Louisville SportsReport: Nov. 2 Issue

VOLUME XVI • NUMBER 11NOVEMBER 2, 2011

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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

GRAPHIC DESIGNER - Scott Stortz

COPY EDITOR - Rick Cushing

The Louisville SportsReport is printed in Kentucky and based in Louisville. It is published weekly in January, February and March, monthly in April, May, June and July and weekly mid-August through late December by Louisville Sports News, L.L.C., in Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville Sports News, L.L.C.: Owner and General Manager - Jack Coffee. The SportsReport was founded in 1996. United States Postal Number: 015255

POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Louisville SportsReport, P.O. Box 17464, Louisville, KY 40217. Four weeks advance notice is required on old addresses as well as new. Periodicals Postage paid at Louisville, Ky. Subscriptions are priced at $57.95 each (plus 6% Ky. tax) for 32 issues. Members of the University of Louisville’s Cardinal Athletic Fund receive a special group rate of $39.75 for their initial subscriptions and that amount is applied from each annual donation. Year-round first-class mailing is available for an additional $53 per year. Please call for Canadian and overseas rates. Not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs unless accompanied by return postage. Publisher reserves right to accept or reject advertisements. Copyright 2008 by Louisville Sports News, L.L.C. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. For subscriber information or circulation questions call 1-502-636-4330. Office hours at 2805 S. Floyd St. in Louisville: Mon-Wed. from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

VOLUME XVI, NUMBER 11 • NOVEMBER 2, 2011

CSPACOLLEGESPORTS

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BY SCOTT STORTZ

AMERICA’S FOREMOST AUTHORITY ONUNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE ATHLETICS®

Office Phone: (502) 636-4330Fax: (502) 636-9265

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W H A T ’ S I N S I D E

4 SYRACUSE GAME STATS, LOUISVILLE DEPTH CHART6 THREE THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED By Rick Cushing8 CHOOSING WVU OVER LOUISVILLE IS PUZZLING By Jack Coffee 10 THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY By Howie Lindsey12 EERS LOOK TO STAY ON TRACK FOR TITLE By Rick Cushing15 CONNER WILL BE A PERMANENT INSPIRATION By Russ Brown

16 SEVERAL RECRUITS SEE CARDS WHIP SYRACUSE By Jeff Wafford 17 PITT WINS BUT SUFFERS A BIG LOSS IN GRAHAM By Rivals.com19 INJURY BUG BITES AGAIN: BLACKSHEAR OUT By Howie Lindsey20 UOFL ROSTER, WVU DEPTH CHART22 LOUISVILLE WOMEN PICKED THIRD IN LOADED BIG EAST By Howie Lindsey24 CARDINAL KIDS PHOTO GALLERY

10 HAPPY TEDDY STAYS POSITIVEFreshman quarterback Teddy Bridgewater stayed positive through UofL’s losses to Marshall, North Carolina and Cincy, and now the Cards are on a two-game winning streak. What else is good? More inside.

5 A LOT ON THE LINEAt 2-2 in the league, Louisville could take a big leap toward bowl-eligibility with a win at No. 24/21 West Virginia Saturday. “We know what is at stake,” senior LB Dexter Heyman said.

11 DEFENSE PREPPING FOR TOUGH TESTLouisville’s defense clobbered Syracuse Saturday, harassing QB Ryan Nassib all game. Can the Cardinals do the same to Geno Smith and the vaunted West Virginia offense? Can Louisville upset the Mountaineers on the road?

9 KUPPER’S VERSATILITY HELPING LINEHave you noticed Louisville’s offensive line is starting to round into shape? The Cardinals are moving the ball in the running game just as the OL gets healthy. A big key to that success is local stud Alex Kupper.

21 MORGANTOWN HERE WE COME!Whereas most football fans aren’t looking forward to making the trip to Morgantown due to WVU’s nasty reputation, the women’s soccer team is delighted. That’s because Morgantown is host to the Big East Final Four.

ANTHONY CONNER STANDING TALLThe best news of the weekend wasn’t Louisville’s 27-10 win over Syracuse or the women’s soccer team advancing to the Big East semifi nals or a third place fi nish in men’s cross country, it was the news that senior cornerback Anthony Conner was able to stand and wave to the crowd Saturday after suffering a broken neck against Rutgers. - photo by Gail Kamenish

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7 JURICH: WE WILL CONTINUE TO BUILDDespite hearing the news that West Virginia was admitted to the Big 12 last week, Louisville VP for Athletics Tom Jurich said he believes Louisville athletics has a bright future and he intends to work to build toward his goals for the program.

LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT NOVEMBER 2, 2011

CARDINAL FOOTBALL

GAME STATSSYRACUSE (5-3,1-2) vs. LOUISVILLE (4-4,2-1)Date: Oct 29, 2011 Site: Louisville, KY Stadium: Papa John’s CardinalAttendance: 44,817

SCORE BY QUARTERS 1 2 3 4 SCORESYRACUSE 0 3 0 7 10LOUISVILLE 14 0 0 13 27

SCORING SUMMARY:1st 12:55 LOU - Parker, DeVante 42 yd pass from BRIDGEWA-TER, T. (Philpott, Chris kick) 4 plays, 92 yards, TOP 2:05, SYR 0 - LOU 702:36 LOU - CHICHESTER, J. 2 yd pass from BRIDGEWATER, T. (Phil-pott, Chris kick) 9 plays, 50 yards, TOP 4:52, SYR 0 - LOU 142nd 03:19 SYR - KRAUTMAN, Ross 34 yd fi eld goal 11 plays, 61 yards, TOP 5:23, SYR 3 - LOU 144th 14:55 LOU - Philpott, Chris 44 yd fi eld goal 6 plays, 16 yards, TOP 3:04, SYR 3 - LOU 1710:32 LOU - ANDERSON, Vic 61 yd run (Philpott, Chris kick) 3 plays, 63 yards, TOP 0:58, SYR 3 - LOU 2402:53 LOU - Philpott, Chris 32 yd fi eld goal 5 plays, 11 yards, TOP 2:49, SYR 3 - LOU 2701:31 SYR - WEST, Jarrod 20 yd pass from NASSIB, Ryan (KRAUT-MAN, Ross kick) 6 plays, 63 yards, TOP 1:22, SYR 10 - LOU 27

KICKOFF TIME: 12:08PM END OF GAME: 3:15PM TOTAL ELAPSED TIME: 3:07OFFICIALS: REFEREE: T. JONES; UMPIRE: G. BRENNER; LINES-MAN: T. CONSIDINE; LINE JUDGE: T. REESE; BACK JUDGE: J. MON-ROE; FIELD JUDGE: T. TARANTINI; SIDE JUDGE: B. WILLIAMS;TEMPERATURE: 49 WIND: SW-4MPH WEATHER: FAIR

TEAM STATS SYR LOU FIRST DOWNS................... 14 15 Rushing..................... 7 7 Passing..................... 6 7 Penalty..................... 1 1NET YARDS RUSHING............. 84 145 Rushing Attempts............ 24 33 Average Per Rush............ 3.5 4.4 Rushing Touchdowns.......... 0 1 Yards Gained Rushing........ 129 175 Yards Lost Rushing.......... 45 30NET YARDS PASSING............. 162 198 Completions-Attempts-Int.... 22-36-0 17-24-0 Average Per Attempt......... 4.5 8.2 Average Per Completion...... 7.4 11.6 Passing Touchdowns.......... 1 2TOTAL OFFENSE YARDS........... 246 343 Total offense plays......... 60 57 Average Gain Per Play....... 4.1 6.0Fumbles: Number-Lost.......... 1-0 1-1Penalties: Number-Yards....... 12-99 9-69PUNTS-YARDS................... 8-321 5-203 Average Yards Per Punt...... 40.1 40.6 Net Yards Per Punt.......... 30.9 36.6 Inside 20................... 1 1 50+ Yards................... 1 2 Touchbacks.................. 2 1 Fair catch.................. 0 0KICKOFFS-YARDS................ 2-140 6-410 Average Yards Per Kickoff... 70.0 68.3 Net Yards Per Kickoff....... 52.0 47.7 Touchbacks.................. 1 1Punt returns: Number-Yards-TD. 0-0-0 4-34-0 Average Per Return.......... 0.0 8.5Kickoff returns: Number-Yds-TD 5-104-0 1-16-0 Average Per Return.......... 20.8 16.0Interceptions: Number-Yds-TD.. 0-0-0 0-0-0Fumble Returns: Number-Yds-TD. 0-0-0 0-0-0Miscellaneous Yards........... 0 0Possession Time............... 27:38 32:22 1st Quarter................. 5:59 9:01

2nd Quarter................. 7:41 7:19 3rd Quarter................. 5:52 9:08 4th Quarter................. 8:06 6:54Third-Down Conversions........ 3 of 14 4 of 11Fourth-Down Conversions....... 2 of 3 0 of 0Red-Zone Scores-Chances....... 2-2 2-2 Touchdowns.................. 1-2 1-2 Field goals................. 1-2 1-2Sacks By: Number-Yards........ 3-22 4-28PAT Kicks..................... 1-1 3-3Field Goals................... 1-1 2-2

INDIVIDUAL STATSRushing No Gain Loss Net TD Lg AvgANDERSON, Vic 11 95 2 93 1 61 8.5BROWN, D. 8 27 0 27 0 6 3.4Wright, Jeremy 3 19 0 19 0 10 6.3Perry, Senorise 3 17 0 17 0 12 5.7Hogan, Kamal 1 1 0 1 0 1 1.0Davis, Jarrett 1 0 6 -6 0 0 -6.0BRIDGEWATER, T. 6 16 22 -6 0 10 -1.0Totals... 33 175 30 145 1 61 4.4

Passing Att-Cmp-Int Yds TD Long SackBRIDGEWATER, T. 17-24-0 198 2 44 3 Totals... 17-24-0 198 2 44 3

Receiving No. Yds TD LongHARRIS, M. 4 96 0 44ANDERSON, Vic 3 20 0 7Parker, DeVante 2 44 1 42Rogers, Eli 2 12 0 11Bellamy, Josh 2 8 0 6Davis, Jarrett 1 8 0 8Wright, Jeremy 1 6 0 6CHICHESTER, J. 1 2 1 2BROWN, D. 1 2 0 8 Totals... 17 198 2 44

Punting No. Yds Avg Long In20 TBBleser, Josh 4 170 42.5 53 1 1Philpott, Chris 1 33 33.0 33 0 0Totals... 5 203 40.6 53 1 1

Punts Kickoffs InterceptAll Returns No.Yds.Lg No.Yds.Lg No.Yds.LgRogers, Eli 2 33 30 0 0 0 0 0 0Bushell, Adrian 0 0 0 1 16 16 0 0 0Radcliff, Scott 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0Paschal, Jordon 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals... 4 34 30 1 16 16 0 0 0

Kickoffs No. Yds TB OB AvgPhilpott, Chris 6 410 1 0 68.3

DEFENSIVE STATSNo. Player Solo Ast Tot 2 Brown, Preston 4 3 7 48 MOUNT, D. 5 . 5 25 Pryor, Calvin 4 1 5 33 Evans, Mike 3 2 5 24 Brown, Daniel 3 1 4 21 Bushell, Adrian 3 1 4 46 Heyman, Dexter 3 1 4 15 Johnson, Andrew 3 1 4 44 Butler, B.J. 3 . 3 91 Savoy, William 1 2 3 41 ROBINSON, S. 2 . 2 32 Perry, Senorise 2 . 2 29 Smith, Hakeem 2 . 2 92 Dunn, Brandon . 2 2 95 Salmon, Randy 1 . 1 17 Smith, Marcus 1 . 1 90 Dubose, B.J. . 1 1 93 Philon, Roy . 1 1 99 Brooks, Jamaine . . .

OFFENSEQUARTERBACK 5 Teddy Bridgewater 6-3 205 Fr. 4 Will Stein 5-10 176 Jr.10 Dominique Brown 6-2 221 So. RUNNING BACK 28 Jeremy Wright 5-11 199 So. 10 Dominique Brown 6-2 221 So.20 Victor Anderson 5-10 189 Sr. 32 Senorise Perry (or) 6-0 201 So. 30 Kamal Hogan (or) 5-11 209 r-Fr. 22 Corvin Lamb 5-9 206 Fr. X-WIDE RECEIVER 14 Andrell Smith 6-3 209 Jr. 9 DeVante Parker 6-3 180 Fr. H-WIDE RECEIVER82 Eli Rogers 5-10 184 Fr. 1 Josh Bellamy 6-0 206 Sr. Z-WIDE RECEIVER 2 Michaelee Harris 6-2 198 r-Fr. 89 Scott Radcliff 5-10 182 Jr. 88 Jarrett Davis 5-10 172 So. TIGHT END 11 Josh Chichester 6-8 240 Sr. 81 Chris White 6-4 243 r-Fr. 85 Nate Nord 6-5 248 Jr.80 Stephon Ball INJ. 6-4 231 Jr. LEFT TACKLE 66 Alex Kupper 6-3 295 Jr. 73 Hector Hernandez INJ. 6-5 294 Sr. 78 Aaron Epps 6-5 265 Fr. LEFT GUARD 70 John Miller 6-2 308 Fr. . 68 Kamran Joyer INJ. 6-3 299 So. CENTER 55 Mario Benavides 6-4 300 Jr. 62 John Clark 6-2 305 Sr. RIGHT GUARD 53 Jake Smith 6-3 315 r-Fr. 72 Hunter Stout (or) 6-4 291 So. 76 Chase Petersen 6-4 294 Fr. RIGHT TACKLE 75 Ryan Kessling 6-5 314 Sr. 79 Jamon Brown 6-5 320 Fr 71 Chris Acosta 6-3 275 r-Fr.

DEFENSEFOX END 44 B.J. Butler 6-2 276 So. 91 William Savoy 6-1 248 Sr. 47 Malcolm Mitchell 6-2 236 So. DEFENSIVE TACKLE 93 Roy Philon 6-3 272 So.

95 Randy Salmon 6-3 291 Jr. NOSE TACKLE 92 Brandon Dunn 6-3 308 So. 99 Jamaine Brooks 6-4 318 r-Fr. DEFENSIVE END 6 Greg Scruggs 6-4 280 Sr. 17 Marcus Smith 6-4 255 So. 90 B.J. Dubose 6-4 257 Fr. SAM LINEBACKER 2 Preston Brown 6-0 258 So. 31 Champ Lee 6-0 204 So. MIKE LINEBACKER 46 Dexter Heyman 6-3 239 Sr. 51 Mike Privott 6-0 224 So. 37 Tyon Dixon 6-0 208 So. WEAKSIDE LINEBACKER 48 Deiontrez Mount 6-5 215 Fr.24 Daniel Brown 6-1 219 Jr. 43 Deon Rogers 6-2 200 So. CORNERBACK 41 Stephan Robinson 5-8 175 r-Fr. 3 Charles Gaines INJ 5-10 176 Fr. STRONG SAFETY 29 Hakeem Smith 6-1 183 So. 27 Jermaine Reve 6-2 175 Fr. FREE SAFETY 36 Shenard Holton 6-1 187 Jr. 25 Calvin Pryor 6-1 190 Fr. 33 Mike Evans 5-11 188 Sr. CORNERBACK 21 Adrian Bushell 5-11 190 Jr.5 Andrew Johnson 5-10 178 Fr.

SPECIAL TEAMSPUNTER

12 Chris Philpott (or) 6-0 198 Sr.

40 Josh Bleser 6-2 213 Sr.

PLACEKICKER

12 Chris Philpott (or) 6-0 198 Sr.

35 Andrew Fletcher 5-8 170 r-Fr.

LONG SNAPPER

33 Grant Donovan 6-1 213 r-Fr.

85 Nate Nord 6-5 248 Jr.

HOLDER

40 Josh Bleser 6-2 213 Sr.

4 Will Stein 5-10 176 Jr.

PUNT RETURN

89 Scott Radcliff (or) 5-10 182 Jr.

82 Eli Rogers 5-10 184 Fr.

KICKOFF RETURNS

28 Jeremy Wright 5-11 199 So. 10 Dominique Brown 6-2 221 So.

2011 DEPTH CHART


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

LOTS ON THE LINE FOR CARDS IN TRIP TO MORGANTOWNBy Russ BrownHeading into Saturday’s nationally tele-

vised, high noon Big East Conference showdown against West Virginia in Mor-gantown, Charlie Strong said he hasn’t talked to his University of Louisville football team about league championships or bowl eligibility. He doesn’t have to.

“We know what’s at stake,” UofL senior linebacker Dexter Heyman said. “We don’t necessarily talk about bowls, BCS or any-thing like that, but we have a clear under-standing of what we need to do.”

Although no one would have guessed it awhile back when UofL (4-4, 2-1 Big East) was mired in a three-game losing streak, this is the most signifi cant game the Cardinals have faced in Strong’s brief tenure, during which he is 11-10.

After dropping its Big East opener at Cincinnati, UofL has re-bounded to defeat Rutgers and Syracuse and thrust itself into the thick of the scram-bled conference title race approaching the midway point.

The Cards, picked to fi nish seventh in the preseason coaches’ poll, are among three teams with one league loss and fi nd themselves in a tie for second place with No. 24/21 West Virginia and Pittsburgh behind Cincinnati (2-0). It’s getting to be time to separate the contenders from the pretenders, and we’ll fi nd out Saturday in which category Louisville falls.

A victory over a nationally ranked team that was picked to win the Big East cham-pionship by the coaches would not only stamp UofL as a legitimate contender but would bring it within just one more victory of becoming bowl eligible for the second straight year with three games remaining.

It also would be a defi ning moment for Strong, who is searching for his fi rst victory over a top-25 club as a head coach. This will be his fi rst and last chance this season unless UofL plays a ranked team in a bowl, and for that to happen the Cards would most likely have to be the Big East’s repre-sentative in a BCS game.

UofL owns only two victories over ranked teams in the last 4 1/2 seasons, both under coach Steve Kragthorpe, whose 2007 team upset host No. 15/17 Cincinnati 28-24 and whose 2008 club stunned No. 14 South Florida 24-20 in Papa John’s Cardinal Sta-dium.

After the trip to Morgantown, the Cards will return home to face erratic Pittsburgh (4-4, 2-1) in their fi nal home game, then fi nish on the road at Connecticut (3-5, 1-2) and USF (4-3, 0-3). All appear to be win-nable games.

But Strong is silent regarding the po-tential ramifi cations of the West Virginia game.

“I don’t even talk about the Big East championship or bowls at all,” Strong said. “It’s all about our next opponent, because I don’t know if we’re mature enough to look down the road to see that happening. And even before we get to that point, things have to happen for us because Cincinnati is still undefeated and we have West Virginia, Pitt, Connecticut and South Florida left. I say let’s lock into this game. If our team continues to build, then we have a chance

to fi nish this out the right way.”The Cardinals will be trying to snap a

four-game losing streak to WVU, their last win coming in 2006 in Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium by a 44-34 count. UofL also has lost four straight in Morgantown, its last victory coming on Sept. 22, 1990, when the Fiesta Bowl team escaped with a 9-7 victory.

All four losses have been close, how-ever -- one by two points, another by two points in overtime, one by a touchdown and by eight points in 2009.

West Virginia, which is headed to the Big 12, may be the dominant program in the Big East, but the Mountaineers have looked very beatable the last two week-ends, surrendering 80 points in a 49-23 loss at Syracuse and a 41-31 come-from-behind victory in a snowstorm at Rutgers.

Even so, WVU fi rst-year coach Dana Hol-gorsen thinks his team is showing signs of growing up, much like Strong views his own club.

After the blowout loss at Syracuse, the Mountaineers overcame a 31-21 halftime defi cit at Rutgers, weathering heavy snow, strong winds and an icy fi eld to beat the Scarlet Knights for the 17th time in a row.

“After the loss (at Syracuse), to come into a situation on the road -- regardless of the worst conditions I’ve ever coached or played in in my entire career -- and over-come adversity to win shows we may be on the verge of growing up a little bit,” he said. “The No. 1 thing is effort. When adversity hits, what are you going to do? Are you going to shut it down or are you going to wind it up and play even harder. And we went out and played well.”

This game shapes up as a classic battle between a strong defense and an explo-sive, high-scoring offense.

West Virginia ranks No. 13 in the FBS in total offense at 482.13 yards per game and seventh in passing yardage (354.88) and has three blue-chip playmakers in quarter-back Geno Smith and wide receivers Stead-man Bailey and Tavon Austin.

Smith ranks fi fth nationally in passing yardage at 339.4 ypg in WVU’s spread of-fense and is seventh in total offense (332.4 ypg). He has completed 63 percent of his

passes for 20 touchdowns, with only fi ve interceptions. He scrambles well to give himself more time to throw but is not a threat to run.

Austin, a junior, leads WVU with 56 re-ceptions for 691 yards and three touch-downs and ranks eighth in the country in punt returns with a 14.5-yard average. He also returns kickoffs, with his 180.5 all-purpose yardage average ranking fourth in the FBS.

Bailey, a sophomore, averages a hefty 19 yards per catch, with 43 receptions for 815 yards and seven TDs. Five other receiv-ers have double-digit receptions, including sophomore Ivan McCarney’s 37 for 475 yards and three TDs.

“They’re so explosive,” Strong said. “Austin and Bailey, they get the ball in those guys’ hands and they’re just so fast they outrun people. They take a 5-yard hitch route and turn it into a 65-70-yard run.

“Geno has been starting for two years, and he has a really good feel for the game. He sees the blitz coming, he can move his feet and get away from it. Plus, he can beat you with his feet because he can scramble and then make the throws. The thing you have to do with him is keep him corraled in the pocket and don’t let him outside be-cause his really big throws come then.”

At their current offensive pace, the Mountaineers are on target to break the Big East passing record of 4,103 set by UofL and QB Brian Brohm in 2007. Cincin-nati passed for 4,014 in 2009, and besides those two no other team in Big East his-tory has thrown for more than 3,770 yards (Louisville ‘06).

Incredibly, through its seven games West Virginia has gone three-and-out to punt only 11 times and it hasn’t happened more than twice in any game. The Mountaineers had just one three-and-out against No. 1 LSU’s outstanding defense in a 47-21 loss on Sept. 24.

So this shapes up as a monstrous chal-lenge for Louisville’s highly ranked defense, which is No. 12 in total defense (295.6) No. 11 in scoring defense (16.2), fourth in tackles for loss (66) and 14th in sacks (23).

“It’s going to be a great challenge, and

our defense is going to have to play reallywell to beat this team,” Strong said. “We’regoing to have to play well in all three phas-es. We have to be on our game and makesure our players stay focused, play with a lotof confi dence and show some toughness.”

Holgorsen has never gone against Strong but is familiar with his work in previousstops at Notre Dame, South Carolina andas defensive coordinator at Florida.

“You look at their players, their bod-ies look good to me, they look big andphysical and they’ve got speed as well,”Holgorsen said. “The scheme is good, it’ssound, they’re well-coached and they’vegot good players. It’s not surprising to seethem hold people to what they’ve beenholding people to.”

In addition to facing a top-25 team that is an offensive juggernaut, the Cards alsowill have to deal with the most hostile en-vironment in the Big East and one of themost diffi cult in college football at Moun-taineer Field in Milan Pulskar Stadium.WVU fans are extremely vocal, sometimesnasty and occasionally throw things likebatteries onto the fi eld.

Heyman is one of only a handful of Cards who have experienced such unpleas-antries fi rst-hand, having been there as asophomore for WVU’s 17-9 victory in 2009,and he’ll try to prepare his younger team-mates.

“There’s just a whole bunch of trash talk, but we have to be cognizant that it’s all inthe spirit of competition,” he said. “I don’tthink anyone feels any kind of disdain toanyone as a person. It’s not a personal at-tack, it’s a team attack, and it’s all becauseyou have on a particular type of uniformand we have to understand that.

“All I will tell them is it’s just another football game and to approach it as such.There’s going to be a lot of turmoil andthings going on around you that could takeaway from your focus, but don’t let thatget to you and remember that everythingyou’re there for is right between the lines.

“We have to go out there and play like we should.... We have to stay focused onwhat’s between the lines. As long as wecan get our job done between the lines,everything else should fall into place.”

Strong will be making his fi rst trip to Morgantown, but he’s a veteran of plentyof other inhospitable stadiums from hisyears in the SEC at Florida.

“The coaches on our staff who have been there say it is probably an even row-dier crowd than the SEC,” Strong said. “Acombination of louder and the things theysay. You have to tell the guys, ‘This is whatyou’re going to walk into and this is whatyou have to be aware of. But know this:they can’t come out of the stands. Thegame is played on the fi eld, and they cansay whatever they want, they will be sittingin the stands. Your battle is on the footballfi eld.’”

Using the same motivation he employed for the Kentucky game, Strong has told hisplayers that West Virginia is a better teamright now. But as Heyman pointed out,even if true, it doesn’t matter.

“It doesn’t matter who’s the best team on the season, it matters who’s the bestteam on that particular day,” he said. “Wedon’t have to be a better team all year, wehave to be a better team on this particularSaturday, and my confi dence is unwaveringwith this ballclub.”

Josh Chichester made a leaping 2-yard touchdown catch in the back of the end zone in the fi rst quarter despite being interfered with. The score gave UofL a 14-0 lead. - photo by Gail Kamenish

RUSS BROWNRUSS BROWN

E X P L O S I V E W E S T V I R G I N I A W I L L T E S T U O F L ’ S D E F E N S E


CARDINAL FOOTBALL

Three things you may have missed By Rick Cushing

YOUNGSTERS CONTINUE TO SPARKLEThe Cards started nine freshmen Saturday against Syracuse, yet another sign that the future of UofL

football is bright. Nowhere was that youthful talent more on display than the game-opening 92-yard touchdown drive. On the second play of the game freshman Teddy Bridgewater rolled to his right and completed a 44-yard pass to freshman Michaelee Harris, who made a nifty fi nger-tip grab and could have scored except his momentum carried him out of bounds. One play later, Bridgewater completed a back-shoulder pass about 15 yards up the left sideline to freshman DeVante Parker, who went airborne to make the catch, then cut inside the defender and raced to paydirt to complete a 42-yard TD.

Bridgewater keeps getting better. He was 17 of 24 for 198 yards and two TDs with no interceptions. He also called an audible that led to Vic Anderson’s 61-yard TD run around left end in the fourth quarter. Bridgewater saw that Syracuse was going to come with a blitz to UofL’s right, so he changed the play to an option pitch to the left to Anderson, who turned the corner and dashed untouched down the left sideline, aided by a nice downfi eld block from WR Scott Radcliff.

Harris had four catches for a career-high 96 yards and a TD, and he had a 27-yard TD catch negated by a penalty. Parker had two catches for 44 yards, and freshman wideout Eli Rogers had just two catches for 12 yards but returned a punt for 30 yards to the Syracuse 26 in the fourth quarter. It appeared he had a good shot to take it all the way but slipped making a cut.

Two other freshmen started on offense: right guard Jake Smith and left guard John Miller. The O-line played its best game of the season and appears to be hitting its stride.

Four freshmen started on defense: DE B.J. Dubose, LB Deiontrez Mount, CB Andrew Johnson and FS Calvin Pryor. It was the fi rst career starts for Mount and Johnson.

Mount and Pryor tied for second on the team with fi ve tackles each, Johnson had four tackles and Dubose had one, which was for a loss. Mount also had a tackle for a loss.

Sophomore strong safety Hakeem Smith, last year’s Defensive Newcomer of the Year in the Big East, said the freshmen DBs are “adapting pretty fast. Like me last year, I wanted to make a statement. They’re trying to do the same thing.”

All of UofL’s freshmen are making a statement, a very sunny one.Several other freshmen made nice plays. Stephan Robinson, a DB who is a converted wide receiver, made

two tackles, including one on a kickoff; RB Corvin Lamb recovered a fumbled punt by Rogers (although he unwisely tried to pick it up and run instead of falling on it immediately); DT Jamaine Brooks defl ected two passes; and OT Jamon Brown, a converted DL, saw action late and made a nice downfi eld block.

‘NO FAKE FIELD GOAL’There were those in the crowd who must have

marveled at the fake fi eld goal that the Cards converted into a touchdown with about six minutes left in the game. With the Cards leading 24-3 and facing a fourth-and-6 at the Syracuse 10-yard line, they lined up for a fi eld-goal attempt. But holder Josh Bleser rolled to his right, leaped in the air and threw a pass to tight end Josh Chichester, who tumbled into the end zone. The TD was wiped out, however, because the Cards had not one but two linemen illegally downfi eld.

Syracuse may not have taken too kindly to what it may have perceived as running up the score. That wasn’t the case, however.

Charlie Strong, in his postgame press conference, was asked about “the fake fi eld goal.”

“That was no fake fi eld goal,” he replied with a laugh. “Josh dropped the snap. He did make an unbelievable throw, though.”

UofL was backed up 5 yards to the 15, whereupon Chris Philpott kicked a 32-yard fi eld goal to make it 27-3.

GRIDIRON MUSINGSWhy is it that the ground can cause an

incomplete pass but cannot cause a fumble? Worse yet, fumbles are nullifi ed because a runner has a knee down, even though his body has yet to even hit the ground.

In the old days – yes, I’m as old as SportsReport publisher Jack Coffee – runners had to hold onto the ball – period! If the ball came out, it was a fumble. I believe “the-ground-can’t-cause-a-fumble” rule dates to the late 70s, when great athletes who weren’t great football players were dropping the ball all over the place. Something had to be done. Hence, the rule.

I applaud the rule that a receiver must complete the catch all the way to the ground. It should be the same way for a runner. Hold on to the ball!

DATE OPPONENT / EVENT TIMEDATE OPPONENT / EVENT TIME

Thu., Sept. 1 Murray State W, 21-9

Fri., Sept. 9 Florida International L, 24-17

Sat., Sept. 17 at Kentucky W, 24-17

Sat., Oct. 1 Marshall L, 17-13

Sat., Oct. 8 at North Carolina L, 14-7

Sat., Oct. 15 at Cincinnati L, 25-16

Fri., Oct. 21 Rutgers W, 16-14

Sat., Oct. 29 Syracuse W, 27-10

Sat., Nov. 5 at West Virginia (WBNA-21) Noon

Sat., Nov. 12 Pittsburgh TBA

Sat., Nov. 19 at Connecticut TBA

Fri., Nov. 25 at USF (ABC/ESPN/ESPN2) TBA

2011 LOUISVILLE 2011 LOUISVILLE FOOTBALL SCHEDULEFOOTBALL SCHEDULE

V I S I T C A R D I N A L S P O R T S . C O M FOR UP-TO-THE-MINUTE CARDINAL INFORMATION

Josh Bleser headed right after dropping the snap on a late fi eld-goal attempt. He threw a TD pass, but it was nullifi ed by two linemen being illegally downfi eld. - photo by Darrell Russell


LOUISVILLE ATHLETICS

JURICH: ‘WE WILL CONTINUE TO BUILD ON’By Howie LindseyUniversity of Louisville Vice President for Athletics Tom Jurich got a call early Friday

morning from the Big 12 about West Virginia having received a bid to join the league in-stead of UofL. Hours later, Jurich spoke about his reaction to the news and what it means for Louisville’s future.

On West Virginia, Jurich stated plainly: “They got invited. I’m not sure how everything went down, but they fought a good battle and won.”

Louisville and West Virginia had been the top two candidates for the Big 12 for the past two weeks. Both programs believed at certain times a bid to the league was imminent, but West Virginia was the fi rst to get an actual bid, as confi rmed by the Big East Friday morning.

Jurich was asked what this means for the future of UofL athletics.“We will continue to build on,” he said. “We have a lot of goals we have to accomplish,

and we will move forward.“We are going to keep building the program. We are going to keep getting stronger and

stronger, and there are going to be lots of options in our future. The world has changed as we know it many times in the last couple of years, and it will continue to change moving forward.”

Jurich said Louisville and the Big 12 had extensive conversations dating back months.“We had a lot of interaction,” he said. “I can’t speak for them because I wasn’t in that

board room, but we were obviously very attractive to them because they looked at us for such a long period of time. We are building a great tradition here, and we are going to continue to do that.”

Later, when asked what the future holds, he said: “Honestly, I don’t know that answer. I think a lot of conferences will do a lot of movement going forward. What we have to do is the best thing we can do for the University of Louisville. We will always keep all of our options in full view, because this school comes fi rst. We will always do that.”

The talk in the 24 hours prior to West Virginia’s bid being announced was all about the Big 12 possibly adding both West Virginia and Louisville. Jurich said he believes the Big 12 when it says it is comfortable at 10 members right now.

“I don’t know what their thought process is; I know right now they are comfortable at 10,” he said. “I don’t know what their future will hold, whether they want to go to 11, 12, 14.... I don’t know, but right now I am confi dent they are going to stay at 10.”

Jurich said Louisville will help the Big East however possible moving forward.“I think the Big East will move rapidly,” he said. “I think the Big East has been waiting

for things to settle so they can move ahead with their plan. I think they have a plan in place, and it is a plan we expect to be a part of. The Big East has been a great partner for us, and I want to make sure we reiterate that. It’s been great for our program the last six years. We want to do what we can to help it grow as it has helped us grow beginning six years ago.”

POLITICAL HELPEarly last week two West Virginia politicians made a stink about the involvement of

Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell (R) in lobbying for Louisville to join the Big 12. West Virginia’s Joe Manchin (D) and Jay Rockefeller (D) both released statements critical of Mc-Connell’s involvement in promoting Louisville, McConnell’s alma mater.

Later in the week, when it was revealed by Oklahoma President David Boren (a for-mer Senator) that both Manchin and Rockefeller had been lobbying for West Virginia for weeks, the West Virginia Senators had egg on their faces.

For Louisville’s part, Jurich said McConnell was promoting his alma mater and did abso-lutely nothing wrong.

“He lobbied for us, of course he did, as did a lot of people,” Jurich said. “Jim Host lob-bied for us, and there were a lot of people that helped us, people that worked hard on this process.”

Jurich bristled at the idea that McConnell did anything wrong.“First of all, the Senator did not push for any move,” Jurich explained. “He called on

our behalf and talked about the merits of the University of Louisville, as he should. He was the student body president here. He loves it, and he is here at every game. He didn’t know more than that, so that thing was blown completely out of proportion, as things normally are. He did nothing inappropriate. That has all been vetted out now, and the truth has come out.”

THE EXIT BATTLEWith West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Syracuse all hoping to leave the Big East for their

new leagues for the 2012 season, the Big East has currently dug in its heels, insisting that league members abide by the $5 million exit fee and a 27-month waiting period they agreed to in 2005 before leaving.

The ACC has made it clear it would like Syracuse and Pitt right away, and the Big 12 issued a press release saying West Virginia would join the league on July 1, 2012. The Big East maintains that no member can leave prior to July 1, 2014. This is a battle that likely will be decided in court.

West Virginia fi led a lawsuit Monday seeking an immediate separation from the Big East. The lawsuit asks the Monongalia County Circuit Court to declare the Big East bylaws invalid, claiming that the Big East breached its fi duciary duty to West Virginia by failing to

maintain a balance between football-playing and non-football-playing members.The complaint, which asks for a jury trial, also alleges that the Big East agreed to West

Virginia’s immediate withdrawal by accepting a $2.5 million down payment on its $5 mil-lion exit fee.

Big East Commissioner John Marinatto said West Virginia cannot leave the league untilJuly 1, 2014, enforcing the rules agreed upon by West Virginia and the rest of the leaguemembers in 2005.

“We are disappointed that West Virginia has adopted this strategy and cannot imaginewhy it believes it does not have to respect and honor the bylaws it agreed to as a memberof the Big East. Based on an initial review of the lawsuit, it is clear that the allegations andclaims in it are false and inaccurate. Certainly there is nothing in it that would justify WVU’snot fulfi lling its obligations. To put it simply, a contract is a contract,” Marinatto said in astatement.

“Once we have reviewed the fi ling, we will explore all our legal options and will actvigorously to ensure that WVU lives up to all its obligations to our conference. In the mean-time, this lawsuit will not interfere in any way with our ongoing efforts to strengthen andexpand the Big East.”

NEW MEMBERS COMINGThe Big East had a regularly scheduled ommissioners’ meeting on Tuesday in Philadel-

phia. Most experts believe the league will look to add at least three schools right awayfrom a group of candidates that includes Boise State, SMU, Houston, UCF, East Carolina,Southern Miss, Memphis, Temple and others.

The primary goal for the Big East will be to add Boise State, a key for the league’s futureranking in BCS evaluations. The Broncos would be added for football only and would shoreup the league’s BCS standing after the current 2014 BCS contract ends.

Beyond Boise State, the league likely will add UCF, Houston and SMU as all-sports mem-bers, with Temple getting heavy consideration. Jurich was asked about the league’s futureTV contract given the current fi ve members plus a large group of newcomers.

“It will defi nitely be diffi cult, there is no question, but I think what will happen is youhave to look at the schools that will be added,” he said. “We have to see what the onesthat want to be a part of it bring to the table. The commissioner is going to be very aggres-sive now in going after and selecting new schools.”

Jurich said the Big East could make moves to secure its future very quickly.“There is a good core group right now - Connecticut, Rutgers, Louisville, South Florida

and Cincinnati - and we’ll just build off of that,” he said. “And the basketball schools havea tremendous tradition. I don’t think the basketball schools will take a hit at all. I think theleague will stay extremely strong.... The numbers are down, so that remains to be seen. Butwe hope to continue to get bigger and better.”

CINCY HIRES ADCincinnati hired a new athletic director last week, former Missouri associate AD Whit

Babcock. With league members leaving and others looking to leave, Babcock said his big-gest challenge is clear.

“For me personally I think it is getting the lay of the land across the board,” he said.“Obviously, getting the lay of the land in regard conference realignment.”

Later, Babcock was asked about his preference in leagues. He replied: “It is an interest-ing, critical time. The diffi cult thing is that so much of it is out of your control. We arenot going to respond to speculations. I am on board with however he (UC President Dr.Gregory Williams) wants to go.”

Babcock said several times that Cincinnati was committed to the Big East but noted:“Trust and stability are the biggest thing. Right now I don’t know that the Big East haseither. Trust and stability is wavering. We have to get that back. Schools should defi nitelybe committed to their conference.”

UofL athletic director Tom Jurich was not pleased that West Virginia

was chosen over the Cards for admittance to the Big 12, but he

was not distraught, either. “I think the Big East will move rapidly (to expand),” he said. “...We want to do what we can to hep it grow.”-

photo by Howie Lindsey


WOMEN’S BASKETBALLCOFFEE BREAK

We’ve got a lot to talk about this week, so let’s discuss the pleasant things fi rst. How about that football team? If you want to see a textbook case of “coaching up,” this Cardi-nals team is it. This is not the same team that stumbled and fumbled while fans grumbled in losing at home to Marshall (now 4-5) and Florida International (4-3, including a loss to Arkansas State). But UofL fans can be nothing but happy about the recent home victo-ries over Syracuse and Rutgers, two teams with winning records (both 5-3). The Syracuse win in my opinion was one of the best all-around games played by the Cards since Charlie Strong took over the team prior to last season. Only the shutout of UConn last season matches Saturday’s win in complete effi ciency. This was the same Syracuse team that a

week earlier spanked then-No. 14 West Virginia 49-23. UofL had its highest scoring game of the season and moved the ball

both on the ground and through the air. Freshman quarterback Ted-dy Bridgewater continues to improve and learn the college game. His change of plays on Vic Anderson’s 61-yard touchdown run was the best audible of the season. Another drastic improvement visible on that play was the blocking, which received my wrath two weeks ago. Not only is the offensive line blocking much better, but the downfi eld blocking on that run was classic.

Speaking of the offensive line, O-line coach Dave Borbely deserves accolades for the turnaround by this group, which struggled with youth,

injuries and lack of cohesion the fi rst half of the season. The last two games the line has cut the sacks and tackles for loss in half, and with the injuries starting to heal it promises only to get better. Twelve offensive linemen played in the Syracuse game, including two local walk-ons -- Zach Perkins of North Bullitt and Chris Walker of Ballard. Of those 12, just three were juniors or seniors.

As Strong has been saying all season, the key to winning is to be able to run the ball. In their four losses the Cards failed to rush for more than 100 yards and averaged just 78 per game. In the four wins the average rushing yards gained was 168, more than double that gained in the losses. By comparison, in the four losses the average passing yards was 240, and in the wins the average was 173 per game. In the FIU loss UofL gained 363 yards passing and still lost the game, gaining only 83 yards on the ground. Oddly, the penalty-plagued Cards had just four in that game for 25 total yards. Statistically, it still is diffi cult to explain that loss. The Cards rushed for 145 yards against Syracuse, which was giving up just 99.43 yards per game coming in.

But the improvement of the offense is still overshadowed by a defense that continues to grow stronger and frustrate opponents. The 10 points scored by Syracuse was its lowest of the season, as was the 14 scored by Rutgers. In the Syracuse game only a late touch-down by the Orange on a fourth-down play against the subs kept the Cards from rising to seventh in the national rankings in scoring defense. They now are No. 11. As the team continues to improve the offense slowly rises from the bottom of the NCAA rankings and the defense continues to ascend to the top of the rankings.

Now for the unpleasant business: The inexplicable decision by the Big 12 (they can’t even get their name right) to select West Virginia over Louisville as the 10th (or is it 11th?) member of the conference. I was under the mistaken belief that the conference leaders would spend time comparing the potential members and do due diligence to determine which schools would be best to add to their conference. If that were the case there was no way the Big 12 could overlook UofL and its splendid athletic program. But evidently the only criteria was a legacy of winning football, which is the only element in which the Mountaineers overshadow the Cards. WVU has won or tied for the league championship six times and is a perennial top-25 team. But beyond that, what is attractive about WVU? Have any of the Big 12’s decision makers been to Morgantown?

It’s obvious that the Big 12’s presidents only considered football when making their choice. Do they realize that every league team when traveling to WVU will have to ride a bus for 14 extra hours to compete in Morgantown compared to Louisville? Can you imag-ine the extra cost? As for the football and basketball teams, they will fl y into Pittsburgh and drive an hour and a half to get to campus. If they fl ew into the less expensive SDF they could be on campus in fi ve minutes. We won’t even talk about what the fans from the present Big 12 teams will experience if they follow their teams. I was in Oklahoma recently and they told me that 100,000 fans traveled to Dallas for the Texas-Oklahoma game and half had no chance to even get into the game. These are some serious football fans.

This decision tells me two things: 1) It is for the short term, and 2) More teams will be added later. Or this is a stopgap until 2014, which also tells us something -- this is only the beginning of conference realignment. Cards fans are at a high level of anxiety concerning the future of the athletic program, and rightly so. But we all need to remember several things: Realignment will continue to play out until the BCS television contracts are rene-gotiated in 2014; there is no way the Big 12 can be attractive to the networks with only 10 teams while other conferences have 14 and possibly 16; Louisville is too attractive to be left standing at the altar; the chance of lawsuits hangs over the conversation about TV contracts and BCS participation; TV Networks, the FBC, the BCS and conferences are go-ing to do nothing to invite lawsuits and Congressional oversight of their golden goose. Remember Oklahoma and the NCAA in 1984?

CARDS WERE SUPERB AGAINST SYRACUSE;

CHOOSING WVU OVER UofL IS PUZZLING

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Homecoming King Peyton Siva escorted Homecoming Queen Olivia Feldkamp from the fi eld at halftime last Saturday. Siva is majoring in Sociology and is a tri-captain of this year’s basketball team. Feldkamp is majoring in Political Science. - photo by Howie Lindsey

By Russ BrownGive offensive lineman Alex Kupper an

“A” for honesty when he talks about why he landed at the University of Louisville as a walk-on after helping Trinity High School win three state championships.

“I had zero scholarship offers and not many options,” he said with his customary bluntness.

He added that he also could have walked on at Kentucky or West-ern Kentucky, but UofL is in his hometown, Trinity teammate Will Stein was walking on with the Car-dinals as a quarterback and, “I just felt like it was a good opportunity for me.”

It has proven to be just that. Predictably, Kupper sat out his fi rst year at UofL in 2008 and didn’t see action during his redshirt freshman season. But he started coming into his own last year and earned playing time in seven games as a backup, starting against Arkansas State at center when Mario Benavides was hurt.

“He developed so fast, I couldn’t keep him off the fi eld,” said UofL offensive line coach Dave Borbely.

Kupper, who is now on scholarship, tried to make himself as valuable as possible by becoming UofL’s utility man on the line, moving from spot to spot wherever he was needed.

Besides fi lling in for Benavides last season, Kupper played both guard positions. This sea-son Kupper started the fi rst three games at center in place of the injured Benevides, then moved to left tackle, where he has opened the last four games while Hector Hernandez recovers from an injury. When Hernandez gets healthy, Kupper will probably switch to left guard.

Kupper has played all fi ve positions at one time or another during the past 1 1/2 sea-sons.

“When I fi rst came in here, I fi gured in order to play, being an average-size person for an offensive lineman, to be valuable, why not play every position?” he said. “If you can play all of them, you have a good shot at playing.”

He claims he doesn’t have a favorite, al-though he has found that going up against a defensive end when he plays tackle is a bit more challenging.

“It doesn’t matter. Honest truth,” he said. “I don’t care. The tackle thing was kind of a curveball, but it’s still an offensive line po-sition. Tackle is just a different type game. You’re dealing with a different type of player ... quick off the edge, not as big and strong.”

Kupper has gained 60 pounds to 295 since his days at Trinity.

“I didn’t want to gain it all at once,” he said. “I gradually put on weight and got stronger, and it’s helped me on the fi eld.”

Borbely said Kupper was one of three players who were competing for the backup center spot when head coach Charlie Strong and the new staff arrived prior to 2010 spring

practice, and Kupper quickly separated him-self from the group.

“I told them I could put all three of them in a bag and shake it up and whoever came out would be the backup,” Borbely said. “I told them they had to do something to separate themselves, and Alex did that from a physical development standpoint and a mental standpoint.

“I think he’s a tremendous football play-er. He’s smart, he understands conceptually what we’re doing, and he sees just how that concept works, not only to him but the en-tire picture.”

Is Kupper surprised that he has traveled all the way from walk-on to starter to schol-arship?

“I wouldn’t say I’m surprised. I just work hard every day and try to improve,” he said. “That’s what all of us do. I try to set an ex-ample for the younger guys.”

When the season started, Kupper and Benavides were the only experienced play-ers on a young offensive line that lost six se-niors, including four starters, from last year. The linemen had their problems during the fi rst half of the season, giving up too many sacks and failing to create much breathing room for UofL’s running backs.

But heading into Saturday’s crucial game against West Virginia (6-2, 2-1) in Morgan-town the line is coming off its best two performances of the season. In a 16-14 vic-tory over Rutgers the Cardinals rushed for a season-high 187 yards and didn’t allow a sack even though the Scarlet Knights were second in the FBS with four sacks per game coming in.

In last Saturday’s 27-10 victory over Syra-

cuse the Cards (4-4, 2-1) had 145 yards on the ground for their fi rst back-to-back 100-yard rushing games of the season.

Besides the inexperience, UofL has had to overcome injuries. The Cards have had eight different starters up front, and only Kupper, redshirt freshman right guard Jake Smith and senior Ryan Kessling have started every game -- and often not at the same position from week to week.

“You see week by week improvements in execution,” Kupper said. “Guys are getting more confi dent in what they’re doing. The more games we play the better we’re go-ing to get because we’re, quote unquote, a young offensive line. When you get players in there knowing what they’re doing and play-ing fast you become lethal, but the execu-tion is defi nitely there. You can see it coming together. When we came into the season we had talks and we knew our potential. We’re fi nally starting to live up to it.”

One major difference is that the line has been able to pick up blitzes more effec-tively and give freshman quarterback Teddy Bridgewater enough time to throw.

“When you have a young offensive line and a young quarterback, you have to see those things a couple of times before you nail them down,” Kupper said. “When you know what’s coming you play a whole lot faster, and when you start feeling a blitz coming from either side you can pick it up.”

The Cards’ offense also made progress in another area against Syracuse, scoring two touchdowns in the fi rst 12 1/2 minutes to grab a 14-0 lead. After receiving the opening kickoff it took UofL just four plays and 2:05 to move 92 yards and notch its initial fi rst-

quarter TD of the season, thanks to two bigpasses by Bridgewater.

First, freshman Michaelee Harris hauled in a 44-yarder. Then freshman DeVante Parkercaught a 42-yard touchdown pass. The sec-ond TD came on a 2-yard catch by seniortight end Josh Chichester after the Cards hadtaken over at midfi eld.

UofL wound up with 343 yards total of-fense, its most since gaining 446 yards in a24-17 loss to FIU on Sept. 9.

“Against Rutgers we only scored 16 points, but as an overall execution it felt awhole lot better,” Kupper said. “This weekwe came out and exploded. When we ex-ecute we can be a very explosive team. Ihonestly believe it.”

Kupper acknowledged that hearing that the offensive line was the major questionmark going into the season, and then deal-ing with the criticism that followed its earlystruggles, got under the linemen’s skin andmotivated them.

“Whether you’re the best part of the team, you’re viewed as the most valuable orwhether you’re viewed as the weak link, youalways have to work to become the best,”Kupper said. “It defi nitely pushed us; youdon’t want to be the weak link in the chain.We used that adversity pretty well.”

Although West Virginia certainly doesn’t look unbeatable and has given up a whop-ping 80 points to Syracuse and Rutgers inits last two outings, the No. 24/21 Moun-taineers will be the the Cards’ toughest chal-lenge to date.

“It will be a tough road test, so we’ve got to play well and play fast,” Kupper said.


CARDINAL FOOTBALL

Left tackle Alex Kupper has played every position on the offensive line. He fi gured it would help him garner playing time as a walk-on from Trinity four years ago. Now he’s a starter and on scholarship, however. - photo by Howie Lindsey

KUPPER’S VERSATILITY HELPING O-LINE’S SURGE



GAME THREE PREVIEW - KENTUCKY

Louisville football fi nally got rid of a pair of BAD stats Saturday against Syracuse. The Cardinals notched their fi rst opening-drive touchdown of the season, and they won back-to-back league games

for the fi rst time since 2006. Both of those statistics are embarrassing, but especially the second one. The Cardinals fi nally got that back-to-back monkey of their backs and hope to make it three in a row Saturday at Morgantown, W. Va. Picked to win the league and currently ranked No. 24/21 in the nation, West Virginia will be Louisville’s toughest test of the season. But the Mountaineers’ defense has allowed 80 points in its last two games - 49 to Syracuse and 31 to Rutgers, teams Louisville held to 10 and 14 points respectively.

Louisville has a GOOD chance to make a bowl now. If someone would have asked two weeks ago when Louisville was 2-4 whether

the Cardinals could win four of their last six games to make a bowl, we would have said it was doubtful. But now? The Cardinals beat then-league-leading Rutgers two weeks ago and knocked off Syracuse last Saturday. The next two games will be tough, a showdown at No. 24/21 West Virginia and a home game against Pitt, but the fi nal two games are against the current bottom two teams in the league, Connecticut and South Florida. Both of those games are on the road, but UConn is 3-5 and 1-2 in the league with a 43-16 loss to West Virginia, a 16-10 win over USF and a 35-20 loss to Pitt. USF is 4-3, 0-3 and has lost 44-17 to Pitt, 16-10 to UConn and 37-34 to Cincinnati. Louisville is in a three-way tie (with WVU and Pitt) for

second place in Big East, and its next two games are against WVU and Pitt.

We love the positive attitude displayed by Teddy Bridgewater. The freshman quarterback is a strong competitor, but he also seems to understand that football is fun and should be played like a game. During Louisville’s 27-10 pasting of Syracuse, Bridgewater was seen smiling from ear-to-ear on the sideline, encouraging teammates and slapping guys on the back after big plays. You know, now that we think about it, the same can be said for junior quarterback Will Stein. The former starter, Stein could h a v e been bitter and moped while he waits for another shot on the fi eld, but he has been nothing of the sort. He was seen standing on the bench imploring the crowd to cheer louder by waving his towel around his head while the defense was on the fi eld late in the game Saturday. Credit QB coach/offensive coordinator Shawn Watson and graduate assistant Justin Burke for fostering such a positive atmosphere in the quarterbacks’ room.

How awesome was it so see Anthony Conner step out of that golf cart at the 30-yard line and wave to the crowd Saturday? Wow, what

a moment! The senior, who suffered a broken neck while making a tackle in the fi rst half against Rutgers, easily could have been paralyzed. Doctors said he was less than an inch away from having much more serious damage. As it was, his playing career is over. Given that, he could have sat in his hospital bed and hid away from the world. Instead, he came to the football complex Saturday morning, cheered up his teammates and inspired their win. You can fi nd inspiring stories everywhere you look if you look hard enough, but what is it about sports that makes those stories so accessible? On Saturday evening we watched on TV as former Rutgers’ player Eric LeGrand led his team onto the fi eld in a motorized cart. LeGrand was not as lucky as Conner, having been paralyzed after making a tackle last year. He is still working to gain control of his lower limbs. But like Conner, LeGrand was there for his team Saturday, smiling through tears. Saturday night, LeGrand posted this on his Twitter account: “So I left tire marks in the snow yesterday as I led my team out. Next time will be footprints.” LeGrand, by the way, phoned Conner on Tuesday to offer encouragement. Conner said he greatly appreciated the gesture.

We expect Saturday’s atmosphere in Morgantown, W.Va., to be even uglier than it normally is for the Cardinals. West Virginia, known

for having some of the most obnoxious and hateful crowds in college football, recently started selling beer at the stadium. When you combine the beer sales with their perception that Louisville was trying to “take their Big 12 spot,” as one local columnist put it, we fear for the players and fans’ safety Saturday. Louisville freshman receiver Michaelee Harris was asked last Saturday about the nasty reputation of WVU fans. “I heard they are nasty,” he replied, “but I WISH somebody would throw a battery at me.” Harris’ didn’t fi nish his statement about what the consequence would be, but his tone on the word “wish” implied that they

better not.

Louisville freshman guard/forward Wayne Blackshear is out for the season with a shoulder injury, UofL confi rmed Friday night. Blackshear

injured his shoulder while going up for a layup in practice and was found to have a torn labrum in an MRI done Friday. We understand that Blackshear wouldn’t have started for a while (Kyle Kuric and Chris Smith have been doing a great job at the two and three spots), but Louisville will not be the team it could have been this year because Blackshear is out. Jeff Goodman of CBS said Blackshear was Louisville’s most physically talented player (and that includes fellow freshman Chane Behanan and junior point guard Peyton

Siva).

There could be an UGLY battle brewing between the Big East and West Virginia over the timing of the Mountaineers’ exit from the league.

According to a press release by the Big 12 Friday, Missouri is off of the Big 12’s roster of teams for 2012 and West Virginia is in. But that’s not the offi cial position of either the SEC, where Missouri is headed, or the Big East. The SEC has not claimed Missouri yet for 2012, and the Big East maintains that the earliest West Virginia will be allowed to leave is 2014. West Virginia president James Clements said: “As of July 1 we will be members of the Big 12. Our team and their teams are in discussions about how we can make that happen.” But Big East commissioner John Marinatto said in a statement, “West Virginia is fully aware that the Big East Conference is committed to enforcing the 27-month notifi cation period for members who choose to leave the conference.” Of course, a buyout could be negotiated.

Even more UGLY could be the battle between the Big East offi ce and Pittsburgh. The league is justifi ably furious with Pitt Chancellor Mark Nordenberg, who led the league as Marinatto’s de facto boss

while secretly negotiating an exit to the ACC. Pitt and Syracuse also would be forced into a buyout if they hope to leave for the ACC by next season. How big could that buyout be? The number fl oated on the Internet last week was $20-25 million apiece. That means, with TCU’s $5 million added in, the remaining league members could be seeing a windfall of up to $80 million from the four departing members.

We couldn’t end this week’s column without a word about how rock-solid Louisville Vice President for Athletics Tom Jurich has been throughout this process. From back when the leagues appeared to

be headed for merger (when half the Big 12 was headed to the Pac-12) to now, when it appears Louisville still has work to do to land a spot in the Big 12, Jurich has been a steadying infl uence. He’s reassured his coaches and staff members and diligently worked the phones. Despite it appearing for the past month that the Big 12 wanted Louisville, the Big 12’s fi rst two picks for expansion were all about football strength - TCU and West Virginia. However, given Jurich’s work with the Big 12 and its positive talk about Louisville, when it makes another move in the future, Louisville will likely be that move. It is certainly frustrating to all involved - Jurich especially - that Louisville wasn’t one of the fi rst two chosen by the Big 12, but sources around athletics have said that this is not the end and that Jurich’s hard work will make sure of it.

BAD

GOOD

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

UGLY

GOOD

UGLY

GOODGOOD

BAD

UGLY

F O L L O W H O W I E L I N D S E Y O N T W I T T E R @ H O W I E L I N D S E Y F O R D A I L Y U P D A T E S O N L O U I S V I L L E A T H L E T I C S A N D C O N F E R E N C E R E A L I G N M E N T .


CARDINAL FOOTBALL

By Russ BrownLouisville’s defensive unit knew from

watching fi lm that they didn’t want to emu-late West Virginia when Syracuse came to town. The Orange had laid 49 points, 423 yards and seven touchdowns on WVU the previous week.

“When you watched the fi lm, West Vir-ginia wasn’t executing the way they should

have,” UofL linebacker Dexster Heyman said. “We went out there with a very simple game plan because they’re a very simple team. They do what they do very well, though, so what we had to do in turn was execute our defense and make

plays. That’s one thing we harped on all week, and we got it done.”

In winning 27-10, UofL limited Syracuse (5-3, 1-2) to a season-low 246 yards, and 48 of those came on a meaningless touchdown drive in the fi nal minutes. Against West Vir-ginia, the Orange had no negative offensive plays. Against the Cards’ pressure defense Syracuse suffered at least one play for nega-tive yardage on its fi rst eight series, and UofL registered a season-high 15 tackles for loss.

“They came to play, and they had a great day,” Syracuse running back Antwon Bailey said. “We knew they had a great rushing de-fense and that they were going to pressure us and come after us, which they did, and we struggled. Give all the credit in the world to that Louisville team. It was tough, because they send pressure from everywhere and at any time. It affects your whole offense.”

Heyman had three of the tackles for loss, whilw sophomore linebacker Preston Brown and senior cornerback Mike Evans had two apiece, Brown’s coming on a pair of sacks, the fi rst of his career. Heyman now has 10 tackles for loss this season, and he and Brown are tied for the team lead with 55 tackles each.

“I loved the way the defense played today. Loved it,” UofL coach Charlie Strong said. “There was pressure, there were sacks, there were guys fl ying around. Preston Brown is beginning to grow up, and he’s an excel-lent football player. He can be as good as he wants to be.”

The dominating performance against Syracuse was another indication that UofL’s defense continues to improve. UofL moved up from 15th in the FBS to No. 12 in total de-fense, allowing just 295.63 yards per game, is 11th in scoring defense (16.25 ppg) and is tied with Oklahoma for fourth in tackles for loss at 8.25 per game.

“Everybody knows what to do now,” Brown said. “In the beginning of the year we had ups and downs and little mis-takes, but everyone has bought in now and is really focused.”

In the fi rst seven games of the season UofL’s offense struggled, putting added pres-sure on the defense. But against Syracuse the Cards jumped to a 14-0 lead in the fi rst quar-ter, which made life easier for the defense.

“The offense played great today,” Heyman said. “From a defensive standpoint what you always want is a lead going into the fourth quarter, and any good defense is going to be able to protect that lead. That’s what we’ve been able to do the last two weeks, and that’s hopefully something we can continue to turn the page on as the season progresses.”

And once Louisville had the lead, its de-fensive players knew that the Orange isn’t a big come-from-behind team and if they did their job, they could make it a long afternoon for the visitors.

“Syracuse isn’t really a big-play offense, they’re a sustainable-drive offense,” Heyman said. “They like to nickle and dime you down the fi eld so to speak, so eliminating the big play wasn’t a big focus. What was a big fo-cus was get off the fi eld on third down and I believe they were, what, 24 percent? So that

was a great job by our defense getting off the fi eld on money downs, as we call it.”

Actually, Syracuse was worse than that, converting just 3 of 14 third-down attempts for 21 percent.

Things will get considerably trickier for UofL’s defenders this weekend. Not only is Morgantown the most hostile environment in the Big East, but the Mountaineers rank No. 13 in the FBS in total offense, amass-ing 482 yards per game. Quarterback Geno Smith is seventh individually in total offense at 332.4 ypg.

“As always, West Virginia is very, very ex-plosive, a team that can hang 50 or 60 points on you if you let them,” Heyman said. “That’s one thing we’ve struggled with this year is eliminating the big play, and that’s one thing you have to do against West Virginia.”

ANDERSON GETS UNTRACKEDSenior running back Victor Anderson, who

has been hampered by injuries lately and missed two games, fi nally got rolling against Syracuse, breaking free for a 61-yard touch-down run in the fourth quarter and fi nishing

with a season-high 93 yards on 11 carries.It was his most yardage since he totaled

108 against Arkansas State in the fourthgame last season and his most against ateam from a BCS conference since he got110 against Kentucky in the second game ofthe 2009 season.

“It was so good to see Vic break that long run,” Strong said. “He needed that. He’sbeen battling injuries the last two games. Ifwe can get us another 100-yard rusher, plus100 more yards with other guys, then we’llbe very successful.”

Wide receiver Scott Radcliff made a key downfi eld block to prevent a potential tackleof Anderson, and Strong said the play wasoriginally intended to be a pass.

“Teddy (Bridgewater) saw pressure and checked it to the speed option,” Strong said.“Then (Anderson) was able to break a tackleand take it the distance.”

OLD AND NEW BLENDINGStrong said UofL’s older players who were

recruited by former head coach Steve Kragth-orpe and his staff have accepted the youngplayers in the two recruiting classes broughtin since Strong was hired. The Cards havethin junior and senior classes, and the depthchart going into the Syracuse game listed 14freshmen or sophomores among the top 22players on offense and also 14 on defense.

“If you ever alienate the older guys, then you have a problem,” Strong said. “I don’tever say to them, ‘I didn’t recruit you guyshere.’ I never say to the older guys, ‘We re-cruited that group back there, so you can’tpush them out of the way.’ Now the youngguys are beginning to see that they’re beingaccepted, and that’s the only way a programcan change. If you ever alienate the olderguys, then you have an issue on your hands,and that’s not what we want.”

Sophomore linebacker Preston Brown, bottom, and senior defensive end William Savoy combined to sack Syracuse quarterback Ryan Nassib. Brown had a team-high seven tackles and Savoy had three. - photo by Howie Lindsey


CARDS’ DEFENSE NEEDS ANOTHER ‘GREAT DAY’ AT WEST VIRGINIA


WOMEN’S BASKETBALLOPPONENT PREVIEW

BY RICK CUSHINGLast Saturday at halftime on a

snowy day in Piscataway, N.J., the Mountaineers were not only wet and cold, they were trailing Rutgers 31-21 and facing virtual elimination in the Big East Conference title race.

With one conference loss already, a second loss would have made it very diffi cult for the preseason Big East

favorites to win the title and claim the league’s BCS bid. But WVU regrouped, outscoring the Scarlet Knights 20-0 in the second half to keep its title hopes alive.

“I’m very proud of how we played in the second half,” coach Dana Holgorsen said. “We talked all week about ad-versity and how it happens in every game. We got challenged. At halftime it was a challenging situation for our coaches and our players, but I’m proud of how we went out and played harder than they did.”

The Mountaineers closed within 31-28 on a 19-yard TD pass from Geno Smith to Stedman Bailey, survived a scare in the fourth quarter when Rutgers misfi red on a fake fi eld goal, then drove 89 yards in 10 plays to take a 34-31 lead on Smith’s fi rst career TD run, a 1-yarder on fourth down with 6:18 left to play.

Rutgers fumbled two plays later, WVU’s Julian Miller recov-ered, and Smith connected with Tavon Austin on a 20-yard TD pass with 4:50 left to clinch it.

“We have great coaches, and they stayed on us and never let us doubt ourselves,” Smith said. “They never showed doubt and never showed any signs of being afraid we might lose because we were down.”

Smith completed 20 of 31 passes for 218 yards and two TDs, and Shawne Alston had a career-high 110 yards and two TDs on 14 carries.

Bailey caught a TD pass in a third straight game but had his school-record streak of 100-yard receiving games end after fi ve games. Austin had 96 yards rushing and 67 yards receiving.

“I thought our kids did a good job after getting punched in the head a few times,” defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel said.

The Mountaineers (6-2, 3-1 Big East) won their 17th straight against the Scarlet Knights (5-3, 2-2). The two have played every year since 1980, though that likely will come to an end next season, when WVU plans to be a part of the Big 12 Conference.

West Virginia started the season with high hopes and a new coach – Holgorsen,who was supposed to take over after the season but got the job in June after coach Bill Stewart was forced out because of allegations he had asked a sports-writer to dig up dirt on Holgorsen.

Holgorsen, an offensive guru who had never previously been a head coach, vowed to instill a wide-open, pass-happy offense. With Smith, a junior who led the Big East in passing effi ciency last year, running the show, the Mountaineers fi g-ured to be both exciting and good. Four starters on the O-line were back, as well as four top receivers.

West Virginia opened the season with victories over Mar-shall, Norfolk State and Maryland before dropping a 47-21 decision to then-No. 2 LSU. The Mountaineers then beat Bowl-ing Green and UConn to rise to No. 14 in the rankings before absorbing a stunning 49-23 defeat at Syracuse. Then came the Rutgers game.

WVU will entertain Louisville Saturday, followed by a trip to Cincinnati, which is 2-0 in the conference. The 24th-ranked Mountaineers know they’ll have to beat the Bearcats, but fi rst they’ll have to handle the Cards.

OFFENSESmith (6-3, 195) is having a superb season. He’s 209 of

330 (63.3 percent) for 2,715 yards (339.4 a game) and 20 TDs with just fi ve interceptions. He’s seventh in the country in

total offense at 332.38 yards per game. He’s not a threat to run, averaging minus-7 yards rushing a game.

Austin (5-9, 164), a junior, leads the team with 56 recep-tions for 691 yards (12.3 yards per catch, 86.4 a game) and three TDs. He’s also run fi ve times for 84 yards and a TD, an 80-yarder, averaged 14.5 yards on 15 punt returns (eighth in the country) and averaged 23.8 yards on 18 kick returns, with a 100-yarder for a TD. He averages 180.5 all-purpose yards a game, which is fourth in the country.

Bailey (5-10, 195), a sophomore, has 43 catches for 815 yards (19 yards a catch, 101.9 a game, 16th in the country) and seven TDs, and sophomore Ivan McCartney (6-3, 176) has 37 catches for 475 yards (12.8 a catch, 59.4 a game) and three TDs. Four other receivers have double-digit recep-tions, and senior speedster Brad Starks (6-3, 188) has four TD catches. Six receivers have caught at least one TD pass.

Freshman Dustin Garrison (5-8, 165) leads the team with 517 rushing yards (6.2 a carry, 64.6 a game) and fi ve TDs. Alston (5-11, 219), a junior, has rushed for 247 yards (5.7 a carry, 41.2 a game) and fi ve TDs.

The O-line is doing a better job at pass protecting (allow-ing just 13 sacks) than run-blocking as WVU is 87th in the country in rushing at 127.25 yards per game.

Junior Tyler Bitancourt has made 12 of 13 fi eld-goal at-tempts with a long of 45 yards.

WVU is 13th in the country in total offense at 482.13 yards per game and 15th in scoring at 38.63 ppg.

DEFENSE:The defense, which lost seven starters from last season,

has been good but not great. It is 47th in the country in rush-ing D at 133 ypg, 28th in pass D at 196.50 ypg, and 59th in scoring D at 26.13 ppg.

Sophomore DB Darwin Cook (5-11, 204) leads the team with 54 tackles, closely followed by senior LB Najee Goode (6-1, 231) with 53 tackles and junior DB Pat Miller (5-10, 188) with 51.

WVU has recorded just 10 sacks, which is 109th in the country, and has just 40 tackles for a loss, which is 86th. Se-nior DE Bruce Irvin (6-3, 245) leads the team with 2.5 sacks and 7.0 tackles for a loss. Senior strong safety Terence Garvin (6-3, 212) and senior CB Keith Tandy (5-10, 198) share the team lead in interceptions with two apiece.

WVU employs an almost unique 3-3-5 defensive alignment that can cause problems for the opposition, although this season the Mountaineers’ D has been less than imposing.

PLAYERS TO WATCHSmith, of course, but the most exciting player for WVU

is Austin, whether it be catching passes, running the ball or returning punts and kicks. Bailey, with his 101.9 receiving yards a game, also bears watching.

TEAM STRENGTH It’s the passing game, stupid!TEAM WEAKNESS The Mountaineers have not been able to pressure the

quarterback, which means that UofL’s speedy and talented receiving corps should have time to get open downfi eld.

COACHING RESUMEHolgorsen made his reputation as offensive coordinator at

Houston and Oklahoma State.KENTUCKY CONNECTIONWVU has just two players from Kentucky -- redshirt fresh-

man QB Michael Burchett from Prestonburg and Tandy, who is from Hopkinsville. Tandy led the Big East in interceptions last year with six and is projected to be a fi rst-round NFL draft pick.

ALL-TIME SERIESUofL and WVU have met 12 times, with the Mountaineers

holding a 10-2 advantage. They won the past four years, with UofL’s last victory coming in 2006.

HEAD COACHHEAD COACHDANA HOLGORSENDANA HOLGORSEN

QB GENO SMITHQB GENO SMITH

2011 SCHEDULEDATE OPPONENT TIME/RESULTSept. 4, 2011 Marshall W, 34-13Sept. 10, 2011 Norfolk St. W, 55-12Sept. 17, 2011 at Maryland W, 37-31Sept. 24, 2011 LSU L, 47-21Oct. 1, 2011 Bowling Green W, 55-10Oct. 8, 2011 Connecticut W, 43-16Oct. 21, 2011 at Syracuse L, 49-23Oct. 29, 2011 at Rutgers W, 41-31Nov. 5, 2011 Louisville Noon, WBNA-21Nov. 12, 2011 at Cincinnati TBANov. 25, 2011 Pittsburgh TBADec. 1, 2011 at South Florida 8:00 pm ET

2010 RESULTSDATE OPPONENT RESULT RECORD Sept. 4, 2010 Coastal Carolina W 31-0 1-0 Sept. 10, 2010 at Marshall W 24-21 2-0 Sept. 18, 2010 Maryland W 31-17 3-0 Sept. 25, 2010 at LSU L 20-14 3-1 Oct. 9, 2010 UNLV W 49-10 4-1 Oct. 14, 2010 South Florida W 20-6 5-1 (1-0) Oct. 23, 2010 Syracuse L 19-14 5-2 (1-1) Oct. 29, 2010 at Connecticut L 16-13 5-3 (1-2) Nov. 13, 2010 Cincinnati W 37-10 6-3 (2-2) Nov. 20, 2010 at Louisville W 17-10 7-3 (3-2) Nov. 26, 2010 at Pittsburgh W 35-10 8-3 (4-2) Dec. 4, 2010 Rutgers W 35-14 9-3 (5-2) Dec. 28, 2010 vs. NC State L 23-7 9-4

WES

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FAST FACTSThe Mountaineers have won at least

nine games the past six seasons, one of just three teams to do so. The others –

Boise State and Virginia Tech.

WVU secured a recruiting coup when four-star DB Terrell Chestnut de-committed

from Pitt following two coaching changes and fl ipped to the rival Mountaineers.

Mountaineers looking to stay on track for title

SATURDAYNOVEMBER 5, 2011

LOUISVILLEVS.

WEST VIRGINIAMORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA

NOON, WBNA-21

BOTTOM LINEI’m sure the Mountaineers will be favored by at least a touchdown, but I’m going to pick the Cards because of the way they have been improving. Regardless, I’d recommend taking the points because I believe it will be a close game.


WOMEN’S BASKETBALLCARDINAL FOOTBALL GAME DAY PHOTO GALLERY

After dropping the snap on a fi eld-goal attempt, holder Josh Bleser lofted a TD pass to Josh Chichester. It was called back because the Cards had two linemen illegally downfi eld.- photo by Darrell Russell

Senior Josh Bellamy made a move to avoid a Syracuse defender after catching a pass. He had two catches for eight yards.- photo by Darrell Russell

Sophomore DE Marcus Smith sacked Syracuse QB Ryan Nassib, one of four sacks the Cardinals had on the day. Below right, senior safety Mike Evans and junior DT Randy Salmon combined to sack Nassib. Below left, UofL’s cheerleaders were in fi ne form for Homecoming. - photos by Darrell Russell

Freshman Michaelee Harris was tackled by Syracuse DB Sharmarko Thomas, a onetime UofL commitment, after making a catch. Harris had four receptions for a career-high 96 yards, and he had a 27-yard TD catch nullifi ed by a holding penalty. - photo by Darrell Russell


BIG EAST NOTEBOOKCARDINAL FOOTBALL

By Russ BrownAlthough he wasn’t on the playing field

last Saturday, Anthony Conner proved just as inspirational to his University of Louisville teammates in their 27-10 victory over Syra-cuse as if he had been creating turnovers and making tackles from his cornerback position.

Conner visited the Cardinals (4-4, 2-1) in the locker room before Saturday’s game, and if he is able he will accom-pany his teammates to Morgantown this week-end for their important Big East Conference bat-

tle with West Virginia (6-2, 2-1).Conner’s surprise appearance came just

a few days after he underwent surgery to stabilize a broken neck suffered while mak-ing a tackle against Rutgers on Oct. 21.

“They’re playing for A.C. now,” UofL head coach Charlie Strong said. “That’s what it’s all about.”

Later, Conner -- wearing a neck brace -- was driven onto the field at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium in a golf cart before the start of the second quarter of the 27-10 vic-tory over Syracuse and was given a standing ovation by the crowd of 44,817. Then he was brought into Strong’s postgame press conference, cradling the game ball that was awarded to him by his teammates.

Of the ovation, Conner said, “I enjoyed it, I loved it, it’s the support that Coach preaches about every day. I enjoyed every second, every minute, everything about it.”

Earlier in the week, Rutgers coach Greg Schiano called Strong to offer his support for Conner, then the UofL senior from Houston got a surprise phone call he said helped lift his spirits while he was hospital-ized. Former Rutgers defensive tackle Eric LeGrand, who was paralyzed last season while making a tackle on a kickoff, phoned Conner the day after his surgery.

“He helped me,” Conner said at Strong’s postgame press conference. “He eased my mind because he was so positive. I’m like, this man is facing (paralysis) every day and I was lucky enough to walk away from it, so I’m happy just to be here today with my team.”

Conner walked into the locker room at the end of Strong’s pre-game speech, with Strong telling the Cards, “This is the mo-ment you’ve all been waiting for.”

Conner strolled in smiling, but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to, as the Cards applauded and cheered.

“Coach brought him in and it brings you

up,” offensive lineman Alex Kupper said. “He’s smiling, he’s in good spirits. It was good to see him walking and smiling and having a good time. We’ll use that as moti-vation for the rest of the season.”

How loud was it in the locker room?“About as loud as this stadium was,”

Kupper said, adding that players were cry-ing -- “tears of joy I guess.”

The Cards wore A.C. stickers on their helmets for the game and will for the re-maining four contests.

“A.C. is one of those guys who is very in-spirational in terms of how he plays,” line-backer Dexter Heyman said. “And when he came into the locker room before the game, we had that inspiration back on our team. Anthony never said much, but when he did say something it really mattered. He went out there and talked with his pads. To see

him back in there and still being with this team was very, very tremendous for us.”

Said quarterback Teddy Bridgewater: “It inspired us. We practiced for him, we played the game for him, and everything we do now is for A.C.”

At the pre-game meal Saturday morning, Strong pointed to the empty chair where Conner always sat, emphasizing that the players should appreciate today “because you never know what can be taken away from you.”

Said Kupper: “A week ago he was pre-paring just like we did this week, and now.... We kept mentioning it all week, that it’s today, not tomorrow. You’ve got to take that mentality that you never know when your last snap is going to be, and that’s a huge motivation. Never let a day go by and waste it.”

Senior Anthony Conner, who suffered a broken neck just eight days previously, showed up at the Syracuse game and was an inspiration to fans and teammates alike. He walked into the locker room before the game, stirring his teammates’ emotions, and he was introduced to the crowd during the game, receiving a prolonged standing ovation. Of the ovation, he said, “I enjoyed every second, every minute, everything about it.” Of his pregame appearance, senior linebacker Dexter Heyman said, “To see him ... was very, very tremendous for us.” - photo by Gail Kamenish

CONNER WILL BE A PERMANENT INSPIRATION FOR CARDS


The game was over when: UofL quarterback Teddy Bridgewater checked into an option play at the line of scrimmage and pitched left to running back Victor Anderson, who raced 61 yards for a touchdown with the help of a key downfi eld block by wide receiver Scott Radcliff. That gave the Cardinals a 24-3 lead with 10:32 remaining. Even before that, however, you never got the feeling Syracuse was capable of mounting a comeback because the Orange was being dominated by the Cardinals’ defense.

Turning point: Louisville’s two fi rst-quarter touchdowns -- their fi rst of the season in the fi rst quarter -- al-lowed the Cardinals to dictate the tempo of the game, especially on defense. The TDs came on Bridgewater passes of 42 yards to DeVante Parker and 2 yards to Josh Chichester, who made a leaping catch in the back of the end zone.

UofL Offensive Player of the Game: Bridgewater, who completed 17 of 24 passes for two touchdowns and didn’t throw an interception for the fi rst time in his fi ve games, four as a starter. “Teddy is coming into his own,” UofL coach Charlie Strong said. “He can make the checks, and he’s putting us in the right play where we can move the ball.”

And a tip of the helmet to: Anderson, the injury-prone senior who had his best game in more than a year with 93 yards on 11 carries and resembled the runner who was named Big East Freshman of the Year in 2008. He declined an invitation to come to the interview room and talk about it, though.

UofL Defensive Player of the Game: (tie) Lineback-ers Preston Brown and Dexter Heyman, the future and present of Louisville’s defense, respectively. Brown, a sophomore, led the Cards with seven tackles, includ-ing two for a loss. Heyman continued his strong play with three tackles for loss, and he could be seen going around to teammates and advising them as to what to expect next.

Who’s Hot: UofL’s defenders, who are ranked in the top 15 in the FBS in many defensive categories, in-cluding total defense (12th, 295.63 ypg). Louisville is one of only two teams in the FBS that hasn’t given up more than 25 points in a game, the other being national championship contender Alabama.

Who’s Hot II: One game doesn’t make a season, but at least the Cards’ offense is showing signs of heating up. Their 27 points was a season high, they got off to a fast start for the fi rst time this season, and their 343 yards of total offense were their most since getting 446 against FIU when Will Stein was still the starting QB.

On the Rise: UofL’s running game was effective, if not overwhelming, for the second week in a row. After rush-ing for a season-high 187 yards against Rutgers, the Cards had 145 vs. Syracuse. Strong’s goal is to have one of his trio of alternating running backs -- Ander-son, Dominique Brown and Jeremy Wright -- gain 100 yards or more and for the other two to combine for at least 100.

On the Rise II: The ability of Louisville’s defense to get off the fi eld on third down. In the last two games the Cards have limited their opponents to a third-down conversion rate of 25 percent (6 of 24). Extended over the course of the season, that fi gure would be good enough to lead the FBS, where Georgia’s rate of 25.7 percent is now No. 1. As it is, UofL ranks 57th at 38.32 percent.

Quotable: “They tried intimidation, but that doesn’t work against us because there’s enough people on this team that do the intimidating.” -- UofL freshman wide receiver Michaelee Harris on Syracuse’s three personal fouls early in the game.

RUSS BROWN’S RUNDOWN

UOFL 27, SYRACUSE 10


RECRUITING NOTEBOOK

By Jeff WaffordUniversity of Louisville football coach

Charlie Strong and his staff hosted sev-eral recruits on Saturday at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium, and those recruits were treated to a 27-10 thumping of Syracuse.

One of the recruits in attendance was Ike Spearman (6-1, 220), a linebacker from Lake Central H.S. (Ind.) who committed to Ole Miss in the middle of October.

Spearman, who has offers from Minne-sota, Northern Illinois, Vanderbilt, West-ern Michigan and Louisville to go along with his full ride from the Rebels, made the four-hour drive from his home down

to an area with which he’s very familiar. Spear-man lived in Louisville for a couple of years when his father worked for Ford.

“I fi gure I only go through the recruit-ing process once, so I thought I would take a

look at other colleges and I went there,” Spearman said of his visit.

Of the game, he said: “Defensively, they looked really good. They won the game, so I’d say they looked pretty good.”

UofL linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary is recruiting Spearman.

“My commitment to Ole Miss is still very strong, but they are recruiting me,” Spearman said of the Cardinals. “They said they are looking for a Will (outside) linebacker and have some linebacker spots open because they have some se-niors leaving after this year.”

Spearman said he has been open and honest with the Ole Miss coaching staff and let them know he would likely take other visits. “They said me making visits is fi ne and they’re not worried about it,” adding he doesn’t have any other visits planned at this point.

Another recruit in attendance was three-star defensive back Kevin Houchins (5-11, 175). The Brush H.S. (Ohio) product has been committed to the Cards since June, but Saturday was his fi rst chance to see his future team in person. He is in the process of rehabbing from a knee injury suffered at the start of his senior season.

“It was great,” Houchins said of the visit. “It looked like the players have a lot of fun and the whole coaching staff looks like they have fun doing what they do. That was my fi rst game of theirs I went to. It was a real nice experience, and I liked the atmosphere there.”

Houchins had a chance to speak with the UofL coaching staff as well as with some of his future teammates.

“(The coaches) were just telling me to take it easy and make sure you don’t try to move too fast,” he said. “They want to get me down there again soon, and I’m planning on taking my offi cial visit in the next couple of months or so.

“I also got to talk to the other corner-

back who was there who is committed - Devontre Parnell (5-11, 175 – Fairfi eld Central H.S. in South Carolina), and I talked to Joe Manley (6-7, 307 – Bowling Green H.S. in Kentucky) and a couple of other guys. That was the fi rst time I got to meet some of the future players and my future teammates.”

Several of the incoming recruits have noted how tightly knit the committed group of players seems to be. Houchins picked up on that.

“It helps, because like me and Devon-

tre had the same injury (an ACL tear in the knee) at the beginning of our senior seasons, and we are going to be coming in the same way,” he said. “We’re going to be trying to lift each other up and help each other out when we get up there.”

Houchins said his injured knee is mak-ing progress. “I’ve been moving around and walking and stuff,” he said. “I’m just rehabbing and trying to get ready for when I get there (to Louisville).”

Houchins, who could get a release to start running in the next couple of weeks, said he has a family member who has been giving him advice on how to over-come the injury.

“My cousin tore his ACL when he was in high school before he went to play college ball, so he kind of told me everything to ex-pect so I would know and be prepared and not be surprised,” Houchins said.

One of the items hot on everyone’s lips around Louisville this week has been con-ference realignment. What is Houchins’ opinion on how it affects him? “I pay attention to it a little bit just so I know where they are going to go,” he said. “But it doesn’t matter to me where they go. That’s still where I want to play.”

One player who was scheduled to be in attendance wasn’t able to make it. Three-star tight end Mike Roberts (6-4, 240) from Cleveland, Ohio, explained.

“I was supposed to come down there

to the Syracuse game, but the person whowas supposed to take me had to go to afuneral because of a death in the family,so I ended up not coming,” Roberts said,adding that he still plans to make his visit,probably in two weeks when the Cardshost Pittsburgh.

Roberts, who has offers from UofL, Bowling Green, Cincinnati, Connecticut,Kansas, Kent State, N.C. State, Ohio andToledo, said he plans to continue to re-main in contact with the UofL coachingstaff.

“Basically, they have told me they work with a two tight-end offense, with onein the box and one fl exed out,” he said.“They said they are just losing a seniorand have two juniors and a freshman,so I would have an opportunity to playearly.”

Aside from the Cardinals, Roberts said Ohio, Bowling Green and Toledo are theschools recruiting him the hardest at thispoint.

2013 HOOPS STAR VISITSBasketball coach Rick Pitino has been

busy getting his team ready for the up-coming season as well as hosting severalrecruits. Among them was Anton Gill (6-2, 165), a four-star shooting guard fromRavenscroft H.S. (S.C.) who is rated as theNo. 43 junior in the nation.

Gill visited Louisville on Oct. 14. He was impressed with the Cardinals facilities, es-pecially the KFC Yum! Center. He said healso enjoyed the campus.

“I like them,” Gill told Rivals.com. “I like Coach Pitino. I like the way they play,too. They play really fast, and they reallylet their guards control the pace of thegame and really play their game, so I re-ally like them.”

Aside from Louisville’s style of play, Gill said he also likes the way Pitino invests inhis players, like personally working out eachplayer. Gill added that Pitino told him thathe would fi t in well with the Cardinals.

Gill also recently visited Wake Forest, where he played pickup basketball withsome current and former Demon Dea-cons, including NBA star Chris Paul.

As with Louisville, Gill was impressed with Wake Forest’s campus and said itwas beautiful. He thinks he would en-joy attending a smaller school because itwould be easier to get help from profes-sors. More importantly, Gill said he is ex-cited about how Wake coach Jeff Bzdelikis building the program for the future.

“The players that they’re bringing in are going to be pretty good by the timeI’m a senior, so they’re defi nitely one ofthe schools I’ll be looking at,” Gill said.

Gill, who also made recent visits to N.C. State and North Carolina, has been busyover the past year, having visited East Car-olina, Louisville, Miami, N.C. State, NorthCarolina, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest andXavier, but he has struggled to decide ona list of favorites. He said he plans to nar-row his choices soon.

SEVERAL RECRUITS GET TO SEE CARDS WHIP SYRACUSE

JEFF WAFFORDJEFF WAFFORD

Terry Rozier

2012 FOOTBALL COMMITSPROSPECT POS HOMETOWN HIGH SCHOOL HT. WT.Sid Anvoots OL Indianapolis, Ind. Bishop Chatard 6-4 285Big, tough offensive lineman from a strong program in Indianapolis.

Joshua Appleby K Harvest, Ala. East Limestone 6-3 230Rated one of the top kickers in the Southeast. Appleby fi gures to replace senior Chris Philpott.

Hunter Bowles TE Glasgow, Ky. Glasgow 6-6 245Strong tight end with a big frame could easily develop into an offensive lineman. Bowles’ Dad played baseball for Kentucky.

Demetrius Frazier ATH Brunswick, Ga. Brunswick 5-10 174Extremely quick athlete could play any number of positions at the collegiate level.

Will Gardner QB Douglas, Ga. Coffee County 6-5 190Louisville’s top choice at quarterback in the 2011 class. Also had offers from Alabama and Mississippi State.

DeAndre Herron OL Avon, Ind. Avon 6-5 325Big, heavy and mean offensive lineman just set a school record with seven pancakes in one game.

Gerod Holliman DB Miami, Fla. Milford Academy 6-0 185Four-star defensive back is ranked the No. 2 overall prep school athlete in the class of 2011. Elite safety prospect.

Kevin Houchins DB South Euclid, Ohio Brush 5-11 175Fast with speed to burn. Likely a cornerback, but could also return kicks.

Patrick Jean LB Port St. Lucie, Fla. Treasure Coast 6-3 200Three-star linebacker with great size and speed from a program that produced UofL players Deon Rogers and Mike Romano.

Larry Jefferson DE College Park, Ga. Banneker 6-5 218Reminds fans of BJ Dubose or Aaron Epps. Tall, athletic lineman who will gain weight, strength.

T.C. Klusman OL Cincinnati, Ohio Elder 6-4 270Clone of Eric Wood? Maybe. Same height, same weight and same high school.

Joe Manley OL Bowling Green, Ky. Bowling Green 6-7 307Has a long way to go to live up to his massive potential. Raw but huge frame.

Devontre Parnell DB Winnsboro, SC Fairfi eld Central 5-11 163Four-star defensive back is among the best cover men in the nation for 2011.

Daqual Randall LB Palmetto, Fla. Palmetto 6-0 225Short but strong linebacker with speed to play outside at Louisville.

Brandon Snell WR Miami Gardens, Fla. Carol City 5-11 160Could he be the fastest wide receiver in Florida for 2011? Maybe. Scouts really like him.


BIG EAST NOTEBOOK

WVU RALLIES TO AVERT TWO-GAME SLIDE; PITT WINS, BUT SUFFERS A BIG LOSSBy Rivals.comLouisville is currently tied for second in

the Big East with West Virginia (6-2, 2-1) and Pittsburgh (4-4, 2-1). Louisville’s next two games are against West Virginia and Pittsburgh.

That makes for an interesting couple of weeks, with Louisville (4-4, 2-1) travel-ing to Morgantown Saturday at noon and hosting Pitt the following week. While West Virginia appears to have regained its confi dence by scoring 20 unanswered points in a 41-31 victory at snowy Rutgers Saturday, Pitt appears to be losing steam.

The Panthers lost three starters to season-ending injuries in last Wednesday night’s 35-20 victory over Connecticut at Heinz Field, including junior tailback Ray Graham, the nation’s second-leading rush-er.

Graham left the game on Pitt’s fi rst of-fensive drive with an injury to his right knee. He rushed twice for 19 yards before the injury and fi nishes the season with 958 rushing yards and nine touchdowns. He had broken through the line and was mak-ing a cut when his right foot slipped. He immediately fell to the ground without be-ing hit, and when he was helped to his feet it was obvious the injury was serious.

“He is an unbelievable leader on our football team,” coach Todd Graham said after the game. “I’ve never had a player who can match what he does work ethic-wise. He loves this game, and he plays this game the way it’s supposed to be played. He’s special.”

Also in the Connecticut game, redshirt freshman offensive lineman Matt Rotheram suffered a fractured left ankle and will un-dergo surgery, and redshirt junior receiver Cameron Saddler fractured his sternum.

“We are incredibly disappointed for these three young men,” Todd Graham said in a press release on Thursday. “They have put so much work into our program, and it’s heartbreaking to see their seasons end prematurely. Even from the sidelines, I know they are going to remain important leaders who will continue to make an im-pact as we strive to reach our goal of a Big East championship.

“I know each will attack their rehabilita-tion programs with incredible commitment and be back better than ever for next sea-son. That’s the type of people and compet-itors they are, and we’re proud that they are Panthers.”

Ray Graham had started every game this season and was Pitt’s most explosive and reliable offensive weapon, touching the ball on 37 percent of the Panthers’ total plays and personally gaining 47.6 percent of the team’s total offensive yards entering Wednesday’s game.

Saddler made his seventh start of the

season Wednesday night and caught three passes for 66 yards. He fi nishes this season with 19 receptions for 207 yards and one touchdown.

Rotheram started the last two games, working at right tackle against Utah and right guard against Connecticut

With those three sidelined for the sea-son, Pitt now has fi ve starters out for the year. Redshirt sophomore safety Jason Hen-dricks (shoulder) and redshirt senior offen-sive lineman Chris Jacobson (knee) were lost earlier this fall. Additionally, reserve redshirt freshman receiver Salath Williams (shoulder) is out for the season.

WVU’S SNOWY SUCCESSHeading into the locker room for half-

time Saturday, No. 24/25 West Virginia’s defensive unit had given up 31 points and 233 yards to Rutgers a week after giving up 49 points to Syracuse. Rutgers led 31-21.

At times during the fi rst half West Vir-ginia had opportunities to make plays but did not capitalize, such as a potential inter-ception in the end zone that would even-tually result in a Rutgers touchdown, and a couple of drive-extending penalties, defen-sive coordinator Jeff Casteel said.

“You’re not going to be very good if you keep doing those things,” he said.

But things changed after the Mountain-eers emerged from the intermission. The defense stepped up and made those plays while holding the Scarlet Knights scoreless in the second half and securing the 41-31 victory for the Mountaineers.

Echoing the thoughts of head coach Dana Holgorsen, it was a matter of simply making more plays and providing more ef-fort than in the fi rst half.

“You’re right, we didn’t (do much dif-ferently),” Casteel said. “Our kids just have to learn to make some plays, and they did as the game wore on.”

The Mountaineers opened the third quarter by forcing two three-and-outs, and they got an acrobatic interception along the sideline by Brodrick Jenkins.

The defense also was able to force an-other punt, two more turnovers and a pair of fourth-down stops that included a fake fi eld-goal attempt by the Knights that was thwarted by safety Darwin Cook.

“To the kids’ credit, they rallied in the second half and did what they needed to do,” Casteel said.

The stop on the fake fi eld-goal attempt was especially uplifting for WVU after Rut-gers had put together its best drive of the second half and was threatening to go ahead 38-28.

“That was big, and it gave our kids a little bit of life,” Casteel said.

WVU’s defense gave up just 160 total yards on eight possessions in the second half.

Although the Mountaineers didn’t get Rutgers quarterback Gary Nova on the ground, they did a very effective job of putting pressure on him, which caused him to step up in the pocket and drop the foot-ball on one critical occasion in the fourth quarter. Julian Miller pounced on the loose ball, and the Mountaineers would quickly capitalize, extending their lead to 41-31.

“Julian did make some plays, and the one he made right there in the fourth quar-ter was a really big play,” Casteel said.

One area in which the Mountaineers did a good job was corralling impact receiver Mohammad Sanu who, outside a 14-yard catch and run for a touchdown in the fi rst

quarter, was kept in check.“We made sure we knew where he

was at and we made sure we dropped aguy down to him from different spots,”Casteel said. “He’s a guy that demandsyou to know where he’s at.

“Our kids did a nice job responding af-ter they got punched in the head a fewtimes. They made enough plays in the sec-ond half to win the game.”

West Virginia will prepare to take on Louisville Saturday at noon in the confi nesof Mountaineer Field.

CINCINNATI IN THE LEADCincinnati had a bye week last week

and enters Saturday night’s game at Pitts-burgh at 6-1, 2-0. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.,seven hours after the other top two teamsin the league, Louisville and West Virginia,kick off in Morgantown.

The Bearcats have won fi ve straight games since a 45-23 loss at Tennessee onSept. 10, but they face a tough slate theremainder of the way. After traveling toPitt Saturday, they will host West Virginiaon Nov. 12, travel to Rutgers on Nov. 19and play at Syracuse Nov. 26 before end-ing the season with a home-game againstConnecticut.

“We defi nitely want to win out and win the Big East championship, go to a bigbowl game,” senior running back GeorgeWinn said. “Maybe we can try to go downto Miami again, where it’s warm. Thatwould be great.”

HINE UP FOR CAMPBELL TROPHYUSF center Chaz Hine was listed as one

of 16 college football players - spanningall divisions - who have been named to theNational Football Foundation Scholar-Ath-lete class. The honor, which comes with an$18,000 postgraduate scholarship, makesHine a fi nalist for the William V. CampbellTrophy as the nation’s top scholar-athlete.Hine, who has made 32 career starts,graduated magna cum laude in May and ispursuing an MBA this fall. He also is an ac-complished opera singer and is a foundingmember of USF’s Student Coalition AgainstHomelessness and Poverty.

TEGGART MAKES SCORING AUTOMATICAlthough Connecticut came up short

against Pittsburgh Wednesday night, Hus-kies kicker Dave Teggart quietly broke aBig East record. He was 2 for 2 on PATattempts, making him 117 for 117 in hiscareer and putting him one ahead of for-mer Louisville kicker Art Carmody on theconference’s consecutive PATs-made list.Carmody made 116 straight between2005-07.

Pitt junior running back Ray Graham, who was second in the nation with 958 rushing yards, suffered a season-ending knee injury last week.


LOUISVILLE BASKETBALL

I

2011-12 MEN’S SCHEDULE DATE OPPONENT SITE TIME OCTOBER10/14/11 Red-White Scrimmage KFC YUM! CENTER White, 86-8510/22/11 Red-White Scrimmage KFC YUM! CENTER Red, 105-6010/26/11 vs. PIKEVILLE * KFC YUM! CENTER W, 74-55NOVEMBER 11/03/11 vs. BELLARMINE * KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m.GLOBAL SPORTS INVITATIONAL11/11/11 vs. TENNESSEE-MARTIN KFC YUM! CENTER TBA11/13/11 vs. LAMAR KFC YUM! CENTER TBA11/22/11 vs. ARKANSAS STATE KFC YUM! CENTER TBA11/25/11 vs. OHIO KFC YUM! CENTER TBA11/28/11 vs. LONG BEACH STATE KFC YUM! CENTER TBA11/19/11 at Butler Indianapolis, Ind. TBADECEMBERBIG EAST / SEC CHALLENGE12/02/11 vs. VANDERBILT TV KFC YUM! CENTER 8:30 p.m.12/07/11 vs. IUPUI KFC YUM! CENTER TBA12/10/11 vs. FAIR. DICKINSON KFC YUM! CENTER TBABASKETBALL HALL OF FAME SHOOTOUT12/17/11 vs. MEMPHIS TV KFC YUM! CENTER 4:00 p.m.12/20/11 vs. C. OF CHARLESTON KFC YUM! CENTER TBABILLY MINARDI CLASSIC12/23/11 vs. WESTERN KENTUCKY KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m.12/28/11 vs. GEORGETOWN # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m.12/31/11 at Kentucky TV Lexington, Ky. 12:00 p.m.JANUARY01/03/12 at St. John’s # TV New York, N.Y. 7:00 p.m.01/07/12 vs. NOTRE DAME # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 4:00 p.m.01/10/12 at Providence # TV Providence, R.I. 7:00 p.m.01/14/12 vs. DE PAUL # KFC YUM! CENTER TBA01/16/12 at Marquette # TV Milwaukee, Wis. TBA01/21/12 at Pittsburgh # TV Pittsburgh, Pa. 9:00 p.m.01/25/12 vs. VILLANOVA # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m.01/28/12 at Seton Hall # Newark, N.J. TBAFEBRUARY02/04/12 vs. RUTGERS # KFC YUM! CENTER TBA02/06/12 vs. CONNECTICUT # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m.02/11/12 at West Virginia # TV Morgantown, W.Va. 12:00 p.m.02/13/12 vs. SYRACUSE # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m.02/18/12 at DePaul # Chicago, Ill. TBA02/23/12 at Cincinnati # TV Cincinnati, Ohio 9:00 p.m.02/26/12 vs. PITTSBURGH # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 2:00 p.m.02/29/12 vs. USF # KFC YUM! CENTER TBAMARCH03/03/12 at Syracuse # TV Syracuse, N.Y. 4:00 p.m.BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP: New York, N.Y. (Madison Square Garden) 03/06-10/12 TBD TBA * - Exhibition game, # - Big East Conference game

2011-12 WOMEN’S SCHEDULE

DATE OPPONENT SITE TIME

OCTOBER

10/30/11 VS. LINDSEY WILSON * KFC YUM! CENTER W, 118-41

NOVEMBER

11/13/11 at Missouri State Springfi eld, Mo. 3:05 p.m. ET

11/15/11 at Texas A&M TV College Station, Texas 4:00 p.m. ET

11/17/11 at Eastern Kentucky Richmond, Ky. 7:00 p.m. ET

11/20/11 vs. XAVIER KFC YUM! CENTER 2:00 p.m. ET

11/22/11 vs. AUSTIN PEAY KFC YUM! CENTER 12:00 p.m. ET

11/25/11 at Florida State Tallahassee, Fla. 7:00 p.m. ET

11/26/11 at Florida A&M Tallahassee, Fla. 4:00 p.m. ET

11/29/11 vs. MURRAY STATE KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m. ET

DECEMBER

12/04/11 at Kentucky Lexington, Ky. TBA

12/10/11 vs. GARDNER-WEBB KFC YUM! CENTER 12:00 p.m. ET

12/14/11 at Cincinnati # Cincinnati, Ohio 7:00 p.m. ET

12/17/11 at Portland Portland, Ore. 5:00 p.m. ET

12/19/11 at Washington State Pullman, Wash. 10:00 p.m. ET

12/28/11 vs. UT-MARTIN KFC YUM! CENTER 12:00 p.m. ET

JANUARY

01/03/12 vs. MARQUETTE # KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m. ET

01/08/12 at St. John’s # TV Queens, N.Y. 1:30 p.m. ET

01/11/12 vs. SOUTH FLORIDA # KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m. ET

01/14/12 at Rutgers # Piscataway, N.J. 2:00 p.m. ET

01/18/12 vs. PROVIDENCE # KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m. ET

01/22/12 at Georgetown # TV Washington D.C. 5:00 p.m. ET

01/28/12 vs. VILLANOVA # KFC YUM! CENTER 2:00 p.m. ET

01/31/12 at DePaul # TV Chicago, Ill. 9:00 p.m. ET

FEBRUARY

02/04/12 at West Virginia # Morgantown, W.Va. 4:00 p.m. ET

02/07/12 vs. CONNECTICUT # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m. ET

02/11/12 vs. SYRACUSE # KFC YUM! CENTER 2:00 p.m. ET

02/14/12 at Pittsburgh # Pittsburgh, Pa. 7:00 p.m. ET

02/20/12 vs. NOTRE DAME # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 2:00 p.m. ET

02/25/12 vs. DEPAUL # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 12:00 p.m. ET

02/27/12 at Seton Hall # South Orange, N.J. 7:00 p.m. ET

MARCH

BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP: Hartford, Conn.

03/02-8/12 TBD TBA

LOUISVILLE BASKETBALL


INJURY BUG BITES AGAIN: BLACKSHEAR OUT

By Howie LindseyIf UofL fans are spotted performing a

ritual cleansing over at the Yum! Prac-tice Center on campus, who could blame them?

The Cards’ brutally bad run of luck with injuries in recent years continued Friday when star freshman Wayne Blackshear suf-fered a season-ending shoulder injury in practice.

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test per-formed at Jewish Hospi-tal in Louisville confi rmed that Blackshear has a torn labrum in his right shoulder that will require surgery to repair. The ex-pected recovery time is at least four months.

A 6-foot-5 McDonald’s High School All-American from Chicago, Blackshear had just been cleared by the NCAA a week ago to participate as a freshman. He had suffered an injury to his left shoulder as he closed out his high school career, had surgery to repair it and spent the summer rehabilitating that shoulder. He averaged 32.6 points, 14.6 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 3.7 steals as a senior for Morgan Park High School last season.

It’s the third shoulder injury in a little over a year for Blackshear, who played in a game for the fi rst time in fi ve months dur-ing Wednesday’s exhibition against Pikev-ille.

The Cardinals are still waiting on Rakeem Buckles, who will miss another 6-8 weeks after tearing his right ACL on Feb. 27. The wait is almost over for Stephan Van Treese, who strained his left patellar tendon ear-lier this fall. Former starter Jared Swopshire missed all of last season with a fl ukey groin injury most commonly associated with hockey players and is slowly rounding into shape.

And those aren’t the only injuries to this year’s team. Guards Elisha Justice, Tim Hen-derson and Russ Smith also have missed time. And last season, an injury to captain Preston Knowles was clearly one of the causes of Louisville’s downfall in the fi rst round of the NCAA Tournament to More-head State.

For Pitino, the starting fi ve is set - no in-juries there - but the health problems are causing headaches in practice.

“That starting fi ve, they’re ready to go, especially at the offensive standpoint,” Pi-tino said. “The next fi ve, it’s been very dif-fi cult getting them ready to go.”

PIKEVILLE POUNDEDPitino had the starting fi ve ready to go

Wednesday night against Pikeville. The Cardinals opened the game on a 16-0

run and led by double-digits for most of the fi rst half, which ended with the Cards up 39-28.

Pitino said Pikeville got back into the game when he switched defenses to give his team a chance to work on its press.

“We did a lot of good things tonight, especially our man defense,” Pitino said. “When we went to the press is when they scored. We didn’t care about that. We wanted to work on our press, and we got out of it what we wanted. But our man de-fense is where we excelled. They were 14 of 41 against it. The guys did a very good job of covering for each other. They were very active with their hands, so I was very pleased. We did a lot of good things shar-ing the basketball. We did a lot of good things offensively, and for a fi rst game I thought it was good.”

Louisville scored the fi rst six points of the second half, and Pikeville got no closer than 11 points the rest of the way. The fi nal score was 74-55.

Sophomore Gorgui Dieng was tremen-dous, scoring 14 points, grabbing 15 re-bounds and blocking six shots without a single personal foul.

“Knowing that he (Dieng) can block shots, that’s going to help,” freshman for-ward Chane Behanan said. “I’m not wor-ried about being beat. I know I have anoth-er brother back there who is going to step up, block a shot or make a big play. That’s one thing that Coach Pitino really stresses is not getting beat on defense, because that’s how we end up in foul trouble.”

Said Pitino: “Gorgui was a good basket-ball player today. He is really coming on. In one more year, with the way our players improve because of how hard they work, he could be one of the premier centers in college basketball. Right now he’ll have great nights and other nights he’ll have mediocre nights. He’ll be 255 (pounds) next year, and you see what he’s like now at 232. He’ll always be quick, he’ll never be a slow person.”

Behanan wasn’t so bad himself. The Mc-Donald’s All-American had 16 points, seven rebounds and four steals. Pitino was happy with his scoring but noted that he must have the same passion for rebounding that he does for scoring.

“He’s very hungry to score, and he looks to score every time,” Pitino said. “He has to have the same intensity to rebound as he does to score. When he does that, then you’ll see great numbers like Gorgui.”

Senior tri-captain Kyle Kuric said the younger players are coming along.

“For most of the older guys we can tell,” Kuric said. “For the younger guys it will take a couple more games and a couple more practices to understand what they’re like and coach them up.”

Louisville’s other double-fi gure scorer was senior tri-captain Chris Smith with 13 points on 3 for 3 three-point shooting along with seven rebounds.

“I felt like I played well,” Smith said. “I tried to mix it up by going to the back-board, of course. I didn’t hit my goal for assists tonight. On defense I felt like we

did our jobs. We lost our men a couple oftimes, but other than that, I felt like every-one played well.”

ALL ABOUT DEFENSEPitino has said this team could be very

good at defense, and it showed Wednesdaynight. Pikeville’s fi nal fi eld-goal percentageof .292 (19 for 65) was the second-lowestfor a Louisville exhibition opponent since1981-82 and lowest since Kentucky Wes-leyan shot 28.6 percent (18 for 63) on Nov.3, 2004. The Bears’ second-half mark of26.7 percent (8 for 30) was the worst for aCardinal exhibition foe since Carleton shot26.5 percent (9 for 34) on Oct. 29, 2007.

BELLARMINE UP NEXTLouisville will host Division II national

champion Bellarmine Thursday night at7 in the KFC Yum! Center. The Knights,coached by former Pitino and Denny Crumassistant Scotty Davenport, are coming offan 87-62 loss at No. 6 Duke.

The Knights trailed by only fi ve at the half before the Blue Devils took control.Duke shot 64.3 percent in the second halfin pulling away.

“There’s no negatives,” Davenport said of the loss. “We’ll learn a lot from (it). Thishas been a great experience, and every-thing and everybody from Duke has beennothing but fi rst class.”

Both teams placed fi ve players in double fi gures, with Duke’s Seth Curry leading allscorers with 18 points. The Knights wereled by Luke Sprague and Jeremy Kendle,who both put up 13 points. Chris Dowescored 12, Keisten Jones 11 and BraydonHobbs 10.

HOWIE LINDSEYHOWIE LINDSEY

Peyton Siva, this year’s Homecoming King, and Kyle Kuric, last year’s

Homecoming King, posed at halftime Saturday. They are both tri-captains on this year’s basketball team, along with

Chris Smith.- photo by Gail Kamenish

Travel with UofL’s FASTBREAK CLUB

to Lexington to cheer the

UofL Women to victory vs. UK’s Lady Wildcats

Tipoff: 1:00 PM, Sunday Dec 04, 2011Depart 10:30 AM from

Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium (Green Lot - Floyd Street Side)

Cost: $40, includes round trip bus transportation, game ticket, food and drinks.

Questions? Contact: Gil Sturtzel at 502-500-4756 or 502-459-0845,

email: [email protected] are limited. Reserve yours by Nov. 23rd!


CARDINAL FOOTBALL

NO NAME HT Wt EXP HT/WT HOMETOWN (PREVIOUS SCHOOL) 1 Josh Bellamy 6-0 206 WR SR St. Petersburg, Fla. (Butte CC)2 Michaelee Harris 6-2 198 WR RS FR Miami, Fla. (Northwestern)2 Preston Brown 6-0 258 LB SO Cincinnati, Ohio (Northwest)3 Charles Gaines 5-11 176 CB FR Miami, Fla. (Central)4 Will Stein 5-10 185 QB JR Louisville, Ky. (Trinity)5 Teddy Bridgewater 6-3 205 QB FR Miami, Fla. (Northwestern)6 Greg Scruggs 6-4 285 DT SR Cincinnati, Ohio (St. Xavier)7 Damian Copeland 6-1 186 WR SO Bradenton, Fla. (Palmetto)8 Darius Ashley 5-8 186 CB JR Cincinnati, Ohio (St. Xavier)9 DeVante Parker 6-3 196 WR FR Louisville, Ky. (Ballard)10 Dominique Brown 6-2 221 QB SO Cincinnati, Ohio (Winton Woods)11 Josh Chichester 6-8 240 TE SR West Chester, Ohio (Lakota West)12 Chris Philpott 6-0 198 K SR Atlanta, Ga. (St. Pius X Catholic)13 Preston Pace 6-1 199 CB SR St. Petersburg, Fla. (Butte)14 Andrell Smith 6-3 210 WR JR Miami, Fla. (Palmetto)15 Andrew Johnson 5-9 174 CB FR Miami, Fla. (Southridge)17 Marcus Smith 6-3 251 DE SO Columbus, Ga. (Hardaway)18 Matthew Nakatani 5-8 160 K RS FR Shelbyville, Ky. (Shelby County)18 Titus Teague 5-11 170 CB SO Pomona, Calif. (Pomona)19 Terell Floyd 5-10 170 CB FR Port Pierce, Fla. (Port St. Lucie)19 Joe Castaneda 5-10 186 DB FR Covington, Ky. (Covington Catholic)19 Jerry Arlinghaus 6-4 197 QB FR Louisville, Ky. (Holy Cross)20 Victor Anderson 5-9 188 RB SR Louisville, Ky. (St. Xavier)22 Jordon Paschal 5-8 180 CB RS FR Trotwood, Ohio (Trotwood-Madison)22 Corvin Lamb 5-9 203 RB FR Miami, Fla. (Northwestern)23 Terence Simien 6-3 218 S SR Sacramento, Calif. (San Mateo)24 Daniel Brown 6-1 221 LB JR Atlanta, Ga. (Douglass)25 Calvin Pryor 6-2 200 S FR Port St. Joe, Fla. (Port St. Joe)26 Zed Evans 5-11 173 CB SO Seagoville, Texas (Seagoville)27 Mike Addesa 5-11 200 LB FR Bradenburg, Ky. (Meade County)27 Jermaine Reve 6-0 180 S FR Miami, Fla. (Northwest)28 Jeremy Wright 5-11 199 RB SO Clermont, Fla. (East Ridge)29 Stephen Goodwin 6-0 190 WR SO Louisville, Ky. (St. Xavier)29 Hakeem Smith 6-1 183 S SO Jonesboro, Ga. (Riverdale)30 Kamal Hogan 6-0 209 RB RS FR Montvale, N.J. (St. Joseph’s Regional)31 DeMarcus Topp 5-10 180 WR JR Paducah, Ky. (Paducah-Tilghman)32 Senorise Perry 6-0 192 RB SO Summerville, Ga. (Chattooga)33 Grant Donovan 6-1 213 LS RS FR Louisville, Ky. (Male)33 Mike Evans 5-10 187 S SR Los Angeles, Calif. (Nevada)34 George Durant 6-0 231 LB SO St. Petersburg, Fla. (Boca Ciega)35 Andrew Fletcher 5-8 162 K RS FR Nashville, Tenn. (Montgomery Bell)35 Anthony Conner 5-11 190 CB SR Houston, Texas (Butte CC)36 Shenard Holton 6-1 190 S JR Bowling Green, Ky. (Warren East)37 Lincoln Carr 5-9 158 WR JR Crestwood, Ky. (Oldham County)37 Tyon Dixon 5-11 208 LB SO Cincinnati, Ohio (Colerain)38 Rashad Stewart 6-0 183 DB SO Marietta, Ga. (Drake)38 Ryan Johnson 5-11 175 P RS FR Louisville, Ky. (DeSales)39 Kenneth Jaboin 6-1 203 DB SR Miami, Fla. (NIACC)39 Chris Zelli 5-11 201 LB FR Jeffersonville, Ind. (Jeffersonville)40 Agyei Williams 5-11 184 S JR Louisville, Ky. (Trinity)40 Josh Bleser 6-1 213 P SR Park Hills, Ky. (Covington Catholic)41 Stephan Robinson 5-10 170 CB RS FR Louisville, Ky. (Central)42 Champ Lee 6-0 204 LB SO Lakeland, Fla. (Lake Gibson)42 Jalen Harrington 6-2 205 LB FR Fern Creek, Ky. (Fern Creek)43 Deon Rogers 6-2 200 LB SO Port St. Lucie, Fla. (Treasure Coast)44 B.J. Butler 6-2 276 DE SO Kissimmee, Fla. (Osceola)45 John Wallace 6-0 180 P/K FR Cecilia, Ky. (Central Hardin)46 Dexter Heyman 6-3 238 LB SR Louisville, Ky. (Male)47 Malcolm Mitchell 6-2 230 DE SO Stone Mountain, Ga. (Dunwoody)48 Deiontrez Mount 6-5 219 DE FR Fort Walton Beach, Fla. (Fort Walton Beach)49 Patrick Grant 6-4 236 DL JR Sunrise, Fla. (Boyd Anderson)49 Jarel McGriff-Culver 5-11 190 RB RS FR Downers Grove, Ill. (Downers Grove North)51 Mike Privott 6-0 224 LB SO Norfolk, Va. (Lake Taylor)53 Jake Smith 6-4 315 OL RS FR Jacksonville, Ala. (Jacksonville)54 Mike Romano 6-4 275 C FR Port St. Lucie, Fla. (Treasure Coast)55 Mario Benavides 6-4 300 C JR Los Fresnos, Texas (Los Fresnos)56 Tarik Rollins 6-2 223 LB SO Hollywood, Fla. (Clemson)57 Nick Heuser 6-0 229 LB JR Louisville, Ky. (St. Xavier)59 Zach Perkins 6-4 290 OL SO Shepherdsville, Ky. (North Bullitt)62 John Clark 6-2 305 OL SR Louisville, Ky. (St. Xavier)65 Dylan Kupper 6-5 265 OL FR Louisville, Ky. (Trinity)66 Alex Kupper 6-3 285 OL JR Louisville, Ky. (Trinity)68 Kamran Joyer 6-3 292 OL SO Tampa, Fla. (Wesley Chapel)69 Chris Walker 6-3 306 OL SO Louisville, Ky. (Ballard)70 John Miller 6-2 304 OL FR Miami, Fla. (Central)71 Chris Acosta 6-3 279 OL RS FR Miami, Fla. (Hileah)72 Hunter Stout 6-4 291 OL SO Tampa, Fla. (Wharton)73 Hector Hernandez 6-5 294 OL SR Naples, Fla. (Naples)74 Ryan Mack 6-5 316 OL FR Memphis, Tenn. (Wooddale)75 Ryan Kessling 6-5 314 OT SR Tallahassee, Fla. (Chiles)76 Chase Petersen 6-4 291 OL FR Bentonville, Ark. (Bentonville)78 Aaron Epps 6-7 250 OT FR Tucker, Ga. (Tucker)80 Stephon Ball 6-4 228 TE JR Cincinnati, Ohio (St. Xavier)81 Chris White 6-4 243 TE SO Elizabethtown, Ky. (John Hardin)82 Eli Rogers 5-10 185 WR FR Miami, Fla. (Northwestern)83 Jerrell Moore 5-10 169 WR FR Fern Creek, Ky. (Fern Creek)84 Aaron Nance 6-3 197 WR SO Louisville, Ky. (Seneca)85 Nate Nord 6-5 230 TE JR Boca Raton, Fla. (West Boca Raton)87 Kai Dominguez 6-0 172 WR SO Montvale, N.J. (St. Joseph’s Regional)88 Jarrett Davis 5-9 171 WR SO Tyrone, Ga. (Sandy Creek)89 Scott Radcliff 5-10 183 WR JR Louisville, Ky. (Trinity)90 B.J. Dubose 6-5 238 DE FR Oakland Park, Fla. (Northeast)91 William Savoy 6-1 246 DE SR Elizabethtown, Ky. (John Hardin)92 Brandon Dunn 6-3 308 DT SO Louisville, Ky. (Pleasure Ridge Park)93 Roy Philon 6-3 272 DT SO Lexington, Ky. (Bryan Station)94 Lorenzo Mauldin 6-4 225 DE FR Atlanta, Ga. (Maynard Jackson)95 Randy Salmon 6-3 291 DT JR Atlanta, Ga. (Hutchinson CC)96 Jamon Brown 6-6 325 DT FR Fern Creek, Ky. (Fern Creek)99 Jamaine Brooks 6-4 329 DL RS FR Miami, Fla. (Palmetto)

2011 FOOTBALL ROSTEROFFENSEWR (X) 3 Stedman Bailey 5-10 190 r-So.81 J.D. Woods 6-0 195 r-Jr.

IR (H) 1 Tavon Austin 5-9 173 Jr. 85 Willie Milhouse 6-1 202 r-Sr.

LT 64 Don Barclay 6-4 305 r-Sr. 79 Nick Kindler 6-6 292 r-So.

LG 57 Jeff Braun 6-4 320 r-Jr. 65 Chad Snodgrass 6-4 295 r-Sr.

C 74 Joe Madsen 6-4 300 r-Jr. 60 John Bassler 6-4 306 r-Jr.

RG 55 Tyler Rader 6-3 296 r-Sr. 72 Cole Bowers 6-5 296 r-So.

RT 76 Pat Eger 6-6 296 r-So. 67 Quinton Spain 6-5 348 r-Fr.

IR (Y) 89 Tyler Urban 6-5 251 Sr. 4 Devon Brown 5-9 185 r-Sr.

WR (Z) 5 Ivan McCartney 6-3 176 So. 80 Ryan Nehlen 6-2 204 r-Jr.

QB 12 Geno Smith 6-3 214 Jr. 14 Paul Millard 6-1 218 Fr.

RB (A) 29 Dustin Garrison 5-8 175 Fr. 9 Vernard Roberts 5-9 182 Fr.

13 Andrew Buie 5-9 184 Fr. 7 Trey Johnson 5-10 180 So.

RB (B) 32 Ryan Clarke 6-0 232 r-Jr. 41 Ricky Kovatch 6-1 234 Sr.

DEFENSEDT 97 Julian Miller 6-4 259 r-Sr 91 J.B. Lageman 6-3 270 r-Jr.

NT 99 Jorge Wright 6-2 281 r-Jr. 94 Josh Taylor 6-1 285 r-Jr.

DE 11 Bruce Irvin 6-3 236 Sr. 98 Will Clarke 6-6 260 r-So.

SLB 52 Najee Goode 6-1 239 r-Sr. 47 Doug Rigg 6-1 228 So.

MLB 56 Jewone Snow 6-3 236 r-Fr.33 Jared Barber 6-0 225 Fr.

WLB 43 Casey Vance 5-9 222 r-Sr. 17 Josh Francis 6-1 214 Jr.

LCB 8 Keith Tandy 5-10 200 r-Sr. 34 Ishmael Banks 6-0 185 r-Fr.

SS 28 Terence Garvin 6-3 216 Jr. 37 Wes Tonkery 6-1 201 r-Fr.

FS 24 Eain Smith 5-11 198 r-Sr. 26 Travis Bell 6-2 202 So.

BS 25 Darwin Cook 5-11 201 r-So.36 Shaq Petteway 6-0 200 Fr.

RCB 6 Pat Miller 5-10 185 Jr. 23 Brodrick Jenkins 5-10 184 r-So.

SPECIAL TEAMSPK 40 Tyler Bitancurt 6-1 198 r-Jr. 44 Corey Smith 5-11 214 r-Jr.

P 48 Michael Molinari 6-2 190 r-Fr. 44 Corey Smith 5-11 214 r-Jr.

KO 44 Corey Smith 5-11 214 r-Jr.

LSN 87 Cody Nutter 6-3 241 r-Sr.27 Trent Lusk 5-9 194 r-Jr.

H 48 Michael Molinari 6-2 190 r-Fr.PR 23 Brodrick Jenkins 5-10 182 r-So.

KR 3 Stedman Bailey 5-10 192 r-So.

WEST VIRGINIA DEPTH CHART

By Howie LindseyWith a 2-0 victory over visiting Provi-

dence Sunday afternoon, the University of Louisville women’s soccer team advanced to the Final Four of the Big East Tourna-ment. The Cardinals, who have lost only once in their last 13 games, will face Notre Dame on Friday at 3 p.m. at Dick Dlesk Sta-dium in Morgantown, W. Va., in the fi rst of two nationally televised semifi nal games on CBS Sports Network.

Notre Dame (9-6-3, 8-1-2) advanced by upsetting No. 5/9 Mar-quette 1-0 Sunday. Mar-quette, which beat UofL (10-5-3, 8-1-2) during the regular season, fell to 17-2-0, 10-1. The other semifi nal will pit West Virginia (15-4, 10-1) against George-town (15-5, 8-3).

The Irish won’t be a pushover, said UofL coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes.

“We played both (Notre Dame and Mar-quette), and they are both great teams,” Ferguson-Dayes said. “We know Notre Dame fell on hard times earlier this season, but now they are looking like a team that could win another national championship. We know we’ll have a tough opponent, but they will, too.”

UofL beat Notre Dame 1-0 on on Sept. 16 in South Bend, Ind., in the conference opener for both. It marked the fi rst time the Cards ever won at Notre Dame, which is just one of many reasons Ferguson-Dayes believes her team has what it takes to bring home a Big East title.

“This team is special,” she said. “They continue to do great things and special things. I am excited that they get to go to the Final Four and the Big East banquet and get to see all of that. But make no mistake, this season is not accomplished. We want to win the Big East Tournament.”

Keeping focused on the small things could mean big things for the Cardinals.

“Our confi dence comes from our prepa-ration,” Ferguson-Dayes said. “We are ready for this moment, and we can embrace the opportunity to be a Big East champion. And I don’t think these guys have ever been too confi dent except for maybe the second half of the Rutgers game, so I feel like we are going to go in there ready. We have been focused on the small details, and if we can keep that focus we will be successful.”

The Cardinals’ focus waned in the fi rst half against Providence, but they scored a goal in the 10th minute off a broken play on a corner kick.

“To be honest, I don’t think it was a great performance for us,” Ferguson-Dayes said. “A mistake on a corner went right for us, and I think that kind of set the stage for us. I didn’t like our energy and effort at the beginning of the game, and that is a controllable. The good news is that in the second half we fi xed that.”

In the second half Christine Exeter got her 13th goal of the season on an unas-sisted shot from 10 yards out on a break-away drive.

“Christine was Christine,” Ferguson-Dayes said. “She is special, and she was able to get that second goal and that gave us some breathing room for sure. I am so incredibly proud of these kids.”

Exeter, who has been stellar during Big East play, fi gures to be one of the top can-didates for Big East Player of the Year, along with Notre Dame’s Melissa Henderson and Marquette’s Maegan Kelly.

“The Big East announces their awards Thursday night, and I would think that Chris-tine has to be in the running for something,” Ferguson-Dayes said. “I mean, she has 12 goals in the last 11 games. She has been in-credible. That is pretty special. She is tough to deal with. We are a better team because she draws other defenders.... If she is draw-ing two or three defenders, then there has to be one or two other players open.”

By virtue of making the Big East semifi -nals, the Cards likely sealed an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Their RPI is in the high-30s, meaning they should be safe regardless of what happens this weekend.

MEN’S SOCCERUofL’s men’s team is not only assured of

an NCAA bid, they also could earn a fi rst-round bye from being one of the top 16 teams in the tournament. But wait? What about their record?

Yes, the Cardinals are 8-5-2 overall, but they are ranked No. 15 in the RPI and are 2-3 against top-10 teams. Still, a strong Big East Tournament run would help in terms of momentum heading into the NCAA Tournament.

Louisville will host a Big East tourney game Thursday night at 6 against an op-ponent still to be determined. The Cardi-nals beat DePaul 1-0 last Wednesday and topped Villanova 2-0 in a snowy mess in Philadelphia Saturday.

WOMEN’S SOCCER


The UofL women’s soccer team posed with the Big East National Division Champion trophy after beating Providence 2-0 in the Big East Tournament

quarterfi nals last Sunday. UofL will play Notre Dame in the semifi nals Friday night in Morgantown, W. Va. The fi nal will be Sunday at noon. - photo by Howie Lindsey

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WOMEN’S SOCCER ‘READY FOR THIS MOMENT’ IN FINAL FOUR

HOWIE LINDSEYHOWIE LINDSEY

By Howie LindseyFor just the second time since 1993 Con-

necticut’s women’s basketball team is NOT picked to win the Big East in a preseason vote of the league’s coaches. They instead picked Notre Dame, the team that ended the Maya Moore era at UConn in the NCAA Final Four last season.

Returning four of fi ve starters, including All-American Skylar Diggins, Notre Dame earned nine of the 16 fi rst-place votes. UConn got the other seven. Louisville, which returns all fi ve starters from last sea-son’s Sweet 16 team, was picked third.

“It’s all right,” UofL coach Jeff Walz said. “I really don’t pay a whole lot of attention to those (polls). I mean, I guess it is better to be picked third than last.”

With UConn picked second, could the league be more open this year than in years past?

“I’m not real sure about that, but I do know the league will be tough,” Walz said. “I mean, I think our league has four of the top 10 teams in the country.”

Still, Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw was happy to see her team earn the top pick.

“It’s a long time coming,” she said. “We’ve won a national championship and never won a Big East championship out-right. In some ways I think it’s tougher to win the Big East.”

Rutgers and Georgetown were picked to

fi nish fourth and fi fth respectively. DePaul was selected to fi nish sixth, St. John’s sev-enth and Syracuse eighth.

West Virginia was picked ninth, and USF rounded out the top 10. The Bulls were fol-lowed by Marquette, Pittsburgh, Villanova, Providence, Cincinnati and Seton Hall.

Nine Big East teams made the NCAA Tournament last season, and the league had fi ve teams make the Sweet 16, two more than any other league.

Louisville tied for fi fth in the conference last season and reached the Sweet 16 after upsetting No. 2 seed Xavier. UofL has ad-

vanced to the Sweet 16 in three of the past four seasons under Walz.

CARDS CLOBBER LINDSEY WILSONLouisville’s fi rst action of the season came

Sunday afternoon in an exhibition with NAIA Lindsey Wilson College. The Cards jumped to a 10-point lead in the fi rst fi ve minutes and led 58-19 at the half en route to a 118-41 victory.

“It was nice to get out and play against somebody you don’t see every day,” Walz said. “The matchup with LWC was billed as a chance to see a former Cardinal and a fu-ture Cardinal, but only half of that worked out that way.”

Former Cardinal Ashley Rainey, a forward from Bowling Green, Ky., didn’t play in the game and was in street clothes. Future Cardinal Monny Niamke, a French national who was expected to enroll at UofL but didn’t get all of her qualifi cation work done prior to the start of the fall semester, was clearly LWC’s best player. Despite Niamke’s 15 points, Louisville’s backcourt outscored LWC 53-28.

“Monny is a strong player,” Walz said. “She’s a great on-ball defender and, even though she fouled out, she did so by play-ing too hard, which is something you like to see.”

Louisville dominated in all phases of the game. The Cardinals outrebounded LWC 53-19, forced the Blue Raiders into 13-of-48 shooting and caused 29 turnovers.

“We are going to go to work Tuesday

on fundamentals,” Walz said. “We’ve gotto do a better job defensively. We have toget into the passing lanes, and we have todo better at boxing out. We did a good jobrebounding, but that is just because weare bigger. We can’t just rely on our sizeand strength, we have to do fundamentalthings better.”

Louisville shot 61.4 percent and had eightplayers score nine or more points.

The Cards had an astonishing 84 pointsin the paints, and they outscored LWC 67-9in points off the bench. Cierra Warren ledall scorers with 18 points. Shawnta Dyerhad 16 points, Tia Gibbs and Sara Ham-mond had 11 each and Bria Smith andJude Schimmel had 10. Schimmel had ninepoints and eight assists.

SCHIMMEL ON WATCH LISTLouisville sophomore Shoni Schimmel

was named to the Wooden Award WatchList earlier this month. The Los AngelesAthletic Club announced its Women’s Pre-season Top 30 list, which is composed of 30student-athletes who, based on last year’sindividual performance and team records,are the early frontrunners for college bas-ketball’s most prestigious honor. Schimmelwas named a Basketball Times fi rst-teamFreshman All-American last season. Shefi nished the season ranked second on theteam in scoring at 15.1 points per game.She also led the team in assists and rankedsecond in the Big East with 4.9 per game.

PAGE 22 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT NOVEMBER 2, 2011

KFC Yum! Center OPENING PHOTO GALLERYSELECTED FALL SPORTS SCHEDULESWOMEN’S BASKETBALL

LOUISVILLE WOMEN PICKED THIRD IN LOADED BIG EAST

Sophomore transfer Cierra Warren led the Cards with 18 points in a 118-41 demolishing of Lindsey Wilson. - photo by Howie Lindsey

APRIL 21, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 19

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Caleb and Madison Lauter (left and right) with posed with their friend, Gracie Pounders, at a recent home game.

This is Mya, a 7-week-old Cardinal fan.

Harrison Holeman, age 11 months, was photographed at Papa John’s Cardinal Cardinal Stadium for his very fi rst UofL tailgate with his parents, Emily and Dan Holeman, and the O’Dea family.

Young fan Mateo Tobe when he was almost two years old.

Kevin Spencer, a former University of Louisville cheerleader now living in Corbin, Ky., submitted this picture of his two-year-old son, Christopher Todd.

Six-month-old Walker Walukas enjoyed a recent football game. He was also shown on ESPN.

Young fan Savanna

Furgason enjoyed a Pepsi

during the game.

Louisville SportsReport: Nov. 2 Issue

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