december 2, 2010 issue

VOLUME XV • NUMBER 16DECEMBER 2, 2010

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LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT DECEMBER 2, 2010

DECEMBER 2, 2010 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 3

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

GENERAL MANAGER - Jack Coffee

SENIOR WRITER AND EDITOR - Russ Brown

OPERATIONS MANAGER - Howie Lindsey

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES - Mickey Clark, Betty Olsen and Blanche Kitchen

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

Howie Lindsey and Chuck Feist

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNISTS - Matt Willinger, Jeff Wafford,

Jason Puckett and Rick Cushing

DESIGNER - Scott Stortz

COPY EDITOR - Rick Cushing

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7 BILAL GOING BOWLINGSenior Bilal Powell rushed for 123 yards on 23 carries

and had three total touchdowns (one rushing, two receiving) during Louisville’s bowl-clinching 40-13 win

over Rutgers in Piscataway, N.J., Friday. Louisville’s bowl destination depends on games this weekend.

Senior Doug Beaumont (27) and sophomore Shenard Holton and their

teammates high-fi ved fans who made the trip from Louisville to Piscataway, N.J., for

Friday’s 40-13 win. - photo by Dave Klotz

W H A T ’ S I N S I D E

4 VOLLEYCARDS WILL OPEN NCAA TOURNEY WITH PESKY MTSU By Howie Lindsey5 JURICH WORKING TO SECURE A BOWL FOR CARDS By Howie Lindsey6 GAME STATS - SYRACUSE, LOUISVILLE DEPTH CHART7 LOUISVILLE EXCELS IN MUST-WIN SITUATION AT RUTGERS By Howie Lindsey8 FOOTBALL TEAM’S TURNAROUND UNDER STRONG RIVALS THAT

OF JOHN L. SMITH IN 1998 By Jack Coffee9 TCU’S MOVE TO BIG EAST GREETED WITH WIDE APPROVAL By Russ Brown10 PHOTO GALLERY LOUISVILLE VS. RUTGERS11 UNBEATEN CARDS ARE ENJOYING THEIR BALANCING ACT By Russ Brown12 THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY By Howie Lindsey & Russ Brown

13 UOFL WOMEN WELCOME NO. 8 KENTUCKY TO YUM! CENTER By Howie Lindsey17 RECRUITING: FIVE-STAR JUNIOR GUARD VISITS LOUISVILLE By Jeff Wafford18 MARSHALL GIVES UOFL A PREVIEW OF BIG EAST By Russ Brown19 MEN’S AND WOMEN’S BASKETBALL SCHEDULES20 SOCCER: CARDS ADVANCE TO ELITE EIGHT WITH WIN By Howie Lindsey21 MEN’S SOCCER: 2010 NCAA TOURNAMENT BRACKET22 TOP TOM LANE23 UCONN MAY BE AMONG BIG EAST’S ELITE ONCE AGAIN By Russ Brown24-25 BIG EAST NOTEBOOK: UCONN AIMING FOR BCS, BUT PLAYERS

UNDER GAG ORDER By Howie Lindsey26 CARDINAL STARS OF THE WEEK By Howie Lindsey

FEATURES AND CONTENT:

11 BALANCED SCORING BEST?Sophomore point guard Peyton Siva and the

Cardinals have been spreading the wealth when it comes to scoring so far this season. UofL has five

players averaging between 12.1 and 11.0 points per game through the first four games of the season.

20, 21 ONE WIN AWAYLouisville men’s soccer coach Ken Lolla and the

top-seeded Cardinals are just one win away from the NCAA College Cup Final Four . After beating No. 16 Ohio State Sunday night, the Cardinals face No. 8

UCLA Saturday night at Cardinal Park.

By Howie LindseyHaving lost to Middle Tennessee in the

fi rst round of the NCAA Tournament in two of the past four years, Louisville wasn’t ex-actly thrilled to learn its fi rst-round oppo-nent when the 2010 NCAA brackets were announced Sunday night. That opponent -- Middle Tennessee -- likely brought a mix-ture of groans from the UofL coaches and many fans. MTSU, the Sun Belt champion this season, and the Cardinals, the Big East champions, will square off Friday at 5 p.m. in West Lafayette, Ind.

“Middle Tennessee plays a different style than we do; however, it is similar to the style that many Big East opponents play,” UofL coach Leonid Yelin said. “We are fa-miliar with every team in our bracket, draw-ing MTSU in three of the last fi ve NCAAs.”

It’s easy to think the Cardinals (22-7) will be looking for revenge on the Blue Raid-ers (29-5). MTSU upset Louisville in the fi rst round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament the last time the teams met, taking the fi ve-set decision 30-28, 18-30, 30-23, 27-30, 15-12. Middle Tennessee also defeated Louisville in the fi rst round in 2006. But the revenge angle might not be as strong as one might expect because senior Lindsey Mango is the only Cardinal to have faced MTSU (UofL’s

other senior, Amanda Simmons, transferred in from Hawaii in 2009).

Louisville is even in the series with Mid-dle Tennessee at 3-3. This year’s Cardinals are making the program’s 21st NCAA ap-pearance, and they are looking to notch the program’s fi rst tournament win since a 2005 run to the Sweet 16.

Purdue (21-10) and Kentucky (17-13) face off in the other fi rst-round match in West Lafayette. The winners of the fi rst-round matches will face off on Saturday at

7 p.m., with the winner advancing to re-gional competition in Austin, Texas, on Dec. 10-11.

“We have already played Purdue and Kentucky early in the season, which means our young team, which sometimes has three freshmen on the court at once, will not have to face the unknown,” Yelin said.

The NCAA announced the 64-team bracket Sunday, awarding the top four seeds to No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Nebraska, No. 3 Stanford and No. 4 Penn State. Louisville,

one of 31 automatic qualifi ers, was sent tothe Purdue Regional.

“I also like that our bracket has strong teams but does not necessarily have a pro-hibitive favorite,” said Yelin. “It makes forwide-open play when everyone feels thatthey have a chance.”

Louisville is led by its blocking attack, which ranks sixth nationally through Nov.27. Amanda Simmons ranks 16th nationallyand fi rst in the Big East with 1.35 blocksper set. Teammate Gwen Rucker ranks rightbehind her with 1.22 blocks per set, goodfor second in the Big East.

Offensively, Louisville is led by All-Big East fi rst-teamer Lola Arslanbekova, whohas recorded 421 kills on the season andhas posted eight double-doubles. FreshmanEmily Juhl has 290 kills and was named theMVP of the Big East Tournament. FreshmanLibero Caitlin Welch leads the defense with3.85 digs per set.

MTSU ranks 10th in the nation with a .290 hitting percentage. Lindsey Cheathampaces the Blue Raiders with a .390 hittingpercentage, while Izabela Kozon checks inwith a .293 hitting percentage and 4.05kills per set, good for 33rd nationally. Ko-zon also averages 4.49 points per set.

PAGE 4 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT DECEMBER 2, 2010

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

VOLLEYCARDS WILL OPEN NCAA TOURNEY WITH PESKY MTSU

Volleyball coach Leonid Yelin said he’s pleased that UofL’s bracket in the NCAA Tournament “has strong teams but does not necessarily have a prohibitive favorite. It makes for wide-open play when everyone feels

that they have a chance.” - photo by Shelley Feller

By Howie LindseyAfter the Louisville football team fi nished

celebrating in the locker room after Friday’s 40-13 victory at Rutgers, Louisville vice president for athletics Tom Jurich stepped in to congratulate the players and coaches on gaining bowl eligibility. A few minutes later, he went to work to make sure the Cardinals secure the best bowl possible.

“I’m 100 percent sure we will get in one, but I don’t know which one yet,” Jurich told the media after he congratulated the team. “I’ll call the commissioner as soon as we get back.”

Jurich said he’d be calling Big East commis-sioner John Marinatto Saturday (and likely Sun-day and Monday and so on ...) to see what Lou-isville’s best bowl options are. He said it is up to the league and the bowl.

“It is (the commission-er’s call), and it is at the bowl’s discretion, too,”

Jurich explained. “You know, I think after you get to the fi rst 2-3 bowls -- they hand-pick those -- but after that, they just try to get a good fi t.”

UofL could be a good fi t at a number of bowls. The Cards (6-6, 3-4) have one of the best traveling fan bases in the league, sec-ond only to West Virginia. The Cardinals’ base is also enthused about making a bowl - any bowl - which is not the same attitude that programs such as Pitt and WVU have. Both are likely disappointed in their team’s performance this season.

Jurich’s assurance that the Cardinals will go bowling this season is important. The last time the Cardinals were bowl eligible, in 2007 at 6-6, they gained bowl eligibility so late that all of the Big East bowl bids had been exhausted and they got shut out of the post-season. That doesn’t appear likely this season.

There are currently 70 bowl eligible teams for 70 bowl spots. There are fi ve teams that could conceivably become bowl eligible this weekend, but four out of fi ve of those are underdogs in their fi nal matchup.

The Big East appears likely to fi ll all six of its bowl slots, which could leave the Cardinals out in the cold, but UofL should pick up one of the other bowls available because other major conferences can’t fi ll their slots.

It is a complicated process, but one that Jurich knows well. Much of what happens with Louisville depends on what happens this weekend.

The league also took a signifi cant hit to its bowl lineup Saturday when Notre Dame (7-5) beat USC for its seventh win of the season. That meant the Irish could snag the Big East’s second-best bowl, the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Fla. But there is a feeling among the Irish faithful that Notre Dame will choose to take a Pac-10 bowl slot this time around. That is only because they can only nab the Champs Sports Bowl bid once every four years by agreement.

Connecticut (7-4, 4-2) has won four games in a row after losing to Louisville 26-0. With a win over South Florida (7-4, 3-3) this weekend, the Huskies would automati-cally nab the Big East’s BCS bowl slot. If the Huskies lose, they’ll likely be headed to the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, N.C., because the Champs Sports Bowl probably will take the Irish.

If West Virginia (8-3, 4-2) takes care of

business against Rutgers (4-7, 1-5) this weekend, the Mountaineers could either be going to the BCS (if UConn loses to USF) or to the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

If Pittsburgh (6-5, 4-2) beats Cincinnati (4-7, 2-4) as expected Saturday, the Pan-thers would likely head to either the BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham or the Beef O’ Brady’s Bowl in St. Petersburg, Fla. South Florida will get the bowl that doesn’t take Pitt, assuming the reeling Panthers beat UC, which is by no means a certainty.

Syracuse (7-5, 4-3) appears to be a lock to head to the New Era Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium in New York City. Rutgers and Cincinnati are already eliminated from bowl eligibility.

Among the Big East bowl slots that are still a possibility, the Cards could be headed to the Beef O’ Brady’s Bowl or to the BBVA Compass Bowl. Because the bowls get their picks, they don’t necessarily have to follow the league standings. Pitt would be 7-5 if it beats Cincinnati, so all the Big East slots would be fi lled. That means Louisville would be on the free market. Bowl rules say the

bowls have to pick a 7-5 at-large team over a 6-6 at-large team such as Louisville.

“I hope we go somewhere,” coach Char-lie Strong said. “We’ve been telling them that we need to win one more and get to 6-6 to get to a bowl. So I hope we get somewhere.”

Where isn’t determined yet. After the game Friday, Strong said he didn’t have a sense of where Louisville could end up.

“No sense at all,” he said. “I don’t know how many tie-ins we have within the con-ference and where those will go. Rutgers could have been one of those, but they are knocked out of it now. Cincinnati had to win out, so you fi gure we can go somewhere.”

Jurich said he doesn’t know which bowl is most likely yet either, but that he will be negotiating and fi guring out the details over the next few hours and days.

“It’ll likely come down to Saturday night,” Jurich said. “There are several games as late as Saturday night that could still shake up the bowls for the Big East. We should know late that night where we are headed, though.”

Other possibilities include the Little Cae-

sar’s Bowl on Dec. 26 in Detroit vs. a MACteam or the Sun Bowl in El Paso on Dec. 31against an ACC team. Both of those bowlsappear to be open because other confer-ences - Big Ten (Little Caesar’s Bowl) andPac-10 (Sun Bowl) - didn’t fi ll their slots.

“I think there is enough for everybody to land in a spot, but there is really no way topredict that at all,” Jurich said.

Another possibility would be if Notre Dame chose not to exercise its spot in theChamps Sports Bowl this season. Given thelow number of bowl eligible teams in somemajor conferences, the Irish could chooseto hold onto that Champs Sports spot forsometime in the next four years (remember:it can only be used once every four years).The Irish fi gure to be more likely than everto pick off a Pac-10 bowl this season so theycould save the Champs Sports spot for ayear in the future and the Big East wouldhave an extra bid to work Louisville into themix.

On Monday, Jurich also mentioned that he was trying to avoid the Dec. 31 bowlgames if possible due to a confl ict with theLouisville-Kentucky basketball game.

“The bowl wants us to travel, and our fans have done such a phenomenal job overthe years of travelling - in fact, that is oneour great staples, and we want to make surewe keep that as a top asset,” Jurich said,explaining that a bowl on Dec. 31 (eitherMeineke or Sun) would understand Louis-ville predicament and try to work somethingout to pick a different team or trade pickswith another bowl.

Regardless of which bowl the Cardinals end up in, Jurich can rest assured that hisnew coach has done a remarkable job tak-ing a team picked to fi nish last in the leagueand turning it into a bowl team.

“Unbelievable. This coaching staff just did a fantastic, fantastic job,” Jurich said.“I thought 5-7 would be great with thisteam. I really did. And now we’re 6-6, and Ithought we left a couple on the table, too.It is great to see these kids play so well. He isa phenomenal coach and, I tell ya, we can’toverstate how great that staff is. This wholecoaching staff is great.”

Strong and his hand-picked cast of coach-es brought a new mentality to the team im-mediately. They didn’t focus on the past, thefrustrating term of Steve Kragthorpe from2007-2009, but they focused on a new fu-ture that included winning and bowls.

The post-game locker room scene on Friday was starkly different from the lasttime the Cardinals were at Rutgers. Walk-ing into the locker room after that 2008debacle (a 63-14 defeat), the team wassolemn, the coaching staff was frustratedand overwhelmed and the atmosphere wascombative. But last Friday the players andcoaches were hugging and jubilant, and Ju-rich couldn’t help but note the differences.

“I think we remember two years ago when they got it rubbed into them prettygood,” he said. “I think that (Strong andhis staff) had a great game plan, all of thecoaches were terrifi c before this game. Theyall felt really confi dent, and that was great.We had a great game plan, and they execut-ed it perfectly. It couldn’t happen to a betterguy (Strong), it really couldn’t.”

To see the 25 seniors celebrating and screaming about a bowl game, Jurich lookedrelieved and happy.

“Oh, it’s fun. It’s fun,” he said. “It’s been a long three years, and this is just great.Great.”


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

Blayne Donnell, left, and William Savoy made the fi rst run at dousing coach Charlie Strong with Gatorade in the closing moments at Rutgers. They

scored only a glancing blow, but Rodney Gnat hit Strong full force from behind with a bucket of Gatorade moments later.- photo by Dave Klotz

JURICH WORKING TO SECURE A BOWL FOR CARDS

HOWIE LINDSEYHOWIE LINDSEY

BCS (ORANGE OR FIESTA) JAN. 1 OR 3, 2011:

CONNECTICUT VS. BCS.

MEINEKE CAR CARE CHARLOTTE - DEC. 31: WEST VIRGINIA VS. ACC

BBVA COMPASSBIRMINGHAM, JAN. 8, 2011:

SOUTH FLORIDA VS. SEC

NEW ERA PINSTRIPEYANKEE STADIUM - DEC. 30:

SYRACUSE VS.ACC

BEEF O’BRADY’SST. PETERSBURG - DEC. 21:

PITTSBURGH OR PITT VS. C-USA

SUN BOWL (AT-LARGE)EL PASO- DEC. 31:

LOUISVILLE OR PITT VS. ACC

PROJECTED BIG EAST BOWL MATCHUPS


UofL VS. RUTGERS GAME STATS

GAME STATSLOUSVILLE (6-6,3-4) vs. RUTGERS (4-7,1-5)Date: Nov 26, 2010 Site: Piscataway, N.J. Stadium: Rutgers Stadium • Attendance: 37,422

SCORE BY QUARTERS 1 2 3 4 SCORELouisville Cardinals 14 14 6 6 40Rutgers Scarlet Knights 0 7 6 0 13

SCORING SUMMARY:1ST 10:48 LOU - POWELL, BILAL 17 YD PASS FROM BURKE, JUSTIN (PHILPOTT, CHRIS KICK) 8 PLAYS, 75 YARDS, TOP 3:28, LOU 7 - RUTGERS 0 06:00 LOU - POWELL, BILAL 11 YD PASS FROM BURKE, JUSTIN (PHILPOTT, CHRIS KICK) 6 PLAYS, 64 YARDS, TOP 3:00, LOU 14 - RUTGERS 02ND 13:58 LOU - POWELL, BILAL 11 YD RUN (PHILPOTT, CHRIS KICK) 8 PLAYS, 75 YARDS, TOP 4:06, LOU 21 - RUTGERS 0 08:20 LOU - GRAHAM, CAMERON 1 YD PASS FROM STEIN, WILL (PHILPOTT, CHRIS KICK) 9 PLAYS, 69 YARDS, TOP 3:10, LOU 28 - RUTGERS 0 03:08 RUTGERS - THOMAS, JORDAN 17 YD RUN (TE, SAN SAN KICK) 10 PLAYS, 74 YARDS, TOP 5:06, LOU 28 - RUTGERS 73RD 06:27 LOU - WRIGHT, JEREMY 64 YD RUN (PHILPOTT, CHRIS KICK FAILED) 4 PLAYS, 88 YARDS, TOP 1:51, LOU 34 - RUTGERS 7 02:30 RUTGERS - DEERING, JEREMY 1 YD RUN (DODD, CHAS RUSH FAILED) 9 PLAYS, 69 YARDS, TOP 3:51, LOU 34 - RUTGERS 134TH 03:36 LOU - PATRICK, JOHNNY 35 YD INTERCEPTION RE-TURN (PHILPOTT, CHRIS KICK BLOCKED) LOU 40 - RUTGERS 13

KICKOFF TIME: 11:03 END OF GAME: 2:15 TOTAL ELAPSED TIME: 3:12 OFFICIALS: REFEREE: J. MCDAID; UMPIRE: J. AK-ERS; LINESMAN: J. STABILE; LINE JUDGE: H. CAMPBELL; BACK JUDGE: J. DOWNEY; FIELD JUDGE: F. KINDRED; SIDE JUDGE: B. WILLIAMS; SCORER: RUTGERS; TEMPERATURE: 52 F WIND: NW 13MPH WEATHER: OVERCAST

TEAM STATS LOU RUTGERSFIRST DOWNS................... 21 23 Rushing..................... 8 11 Passing..................... 12 10 Penalty..................... 1 2NET YARDS RUSHING............. 217 149 Rushing Attempts............ 31 43 Average Per Rush............ 7.0 3.5 Rushing Touchdowns.......... 2 2 Yards Gained Rushing........ 224 206 Yards Lost Rushing.......... 7 57NET YARDS PASSING............. 210 181 Completions-Attempts-Int.... 18-25-0 15-34-2 Average Per Attempt......... 8.4 5.3 Average Per Completion...... 11.7 12.1 Passing Touchdowns.......... 3 0TOTAL OFFENSE YARDS........... 427 330 Total offense plays......... 56 77 Average Gain Per Play....... 7.6 4.3Fumbles: Number-Lost.......... 1-0 1-0Penalties: Number-Yards....... 8-75 5-44PUNTS-YARDS................... 5-184 5-188 Average Yards Per Punt...... 36.8 37.6 Net Yards Per Punt.......... 33.8 35.2 Inside 20................... 3 0 50+ Yards................... 0 2 Touchbacks.................. 0 0 Fair catch.................. 1 0KICKOFFS-YARDS................ 7-454 3-189 Average Yards Per Kickoff... 64.9 63.0 Net Yards Per Kickoff....... 45.9 27.3 Touchbacks.................. 1 0Punt returns: Number-Yards-TD. 1-12-0 2-15-0 Average Per Return.......... 12.0 7.5Kickoff returns: Number-Yds-TD 3-107-0 6-113-0 Average Per Return.......... 35.7 18.8Interceptions: Number-Yds-TD.. 2-35-1 0-0-0

Fumble Returns: Number-Yds-TD. 0-0-0 0-0-0Miscellaneous Yards........... 0 0Possession Time............... 28:26 31:34 1st Quarter................. 9:32 5:28 2nd Quarter................. 6:15 8:45 3rd Quarter................. 7:09 7:51 4th Quarter................. 5:30 9:30Third-Down Conversions........ 6 of 11 7 of 15Fourth-Down Conversions....... 0 of 0 0 of 1Red-Zone Scores-Chances....... 4-4 2-4 Touchdowns.................. 4-4 2-4 Field goals................. 0-4 0-4Sacks By: Number-Yards........ 9-55 0-0PAT Kicks..................... 4-6 1-1Field Goals................... 0-0 0-0

INDIVIDUAL STATSRushing No Gain Loss Net TD Lg AvgPOWELL, Bilal 23 129 6 123 1 15 5.3WRIGHT, Jeremy 3 66 1 65 1 64 21.7STEIN, Will 2 22 0 22 0 15 11.0DONNELL, Blayne 2 7 0 7 0 5 3.5ANDERSON, Vic 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.0Totals... 31 224 7 217 2 64 7.0

Passing Att-Cmp-Int Yds TD Long SackSTEIN, Will 9-14-0 72 1 29 0BURKE, Justin 9-11-0 138 2 25 0Totals... 18-25-0 210 3 29 0

Receiving No. Yds TD LongSMITH, Andrell 4 83 0 29GRAHAM, Cameron 4 42 1 16COPELAND, D. 3 33 0 25POWELL, Bilal 2 28 2 17CHICHESTER, J. 2 19 0 11BELLAMY, Josh 1 5 0 5DONNELL, Blayne 1 4 0 4WRIGHT, Jeremy 1 -4 0 0Totals... 18 210 3 29

Punting No. Yds Avg Long In20 TBPHILPOTT, Chris 5 184 36.8 49 3 0Totals... 5 184 36.8 49 3 0

Punts Kickoffs InterceptAll Returns No.Yds.Lg No.Yds.Lg No.Yds.LgWRIGHT, Jeremy 0 0 0 1 46 46 0 0 0PATRICK, Johnny 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 35 35BEAUMONT, Doug 1 12 12 0 0 0 0 0 0ANDERSON, Vic 0 0 0 2 61 41 0 0 0Totals... 1 12 12 3 107 46 2 35 35

DEFENSIVE STATSNo. Player Solo Ast Tot 36 HOLTON, Shenard 6 2 8 90 TATUM, Malcolm 3 4 7 29 SMITH, Hakeem 4 2 6 33 EVANS, Mike 4 1 5 97 HIGH, Tim 2 3 5 24 BROWN, Daniel 4 . 4 42 BURNS, Bobby 4 . 4 5 HEATH, Brandon 3 1 4 46 HEYMAN, Dexter 1 3 4 23 SIMIEN, Terence 2 1 3 19 PATRICK, Johnny 2 . 2 6 SCRUGGS, Greg 2 . 2 2 BROWN, Preston 1 1 2 92 DUNN, Brandon 1 1 2 91 SAVOY, William 1 1 2 58 GNAT, Rodney 1 . 1 66 KUPPER, Alex 1 . 1 1 BELLAMY, Josh 1 . 1 25 CURTLEY, Malik 1 . 1 89 RADCLIFF, Scott 1 . 1 34 DURANT, George 1 . 1 27 BEAUMONT, Doug . 1 1 95 SALMON, Randy . 1 1 44 BUTLER, B.J. . 1 1 10 BROWN, D. . 1 1

OFFENSEQUARTERBACK9 ADAM FROMAN (INJ.) 6-4 218 SR.13 JUSTIN BURKE 6-3 226 SR.RUNNING BACK15 BILAL POWELL 6-0 204 SR.20 VICTOR ANDERSON 5-10 186 JR.28 JEREMY WRIGHT 5-11 193 R-FR.X-WIDE RECEIVER1 JOSH BELLAMY 6-0 205 JR.11 JOSH CHICHESTER 6-9 240 JR.H-WIDE RECEIVER27 DOUG BEAUMONT 5-9 186 SR.89 SCOTT RADCLIFF 5-9 180 SO.Z-WIDE RECEIVER14 ANDRELL SMITH 6-4 212 SO.88 JARRETT DAVIS 5-10 164 FR.TIGHT END83 CAMERON GRAHAM 6-4 242 SR.82 PETE NOCHTA 6-6 245 SR.85 NATE NORD 6-5 233 SO.LEFT TACKLE78 BYRON STINGILY 6-5 300 SR.73 HECTOR HERNANDEZ 6-5 279 JR.LEFT GUARD79 MARK WETTERER 6-5 398 SR.70 CONRAD THOMAS 6-6 325 SR.68 KAMRAN JOYER 6-3 301 R-FR.CENTER55 MARIO BENAVIDES 6-4 295 SO.66 ALEX KUPPER 6-3 289 SO.RIGHT GUARD65 JOSH BYROM 6-5 305 SR.69 JOHN CLARK 6-2 292 JR.RIGHT TACKLE76 GREG TOMCZYK 6-6 287 SR.74 JEFF ADAMS 6-8 295 SR.

DEFENSEFOX END91 WILLIAM SAVOY 6-1 245 JR.44 B.J. BUTLER 6-2 264 FR. 47 MALCOLM MITCHELL 6-2 235 R-FR.DEFENSIVE TACKLE6 GREG SCRUGGS 6-4 273 JR.92 BRANDON DUNN 6-3 282 FR.NOSE TACKLE97 TIM HIGH 6-2 298 SR.93 ROY PHILON 6-3 277 R-FR.95 RANDY SALMON 6-3 291 SO

DEFENSIVE END58 RODNEY GNAT 6-3 255 SR. 90 MALCOLM TATUM 6-3 260 SR.SAM LINEBACKER24 DANIEL BROWN 6-1 215 SO. 39 JACOB GEFFRAD 6-3 201 R-FR.MIKE LINEBACKER46 DEXTER HEYMAN 6-3 238 JR. 2 PRESTON BROWN 6-2 249 FR.52 ANTWONE CANADY 6-0 244 SR.WEAKSIDE LINEBACKER5 BRANDON HEATH 6-1 220 SR.41 EUGENE SOWELL 6-0 208 SR.CORNERBACK42 BOBBY BURNS 5-11 180 SR.8 DARIUS ASHLEY 5-8 186 SO.STRONG SAFETY29 HAKEEM SMITH 6-1 175 R-FR. 23 TERENCE SIMIEN 6-3 207 JR.FREE SAFETY36 SHENARD HOLTON 6-1 190 SO. 33 MIKE EVANS 5-10 180 JR.CORNERBACK19 JOHNNY PATRICK 6-0 186 SR.31 CHAMP LEE 6-0 198 R-FR.26 ZED EVANS 5-11 173 R-FR.

SPECIAL TEAMSPUNT RETURN27 DOUG BEAUMONT 5-9, 187, SR., 3V 1 JOSH BELLAMY 6-0, 205, JR., JC89 SCOTT RADCLIFF 5-10, 183, SO., 1VKICK RETURN 28 JEREMY WRIGHT 5-11 193 R-FR. 1 JOSH BELLAMY 6-0, 205, JR., JC45 BLAYNE DONNELL 5-9, 190, SR. 3VHOLDER 4 WILL STEIN 5-10, 185, SO., 1VPUNTER 12 CHRIS PHILPOTT 6-0, 191, JR., 2V 40 JOSH BLESER 6-1, 201, JR., TR 35 ANDREW FLETCHER 5-8, 162, FR., HSKICKER12 CHRIS PHILPOTT 6-0, 191, JR., 2V35 ANDREW FLETCHER 5-8, 162, FR., HSLONG SNAPPER60 DANIEL WEEDMAN 5-11, 243, SR., 3V65 JOSH BYROM 6-5, 305, SR., 3V

2010 DEPTH CHART

Rodney Gnat and Josh Bellamy exchanged hugs with UofL fans who made the trip to

Piscataway, N.J., after the Cards routed host Rutgers 40-13 Friday to become

bowl eligible. - photo by Dave Klotz


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

By Howie LIndseyIt was all on the line. The season. A bowl

trip. The legacy of 25 seniors. All of it. After losing two home games when they could have gained bowl eligibility, the Cardinals entered Friday’s game at Rutgers 5-6 with their post-season hopes hanging in the balance.

The Cardinals were faced with a road game against an opponent that beat them 34-14 last year and 63-14 the year before. They were coming off back-to-back losses at home, and the team had already met and exceeded most people’s expectations for its rebuilding year un-der a new coach. The Cards easily could have folded.

But 5-7 was not how new coach Charlie Strong wanted the season to end.

“On our football team, we talk about resiliency,” Strong said. “You talk about commitment. You talk about attitude. You talk about sacrifi ce and being a disciplined team. Today we showed that. It was so important for us to go out today and play

well. We had one game, and we wanted to get to a bowl game. You have a group of se-niors that have shown so much leadership in this program. It was so important to us to go to a bowl game.”

And that’s just what Louisville did. Backed into a corner, the Cardinals came out swinging. UofL (6-6) pounded the Scarlet Knights (4-7) early, scoring four straight touchdowns to start the game and rolled to a 40-13 victory.

Louisville forced a punt on Rutgers’ fi rst two possessions and capitalized on both. On their fi rst possession the Cardinals marched 75 yards to a Bilal Powell touchdown on a 17-yard shovel pass from Justin Burke. Powell caught it behind the line of scrimmage, broke a tackle at the 14 and then scampered into the end zone.

Just four minutes later the Cards scored an-other TD, this time a 13-yard pass from Burke to Powell. The UofL drive (six plays, 64 yards in 2:43) was fast and effi cient. Burke ended the drive 7 of 8 for 118 yards.

The scoring didn’t stop there, and neither did the defense. UofL was clicking on all cyl-inders.

“(I knew at) the start of the game,” senior cornerback Johnny Patrick said. “The whole team was focused. We had one goal in mind – to get to a bowl game. The coaching staff knew what was coming and had us prepared.”

Louisville opened the second quarter with an 11-yard TD run by Powell to take a 21-0 lead with 13:58 remaining in the half. That run capped an eight-play, 75-yard drive that lasted 4:06.

After another Rutgers’ punt, Louisville took the ball 68 yards in nine plays for another TD, this time on a 1-yard pass from third-string quarterback Will Stein to tight end Cameron Graham. Stein, who notched his fi rst TD pass of the season, was fi lling in for Burke, who went down with back spasms early in the sec-ond quarter, and Burke was fi lling in for Adam Froman, who’s out with a leg injury.

“Just watching Burke manage the offense and take the ball down the fi eld there in the fi rst half was great,” Strong said. “We had four straight drives where we went in and scored, and that was fun to watch. He’s a senior and he’s been a starter before. He’s played very well.”

Rutgers fi nally got off the mat to score a touchdown with 3:08 to go before the half on

a 17-yard run by Jordan Thomas. Thomas’ fi rst TD of his career was Rutgers’ longest rush of the fi rst half. For the most part, Louisville’s defense stuffed the Scarlet Knights’ attack. Rutgers had just 78 yards on 19 carries in the half.

Louisville went into halftime with a 28-7 lead and a massive advantage in yardage. UofL had 288 yards of total offense to Rutgers’ 130, and the Cardinals had 16 fi rst downs to the Scarlet Knights’ 7. The second half posed a different challenge. Now the Cardinals were up by three touchdowns, but they had to fi nish the game without Burke and Froman. That meant Stein had to fi nish the game.

“Whenever someone goes down, it’s like it doesn’t affect us at all,” Strong said. “A lot of times my man (Stein) thinks he’s Brett Favre. But I told him, ‘Stein, I just need you to manage the offense. Don’t go out there and try to do anything great. Just go manage the offense.’ It was so fun to watch him go play and com-pete.”

Strong spoke to Stein and the team in the locker room before the Cardinals took the fi eld for the second half. Strong wanted his team to know how important it was to him that they fi nish out the season with a win to get the se-niors to a bowl game.

“He has an unbelievable will to win,” Stein said. “He instills that in us every day - his toughness, his tenacity, his positive attitude. We knew all along the type of team we had. We just had to put it together for four quarters.

Today we did, so we’re really proud.”Louisville was challenged at times in the sec-

ond half. The Cardinals’ fi rst drive of the half wasn’t strong, and Rutgers marched down-fi eld, but UofL got a big interception from Johnny Patrick at its own 12-yard line with 8:18 left in the third quarter. Patrick’s intercep-tion took the momentum swing away from the Scarlet Knights, and Louisville quickly pushed the game further out of reach on a 64-yard run TD run by Jeremy Wright to make it 34-7 (Chris Philpott’s extra point was blown left by the whipping wind and clanked into the up-right) with 6:27 left in the third quarter. Rut-gers answered with a scoring drive of its own, but the Scarlet Knights’ two-point conversion failed. Louisville added a late TD on a pick-six by Patrick. It was the senior cornerback’s sec-ond interception of the game, and he returned it 35 yards for a TD.

Louisville players were already celebrating before Patrick’s interception, but his pick-six sent the entire sideline into a frenzy. Immedi-ately players began scheming for ways to get Strong wet with the large Gatorade buckets kept behind the bench. The joy on Louisville’s bench wasn’t just the thrill of one win over Rut-gers, but rather the termination of three futile years under Steve Kragthorpe and payback for the whippings Rutgers put on the Cardinals the previous two seasons.

“Last time we were here, we left and it wasn’t a good situation,” senior guard Mark

Wetterer said. “From where we were then towhere we are now, it’s totally different. Fromday-to-day, to the staff, to the team – everyonehas a different attitude. It’s a really good feel-ing.”

Among the hundreds of other examples of a program changing its stripes from a losingprogram into a winner, perhaps there is nonebetter than Friday’s 40-13 win over Rutgers.

“I said, ‘I want you guys to leave a landmark. I want you guys to etch your name and we’regoing to put it in a stone so that when youdo come back, you’re more than welcome,’”Strong said after Friday’s win. “I was just sohappy to see that happen today – to see stepstaken in this program. We haven’t been to abowl game in so long, just to get to .500, we’reso proud of the guys.”

The celebration in Louisville’s locker room could be heard down the hall and around thecorner.

“It feels really good,” Patrick said. “We have a great coaching staff. They changed our focusand our attitude. They changed everything andgot us to a bowl game. It’s tremendous.”

Said Stein: “I don’t think I’ve celebrated like that since back at Trinity with the state cham-pionship. That’s what it felt like in the lockerroom. It was awesome, a lot of fun.”

THE GATORADE BATHIn the closing moments, the Louisville play-

ers doused Strong with Gatorade from twodifferent directions. For the Cardinals, the winlikely means the program’s fi rst bowl gamesince 2007. In the tunnel outside the team’slocker room, UofL athletic director Tom Jurichsaid he fully expects Louisville to go bowlingnow that it is eligible.

“I told the guys I already had a shower to-day, I didn’t need another one,” Strong said.

But Strong got caught by two different buckets. The fi rst was an attack from the leftside. That attack was just a set-up for the realbucket, which came from behind a few mo-ments later, carried by Rodney Gnat.

“Aw, man,” Strong said. “One got me from this side, and then I turned around and anothergot me from the other side. The fi rst one wasn’tbad, but then Rodney Gnat got me fl ush.”

O-LINE COMES UP BIGLouisville racked up 427 yards of total of-

fense and 40 points against the Scarlet Knights.And with 123 rushing yards and a touchdown,Powell tied the UofL school record with his sev-enth 100-yard game of the season. Walter Pea-cock (1973) and Frank Moreau (1999) also hadseven 100-yard games in a season.

Strong said the offensive line rose to his challenge during the practices just before thefi nal game.

“Our whole offensive line today, I think they took it upon themselves to go win this footballgame,” Strong said. “If you go back and look, Iknow we don’t like to look back, but you lookat that fourth and an inch (against South Flor-ida two games back) and we don’t get that.They took that and acted like that was theirfault. And then last week (against West Vir-ginia) we only ran the ball for 29 yards, and soon Tuesday I went into their team meeting andI told them, ‘The strength of our football teamis in this room. We’re only going to go as thisgroup of guys go.’ I told them, ‘You might aswell make up your mind that we are going toRutgers and we’re going to run the ball.’ Theytook that upon themselves, and we have a lotof older guys and leaders in that room - MarkWetterer, Greg Tomczyk, Josh Byrom, ByronStingily, Jeff Adams, Conrad Thomas.... I meanthat is six seniors right there. It was so impor-tant for them to come out and play well.”

Third-string quarterback Will Stein, who replaced second-stringer Justin Burke

late in the fi rst half with UofL leading 21-0, threw a TD pass and helped lead the

Cards to a 40-13 victory at Rutgers. Coach Charlie Strong said he told Stein: “Don’t go out there and try to do anything great. Just

go manage the offense.” Stein fi nished 9 of 14 for 72 yards and a TD, and he ran twice for 22 yards.- photo by Dave Klotz

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I don’t know what others think, but in my mind UofL’s 6-6 record this football season is the most impressive turnaround since John L. Smith went 7-5 in his fi rst year as head coach after losing to Kentucky 34-68 in the opening game of the 1998 season and the inaugural game in PJCS. The improvement in the won-loss record is not as spectacular, but the performance of the team rivals that 1998 Cardinals team led by quarterback Chris Redman. Smith coached the players to a 7-5 record after the team was a dismal 1-10 the year before in Ron Cooper’s fi nal season.

Charlie Strong led the Cards to only two more victories in 2010 than the previous season, but in so doing he turned around a team that played with heart and intensity that seemed to be lacking in previous years. After winning only one game in the Big East the previous two seasons, the Cards ended with a conference record of 3-4, which easily could have been 5-2, and earned UofL its fi rst bowl trip in four years and its eighth in the past 11 seasons. Bowl selections are still a week away, but I’m got my fi ngers crossed for a trip to St. Petersburg and the Beef O’Brady’s Bowl. I have so much faith in Tom Jurich and his persuasive powers that I’ve already made my plane reservations.

The fi nal regular-season win over Rutgers (a team that defeated the Cards by a combined 97-28 the previous two years) was a total team victory and highlighted the complete coaching success of the Louisville staff as all segments of the team played well. I feel safe in saying that all phases of the game -- offense, defense and kicking (in spite of two missed extra points) -- came together more completely in the Rutgers game than in any other game this season. Unlike John L.’s team, this year’s Cardinals won with defense. The high-scoring team of ’98 averaged almost 40 points per game, while the 2010 Cards averaged only 26 ppg, even with a 56-0 shellacking of Memphis.

Without doubt the strength of this year’s team was the defense. In 1998 UofL’s opponents averaged 36 points per game, but in 2010 they averaged only 18.7. Except for the 2007 Orange Bowl team, which gave up 16.3 per game, that is the lowest per-game average since 2001, which gave up 17.8. That team included future pros Curry Burns, Dewayne White and Anthony Floyd, and not surprisingly Louisville fi nished No. 11 in the country among Division I schools in total defense and No. 8 in pass defense. That position is the highest that I could fi nd in school history and could be the biggest shock when appraising this 2010 edition of the UofL football team because prior to the season Strong bemoaned the state of his defensive backfi eld and predicted that the secondary would be a problem area for the Cards.

The secondary turnaround is another indication of the competent staff that Strong put to-gether. Credit defensive secondary coach Larry Slade, the only holdover from the previous staff, for a job well-done in turning a questionable position into a team-leading group. Another posi-tion group that entered the season with a lot of question marks was the defensive line, led by coach Clint Hurtt. After losing starters L.D. Scott and L.T. Walker and regulars Tyler Jessen and Joe Townsend, the prospects for a strong defensive line in 2010 looked bleak. But with creativity in both stunts and blitzes, UofL was able to achieve more sacks than any Louisville team since the Orange Bowl squad.

As a matter of fact, this UofL team leads the Big East with 38 sacks. West Virginia is four behind with a game remaining against Rutgers. It is the only team with a chance to catch the Cards in total sacks. Other achievements by the UofL defense were handing UConn its only shutout of the season, a league-leading 12.5-yard punt return average, a shutout of Memphis, holding high-scoring West Virginia to 17 points, and holding opponents to a 34.8 percent third-down conversion rate. The strength of the defense was a surprise after losing seven starters and 14 key contributors off last year’s team.

Although the offense struggled at times during the season, it’s signifi cant that the Cards even scored points. Louisville has not recruited a high school quarterback who stayed on campus since Brian Brohm in 2004. For the past two seasons Louisville played with two transfers and a walk-on calling the plays. The highest completion percentage this year was by third-string walk-on Will Stein at 64.3. The wide receiver ranks were so thin that fi ve were recruited in the 2010 class, with four playing and one being red-shirted because of an injury. Bilal Powell had run for 933 yards the previous three seasons combined and was lightly recruited (remember Dale Martin) but fi nished this season with 1,330 rushing yards and, barring injury that cost him 2½ games, would have been among the top rushers in the country. Louisville’s running game carried the offense, led by a senior offensive line.

The scoring of the offense was unique in that the team scored 143 points in the second quar-ter, 72 in the fi rst and 51 and 46 in the third and fourth respectively. What this team lacked in skill they made-up for in technique, with only seven fumbles lost for the season, the lowest on record for a UofL team. In spite of the quarterback struggles, the team threw just eight intercep-tions, the lowest since the Orange Bowl team had seven. Louisville’s 15 turnovers for a season was also a school record.

If you’ve been involved in athletics, you’ve heard coaches say that hard work and attitude win games. This Louisville team is a poster boy for that well-worn adage.

FOOTBALL TEAM’S TURNAROUND UNDER STRONG RIVALS THAT OF

JOHN L. SMITH IN 1998

COMMENTARY BY JACK COFFEE [email protected]

Coach Charlie Strong reacted with unbridled enthusiasm to a play on the fi eld against Rutgers as senior DE Rodney Gnat looked on.- photo by Dave Klotz


CARDINAL FOOTBALL VS. RUTGERS PHOTO GALLERY

By Russ BrownUniversity of Louisville athletic director

Tom Jurich, along with almost everyone else involved, gave an enthusiastic welcome to TCU after Monday’s announcement that the school will join the Big East Conference in all sports for the 2012-13 season.

It will be a reunion of sorts for UofL and TCU, who were both in Conference USA for several seasons before the Cardinals joined the Big East and the Horned Frogs bolted for the Mountain West.

“I think it’s great for the conference, something the league’s been working on for a long time,” Jurich said. “And to be able to get somebody as successful and has the na-tional reputation that TCU does, not only in football but in all sports, and a highly repu-table university is a great addition.”

Others, including several Big East football coaches, echoed Jurich’s thoughts. Some ex-amples:

UofL football coach Charlie Strong: “It will be great. They can come into our confer-ence and be welcome, and I think would be a huge addition to our conference. If you look at them every year it is a team that is always there with a great record. Their head coach (Gary Patterson) is an outstanding person, plus it is a great university.”

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt: “Obviously, they have an outstanding program. A lot of my coaches know guys down there, and they say they have great facilities. They also have a great national reputation.”

South Florida coach Skip Holtz: “I’m all for anything that strengthens the Big East Con-ference. I think this news will create a lot of excitement and energy (for the conference) considering the success TCU has had. I think they will bring an awful lot of value to the table. They’ve proven that they can compete at (the BCS) level and that they are deserving of being in a BCS conference.”

West Virginia AD Oliver Luck: “I think it’s a great day for the Big East. Certainly, less is not more when it comes to college football and conferences these days. I think TCU, cer-tainly their football program, is pretty darn strong. I’m not sure what other words de-scribe what Gary Patterson and the adminis-tration have done.”

Under Patterson, TCU has been an annual resident of the top 25 in football, a contend-er for a BCS berth the last several years and could well be favored immediately to win the Big East championship in 2012.

This season the Horned Frogs fi nished the regular season undefeated at 12-0 for the second straight year, are ranked No. 3 in the BCS standings and both polls and will play in a BCS bowl. If either No. 1 Auburn or No. 2 Oregon lose their season fi nales Saturday, TCU could play for the national champion-ship. Otherwise, the Horned Frogs will play in the Rose Bowl.

The only current Big East team ranked in the AP poll is No. 23 West Virginia (8-3, 4-2 Big East), which is 24th in the BCS stand-ings. Connecticut (7-4, 4-2) is unranked in the BCS standings but could get the league’s automatic BCS spot by beating South Florida Saturday night in Tampa.

It’s a win-win situation for both parties. The Big East gets a national football power to bolster its sagging national reputation, and TCU moves to a conference with an automatic BCS bid for its champ, unlike the

Mountain West. The Big East is locked into the BCS through the 2013 season. The automatic qualifi cation criteria after 2014 have not been determined. If the Big East were subject to a review of its past per-formance, TCU’s 2010 season would count for the conference and help offset a poor sea-son for the Big East in 2010.

TCU offi cials said the Big East’s auto-matic bid was the main reason for their decision.

“Having BCS automatic qualifying status was a priority for our football program and a great reward for the success we’ve had the last decade,” TCU AD Chris Del Conte said in a statement.”

“It’s a great day to be a Frog,” Del Conte told the media in a press conference. “Think about what’s going to be happening here pretty quick. West Virginia playing here at Amon Carter Stadium, Connecticut playing our women’s basketball program right here. You’ve got Villanova coming, Syracuse com-ing. If you allow yourself to dream for a little bit, pinch yourself, it’s unbelievable.”

TCU, located in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, also gives the Big East another major media market, with the league already hav-ing a presence in New York City, Chicago, Tampa-St. Pete, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Milwaukee.

Earlier this month Big East presidents unanimously agreed to expand the number of conference football-playing schools from eight to 10. Villanova, now a member of the Football Championship Division and a Big East member in all other sports, also has been invited to join in football and is weighing the move to the Football Bowl Subdivision. Cen-tral Florida in Orlando also is considered a strong candidate. The Knights will face SMU for the C-USA championship Saturday.

What is not certain is how TCU’s move will affect the Big East in men’s basketball. The Horned Frogs have a weak program and will give

t h e league an odd 17-member alignment. TCU has not reached the NCAA Tournament since 1998, but Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim told the New York Times that adding a university with little basketball tradition did not bother him.

“We’ve got enough basketball programs,” he said. “I don’t think that’s an issue. It really doesn’t matter if they’re strong or not. I think it’s obvious that the football side has to get better, either with the addition of someone or our teams have to get better. That’s pretty obvious. They have to do what they have to do to keep the BCS thing going. That’s the bottom line.”

Boeheim said he wouldn’t oppose break-ing the Big East into basketball divisions, a possibility that would become more realis-tic if the conference were to expand to 18 teams. The league currently plays as one 16-team unit.

“If you go to 18, you have to have divi-sions and fi gure out how you do it,” Boe-heim said. “It took us three 12-hour days to get the divisions the last time (in the early days of the conference), and at the end of it, no one was happy with the divisions they had. No one is ever going to be happy. They all want certain teams in their divisions.”

Pitt basketball coach Jamie Dixon said he lobbied for TCU, his alma mater, to join the Big East during a September meeting with Del Conte that may have accelerated the

school’s interest in the conference.Dixon, a former all-Southeast Conference

guard at TCU, pitched the Big East to DelConte during the Baylor-TCU football gameon Sept. 18 when he was in the Dallas arearecruiting and visiting with a booster. Dixonsaid Del Conte was initially skeptical.

“I think it’s a great thing,” Dixon said. “I’m a little biased, obviously, but it’s a greatinstitution with great academics. They have acomplete, total commitment to athletics withwhat they do and what they put in their pro-gram. We’re going into one of the biggest TVmarkets in the country. That’s a good thing....I think if you’re going to add a football pro-gram, you might as well add the best.”

(UofL basketball coach Rick Pitino was ex-pected to address the issue during his regu-lar press conference Tuesday afternoon, afterLSR had already gone to print.)

Jurich said he doesn’t see a problem with 17 basketball-playing schools, although someview it as an unwieldy number.

“We’ll fi gure it out,” he said. “When we went to 16 in basketball people said the samething, and I think that’s worked very well for

everybody. I think there are many ways tomove it around, whether it’s North-South,East-West or whatever. There are many ways to get it done.”

Jurich also said the travel doesn’t bother him. At 870 miles from Fort Worth, UofL is actually the closest Big East school to TCU,and that’s about the same distance the Cards must travel to a number of other conferenceschools. Their longest trip is to Providence at965 miles. Tampa and Storrs, Conn., are bothabout 870 miles away.

“When we were in Conference USA, it worked out great,” Jurich said. “For us, itworks just fi ne. TCU has been in the worksfor a long, long time. I really applaud (BigEast) commissioner John Marinatto for whathe did, starting in early summer when itlooked like the Big East might be vulnerable.

“I think he took a very pro-active stance, brought in Paul Tagliabue (as a consultant),which I think was a stroke of genius andmoved this conference forward.”

Jurich said he likes the idea of being back in the Dallas-Fort Worth area because of Uo-fL’s past, albeit brief, history there as a mem-ber of C-USA, the school’s alumni base andthe opportunity for expanded recruiting.

“We have a great history there from Con-ference USA, and it was a very productivehistory,” Jurich said. “TCU has been a goodpartner of ours before, and we’ve had somegreat competition with them in all sports. Ithink TCU’s programs are very competitiveright now, and I think they’ll do very well inthis league.

“But I think the key thing it does is it gives us another very large city and creates expo-sure. We’ve got three or four alumni groupsdown there that are pretty much untapped,so it’s great we can do that now.”

During their years in C-USA together from 2001-04, TCU and UofL met in football threetimes, with the Horned Forgs winning 37-22in 2001 and 45-31 in 2002 before the Cardsrolled to a 55-7 victory in 2004. In basketball,UofL held a 5-1 advantage.

TCU was in the Western Athletic Confer-ence (WAC) from 1996-2000 before goingto C-USA and then joining the MountainWest in 2005.

TCU coach Gary Patterson and the Horned Frogs will be playing in the BIg East in

2012. (Below) Former Louisville coach Lee Corso donned the Horned Frog head during

the College GameDay show last year.

J U R I C H C A L L S F R O G S A ‘ G R E A T ’ A D D I T I O N

TCU’S MOVE TO BIG EAST GREETED WITH WIDE APPROVAL

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Corso donned the Horned Frog head during the College GameDay show last year.

TCU FILE:Location: Fort Worth, TexasA.D.: Chris Del ConteEnrollment: 8,865, Founded: 1873Nickname: Horned FrogsColors: Purple and WhiteTV Market: Dallas-Ft. Worth (No. 5)Football Coach: Gary Patterson (10th year)First Season: 1896 (581-512-57 all-time)‘10 Record: 12-0, ‘09 Record: 12-1Bowl Record: 11-13-12009 Bowl: Tostitos Fiesta Bowl (lost to Boise State 17-10)Stadium: Amon G. Carter (44,358 capacity)


CARDINAL FOOTBALL VS. RUTGERS PHOTO GALLERY

Senior Justin Burke completed seven of his fi rst eight passes and led Louisville to a 21-0 lead before he left the game with back spasms Friday. He was 9 of 11 for 138 yards and two touchdowns against the Scarlet Knights. - photo by Dave Klotz

Senior running back Bilal Powell point skyward after

one of his three touchdowns Friday against Rutgers. -

photo by Dave Klotz

Receivers Damian Copeland and Josh Bellamy congratulate running back Jeremy

Wright after he scored a touchdown on a 64-yard run in the third quarter of Friday’s 40-13 win over Rutgers. - photo by Dave Klotz

After Justin Burke left the game with back spasms, sophomore Will Stein came in and fi nished the win. He was 9 of 14 for 72 yards and a touchdown. - photo by Dave Klotz


LOUISVILLE BASKETBALL

CARDINAL FOOTBALL

By Russ BrownBefore the season started, University of

Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino said he didn’t know who would be the Car-dinals’ leading scorer this season or who would be their go-to guy when they badly needed a basket.

Four games into the season, he’s no closer to having an answer.

Four games, four dif-ferent leading scorers. In the opener against But-ler, sophomore forward Rakeem Buckles led the way with 17 points. Against Jackson State, it was junior center Ter-rence Jennings with 14

points. Then it was Preston Knowles’ (14) turn against Chattanooga, and in Satur-day’s 80-66 win over Marshall, three play-ers -- Buckles, Mike Marra and Peyton Siva -- tied for scoring honors with a modest 12 points apiece.

“Now you know why I don’t have any idea,” Pitino said. “It is very impressive what you see out there, and I think that’s what’s making the game so fun right now is none of us can really pick it. It’s a joke to even try.”

The players say their coach may as well get used to the uncertainty, because they don’t see the early trend changing any time soon, if at all.

“It can be different every night, just be-cause of the style we play,” Marra said. “Everybody shares the ball well, we’re al-ways looking for the open shot, not nec-essarily our own shot. And everybody on our team is capable of scoring.”

UofL lost its top three scorers from last season in Samardo Samuels, Edgar Sosa and Jerry Smith, and its leading return-ing scorer, forward Jared Swopshire (7.5 ppg), is sidelined indefi nitely with a groin injury.

Louisville’s scoring balance so far has been nothing short of amazing. Not only are all fi ve starters averaging in double fi g-ures, but they’re within one point of each other -- from Jennings’ 12.0 to Knowles’ 11.0, with Buckles, Siva and Marra all at 11.3.

“That’s just our team this year,” Siva said. “We’re going to play our game, we’re going to get out there and run, and any night anybody can contribute. That’s one thing about this team I like that’s really good. You can’t scout one player, anybody on a given night can step up.”

Aside from the fact that all the Cards can get up and down the fl oor in their up-tempo style, providing the opportunity

to be on the business end of a fast break, another factor that has led to the scoring balance is their passing ability.

UofL is averaging 19.8 assists per game, with 79 assists on its 116 fi eld goals, which is an outstanding ratio. Last year the Cards averaged 15 assists per game, and two of its top three passers -- Sosa (150) and Smith (58) -- are gone (Knowles had 72).

Marra is the current leader with 19 as-sists, followed by Siva at 16 and backup point guard Elisha Justice with 12.

“We get most of our assists by ball movement, and that’s what’s encouraging guys to make the extra pass, create play-er movement,” Pitino said. “You usually don’t fi nd that many assists for that many points, so that is a very positive sign. It’s more the team than any individuals.

“I think that’s what our talent is all about. We don’t have great breakdown people off the bounce, so we’ve got to move the basketball and move our play-ers, as well as using screens.

“The whole is greater than the sum of the parts with this team. I think that’s why we’re a good team -- the whole is good. This team realizes that they’re a link fence and if one link breaks down the team breaks down.”

Pitino believes Knowles has the best chance of becoming Louisville’s most reli-able scorer, but fi rst the senior guard has to get his weight under control and im-prove his conditioning. At 196 pounds, Knowles is about fi ve pounds overweight, Pitino said.

“I think Preston will be the guy who will be the best threat,” Pitino said. “But Preston is still not in the condition I want him. He struggles with his weight because he doesn’t eat properly.

“He’s been hurt every year since he’s been here, and that has set him back. Now he’s getting his conditioning back, but he needs to be lighter and in better shape to play this style, and when he is he’ll shoot a better percentage.”

Knowles missed the season opener

with a thigh bruise and was bothered by back spasms during the preseason. After a miserable 2 of 12 performance against Marshall, he is shooting only 29.5 percent (13 of 44), including 33.3 (8 of 24) from three-point range.

Pitino doesn’t fault Knowles’ shot se-lection for the most part, believing it’s fa-tigue that has hampered his accuracy.

“He’ll take one or two bad shots a game, but in this style of play it’s tough not to take an occasional bad shot,” Pi-tino said. “You’re playing so fast at times, so you’ve got to give them some latitude in that area. For some reason, Preston doesn’t like an open shot. He’d rather a guy be close to him when he pulls up (to shoot). He’ll make some challenged shots because he gets so high on his jumper.”

Knowles leads the Cards in steals with nine, but he has never played more than an average of 20 minutes per game and Pitino said he is the only player who ever asks to come out of a game.

“He gets more fatigued than anyone else on the fl oor,” Pitino said. “He does work very, very hard, but we need him to play more minutes. I want to see him in better shape because he rests on defense too much off the ball. He dogs the hell out of the ball and he does a great job, but he rests off the ball and he can’t do that.”

All in all, Pitino said he’s been pleased with his team’s performance heading into Wednesday night’s game in the KFC Yum! Center against Florida International (4-1 before Monday night’s game at Marshall) of the Sun Belt Conference.

“I am pleased with this team from top to bottom,” Pitino said. “I’m pleased with everything about this team, their desire to play, their willingness to learn, their ea-gerness to be early, their attitude, their support of each other. It’s all good. Now we just have to keep on winning.”

That last part shouldn’t be too diffi cult, given UofL’s soft non-conference sched-ule. The Cards have played their fi rst four games at home and of the remaining nine games, only two teams are ranked in the top 25 -- No. 24 UNLV (6-0) on Dec. 11) and No. 10 Kentucky (4-1) on Dec. 31. And just one other potentially fi gures to offer a substantial test -- Western Ken-tucky (3-3) on Dec. 22 in Bowling Green.

Add UofL’s Big East opener against Seton Hall in the KFC Yum! Center and the Cardinals won’t leave the state of Kentucky until meeting South Florida in Tampa on Jan. 9, having played 13 of their fi rst 14 games at home, including the fi rst 10.

UNBEATEN CARDS ARE ENJOYING THEIR BALANCING ACT

RUSS BROWNRUSS BROWN

Reserve big man George Goode got into the scoring column in an emphatic way against Marshall Saturday. This was the St. Louis native’s only two points in UofL’s 80-66 victory. - photo by Dave Klotz


If you missed Louisville soccer’s Sweet 16 victory over Ohio State at Cardinal Park Sunday night, you missed a good time. The Cardinals, ranked No. 1 in the nation and the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, pushed past a physical Ohio State team to

advance to the round of eight. Coach Ken Lolla’s Cardinals play an aggressive style of soccer that makes the game fun to watch even when they are on defense at midfi eld. Louisville puts pressure on the ball at all times and reminds us of the full court presses employed by basketball coaches Rick Pitino and Jeff Walz. That style collided with the Buckeyes’ brutal style (physical pushing and shoving in the box) in what made for a very physical game. The head ref seemed to have swallowed his whistle early in the game, and when he fi nally drew a card it was on the wrong guy, a yellow card on UofL’s leading scorer, Colin Rolfe, late in the game. That part was BAD, but the result was still GOOD - another Louisville win.

Terrence Williams’ career with the New Jersey Nets has turned somewhat UGLY. The former UofL star has been assigned to the Nets’ NBA Development League affi liate in Springfi eld, Mass., with general manager Billy King saying the second-year guard

will benefi t from playing in the D-League while he is on the team’s inactive list. Williams was put on the list for repeated “violations of team policy” and missed two games last week. Williams’ transgressions were reportedly being constantly late to shootarounds, team meetings and practices. Coach Avery Johnson said he hopes T-Will also changes his approach to the game. “We want to see that explosiveness, we want to see that athleticism. We want to see him play above the rim. Terrence got to a point where he started shooting a lot of threes. He’s taken more threes (11) than free throws (eight).” After a successful career at UofL, Williams was selected 11th overall by the Nets in the fi rst round of the 2009 draft. He has appeared in 86 games, averaging 8.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists. This season he was averaging 6.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists and was touted by Johnson during training camp as a potential Sixth Man of the Year.

It was GREAT to see the jubilant celebration Friday at Rutgers as the fi nal seconds ticked off the clock. The Cardinals leaped and danced on the sidelines, hugging each other and scheming ways to get coach Charlie Strong doused with Gatorade. The players got

the job done by getting him one time with a bucket from the front and then a second time with a bucket from the other side once he thought the barrage was over. It was a smart attack plan, and it looked like something they’d been thinking about for a while. Strong got fairly wet on the fi rst try, but he high-tailed it out of the danger zone. He then turned his attention back to the fi eld. Moments later, defensive end Rodney Gnat came swooping in from the backside and poured every ounce of a new bucket of Gatorade over Strong’s head and shoulders. Strong, who made his defense’s previous lack of success in attacking the quarterback a top priority this season, couldn’t have drawn up a better attack plan.

Louisville was successful at harassing Rutgers quarterback Chas Dodd throughout the game, racking up nine sacks in Friday’s win. Malcolm Tatum led the way with three sacks, Greg Scruggs had two, Hakeem Smith 1.5, Mike Evans, Dexter Heyman, Johnny

Patrick and Gnat one each, and Brandon Heath registered a half-sack. That means the Cardinals got pressure on the Knights’ QB from all sides. Tatum and Gnat are defensive ends, Scruggs a hybrid tackle, Heyman and Heath linebackers, Smith and Evans safeties, and Patrick a cornerback. Rutgers coach Greg Schiano was more than a little miffed when he was asked how much his offense could do when the line gives up nine sacks. “What do you think?” he asked. “I mean, you tell me. That’s an open-ended question, I guess. Right? Not much. Two sacks at the half, right? What happened is in the last two drives, I don’t know how many sacks we gave up.... In retrospect, we could have run it and probably called it a day, but we didn’t. So I’m not worried about numbers. I’m not worried about anything right now. I’m worried about getting better and making sure the young players we have in this program understand how it’s done.”

Rutgers’ focus early in the Louisville game appeared to be a thousand miles away. A week after giving up 69 points to Cincinnati, the Scarlet Knights’ defense sleep-walked through the fi rst and second quarters as Louisville built a 28-0 lead. “I

wouldn’t say we were emotionally ready, you know,” Rutgers senior defensive tackle Charlie Noonan said. “The fi rst four drives said it pretty blatantly that we weren’t ready.” Rutgers’ defense appeared a little better focused in the second half, but the Knights still gave up 12 more points. That left the Knights searching for answers after giving up 109 points in the past eight quarters. “We have a lot to

work on,” Schiano said. “So that’s what we are going to do. We’re going to work on it and improve.”

Make it 527 next year. You may recall that University of Kentucky players sported the number 517 on T-shirts last week, signifying the number of points the Wildcats had been outscored by Tennessee during its 25-year winning streak

against the Cats -- the longest winning streak in the country by one team over another. Now the Cats can provide their own stimulus to the economy by ordering a load of T-shirts bearing the number 527 after they lost to the Vols 24-14 last Saturday. They could even have “26 years in a row” printed on the other side. We would say, “What a shame,” but we’re out of breath from chuckling at the Big Blue, who probably should have won Saturday, but fumbles at the opponent’s 1-yard line tend to turn victory into defeat. 527 -- a GOOD number. Has a nice ring to it.

Metro United Way will join UofL women’s basketball coach Jeff Walz and his team to celebrate Metro United Way Day when the Cardinals face rival Kentucky on Dec. 5 at the KFC Yum! Center. “Bring your family and friends and join us to celebrate two Louisville favorites - the UofL women’s basketball team

and Metro United Way,” said Joe Tolan, Metro United Way’s President and CEO. “It’s a win-win scenario as we cheer on the Cards and help make a difference in the lives of people in need.” Lower arena tickets are available now for $10, with half of the proceeds directly benefitting Metro United Way. “Our women’s basketball program is honored to partner with Metro United Way,” UofL coach Jeff Walz said. “It is an opportunity for our program to help make everyone aware of the significance Metro United Way plays in our community.” Metro United Way supports 90 agencies and 150 programs that assist those who need help. Metro United Way also works to create and support long-term solutions to reduce the needs in our community by focusing on the areas of education, income and health. To order tickets for the Metro United Way Day, call the University of Louisville at 502, 852-5151.

Speaking of Walz, the Cardinals had a pretty tough week last week. Louisville lost by 14 to No. 5 Xavier and then fell to Old Dominion 69-65 on Friday. But Louisville fans shouldn’t be too discouraged by those results. Xavier is legitimately one of the best teams in the nation, and Old Dominion is a traditional

power and one of those classic upset picks in the NCAA Tournament. Walz has stacked Louisville’s schedule with good teams, and that experience will pay off down the road for this young squad. The question is whether or not the Cards can survive the tough stretch to see the dividends this season or whether they’ll have to wait until next season. Louisville’s next major test will be against Kentucky on Dec. 5. The Wildcats have a legit top-10 team, and Victoria Dunlap is one of the most dynamic players in the SEC. It’ll be a tough matchup.

UofL students will be building Blanket Forts to show their support for the Louisville area homeless this week. The 2010 Fort Building Contest will be held at the Brown & Williamson Club at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. The event is expected to collect more than 3,000 blankets,

with 400 students participating. Over the past month, eight teams - sororities, UofL student-athletes and ROTC - have been collecting blankets to use in the Fort Building Contest, which is the hallmark event of Wrap Up America, a Louisville-based national blanket drive. “Last year we were able to make a donation of 1,200 blankets through our Fort Building Contest,” said Trevor Joelson, President of Wrap Up America. “With the addition of the keystone corporate partners as well as a galvanized understanding of how to promote to the UofL students, we know our impact will only grow.”

If you are afraid of heights, the new seats coming to Madison Square Garden are a BAD idea for you. As part of a three-year, $775 million transformation, two spectator bridges will be suspended across the 42-year old Garden to give fans a bird’s-eye view of

the games. MSG President Hank Ratner said the bridges would be open in October, 2013. “They’ll be like no other seat in professional sports or entertainment,” Ratner said. “I think probably the Green Monster (at Boston’s Fenway Park) is the only thing you could come to making the comparison. But these are going to take it up a notch - because you’re on bridges.” Ratner noted the MSG has safely operated luxury suites at the top of the arena for years. “This product shouldn’t really be different from that,” he said. “Safety is the paramount and utmost concern in everything we do here.”

UGLY

BAD

GOOD

GOOD

BAD

GOOD

GOOD

GOOD

BAD

GOOD


WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

By Howie LindseyThe University of Louisville women’s bas-

ketball team is back home after a tough three-game road trip that began with losses to No. 5 Xavier and Old Dominion. The Car-dinals (4-3) got back on the winning track Monday night with a 100-79 victory over IPFW in Ft. Wayne, Ind.

UofL will play its next three games at home, starting with Thursday night’s game against Mississippi Valley State. But that’s not the game that most Cardinals fans are inter-ested in. The Cards hope to Pack the House Sunday for a game with archrival Kentucky at 2 p.m.

The Wildcats are 5-0 and ranked No. 8/9 in the nation. They’ve beaten all but one opponent, No. 16 Notre Dame (81-76), by double digits, and they have one of the most dynamic players in the nation in forward Vic-toria Dunlap.

After the UK game, the Cardinals will take on Dayton on Saturday, Dec. 11, to conclude the homestand.

CARDS CRACK 100 ... AGAINUofL clubbed IPFW 100-79, cracking the

100-point barrier for the third time in seven games this season. Six Cardinals scored in double fi gures, with freshman center Sher-onne Vails leading the way with 22 points.

The Cardinals jumped out to a 16-0 lead and held IPFW without a fi eld goal for the fi rst 4:26. Chelsey Jackson broke the Mast-odons’ scoring drought with a three-point

play at the 15:34 mark, but by that point UofL was off to the races. The Cardinals shot 60.7 percent in the fi rst half and led 42-25 at the intermission.

The fairly normal fi rst half gave way to a

wild scoring frenzy in the second half. Louis-ville started the half with a 9-2 run to take a 51-27 lead, but the Mastodons cut the lead to 13 with just over 15 minutes to play with a 9-0 run. That opened a fl ood gate of scoring that didn’t end until both teams had tallied more than 50 points in the half, Louisville fi n-ishing with 58 and IPFW with 54.

The Cardinals shot 67.8 percent from the fi eld and 58.3 percent from behind the arc. The Mastodons shot 60 percent from behind the arc and 42.9 percent overall.

UofL freshman guard Shoni Schimmel fi n-ished with 15 points, junior forward Monique Reid and junior guard Becky Burke each had 13, sophomore guard Tia Gibbs added 12 and senior post Keshia Hines had 10.

ODU’S RUN DOWNS CARDSUofL fell 69-65 to Old Dominion Friday de-

spite 19 points by Schimmel, 16 by Reid and a double-double, 15 points and 10 rebounds, by Hines. The Cardinals were ahead 51-44 with just over 12 minutes left when the Mon-archs went on an 11-0 run to take a 55-51 lead with 9:28 left.

The teams battled toe-to-toe throughout the fi rst half and for half of the second. The score was tied at 11, 19, 25, 33 and then at 35 at the half. The score was tied four more times in the second half, including at 63 with 4:20 left after a layup by Hines. But the Cards missed 8 of 9 shots in the fi nal 4:20 while the Monarchs inched ahead by the fi nal margin, 69-65.

Louisville, trailing 67-65, had a chance to tie it with 41 seconds remaining, but Schimmel missed the front end of a one-and-one. ODU’s Jasmine Parker scored on the ensuing posses-sion to make it 69-65 with 21 seconds left.

XAVIER’S HARRIS TOO MUCHXavier All-America candidate Amber Harris

had 28 points and 18 rebounds to help the No. 4/5 Musketeers (5-0) push past unranked UofL 71-59 last Tuesday night.

Louisville led by as many as 11 points in the fi rst half as the Cardinals tried to out-quick the bigger, taller Musketeers. But after a Xavier timeout, they started pounding the ball inside to the 6-5 Harris and 6-6 Ta’Shia Phillips. Harris scored six points and point guard Special Jen-nings had a pair of threes during a 19-3 run that put Xavier back in control.

With Phillips seeing limited action due to foul trouble, Harris had to take over. And she did. Nearly every play ran through her on of-fense, and she was a terror on the defensive boards.

“She’s fantastic,” UofL coach Jeff Walz said. “She’s unbelievable. Next to (Connecti-cut’s) Maya Moore, she’s the best player in the country.”

Louisville was led in scoring by Reid with 20 points and Schimmel with 16. The Car-dinals’ top post player, Hines, had just four points and two rebounds in 24 minutes due to foul trouble. Vails, Louisville’s tallest player at 6-4, had nine points and a rebound before fouling out in 12 minutes.

Louisville coach Jeff Walz’s team is 4-3 with a pair of losses to teams ranked in the top fi ve so

far this season. The Cardinals’ other loss was Friday against ODU. - photo by Dave Klotz

UOFL WOMEN WELCOME NO. 8 KENTUCKY TO YUM! CENTER


LOUISVILLE VS. UCONN PHOTO GALLERY


CARDINAL FOOTBALL PHOTO

Freshmen BJ Butler and Brandon Dunn brought down a Rutgers ballcarrier Friday during the regular-season fi nale for the Cardinals. Butler and Dunn are two of 10 true freshmen that have seen the fi eld this season for UofL. - photo by Dave Klotz

By Jeff WaffordShabazz Muhammad, a junior guard

from Bishop Gorman H.S. (Las Vegas), made an unoffi cial visit to Louisville last weekend. Rated as the No. 1 shooting guard in the 2012 class and the No. 3 player overall, Muhammad (6-5, 190) was on hand to see the Cardinals beat Marshall 80-66 Saturday in the KFC Yum! Center.

At his size Muhammad is a matchup prob-lem for smaller guards, and he’s known for be-ing very adept at putting the ball on the fl oor and taking it to the hole. It’s a good sign for UofL coach Rick Pitino that he was able to get Muhammad in for a visit early in his recruitment. But while the Cardinals are in on the fi ve-star prospect, he doesn’t seem to be in any rush to make a decision.

Just a couple of weeks ago Muham-mad told reporters that Kentucky, Mem-phis, North Carolina, Duke, Texas, Louis-

ville, UNLV, UCLA, USC, Arizona, Arizona State, UConn, Georgetown, Kansas and Baylor were all in the mix for his re-cruitment.

“I have a pretty good list,” he said. “I’m still talking to a lot of schools and trying to keep my

options open. No teams have been dropped or anything.”

SEVERAL CHANCES TO SEE BASKETBALL COMMITMENTS

Fans in the Louisville area will get sev-eral chances to see some of the Cardinals’ 2011 recruiting class in action, especially with one prospect playing his home games within the city limits.

Center Zach Price (6-11) transferred from Lakewood H.S. (Ohio) to Jefferson-town H.S. over the summer, and one of the reasons he moved was to be closer to the city he would call home during his college career.

UofL fans who want to see Price and the Chargers in action will have plenty of opportunities. J-Town opens the season at home on Dec. 3 against Atherton. Then the Chargers will play in three different midseason events in Louisville: the King of the Bluegrass Tournament (Dec. 17-22 at Fairdale H.S.), the Gaslight Holiday Classic (Dec. 28-30 at J-Town H.S.) and the Lou-isville Invitational Tournament (Jan. 11-15 – exact locations to be determined).

Bowling Green H.S. (Ky.) player Chane Behanan (6-7, PF) also will play in the King of the Bluegrass Tournament, and things could get real interesting if the two future UofL big men square off against each other in the event.

Bowling Green opens the season Dec. 4 against Marshall County H.S.

UofL’s other two signees – Angel Nunez (6-7, SF) and Wayne Blackshear (6-5, SG) – don’t have any games scheduled in Lou-isville yet, but it is possible games could be added later in the season. Nunez plays for Notre Dame Prep School (Mass.), while Blackshear is a product of Morgan Park H.S. (Chicago).

Blackshear got off to a good start last week, leading his team with 30 points in a season-opening 66-64 victory over Mil-waukee Hamilton.

GEORGIA DT SETS LOUISVILLE VISITAfter a dominating sophomore season

at Sumter H.S. (Ga.), defensive tackle Jona-than Battle (6-1, 280) missed the majority of his junior season after a devastating knee injury. It took almost a full year before he could retake the fi eld with his teammates, and even then there were challenges.

“At the beginning of the season I was a little shaky thinking about going out there and playing,” he said. “As the season got older, it seemed liked I started producing a lot more. I was fi ghting to get back in shape at the same time, so it wasn’t until the middle of the season until I could get back where I was.”

Battle sus-tained signifi cant damage to his ACL and other ligaments in his knee, which re-quired two sur-geries to repair. Once he built up the confi dence that his knee would hold up, though, Battle started to regain the form he showed as a sophomore when he tallied 99 tackles, 15 tackles for loss and four sacks.

“It didn’t really hurt me at all during the season, and I still don’t have any pain in it,”

Battle said. “It took away maybe a small portion of my speed and strength, but it didn’t really give me too many problems. I wouldn’t say I am exactly back to normal, but I can say I am almost there. I can say I had a pretty productive season.”

Battle fi nished his comeback season with eight sacks and almost 70 total tackles.

The knee injury stunted what was ex-pected to be a recruitment war for Battle’s services. Arkansas and Louisville were the only two schools to offer last offseason. They have since been joined by Georgia Southern, and other schools are starting to show more interest as well.

“The calls have been coming in,” Battle said. “A lot of college coaches are waiting to see my fi lm. I haven’t shipped a lot of fi lm, but hopefully when they get that fi lm it will turn out more offers.

“Florida has been on me pretty hard, and I went to a game there. I’m not sure if I still have (an offer) from Arkansas because I haven’t talked to them since I got the offer in the mail. Hopefully, they are still coming around now that I’ve gotten back on the fi eld.”

The Cards have followed up with Battle in the months since they extended an offer, and staff members plan to be in his school before the end of November.

“That will be one of my offi cial visits I take in December - it’s supposed to be the second weekend in December,” Battle said.

Battle said there are no outstanding questions he needs answered during his offi cial visit to Louisville. The Cardinals’ coaching staff has already answered many of his questions, and he said he’s strongly interested in the program.

“I love them and it seems like they never really lost hope in me,” he said. “They’ve been there before I hurt myself and dur-ing the whole process. I look at them as being high competition to a lot of schools because they showed that loyalty. I like the

coaching staff, and they seem to be verydown to earth.”

Battle knows his return to full health is not yet complete, but after a full seasonon the fi eld he is confi dent he will reachthe potential he showed early in his highschool career.

“I don’t mind redshirting my fi rst year, but I am ready to get on the battlefi eld andstart producing,” he said. “I think I’ll needthe extra year to get my strength up, butafter that I think I’ll be ready to get out andstart playing.”

ILLINOIS COURTING SENECA H.S. PRODUCTS

Illinois assistant coach Jeff Brohm was at Seneca H.S. last week to see four-starquarterback DaMarcus Smith, who hasbeen verbally committed to the Cardinalsfor almost a year. The Illini are making a bigpush to lure Smith away from UofL, even ifit means offering one of his teammates.

“A big thing for me right now is seeing if they offer my friend and teammate Mi-chael Fluellen or not,” Smith said. “I knowthey’re kind of on the fence, so we’re go-ing to wait and see what happens withthat. At the end of the process I’ll be mak-ing my own decision, but I’d really like togo to the same school as Michael, so I’mgoing to at least wait and see what hap-pens with him.”

Louisville wasn’t the fi rst school to offer Smith – the Illini were. Still, Charlie Strongmade it no secret when he got to UofL thatthe 6-1, 190-pound Smith was one of histop priorities. And while the Cardinals arerecruiting Fluellen (a 6-5, 200-pound re-ceiver), they have yet to offer him. In fact,Fluellen has yet to earn any scholarship of-fers at this point, despite racking up morethan 1,000 receiving yards as a senior.

Smith ended the year with more than 3,200 yards passing, 34 touchdowns andonly eight interceptions. He is rated as theNo. 11 dual-threat quarterback in the na-tion.

2007 CARDINAL CARAVAN10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASON10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASONRECRUITING NOTEBOOK

JEFF WAFFORDJEFF WAFFORD

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

FIVE-STAR JUNIOR GUARD VISITS LOUISVILLE


SHABAZZ MUHAMMADSHABAZZ MUHAMMAD

JONATHAN BATTLEJONATHAN BATTLE


LOUISVILLE BASKETBALL

CARDINAL FOOTBALL

By Russ BrownLouisville’s basketball team got a pre-

view last Saturday of what life is going to be like in the Big East later this season from, of all people, Marshall University. Yes, Marshall, a team picked to fi nish in the middle of the much-maligned Confer-ence USA, otherwise known as Memphis and the 11 Dwarfs.

A league, in other words, that will never be confused with the Beastly East.

Nevertheless, in a matinee in the KFC Yum! Center, the Car-dinals (4-0) got pushed around and at times manhandled by the

Thundering Herd (3-2) but still managed to prevail 80-66, in large part because the visitors shot free throws as if they were blindfolded.

The game showed the Cardinals that they need to nourish a more rugged mind-set in the next fi ve weeks before opening their Big East schedule against Seton Hall here.

Marshall, which was averaging only 9.5 offensive rebounds against weak com-petition, muscled its way to 25 against Louisville, scoring 22 points off of them. UofL’s centers, starter Terrence Jennings and reserve Gorgui Dieng, managed just one defensive rebound in a combined 34 minutes.

UofL coach Rick Pitino said he had warned his players that Marshall, guided by former Pittsburgh associate head coach Tom Herrion, would play like the Panthers -- physical and aggressive. And he didn’t like the way the Cards responded to the challenge.

“The one big point of emphasis was Marshall’s rebounding and how strong they are on the glass,” Pitino said. “They run the same things Pittsburgh runs, so you have to be very physical. We tried to explain to them that this is a very athletic team that is going to push you in the back and get rebounds. We played really good defense and kept giving them second shots and free throws. It is such a waste of the press and playing good defense to give up second shots. Nothing worked well. It was very, very disappointing.”

Naturally, he let his players know about it, both at halftime and after the game.

“Coach P felt like we got pushed around pretty bad, and he didn’t like that,” for-ward Stephan Van Treese said. “We’ve got to play aggressive and he knows we can, he just felt we didn’t.”

Said guard Peyton Siva: “They came out out and out-toughed us. It was very physical, like a Big East game out there, and that’s one thing we have to work on because that’s the way it’s going to be ev-ery day starting in January.”

Added forward Mike Marra: “We weren’t as physical as they were, and they really bullied us.”

Several players also admitted that they might not have taken Marshall seriously enough because the Herd lost to Chatta-nooga 69-68 last week, a team UofL had walloped by 41 points fi ve days earlier. So they expected to stampede the Herd, too.

Pitino suspected as much. “They thought it was going to be blowout time,” he said.

“I’m sure a couple of us probably had that in our minds, saying they lost to Chattanooga and we blew them out, that type of stuff,” Marra said. “But you can’t look at it like that because it’s two differ-ent styles, two different teams.”

Van Treese, a 6-9, 235-pound sopho-more who is certainly no shrinking violet either on the boards or on defense, was the catalyst for UofL’s victory. Starting the second half in place of Rakeem Buckles with the Cards trailing 34-33, Van Treese provided a spark that ignited both his

teammates and the crowd of 21,262.“If we don’t start Van Treese in the sec-

ond half, we don’t win the game,” Pitino said. “He made the big plays that broke it open.”

Told of Pitino’s remarks, Van Treese said: “That’s a big compliment, but obviously it’s a team game. I feel like I helped pro-vide a spark, but honestly we all started to come together in the second half.”

Van Treese scored six of his eight points, got two of his game-high three steals and all but one of his four rebounds in the opening minutes of the half as UofL out-scored the Herd 16-5 to take command, 49-39.

“I knew coach was putting me in for one thing -- to mix it up, get rebounds and just play hard, and that’s what I tried to do,” the Indianapolis native said.

During UofL’s surge Van Treese explod-ed for six points in 90 seconds, dunking a rebound, making a steal and scoring on another slam, then banking in a nifty layup off a pass from Marra.

“Stephan gave us a huge emotional

lift,” Marra said. “He came out real fi ery and really picked us up.”

“Stephan’s good, he’s a hard worker,” Siva said. “He gave us a big boost in the second half. Sometimes he shows off his athleticism when he wants to. He’s going to be a big force for us this year.”

About the only thing that went wrong for Van Treese all afternoon was when he clanged a breakaway dunk so hard off the rim early in the game that the ball nearly landed in the stands.

“That was embarrassing,” he said. “I went to dunk it and all of a sudden I felt it slip after I hit the rim and I looked back and it’s at half-court and I said, ‘Oh my gosh.’

“I haven’t missed a dunk like that since high school. Coach yelled at me to dunk it the next time with two hands, so as soon as I got the next one I knew I was dunking it with two hands no matter what.”

But not before Van Treese had taken some ribbing from his teammates.

“I messed with him a little bit,” Siva said. “He was like, ‘I hit my wrist before I dunked it.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ I told him he got scared because he thought Coach P was going to jump him.”

Three players, Buckles, Marra and Jen-nings, each scored 12 points for UofL. Buckles also claimed seven rebounds, Marra had a game-high fi ve assists and Jennings blocked a career-high six shots, all in the fi rst half. Jennings’ blocks were the most by a Louisville player since Kend-all Dartez had nine against Holy Cross on Dec. 7, 2003.

After Van Treese fl ipped the ignition switch at the start of the second half, UofL went on to build a 67-50 lead with 6:40 left. But Marshall refused to fold and narrowed the defi cit to 73-64 with 1:30 remaining before a basket by Buckles and three free throws by Siva put it away.

The Herd would have been even more of a threat down the stretch if they hadn’t been so inept from the foul line. They missed 8 of 17 free throws in the fi nal 6 1/2 minutes, including two bonus situa-tions, and fi nished 13 of 29 (44.8 percent) from the line. They were also 1 of 11 from three-point land in the second half after hitting 4 of 9 in the fi rst half.

Herrion agreed with Pitino that Mar-shall has some similarities to Pittsburgh in terms of style of play, if not talent.

“I thought we played like a Pitt team in our tenacity and our effort,” he said. “But we’re still defi cient in some areas that contributed to our defeat. I was dis-appointed with the way we started the second half. We gave up too many break-outs. You can’t have live-ball turnovers against a team like Louisville. You’re bet-ter off throwing it out of bounds or step-ping out of bounds or traveling.”

Marshall sophomore guard DeAndre Kane led all scorers with 25 points.


Freshman Gorgui Dieng blocked a shot by Marshall’s DeAndre Kane as fellow freshman Elisha Justice also applied defensive pressure. Dieng had two blocks in all. - photo by Dave Klotz

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

MARSHALL GIVES UOFL A PREVIEW OF BIG EAST


2010-11 WOMEN’S SCHEDULE

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

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

DECEMBER 2 MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m. 5 KENTUCKY KFC Yum! Center 2 p.m.11 DAYTON KFC Yum! Center 4 p.m. 15 at Cincinnati Cincinnati, Ohio 7 p.m.18-20 Dual in the Desert Las Vegas, Nev. 18 vs. Marist Las Vegas, Nev. 4:30 p.m. 19 vs. Houston Las Vegas, Nev. 7:00 p.m. 20 vs. Nebraska Las Vegas, Nev. 9:30 p.m. 28 UT-MARTIN KFC Yum! Center 7:00 p.m.

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

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

MARCH

4-8 BIG EAST Tournament Hartford, Conn. TBA

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

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

DECEMBER Wed. 1 FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m. 7-25 in GLOBAL SPORTS SHOOTOUT Sat. 4 SOUTH ALABAMA KFC Yum! Center 1 p.m. 17-15 Wed. 8 SAN FRANCISCO KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m. 12-18 Sat. 11 UNLV (ESPNU) KFC Yum! Center Noon 25-9 NCAA in BILLY MINARDI CLASSIC Tues. 14 DREXEL (ESPNU) KFC Yum! Center 9 p.m. 16-16 Sat. 18 GARDNER-WEBB KFC Yum! Center 3:30 p.m. 8-21 Wed. 22 at Western Kentucky Bowling Green, Ky. 8 p.m. 21-13 Mon. 27 MORGAN STATE KFC Yum! Center 8 p.m. 27-10 NCAA Fri. 31 KENTUCKY (CBS) KFC Yum! Center Noon 35-3 NCAA

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

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

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


By Howie LindseyLouisville got a 2-1 lead on a header by

junior Austin Berry in the 62nd minute and hung on to beat Ohio State Sunday night at Cardinal Park in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16, surviving a barrage of late at-tacks by the Buckeyes.

The top-seeded and top-ranked Car-dinals (18-0-3) were tested in every way imaginable by the physically powerful and brutally tough Buckeyes (11-6-3).

“You realize as you are going through the NCAA Tournament that you need to have the ability to not only grind it out against teams that are physical like Ohio State, but also be able to play, to get the ball down and move it,” UofL coach Ken Lolla said. “I was proud of our guys be-cause there were times when we physically stood up to the challenge tonight and yet we played enough soccer that we created enough chances to win the game.”

Had Louisville and Ohio State been play-ing football, the Buckeyes likely would have been fl agged multiple times for un-necessary roughness. But as it was, lead referee Sorin Stoica let the teams battle it out in one of the most brutal college soccer matches most of the 5,562 fans had ever witnessed.

“I’m not going to criticize how it was offi ciated because everyone has a differ-ent style,” Lolla said. “I think the style of offi cial kind of lent itself to that tonight. It’s not good or bad, it just is what it is. I think it became even more physical be-cause of that.”

Both teams were whistled for a dozen or more fouls (OSU 14, Louisville 12), but the Buckeyes set the tone early in the game with pushing and shoving all over the fi eld.

“Although at times it wasn’t the pretti-est game of the year, I thought it was ef-fective,” Lolla said. “We got the job done. Right now, in the NCAA Tournament, that is what it is about.”

Louisville scored fi rst in the 24th minute when senior Charlie Campbell scored on a header from seven yards out after a defend-er’s header defl ected to him.

“We have a set play for a long throw in,” Campbell said. “I am supposed to cover the backside. (Colin) Rolfe will sling it in there and Berry challenges, and I just sweep ev-erything up from the back. It just came to my head and I just put it in.”

Louisville held that lead through the end of the fi rst 45 minutes and through the fi rst eight minutes of the second half, until OSU tied it on a quick shot past UofL keeper An-dre Boudreaux by Austin McAnena.

“I’m proud of our guys,” Ohio State coach John Bluem said. “I thought we staged an excellent comeback in the sec-ond half to get us back into it, and I think Louisville is an excellent team. I think they played very well tonight. I think they were a little bit better than us tonight.”

Louisville responded nine minutes later,

getting the go-ahead goal in the 62nd min-ute on a magnifi cent header by Berry.

Rolfe passed to Nick DeLeon on the left side of the goal, from where he played the ball at head level across the face of the goal. Campbell, Berry and Ohio State’s David Ti-emstra made a play for the ball, but Berry got the best piece of it and it found the back of the net past a diving Matt Lampson.

“Teams know that we want to get the ball into the middle, and sometimes they focus too much on that,” Berry said. “Nick was able to get the ball off Colin easily and played a great ball in. And thanks to Charlie for letting me get a little extra elevation off of him.”

Berry, a defensive specialist with a pen-chant for fi nding the ball in the air, stayed down for a moment before being helped up by teammates and celebrating by clap-

ping his hands above his head in the air. “It was great pain,” Berry said. “I don’t

know what else I hit, but I know I got the ball.”

The goal was Berry’s fourth of the sea-son, all on headers played in the air.

“He’s just dominating in the air, and not just on the defensive side of the ball,” Lolla said. “Like Charlie was saying, he brings so much attention on the attacking side that even if he is not the main target, he draws people to him. He makes us better because of how dominating he is in the air. He’s one of the best we have seen, if not the best.”

And it wasn’t just Lolla speaking highly of Berry’s abilities.

“He’s dominating in the air,” Bluem said. “He’s got good size and good strength. He also has really good timing.”

Ohio State tried everything it could to get back into the game in the fi nal 28 min-utes. In the 72nd minute Berry came up big again, getting a foot on a shot attempt a few yards from Louisville’s goal and sending it out of play. Three minutes later the Buck-eyes had a free kick after a foul just outside the box, but the attempt was kicked away safely before it ever reached the box.

In the 77th minute Louisville had another shot on goal, a rocketed shot by DeLeon, but it was punch-saved by Lampson and Paolo DelPiccolo’s rebound shot attempt went well high of the goal.

A shot by the Buckeyes’ Konrad Warzy-cha with about two minutes left sailed high above the goal. With 30 seconds left, the Buckeyes had a corner kick. They brought their entire team down to the offensive end for one last-ditch attempt at a header, but the ball bounded around twice before be-ing kicked out by Berry.

With the win, Louisville moved into the Elite Eight for the fi rst time in school his-tory (before this season the Cardinals had won only one NCAA Tournament game). UofL will host UCLA at 7 p.m. Saturday at Cardinal Park. The Bruins are the top team in the Pac-10. They advanced to the Elite Eight with a 2-1 win over Dartmouth Sun-day night.

If the Cards win Saturday, they’ll travel to Santa Barbara, Calif., next week for the semifi nals and championship games Dec. 10 and 12.

MEN’S SOCCER

LOUISVILLE ADVANCES TO ELITE EIGHT WITH 2-1 WIN OVER OHIO STATE

Louisville soccer coach Ken Lolla has the Cardinals on the brink of a

trip to the College Cup. Louisville must beat No. 8 UCLA Saturday

night.- photo by Dave Klotz

NCAA RPIBold denotes still in the tournamentRankings as of 11-14-10, Last NCAA updateRank Name Conf W-L Road1 MARYLAND ATLANTIC COAST 17-2-1 4-1-1 2 NORTH CAROLINA ATLANTIC COAST 16-3-1 6-1-1 3 LOUISVILLE BIG EAST 16-0-3 7-0-1 4 AKRON MID-AMERICAN 18-1-1 8-1-1 5 SMU Conference USA 15-2-0 4-1-0 6 CALIFORNIA PACIFIC-10 12-2-3 6-0-2 7 South Carolina Conference USA 12-6-2 3-5-0 8 UCLA Pacifi c-10 14-4-1 6-3-1 9 William & Mary Colonial 15-3-2 4-3-1 10 Notre Dame Big East 10-5-4 2-2-2 11 Butler Horizon 16-0-3 7-0-0 12 Indiana Big Ten 9-7-2 4-3-1 13 Penn St. Big Ten 13-7-1 4-2-1 14 MICHIGAN BIG TEN 14-4-3 3-2-2 15 Michigan St. Big Ten 11-7-1 4-4-1 16 Providence Big East 12-5-3 6-2-2 17 Georgetown Big East 11-6-1 3-3-1 18 Connecticut Big East 12-2-5 3-2-3 19 Tulsa Conference USA 11-6-2 3-3-0 20 Ohio St. Big Ten 10-5-3 1-4-1 21 Duke Atlantic Coast 9-5-4 2-3-2 22 Creighton Missouri Valley 12-5-1 5-2-0 23 Princeton Ivy 13-3-1 6-2-0 24 West Virginia Big East 10-7-2 1-5-2 25 Penn Ivy 12-5-0 5-1-0 26 Wake Forest Atlantic Coast 8-9-2 4-5-0 27 Monmouth Northeast 14-1-4 5-0-3 28 Brown Ivy 11-3-3 3-3-0 29 Virginia Atlantic Coast 11-5-3 1-1-2 30 Boston College Atlantic Coast 10-4-5 3-3-2

Louisville Individual Statistics |------------SHOTS------------|## NAME GP-GS MIN G A PTS SH SHOT% SOG SOG% GW PK-ATT9 Rolfe, Colin 21-21 1263 7 6 20 60 .117 16 .267 3 0-022 Mares, Dylan 19-14 1163 8 3 19 33 .242 15 .455 3 0-014 DeLeon, Nick 21-21 1666 7 3 17 63 .111 28 .444 4 0-02 Campbell, Charlie 17-17 1070 5 1 11 31 .161 14 .452 1 0-019 Walker, Kenney 20-19 1436 2 7 11 37 .054 21 .568 0 0-024 Berry, Austin 20-20 1836 4 2 10 18 .222 7 .389 2 0-03 DelPiccolo, Paolo 21-20 1934 2 5 9 39 .051 15 .385 0 0-123 Murray, J.T. 21-21 1940 3 1 7 27 .111 9 .333 3 0-011 Horton, Aaron 20-0 712 1 2 4 14 .071 4 .286 0 0-010 Tufty, Buck 20-0 580 1 2 4 11 .091 4 .364 1 0-017 Granger, Brock 21-20 1827 0 4 4 1 .000 1 1.000 0 0-015 Knight, Mark 3-3 143 1 1 3 5 .200 2 .400 0 0-15 Farrell, Andrew 17-4 785 1 0 2 8 .125 5 .625 1 0-013 Lipka, Josh 14-2 568 0 1 1 6 .000 3 .500 0 0-06 Corliss, Nick 5-2 300 0 1 1 2 .000 0 .000 0 0-04 Smith, Ryan 19-5 631 0 0 0 15 .000 8 .533 0 0-07 Pacheco-Marin, Luis 7-0 138 0 0 0 3 .000 0 .000 0 0-012 Rodgers, Chase 20-20 1818 0 0 0 1 .000 0 .000 0 0-016 Crick, Jimmy 5-1 67 0 0 0 0 .000 0 .000 0 0-0 Total............... 21 - 42 39 123 374 .112 152 .406 18 0-2 Opponents........... 21 - 13 13 39 196 .066 64 .327 0 1-1


MEN’S SOCCER NCAA TOURNAMENT BRACKET

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KFC Yum! Center OPENING PHOTO GALLERYSELECTED FALL SPORTS SCHEDULESCARDINAL FOOTBALL

D

MAKE YOUR PICKSLAST WEEK:

LAST WEEK:_____OVERALL:_______

KENT TAYLORWAVE TV

LAST WEEK: 3-7OVERALL: 81-49

TERRY MEINERSWHAS RADIO


GARRY GUPTONINSIGHT CH 2 TV


RUSS BROWNSPORTSREPORT


FRED COWGILLWLKY TV


TOM LANEWDRB FOX 41


MATT WILLINGERSPORTSREPORT


HOWIE LINDSEYSPORTSREPORT


DREW DEENERWHAS PLAY-BY-PLAY

WKRD RADIOLAST WEEK: 3-7OVERALL: 81-49

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

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

in the LSR’s Top Tom contest.

ZACH McCRITE93.9 THE TICKET


PITTSBURGH AT CINCINNATI PITTSBURGH PITTSBURGH PITTSBURGHRUTGERS AT WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIACONNECTICUT AT SOUTH FLORIDA USF CONNECTICUT USFOREGON AT OREGON STATE OREGON OREGON OREGONNEBRASKA VS. OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMANEVADA AT LOUISIANA TECH NEVADA NEVADA NEVADAUSC AT UCLA UCLA UCLA UCLAARIZONA STATE AT ARIZONA ARIZONA ARIZONA ARIZONAFLORIDA STATE VS. VIRGINIA TECH VIRGINIA TECH VIRGINIA TECH FSUAUBURN VS. SOUTH CAROLINA AUBURN AUBURN AUBURN

JACK COFFEESPORTSREPORT


U OF L PRESIDENTJAMES RAMSEY


JEFF WAFFORDSPORTSREPORT


PITTSBURGH PITTSBURGH PITTSBURGH PITTSBURGH PITTSBURGH PITTSBURGH PITTSBURGH PITTSBURGH PITTSBURGH PITTSBURGHWEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIACONNECTICUT USF CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT USF USF CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT

OREGON OREGON OREGON OREGON OREGON OREGON OREGON OREGON OREGON OREGONOKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA

NEVADA NEVADA NEVADA NEVADA NEVADA NEVADA NEVADA NEVADA NEVADA NEVADAUCLA USC UCLA UCLA USC USC UCLA UCLA UCLA UCLA

ARIZONA ARIZONA ARIZONA ARIZONA ARIZONA ARIZONA ARIZONA ARIZONA ARIZONA ARIZONAVIRGINIA TECH VIRGINIA TECH VIRGINIA TECH VIRGINIA TECH VIRGINIA TECH VIRGINIA TECH VIRGINIA TECH VIRGINIA TECH VIRGINIA TECH VIRGINIA TECH

AUBURN SOUTH CAROLINA AUBURN AUBURN AUBURN SOUTH CAROLINA AUBURN SOUTH CAROLINA AUBURN AUBURN

DEB HARBSMEIERWHAS TV TEAM


WILL GRAVESASSOCIATED PRESS


TONY CRUISEWHAS RADIO


LACHLAN MCLEANWHAS RADIO


DAVE JENNINGSWHAS RADIO


PAUL ROGERSWHAS RADIO TEAM


TONY VANETTIAFTERNOON UNDERDOGS

WKRD RADIOLAST WEEK: 3-7OVERALL: 75-55

PITTSBURGH PITTSBURGH PITTSBURGH PITTSBURGH CINCY PITTSBURGH PITTSBURGH WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA WEST VIRGINIA CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT USF USF CONNECTICUT USF OREGON OREGON OREGON OREGON OREGON OREGON OREGON OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA NEBRASKA NEVADA NEVADA NEVADA NEVADA NEVADA NEVADA NEVADA UCLA UCLA UCLA UCLA USC UCLA USC ARIZONA ARIZONA ARIZONA ARIZONA ARIZONA STATE ARIZONA ARIZONA STATE FSU VIRGINIA TECH VIRGINIA TECH VIRGINIA TECH FSU VIRGINIA TECH FSU AUBURN AUBURN AUBURN AUBURN AUBURN AUBURN AUBURN

H E Y , P E Y T O N . . .

Dexter Heyman clobbered Rutgers quarterback Chas Dodd as Dexter Heyman clobbered Rutgers quarterback Chas Dodd as Dodd tried to release the ball. - photo by Dave KlotzDodd tried to release the ball. - photo by Dave Klotz

HEYMAN SLAM

Peyton Siva hammed it up for his teammates during team Peyton Siva hammed it up for his teammates during team introductions last week. - photo by Dave Klotzintroductions last week. - photo by Dave Klotz


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

By Russ BrownWe’re only a handful of games into the

2011 college basketball season, and already the coaches’ preseason poll in the Big East Conference looks out of whack -- at least as far as one team in particular is concerned.

Connecticut 10th? Don’t think so. Not un-less the Big East is a lot stronger than it was last year, which it isn’t.

But it is still going to be very good, bet-ter than most expected and perhaps again the best league in the country. And UConn has been by far the surprise team in the confer-ence so far.

Looking more like a title contender than a second-division team, the then-unranked Huskies upset No. 2 Michigan State and No. 8 Kentucky in winning the Maui Invitational Tournament in impressive fashion last week.

UConn (5-0) has a Na-tional Player of the Year candidate in junior point guard Kemba Walker and a dominating inside force in 6-9, 240-pound sopho-more Alex Oriakhi. Walker was named the Maui Tour-nament MVP after scoring 90 points in three games, including 29 (along with

six assists) in a 84-67 rout of UK. Oriakhi had 18 points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots in the title game.

“That shows what coaches know,” UofL coach Rick Pitino said, referring to the 10th-place prediction for the Huskies.

In the title game against the Wildcats, Con-necticut shot 58 percent from both the fi eld and the three-point line, outscored UK 42-24 in the paint and outran them 16-5 on fast breaks.

UConn’s wins, in the eyes of its players, were clearly a validation of the program and head coach Jim Calhoun, both of whom have endured some rough times and criticism lately. The Huskies were a disappointing 18-16 last season, fi nished in a tie for 11th in the Big East at 7-11 and lost in the second round of the NIT.

“We wanted to show the world we’re still UConn and that Coach Calhoun can still coach a team,” Walker said.

Walker was spectacular in Maui, playing circles around Michigan State’s Kalin Lucas and heralded UK freshman Brandon Knight.

“It wasn’t my role to be a leader last year,” Walker said. “I tried to let the seniors be the ones to make the big plays and lead us. This year I knew I had to do this, being one of the most experienced guys on the team. I had to take over games. I’ve gotten into the fl ow, let my game come to me and I’m making shots.”

Walker was so outstanding that several NBA scouts at the tournament told ESPN.com that they expect him to skyrocket up their draft boards. He is averaging 30 points and 3.6 assists and is shooting 52.7 percent, in-cluding 40.6 from beyond the arc.

“I was really surprised by how well Kemba played,” one scout said. “I’ve watched him closely for the past three years. I didn’t think he could be this good. I came in thinking he’s a late fi rst-rounder, a decent backup. I’ve changed my mind. I’m not sure he’s going to

be a star (in the NBA), but I just love how he played here and how hard he’s worked on his game. If he keeps this up all season, he’s a top-10 pick.”

What’s most surprising about UConn’s performance is its youth. The Huskies consist mostly of freshmen and sophomores. Walker is the only junior, and there are just three se-niors, none of whom start.

“This isn’t our season,” Calhoun said of the Maui crown. “But it’s a great step for us and it lets people know that we’re still Connecticut. We understand we’re not the blue blood of Kentucky, and I have great respect for that, as I do Indiana and other traditional programs in the country. But over the past 20 years we’ve been a part of that, and we want to continue to be a part of that. It’s why I’m still coach-ing, and I fell in love with this team. We think we’re a pretty good basketball team.”

Unfortunately, UConn is one of Louisville’s three conference mirror games this season, which didn’t look so bad a few weeks ago. Certainly better than facing Pittsburgh, Vil-lanova or Syracuse twice. Well, maybe not. UofL will meet the Huskies in Storrs on Jan. 29, then host the rematch on Feb. 18 at the KFC Yum! Center in a 9 p.m. ESPN game.

Besides Connecticut, Pitino has seen some other eye-opening scores in the early stages of

the season, mentioning Syracuse (6-0), Mar-quette (5-2), Rutgers (3-2), West Virginia (4-1) and Notre Dame (6-0) as possibly being better than expected.

Marquette played both No. 18 Gonzaga (63-66) and No. 1 Duke (77-82) tough in loss-es, and Rutgers, picked to fi nish 15th in the 16-team league, beat Miami 61-45, showing vastly improved scrappiness and defense.

“This is the new Rutgers,” said fi rst-year Rutgers coach Mike Rice after the Miami game. “We’re going to do this night in and night out.”

With its Maui win, UConn broke into the AP rankings at No. 7. There are fi ve other Big East schools in the AP’s top 25 -- No. 3 Pitts-burgh, No. 8 Syracuse, No. 12 Villanova, No. 16 Georgetown and No. 25 Notre Dame.

“Marquette had Duke tied late, and they were picked in a tie for eighth with us,” Pitino said. “I think the Big East is a lot better than people thought, including myself. The Big East is very good, much tougher than expected. It looks like West Virginia is better than we an-ticipated, it looks like Syracuse is better, Con-necticut is better. Marquette’s defi nitely bet-ter. I hope we’re better.”

Pitino picked St. John’s to win the Big East championship, a decision he is having second thoughts about now. The other coaches obvi-

ously didn’t think as much of the Red Storm,which was tabbed sixth.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have picked St. John’s No. 1,” Pitino said. “I was just trying to bedifferent that day.”

The only Big East game featuring two ranked teams this week is Georgetown’s tripto No. 11/12 Missouri Tuesday. Two otherupcoming matchups to watch are Syracusevs. Michigan State in the Jimmy V Classic inMadison Square Garden on Dec. 7 and NotreDame vs. UK on Dec. 8 in Freedom Hall.

Pitino said he has watched a number of games on TV already and that Duke is easilythe best team he has seen.

“Duke’s the only great team I’ve seen,” he said. “Great defensively, great spacing,shoots well, has outstanding offensive talent,great in transition. Duke’s the type of teamyou’d hate to play consistently.”

After the Blue Devils, Pitino believes, it’s wide open.

“If you guys (the media) can pick the second-best team in the country, third-bestteam, fourth-best team, you’re better thanme because I couldn’t do that,” he said.“There’s not a whole lot of difference, sohow do you tell? It’s diffi cult right now, andthat’s what’s fun to see once we get intoleague play.”

VILLANOVA LOSES FIRSTVillanova (5-1), picked a close second to

Pittsburgh in the coaches’ preseason poll,suffered its fi rst loss last Friday, falling to No.24 Tennessee 78-68 in the NIT Season Tip-Off championship game in Madison SquareGarden.

Guards Corey Fisher and Maalik Wayns were a combined 4 of 21 from the fi eld,didn’t make a three-pointer in eight attemptsand committed 11 of their team’s 13 turn-overs as the Vols (5-0) shut off their penetra-tion to the basket.

The 6-0 Fisher, matched against 6-6 Scotty Hopson, scored Villanova’s fi rst basket, thenwent without a fi eld goal the rest of thegame. He fi nished 1 of 10 with three points,his lowest output since getting two pointsagainst Notre Dame on March 2, 2009, hissophomore season.

“They played great defense,” Fisher said. “I got the shots I like, they just didn’t godown today. I can’t get frustrated becauseI work on those shots every day. It’s just onegame, and we have to get better from it.”

Villanova coach Jay Wright, who likened Tennessee’s style to a “street fi ght,” wasdisappointed with the way his veteran teamreacted.

“I’ve tried to explain to the guys, you don’t have to learn that way (with a loss),”Wright said. “But it seems like with us, wehave to go get beat up one time. I wouldmuch rather win and we can learn. I think welearned enough last year. This will be a tapewe’re going to look at. You’re going to seewe weren’t tough enough and we weren’tsmart enough. So it’s defi nitely going to helpus.”

Tennessee will have an opportunity to knock off another of the Big East’s highlyranked teams when it meets Pitt in the SEC/Big East Challenge in Pittsburgh on Dec. 11.

UofL coach Rick Pitino said “the Big East is a lot better than people thought,

including myself. The Big East is very good, much tougher than expected.... I

hope we’re better.” - photo by Dave Klotz


P I T I N O T H I N K S L E A G U E T O U G H E R T H A N E X P E C T E D

UCONN MAY BE AMONG BIG EAST’S ELITE ONCE AGAIN


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

By Russ BrownConnecticut, incredibly, is within one win

of its fi rst berth in a BCS bowl, but coach Randy Edsall has ordered that his players re-frain from discussing any bowl possibilities. Of course, many think the BCS should refrain from allowing any Big East team to play in a BCS bowl, but that’s another story.

After UConn kept its BCS hopes alive with a 38-17 victory over Cincinnati Saturday in

East Hartford, Edsall told the media in his postgame press conference, “The kids are going to come in here, but don’t bother asking them about the BCS because I told them to keep their mouths shut.”

Aside from the usual football coach paranoia/over-reaction/obsessive

control factors, Edsall wants his team focused entirely on its game with South Florida (7-4, 4-3) Saturday night in Tampa (8 o’clock, ABC, ESPN or ESPN2).

West Virginia’s 35-10 win over Pittsburgh opened the door for UConn, creating a three-way tie for fi rst place in the Big East, with No. 23 WVU, Pitt and the Huskies all standing at 4-2. The Big East champ automatically earns a spot in a BCS game -- this year either a Jan. 3 date in the Orange Bowl against the ACC champ or in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 1 in Glen-dale, Ariz., against the BIg 12 champ.

A UConn win at USF would give the Huskies the BCS spot because they hold the tie-breaker over both WVU and Pitt, having beaten both. Should UConn lose, WVU could become the league’s BCS representative by beating woeful Rutgers (4-7, 1-5) in Morgantown, and Rut-gers is 0-15 all time at WVU.

“We’re going to focus on the South Florida game because that’s our biggest goal right now,” Edsall said. “Focus equals execution, and if we execute, we win. South Florida is going to be a hard game. It’s on the road, but you know what? You play the game to be in this position.”

Even in such a bad year for the Big East, UConn looked like anything but a title con-tender in its dreary, inept 26-0 loss to Louisville on Oct. 23 in Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium to start 0-2 in conference play. In that loss the Huskies, who started freshman quarterback Michael Box for the fi rst time, were awful. They managed only 195 yards total offense while surrendering 355 and committing three turnovers.

But the Huskies (7-4) haven’t lost since, dis-patching WVU, Pitt, Syracuse and Cincinnati.

“There were four things I told them after the Louisville game,” Edsall said. “I wanted to see them be more physically tough than we had been. I wanted them to be more men-tally tough than we had been. I told them to let things go and focus on the next play. The last was, I told them to let it fl y and have fun. Whatever happens, happens. Our leadership stepped it up a notch, and guys started to do the things we had wanted them to do from the beginning of the season.”

Comebacks are actually becoming old hat for the Huskies. Last year they were reeling from the murder of teammate Jasper Howard

-- ironically, after a win over UofL -- and three close losses that followed. Facing postsea-son elimination, they ripped off four straight wins.

“We’re a team that faces adversity, and we win,” offensive lineman Zach Hurd said. “Af-ter we started 0-2 in the conference, we said we can lose respect and just lay down and die for the rest of the season. But my team-mates and I are not like that, and neither are our coaches. It’s all about going out there and having the passion to play and the desire. Our goal right now is to earn national respect. To show everybody that we started off bad, but we’re going to fi nish off strong.”

Said defensive tackle Kendall Reyes: “We got sick of where we were. There were two ways we could have gone. We could have gone south or we could have stepped up. We’ve been inspired, having great practices. We’ve got an attitude about us now. We’ve got like a new swag, basically.”

One thing is certain. If UConn fi nishes off its unlikely resurrection with a win over USF, Edsall should be a unanimous choice for Big East Coach of the Year. He already is being mentioned as a candidate for coaching vacan-cies at Miami, Indiana and Minnesota.

In the win over Cincinnati at Rentschler Field, UConn forced fi ve turnovers, which it turned into 21 points, and Jordan Todman rushed 31 times for 175 yards and three touchdowns.

WVU FACES WAITING GAMEWest Virginia (8-3) will play Rutgers at noon

Saturday, then spend the rest of the day and

evening awaiting the outcome of the UConn-USF showdown. But WVU coach Bill Stewart said he won’t be paying any attention to the Huskies’ game, and if you believe that. ...

“I really don’t care if I see one snap Satur-day night,” Stewart said Sunday. “If we beat Rutgers we are league champs, and that’s our goal. Our focus is Rutgers, Rutgers, Rutgers. We need to win this game. Every waking mo-ment of my life for the next six days is go-ing to be spent on beating Rutgers. I will not sleep.”

The Mountaineers lost 16-13 in overtime at UConn on Oct. 29 and lost at home to Syracuse (19-14) on Oct. 23, but that hasn’t changed their minds about their ability.

“We know we’re the best team in the Big East,” wide receiver Jock Sanders said. “All that being said, we still have to go out and win another game.”

Stewart said he didn’t watch the UConn-UC game because he was at his son’s high school football game, but he acknowledged that he got updates through text messages.

“It does not matter to me,” he said. “The only thing that matters to Bill Stewart, this staff and these players is taking care of our business before we worry about somebody else’s business.”

It would be a shock if the WVU-Rutgers game is anything but a rout for the Mountain-eers. The Scarlet Knights have lost fi ve straight during which they’ve given up an average of 38.2 points and miles of yardage. They are last in the Big East and can’t make a bowl even if they beat West Virginia.

“We’d better beat Rutgers and take care of our business before we worry about anybodyelse’s business,” Stewart said. “And I’m go-ing to keep pounding that in their (his players)heads. I’ll run them up the law school hill. I’llbear-crawl them up that hill if I hear anythingother than Rutgers come out of that lockerroom.”

WANNSTEDT GOING, GOING ...Even before last Friday’s Pitt-West Virginia

Backyard Brawl, a Pittsburgh columnist wrotethat the losing coach would probably be fi red.Pitt’s Dave Wannstedt was under fi re anywayfor his team’s underachieving the past fewyears, and now the heat is on full blast.

Several Pittsburgh columnists have been harsh in their criticism of Wannstedt followingthe Panthers’ sloppy, uninspired performanceagainst the Mountaineers. Here’s a sampling:

Wannstedt must answer for thisby Kevin Gorman, Pittsburgh Tribune-ReviewDave Wannstedt arrived at Pitt with such

bravado.He talked tough about restoring tradition

and winning national championships. That actvanished Friday at Heinz Field, along with thePanthers’ Big East championship hopes.

The Pitt coach had no answers following a 35-10 loss to West Virginia in the 103rd Back-yard Brawl and didn’t waste anyone’s timetrying. His post-game news conference lastedall of 3 minutes, 59 seconds.

“Obviously disappointing,” he said.Disgraceful might be a better description.After putting the Panthers on the brink of a

Big East title and BCS bowl berth each of the


From left, UofL players Anthony Conner, Hakeem Smith, Victor Anderson and Shenard Holton accepted congratulations from UofL fans after the Cards blasted Rutgers 40-13 last Friday. - photo by Dave KLotz

UCONN AIMING FOR BCS, BUT PLAYERS UNDER GAG ORDER

past three seasons only to come up with di-sastrous defeats, one thing has become abun-dantly clear: Wannstedt is done. You know

it, I know it and perhaps even Wannstedt knows it.

While Wannstedt hasn’t run out of ways to lose meaningful games, he has run out of answers. For a coach who preaches prepara-tion, the Panthers looked pitiful in the an-nual game against their archrival — which could have yielded at least a share of the conference championship.

“We kind of lost ...” said Wannstedt, searching for words to describe the defl a-tion of the defeat. “The wind came out of the balloon.”

It wasn’t about the game plan but rather the execution. Pitt had a season-high four turnovers, three leading to Mountaineers touchdowns. Wannstedt and his Panthers talked as though they outplayed West Vir-ginia — except for a few big plays. That’s like saying Wannstedt has done a great job at Pitt — except for a few big games.

Pitt started the season ranked No. 15 and an overwhelming favorite to win the Big East. That the Panthers are 6-5 is incredibly disappointing and leaves Chancellor Mark Nordenberg no choice but to fi re Wannst-edt.

Pitt awarded Wannstedt a two-year con-tract extension through 2014, so there’s some thought that maybe he can salvage his job by fi ring some assistants. But the only spot on the staff where Wannstedt hasn’t made a change is at running backs coach, and some of the biggest blunders this sea-son have come on special teams.

Guess who coaches those units? Wannst-edt has to answer for this.

Blame falls on Pitt’s Wannstedt by Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Angry Pitt fans began the exodus from Heinz Field late in the third quarter Friday, not long after West Virginia scored a touchdown to take a 28-10 lead and turn what should have been a great rivalry game into a joke. You almost could hear the muttering.

“Why did we waste our precious time during the holiday weekend to watch this team?”

The Pitt players weren’t intentionally try-ing to get coach Dave Wannstedt fi red. It just looked that way. They couldn’t have played a worse game. On a day when they had a chance to honor their 11 seniors in their fi -nal home game, keep control of the Big East Conference, lame as it is, and beat their hated rival, they didn’t bother showing up.

Shame on them.But the 35-10 licking Pitt took from West

Virginia won’t be remembered for the many mistakes the seemingly unprepared Panthers made. It should be remembered as the day the Wannstedt era at Pitt ended, even if there’s one more game at Cincinnati next Saturday and some ridiculous, meaningless bowl game to follow.

This performance -- this 6-5 season, actu-ally -- is unacceptable for a coach in his sixth year on the job. In just three weeks, Pitt has wasted a two-game lead in the bumbling Big East and handed over the title to Connecticut or West Virginia for the taking.

Shame on Wannstedt.Sure, it’s hard to look at the Pitt mistakes

against West Virginia individually and blame

any on Wannstedt. This wasn’t like the 23-17 loss to Notre Dame in October when he in-excusably called a timeout late in the game only to punt. Do you blame Wannstedt for the poor throws by quarterback Tino Sun-seri, including a killer interception early? The dropped passes? The three lost fumbles? The snap over Sunseri’s head in the shotgun? Sun-seri’s failure to fall on the ball? The inability to fi eld a kickoff cleanly? The penalty for calling for a fair catch and then blocking? The missed tackles? The total collapse of the defense in the second half against an offense that has been mostly putrid all season?

But here’s the big problem:The mistakes keep happening to Wannst-

edt’s teams. It has been that way for six years. It seems like the same story every week, even in games that Pitt wins.

There’s a chance Wannstedt will keep his job even if Pitt loses to Cincinnati and loses in their bowl game to fi nish 6-7. Chancellor Mark Nordenberg will make that call, and he isn’t one to go public with his thinking. But, at this point, the best reasons for Wannstedt to stay on are that he’s a Pitt man, he loves the program and he’ll never leave for another job.

There seems to be a fear by some around Pitt that the next coach will use the job as steppingstone and leave for a better position after just a few seasons. I don’t buy that. The Pitt job can be a great job if the university is willing to pay a head coach. It needs to step up and pay that coach.

WALK-ON QB RESCUES BULLSSouth Florida got its fi rst so-called signa-

ture win under fi rst-year coach Skip Holtz by dealing a 23-20 overtime loss to host Miami last Saturday, giving the Bulls a victory over one of the state’s Big Three programs for the second season in a row.

Afterward, Miami fi red head coach Randy Shannon.

“It’s been the Big Four, they just didn’t see it. They see it now,” said USF linebacker Jacquian Williams, whose team upset Florida State last year.

“It was a great feeling just looking across the sideline and seeing those guys disap-pointed,” USF linebacker Sabbath Joseph said. “During the whole game, their players are jawing at us, saying, ‘Y’all are a mediocre program.’ I guess that shows how mediocre we are.”

Demetris Murray scored the winning touch-down in OT on a 1-yard run, and the offense staged some late-game heorics under the direction of freshman walk-on quarterback Bobby Eveld, who replaced an injured B.J. Daniels at the start of the second half.

After Miami had taken a 17-10 lead in the fourth quarter, Eveld -- in his fi rst action since playing the fi nal minute at West Virginia on Oct. 14 -- directed a nine-play, 81-yard drive that he capped with a 1-yard sneak to tie it.

“This is a big win for the program,” Holtz said. “This is the level we aspire to be. This is what we want to do. We’ve talked about the Big Three in the state of Florida in Florida, Florida State and Miami. They’ve all won con-ference championships and national champi-onships, and this is the level we want to com-pete at.”

Daniels, who aggravated his quad injury during a run on USF’s fi nal drive of the fi rst half, is considered questionable for the UConn game Saturday night.


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

BIG EAST OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEKJordan Todman • Jr. • RB • Connecticut • North Dartmouth, Mass.

Todman rushed for 175 yards and three touchdowns on 31 carries to lead Connecticut to a 38-17 win against Cincinnati and lift the Huskies into a three-way tie for fi rst place in the BIG EAST standings. Todman scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns to

break open what had been a one-possession game and put Connecticut in the driver’s seat in the BIG EAST race.

BIG EAST DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEKBrandon Hogan • Sr. • CB • West Virginia • Manasses, Va.

Hogan had a hand in two fi rst-half turnovers to lead West Virginia to a 35-10 win at Pittsburgh, forging a three-way tie atop the BIG EAST standings. Hogan had a 53-yard interception return to the 2-yard line on the fi rst series to set up the

Mountaineers’ fi rst touchdown of the day and he added a forced fumble and a fumble recovery in the second quarter. Hogan fi nished with six tackles as part of a West Virginia defense that has not allowed more than 21 points in a game this season.

BIG EAST SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEKJustin Brockhaus-Kahn • So. • P • USF • Winter Springs, Fla.

Brockhaus-Kahn helped tilt the fi eld in USF’s favor in the Bulls’ 23-20 overtime win at Miami (Fla.). He averaged 41.0 yards on 10 punts, hitting two punts of 50 yards or more and dropping two inside the 20-yard line. He helped limit Miami’s

punt return unit to just 28 total yards on seven returns.

WEEKLY HONOR ROLLKendall Reyes, DE, Connecticut — Had 2.5 tackles for loss and set up a touchdown with a 79-yard interception return in a

38-17 win against Cincinnati.

Johnny Patrick, CB, Louisville — Had two interceptions, and returned one for a touchdown, three pass breakups and two tackles in a 40-13 win at Rutgers.

Bilal Powell, RB, Louisville — Rushed for 123 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries and had two touchdown receptions totaling 28 yards in a 40-13 win at Rutgers.

Bobby Eveld, QB, USF — Came off the bench in the second half to complete 8 of 15 passes for 120 yards and scored the tying touchdown with two minutes left in regulation in a 23-20 overtime win at Miami (Fla.).

Geno Smith, QB, West Virginia — Completed 9 of 12 passes for 212 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions in a 35-10 win at Pittsburgh.

BIG EAST WEEKLY HONORS - NOV. 29


CARDINAL STARSBILAL POWELL - FOOTBALLThe senior running back from Clermont, Fla., rushed 23 times for 123 yards and a touchdown against Rutgers Friday. Powell, who tied the school single-season record with his seventh 100-yard game, also caught two passes for 28 yards and two TDs. Powell can break the single-season record of seven 100-yard rushing games set by Walter Peacock in 1973 and equaled by Frank Moreau in 1999. Powell has rushed for 1,330 yards and 10 touchdowns this season. He also has 16 catches for 148 yards and three TDs.

AUSTIN BERRY - MEN’S SOCCERThe junior from Cincinnati, Ohio, scored the game-winning goal on a header in the 62nd minute of Sunday night’s Sweet 16 game against No. 16 Ohio State. Berry, a defender who is also an aerial specialist, headed the ball into the goal by rising above two other players. The 6-foot-2, 180-pound Berry is known as one of the toughest defenders in the nation. He was named the Big East Defender of the Year at the annual banquet this season. He has four goals (all on headers) and two assists this season.

TAYLOR BRAUNEIS - VOLLEYBALLThe freshman from Crystal Lake, Ill., recorded her eighth double-double of the year with 45 assists and 11 digs during Louisville’s 3-1 win over Austin Peay on Saturday. Brauneis tied Lola Arslanbekova for the most double-doubles this season. She has 1,027 assists this season, 9.01 per set. She also has a serving percentage of 93.8, with 16 service aces, and she is second on the team in digs with 256. A 5-10 setter, Brauneis was a Prep Volleyball Senior Ace nominee and was a Fab 50 recruits for the Cardinals.

MONIQUE REID - WOMEN’S BASKETBALLThe junior from Louisville’s Fern Creek H. S. scored 13 points in 14 minutes against IPFW Monday night. She also had a rebound, a block and a turnover. She was 6 of 8 from the fi eld and 1 of 2 from the line. Against Old Dominion last Friday Reid had 16 points and fi ve rebounds, almost exactly her average. Reid leads the team in scoring at 16.4 ppg and is third in rebounding at 5.1 rpg. She’s made 58.8 percent of her shots this season.

SHONI SCHIMMEL - WOMEN’S BASKETBALLThe freshman from Mission, Ore., hit 6 of 11 shots for 15 points against IPFW Monday night. She also had seven assists, fi ve rebounds, two steals and a block in 25 minutes of playing time. She had four turnovers. Against Old Dominion on Friday, Schimmel led the team with 19 points and six assists (four turnovers) in 35 minutes. Through Louisville’s fi rst seven games Schimmel is averaging 12.7 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. Her 38 assists is triple the total of any other player.

RAKEEM BUCKLES - MEN’S BASKETBALLThe sophomore from Miami, Fla., hit 6 of 10 shots and scored 12 points during Louisville’s 80-66 win over Marshall Saturday at the KFC Yum! Center. He also grabbed seven rebounds and had a block, a steal and an assist in 23 minutes. Through Louisville’s fi rst four games Buckles is second on the team in scoring at 11.3 ppg and leads the team with 7.3 rebounds per game. He’s hit 56.3 percent of his shots this season, including 4 of 8 from beyond the arc.

DYLAN MARES - MEN’S SOCCERThe freshman forward from Zionsville, Ind., was named to TopDrawerSoccer.com’s National All-Rookie second team last week. Earlier, he became the second Cardinal to earn Big East Rookie of the Year honors. Mares ranks second on the team in scoring with eight goals and three assists for 19 points. He leads the team in goals scored with eight and has three game-winning goals. He also was named a second team All-Big East selection and an All-Rookie team selection. Mares has earned several Player of the Week honors this season.

POWELLPOWELL

BERRYBERRY

BRAUNEISBRAUNEIS

REIDREID

SCHIMMELSCHIMMEL

BUCKLESBUCKLES

MARESMARES

HOWIE LINDSEY’SHOWIE LINDSEY’S

OF THE WEEKOF THE WEEK

Louisville freshman Damian Copeland scored his fi rst career touchdown against Rutgers Friday.

Copeland is one of 33 underclassmen playing for Louisville this season. - photo by Howie Lindsey

Chris Philpott got an assist from receiver Doug Beaumont. The wind kept blowing the ball of the tee at Rutgers, so a player had to hold it in place on each kickoff. On this play, Beaumont ran down fi eld and made the tackle. - photo by Dave Klotz


2007 CARDINAL CARAVAN

D


CARDINAL FOOTBALL SENIOR DAY PHOTO GALLERY

PAGE 28 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT DECEMBER 2, 2010

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december 2, 2010 issue

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