March 15, 2012 Edition: Big East Champs!

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LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT FEBRUARY 3, 2011

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MARCH 15, 2012 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 3

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VOLUME XVI, NUMBER 30 • MARCH 15, 2012

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4 2012 NCAA MEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT BRACKET 6 BASKETBALL BY THE NUMBERS By Howie Lindsey8 TOURNEY SUCCESS CONFIRMS PITINO IS A MASTER By Jack Coffee10 OPPONENT PREVIEW: DAVIDSON WILDCATS By Rick Cushing12 OPPONENT PREVIEW: NEW MEXICO LOBOS By Rick Cushing15 OPPONENT PREVIEW: LONG BEACH STATE 49ERS By Rick Cushing15 MEN’S BASKETBALL SEASON STATS

16 DERBY FESTIVAL BASKETBALL CLASSIC ROSTERS RELEASED 17 THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY By Howie Lindsey18 2012 NCAA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT BRACKET20 SPRING SPORTS SCHEDULES21 UNDEFEATED SOFTBALL CARDS GET A BIG BOOST By Howie Lindsey22 CARDINAL STARS OF THE WEEK By Howie Lindsey24 CARDINAL KIDS PHOTO GALLERY

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“Louisville wins the Big East Tournament” was the headline scrolling across the news ticket boards in Times Square Sunday after the Cardinals beat Cincinnati to claim Louisville’s second title in four seasons. - photo by Vickie Volyn

7 CARDS AREN’T LOOKING TO THE PASTRick Pitino said when his team is looking for motivation for a postseason run, they won’t be reviewing fi lm of the Cardinals’ fi rst-game NCAA exits the last two seasons. “I think it is all different factors,” he said.

19 UOFL WOMEN LAND A No. 7 SEEDUofL is a seven seed facing a No. 10 seed from a major conference with a 5th-ranked No. 2 seed waiting in the second round for the second season in a row. Last season ended with a Sweet 16 run. Can the Cards do it again?

11 SIVA’S ONLY FOCUS? HIS COACHJunior guard Peyton Siva was listening to too many voices whispering in his ear this season. Now he’s playing to please his coach. “He told me to forget about everything ... Coach P. had a lot of faith in me,” Siva said.

9 DAVIDSON WANTS TO RUNRick Pitino called Louisville’s fi rst NCAA opponent Davidson “Princeton on steroids.” The Wildcats “look to run against anyone... they look to push the pace,” Pitino said. Tipoff is Thursday at 1:40 p.m.

5 BIG EAST TITLE A ‘STARTING POINT’Louisville won four games in four days to bring the Big East Tournament Champion trophy back to Louisville, but they aren’t done. “Coach talked to us about a new season, and we took it to heart,” Kyle Kuric said.

13-14 STRONG HELPS TORNADO CLEANUPCharlie Strong took two buses of football players to Southern Indiana last week to help residents clean up after devastating tornados ripped through their towns. “It is great our guys have a chance to give back,” Strong said.

LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT MARCH 15, 2012

2012 NCAA MEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT BRACKET


RECRUITING NOTEBOOK10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASONLOUISVILLE BASKETBALL

By Russ BrownIt’s a motivational ploy as old as the con-

ference tournaments themselves. Coaches love to point to those events that mark the start of the post season hoopla as the start of a “new season,” and it’s particularly pre-valant among teams who have just endured a disappointing regular season.

Like Louisville.Coach Rick Pitino talked to his play-

ers about that very thing after their 58-49 loss to Syracuse in their regular-season fi nale in the Carrier Dome a week ago Saturday.

“We had a real rough season,” senior forward Kyle Kuric said. “Coach talked to us about a new season, and we took it to heart.”

“We just take it as the season is starting over,” freshman forward Chane Behanan said following the loss at Syracuse. “Hopefully, we can go on our run now.”

Mission accomplished. The unranked and overlooked Cardinals (26-9), who fi nished seventh in the Big East, ripped through four opponents in the league tourney in Madi-son Square Garden last week to win their second championship in the last four years.

Now it’s time for the 2012 season’s third segment, another “new season” commonly known as the NCAA Tournament, and the Cards are intent on using their new-found momentum to forge a deep run in the Big Dance.

“I think we have to,” Kuric said. “This can’t be the high point of our season. It’s a good starting point.”

UofL entered the Big East Tournament predicted to be a No. 5 seed in the NCAAs, but in danger of falling to a No. 6 if it didn’t turn in an impressive showing in the Big Ap-ple. But with their dominating performance in the Garden, the Cards vaulted into posi-tion to claim a No. 4 seed.

Furthermore, while fi nally showing an ability to win against quality competition and survive against virtually any style of play, Louisville stamped itself as a very danger-ous team as it tries to avoid its third straight fi rst-round exit in the NCAAs.

The Cards seemingly came out of no-where to advance to the championship game for the third time in four seasons and ultimately capture the title by winning four games in four days, capping the renaissance by hanging on to beat Cincinnati 50-44 for the trophy Saturday night.

There was little in the Cards’ resume’ or late-season performance -- except possibly a number of close calls -- to suggest or even hint that they were on the brink of such a major accomplishment.

After a six-game winning streak against teams in the bottom half of the confer-ence spanning late January and early Febru-ary, UofL lost four of its last six, needed an overtime to edge a bad DePaul team and showed no progress in solving its offensive dysfunction.

The Cards failed to score more than 57 points in fi ve of their last six outings while

averaging a mere 52.8 ppg, a string of futil-ity that would have ranked them 336th out of 338 Division I teams over the course of a full season.

They hadn’t beaten any Big East team with a winning record in conference play, were 0-7 against the teams that fi nished ahead of them in the standings and could claim no victories over teams in the current top 25.

Not exactly the bloodlines of a cham-pion.

But that all changed in New York when UofL avenged three of its regular-season losses while beating No. 9 Marquette (84-71) and No. 23 Notre Dame (64-50) in ad-dition to Seton Hall (61-55) and Cincinnati, the Pirates being UofL’s only previous victim. The point total against the Golden Eagles equaled the Cards’ highest output of the season in a conference game (84-74 vs. Vil-lanova).

Who could have seen this coming? Prob-ably nobody except the guys in the Louisville locker room who had circled the wagons in the face of withering criticism of both Pitino and his players late in the season.

“Everybody kind of just doubted us and wiped us off the map,” said junior guard Peyton Siva, who was named the Big East tourney’s Most Outstanding Player. “A lot of people wrote us off, forgot about us. Nobody expected us to even get this far (the title game), and we wanted to prove everybody wrong, that we had each other’s backs and we play for each other and no one else.”

Siva was the catalyst. Finally 100 percent healthy after being hindered by a sprained ankle for much of the season, the Seattle native played at the high level Pitino and others expected of him going into the sea-son.

In four tournament games he averaged 13.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.8 assists,

and he had 10 points, four rebounds and fi ve assists in the fi nal.

“Peyton crossed the line to being a great point guard in this tournament,” Pitino said.

Sophomore center Gorgui Dieng also showed improvement over his recent per-formances, and Kuric was steady, commit-ting only one turnover in 147 minutes, lead-ing UofL against Notre Dame with 20 points and getting 13 points and four rebounds against UC.

Dieng averaged 8.7 points and 8.7 re-bounds in the four games. He was 8 for 8 from the fi eld against the Irish, barely falling short of the tournament record for accuracy. Craig Smith (Boston College vs. West Virginia; March 10, 2005) and Ricky Wright (Villanova vs. Boston College; March 8, 2001) both went 9 for 9.

Louisville will need all three, and more, if it expects to keep dancin’ for very long.

After UofL’s 60-56 loss to Cincinnati on Feb. 23, Pitino said Dieng was bullied by UC senior Yancy Gates. Not this time. Di-eng had 10 rebounds, fi ve points and three blocks to Gates’ six boards, nine points and zero blocks.

“Gorgui is becoming a terrifi c player,” Pi-tino said. “He’s developing a variety of dif-ferent moves, especially his jump hook. He’s becoming a terrifi c player.”

When things looked the bleakest this season, Pitino remained upbeat and opti-mistic, citing injuries, continuing to praise his team’s effort and attitude, never ex-pressing any doubts and waiting patiently for the pieces to come together, which they obviously did in New York. Going into the tourney, he had promised a different team, and the Cards delivered.

“It wasn’t the players’ fault,” Pitino said of Louisville’s struggles. “We started out, we had a very diffi cult time practicing. We were just trying to survive. We had so

many injuries we never had any continuity.We had to reinvent this team every threeweeks, but nobody wanted to hear aboutthe injuries, so we just went about our busi-ness and kept improving. We had to get tothis point where everybody is healthy. Andthe guys have done a great job.”

“We kept our confi dence and kept go-ing,” senior guard Chris Smith said.

If the championship was special for his players, his second title was extra special fortheir coach, a New York City native and for-mer head coach of the New York Knicks.

“For me, any time you win on this fl oor, it’s a big, big deal,” Pitino said of the Gar-den. “To win a championship on it is justawesome. When I walked in here at a youngage as head coach of the Knicks, I literallycried when I came into the building. I had togo into the bathroom to wash my face. I getemotional every time I come here.”

It was Pitino’s ninth conference champi-onship in three different leagues. He hadfi ve in the SEC at Kentucky, plus two Con-ference USA titles with UofL, and now twoBig East trophies. On six of the previouseight occasions his teams have advanced atleast to the Elite Eight.

Reminded of that statistic, Pitino joked, “We’re going to win it all.”

Asked how it feels to win the Big East Tournament crown, Chris Smith -- playingonly his second season as a Cardinal aftertransferring from Manhattan -- said it’s amilestone he’ll cherish forever.

“When you’re a kid and you get that fi rst dollar bill, and you just want to hold onto it,that’s what it feels like,” he said.

And now maybe it’s on to even bigger and better things.

“This is a great feeling; it’s amazing,” Chris said. “Now we just want to build on itgoing into the NCAA Tournament.”

RUSS BROWNRUSS BROWN

Freshman Chane Behanan raised his jersey to show cameras the LOUISVILLE across his chest after the Cincinnati native helped the Cardinals beat Cincinnati in the Big East Tournament fi nals Saturday in Madison Square Garden. - photo by Andrew Force

N O W U O F L E Y E S A S I M I L A R R U N I N N C A A S

BIG EAST TITLE JUST A ‘STARTING POINT’ FOR CARDS


LOUISVILLE BASKETBALL

2 Saturday’s 50-44 victory over Cincinnati gave Louisville its second Big East Tour-nament crown in four years. The Cardinals

also won the tournament in 2009 with a 76-66 vic-tory over Syracuse. That 2009 Louisville team was the No. 1 overall seed and made the Elite Eight be-fore falling to Michigan State. Louisville made the Big East title game last year but was upset 69-66 by eventual national champion Connecticut.

6 The Cards (26-9) beat six teams that won their conference tournaments this season: Vanderbilt (SEC), Ohio (MAC), Western

Kentucky (Sun Belt), Long Beach State (Big West), Lamar (Southland) and Memphis (C-USA). The Cards have a 13-8 record against 16 tournament teams this season.

55 Junior guard Peyton Siva scored 55 points during Louisville’s four-game run to the Big East Tourna-

ment championship. Siva, who was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, also had 25 rebounds and 23 assists. “My teammates are really the people who deserve this trophy,” Siva said of the MVP award as the nets were being cut down. For the season he is averaging 9.1 points, 5.45 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game.

8 Gorgui Dieng hit all eight of his shots against Notre Dame in the tourney semi-fi nals, just one made fi eld goal away from

tying the Big East Tournament record for most made shots without a miss. He scored 16 points and had six rebounds, a block and a steal in 37 minutes. His .546 shooting percentage this season is best on the

team. The sophomore center averages 9.4 points and 9.1 rebounds per game. He also leads the Big East in blocked shots with 111.

56 Led by Dieng’s 100 percent shoot-ing, the Cardinals hit 56 percent of their shots against Notre Dame,

their best shooting performance of the year. Chane Behanan was 3 of 4, Siva 6 of 10 and Kyle Kuric 5 of 10. Russ Smith (1 of 6) was the only Cardinal who took more than one shot and shot less than 40 percent. That’s a good thing, too, because Notre Dame sent Louisville to the free-throw line just four times (3 of 4). The Irish shot 35.8 percent and were 10 of 19 from the foul line.

4 Despite winning the Big East Tournament, Louisville is a No. 4 seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament. Big East members Mar-

quette and Georgetown received No. 3 seeds and, of course, Syracuse got a No. 1 seed. The tournament committee’s fi nal rankings showed Louisville as the 16th-best team in the fi eld, meaning the Cardinals got shipped to the West Region.

8 The West Region is probably the toughest overall bracket in the tournament. Accord-ing to Ken Pomeroy’s computer rating at

KenPom.com, the West has eight of the top 20 teams in the nation. Top seed Michigan State is third in the KenPom rating, No. 2 seed Missouri is eighth, No. 3 Marquette is 18th, Louisville is 20th, No. 5 New Mexico is 13th, No. 7 Florida is 19th, No. 8 Memphis is ninth and No. 9 Saint Louis is 15th. Murray State, the No. 6 seed in Louisville’s bracket, is 45th (the Racers are 249th in strength of schedule).

BY THE NUMBERS Peyton Siva and Kyle Kuric had a South Florida player

trapped last Wednesday. The Cards came up with six steals against the Bulls but

still lost 58-51on Senior Night because they made

just 5 of 22 three-point shots (Kuric was 2 of 8) and were outrebounded 40-29.



By Russ BrownBefore going into the Big East Tourna-

ment, University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino pronounced himself “bull-ish” on the Cardinals despite their late-sea-son dive that saw them lose four of their last six games.

If anything, Pitino should be even more optimistic heading into the NCAA Tourna-ment now that UofL (26-9) won four games in four nights as the No. 7 seed to win its second Big East Tournament in four years.

But the early exits of the last two seasons, combined with a dangerous opening oppo-nent, has put Pitino in a cautious mode.

“I’m the same way, but we have a very tough opponent,” he said. “We could win, we could lose. If you’re anything from a 3 seed up, you’re going to play somebody very, very good, and that’s the thing about college basketball today, is parity.”

The Cards have gotten a bitter taste of that parity recently, falling to lower-seeded teams each of the past two seasons in Cali-fornia and Morehead State, the fi rst time UofL had lost to an OVC team in the tour-ney in more than half a century.

The fourth-seeded and No. 17/18 Cardinals will try to avoid their recent failures when they take on unranked and 13th-seeded Davidson (25-7) at 1:40 p.m. EDT Thursday in the West Region.

Asked about the motivation of losing two years in a row in their NCAA debut, Pitino said the circumstances were different.

“I think it’s all different factors,” he said. “When we played Cal, they were much bet-ter than us and just kicked our butt. Last year I felt we would have won the game if Preston Knowles doesn’t get injured. We had a bad injury (but) give all the credit to Morehead State. This is a tougher oppo-nent than both of those teams. Are we bet-ter than those two years? I don’t know.

“I do know I’m real proud of this team. They have fought real hard under some very, very adverse conditions and always had a positive attitude, always treated their opponent with great respect, and they got their just reward by going into the Garden and (winning) four games in four nights. I don’t think the (losses) will help us because we are extremely motivated to play.”

The Cards are trying to become this season’s Connecticut from the Big East. Last year the Huskies fi nished ninth in the conference but then won 11 straight elimi-nation games to claim their third national title. For UofL, the number would be 10 in a row.

But there also is history that suggests it could easily happen the other way around. Before being upset by Morehead last year, the Cards had fi nished strong, winning six of their last eight, and had advanced to the Big East Tournament title game, losing a squeaker to UConn, 69-66, in the fi nal sec-onds.

In 2006 Syracuse won the conference tournament as the No. 9 seed, got a No. 5 seed in the NCAA tourney and was prompt-ly ousted in the fi rst round by Texas A&M.

And Pittsburgh won the Big East tourney as the No. 7 seed in 2008, then lost to Michi-gan State in the second round of the NCAA tourney.

“People bring up UConn, but I feel we’re a different team,” UofL senior guard Chris Smith said. “Kemba Walker was pretty much a one-man show. We’re winning as a team with our defense.”

Said senior forward Kyle Kuric: “Every-thing is clicking at the right time for us right now, and moving forward we have to keep that same mindset. Anything is possible.”

Pitino hasn’t used the UConn analogy with his players, but he has referenced the New York Giants, who struggled at times during the regular season, then won the Super Bowl.

“When I talk about the Giants, I mean the regular season sometimes really doesn’t matter,” he said. “If you don’t have a great regular season, you can have a great post-season. Throw it out the window, you can still win. All the motivational techniques, once the ball is thrown up it really doesn’t matter. It’s about matchups. Matchups play an awful big key to almost every game.

“I’m very satisfi ed with the regular sea-son, very satisfi ed with the Big East Tourna-ment, and now it’s a new season, and that’s the way you have to look at it. We still have weaknesses we’ve got to overcome, and only time will overcome those weaknesses. Players getting older and developing their skills, it’s just going to take some time, but it will be done. I always look at, ‘Is the team reaching its potential?’ and the answer is yes. Now will the team reach its potential in the postseason? You don’t know until you play the game.”

One thing Pitino isn’t about to mess with are the Cardinals’ new infraRED uniforms they started wearing in the Big East Tour-nament as a promotion by adidas, even though the outfi ts are more orange than Cardinal red.

“I think the infraRED is here to stay,” Pi-tino said. “The players would kill me if I tried to change. They loved it. I’m sure some fans don’t and some fans do. The bottom line is this game is for the players and the players love them, they’re undefeated in them, so it would be silly to change right now.”

2005 TAUGHT PITINO A LESSONIn 2005 when UofL got a lower-than-

expected No. 4 seed, presumably because of its weak non-conference schedule, Pitino stormed out of a restaurant without speak-ing at a planned news conference. Since then, he has waited until the following day to talk about Louisville’s seeding and oppo-nent.

Things didn’t turn out so badly, of course, in 2005. The Cardinals got sent to the West Regional, home of the weakest No. 1 seed, Washington, and advanced to its only Final Four since 1986.

This year, Pitino watched the pairings announcement with his team at the Yum! Center practice facility, then went home, slept for a while, then got up about 12:30 a.m. to watch fi lm of Davidson.

“(2005) showed me to react the way I reacted Sunday,” Pitino said. “Don’t say a word, go home, watch tape, don’t care where we play, what time we play. Taught me that lesson. Don’t react negatively to things you cannot control.”

So naturally, Pitino wasn’t complaining

about Louisville’s seeding or being sent toPortland.

“You can’t control how they seed you,” he said. “We’re excited to be part of a greatevent. And there was a point in the seasonthat when you lose your early home gamesin the Big East and now you have to set agoal to win so many games to get in thetournament and then you come away whenall’s said and done with a ... Big East cham-pionship, you’ve got to be really happyabout it. So you can’t worry about whereyou’re at.”

Pitino said he also is not concerned about the early start time of 10:40 a.m. PDT be-cause Davidson, N.C., is in the same timezone as Louisville.

“Now if you were playing somebody from Seattle in the fi rst round and they’rethree hours away and you’re traveling, itwould be diffi cult,” he said. “But Davidsonhas the same problems we have.”

Pitino did admit, though, that he was surprised the Cards were sent to Portland,because the games there are on the samedays as the regional UofL is hosting at theKFC Yum! Center. He said he was expectingto be placed in either Nashville or Colum-bus, which play on Friday/Saturday.

NO DR. DUNKENSTEINPitino showed up at his press confer-

ence Monday afternoon with his right wristheavily bandaged, the result of accepting achallenge from Russ Smith to try and dunk.

“Russ bet I couldn’t dunk, and I told him I could,” Pitino said. “I came close. I went upand grabbed the rim and strained my wrist.I had to pull myself up.”

PITINO DOWNPLAYS MOTIVATION OF PREVIOUS EARLY EXITS

Louisville coach Rick Pitino embraced freshman power forward Chane Behanan as fellow freshman Angel Nunez raised the 2012 Big East champion placard above his head on the court at Madison Square Garden after the Cardinals won the Big East Tournament. - photo by Andrew Force

C A R D S M I N D F U L O F U C O N N ’ S R U N , T R Y T O E N D N C A A D R O U G H T


WOMEN’S BASKETBALLCOFFEE BREAK

Remarkable, inconceivable (a week ago), stunning -- help me out here, what other words can you think of to describe Louisville’s improbable run through the Big East Tour-nament? Were you like my family when the title game ended Saturday night -- looking at each other in stunned silence? Or did you jump and yell as you did when the Cards won NCAA championships in 1980 and 1986? There were so many implausible things that happened last week that make the tourney win that much more satisfying for Cards fans and the team: winning the tournament as a No. 7 seed; beating three teams that had defeated the Cards during the regular season; silencing the critics who said the Cards were fi nished for this season; winning the four games by an average of 10 points. This was no “barely” moment. Coach Rick Pitino’s team won every game with room to spare. This wasn’t luck, this was almost domination.

In addition to the aforementioned accomplishments were the “in-your-face” selections to the All-Tournament Team announced after the fi nal. Peyton Siva was properly named Most Valuable Player, and Kyle Kuric and Gorgui Dieng also were named to the fi ve-mem-ber All-Tournament team. Considering that not one Louisville player was named to the regular-season all-conference fi rst, second or third teams, it had to be very satisfying for the Cardinals trio to show the Big East Conference that they can play.

The Big East tourney win should also put to rest the clamor by many to replace head coach Rick Pitino. Such complaints as, that the game has “passed him by,” that he can’t recruit or (my favorite) that “he works his team too hard,” all have turned out to be fool-ishness. Anyone who watched the four-game tournament knows that Pitino outcoached his opponents and that Louisville was the most well-conditioned team. Louisville displayed

a deep bench as at least nine players participated in each game. Against Marquette Pitino used 11, with eight players scoring six points or more. Bringing young players along slowly has prepared them to contribute at tournament time.

Some have said that Pitino couldn’t relate to younger players, but his handling of a troubled Peyton Siva is a case of counseling at its best. Whatever Siva’s problems at the end of the season were, they disap-peared in a fl urry of drives to the basket, good decisions and speed that could not be matched by any Cards opponent in this tourney. And could

any other good coach in the country deal with the perplexing Russ Smith? He is the con-summate “don’t-do-tha ... good-shot” player.

It is unfortunate that fans blamed Pitino for circumstances outside his control -- injuries. A look at the end of the Cardinals bench should illustrate the reasons for the inconsistent play from the beginning of the season. I won’t recite the long list of games missed by those injured, because all Cards fans know the litany. The loss of so many players totally disrupted this team during practice and in games.

Many have suggested multiple reasons for the Cards inability to score. But as we saw in this tournament, offensive woes can affl ict any team. Pitino knows that defense is the key to victories in college basketball because scoring droughts can occur to any team at any time. Cincinnati shot 39 percent overall and 21 percent on three-point shots against Lou-isville. The Bearcats made just 1 of 7 free throws. During the season they shot 42 percent overall, 34 percent on treys and 64 percent on foul shots. Against Syracuse they shot 45, 45 and 61. Louisville didn’t shoot much better from the fi eld in the title game -- 35 and 36 -- but hit 11 of 12 foul shots (92 percent). Louisville’s ability to reduce Cincinnati’s shooting percentage was the difference in the game. The Cards were outrebounded by nine and took three fewer shots than the Bearcats.

Cards fans have very short memories. It’s, What have you done for me this week? But for those of us who have a 40- or 50-year perspective, Cardinals basketball is in pretty good shape. This will be the sixth year in a row to go to the NCAA Tournament. The team has averaged 24.4 wins a year over the past 11 seasons, and Pitino has won 20 or more games every season as UofL coach except his fi rst, when he won 19. The Cards won just 12 games the year before he arrived. North Carolina has won two national championships over the past seven seasons but has averaged only 25.3 wins a year, one less than the Cards during that time frame.

I don’t know how the Cards will do in the NCAA Tournament. Will injuries derail them, as they did last year? Will they make it to the Final Four? Will Dieng and Siva stay out of foul trouble? Regardless of the outcome, at this point I feel much better than I did this time a week ago.

Only President’s Award Winner in Greater Louisville 10 out of 11 years!

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TOURNEY SUCCESS HAS SILENCED CRTICS, CONFIRMED THAT PITINO IS A MASTER

March 7, 2012 Second Round vs. Seton Hall W, 61-55Peyton Siva scored 14 and Kyle Kuric added 13 to seal the win.

March 8, 2012 Quarterfi nals vs. #9 Marquette W, 84-71Louisville’s defense forced 26 Marquette turnovers including 14 steals.

March 9, 2012 Semifi nals vs. #23 Notre Dame W, 64-50Gorgui Dieng’s 8-for-8 shooting performance led the way.

March, 10, 2012 Finals vs. Cincinnati W, 50-44 ‘Exhausted’ Cards build 16-point lead and hang on to win.

LOUISVILLE’S

ROAD TO

BIG EAST GLORY



By Russ BrownLouisville’s basketball players have been

frustrated much of the season when teams elect to play a grinding, methodical style against them, taking the shot clock down to its fi nal ticks before getting serious about scoring.

So the No. 17/18 Cardinals (26-9) should be eagerly looking forward to facing un-ranked Davidson (25-7) because the Wild-cats also favor an up-tempo style.

Those two teams will meet in what fi g-ures to be a fast-paced affair in the opening round of the West Re-gional at 1:40 p.m. (EDT) Thursday in the Rose Garden in Portland, Ore.

While fourth-seed-ed UofL wants to run, however, the Cardinals always emphasize de-fense, so their fi rst order

of business will be to try and slow down the 13th-seeded Wildcats of the Southern Conference rather than outscore them. Da-vidson ranks 12th in the country in scor-ing at 78.4 points per game but is only No. 108 in fi eld-goal percentage (44.9) and No. 184 in three-point percentage (33.9). UofL is third nationally in fi eld-goal-percentage defense at 37.9 and is allowing only 61.2 ppg (35th).

“It wouldn’t be my fi rst pick of teams to play,” UofL coach Rick Pitino said. “I do like the fact that they run, but I could pick 50 other teams I’d rather play. I call them the Princeton offense on steroids because they do all the fundamental things a great of-fensive team will do, but they do it at a very fast pace. They look to run against anyone, doesn’t matter who they play against, they look to push the pace.”

Pitino, never one to be stingy with his praise of an opponent, called Davidson “the toughest fi rst-round game I’ve had as a coach.”

The Wildcats’ top two players are 6-7 sophomore forward De’mon Brooks and 6-10 junior center Jake Cohen, who each received Player of the Year honors in the Southern Conference, Brooks from the coaches and Cohen from the media. Brooks averaged 16.0 points, 6.5 rebounds and shot 53.7 percent. Cohen averaged 14.0

ppg, 6.0 rpg and shot 49 percent, including 37.0 from three-point range (30 of 81).

“But it’s not just those two,” Pitino said. “Those two obviously stick out, but they go seven or eight deep, and they all can play.”

Five players average in double fi gures for Davidson, and fi ve have hit at least 30 treys. And you don’t want to foul these Cats -- they rank ninth nationally in free-throw percentage at 76.4 (542 of 709).

Davidson earned the Southern Confer-ence’s automatic bid by surviving a dra-matic, double-overtime 93-91 victory over Western Carolina in the title game. The Wildcats will carry a fi ve-game winning streak into the NCAAs and are 18-3 since late December.

Their most impressive win came on Dec. 19 in Kansas City when they upset Kansas 80-74. The Jayhawks are now ranked No. 6 and are a No. 2 NCAA seed.

“They are a great passing team, not good, great,” Pitino said of Davidson. “They are a great motion-shooting team, that’s their forte. Very solid on defense, they trap the post very well. They’re a very hard-nosed, deep team. Anytime you beat Kansas in Kansas City, and they were in control of the game the whole way, they’re a great basketball team.”

Pitino compared the Wildcats to Luke Hancock, who transferred to UofL from George Mason and is sitting out this sea-son but has drawn frequent praise from the coach for his skills and basketball IQ.

“They have about six guys like Luke Hancock in the style of player he is,” Pitino said. “So they’re very diffi cult to defend because they have a lot of motion to their offense, they pass the ball extremely well, they go inside-outside, their fours and fi ves put it on the fl oor, they go right, they go left, their guards all handle and shoot well, (they have) a young man coming off the bench who shoots the lights out.”

The reserve sharpshooter Pitino referred to is 6-7 Swedish sophomore Chris Czer-apowicz, who leads the Wildcats in three-pointers made with 64 (of 187, 34.2 per-cent). But they have four players shooting even better than Czerapowicz from beyond the arc: Brooks (37.5), Cohen (37.0), 6-3 junior Nik Cochran (37.4) and 6-4 junior JP Kuhlman (35.0).

“They’re not going to beat themselves,” Pitino said. “It will be a very close, hard-fought game because they shoot and exe-cute so well and you can’t put them on the (free-throw) line. They score a lot of points, and they don’t turn it over.”

Davidson coach Bob McKillop, whose team is making its fi rst NCAA appearance since 2008 when it made a surprising run to the Elite Eight behind Stephen Curry by beating Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wis-consin, believes the tough game in the league fi nal will benefi t his club against Louisville.

“I was encouraged by the attitude we had,” he said. “That will be a positive in terms of their tough-mindedness in the tournament. That’s a quality that some-times is almost as valuable as dribbling and passing and defending. It’s one of the qualities of a champion. Louisville’s a great team and a great matchup for us.”

Davidson and Louisville have met only one other time, with the Cardinals thump-ing the Wildcats 90-47 on Dec. 12, 1959, in Freedom Hall. The winner will advance to face the victor of the game between fi fth-seeded New Mexico (27-6) and 12th-seed-ed Long Beach State (25-8) on Saturday, with that survivor advancing to the regional semifi nals in Phoenix.

RUSS BROWNRUSS BROWN

Davidson’s De’mon Brooks is the team’s most-versatile player. - photo by SoConSports

‘ P R I N C E T O N O N S T E R O I D S , ’ P I T I N O S A Y S

DANGEROUS DAVIDSON READY TO RUN IN REGIONALWEST REGIONAL

AT A GLANCETOP COACHESPitino, a nominee for the Naismith Bas-

ketball Hall of Fame this year, is the only coach who has taken three different schools to the Final Four -- Providence, Kentucky and UofL, winning the 1996 title with UK.

Florida’s Billy Donovan, a Pitino disciple, won back-to-back championships in 2006 and 2007.

BEST PLAYERMichigan State forward Draymond

Green, who is on track to become the fi rst player from a BCS conference to average at least 15 points, 10 rebounds and three assists in a season since Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan did it in 1996-97.

OTHER PLAYERS TO WATCHPeyton Siva, 6-0, G, UofL; Marcus Den-

mon, 6-3, G, Missouri; Jae Crowder, 6-6, F, Marquette; Isaiah Canaan, 6-0, G, Murray State; Casper Ware, 5-10, G, Long Beach State.

BEST EARLY MATCHUPUofL vs. Davidson, the latter a very strong

No. 13 seed that uses the three-point equal-izer well enough to spring an upset.

BEST POTENTIAL MATCHUPNo. 1 Michigan State vs. No. 2 Missouri.

They have contrasting styles, with the Spar-tans’ size, bulk and defense trying to off-set the smaller Tigers’ speed and quickness with their ability to score off the bounce from nearly every position.

UPSET ALERTNo. 10 Virginia plays defense well enough

-- allowing just 53.2 ppg -- to contain sev-enth-seeded Florida, which relies heavily on an offense that averages 76.8 ppg.

No. 12 Long Beach State over No. 5 New Mexico. The 49ers have been well-tested, with a demanding non-conference sched-ule that included trips to Louisville, North Carolina, Kansas and San Diego State, and the Lobos’ Steve Alford hasn’t coached a team to an NCAA Tournament win since 1999. But if standout forward Larry Ander-son, who missed the Big West Tournament with a sprained knee, is unable to play, LB State’s chances drop signifi cantly.

CINDERELLA CANDIDATESNo. 6 Murray St. and No. 12 Long Beach St.


GAMEDAY PREVIEW - DAVIDSON

BREAKING DOWN THE WILDCATSBy Rick CushingThe Wildcats were expected to have a

good season, and they didn’t disappoint, going 25-7 overall and 16-2 in the Southern Conference, winning both the regular-season and conference-tournament titles.

They returned four starters and the top two subs from a team that went 18-15 and won 10 of its fi nal 13 games last year. Both top subs have moved into the starting lineup. They possess good size, with a starting lineup measuring 6-3, 6-5, 6-6, 6-7 and 6-10, and are a good-shooting team at 44.9 percent overall, 107th in the country, and 33.9 percent from three-point range, 184th in the country. They do like to put it up from outside and are averaging 7.8 three-pointers a game, 40th in the country. They also like to run and are averaging 78.4 ppg, 12th in the country.

The Wildcats, who are the No. 13 seed in the West Regional, have fi ve players in double fi gures, four starters and a sub, led by 6-7 sophomore forward De’mon Brooks, who was the top sub last season. He is averaging 16.0 ppg and also leads the team in rebounding at 6.3 rpg.

UofL and Davidson met two common opponents this season – Vanderbilt and College of Charleston. UofL beat the visiting Commodores 62-60 on Dec. 2, and host Davidson lost to them 87-83 fi ve days later. UofL beat visiting Charleston 69-62 on Dec. 20, and Davidson split with the Cougars, beating them 87-69 on Jan. 19 at home and losing to them 86-78 on Feb. 11 in Charleston.

Davidson has played three ranked teams this season. The Wildcats lost 82-69 at then-No. 6 Duke on Nov. 18, beat then-No. 12 Kansas 80-74 on Dec. 19 in Kansas City, and lost 91-74 on Feb. 18 to then-No. 24 Wichita State in Davidson.

The Wildcats will be no pushover for the Cards.GUARDSThe Wildcats employ a three-guard offense. Operating at the

point is 6-3 junior Nik Cochran, a native of Vancouver, B.C., who was a sub last year. He’s averaging 11.0 ppg, fourth on the team, leads in assists at 3.66 a game and is second in steals at 0.97 a game. His assist-to-turnover ratio is 2.09-1, which is 66th in the country, and he’s a very good free-throw shooter at 88.7 percent, 14th in the country.

J.P.Kuhlman, a 6-5 junior, averages 11.1 ppg, third on the team, 3.9 rpg, fourth on the team, and 2.8 assists, second on the team. He’s shooting 42.8 percent overall and 35 percent on treys.

The third starter in the backcourt is 6-6 sophomore Tom Droney (3.9 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 2.2 apg). He’s shooting 40.5 percent overall but just 26.5 percent on treys.

The top backcourt sub is Chris Czerapowicz, a 6-7 sophomore from Sweden who is averaging 10.2 ppg, fi fth on the team, and 4.8 rpg, third on the team. He’s shooting 41.8 percent overall

and 34.2 percent on treys but has made and taken the most treys on the team (64 of 187). He averages two three-pointers a game, which is 191st in the country. Another backcourt sub is 6-4 freshman Tyler Kalinowski (4.8 ppg).

BIG MENBrooks is shooting 53.7 percent overall, which is 36th in the

country, and a team-leading 37.5 percent on treys. He also leads in steals at 1.03 a game.

At center is 6-10 junior Jake Cohen, who’s averaging 14.0 ppg and 6.0 rpg, both second on the team. He’s shooting 48.8 percent overall and is capable from outside, averaging 37 percent on treys (30 of 81). He’s also a very good free-throw shooter at 87.7 percent, 20th in the country. He leads the team in blocks at 1.7 a game, 71st in the country.

The top sub up front is 6-7 junior Clint Mann, who was a starter last season. He’s averaging 5.5 ppg and 3.1 rpg and is shooting 48.5 percent overall but is no outside threat (0 for 4 on treys).

STARBrooks is a good one.TEAM STRENGTHSThe Wildcats are a very good free-throw shooting team at

76.4 percent, which is ninth in the country, and they take care of the ball, with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.17-1, which is 41st in the country.

TEAM WEAKNESSESThe Wildcats commit a lot of fouls, averaging 20.3 a game,

which is 307th in the country, and they don’t force many steals, with their 5.6-a-game average ranking just 258th in the country.

HEAD COACHBob McKillop, 61, has been a head coach in college for 23

seasons, all at Davidson, and has a record of 456-268. Before that he was a successful high school coach, winning fi ve New York state titles, and an assistant at Davidson before taking over in 1989. He has been called by Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski “a sensational coach,” and Michigan’s John Beilein said “he’s equal or better than any coach I know.” This will be his sixth trip to the NCAA Tournament, the last time coming in 2008 when a team led by consensus All-American guard Stephen Curry made it to the Elite Eight before losing 59-57 to No. 4 Kansas, which went on to win the national title.

NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORYThis will be Davidson’s 12th trip to the tourney, and the

Wildcats are 8-11 all-time. They also made it to the Elite Eight in 1969. That team, which was coached by Lefty Driesell and was ranked No. 3 in the nation, fell 87-85 to North Carolina, which went on to lose to Rick Mount and Purdue in the Final Four.

ALL-TIME SERIESUofL and Davidson have met just once, with the Cards

crushing the Wildcats 90-47 at Freedom Hall in 1959.

HEAD COACHHEAD COACHBOB MCKILLOPBOB MCKILLOP

NO NAME POS HT WT EXP (L) HOMETOWN (SCHOOL) 1 YOUSSEF MEJRI F 6-7 183 FR. HAMMAM LIF, TUNISIA / MONTCLAIR PREP

2 MASON ARCHIE, II G 6-4 175 FR. INDIANAPOLIS, IND. / TINDLEY SCHOOL

4 TYLER KALINOSKI G 6-4 172 FR. OVERLAND PARK, KAN. / OLATHE EAST

5 JP KUHLMAN G 6-4 195 JR. PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLA. / PROVIDENCE SCHOOL

12 NIK COCHRAN G 6-3 188 JR. VANCOUVER, B.C. / CHAMPLAIN ST. LAMBERT

14 CLAY TORMEY G 5-11 165 SO. CHICAGO, ILL. / HENDERSON INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

15 JAKE COHEN F 6-10 235 JR. BERWYN, PA. / CONESTOGA

20 WILL REIGEL F 6-5 202 SR. CHARLOTTE, N.C. / CHARLOTTE LATIN

22 ALI MACKAY F 6-11 204 FR. NORTH BERWICK, SCOTLAND / NORTH BERWICK

23 TOM DRONEY G 6-6 200 SO. PITTSBURGH, PA. / SEWICKLEY ACADEMY

24 DE’MON BROOKS F 6-7 227 SO. CHARLOTTE, N.C. / HOPEWELL

25 AJ ATKINSON G 6-6 214 SR. WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. / RJ REYNOLDS

34 FRANK BEN-EZE F 6-10 237 SR. ARLINGTON, VA. / BISHOP O’CONNELL

35 CHRIS CZERAPOWICZ G 6-7 200 SO. GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN / SANDAGYMNASIET

40 CLINT MANN F 6-7 229 JR. OVERLAND PARK, KAN. / ST. THOMAS AQUINAS

2011-12 DAVIDSON BASKETBALL ROSTER

2011-12 SCHEDULEDATE OPPONENT TIME NOVEMBER Nov. 11, 2011 GUILFORD W, 111-64 Nov. 14, 2011 Richmond W, 74-61 Nov. 18, 2011 at Duke L, 82-69Nov. 21, 2011 PRESBYTERIAN W, 68-54 Nov. 26, 2011 at UNC-Wilmington W, 70-67

DECEMBER Dec. 1, 2011 at Wofford W, 72-69 Dec. 3, 2011 Furman W, 86-65 Dec. 7, 2011 Vanderbilt L, 87-83 Dec. 10, 2011 at Charlotte L, 84-61 Dec. 19, 2011 at Kansas W, 80-74 Dec. 22, 2011 at Massachusetts L, 73-65 Dec. 29, 2011 Pennsylvania W, 75-70

JANUARY Jan. 5, 2012 at UNC-G’boro W, 92-63 Jan. 7, 2012 Georgia So. W, 96-74 Jan. 12, 2012 Western Carolina W, 88-67 Jan. 14, 2012 at App. State W, 83-79 Jan. 19, 2012 C of Charleston W, 87-69 Jan. 21, 2012 The Citadel W, 80-51 Jan. 26, 2012 at Chattanooga W, 64-63 Jan. 28, 2012 at Samford L, 77-74

FEBRUARY Feb. 1, 2012 at Furman W, 71-53 Feb. 4, 2012 Chattanooga W, 88-61 Feb. 6, 2012 Wofford W, 76-54 Feb. 9, 2012 at The Citadel W, 77-66 Feb. 11, 2012 at C of Charleston L, 86-78Feb. 15, 2012 Samford W, 81-54 Feb. 18, 2012 Wichita St. L, 91-74Feb. 23, 2012 Elon W, 66-45 Feb. 25, 2012 at Georgia So. W, 71-54

MARCH - SOUTHERN CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT Mar. 3, 2012 Furman W, 73-54 Mar. 4, 2012 Elon W, 83-67 Mar. 5, 2012 Western Carolina W, 93-91

Coach: Bob McKillopOverall Record: 456-268 (23rd season)

Davidson Record: 456-268 (23rd season)THE WILDCATS HAVE BEEN TO

THE ELITE EIGHT TWICE

JAKE COHENJAKE COHEN

DAVI

DSON

WILD

CATS



By Russ BrownA pair of photos in the New York Daily

News Sunday, the day after the Big East Tournament ended in glory for the Univer-sity of Louisville basketball team, said it all.

In one, Peyton Siva, the net draped around his neck, is sporting a 100-watt smile and giving the thumbs-up sign. In the other, he is holding the Big East trophy in one arm and hugging the Most Outstand-ing Player award in the other arm while somehow managing to hold up a No. 1 sig-nal with his fi nger.

Yes, Siva was the toast of Madison Square Garden last week -- winning fans with his play, his body language and his personality -- and now he’ll take his show to the West Coast and the NCAA Tournament where he’ll try and help No. 17/18 UofL (26-9) end a three-game losing streak in the tourney.

First up, and hopefully not last, for the Cardinals, the No. 4 seed in the West Re-gional, will be unranked and 13th-seeded Davidson (25-7) on Thursday at 1:40 p.m. EDT in another Garden, the Rose, in Port-land, Ore.

Siva has played nearly three full seasons at UofL without tasting victory in the NCAA Tournament, and he is especially eager to erase the depressing feeling of last year’s major upset at the hands of Morehead State, 62-61, in Denver, the Cards’ second straight fi rst-round NCAA loss.

UofL’s last victory in the tourney came before Siva arrived on campus, a 103-64 rout of Arizona in the 2009 Sweet Sixteen in Indianapolis. But that was followed by the top-seeded Cards’ 64-52 loss to Michi-gan State in the Elite Eight. Then came a defeat by California in 2010, followed by last year’s shocker.

Siva still describes the loss to Morehead as “the longest day of my life.” He didn’t leave his hotel room the rest of the day, and he refused to turn on the television or answer his phone. That’s one reason why he is intent on continuing his strong perfor-mance this week.

“I don’t want my team to go through that again,” he said. “I took a week off, but there was no reason to sulk. I had to get back to work. We saw UConn win the championship and thought that could just as easily have been us. That has really moti-vated us this year.”

If UofL is to advance very deep into the tourney this year, it surely will be because of Siva’s sudden emergence from a season-long funk that had rattled his confi dence, which in turn had exacerbated his problems on the court. But he was undeniably the catalyst in the Big East tourney run and will assume the same role in the NCAAs.

The 6-0 Seattle native was brilliant by averaging 13.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 2.8 steals in the Cards’ four vic-tories. He nearly had a triple-double against Notre Dame in the semifi nals with 13 points, a season-high-matching nine assists and eight rebounds, which equaled a career best. His six steals against Seton Hall was just one short of a Big East Tournament re-cord. And in the 50-44 victory over Cincin-nati in the fi nal, Siva contributed 10 points, fi ve assists and four rebounds.

His overall performance in the four games prompted Pitino to say that his junior point guard “really crossed the line into being a great player.”

“You could tell he stepped into the role we needed him to play,” senior forward Kyle Kuric said. “The Peyton we’re all used to, you could tell he didn’t want to lose and he wasn’t going to let us lose. Anytime something happened, he would pick some-body up. Every timeout, he was always talk-ing. He was very vocal.”

Madison Square Garden certainly seems to bring out the best in Siva -- he made the all-tournament team last year when he averaged 12.0 points, 7.7 assists and 5.3 rebounds in helping the Cards reach the championship game against Connecticut.

Even former President Bill Clinton, who has become a regular at the tourney, was talking about Siva.

“He’s amazing,” Clinton told report-ers during a brief interview in the Garden. “He’s very, very impressive ... and he has nice tattoos.”

It was only a little more than a week ago, after a 58-49 loss at Syracuse, that Pitino told Siva he was “a pleaser” and that it was time for him to quit worrying about pleas-ing everybody and just play basketball to the best of his abilities.

“He (Pitino) told me to forget about ev-erything,” Siva said. “He just told me not to listen to anybody and press the reset but-ton. He wanted me to start over, and that’s what I did. I wanted to block everything out and stop reading and listening to ev-erything. And I feel a lot healthier now, too. Coach P had a lot of faith in me, and I’m very thankful for that.”

Pitino said Siva is too sensitive to criti-cism and that he told his team fl oor general and tri-captain to quit worrying about what people are saying or writing.

“What I basically told him was, ‘Look, you’re not having the best of years, I know you’re hearing it from all angles,’” Pitino re-called. “I said, ‘The one thing about your culture is you can’t not listen to what any-body says, you can’t have total blinders on.

You can’t be that way because you’re go-ing to have friends text you asking what’s wrong, and this and that.

“’Your girlfriend’s going to ask what’s wrong. That’s the bad part of that culture, the good part is that you go to New York and have a great tournament and every-body will think you’re having a great year.’ And everybody thinks right now he’s having the greatest season of his life. So that’s the way your world lives.”

Pitino also believes Siva was helped by watching fi lm of Seton Hall’s outstanding point guard, Jordan Theodore, before the Cards played the Pirates in their fi rst game in the Big East Tournament. Siva has had a tendency to roar down the lane too fast, overdrive, get into trouble and then throw up an off-balance prayer or make a turn-over. Pitino showed Siva how good Theo-dore is at changing speeds.

“I think he learned a lot by watching Theodore,” Pitino said. “We kept talking about changing pace all season long, and he had a diffi cult time picking that up. And when we watched Theodore on tape we kept saying, ‘Look at the way he changes pace, Peyton.’ I think he picked up a lot watching him.

“Part of Peyton’s problem is he goes too fast, he can’t stop. He’s one of the fastest point guards in the nation, and when you go that fast and don’t change your pace, you get off balance, you travel, you leave your feet. So he did a good job changing his pace. I think he played great in all phases of the game.”

Said Siva: “I’m just trying to be really ac-tive on defense, get defl ections and steals. Make the right decisions on the break and get open shots for my teammates.”

And the longer he does that, the better chance the Cards have to keep dancing.

NOTES -- Pitino refers to the backcourt combination of Siva and Russ Smith as “mosquitos,” adding, “They’re like little gnats, getting under your skin and bother-ing you. You’re always trying to get them off you, get them away from you.” ...

Siva said he is already very fond of UofL’s new InfraRED uniforms. “I love em. A lotof our fans don’t like them, but the play-ers really like them because they’re so light,something new and different. Everybodyfell in love with them, and we’re doing allright with them.” ...

The UofL-Cincinnati game marked the fewest points scored in a Big East Tour-nament fi nal, 16 fewer than the previousmark set by Syracuse and Georgetown inthe Orange’s 56-54 victory in 1992. ...

It was the fi rst time in the 34 years the tournament has been held that at leastone of the original seven members of theconference wasn’t in the fi nal. “Confer-ence USA comes to the Big Apple,” Pitinoquipped. ...

The last time UofL and UC had met for a league championship, they were in theMetro Conference in 1981 and the Cardswon 42-31 in Freedom Hall before losingto Arkansas 74-73 on U.S. Reed’s half-courtbomb in the fi rst round of the NCAA Tour-nament in Austin, Texas. ...

Nine Big East teams made the 68-team NCAA Tournament fi eld, but one that didn’twas Seton Hall, coached by former Pitinoassistant Kevin Willard, who is the son of Pi-tino’s best friend, Ralph Willard. The Pirates(20-12, 8-10 Big East) were considered abubble team but now will host Stony Brook(22-9) in the NIT. They are the sixth 20-winBig East team of the last 153 to not makethe NCAAs. Willard is in his second seasonand has a roster composed mostly of fresh-men and sophomores, although his twobest players, Theodore and Herb Pope, areseniors. ...

UofL may have set a record by playing six teams that wound up winning their re-spective conference tournaments -- Lamar(Southland), Western Kentucky (Sun Belt),Ohio U. (MAC), Long Beach State (Big West),Memphis (C-USA) and Vanderbilt (SEC). TheCards go into the NCAA Tournament withthe No. 9 strength of schedule, broughtdown by non-league games against weakteams such as Tennessee Martin, ArkansasState, IUPUI and Fairleigh Dickinson. ...

Pitino said the Big East realignment re-minds him of Hollywood movies: “I’m withyou forever. I’m with you forever, and yousee these mobster movies, all of a sudden in‘The Godfather’ -- ‘I’m selling out. It’s onlybusiness.’” West Virginia has moved to theBig 12 and Syracuse and Pittsburgh will jointhe ACC next year. ...

Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin, a former UofL assistant, said if he had to lose in thetitle game, he was glad it was to Pitino’steam. “I’m very happy for coach Pitino.I love him like a brother,” Cronin said. “Iwouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.” ...

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim on the im-portance of conference tournaments: “Thetournament that starts next week is theonly one that matters. Nothing else mattersany more in college basketball. It doesn’tmatter than you win 31 games. It doesn’tmatter that you win your conference tour-nament.”

Cronin’s retort: “That’s what every coach who loses in the conference tournamentsays.”

Junior Peyton Siva was named MVP of the Big East Tournament Saturday. The point guard from Seattle could key a NCAA Tournament run for Louisville. - photo by Gail Kamenish

C A R D S ’ P O I N T G U A R D C O U L D K E Y N C A A R U N

NOW SIVA’S ONLY FOCUS IS PLEASING HIS COACH


GAMEDAY PREVIEW - NEW MEXICO

BREAKING DOWN THE LOBOSBy Rick CushingThe Lobos, who are coached by former

Indiana University great Steve Alford, fi gured to rebound from a disappointing season, when they went 22-13, fi nished fi fth in the Mountain West Conference at 8-8 and failed to make the NCAA

Tournament.With four starters returning, including Mountain West

Newcomer of the Year Drew Gordon, a transfer from UCLA, the Lobos did bounce back, going 25-6, winning the conference tournament and earning a No. 5 seed in the West Regional in the NCAA Tournament. They will face 12th-seeded Long Beach State in the fi rst round, with the winner advancing to face the winner of the game between No. 4 seed UofL and No. 13 Davidson.

The Lobos did it behind a stingy defense that allowed only 58.8 ppg, 14th in the country. Opponents were limited to 38.2 percent overall shooting, sixth in the country, and 30.6 percent on treys, 30th in the country. The Lobos can score, too. They averaged 73.4 ppg, 52nd in the country, shot 46.3 percent, 53rd in the country, including 38.5 percent on treys, 28th in the country, while averaging 16.3 assists per game, 10th in the country, with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.22-1, 31st in the country, and a rebounding margin of 6.7 a game, 18th in the country.

UofL and New Mexico met no common opponents this season. The Lobos played only one ranked team all season, winning 2 of 3 games against Mountain West rival UNLV, including a 72-67 victory in the league tournament semifi nals.

GUARDSKendall Williams, a 6-3 sophomore, runs the show. He’s

averaging 12.0 ppg, second on the team, and leads at 4.1 assists per game and 1.31 steals per game He also averages 3.3 rpg, fourth on the team. He’s shooting 43.9 percent overall, 36.0 percent on treys.

Hugh Greenwood, a 6-3 freshman from Australia, is averaging 6.7 ppg, sixth on the team, 3.7 rpg, second on the team, and 2.5 apg, also second. He’s shooting 42.3 percent overall and 34.7 on treys.

Three subs see a lot of action in the backcourt: 6-2 sophomore Demetrius Walker (7.3 ppg, 2.8 rpg), 5-9 junior Jamal Fenton (6.6 ppg, 2.4 apg) and 6-5 senior Phillip McDonald (6.0 ppg). McDonald is the team’s top three-point shooter at 44.1 percent (45 of 102).

BIG MENGordon, a 6-9 senior who left the troubled UCLA program three

years ago after being rated one of the nation’s top recruits, is averaging a double-double (13.4 ppg, 10.9 rpg, seventh in the country) and shooting 53.7 percent, 37th in the country. He’s 1 for 1 on treys and also leads the team in blocks with 34. He was named the Most Valuable Player of the Mountain West Tournament.

Tony Snell, a skinny 6-7 sophomore (195 pounds), is averaging 11.0 ppg, third on the team, and 3.3 rpg, fourth on the team. He’s shooting 45.9 percent overall, 39.9 percent on treys (a team-leading 71 on 178 tries), and averages 2.4 assists per game, tied with Fenton for third on the team.

A.J. Hardeman, a 6-8 senior, is averaging 4.5 ppg and 3.5 rpg, third on the team. He’s shooting 48.7 percent and has not tried a trey all season.

The top frontcourt sub is 6-6 junior Chad Adams (3.1 ppg, 1.6 rpg). He’s shooting 43.8 percent on treys but has tried only 16, making seven. He’s a good free-throw shooter at 86.4 percent.

STARGordon, without a doubt. TEAM STRENGTHDefense, as refl ected by the stats listed above. TEAM WEAKNESSFrontcourt depth. Should Gordon get in foul trouble, the

Lobos could be in serious trouble. HEAD COACHAlford, who starred on IU’s 1987 NCAA championship team,

is in his fi fth season at New Mexico and is taking the Lobos to the NCAA Tournament for the second time. He is 123-45 at UNM and 431-228 in 21 seasons overall, going 78-29 in four seasons (1991-95) at NCAA Division III Manchester (Ind.), 78-48 with one NCAA Tournament appearance in four seasons (1995-99) at Southwest Missouri State, and 152-106 in eight seasons at Iowa, with three NCAA Tournament appearances. He was Indiana’s Mr. Basketball in 1983 after averaging 37.7 ppg as a senior at New Castle H.S., which was coached by his father, Sam. He left IU as the school’s all-time leading scorer and played three seasons in the NBA with Dallas and Golden State.

ALL-TIME SERIESUofL and UNM have met twice, with the Cards winning both

times – 78-49 in 1989 and 64-63 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 1997. That UofL team advanced to the Elite Eight before falling 97-74 to No. 4 North Carolina, which lost in the Final Four to eventual national champion Arizona, which beat the Rick Pitino-coached UK for the title.

HEAD COACHHEAD COACHSTEVE ALFORDSTEVE ALFORD

NO NAME POS HT WT EXP (L) HOMETOWN (SCHOOL) 00 A.J. HARDEMAN F 6-8 235 SR/3VL DEL VALLE, TEXAS (DEL VALLE)

2 CHRIS PEREZ G 6-0 180 SO/SQ CORONA, CALIF. (CENTENNIAL HS)

3 HUGH GREENWOOD G 6-3 209 FR/HS HOBART, AUSTRALIA (AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF SPORT)

4 CHAD ADAMS G/F 6-6 190 JR/2VL ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (HIGHLAND)

5 DOMINIQUE DUNNING G 6-3 198 FR/HS CORONA, CALIF. (CENTENNIAL HS)

10 KENDALL WILLIAMS G 6-3 180 SO/1VL RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CALIF. (LOS OSOS)

13 JAMAL FENTON G 5-9 168 JR/2VL HOUSTON, TEXAS (CESAR E. CHAVEZ)

21 TONY SNELL G 6-7 195 SO/1VL RIVERSIDE, CALIF. (KING)

23 PHILLIP MCDONALD G 6-5 200 SR/3VL CYPRESS, TEXAS (CYPRESS SPRINGS)

24 KORY ALFORD G 6-4 170 FR/HS ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (LA CUEVA HS)

32 DREW GORDON F 6-9 245 SR/1VL SAN JOSE, CALIF. (UCLA)

40 DEMETRIUS WALKER G 6-2 200 RS SO/TR-RS FONTANA, CALIF. (ARIZONA STATE)

41 CAMERON BAIRSTOW F 6-9 253 SO/1VL BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA (AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF SPORT)

53 ALEX KIRK C 6-11 242 SO/1VL LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (LOS ALAMOS)

2011-12 NEW MEXICO BASKETBALL ROSTER

2011-12 SCHEDULEDATE OPPONENT TIME NOVEMBER Nov. 11, 2011 New Orleans W, 92-40 Nov. 16, 2011 New Mexico St. L, 62-53 Nov. 18, 2011 at Arizona State W, 76-71 Nov. 24, 2011 at Santa Clara L, 79-76 Nov. 25, 2011 Wash. State W, 72-62 Nov. 27, 2011 at Boston College W, 75-57 Nov. 30, 2011 Idaho St. W, 65-41

DECEMBER Dec. 3, 2011 Missouri St. W, 76-60 Dec. 10, 2011 at Southern Cal W, 44-41 Dec. 17, 2011 at OK State W, 66-56 Dec. 20, 2011 Montana St. W, 91-46 Dec. 22, 2011 Missouri-KC W, 87-62 Dec. 28, 2011 at New Mexico St. W, 89-69 Dec. 31, 2011 Saint Louis W, 64-60

JANUARY Jan. 3, 2012 HOUSTON BAPTIST W, 98-61 Jan. 7, 2012 NORTH DAKOTA W, 85-57 Jan. 14, 2012 at Wyoming W, 72-62 Jan. 18, 2012 San Diego St. L, 75-70 Jan. 21, 2012 at UNLV L, 80-63 Jan. 25, 2012 Colorado State W, 85-52 Jan. 28, 2012 TCU W, 71-54 Jan. 31, 2012 at Air Force W, 81-42

FEBRUARY Feb. 4, 2012 at Boise State W, 65-49 Feb. 11, 2012 Wyoming W, 48-38 Feb. 15, 2012 at San Diego St. W, 77-67 Feb. 18, 2012 UNLV W, 65-45 Feb. 21, 2012 at Colorado State L, 71-63Feb. 25, 2012 at TCU L, 83-64

MARCH Mar. 3, 2012 Boise State W, 76-61

MOUNTAIN WEST TOURNAMENTMar. 8, 2012 Air Force W, 79-64 Mar. 9, 2012 at UNLV W, 72-67 Mar. 10, 2012 at San Diego St. W, 68-59

Coach: Steve AlfordOverall Record: 431-228 (21st season)

New Mexico Record: 123-45 (5th season)THE MOUNTAIN WEST LEAGUE CHAMPION

THE MWC WAS AMERICA’S FIFTH BEST LEAGUE, BETTER THAN THE ACC OR PAC-12

DREW GORDONDREW GORDON

NEW

MEX

ICO

LOBO

S


CARDS IN THE COMMUNITY

By Howie LindseyA week ago Friday, a massive storm

composed of numerous tornados ripped through the Midwest, leaving 22 dead in Kentucky and 12 in Indiana.

While much of the damage in Kentucky was more than 100 miles away from the

University of Louisville, the Indiana towns of Henryville, Marysville and New Pekin are less than 30 minutes from cam-pus.

For days, police limit-ed access to the affected areas as citizens began the process of cleaning

up their demolished homes, businesses and schools.

Last Thursday, when access was opened up, UofL’s football team loaded into two large buses and traveled to Indiana to help their neighbors pick up debris and remove large items from their land. Coach Charlie Strong and his entire coaching staff arrived at the Metro United Way Volunteer Center just after 1 p.m. and committed their en-tire team to an afternoon of cleanup in the storm-ravaged area.

For Strong, it was an opportunity for his players to understand he means what he says when he talks about serving your com-munity.

“It is great that our guys have a chance to give back,” he said. “That’s what you always talk to your players about - giving back. Now we have a chance to come into this community that has been hit and is a disaster. Now we have a chance to give back.”

The offense was sent to help the com-munity of Marysville and the defense went to Henryville. In Henryville, the town comes into view as you round the I-65 exit and drive down a slight hill into the town. As the defensive bus approached Henryville, the players and coaches got a full view of the horrifi c damage at the town’s school (a combined grade school, middle school and high school).

Strong, who said his hometown of Bates-ville, Ark., was hit by a tornado when he was a child, said he’d never seen anything like the devastation in Hen-ryville.

“(When the bus entered the town) everybody was silent,” Strong said. “No one said anything because they were just stunned. They were shocked more than anything.”

After Strong and his staff spoke with a local fi re department, the bus navigated a maze of aid vehi-cles and electric trucks and found a parking space on the side of a road near the school. The players un-loaded the buses and immediately began carrying debris from three severely damaged homes behind the school.

“I’m from Cincinnati, so I am used to hearing about tornados,” linebacker Preston Brown said. “I mean, you hear about them all the time, but you never really see what actually happens. It is really shocking.”

Strong told his players not to tweet about their trip before-hand, and he limited media

notice. He wanted his players to focus on working to help, not publicity.

The players didn’t just pose for photos. They were each given gloves and went to work despite sputtering rain and muddy conditions. Their work site was within easy view of the demolished school.

“I’m from Miami, but I wasn’t really old enough during Hurricane Andrew to re-member any of it,” defensive lineman Ja-maine Brooks said. “It was bad, probably

like this, but I was too young.

It just wakes you up, makes you take noth-ing for granted.”

Earlier in the week, players and coaches visited tornado victims who had been air-lifted to Louisville hospitals, including theGilles family from Henryville, UofL fanswhose home was thrown 300 yards by thestorm.

On Friday, members of the Indianapolis Colts arrived in Southern Indiana to help theclean-up effort as well. And they weren’tthe only ones helping out. Several Louisville

teams held collections for the tornadovictims, and athletes all over town got in on the helping spirit. Bellarm-ine’s Braydon Hobbs, a New Albany native, de-livered supplies, put tarpson roofs, cut down trees and did whatever else needed to be done.

“It’s like a movie up there,” Hobbs told The Courier-Journal. “Just un-believable. It gives me chills just talking about it.... I told Coach (Scott Davenport),‘It just puts everything in perspective.’ So unreal and unbelievable.... Everythingis literally fl attened. Cars shattered and upside down,trailers upside down, roofs off houses. It’s all the pictures you can imagine, times 10.”

Said Strong, “We are so blessed, so we feel like we should take every opportunityto help others.”

STRONG’S CARDS HELP CLEAN UP INDIANA STRONG’S CARDS HELP CLEAN UP INDIANA

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HOWIE LINDSEYHOWIE LINDSEY Louisville football coach Charlie Strong brought a handful of limbs up to a woodpile Thursday as his team helped tornado victims in Southern Indiana clean up their towns. - photo by Howie Lindsey


CARDS IN THE COMMUNITY

Louisville’s defense helped clean up debris from the land surrounding the Henryville School building while the offense helped in Marysville, Ind. - photos by Howie Lindsey


LOUISVILLE BASKETBALLLO

NG B

EACH

STA

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49ER

SBy Rick CushingThe 49ers returned four starters and

added top JUCO transfer James Ennis, and they hoped to end the frustration of losses to UC Santa Barbara in the Big West Conference Tournament fi nal the past two seasons that kept them out of the NCAA Tournament.

Mission accomplished as the 49ers beat UCSB 77-64 in the conference tournament fi nal this year to earn a No. 12 seed in the West Regional in the NCAA Tournament. They will face No. 5 seed New Mexico on Thursday, with the winner to face the UofL-Davidson winner on Saturday. Long Beach fi nished its season at 25-8 and won the Big West regular-season title at 14-1.

The 49ers faced six ranked teams this season, includ-ing then No. 6 UofL, which beat visiting LBSU 79-66 on Nov. 28 in the KFC Yum! Center. The 49ers also lost to Kansas 88-80 on Dec. 6, to North Carolina 84-78 on Dec. 10 and to Creighton 81-79 on Feb. 18. They won 86-76 at then-No. 9 Pittsburgh on Nov. 16, a victory that turned out to be not so impressive, and they beat Xavier 68-58 in the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii on Dec. 22.

UofL and Long Beach State played no common opponents this season.

GUARDSCasper Ware, a 5-10 senior who runs the show, leads the

team in scoring at 17.4 ppg and in assists at 3.3 a game.

He’s shooting 40.7 percent overall and has taken 173 more shots than the second-leading shooter on the team, and he’s shooting 36.1 percent on treys and has taken more than twice as many (92 of 255) as any other 49er.

Larry Anderson, a 6-5 senior, is averaging 14.0 ppg, sec-ond on the team, 5.0 rpg, third on the team, and leads in steals at 1.9 a game, 61st in the country. He’s the team’s top three-point shooter at 41.9 percent (44 of 105). He led the 49ers with 17 points against UofL. He missed the Big West Tournament with a sprained ankle and his availability for this week is unknown. The top backcourt sub is 6-0 fresh-man Mike Caffey (5.8 ppg).

BIG MENT.J. Robinson, a 6-8 senior, is averaging 12.0 ppg, third

on the team, and a team-leading 10.1 rpg, which is 19th in the country. He’s shooting 57.0 percent and has not taken a trey.

Ennis, a 6-7 junior, is averaging 9.9 ppg, 4.1 rpg and 2.5 apg and leads the team with 25 blocks. He’s shooting 49.3 percent overall and 35.2 percent on treys (43 of 122).

The starting center is 6-6 senior Eugene Phelps (9.5 ppg, 5.6 rpg). He’s shooting 49.6 percent and has not tried a trey.

The top frontcourt sub is 6-8 senior Enis Dervisivec (4.2 ppg, 1.5 rpg).

STARI have to go with Robinson because Ware is such a gun.TEAM STRENGTHS

The team is shooting 47.2 percent, which is 31st in the country, and the balanced scoring of the starting fi ve – 17.4 ppg to 9.5 ppg.

TEAM WEAKNESSLack of depth. LBSU used only three reserves against UofL

for a total of 29 minutes, and they scored only four points. The Cards used fi ve reserves for a total of 57 minutes, and they scored 21 points.

HEAD COACHDan Monson is in his fi fth season at LBSU and 15th

season overall. He’s 85-76 at LBSU, 255-199 overall, hav-ing gone 52-17 in two seasons at Gonzaga (1997-99) and 118-105 in seven-plus seasons at Minnesota (1999-2006). He took Gonzaga to the Elite Eight in 1999, and he took Min-nesota to the NCAA tourney once. This will be the fi rst trip for the 49ers under Monson.

ALL-TIME SERIESThis season was the only time the teams have met.

HEAD COACHHEAD COACHDAN MONSONDAN MONSON

BREAKING DOWN THE 49ERS

MINUTES TOTAL 3-PTS F-THROWS REBOUNDS

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

14 Kuric, Kyle 33 31 1199 36.3 149 346 .431 70 208 .337 65 80 .813 40 105 145 4.4 70 0 43 37 16 42 433 13.1

02 Smith, Russ 34 7 729 21.4 130 362 .359 34 123 .276 93 122 .762 22 61 83 2.4 97 3 70 78 1 80 387 11.4

05 Smith, Chris 35 33 969 27.7 110 271 .406 60 152 .395 69 92 .750 39 89 128 3.7 49 0 74 39 0 31 349 10.0

10 Dieng, Gorgui 35 35 1137 32.5 131 240 .546 0 0 .000 67 100 .670 126 193 319 9.1 119 5 38 75 111 40 329 9.4

03 Siva, Peyton 33 33 1055 32.0 103 256 .402 15 63 .238 79 109 .725 18 92 110 3.3 97 3 180 116 5 60 300 9.1

24 Behanan, Chane 35 32 877 25.1 119 241 .494 5 32 .156 71 120 .592 101 157 258 7.4 67 2 29 64 15 27 314 9.0

33 Marra, Mike 2 0 25 12.5 5 8 .625 1 4 .250 1 2 .500 1 4 5 2.5 0 0 2 2 0 1 12 6.0

04 Buckles, Rakeem 11 1 149 13.5 16 37 .432 2 5 .400 10 18 .556 18 24 42 3.8 20 0 3 15 2 7 44 4.0

21 Swopshire, Jared 34 2 454 13.4 41 104 .394 3 20 .150 31 46 .674 25 76 101 3.0 39 0 15 22 9 11 116 3.4

25 Blackshear, Wayne 10 1 69 6.9 8 31 .258 5 17 .294 4 7 .571 5 6 11 1.1 6 0 2 6 1 2 25 2.5

01 Nunez, Angel 12 0 55 4.6 8 21 .381 6 16 .375 2 4 .500 2 6 8 0.7 1 0 2 6 2 1 24 2.0

13 JACKSON, Mark 3 0 12 4.0 2 4 .500 1 1 1.000 0 0 .000 0 3 3 1.0 1 0 0 2 0 0 5 1.7

44 Van Treese, Stephan 3 0 20 6.7 1 3 .333 0 0 .000 2 4 .500 4 2 6 2.0 5 0 0 1 1 1 4 1.3

15 Henderson, Tim 11 0 57 5.2 4 11 .364 3 7 .429 3 6 .500 3 6 9 0.8 7 0 6 6 0 1 14 1.3

23 Ware, Kevin 19 0 101 5.3 8 26 .308 0 4 .000 4 12 .333 3 10 13 0.7 12 0 9 21 4 7 20 1.1

22 Justice, Elisha 21 0 112 5.3 9 24 .375 1 11 .091 2 2 1.000 1 8 9 0.4 15 0 9 11 0 6 21 1.0

12 Price, Zach 17 0 80 4.7 4 12 .333 0 0 .000 4 15 .267 6 9 15 0.9 18 1 0 3 3 2 12 0.7

Team 46 27 73 2 9

Total 35 7100 848 1997 .425 206 663 .311 507 739 .686 460 878 1338 38.2 625 14 482 513 170 319 2409 68.8

Opponents 35 7100 747 1969 .379 194 630 .308 453 685 .661 459 812 1271 36.3 666 - 390 555 119 256 2141 61.2

2011-2012 MEN’S BASKETBALL SEASON STATS

Coach: Dan MonsonRecord at Long Beach State: 85-76, 5th season

Overall record: 255-199, 15th seasonPreviously Coached: Gonzaga (1997-99) and

Minnesota (1999-2006)

LONG BEACH STATE FINISHED 25-8 & WON THE BIG WEST REGULAR-SEASON & TOURNAMENT TITLE


RECRUITING NOTEBOOK

The Kentucky Derby Festival announced

the rosters for the Derby Festival Basketball

Classic to be played Friday, April 6, at Free-

dom Hall. The roster includes five McDon-

ald’s All-Americans, as well as University

of Louisville signee Terry Rozier and three

Indiana University recruits. Nearly all of the

players scheduled to participate are ranked

among the top 40 nationally by recruiting

services Rivals.com and Scout.com.

The players also will participate in the

Horseshoe Foundation Night of Future Stars

on Thursday, April 5, at New Albany (Ind.)

High School.

“This is one of the strongest lineups in

the recent history of the Derby Festival Bas-

ketball Classic,” said Mike Gandolfo, the

event’s co-recruiting chair along with Keith

Conrad. “We expect it will be a highly en-

tertaining and competitive game. Many of

the top programs in the country are rep-

resented on the roster, and we know the

players will have great success at the next

level.”

The Derby Festival Basketball Classic is

presented by papajohns.com. Contributing

sponsors are the Horseshoe Foundation of

Floyd County, Norton Sports Health, Ree-

bok, 99.7 WDJX and B96.5 FM. Supporting

partners are the Kentucky National Guard,

The Rock and SLAM Magazine.

Admission to the Horseshoe Foundation

Night of Future Stars is free with a ticket to

the Classic. Some of the event’s most excit-

ing moments have occurred during the Slam

Dunk, 2-on-2 and Three-Point Shooting com-

petitions. There also will be a one-hour au-

tograph-signing session following the event,

with a two-item limit for signing.

Basketball Classic tickets are $11 and $16

(includes $1 facility fee) and are available at

TicketMaster locations (www.ticketmaster.

com), by phone (800, 745-3000) or at the

Freedom Hall box offi ce (502, 367-5144).

First held in 1973, the Derby Festival

Basketball Classic is the oldest continuously

held high school all-star game in the na-

tion.

DDDD

2012 KENTUCKY DERBY FESTIVAL BASKETBALL CLASSIC ROSTERS AS OF 3/1/2012

RECRUITING NOTEBOOK


Say what you will about UofL basketball coach Rick Pitino (and many media members and fans certainly did that over the past two months), he was absolutely right about his team when it started the

postseason. Pitino had taken slings and arrows from all sides since late December as Louisville’s offense struggled to fi nd its groove and as the Cards pushed their way through a brutal Big East schedule. Then he was mocked last week when he told reporters that this Louisville team was going to New York to bring home a title. But he was right! And now UofL is one of the hottest teams in the country going into the NCAA Tournament. Give the coach credit, he brought home Louisville’s third Big East title in four seasons (one regular-season crown in 2009 and tournament titles in 2009 and 2012). The just-concluded Big East Tournament was a clear reminder that there’s a reason Pitino is a fi nalist for the Naismith Hall of Fame.

Prior to the Big East Tournament, we liked that Pitino was still working toward answers with this team instead of sitting back with

a “They-are-what-they-are” attitude that some coaches take at such a late point in the season. Pitino told Paul Rogers on WHAS-840 several days before the fi nal regular-season game at Syracuse that he planned to “shake things up in a dramatic way. Our fans will probably be surprised with who’s going to be on the court, but we’re going to lay it all on the line and see what happens. Before we go to the (NCAA) Tourna-ment we’re going to get this thing straightened out.” And he did. Pitino found the right mix during the Big East Tournament, and the Cards reeled off four wins in four days to bring home the crown.

UofL did not have any players on the All-Big East fi rst, second or third teams. Senior Kyle Kuric made honorable mention, and Chane Behanan made the All-Rookie team. Louisville’s lack of fi rst, second

or third teamers speaks to a couple of things: 1. League coaches did not respect UofL’s players enough and, 2. This team is certainly more about the whole than the parts. Louisville certainly used the All-Big East snub as motivation. And if they need more motivation for the NCAA Tournament? The tourney commit-tee put the Cardinals all the way out West as a No. 4 seed. “We love proving haters wrong,” junior guard Peyton Siva said. “We just stay together, keep focused and keep proving them wrong.”

How good was Siva in the Big East Tournament? Wow. He was fast, aggressive, and his shot was falling all week. He was deservedly named Big East Tournament MVP after averaging 13.8 points, 6.3 re-

bounds and 5.8 assists during UofL’s four-game run. After crediting his teammates for their performance, Siva was asked about his performance. “It is unreal. I just give all credit to Jesus Christ,” Siva said after the fi nal. “By the grace of God we were able to pull that off. Cincinnati came back and fought hard, but everybody stepped up big for us.” His coach loved his performance. “He was exhausted tonight,” Pitino said. “But I told him, ‘Hang in there, son.’ We needed him because he was the best player on the court.” Pitino’s love was reciprocated. As he was being interviewed by Rogers for his postgame coach’s radio seg-ment, Siva walked by and said, “I love you Coach.”

We really don’t like Louisville’s draw. 1. The Cardinals are shipped all the way to Portland, Ore., a cross-country plane trip for nearly all of Louisville’s massive fan base. 2. The Cardinals are a No. 4 seed

and not a No. 3 as some were projecting just before the pairings were released. 3. The Cards are in the toughest region, with eight of the top-20 teams in Ken Pomeroy’s computer rating all in the same bracket. And, 4. The committee paired the champions of two of the fi ve toughest conferences this year in the second round. Should Louisville beat Davidson in the fi rst round, the Cardinals may have to face Mountain West champ New Mexico for a chance to make the Sweet 16. The Mountain West garnered four bids this year, same as the SEC and two more than the Pac-12.

Our prayers go out to those affected by the violent storms in the Kentuckiana area a week ago Friday, particularly those Hoo-siers in Henryville, Marysville and Pekin. Indiana State Police

thankfully lowered the death toll in that area from 14 to 12, but the heartbreak is still painfully play-ing out on local news. We urge that UofL fans help through the Red Cross, Salvation Army or any of the local fire departments in Southern Indiana. Donations of food, canned goods, clothing and plain old finances are certainly welcomed. An easy way to help is to text HOOSIER to 80888 to donate $10 to the Salvation Army or REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross. In all, 37 people were killed by tornados in four states — Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.

It was inspiring to see two busloads of UofL football players arrive at the Metro United Way Volunteer office in Indiana last week. The faces on the aid workers lit up as UofL’s entire coaching

staff walked into the building to receive their marching orders to help the tornado victims. Coach Charlie Strong split his team and had the offense head to Maryville and the defense to Henryville, two small towns that were hit hardest by the storms. And the players weren’t there for a photo shoot. Dressed in sweats, they put on donated work gloves and went to work removing heavy debris from people’s property. For more on Louisville’s clean-up efforts, see pages 13 and 14.

We were saddened to hear that James Edward “Jimmie” Wallace passed away in late February. He was a good friend of SportsReport owner Jack Coffee and the first videographer for

UofL football. He also was one of the first in the country. He started filming games for Bear Bryant at Kentucky in the late 1940s and the next year moved to UofL with Frank Camp. He also was one of the best aerial photographers in town. Wallace was born in Louisville, where he owned and oper-ated Jimmie Wallace Commercial Photography. He was a World War II Army veteran and a member of Southeast Christian Church. He was preceded in death by his wife, Mary Louise Wallace, sister, Ruth Dillard of Fayetteville, N.C.; and brother, Theodore Wallace. He is survived by his daughters, Barbara Wallace Jones and Susan Wallace Aebi; grandchild, Chapin “Chip” Jones (Bethany); and great-grandchildren Evan and Natalie Jones. He was 92.

Yes, it is basketball season, but football season is just around the corner. Strong and the Cardinals soon will begin preparations for the 2012 season, with their first spring practice on March 21.

The Cardinals also will hold practice on March 23 and March 24. The Cardinals return 47 letterwin-ners from last season’s team that went 7-6 and won a share of the Big East title, with 10 starters back on a defense that finished ranked 23rd in the country. The offense returns eight starters, including four on the offensive line and quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, the Big East’s Newcomer of the Year. Only the first three practices and the Red-White Scrimmage on April 14 at 1 p.m. and will be open to the public. Practice times are yet to be determined.

We think it’s ludicrous that the NCAA insists on calling the four play-in games on Tuesday and Wednesday the first round of the NCAA Tournament. That means that 60 teams are receiving

byes into the second round. Please. That means that UofL lost in the second round last year, when everyone around here knows that the Cards lost their first game, not in the second round. We are going to disregard the NCAA’s nonsensible delineation of the four play-in games as the first round and urge all of you to do the same. Common sense requires it. Common sense is lacking in the NCAA, as we well know.

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

GOOD

GOOD

GOOD

GET DAILY UPDATES ON THE CARDS AT CARDINALSPORTS.COM - WANT MORE OPINIONS? FOLLOW @HOWIELINDSEY ON TWITTER

BAD

BAD

GOOD

GOOD

UGLY

BAD

BAD


2012 NCAA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT BRACKET


WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

By Howie LindseyLast season the Louisville women’s bas-

ketball team was awarded a No. 7 seed and had to play on No. 2 seed and 5th-ranked Xavier’s home court in the second round. This season? More of the same.

The 20th-ranked Cardinals (21-8) again received a No. 7 seed and, if they beat No. 10 seed Michigan State (20-11) in the fi rst round, they will likely face No. 2 seed and 5th-ranked Maryland on the Terrapins’ home court for a spot in the Sweet 16.

“You know, I have learned that you just can’t complain a whole lot about seeding,” UofL coach Jeff Walz said. “I mean, I thought we could be a 5 seed, best-case scenario, and I thought we were a sol-id 6 seed, but once the

brackets are out, you just have to go play. I’ve gone through the mock draft deal in Indianapolis, and I know how hard it is - es-pecially when you have eight teams in from the same league and none of them can play each other until the third round.”

The Cards certainly put their seeding aside last season, knocking off traditional power Vanderbilt, the No. 10 seed, 81-62 in the fi rst round, then beating the Muske-teers 85-75 to advance to the Sweet 16. Can the Cardinals take the same path to the Sweet 16 this season?

“We don’t know a whole lot about Michigan State yet, but we know they are a very good team,” Walz said. “We’ll have our hands full with them and, if we get past them, we’ll most likely have a very tal-ented Maryland team on their home court. We did well with the 7 seed last year, and now we are trying to make good things happen as we move forward in the NCAA Tournament.”

The Cardinals will start their tournament run against Michigan State Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in College Park, Md. The game will be televised on ESPN2. Maryland (28-4) will take on 15 seed Navy (18-11) in the game prior.

Seeding aside, Walz likely will catch a case of deja vu as he walks back into Mary-land’s gym for this weekend’s games. He came to Louisville in 2007 after helping the Terrapins and coach Brenda Frese win the 2006 NCAA championship.

“We are really excited to get the chance to be playing,” Walz said. “We are heading to Maryland, where I worked for fi ve years as an assistant coach. I am familiar with the area and familiar with the gym.”

Walz was an assistant coach and re-cruiter at Maryland. He said there likely are some fans who will remember him.

“I would think we should have a crowd of folks cheering for us in (the fi rst-round) game, but I assure you, if we win, there won’t be anybody cheering for me and my team,” he said.

Louisville comes into the tournament off a loss to 14th-ranked St. John’s in the quar-terfi nals of the Big East Tournament.

“We had a few days of rest after the Big East Tournament,” Walz said. “They started back (Monday), and then we’ll start preparing (Tuesday). It’ll be a fun week of preparation.”

The Cardinals will take on a Michigan State team that won eight of its fi nal 10 games and has been in the NCAA Tourna-ment the last four seasons and nine of the last 10. The Spartans fi nished tied for sec-ond in the Big Ten at 11-5.

“I’ll get back to the offi ce in a bit to start breaking down fi lm and getting a game plan together,” Walz said at the team’s Se-lection Show party Monday night. “The Big Ten is a great league with some solid teams in it like Ohio State and Penn State, so they have seen good competition.”

The Spartans played two Big East teams earlier this season, losing 75-64 to Villano-va on Nov. 11 in New Rochelle, N.Y., and falling 64-54 to Pitt on Dec. 21 in Cancun, Mexico. Louisville beat Villanova 62-58 on Jan. 28 at the KFC Yum! Center and won at Pitt 71-66 in overtime on Feb. 14. UofL beat Villanova again 63-47 in the second round of the Big East Tournament.

Louisville’s 1-1 record in the Big East Tournament is misleading. The Cardinals clobbered Villanova and took St. John’s, one of the hottest teams in the nation, to overtime before falling 68-61 when UofL’s shots just wouldn’t fall. Walz said his team is playing good basketball.

“I have been really pleased with the way we have played recently,” he said. “This is a team that is really starting to mature and starting to do some good things. I am ex-

cited about it for them, and I am looking forward to a good week of practice now that we know who we are playing and we can start focusing just on them.”

Walz, who has led Louisville to three Sweet 16 appearances and a national run-ner-up fi nish in 2007, said the postseason is all about one thing - winning.

“I told our team that it doesn’t matter if we win ugly or if we win pretty, but we’d better win,” he said.

SELECTION SHOW CROWDMore than 400 season-ticket holders

attended the Selection Show party in the PNC Club at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium on Monday. The players signed autographs, helped paint kid’s faces and posed for pic-tures.

“We defi nitely didn’t expect this big of a turnout for this event, so it is very hum-bling,” senior Becky Burke said to the gath-ering. “Our fans are always great, and to see so many of you here tonight for us is great.... We have the best fans in the coun-try, and it gives us such an advantage over other teams.”

REID WILL RETURNSenior leading scorer and pre-season All-

Big East pick Monique Reid has been side-lined since the eighth game of the season with a knee injury. At the Selection Show party, Walz told the crowd Reid will be back next season along with junior Tia Gibbs, who was sidelined with a shoulder injury.

“We still have to fi le a waiver with the NCAA, but there shouldn’t be any glitches with that,” Walz said. “We fully expect to have both of them back here next season. Mo would have another season to play,

and Tia will have two.”So why the delay on the paperwork?

Walz said it isn’t a delay at all. “You have to wait until the completion

of the season,” he said. “Once the seasonis completed, you can submit the paper-work. You can’t send in the paperwork ear-ly because it could be approved and I couldtry to play her in the NCAA Tournament.They won’t let teams do that, so you haveto wait until after the season to apply.”

Walz also told the crowd he planned to open the 2012-13 home schedule with Tex-as A&M. Louisville loses only senior BeckyBurke to graduation.

LOUISVILLE’S DRAW A CASE OF DOUBLE DÉJÀ VUMore than 400 season-ticket holders helped the Louisville women celebrate Selection Monday at a party at the PNC Club in Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium Monday night. - photo by Howie Lindsey

HOWIE LINDSEYHOWIE LINDSEY

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


SPRING SPORTS SCHEDULES

LACROSSEDATE OPPONENT / EVENT LOCATION TIME / RESULT 02/19/12 at Ohio State Columbus, Ohio L, 21-702/24/12 at Longwood Farmville, Va. W, 19-802/26/12 at Old Dominion Norfolk, Va. L, 14-1203/02/12 vs. DENVER UofL LACROSSE STADIUM Cancelled03/07/12 vs. NORTHWESTERN UofL LACROSSE STADIUM L, 16-703/10/12 vs. Presbyterian Cumming, Ga. W, 20-303/14/12 at Vanderbilt Nashville, Tenn. 4:00 p.m. ET03/17/12 at Jacksonville Jacksonville, Fla. 12:00 p.m. ET03/24/12 at Notre Dame # South Bend, Ind. 1:00 p.m. ET03/27/12 at Cincinnati # Cincinnati, Ohio 5:00 p.m. ET04/05/12 vs. LOYOLA (Md.) # UofL LACROSSE STADIUM 5:00 p.m. ET04/07/12 vs. GEORGETOWN # UofL LACROSSE STADIUM 12:00 p.m. ET04/13/12 at Rutgers # New Brunswick, N.J. 5:00 p.m. ET04/15/12 at Villanova # Philadelphia, Pa. 1:00 p.m. ET04/20/12 vs. SYRACUSE # UofL LACROSSE STADIUM 5:00 p.m. ET04/22/12 vs. CONNECTICUT # UofL LACROSSE STADIUM 1:00 p.m. ET05/03/12 BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP Syracuse, N.Y. TBD

SWIMMING AND DIVINGDATE OPPONENT / EVENT LOCATION TIME / RESULT 01/14/12 at Cincinnati # Cincinnati, Ohio M 2-0, W 2-001/28/12 at Indiana Bloomington, Ind. M 165.5-134.5, W 128-16502/03/12 vs. KENTUCKY Ralph Wright Natatorium M 188-107, W 183-10702/10-12/12 BIG EAST Diving Championship # Pittsburgh, Pa. M 4th, W 1st02/15-18/12 BIG EAST Swimming Championship # Pittsburgh, Pa. M 2nd, W 1st02/24-25/12 Championship Qualifying Meet Knoxville, Tenn. Not scored03/08-10/12 NCAA Diving Zones Auburn, Ala. ---03/09-11/12 Grand Prix - Columbus (LC) Columbus, Ohio Not scored03/15-17/12 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championship, Auburn, Ala. All Day03/22-24/12 NCAA Men’s National Championship Federal Way, Wash. All Day03/29-31/12 Grand Prix - Indianapolis Indianapolis, Ind. All Day05/03-06/12 Grand Prix - Charlotte Charlotte, N.C. All Day06/07-09/12 Mutual of Omaha Swimvitational Omaha, Neb. All Day06/25/12 US Olympic Trials

BASEBALLDATE OPPONENT / EVENT LOCATION TIME / RESULT Big Ten/BIG EAST Challenge02/17/12 vs. Minnesota Clearwater, Fla. L, 7-102/18/12 vs. Illinois St. Petersburg, Fla. W, 4-302/19/12 vs. Michigan State St. Petersburg, Fla. W, 7-602/22/12 vs. EASTERN KENTUCKY JIM PATTERSON STADIUM W, 7-202/24/12 vs. OAKLAND UNIVERSITY JIM PATTERSON STADIUM W, 7-402/25/12 vs. OAKLAND UNIVERSITY JIM PATTERSON STADIUM W, 10-702/26/12 vs. OAKLAND UNIVERSITY JIM PATTERSON STADIUM W, 6-302/28/12 vs. EASTERN ILLINOIS JIM PATTERSON STADIUM L, 3-203/02/12 vs. PEPPERDINE JIM PATTERSON STADIUM postponed03/03/12 vs. PEPPERDINE JIM PATTERSON STADIUM L, 3-2, W, 3-103/04/12 vs. PEPPERDINE JIM PATTERSON STADIUM W, 7-303/06/12 vs. INDIANA JIM PATTERSON STADIUM W, 13-4Alabama Tournament03/09/12 vs. Oral Roberts Tuscaloosa, Ala. W, 7-303/10/12 at Alabama Tuscaloosa, Ala. L, 7-603/11/12 vs. East Carolina Tuscaloosa, Ala. L, 9-403/13/12 vs. OLE MISS JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 6:00 PM ET03/14/12 vs. OLE MISS JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 12:00 PM ET03/16/12 vs. BALL STATE JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 6:00 PM ET03/17/12 vs. BALL STATE JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 1:00 PM ET03/18/12 vs. BALL STATE JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 1:00 PM ET03/20/12 vs. OHIO STATE JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 6:00 PM ET03/23/12 vs. CINCINNATI # JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 6:00 PM ET03/24/12 vs. CINCINNATI # JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 1:00 PM ET03/25/12 vs. CINCINNATI # JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 1:00 PM ET03/27/12 at Purdue West Lafayette, Ind. 4:00 PM ET03/30/12 vs. VILLANOVA # JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 6:00 PM ET03/31/12 vs. VILLANOVA # JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 1:00 PM ET04/01/12 vs. VILLANOVA # JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 1:00 PM ET04/03/12 vs. WESTERN KENTUCKY JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 6:00 PM ET04/05/12 at Georgetown # Bethesda, Md. 3:00 PM ET04/06/12 at Georgetown # Bethesda, Md. 4:00 PM ET04/07/12 at Georgetown # Bethesda, Md. 12:00 PM ET04/10/12 at Kentucky Lexington, Ky. 6:30 PM ET04/13/12 vs. SETON HALL # JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 6:00 PM ET04/14/12 vs. SETON HALL # JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 1:00 PM ET04/15/12 vs. SETON HALL # JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 1:00 PM ET04/17/12 at Indiana Bloomington, Ind. 3:00 PM ET04/20/12 at USF # Tampa, Fla. 7:00 PM ET04/21/12 at USF # Tampa, Fla. 6:00 PM ET04/22/12 at USF # Tampa, Fla. 1:00 PM ET04/24/12 vs. KENTUCKY JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 6:00 PM ET04/27/12 vs. CONNECTICUT # JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 6:00 PM ET04/28/12 vs. CONNECTICUT # JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 1:00 PM ET04/29/12 vs. CONNECTICUT # JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 1:00 PM ET05/01/12 at Western Kentucky Bowling Green, Ky. 7:00 PM ET05/05/12 at West Virginia # Morgantown, W.Va. 2:00 PM ET at West Virginia # Morgantown, W.Va. 5:30 PM ET05/06/12 at West Virginia # Morgantown, W.Va. 1:00 PM ET05/08/12 at Vanderbilt Nashville, Tenn. 7:00 PM ET05/11/12 vs. ST. JOHN’S # JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 6:00 PM ET05/12/12 vs. ST. JOHN’S # JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 1:00 PM ET05/13/12 vs. ST. JOHN’S # JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 1:00 PM ET05/15/12 vs. MOREHEAD STATE JIM PATTERSON STADIUM 6:00 PM ET05/17/12 at Pittsburgh # Pittsburgh, Pa. 6:00 PM ET05/18/12 at Pittsburgh # Pittsburgh, Pa. 6:00 PM ET05/19/12 at Pittsburgh # Pittsburgh, Pa. 1:00 PM ET05/23-27/12 BIG EAST Championship Clearwater, Fla. TBA

SOFTBALLDATE OPPONENT / EVENT LOCATION TIME / RESULT Florida International University Tournament02/10/12 vs. Michigan State Miami, Fla. W, 4-1 vs. Illinois Miami, Fla. W, 8-302/11/12 vs. UAB Miami, Fla. W, 5-4 at Florida International Miami, Fla. W, 4-202/12/12 vs. Massachusetts Miami, Fla. W, 2-0East Carolina University Tournament02/17/12 vs. Virginia Greenville, N.C. W, 2-102/17/12 at East Carolina Greenville, N.C. W, 5-002/18/12 vs. UNC Greensboro Greenville, N.C. W, 5-402/18/12 vs. Hofstra Greenville, N.C. W, 7-6 02/24/12 vs. Creighton ULMER STADIUM W, 8-002/25/12 vs. Creighton (DH) ULMER STADIUM W, 7-0, W, 4-0Tennessee Classic03/02/12 vs. Middle Tennessee State Knoxville, Tenn. W, 10-103/03/12 vs. Memphis Knoxville, Tenn. W, 11-0 03/04/12 vs. Boston University Knoxville, Tenn. W, 2-0

Red and Black Tournament03/10/12 vs. Saint Louis ULMER STADIUM W, 9-0 vs. Michigan ULMER STADIUM W, 2-103/11/12 vs. Saint Louis ULMER STADIUM W, 9-003/12/12 vs. Illinois State ULMER STADIUM W, 8-2 vs. Illinois State ULMER STADIUM W, 8-003/14/12 vs. Western Kentucky Bowling Green, Ky. 5:00 p.m. ETSacramento State Capital Classic03/16/12 vs. Colorado State Sacramento, Calif. 1:00 p.m. ET vs. Princeton Sacramento, Calif. 5:00 p.m. ET03/17/12 vs. Akron Sacramento, Calif. 2:00 p.m. ET at Sacramento State Sacramento, Calif. 6:00 p.m. ET03/24/12 vs. Pittsburgh # ULMER STADIUM 12:00 p.m. ET vs. Pittsburgh # ULMER STADIUM 2:00 p.m. ET03/25/12 vs. Pittsburgh # ULMER STADIUM 12:00 p.m. ET03/28/12 vs. Kentucky Lexington, Ky. 5:30 p.m. ET03/31/12 vs. DePaul # Chicago, Ill. 1:00 p.m. ET vs. DePaul # Chicago, Ill. 3:00 p.m. ET04/01/12 vs. DePaul # Chicago, Ill. 12:00 p.m. ET04/04/12 vs. Kentucky ULMER STADIUM 6:00 p.m. ET04/06/12 vs. Rutgers # ULMER STADIUM 12:00 p.m. ET vs. Rutgers # ULMER STADIUM 2:00 p.m. ET04/07/12 vs. Rutgers # ULMER STADIUM 12:00 p.m. ET04/11/12 vs. Villanova # Villanova, Pa. 11:00 a.m. ET vs. Villanova # Villanova, Pa. 1:00 p.m. ET04/14/12 vs. Longwood ULMER STADIUM 12:00 p.m. ET vs. Longwood ULMER STADIUM 2:00 p.m. ET04/15/12 vs. Longwood ULMER STADIUM 12:00 p.m. ET04/18/12 vs. USF # ULMER STADIUM 2:00 p.m. ET vs. USF # ULMER STADIUM 4:00 p.m. ET04/21/12 vs. Seton Hall # South Orange, N.J. 12:00 p.m. ET vs. Seton Hall # South Orange, N.J. 2:00 p.m. ET04/22/12 vs. Seton Hall # South Orange, N.J. 12:00 p.m. ET04/25/12 vs. Indiana Bloomington, Ind. TBA04/28/12 at Georgetown # ULMER STADIUM 12:00 p.m. ET at Georgetown # ULMER STADIUM 2:00 p.m. ET04/29/12 at Georgetown # ULMER STADIUM 12:00 p.m. ET05/05/12 vs. St. John’s # Jamaica, N.Y. 12:00 p.m. ET vs. St. John’s # Jamaica, N.Y. 2:00 p.m. ET05/06/12 vs. St. John’s # Jamaica, N.Y. 12:00 p.m. ETBIG EAST Championship05/10-12/12 BIG EAST Championship South Bend, Ind. TBA


LOUISVILLE SOFTBALL

By Howie LindseyThe University of Louisville softball team

was 15-0 and steadily rising in the national polls heading into last weekend’s Red and Black Tournament at Ulmer Stadium. But the Cardinals clearly had something to prove in the eyes of the poll voters.

One of only fi ve undefeated teams in the poll, Louisville was rated 17th overall and fourth out of the fi ve unbeatens. The Car-dinals were rated a spot behind 14-5 Baylor and three spots behind 15-5 Michigan.

“I think even in our own minds we wanted to see how we stacked up against some of the other top teams in the nation,” senior pitcher Tori Collins said. “We thought we were going to get to play (9th-ranked) Tennessee last weekend, but the game was canceled.”

Inclement weather and scheduling diffi culties

forced an early March game vs. Tennessee (14-3) to be moved to May, so the Cardinals entered Saturday’s showdown with Michi-gan without a game against a top-25 team among their 15 victories. The Cardinals also were anxious to test themselves against a Michigan team that had beaten Louisville 15 out of their 16 previous meetings.

The Cardinals scored a run in the second and a run in the fourth before Michigan cut the margin to 2-1 in the fi fth. Chelsea Leon-ard then relieved Collins (8-0) to start the sixth inning and worked two scoreless in-nings to secure the 2-1 victory. Collins gave up four hits and Leonard none, and they combined for 10 strikeouts.

“She did a great job today,” coach Sandy Pearsall said of Collins. “She pitched really well, we just noticed they were starting to catch on to her a little bit, so we went with Lenny (Leonard), who is an off-speed pitch-er. She did a great job.”

It certainly was the biggest victory of the season for the Cardinals.

“This team has been playing really well all season long, but we really needed a win to hang our hat on,” Pearsall said. “The win over Michigan is that kind of a win, a win we can hang our hat on. I think we got it done in all phases, pitching, hitting and de-fense. That’s a good team.”

In addition to being Louisville’s fi rst win

over a top-25 team this season, it also was special because of Michigan’s national prominence. The Wolverines have been to the Women’s College World Series nine times and have won the Big Ten title the last four seasons.

“We have had some really good games with Michigan, and we had our chances but we never could seem to get the win,” Pearsall said. “We would boot a ball in the seventh or they’d get a big hit when they needed it. We seemed to shoot ourselves in the foot each time. We just couldn’t quite get them, so it is great to get a win over them. They have a great program.”

Everything seems to be going right for Pearsall’s team. The Cardinals have three solid pitchers in Collins, Leonard and Caral-isa Connell, and they have seven every-day players hitting .300 or better, with three hit-ting .420 or better, led by Kristin Austin’s .492 average. Alicja Wolny is hitting .441 and Taner Fowler is hitting .422.

“I think we have a lot of confi dence right now,” Pearsall said. “We just continue to get things done. Everybody on this team believes they can do something to help us win, and they are. That is our key.”

The Cardinals’ powerhouse batting order was challenged by Michigan freshman Hay-lie Wagner (11-2), who limited Louisville to

fi ve hits and one earned run.“Our hitters had to really battle,” Pearsall

said. “Michigan has a great freshman pitch-er, and I am not sure I want to be facing her for the next three years. She jammed us a lot, and that is because she can throw the curveball and screwball.”

Louisville beat Saint Louis (11-13) on Sat-urday 9-0 and again on Sunday 9-0. The Cards also beat Illinois State 8-2 and 8-0 in a Monday doubleheader, dropping the Red-birds to 13-12. Pearsall didn’t speculate as to what the 20-0 Cardinals will be ranked this week. The new softball Coaches’ Poll came out Tuesday morning after this week’s Louisville SportsReport went to press.

“I never want to think too far ahead,” Pearsall said. “I just want to go game by game. As much as I want to sit back and say we are pretty good, I just can’t. I am always thinking about someone out there better and how to get that next win.”

SOFTBALL FLAT ON SUNDAYAustin was 3 for 3 with a run and fresh-

man Kayla Soles was 2 for 3 with four RBIs as Louisville beat Saint Louis 9-0 in fi ve in-nings Sunday. But Pearsall said the team seemed sluggish.

“I felt like we came out a little fl at to-day,” she said. “We’ve got to be focused and aggressive and come ready to play ev-

ery game and respect everybody we play,because there are a lot of great teams outthere.”

Perhaps it was a hangover from the big win over Michigan or perhaps a case of theSunday blues, but the Cardinals jumped onthe BIllikens for four runs in the bottom ofthe fi rst, then didn’t score again until thefourth inning when fi ve hits and wild pitchhelped them tally fi ve more runs. Leonard(5-0) went the distance, scattering two hitsand striking out fi ve in fi ve innings. The gamewas called because of the mercy rule.

CARDS SWEEP ILLINOIS STATEBecause of a scheduling snafu on the

part of Illinois State, the Redbirds couldn’tplay Louisville on Friday as scheduled, so theteams played a doubleheader on Monday.Louisville recorded a sweep, snapping Illi-nois State’s six-game winning streak.

“The fi rst game wasn’t one of our best in terms of our defense, but we createdenough offense to overcome some mentalerrors and misplays,” Pearsall said. “Thesecond game we came out with a morecomplete effort. I was pleased with the waywe hit the ball and continue to fi nd waysto win.”

In the opener Louisville scored two runs in the bottom of the fi rst and used twodoubles and a three-run homer by HannahKiyohara to score four runs in the third. Up6-0, Louisville allowed a run in the fourthand another in the fi fth before scoring a runin the fi fth and a run in the sixth for the 8-2fi nal margin.

Collins (9-0) got the complete-game vic-tory, surrendering two runs and eight hitsand striking out eight in seven innings. Ki-yohara was 2 for 2 with a home run andthree RBIs, Fowler 2 for 2 with two doublesand two runs, and Austin 2 for 4 with tworuns.

In the nightcap Wolny went 3 for 3 with three RBIs while Leonard and Connell com-bined for Louisville’s 10th shutout as theCards cruised to a 9-0 victory.

Louisville scored a run in the fi rst, fi ve runs in the fourth and two more in the fi fth,when the mercy rule ended play.

Connell (6-0) got the win, giving up just one hit with a strikeout in 2 1/3 innings ofrelief. Leonard surrendered two hits andstruck out six in 2 2/3 innings. Everybodyin the lineup got a hit as the Cards crankedout a season-high 14.

UNDEFEATED CARDS GET A BIG BOOST WITH WIN OVER NO. 14 MICHIGAN

Senior Tori Collins is 9-0 this season after wins over No. 14 Michigan and Illinois State Saturday and Monday respectively. - photo by Howie Lindsey

HOWIE LINDSEYHOWIE LINDSEY


CARDINAL STARSPEYTON SIVA - MEN’S BASKETBALLThe junior point guard from Seattle was stellar during Louisville’s four-game run to the Big East Tournament title last week. Siva averaged 13.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game for the tourney and was named the Most Outstanding Player. “He is breaking through to become the elite player we thought he would be,” coach Rick Pitino said. Siva leads the team with 180 assists and is second with 60 steals. He is averaging 9.1 points per game.

SHONI SCHIMMEL - WOMEN’S BASKETBALLThe women also have an excellent point guard. Schimmel, a 5-10 slasher from Mission, Ore., leads UofL in scoring, assists, minutes and steals. She is averaging 14.3 points and 4.51 assists per game. She hasn’t shot the ball as well as she’d like (30.2 percent) but is second on the team in three-pointers with 71. Schimmel and the 7th-seeded Cardinals will take on 10th-seeded Michigan State in the fi rst round of the NCAA Tournament in College Park, Md., on Saturday.

KRISTIN AUSTIN - SOFTBALLThe senior outfi elder from Hartsburg, Mo., has been outstanding this season. She has started all 20 games and leads the Cards in hits (31), triples (six) and batting average (.492). She has taken fi ve walks and has a remarkable .529 on-base percentage. She has yet to hit a home run this season but has eight RBIs and three doubles. Last season she started 53 of 57 games in center or right fi eld and was second on the team in stolen bases with 15. She is 4 for 5 on stolen bases so far this season.

CHELSEA LEONARD - SOFTBALLThe sophomore from Lexington, N.C., is 5-0 so far this season with 12 appearances in Louisville’s 20 games. Her 0.57 ERA is one of the best in the nation, and she has seven saves. Through 37 innings, Leonard has given up just 16 hits and only two extra base hits, both doubles. She has limited opponents to a .129 batting average and has allowed just three earned runs. The Cardinals’ pitching staff has a combined 1.12 ERA, while their foes have a 5.38 ERA.

KAYLA SOLES - SOFTBALLThe freshman from New Egypt, N.J., was 2 for 3 with four RBIs as No. 16/17 Louisville beat Saint Louis 9-0 Sunday to improve to 18-0 on the season. Soles sat out both games against Illinois State on Monday. She has played in 13 of Louisville’s 20 games this season, starting 12. Her performance Sunday hopefully will break her out of a tough hitting slump. She came into the game hitting just .178 (5 of 28). Soles has a homer and fi ve RBIs on the season and is now hitting .226. She has two cousins playing college softball, Abbey Houston for Rutgers and Shannon Houston for No. 1 Cal.

STEWART IJAMES - BASEBALLThe senior slugger from Owensboro, Ky., is hitting .352 through Louisville’s fi rst 15 games. Ijames leads the team with fi ve home runs and 13 RBIs, and his 38 total bases are 14 ahead of his nearest teammate. His .704 slugging percentage is impressive, and his .453 on-base percentage is, too. He counts four doubles among his 19 hits, and he has scored 14 of Louisville’s 88 runs this season.

JUSTIN DORWARD - MEN’S GOLFThe senior from Port St. Lucie, Fla., won his fi rst collegiate tournament March 6, sharing medalist honors with Arkansas State’s Chris Pledger at the USF Invitational in Tampa. Dorward’s breakthrough victory didn’t come easily, however, as the 7,060-yard, par-72 Lake Jovita golf course was plagued by windy conditions for most of the fi nal round. “Toughest part of the day was just fi nishing,” said Dorward just after concluding his round. “As the day went on the wind got stronger and stronger.” His 2-over-par 74 in the fi nal round tied him for fi rst with a three-round score of 5-under 211. Dorward and the Cardinals will play next Monday at the UCF Invitational in Orlando.

LEONARDLEONARD

DORWARDDORWARD

SCHIMMELSCHIMMEL

AUSTINAUSTIN

SIVASIVA

IJAMESIJAMES

SOLESSOLES

HOWIE LINDSEY’SHOWIE LINDSEY’S

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LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT’S CARDINAL KIDS

Seva Dumstorf, age 4, enjoyed a football game, pictured with

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Daniel from Louisville cheered on the Cards at the Pittsburgh game!

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March 15, 2012 Edition: Big East Champs!

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