Louisville Seneca 6-1 180 4.5 Elite 11 QB, top QB in KentuckyRobert Terrell LB Russellvile, Ala. Russellville 6-1 249 4.6 Alabama Top 40John Wallace K Cecilia, Ky. Central Hardin 6-1 175 -- Ky.’s top kicker

CARDINALS HOST SEVERAL TOP RECRUITS, INCLUDING NO. 2 DUAL-THREAT QB

Miami Northwestern Teddy Bridgewater is one of the

top quarterback recruits in the nation. He is expected

to make a college decision sometime this week. -

photo by Rivals.com



By Russ BrownGeorge Goode has his health back. Now

the University of Louisville’s injury-plagued forward/center is eagerly anticipating more time on the court.

Goode’s career has never really gotten off the ground at UofL thanks to a wide assortment of ailments, including two con-cussions last season. In addition to the head injuries, problems during his two seasons as a Cardinal have included a stress fracture in his leg, an ankle sprain, a bone bruise and recurrent trouble with his knees.

During his first two seasons, Goode spent more time in a dress shirt and slacks

than he did in uniform.“George is always in

the training room for one reason or another,” UofL coach Rick Pitino said.

But Goode hopes his almost-daily appoint-ments with trainer Fred Hina are over.

“I feel great every day,” he said. “I haven’t felt this good since I’ve

been here, honestly. I’m glad I’m injury-free so far, and I’m hoping not to get any more injuries. It feels great to be out of street clothes and able to help my team. I see my playing time increasing by me being healthy.”

So does Pitino, who said last week that the 6-foot-8, 230-pound Raytown, Mo., native has moved ahead of sophomore Stephan Van Treese in the substitution ro-tation -- assuming he can keep avoiding the injury bug, which Pitino isn’t so sure will be the case.

“The problem with George is, he’s al-ways hurt,” Pitino said. “He’s like Russ Smith and Preston (Knowles), there’s al-ways something nagging. They’re just like mothers-in-law, they’re always nagging.”

Going into Saturday’s game against UNLV, Goode had played 27 minutes in the two previous contests, six minutes more than his combined total in the first six games. Van Treese entered last Wednes-day’s 61-35 victory over San Francisco be-fore Goode, but Goode wound up playing 13 minutes.

To earn less time on the bench, though, Goode will have to be more productive, because he didn’t score or get a rebound against USF. He showed what he’s capable of doing in last Saturday’s victory over UNLV when he helped energize the Cards in the first half by getting four points and three rebounds in just eight minutes.

“When George came in, he did exactly what we had practiced,” Pitino said. “This was a game where you had to do so many things right mentally to win, so you had to go with George. He is a cerebral basketball player who talks and makes the right move. He also rebounds and blocks shots.”

In any case, Goode said he doesn’t con-sider himself ahead of Van Treese.

“We’re all equal,” Goode said. “When-ever Coach calls our number, it’s up to all of us to be ready to play. I don’t really feel I’ve moved in front of him. There are no big-name people on our team, it’s just five guys out there playing.”

Goode said the chemistry and camara-derie on this year’s team is better than last season. UofL lost four starters from that 20-13 club in Edgar Sosa, Jerry Smith, Sa-

mardo Samuels and Tony Delk.“This is a totally different group,”

Goode said. “No knock on Sosa, Samardo and all of them, but we’re just all together. We know what we’ve got to do, and we all talk and have fun. We know if we talk and do all the things Coach asks us to do, we won’t have any bad days.”

Probably the main reason Goode has bumped Van Treese down a notch on the front line is Van Treese’s woeful free-throw shooting. He has made only 2 of 12. Be-cause of his limited playing time, Goode is somewhat of an unknown quantity on the foul line. He has shot just three free throws this season, making two. For his career, he is 6 of 8.

“The two weakest areas for Stephan are

free-throw shooting and talking defensive-ly,” Pitino said. “George does a very good job of passing, blocking shots. Stephan does a much better job of running the floor. It’s always been very close, but the reason Stephan moved ahead of George was George was injured. Now George is back and playing well. But George just isn’t a great runner, and neither is Rak, (Rakeem Buckles) or TJ (Terrence Jennings). Stephan and Mike Marra are good runners. Some guys just run well.”

Goode is listed on the roster as a senior, but he will have one more year of eligibility after this year. He enrolled at UofL in the fall of 2007 but sat out the season after failing to meet freshman academic require-ments. He wasn’t even permitted to prac-

tice with the team.Pitino said on his radio show earlier this

season that he expects Goode to transfer after this year to a school where he would be immediately eligible to play his final season, but Goode said he hasn’t made a decision.

“I really haven’t thought about it,” he said. “I’m just doing this year and seeing what happens after that.”

CARDS DOMINATE DONSAfter a sluggish 20 minutes, the No. 24

Cardinals -- playing their first game this season as a ranked team -- clamped down defensively in the second half and dis-patched San Francisco (3-5) to boost their record to 7-0.

UofL’s start is its best since 1996-97 when it opened 10-0. The school record for victories to open a season is 13, achieved three times (1960-61, 1966-67 and 1974-75).

After leading just 25-24 at halftime, the Cards limited the Dons to a mere 11 points in the second period, the fewest UofL has allowed in a half since at least the 1981-82 season. And San Francisco’s 35 total points were the fewest for a Louisville opponent since a 42-31 win over Cincinnati on March 7, 1981, in the Metro Conference Tourna-ment final in Freedom Hall.

The Dons managed only two field goals and five points in the first 15 minutes of the second half while falling behind 54-29. UofL took command by hitting four straight three-point shots early in the half while putting together a 16-0 run.

San Francisco hit only 5 of 23 shots in the second half (21.7 percent) and finished 14 of 45 (31.1 percent), including 2 of 14 from beyond the arc.

The Cards’ defense rescued them from a poor shooting night -- they shot a season-low 36.1 percent, including 27.8 (10 of 36) from three-point range.

“What I told them at halftime was, there is always a tournament game when shots aren’t falling and you are going to have to win it with defense,” Pitino said. “And they did it in the second half. They won it with defense.

“In the first half I just think our guys were so consumed with our shots not falling that they were forgetting to play defense. We broke down defensively. The other thing I thought was a big mistake was they could have stepped into the college (three-point) line, but instead they kept choosing to shoot the NBA three. The NBA three, for college kids, is a very difficult shot, so they lost their confidence.”

Said Buckles: “We fell in love with the jump shot. We’ve been hitting those shots all year, but it just seemed like there was a lid on the rim tonight. So we had to grind it out on defense.”

Peyton Siva and Jennings led UofL with 14 points each, while Chris Smith had 11 and Knowles 10. Buckles led all rebound-ers with 10 and also had four assists, while Siva had five assists along with four steals, and Knowles added four assists.

“Louisville is pretty darn good,” said San Francisco coach Rex Walters, the for-mer Kansas standout guard. “They don’t give you anything easy. I told our guys they couldn’t have a worse situation -- top-25 team, athletic, playing in a great arena. Sometimes you feel like you’re out there playing against five on eight.”

Senior George Goode told reporters he feels healthier now than he has at any time during his UofL career. - photo by Dave Klotz


A HEALTHY GEORGE HOPING TO LET GOODE TIMES ROLL

FEWEST POINTS IN A HALF BY UOFL OPPONENT SINCE 1982-83 Pts Team Date Score1. 11 San Francisco Dec. 8, 2010 36-11, 2nd

2. 14 Morehead State Dec. 27, 2004 53-14, 2nd

3. 14 Morgan State Dec. 30, 1998 46-14, 1st

4. 15 Florida International Dec. 1, 2010 48-15, 1st

4. 15 East Carolina Jan. 19, 2005 52-15, 1st

4. 15 South Florida Jan. 10, 2004 40-15, 1st

4. 15 South Alabama Nov. 18, 2001 47-15, 1st

FEWEST TOTAL POINTS BY UOFL OPPONENT SINCE 1947-48 Pts Team Date Score1. 31 Cincinnati March 7, 1981 42-31

2. 35 San Francisco Dec. 8, 2010 61-35

3. 36 Iona Dec. 29, 2007 67-36

3. 36 Wittenberg Dec. 2, 1961 44-36

3. 36 Georgetown College Dec. 10, 1951 92-36

3. 36 Arkansas State Jan. 17, 1948 68-36

8. 37 Cincinnati Jan. 7, 1984 51-37



By Russ BrownRick Pitino wondered whether his team

was legit, and apparently so did many of his coaching peers. The Cardinals broke into the AP poll last week at No. 24, yet the coaches -- perhaps eyeing Louisville’s No. 309 strength of schedule after a string of homecourt wins over a bunch of nobod-ies -- still had doubts and didn’t vote un-beaten UofL into their top 25.

But the surprising Cards, who were believed to be rebuilding this season and were picked to fi nish eighth in the Big East Conference, are beginning to turn heads

after handing No. 20 UNLV (9-1) its fi rst loss, 77-69, with a gritty per-formance last Saturday afternoon in the Billy Mi-nardi Classic in the KFC Yum! Center.

Sure, it’s only one game in a young season, and the Cards (8-0) are yet to be tested on the

road against a quality team -- and won’t be until visiting No. 12 Villanova (8-1) on Jan. 12 -- but for now they showed they belong in the rankings and also may be poised for bigger and better things than anyone expected.

No doubt this was an important test, and the Cards passed with fl ying colors.

“We beat a good team and showed we can compete on a high level and that we were underrated going into this season,” sophomore forward Rakeem Buckles said. “We knew our strength of schedule since the Butler game wasn’t very high, and this was a game we had to win.”

“We don’t want to hang our hat on this one victory,” senior guard Preston Knowles said. “This is only the beginning.”

Added swingman Kyle Kuric, “Maybe we’re better than people think.”

Maybe so. UofL certainly hasn’t looked like a team that is headed for a middle-of-the-pack fi nish in the Big East, which will get under way in about three weeks with a visit by Seton Hall on Jan. 5.

For the rest of the month, there appears to be only one serious challenge. With home games against Drexel, Gardner-Webb and Morgan State, along with a trip to Bowling Green to meet struggling, turnover-plagued Western Kentucky (5-5), UofL’s next chance to impress won’t arrive until it hosts No. 17 Kentucky (7-2) on Dec. 31.

In the meantime, the Cards say they just need to make sure they keep on doing what has paved the way to their success so far -- focus, intense defense and unselfi sh-ness on offense.

“We have to stay humble,” point guard Peyton Siva said. “We know we can play with anybody, but no matter what our ranking is or who the opponent is, we’ve got to come out and play our best. We approached this game with a tournament mindset.”

For his part, Pitino wasn’t ready to make any lofty pronouncements about how good the Cards are, or can become, other than

to say pretty much what he’s been saying all along -- that he likes their work ethic and attitude and loves coaching them.

“I think it’s a bridge team,” he said, echoing his statement from the preseason Tipoff Luncheon in mid-October. “We’re building something for the future. But the future could be this year. What I love about this team is there are no personal agendas. Every one of them is playing for the ‘Louis-ville’ across the front of their jersey.”

And with an equal opportunity ros-ter from top to bottom, you never know where the knockout punch is going to come from. Against Vegas it came from a starting guard, Knowles, who suddenly broke out of a shooting slump to help spark UofL’s decisive second-half rally, and a couple of unlikely sources in substitutes Chris Smith and Kyle Kuric, who came off the bench to combine for 34 points and make signifi cant contributions in several other areas.

Knowles, who entered the game shoot-ing a team-worst 34.2 percent, scored all of his game-high and season-best 20 points in the second half on 6-of-9 shooting after playing just eight scoreless minutes in the fi rst half due to two quick fouls.

Kuric equaled his entire season output with 17 points, hitting 5 of 8 three-point shots while also getting fi ve rebounds and two steals. Smith contributed 17 points and six rebounds -- both career highs -- along with two steals and two blocked shots. He hit 3 of 5 three-point shots, half his total for the entire season.

Meanwhile, two starters -- Buckles and Mike Marra -- failed to score, and another starter, center Terrence Jennings, got just six points as UofL’s bench outscored the starters 42-35. That kind of depth and

uncertainty must cause great consterna-tion and confusion among Louisville’s op-ponents.

“The big thing with us, it’s not just one player,” Kuric said. “Everything we do is as a team -- together. We go out and play to-gether, and that’s where we get our edge to beat teams.”

Said Siva, who had nine points and seven assists: “We’re just a very balanced team, and we can play with the best. On any giv-en night anybody can step up. That’s what makes it so hard to scout us.”

The game that matched two of the few remaining unbeaten teams in the country, and the only showdown between ranked teams the entire weekend, was everything it promised to be, with 11 lead changes and six ties until Louisville wrested control in the fi nal 10 minutes.

The Cards trailed 38-33 at halftime, and the game appeared to be slipping away when they fell behind 45-36 early in the second half as UNLV hit its fi rst four shots. But then UofL brought the Rebels’ best start to a season in 20 years to a screech-ing halt as Knowles took over at the of-fensive end and the Cards’ defense fi nally handcuffed the visitors.

UNLV, which entered the game shoot-ing 54 percent, unraveled in a blizzard of missed shots and turnovers. During UofL’s surge, the Rebels managed only one fi eld goal in 10 minutes.

“We missed a shot, started standing a little bit, turned it over a time or two, and they got on a good roll and we weren’t able to withstand that as well as we need to,” said UNLV coach Lon Kruger. “Standing is not what we want to do. That hurt us. We got tentative, and that’s what they’re hop-ing to do. We didn’t do the things we have

to do to win.”A switch from man-to-man to a 2-3

zone following a timeout midway throughthe half added to UNLV’s woes.

“The zone was kind of confusing,” said UNLV guard Oscar Bellfi eld, who scoredonly fi ve of his 16 points after the inter-mission. “We were kind of just standingaround waiting for somebody to do some-thing. Not everybody was into the fl ow,and we weren’t making shots.”

Knowles ignited the game-turning 21-6 run with a three-pointer, then hita 16-footer and another trey, giving himeight points in a row and 14 points in afi ve-minute span.

“I saw my team struggling and basi-cally I just didn’t want to let them down,”Knowles said. “My thing was just trying toget the lead back and try to put my team ina position to win. That’s all I focused on.”

With Vegas still in front 51-49 at the 12:38 mark, Knowles drilled a three-point-er from the left elbow to put UofL ahead tostay, then hit a jumper and buried anothertrifecta from the left wing. By that time theRebels were back on their heels and theCards went on to end any remaining sus-pense and build their biggest lead of theafternoon at 70-57 with 3:06 remaining.

“When we got behind (by nine points), I think we just decided to dig in on defenseand rely on our defense to pull out the gamefor us, and then everything started goingour way,” Buckles said. “Shots started fall-ing, we started getting out on the break,they started missing shots. We turned it upon ‘D’ and everything was good.

“It was a very intense game, and we ex-pected it to be that way. We knew we’dhave to grind it out at the end. I’m justglad we got this win.”

Rick Pitino emphasized a point to, from left, Rakeem Buckles, Preston Knowles, Terrence Jennings and Mike Marra during the UNLV game. - photo by Dave Klotz


K N O W L E S , K U R I C , C H R I S S M I T H S P A R K 7 7 - 6 9 V I C T O R Y

FUTURE LOOKS GOOD FOR CARDS AFTER DEALING VEGAS FIRST LOSS



MINUTES TOTAL 3-PTS F-THROWS REBOUNDS SCORING

## Player GP GS Tot Avg FG FGA Pct 3FG FGA Pct FT FTA Pct Off Def Tot Avg PF FO A TO Blk Stl Pts Avg

02 Knowles, Preston 8 7 190 23.8 32 87 .368 17 49 .347 18 20 .900 4 23 27 3.4 20 2 15 8 0 13 99 12.4

03 Siva, Peyton 8 8 172 21.5 28 50 .560 5 20 .250 26 35 .743 4 19 23 2.9 22 2 35 21 1 16 87 10.9

23 Jennings, Terrence 8 8 193 24.1 31 56 .554 0 0 .000 22 32 .688 23 28 51 6.4 21 1 10 10 21 5 84 10.5

33 Marra, Mike 8 8 208 26.0 28 84 .333 18 66 .273 7 8 .875 6 20 26 3.3 15 0 24 11 2 9 81 10.1

04 Buckles, Rakeem 8 7 178 22.3 25 53 .472 5 15 .333 13 24 .542 23 41 64 8.0 23 0 14 17 3 9 68 8.5

05 Smith, Chris 8 0 139 17.4 24 44 .545 9 18 .500 10 13 .769 8 19 27 3.4 7 0 14 9 2 6 67 8.4

10 Dieng, Gorgui 7 0 89 12.7 16 24 .667 0 1 .000 9 17 .529 19 10 29 4.1 16 2 3 7 13 2 41 5.9

14 Kuric, Kyle 6 1 106 17.7 11 26 .423 8 19 .421 4 4 1.000 4 12 16 2.7 10 0 5 4 0 7 34 5.7

22 Justice, Elisha 8 0 134 16.8 11 31 .355 5 18 .278 18 29 .621 2 14 16 2.0 16 0 16 5 0 4 45 5.6

24 Smith, Russ 2 0 14 7.0 2 7 .286 1 2 .500 2 2 1.000 0 1 1 0.5 1 0 2 1 0 2 7 3.5

00 Goode, George 7 0 57 8.1 10 17 .588 0 3 .000 2 3 .667 5 4 9 1.3 6 0 1 0 3 3 22 3.1

44 Van Treese, Stephan 8 1 92 11.5 9 13 .692 0 0 .000 2 12 .167 12 11 23 2.9 8 0 3 6 2 10 20 2.5

15 Henderson, Tim 7 0 28 4.0 3 10 .300 1 4 .250 1 2 .500 0 5 5 0.7 4 0 3 1 0 1 8 1.1

Team 6 8 14 1

Total.......... 8 1600 230 502 .458 69 215 .321 134 201 .667 116 215 331 41.4 169 7 145 101 47 87 663 82.9

Opponents...... 8 1600 154 431 .357 41 154 .266 129 194 .665 100 192 292 36.5 172 - 74 150 17 50 478 59.8

2010-2011 MEN’S BASKETBALL SEASON STATS

Louisville’s basketball team posed with members of the Pitino and Minardi families as the Cardinals accepted the trophy for the Billy Minardi Classic. The Cardinals won the event with a 77-69 win over No. 19/20 UNLV Saturday at the KFC Yum! Center. - photo by Shelley Feller


CARDINAL BASKETBALL

By Russ BrownKyle Kuric sat out two games with a con-

cussion, but when he returned to action last Saturday afternoon he gave UNLV’s Runnin’ Rebels a massive headache.

Kuric, a 6-4 junior, came off the bench and kept UofL in the game in the fi rst half with his long-range bombing, fi nishing with a season-high 17 points -- shades of Syracuse last March -- to help the No. 24 Cardinals (8-0) to a 77-69 victory in the KFC Yum! Center.

Kuric had returned to practice only two days earlier after suffering a concussion in the fi rst half against Florida In-ternational on Dec. 1 that caused him to miss games against South Alabama and San Fran-cisco.

UofL coach Rick Pitino had predicted in his regular press conference on the eve of the UNLV game that Kuric would be unfazed by his 10-day layoff, and he was right.

“He wasn’t playing that well to begin with, so I don’t think it will hurt him,” Pitino said, jokingly. “He hasn’t missed a beat. He’s a well-conditioned athlete. If it was Preston Knowles, it would be a disaster.”

Kuric not only didn’t miss a beat, but he came back better than he’d been all sea-son, having shot just 27.3 percent from three-point range (3 for 11) and scoring a total of only 17 points in fi ve previous ap-pearances.

But he got untracked early against UNLV, hitting four of his fi rst fi ve shots from be-yond the arc. He fi nished 5 of 8 on three-point shots while also grabbing a season-best fi ve rebounds and getting two steals.

His performance against the No. 20 Reb-

els summoned memories of his 22-point outburst that boosted UofL to a nationally televised 78-68 upset of top-ranked Syra-cuse in the Freedom Hall fi nale.

“I don’t know if today was that big a stage,” Kuric said, grinning. “Maybe it re-minded people of that game; I’m sure they were waiting for something like that, but I’m not really looking at it that way. I don’t care if I score eight points or 30, we’re 8-0 and I just wanted to win.”

Pitino took the unusual move of playing Kuric at the power forward spot to take advantage of the way UNLV’s defense was structured. Kuric got all of his fi eld goals off penetration and passes by either Peyton Siva or Chris Smith.

“It is so important against UNLV that the four man be able to pass and shoot the ball because they give you nothing in the lane,” Pitino said. “Kyle making those shots was very, very important.”

Then Pitino added with a grin, “I knew he would give us a Syracuse-type game; I was positive.”

Kuric said his instructions on offense were simple.

“Every time we came down the court, all (his teammates) were saying was, ‘Kyle, go stand in the corner and wait for the ball,’ so that’s what I did. That’s always been my favorite spot ever since I was a little kid.”

All but one of Kuric’s fi ve treys came from the left corner, the other from the left wing. “I just wanted to let the game come to me,” he said. “I didn’t want to force anything, just do what I’m supposed to -- hit the open shot or fi nd somebody else.”

“Kyle is Kyle,” forward Rakeem Buck-les said. “He comes in and works on that jumper every day, and he knocked ‘em down.”

Kuric’s concussion came as he was run-ning down the sideline, turned to take a

pass from Buckles and collided with an FIU player.

“I turned around to look for the ball and the next thing I knew I was getting off the fl oor,” Kuric said. “Right after it happened everything was real hazy, I didn’t really know where I was. It took me a week to get all the tests done, and now everything is back to normal.”

As a precautionary measure, schools don’t rush a player who has suffered even a mild concussion back into action until he gets a complete bill of health. Kuric said he couldn’t have played against South Alabama three days later but probably could have come back against San Francisco last Wednesday.

“I was getting really, really eager,” he said. “I wanted to practice, but they wouldn’t let me do it until Thursday.”

Senior guard and captain Preston Knowles said he was as eager for Kuric to return as Kuric himself was.

“I’ve been talking to him every day about, ‘Man, we need you and I can’t wait for you to come back,’” Knowles said. “He came back and played like the old Kyle we know and love.”

SMITH WORE HIS ‘MEAN FACE’UofL also got an unexpected lift from

another reserve, walk-on junior guard Chris Smith, a transfer from Manhattan College who is in his fi rst season with UofL.

Smith played an outstanding all-around game, with 17 points, six rebounds, two assists, two blocked shots, two steals and just one turnover in a team-high 32 min-utes. His performance earned him the Billy Minardi Classic MVP award.

Smith said he knew he was tuned into the game and ready to play because he changed his sleeping habits and went to bed about midnight Friday to make sure he got plenty of rest for the noon tipoff.

“Most nights I go to bed around 4 a.m.

every night, so I mean, I was just really fo-cused today,” he said. “When I woke upthis morning I had a mean face on, like,‘We have to win this game.’ I was readyand I just came out and tried to play myhardest. We’re trying to come together andbuild something real big this year.”

Smith, the younger brother of Denver Nuggets guard J.R. Smith, averaged 13.4points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.7 blocked shotsas a sophomore at Manhattan but says hedidn’t know much about the fi ner points ofthe game until he got to UofL.

“When I fi rst came here all I wanted to do was run, jump and shoot,” he said.“Now I know how to make the right cuts,I know the right spots to be in on the fl oorand I know how to play defense.”

Pitino credited Smith with a “tremen-dous” performance against UNLV, whichhad beaten UofL in close games two yearsin a row.

“Chris did everything,” Pitino said. “He came in here not understanding how toplay. If you look at his shooting percent-age it was 36 (overall) and 29 (from three-point range). His shot had a little side spin.He’s really improved his shooting and reallyworked on the fundamentals of the gameof basketball, and it has made him a betterplayer. I don’t think he ever had any inten-tion of playing defense in his life, but com-ing here he had to do it.”

QUOTABLE -- “George Goode and ChrisSmith are about 40 years old and they’reboth in about their sixth year of playingbasketball. I think George was playing herewhen Coach P was at Kentucky.” -- UofLpoint guard Peyton Siva.

“Preston, he got hot. And when he gets hot, I already know how that feels becausein practice I have to guard him and he lets itgo.” -- Smith on Preston Knowles’ 20-pointperformance against UNLV.

KURIC REBOUNDS FROM CONCUSSION, SO UNLV NEEDS ASPIRIN

Junior Kyle Kuric, who missed the previous two games with a concussion and had scored just 17 points all season, came off the bench against UNLV last Saturday to make fi ve three-pointers and score 17 points. He also had fi ve rebounds and two steals.

Junior Chris Smith came off the bench against UNLV to get 17 points to go along

with six rebounds, two blocked shots, two steals and two assists with just one

turnover. He was named MVP of the Billy Minardi Classic. - photos by Dave Klotz



KFC Yum! Center OPENING PHOTO GALLERYSELECTED FALL SPORTS SCHEDULESBIG EAST NOTEBOOK

By Russ BrownThe Pittsburgh coaching search is getting

interesting, and so is Bill Stewart’s future as West Virginia’s head coach.

In a new twist to the Backyard Brawl, West Virginia has expressed a strong inter-est in Oklahoma State offensive coordina-tor Dana Holgorsen, who had emerged as the leading candidate to replace Dave Wannstedt as Pittsburgh’s next head foot-

ball coach.The Charleston Daily

Mail reported Tuesday that multiple sources told the paper that Holgorsen is expected to join the WVU staff in some ca-pacity and that an offi -cial announcement could come by the end of the

week.Holgorsen had been among the top can-

didates for Pitt’s job, but sources told The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette late Monday that he was no longer being considered. Pitt was said to be initially interested in Temple’s Al Golden before Golden accepted the head coaching position at the University of Miami on Sunday.

The Daily Mail reported that Holgorsen, 39, has worked out a six-year deal with WVU athletic director Oliver Luck, the last fi ve of those seasons as head coach. Hol-gorsen is said to have agreed to a salary of $750,000 for next year as WVU’s offensive coordinator, and then about $2 million an-nually once he succeeds Stewart as head coach in 2012.

The sources said Stewart will step aside after the 2011 season and transition to a role in the athletic department. However, other sources told the Daily Mail that Stew-art isn’t comfortable with having an offen-sive coordinator forced upon him and could resist working with a coach-in-waiting. WVU’s current offensive coordinator is Jeff Mullen, who is a candidate for the head coaching position at Kent State.

Holgorsen, who has never been a head coach, has promised Luck that he will allow the current defensive staff to return after the 2011 season.

Holgorsen is one of the hottest names among college coaching coordinators. His high-powered spread offense is productive and fun to watch.

Holgorsen, who also has coached at Tex-as Tech and Houston, just fi nished his fi rst season at Oklahoma State, and the Cow-boys’ offense averaged 538 yards per game, the best in Division I-A. They also were sec-ond in the nation in passing (355 yards per game, and third in scoring (44.9 ppg). The offense featured the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year and Biletnikoff Award winner, wide receiver Justin Blackmon, who caught 102 passes for 1,665 yards and 18 touch-downs.

Oklahoma State (10-2) will meet Arizona (7-5) in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 29 in San Antonio.

Stewart, 58, led West Virginia to a 9-3 record and a share of the Big East cham-pionship this season but has been heavily criticized since the Mountaineers dropped back-to-back games to Syracuse and Con-necticut. He was 9-4 in both his fi rst two seasons, with a 2-1 bowl record. (He coached the team in the 2008 Sugar Bowl after Rich Rodriguez left for Michigan.)

The Mountaineers will play North Caro-lina State (8-4) in the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Fla., on Dec. 28.

With both Golden and Holgorsen out of the picture, Pitt now may turn to San Diego State coach Brady Hoke or Iowa State coach and former Pitt assistant Paul Rhoads.

Hoke, who has said publicly his dream job is with Michigan, recently signed a two-year extension with San Diego State but has been a candidate for several other jobs, most recently Minnesota. He is in his sec-ond year at San Diego State. This season he led the Aztecs to an 8-4 record and their fi rst bowl berth since 1998. They will play Navy Dec. 23 in the Poinsettia Bowl. Prior to San Diego State, Hoke led Ball State to

bowl games in 2007 and ‘08, and in ‘08 his team won the MAC West Division and fi nished 12-1.

Former Pitt player Teryl Austin, who is currently the defensive coordinator at Florida and, according to some reports, is a candidate for a similar position at Texas, also might receive an interview, according to sources.

Current Pitt offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti, who has expressed interest in the job, is also expected to be interviewed, and Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Brad-ley has expressed interest in the job and has had several people contact Pederson on his behalf.

The Panthers (7-5) will face Kentucky (6-6) in the BBVA Compass Bowl on Jan. 8 in Birmingham, Ala.

Wannstedt, a former head coach of the NFL’s Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins, posted a 42-31 record in six seasons at Pitt and won 10 games in 2009, but his talented teams were always viewed as underachiev-ers, and many of his coaching moves were criticized. He had come under even heavier fi re this year because the Panthers opened the season ranked 15th nationally and were picked as a heavy favorite to win the Big

East title but stumbled to a 7-5 record and athree-way tie for the league championship.

Pitt blew a two-game lead in the Big East in the fi nal weeks of the season and wasblown out at home by rival West Virginiawith the BCS bid on the line.

UCONN CRITICS ARE MANYBecause it is playing in a BCS bowl with

an 8-4 record and because the Big East wasweak this year, UConn has plenty of detrac-tors around the country as it prepares tomeet Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. They’retaking shots at the Huskies from all over.

Wrote Rick Cleveland, columnist for the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., last Friday:“In the never-ending insanity that is the BCSsystem in college football, we are now pre-sented with the coup de disgrace: Connect-icut vs. Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. Makethat the Fiasco Bowl. The Fiesta ... woundup with the UConn Huskies, who would behard-pressed to make college football’s top50, much less the top 25.”

The Huskies are 25th in the latest Associ-ated Press poll. However, they are not in thetop 25 in the BCS standings, which take av-erages from several human and computerpolls, and they are unranked in both theUSA Today coaches’ and Harris polls, thetwo human polls used in compiling the BCSstandings. The AP poll is not used after opt-ing out several years ago.

The Sagarin ratings are also part of the BCS formula and designed to evaluatestrength of schedule. UConn’s is ranked79th but is certain to get a boost from play-ing Oklahoma. Pittsburgh previously was theweakest BCS participant at No. 55 before itlost 35-7 to Utah in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl.

The Huskies are only the fourth four-loss team of the 56 that have played in a BCSbowl. The other three were ACC champi-ons: Florida State, which lost in the 2003Sugar Bowl and 2006 Orange Bowl, andVirginia Tech, which beat Cincinnati in the2009 Orange Bowl. Pittsburgh fi nished 8-4after losing to Utah in ‘05.

With UConn getting in thanks to the Big East’s automatic BCS berth, such teams asMichigan State (11-1, No. 9 BCS) and LSU(10-2, No. 11) were left out because theirconferences already had two BCS representa-tives. Each is headed to a second-tier bowl.

UConn also could be the biggest BCS bowl underdog ever. Oklahoma is currentlya 17-point favorite. Penn State was favoredby 17 over Oregon in the 1995 Rose Bowland won 38-20.

“Of course, there’s no reason for OU to lose this game,” wrote Berry Tramel, thecolumnist at The Oklahoman, after thepairing was announced. “This isn’t BoiseState, which was a feisty upstart (in 2007)that since has proved it can punch back.This isn’t West Virginia, which was a totalload of a football team (in 2008) that wasway underestimated by the Sooners andeveryone else. Those Mountaineers were


Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen was considered a

top candidate for the Pitt job, but it appears he is headed to West Virginia

instead. - photo by Oklahoma State

OKLAHOMA STATE ’S HOLGORSEN COULD BE HEADED TO WEST V IRGIN IA

STEWART COULD BE OUT AFTER 2011; PITT STILL SEARCHING


2007 CARDINAL CARAVAN10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASONLOUISVILLE BASKETBALL

national-championship caliber. (Both Boise and WVU beat the Sooners.)

“Connecticut isn’t at that level. Connect-icut won a thoroughly mediocre league and is in the Fiesta Bowl because the politics of college football give the Big East an unde-served automatic (BCS) berth.”

The Big East has been tied to the national championship picture since 1992 — a year after the conference added football — when it joined the Bowl Coalition.

The system was revamped in 1995 and reorganized in 1998 as the BCS with the six largest conferences — the ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Pac-10 and SEC — structur-ing the system so their champions would receive automatic berths to the Fiesta, Or-ange, Rose and Sugar bowls.

The current BCS contracts last through 2013, when the system and which con-ferences receive automatic berths will be re-evaluated. The Big East is counting on using incoming member Texas Christian’s recent accomplishments to help retain its automatic berth.

New York Daily News columnist Dick Weiss put it this way: “Connecticut’s game against heavily favored Oklahoma should be seen as a referendum on the state of Big East football, and whether sagging confer-ences deserve to be protected by the BCS with automatic bids when they experience a down year in which none of their teams are ranked in the top 20.”

EVELD USF’S QB FOR BOWLSouth Florida coach Skip Holtz said his

team is preparing for its bowl game against Clemson with freshman Bobby Eveld the anticipated starter at quarterback while B.J. Daniels is still working his way back to full strength.

Holtz said Daniels, who has been ham-pered with a quad injury suffered against Louisville on Nov. 13, threw a bit but was limited in practice last Friday, the team’s fi rst since a loss to Connecticut in the reg-ular-season fi nale.

“We’re still trying to get (Daniels) healthy,” Holtz said. “…He’s not able to open it up and run around and do all those things yet. Right now, all we can do is work with who’s here. Right now I’m not even (thinking), What happens if?”

When the Bulls take the fi eld against Clemson in the Meineke Car Care Bowl on Dec. 31 in Charlotte, N.C., Daniels said he’s confi dent he’ll back to full strength. Said Holtz, “We’ll have to cross that bridge when we get to it. He’s better this week than he was last. He’s making some prog-ress and he’s getting better. I expect him to be closer next week, but we’ll see just how much closer. I’ll just go with whatever the trainer tells me.”

BIG EAST TEAMS TAKE A HITBig East basketball teams got off to a rip-

roaring start, winning six in-season tourna-ments and placing seven teams in the top 25, including four in the top 10. But the bubble burst last week, with three clubs -- No. 3 Pittsburgh, No. 9 Georgetown and No. 23 Notre Dame -- all suffering their fi rst losses. Two of the defeats could be

considered upsets. Pitt (10-1), which is fa-vored to win the Big East, fell 84-76 to No. 11 Tennessee (7-0) in the new Consol En-ergy Center in Pittsburgh on Saturday, and Georgetown (8-1) went on the road and lost 68-65 to unranked Temple (6-2) last Thursday. Notre Dame’s loss was expected: The Irish were beaten by No. 16 Kentucky 72-58 in Freedom Hall last Wednesday in what amounted to a home game for the Wildcats. Notre Dame (9-1) bounced back by beating Gonzaga 83-79 in South Bend last Saturday.

The losses by that trio leaves the Big East with four unbeaten teams -- Syracuse (10-0), Louisville (8-0), Cincinnati (8-0) and UConn (8-0).

UConn and Syracuse, with remaining non-conference slates of patsies at home, are likely to remain undefeated going into conference play. Cincinnati has one hurdle to get over -- Oklahoma in the All-College Classic in Oklahoma City Saturday.

We’re less than two weeks away from the start of Big East play, and there will be a heavy schedule of games the week after Christmas, with every team except UofL, Rutgers and Villanova making their league debuts by New Year’s Day. Villanova will host Rutgers on Jan. 2, and the Cardinals will become the last Big East team to start conference play when they entertain Seton Hall and former UofL assistant Kevin Wil-lard on Jan. 5 in the KFC Yum! Center.

The early headline game features sur-prising UConn at Pittsburgh on Dec. 27. Two other games to keep an eye on both involve Notre Dame, which hosts George-town on Dec. 29 and travels to Syracuse on Jan. 1.

Without a doubt, the conference team that faces the most diffi cult league-open-ing schedule is West Virginia, which will play four games in 11 days -- three of them on the road, at Marquette, George-town and DePaul. The Mountaineers will open in Morgantown on Dec. 29 against St. John’s.

RED STORM RED-FACEDRutgers, Louisville coach Rick Pitino’s

pick to win the Big East championship, isn’t faring too well, and the Red Storm certainly doesn’t appear a threat to any of the conference powers.

The Red Storm blew a 21-point lead Sun-day, giving up two 16-0 runs, and lost at Fordham 84-81 after leading 60-39 with 16 minutes remaining. A few days earlier, the Red Storm was upset by St. Bonaventure.

“I spoke to the kids about the season being a marathon,” fi rst-year St. John’s coach Steve Lavin said. “And because of our last two losses … we’re going to have to steal a couple down the line because of these setbacks.”

Against Fordham St. John’s wasted a ca-reer-best 30 points by guard Dwight Hardy, who also had fi ve assists.

“I think we’re just relaxing when we get big leads,” Hardy said. “When we get big leads we just sleep on our opponents, and they’re on scholarship just like us and can play just like us.”

BIG EAST NOTEBOOK

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KEEP UP ON ALL THE LATEST CARDINAL NEWS!AMERICA’S FOREMOST AUTHORITY ON UofL ATHLETICS

GAME SITE PAY-OUT DATE TIME TV Beef ‘O’ Brady’s St. Petersburg, FL $1,000,000 12/21 8 pm ESPN Big East #6 vs. CUSA #4 Louisville (6-6) vs. Southern Miss (8-4)

Champs Sports Orlando, FL $2,130,000 12/28 6:30pm ESPN Big East #2 vs. ACC #3 West Virginia (9-3) vs. N.C. State (8-4)

Pinstripe Bronx, NY $2,000,000 12/30 3:20pm ESPN Big East #4 vs. Big 12 #7 Syracuse (7-5) vs. Kansas State (7-5)

Meineke Car Care Charlotte, NC $1,000,000 12/31 Noon ESPN Big East #3 vs. ACC #5 USF (7-5) vs. Clemson (6-6)

Fiesta Glendale, AZ $17,000,000 1/1 8:30pm ESPN BCS vs. BCS (Big 12 tie-in) Connecticut (8-4) vs. Oklahoma (11-2)

Compass Birmingham, Ala. $600,000 1/8 7 pm ESPN Big East #5 vs. SEC #8 Pittsburgh (7-5) vs. Kentucky (6-6)

The Big East pays schools that make a bowl game on a tiered basis, with a BCS game worth $2.4 million, the second bowl $1.6 million, the third $1.3 million and the fourth and fi fth $1.1 million. “We just take all our bowl money, put it together, and we distribute it fairly,” said associate commissioner Nick Carparelli, adding that the league wants to make sure schools can cover their expenses.

BIG EAST BOWL LINEUP AND PAYOUTS


2007 CARDINAL CARAVAN10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASONBIG EAST NOTEBOOK

D

MAKE YOUR PICKSLAST WEEK:

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DREW DEENERWHAS PLAY-BY-PLAY

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Each week members of our esteemed media panel will try to prove they are smarter than sportscaster Tom Lane. Longtime

Louisville SportsReport subscribers will remember that our media members used to test their football knowledge against a dog, but that proved to be far too challenging. The panel will battle it out by trying to pick the winners of 10 games per week during the college football season to earn the honor of top dog

in the LSR’s Top Tom contest.

ZACH McCRITE93.9 THE TICKET


TEXAS AT NORTH CAROLINA NORTH CAROLINA NORTH CAROLINA NORTH CAROLINAGEORGETOWN AT MEMPHIS GEORGETOWN GEORGETOWN MEMPHISCINCINNATI AT MIAMI (OHIO) CINCINNATI CINCINNATI CINCINNATIKANSAS STATE AT FLORIDA KANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE FLORIDABYU AT UCLA UCLA UCLA BYUILLINOIS AT MISSOURI MISSOURI MISSOURI MISSOURIKANSAS AT CALIFORNIA KANSAS KANSAS KANSASUNLV AT KANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE UNLVTEXAS AT MICHIGAN STATE MICHIGAN STATE MICHIGAN STATE MICHIGAN STATELOUISVILLE AT WESTERN KENTUCKY LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE

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NORTH CAROLINA NORTH CAROLINA TEXAS NORTH CAROLINA NORTH CAROLINA NORTH CAROLINA TEXAS GEORGETOWN GEORGETOWN GEORGETOWN GEORGETOWN GEORGETOWN GEORGETOWN MEMPHIS CINCINNATI CINCINNATI CINCINNATI CINCINNATI CINCINNATI CINCINNATI CINCINNATI KANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE FLORIDA KANSAS STATE UCLA UCLA UCLA UCLA UCLA BYU UCLA MISSOURI MISSOURI MISSOURI MISSOURI MISSOURI ILLINOIS ILLINOIS KANSAS KANSAS KANSAS KANSAS KANSAS KANSAS KANSAS UNLV UNLV KANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE KANSAS STATE MICHIGAN STATE MICHIGAN STATE MICHIGAN STATE MICHIGAN STATE MICHIGAN STATE MICHIGAN STATE MICHIGAN STATE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE

P R E S T O N C O M E S U P B I G

Louisville coach Rick Pitino made a praying motion as he Louisville coach Rick Pitino made a praying motion as he spoke with an offi cial during the UNLV game. spoke with an offi cial during the UNLV game.

PRAYING FOR CALL?

With 20 points against No. 19/20 UNLV, senior captain Preston With 20 points against No. 19/20 UNLV, senior captain Preston Knowles had his best game of the year Saturday. Knowles had his best game of the year Saturday. - photo by Dave Klotz - photo by Dave Klotz


WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

By Howie LindseyIt was an ugly win, and that may be just

the way Louisville women’s basketball coach Jeff Walz likes it. Louisville beat visiting Day-ton 69-55 last Saturday at the KFC Yum! Center in what could only be termed as a sloppy game.

“That’s what we tried to do today,” Walz said. “We tried to get them to be sloppy with the basketball, and we were successful with it.”

Walz came into the game concerned about Dayton’s potent offense. His strategy was to turn up the heat on defense to try to make the Flyers make mistakes before they

could run their offensive sets.

“I thought we did a really good job de-fensively making this a sloppy game,” Walz said. “They’ve got a multi-tude of players who can shoot the three. Our goal was to try to make it as ugly as we could so they

couldn’t get into their offensive set.”The Cardinals’ defense succeeded in cre-

ating a mess. Dayton committed 31 turn-overs, had just eight assists and committed 22 personal fouls. With balls fl ying out of bounds and passes going untouched to the Cardinals for much of the game, the Flyers looked like a team that had never worked together before.

“I thought our press was outstanding to-night,” Walz said. “I thought it really took a lot of time off the shot clock and forced them into some bad shots.”

The Flyers normally have a potent outside shooting attack. They came into Saturday’s game averaging 31 three-point attempts per game. Against Louisville they shot only 16 and made just four (25 percent).

“Well, part of the game plan was to be there on the catch and contain them,” ju-nior Monique Reid said. “We know they like to get up and down the fl oor, so everything we tried to do was to just be there on the catch.”

Said Walz: “We knew we had to be pre-pared to defend the three-point line. We did a really nice job. I think they made one or two there in the last four or fi ve minutes when the game was out of reach. To be able to defend when it matters is what you’re trying to do.”

The Cardinals had trouble setting their defense early, though. The Flyers showed fl ashes of their offensive fi repower with back-to-back baskets to start the game up 5-0. They led 8-4 before Louisville’s defense began to click.

“You follow the fi rst two trips down the fl oor; they scored back-to-back because of their offense and the way they get things moving,” Walz said. “We were able to score, and once we were able to score we were able to come back and press them.”

Down 8-4, Louisville took off on a 20-2 run over the next 7:37 that turned a four-point defi cit into a 24-10 lead.

“I think it was just everyone working hard

and going hard,” freshman point guard Shoni Schimmel said. “We were feeding off of each other. Everyone was hitting shots. We got a lot of transition shots, too, so that helped a lot.”

Louisville’s press was impressive.“Tia Gibbs played extremely well in the

press,” Walz said. “She had very active hands coming up with six steals. I thought Shoni did a nice job defensively for us. All of our guards have to get better guarding the dribble drive, but she showed a very good job of having active hands. When someone is putting the ball in her face, she’ll slap it away. She came up with three or four big steals for us.”

The Cardinals led by double fi gures for most of the rest of the game. Dayton cut the lead under double digits several times, but it was unable to get any closer than seven points.

UofL came into the Dayton game ranked No. 83 in the RPI. The Flyers came in ranked No. 39. Yet Louisville looked to be the better squad in all facets of the game.

“They’re a very good team,” Walz said. “They are going to win a lot of games.”

Louisville built its lead to 66-44 with 4:11 left before the Cardinals took their foot off the gas pedal on defense.

“It was a 69-55 fi nal, but they only had 44 points with (four) minutes left in the game,” Walz said. “Defensively, we’re do-ing a really good job. If we can stop fouling people and giving up offensive rebounds at the free-throw line we could have held them to 40 points. And they are a very good of-fensive team. This is a team that scored 100 twice, and they dropped 91 on Minnesota at Minnesota, so we’re doing a really good job.”

Louisville was led by 21 points from Reid, who came off the bench for the third straight game. Schimmel added 17 points, including 3-of-7 shooting from three-point range, and Keshia Hines had 10 points and

10 rebounds.NOT ON THE COURTThe Cardinals had two players in street

clothes and another not present on the bench Saturday. Freshman forward Shawnta Dyer continues to sit out with a foot injury, and sophomore guard Nikki Burton (hip) is still listed as out indefi nitely. Sophomore forward Asia Taylor was not on the team’s bench and remains suspended, according to Walz.

“Asia is suspended indefi nitely,” Walz said Sunday. “It has nothing to do with basketball. She gives us great effort on the basketball court. There are just some expec-tations that come along with being part of our program, and you’ve got to make sure that you live up to those expectations. Un-fortunately, she’s not living up to those right now. Sure we like to win basketball games, but we want to win them the right way and have behavior off the court that we’re just as proud of as the way we play on the court.”

READY FOR BIG EAST?Louisville will play its fi rst Big East game

of the season Wednesday night against Cin-cinnati. The Bearcats (5-4) shouldn’t pose much of a test as they got beat by Dayton by double digits earlier this month. Reid said the Cardinals won’t be taking Cincinnati lightly, however.

“It doesn’t really mean anything,” Reid said of Cincinnati’s loss to Dayton. “We have games like Kentucky. They’re ranked No.

8 and we beat them by 26 points. It’s justany given night, so you have to play hard.I feel like as a team, if we play hard thenwe can beat a lot of good teams. We’re notoverlooking Cincinnati, we just have to playhard.”

Reid said her team has some work to do before launching into Big East play.

“Just little things,” she said. “I feel like we’ve matured. If we play the way we did inthe beginning of the season, we will beat alot of good teams. We’re just going out ev-ery day and practicing hard. I feel like we’reprepared, we can only go up from here.”

After the Cincinnati game, the Cardinals will travel to Las Vegas for the three-gameDuel in the Desert series Dec. 18-20. TheCards will face Marist, Houston and Ne-braska.

Walz had a quick wit when asked what he’s hoping to see in Vegas.

“I hope to win that progressive slot ma-chine jackpot,” he said. “Nah, we’ll getdown there Thursday and we’ll have plen-ty of time to practice. We’ve got four verycompetitive basketball games coming up ina row. Marist is a perennial NCAA Tourna-ment team, Houston is tough and Nebraskahad a great run in the NCAA Tournamentlast season. We have six tough games in arow starting with Kentucky and Dayton. I’mreally pleased that we’ve won two of them,now we have to stay focused and take it onegame at a time, starting with Cincinnati.”

Juniors Monique Reid, left, and Becky Burke, are the Cards’ leading scorers so far this season. Reid is a versatile

forward, Burke is a three-point specialist. - photo by Shelley Feller


WINNING UGLY GETS THE JOB DONE AS CARDS IMPROVE TO 7-3


2010-11 WOMEN’S SCHEDULE

DATE OPPONENT SITE TIME RECORD OCTOBER 30 Indiana Wesleyan (Exh) KFC Yum! Center W, 67-42

NOVEMBER 12 TENNESSEE KFC Yum! Center L, 63-50 0-114 at Ohio University Athens, Ohio W, 84-47 1-117 HOUSTON BAPTIST KFC Yum! Center W, 100-34 2-1 19 SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE KFC Yum! Center W, 97-43 3-123 at Xavier Cincinnati, Ohio L, 71-59 3-226 at Old Dominion Norfolk, Va. L, 69-65 3-329 at IPFW Fort Wayne, Ind. W, 100-74 4-3

DECEMBER 2 MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE KFC Yum! Center W, 96-37 5-35 KENTUCKY KFC Yum! Center W, 78-52 6-311 DAYTON KFC Yum! Center W, 69-55 7-315 at Cincinnati Cincinnati, Ohio 7 p.m.18-20 Dual in the Desert Las Vegas, Nev. 18 vs. Marist Las Vegas, Nev. 4:30 p.m. 19 vs. Houston Las Vegas, Nev. 7:00 p.m. 20 vs. Nebraska Las Vegas, Nev. 9:30 p.m. 28 UT-MARTIN KFC Yum! Center 7:00 p.m.

JANUARY 4 ST. JOHN’S KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m. 9 PITTSBURGH KFC Yum! Center NOON 12 at Notre Dame South Bend, Ind. 7 p.m. 15 at Connecticut Hartford, Conn NOON22 CINCINNATI KFC Yum! Center 2 p.m. 26 at Marquette Milwaukee, Wis. 8 p.m. 29 RUTGERS KFC Yum! Center 6 p.m.

FEBRUARY 1 GEORGETOWN KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m.6 at Villanova Philadelphia, Pa. 2 p.m. 13 WEST VIRGINIA KFC Yum! Center 5 p.m. 16 at Syracuse Syracuse, NY 7 p.m. 19 at USF Tampa, Fla. 2 p.m.23 DEPAUL KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m. 26 SETON HALL KFC Yum! Center 2 p.m.28 at Providence Providence, RI 7 p.m.

MARCH

4-8 BIG EAST Tournament Hartford, Conn. TBA

2010-11 MEN’S SCHEDULE DATE OPPONENT (TELEVISION) SITE TIME/RES RECORDOCTOBER Sun. 31 NORTHERN KENTUCKY / exhibition KFC Yum! Center W, 83-66 --

NOVEMBER Thur. 11 KENTUCKY WESLEYAN / exhibition KFC Yum! Center W, 96-54 -- Tues. 16 BUTLER (ESPN) KFC Yum! Center W, 88-73 1-0 GLOBAL SPORTS SHOOTOUTSat. 20 JACKSON STATE KFC Yum! Center W, 62-45 2-0Mon. 22 CHATTANOOGA KFC Yum! Center W, 106-65 3-0Sat. 27 MARSHALL (ESPN3) KFC Yum! Center W, 80-66 4-0

DECEMBER Wed. 1 FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL (ESPN3) KFC Yum! Center W, 92-55 5-0 in GLOBAL SPORTS SHOOTOUT Sat. 4 SOUTH ALABAMA KFC Yum! Center W, 97-70 6-0 Wed. 8 SAN FRANCISCO (ESPN3) KFC Yum! Center W, 61-35 7-0Sat. 11 UNLV (ESPNU) KFC Yum! Center W, 77-69 8-0 in BILLY MINARDI CLASSIC Tues. 14 DREXEL (ESPNU) KFC Yum! Center L, 52-46 8-1Sat. 18 GARDNER-WEBB (ESPN3) KFC Yum! Center 3:30 p.m. 8-21 Wed. 22 at Western Kentucky Bowling Green, Ky. 8 p.m. 21-13 Mon. 27 MORGAN STATE KFC Yum! Center 8 p.m. 27-10 NCAA Fri. 31 KENTUCKY (CBS) KFC Yum! Center Noon 35-3 NCAA

JANUARY Wed. 5 SETON HALL (ESPNU) KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m. 19-13 NIT Sun. 9 at USF Tampa, Fla. Noon 20-13 NIT Wed. 12 at Villanova (ESPN/2) Philadelphia, Pa. 7 p.m. 25-8 NCAA Sat. 15 MARQUETTE (ESPN2) KFC Yum! Center 11 a.m. 22-12 NCAA Wed. 19 ST. JOHN’S KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m. 17-16 NIT Sat. 22 at Providence (ESPNU) Providence, R.I. 5 p.m. 12-19 Wed. 26 WEST VIRGINIA (ESPNU) KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m. 31-7 NCAA Sat. 29 at Connecticut Storrs, Conn. Noon 18-16 NIT Mon. 31 at Georgetown (ESPN) Washington, D.C. 7 p.m. 23-11 NCAA

FEBRUARY Sat. 5 DEPAUL KFC Yum! Center 8 p.m. 8-23 Wed. 9 at Notre Dame (ESPNU) South Bend, Ind. 7 p.m. 23-12 NCAA Sat. 12 SYRACUSE (ESPN/2) KFC Yum! Center Noon 30-5 NCAA Wed. 16 at Cincinnati (ESPN/2) Cincinnati, Ohio 7 p.m. 19-16 NIT Fri. 18 CONNECTICUT (ESPN) KFC Yum! Center 9 p.m. 18-16 NIT Tues. 22 at Rutgers (ESPNU) Piscataway, N.J. 9 p.m. 15-17 Sun. 27 PITTSBURGH (CBS) KFC Yum! Center 2 p.m. 25-9 NCAA

MARCH Wed. 2 PROVIDENCE KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m. 12-19 Sat. 5 at West Virginia (ESPN/2) Morgantown, W. Va. Noon 31-7 NCAA Tues. 8-Sat. 12 Big East Championship at Madison Square Garden New York City


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