feb. 9 issue (2011)

VOLUME XV • NUMBER 25FEBRUARY 9, 2011

$3.00

LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT FEBRUARY 3, 2011

FEBRUARY 9, 2011 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

GRAPHIC DESIGNER - Scott Stortz

COPY EDITOR - Rick Cushing

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

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VOLUME XV, NUMBER 25 • FEBRUARY 9, 2011

CSPACOLLEGESPORTS

PUBLISHERSASSOCIATIONCOVER PHOTO BY DAVE KLOTZ

DESIGN BY SCOTT STORTZ

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W H A T ’ S I N S I D E

4 IRISH HAVE BEEN ON A ROLL, ESPECIALLY AT HOME By Rick Cushing 6 MAYBE ANOTHER FAB FEBRUARY AWAITS By Russ Brown8 WHAT MAKES THESE CARDS SUCCESSFUL? By Jack Coffee9 SIGNING DAY BLITZ: RANKING THE BIG EAST By Mike Farrell, Rivals.com15 HURTT COMES UP BIG FOR LOUISVILLE RECRUITING By Howie Lindsey

16 THE TOP-50 RECRUITING CLASSES IN THE NATION By Rivals.com17 ORANGE HAS REGROUPED AFTER FOUR-GAME SKID By Rick Cushing 20 CARDINAL STARS OF THE WEEK By Howie Lindsey20 WITH SOCCER COACH LOLLA’S HELP, ECARMA’S TENNIS TEAM OFF TO A FAST

START By Russ Brown

5 CARDS HANG ON AGAINChris Smith and the Cardinals hung on for another league win Saturday despite being hobbled by injuries. The Cardinals came from behind to beat lowly DePaul 61-57 to improve to 18-5, 7-3.

11-14 2011 SIGNING DAY PROFILESThe Cardinals had fi ve mid-year enrollees and 15 signed recruits in Charlie Strong’s fi rst real recruiting class. Check out a breakdown of each of the 20 new Cardinals, including lineman Aaron Epps.

7 LOUISVILLE SIGNS BIG EAST’S TOP CLASSLocal stars Jamon Brown and Jalen Harrington signed with Louisville at a ceremony at Fern Creek High last week. Brown and Harrington are two of 20 highly rated recruits who inked with Charlie Strong in his fi rst full recruiting class.

18-19 PITT HAS A TWO-GAME LEADRuss Brown’s weekly spin around the league includes insight into Syracuse’s recent resurgence, Pittsburgh’s injury trouble, a suspension for Cincinnati’s best big man and much more. Also check out the league standings.

10 GOOD, BAD AND UGLYPreston Knowles and several others are out for Louisville, and the Cards still gutted out a win over DePaul. That’s good, but what about the bad and ugly? Howie Lindsey checks in with his weekly rundown.

21 BACK IN THE WIN COLUMNAfter a disappointing second-half performance against No. 17 Georgetown, freshman Shoni Schimmel and the UofL women got back in the win column Sunday with a victory at Villanova. West Virginia comes to town next.

1986 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS SILVER ANNIVERSARY THIS WEEKENDThe University of Louisville’s 1986 NCAA championship team will be recognized at halftime of the Cardinals’ Feb. 12 game against Syracuse in the KFC Yum! Center on this silver anniversary year of the achievement. The current UofL team will wear retro uniforms for the Syracuse game in the style worn by the 1986 team. - photo courtesy of UofL Athletics

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LOUISVILLE BASKETBALL PREVIEW - NOTRE DAME

By Rick CushingNotre Dame has been another surprise team from the Big

East this season. Picked to fi nish seventh in the league in a preseason poll of coaches and unranked nationally, the Fight-ing Irish enter this week at 19-4, 8-3, are ranked No. 9/8 in the country, are in second place in the Big East and are the only Big East team to have defeated Pitt. Furthermore, they did so at Pitt, 56-51 on Jan. 24.

The big question mark at the start of the season was how well the Irish would adjust to the loss of Luke Harangody, one of the greatest players in school history. Notre Dame has answered that question with a balanced attack and extreme patience – the “burn offense,” as in burn the clock before at-tempting a shot. The Irish frequently use all but fi ve seconds of the 35-second shot clock before attempting a shot. This causes more ball and player movement and, although Notre Dame has not been shooting the lights out (45.3 percent overall, 96th in the country, 37.5 percent on treys, 61st in the country), it is frustrating to the other team, especially when it rushes a shot and misses, then has to wait at least a half-minute to get the ball back.

Helping the Irish practice such patience is the fact that they have fi ve senior starters, all of whom are good passers and three of whom are very good three-point shooters. Not one starter has more turnovers than assists, and three are shoot-ing 39.5 percent or better from three-point range. Notre Dame utilizes, in essence, a three-forward offense, with a 6-8 center who stays inside, two forwards measuring 6-8 and one 6-7.

Notre Dame has another big edge – its home-court advan-tage. It is 14-0 at home this season and has won 16 straight home games dating to last season. Some say the Irish have the biggest home-court advantage in the country. The Cards will have to try to overcome that advantage Wednesday.

COACHMike Brey is in his 11th season at Notre Dame, having

coached previously for fi ve seasons at Delaware, which he led to the NCAA Tournament twice. He has taken the Irish to the NCAA Tournament six times, including last season, when they lost in the fi rst round, 51-50 to Old Dominion. His overall record is 328-169, at Notre Dame 230-117. With Sunday’s home-court victory over Rutgers, the Irish are off to the best start in the Brey era, having previously started 18-4 three times.

GUARDSThe 6-3 Ben Hansbrough leads the team in scoring at 16.9

ppg and is fi fth in rebounding at 3.6 rpg. He shoots 46.5 per-cent overall, an outstanding 42.5 percent from three-point range. He also leads the team in assists at 4.0 per game and in steals with 27, and he’s a good free-throw shooter at 82.1 per-cent. He had 21 points and eight rebounds in a 91-89 double-overtime loss at UofL last Feb. 17. A transfer from Mississippi State, Ben is the younger brother of 2009 College Player of the Year Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina. He now plays for the NBA’s Indiana Pacers.

Scott Martin, who’s 6-8, is listed as a guard but really is a forward. He handles the ball competently but has 36 assists

and 31 turnovers. A transfer from Purdue, he missed all last season with a knee injury. He’s averaging 10.1 ppg and 5.0 rpg, both fourth on the team. He’s shooting 42.4 percent overall, 32.8 percent on treys

Eric Atkins, a 6-1 freshman, has seen his playing time in-crease as the season progressed and is now averaging 28.3 minutes a game, about the same as three of the starters. At-kins is averaging 7.2 ppg, sixth on the team, and 3.4 assists per game, second on the team. His assist-to-turnover ratio is 2.57, which is 23rd in the country. When he plays he runs the point and frees up Hansbrough to be more of a shooting guard. Because of UofL’s pressure, I believe we’ll see a lot of Atkins.

Joey Brooks, a 6-5 sophomore (2.0 ppg), also sees action in every game.

BIG MENCarleton Scott, who is 6-7, averages 11.5 ppg, third on the

team, and 6.4 rebounds, tied with Tim Abromaitis for the team lead. He’s shooting 49.0 percent overall, 37.3 percent on treys, and he leads the team in blocks with 30. He also leads the team in free-throw shooting at 90.2 percent. He made 5 of 6 three-point shots against Pitt.

The 6-8 Abromaitis is averaging 14.2 ppg, second on the team, and 6.4 rpg. He is shooting 43.3 percent overall, a good 39.4 percent from three-point range. He had 29 points against UofL last season.

The 6-8 Tyrone Nash, who mans the middle, is averaging 9.8 ppg, fi fth on the team, and 5.8 rpg, third on the team. He’s shooting 47.3 percent and had not tried a three-point shot over the past two seasons until the DePaul game last Thursday when he got caught with the ball and one second on the shot clock and threw up a three-point shot – which he swished!

The top frontline sub is 6-9 sophomore Jack Cooley, who’s averaging 3.6 ppg and 2.9 rpg. He’s shooting 51.5 percent and has not taken a three-point shot. Another sub is 6-9 sophomore Mike Broghammer (1.8 ppg).

MISC.The Irish do a very good job of taking care of the ball. They

average just 11.1 turnovers a game, second in the Big East, 19th in the country, and have an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.49/1, second in the Big East, eighth in the country. They av-erage 16.6 assists per game, which is 19th in the country. They have a rebounding margin of plus-5.2, 39th in the country, and average just 15.6 fouls a game, which ranks 13th in the coun-try. One weakness the Cards hope to exploit is ND’s three-point defense, which is 34.8 percent, 196th in the country.

ALL-TIME SERIESUofL and Notre Dame have met 27 times in a series that

dates to 1952, with the Cards holding a 16-9 advantage. They have won three of the past four meetings, including last year. They’ve lost the last two times they played at Notre Dame, how-ever, and neither game was close: 78-62 in 2007 and 90-57 in 2009. The 33-point loss was UofL’s worst under Pitino and worst since falling 106-72 to Charlotte in 2001, Denny Crum’s last season.

NO NAME POS YR EXP HT/WT HOMETOWN 0 ERIC ATKINS G FR. 6-1/170 COLUMBIA, MD (MOUNT ST. JOSEPH HS)

1 TYRONE NASH F SR. 3V 6-8/232 QUEENS, NY (LAWRENCE WOODMERE ACADEMY)

5 TOM KOPKO G SR. 3V 6-2/183 CHICAGO, IL (ST. LAURENCE)

12 ALEX DRAGICEVICH G FR. 6-6/210 NORTHBROOK, IL (GLENBROOK NORTH HS)

14 SCOTT MARTIN G SR. 2V 6-8/219 VALPARAISO, IN (VALPARAISO)

21 TIM ABROMAITIS F SR. 2V 6-8/235 UNIONVILLE, CT (FARMINGTON)

22 JERIAN GRANT G FR. 6-5/180 BOWIE, MD (DEMATHA HS)

23 BEN HANSBROUGH F SR. 3V 6-3/206 POPLAR BLUFF, MO (POPLAR BLUFF)

25 THOMAS KNIGHT F SO. 1V 6-9/251 DIXFIELD, ME (DIRINGO HS)

32 JOEY BROOKS G SO. 1V 6-5/215 HOUSTON, TX (STRAKE JESUIT COLLEGE PREP)

33 MIKE BROGHAMMER F SO. 1V 6-9/243 ORONO, MN (HOPKINS)

34 CARLETON SCOTT F SR. 3V 6-7/217 SAN ANTONIO, TX (JAMES MADISON)

45 JACK COOLEY F SO. 1V 6-9/244 GLENVIEW, IL (GLENBROOK SOUTH)

NOTR

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2010-11 NOTRE DAME BASKETBALL ROSTER

Wednesday, Feb. 9Louisville at Notre Dame

7 PM, ESPNU

2010-11 SCHEDULEDATE OPPONENT TIME NOVEMBER Nov. 12, 2010 Georgia So. W, 98-61Nov. 14, 2010 Liberty W, 72-51Nov. 17, 2010 Chicago St. W, 102-62 Nov. 22, 2010 Maine W, 97-72Nov. 25, 2010 Georgia1 W, 89-83Nov. 30, 2010 Indiana St. W, 81-72

DECEMBER Dec. 8, 2010 at Kentucky L, 72-58Dec. 11, 2010 Gonzaga W, 83-79Dec. 19, 2010 Stony Brook W, 88-62Dec. 22, 2010 Maryland-BC W, 93-53Dec. 29, 2010 Georgetown W, 69-55

JANUARY Jan. 1, 2011 at Syracuse L, 70-58Jan. 4, 2011 Connecticut W, 73-70Jan. 8, 2011 St. John’s W, 76-61Jan. 10, 2011 at Marquette L, 79-57Jan. 16, 2011 at St. John’s W, 76-61Jan. 19, 2011 Cincinnati W, 66-58Jan. 22, 2011 Marquette L, 79-57Jan. 24, 2011 at Pittsburgh W, 56-51

FEBRUARY Feb. 3, 2011 at DePaul W, 83-58Feb. 6, 2011 Rutgers W, 76-69Feb. 9, 2011 Louisville 7:00 pm ETFeb. 12, 2011 at South Florida 12:00 pm ETFeb. 19, 2011 at West Virginia 1:00 pm ETFeb. 23, 2011 at Providence 7:00 pm ETFeb. 26, 2011 Seton Hall 7:00 pm ETFeb. 28, 2011 Villanova 7:00 pm ET

MARCH Mar. 5, 2011 at Connecticut 2:00 pm ET

Coach: Mike BreyLast season: 23-12, 10-8 Big East

Overall record: 329-169 (16th season)At Notre Dame: 230-117 (11th season)

Irish have won at least20 games 4 years in a row

TIM ABROMAITISTIM ABROMAITIS

IRISH HAVE BEEN ON A ROLL, ESPECIALLY AT HOME


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

By Russ BrownIf another injury had to hit the University

of Louisville basketball team, there was one big reason to be grateful concerning Preston Knowles’ hamstring problem last week:

The timing. Because the upcoming opponent wasn’t

one of the Big East’s many powerhouses, but rather perennial cellar-dweller DePaul, the league’s poster child for futility and incom-petence.

If you’re going to be missing your senior captain and leading scorer, the Big East team you want as a guest is the Blue Demons, who were working on a 22-game conference los-ing streak and were winless in 44 of their last 45 league contests.

Even at that, though, last Saturday’s game in the KFC Yum! Center proved to be a strug-gle for the No. 15/13 Cardinals (18-5, 7-3) as they got the second half of their Big East schedule off to a successful – if unimpressive and somewhat worrisome – start by grinding out a 61-57 victory.

The victory kept UofL in a three-way tie for second place going into Wednesday’s game at No. 8 Notre Dame, although the Irish (19-4 overall) broke the deadlock Sunday and claimed sole possession of second at 8-3 with a 76-69 victory over Rutgers.

DePaul (6-16, 0-10) had lost just one other Big East game by fewer than 11 points – 67-65 against West Virginia – and was clobbered by visiting Notre Dame 83-58 last Thursday. So the narrow win doesn’t exactly build con-fi dence for the Cards’ prospects going into a tough week that will fi nd Syracuse waiting on Saturday when they return home from South Bend.

“We’re hanging on,” UofL coach Rick Pi-tino said. “We’re doing the best we can, but it’s very, very diffi cult. It’s extremely frustrat-ing what we’re going through.”

Besides Knowles, who was averaging 14.9 points and also leading the Cards in four oth-er offensive categories, UofL also was miss-ing starting center and leading shot-blocker Gorgui Dieng (concussion).

Knowles watched from the bench in a sweatshirt and jeans after injuring his ham-string in practice last week. Dieng didn’t even make it out on the fl oor, watching on TV from the locker room because the noise inside the arena could hinder his recovery. Dieng was hurt against West Virginia on Jan. 26.

“He’s nowhere near coming back,” Pitino said. “For some reason our concussions take much longer than other concussions. He took a pretty bad spill and hit his head pretty hard, I guess.”

Knowles became the eighth player this season to miss one or more games with an injury, and he joined Dieng and leading re-bounder Rakeem Buckles (broken fi nger) on the sideline. Buckles is to be examined Wednesday and could possibly be available for Syracuse Saturday.

“You notice we’re missing a lot of key players right now,” center Terrence Jennings said. “A lot of key players. That’s what the problem is. Practice and getting better is what we’re trying to do. Injuries are part of

the game, so our mindset is playing together and playing hard; that’s what we’re doing. We’re trying to play with a lot of heart.”

Meanwhile, the Cards have somehow been able to squeak by – the win over DePaul was their fourth by four points or less in the last seven outings – and stay in the thick of the Big East race.

But one has to wonder how far their grit will carry them and when their good fortune in close games will run out.

“We’ve shown a lot of heart, a lot of cour-age,” Pitino said. “That being said, you can’t keep doing this because sooner or later, like at Georgetown (a 62-59 loss last Monday), your luck runs out. Right now, it’s really, really diffi cult to execute offensively, very diffi cult to execute defensively.”

But you won’t hear the players complain-ing about the injuries or the patchwork line-ups they have been forced to deal with.

“Someone has to step up every game,” junior swingman Kyle Kuric said. “We can’t let that affect us. We have to gut it out.”

Against DePaul, UofL survived with its usual selfl ess play and just enough defense, especially at the end.

Kuric helped atone for Knowles’ absence by coming off the bench to score a game-high 19 points. He hit 3 of 5 three-point shots, in-cluding a key one with just over two minutes remaining as the Cards improved to 8-0 on the season when he scores in double fi gures.

Jennings continued to play well, getting 10 points, eight rebounds, four blocks and two assists. Point guard Peyton Siva endured a nightmarish shooting game, missing all eight of his shots, but tied his season-high with 10 assists, made 6 of 8 free throws and committed only one turnover in 35 minutes.

DePaul, which entered the game averag-ing just four three-pointers per game, hit fi ve in the fi rst half and led 43-38 early in the second half. But the Blue Demons then managed just one fi eld goal over a six-min-ute stretch that allowed UofL to edge back in front for good.

“Our guys played hard and tough, and we deserved a little better,” said fi rst-year DePaul coach Oliver Purnell. “It seemed like we didn’t get any breaks going down the stretch.”

After Kuric’s basket gave Louisville a 60-54 lead, the hosts couldn’t close the deal and DePaul had the ball twice in the fi nal 24 seconds with a chance to tie it with a three-pointer, but UofL’s defense came to the res-cue both times.

Siva forced Brandon Young to take a chal-lenged trey from the top of the key. Then he caused a turnover on an inbounds pass with fi ve seconds remaining, drew a foul and made a free throw to end the suspense.

“That’s the poorest game we’ve played all year, and I don’t think it’s the players’ fault,” Pitino said. “I think DePaul had something to do with it. Our guys are showing great cour-age. They’ve been through the mill, had a lot of comebacks. Tonight wasn’t right for us. We got a win, though, and that’s the impor-tant thing. No one will remember how you played, they’ll remember the ‘W.’”

Sophomore point guard Peyton Siva was clobbered by DePaul’s Jimmy Drew on one of Siva’s drives into the paint. Siva said he was

cramping throughout the game and couldn’t feel his legs for a bit after he landed on his tailbone.

- photo by Gail Kamenish

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

CARDS HANG ON AGAIN, SPOIL DEPAUL’S UPSET BID, 61-57

2010-11 MEN’S SCHEDULE DATE OPPONENT (TELEVISION) SITE TIME/RES RECORD CONF OCTOBER Sun. 31 NORTHERN KENTUCKY / exhibition KFC Yum! Center W, 83-66 -- NOVEMBER Thur. 11 KENTUCKY WESLEYAN / exhibition KFC Yum! Center W, 96-54 -- Tues. 16 BUTLER (ESPN) KFC Yum! Center W, 88-73 1-0 GLOBAL SPORTS SHOOTOUTSat. 20 JACKSON STATE KFC Yum! Center W, 62-45 2-0Mon. 22 CHATTANOOGA KFC Yum! Center W, 106-65 3-0Sat. 27 MARSHALL (ESPN3) KFC Yum! Center W, 80-66 4-0 DECEMBER Wed. 1 FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL (ESPN3) KFC Yum! Center W, 92-55 5-0 in GLOBAL SPORTS SHOOTOUT Sat. 4 SOUTH ALABAMA KFC Yum! Center W, 97-70 6-0 Wed. 8 SAN FRANCISCO (ESPN3) KFC Yum! Center W, 61-35 7-0Sat. 11 UNLV (ESPNU) KFC Yum! Center W, 77-69 8-0 in BILLY MINARDI CLASSIC Tues. 14 DREXEL (ESPNU) KFC Yum! Center L, 52-46 8-1Sat. 18 GARDNER-WEBB (ESPN3) KFC Yum! Center W, 78-49 9-1 Wed. 22 at Western Kentucky Bowling Green, Ky. W, 114-82 10-1Mon. 27 MORGAN STATE KFC Yum! Center W, 104-74 11-1 Fri. 31 KENTUCKY (CBS) KFC Yum! Center L, 78-63 11-2JANUARY Wed. 5 SETON HALL (ESPNU) KFC Yum! Center W, 73-54 12-2 1-0 Sun. 9 at USF Tampa, Fla. W, 86-77 13-2 2-0Wed. 12 at Villanova (ESPN/2) Philadelphia, Pa. L, 88-74 13-3 2-1 Sat. 15 MARQUETTE (ESPN2) KFC Yum! Center W, 71-70 14-3 3-1 Wed. 19 ST. JOHN’S KFC Yum! Center W, 88-63 15-3 4-1 Sat. 22 at Providence (ESPNU) Providence, R.I. L, 72-67 15-4 4-2Wed. 26 WEST VIRGINIA (ESPNU) KFC Yum! Center W, 55-54 16-4 5-2 Sat. 29 at Connecticut (ESPNU) Storrs, Conn. W, 79-78 (2OT) 17-4 6-2 Mon. 31 at Georgetown (ESPN) Washington, D.C. L, 62-59 17-5 6-3FEBRUARY Sat. 5 DEPAUL (BEN/WHAS) KFC Yum! Center W, 61-57 18-5 7-3 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


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

THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT

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MAYBE ANOTHER FAB FEBRUARY AWAITS AS CARDS GET HEALTHIERBy Russ Brown February has almost always been kind to the

University of Louisville basketball team, a time when it has picked up steam – the Cards are a sterling 24-6 during the year’s shortest month over the past four seasons.

And this February got off to an OK start with Saturday’s 61-57 victory over visiting DeP-aul. But the injury-riddled Cardinals (18-5, 7-3) obviously face a stiff challenge turning this into another Fab Feb., and coach Rick Pitino is plainly worried.

The road ahead gets much tougher Wednes-day night when No. 15/13 UofL visits No. 9/8 Notre Dame (19-4, 8-3), which has won fi ve in a row and is unbeaten in 14 games this season in the Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center.

Then the Cards return home to face No. 17 Syracuse (20-4, 7-4) at noon Saturday.

Leading scorer Preston Knowles missed the DePaul game with a hamstring injury, but Pi-tino expects him to return for Notre Dame.

“We all thought he was going to play (against DePaul),” Pitino said. “I was very surprised he didn’t. For him not to play, it’s a pretty good injury because he’s the toughest kid on the team by far. I don’t feel comfortable playing without Preston.”

Center Gorgui Dieng (concussion) will prob-ably miss his fourth straight game, however, and forward Rakeem Buckles (broken fi nger) isn’t expected to be available Wednesday ei-ther, although he could be back for Syracuse. Buckles hasn’t played since Jan. 27, a span of 11 games.

Pitino said the injuries are preventing the Cards from making their traditional steady im-provement.

“The biggest concern I’ve had is we’re not getting better as a basketball team,” he said. “You always improve with a young and inex-perienced team, but we’re just trying to keep from falling apart, and that’s not a good sign.

“We’ve even gotten out of shape, which is unheard of for one of our basketball teams. Because we can’t practice, we can’t do what

we want. Every time somebody goes up for a layup, our hearts are in our mouth because we’re afraid he could go down and can’t prac-tice again. It’s been the most agitating, an-noying thing I’ve experienced in my coaching career.”

But Pitino is hoping UofL will get healthier, avoid further injuries and can put together a strong season-ending run, then get hot in the Big East Tournament March 8-12 in New York.

And the injuries could actually pay dividends because of the experience players like Stephan Van Treese, Kyle Kuric, Mike Marra and Russ Smith have gained when their teammates have been sidelined. When Dieng and Buckles re-turn, the Cards will be deeper and more expe-rienced than they’ve been all season.

“Maybe there’s a silver lining down the road,” Pitino said. “We’ve always been good in February, but we’re not improving because we’re not practicing. It’s very diffi cult lineups we have to play. But we’re winning. We could be 5-18. We’re holding on, so I’m very encour-aged by the guys. The guys fi lling in are trying their best. I do think we’re very close to getting healthy again.”

Pitino said defense is the main area where injuries are taking their toll. Although UofL ranks a respectable sixth in the Big East in both fi eld-goal percentage defense (41.1) and three-point defense ( 35.3), three of the last fi ve op-ponents have shot signifi cantly better against the Cards than their season averages, and an-other, Georgetown, hit 13 of 17 shots in the second half.

“Defensively, we have got to get better,” Pi-tino said. “We were playing fantastic defense, terrifi c defense. Now we’re letting teams shoot too high of a percentage. We had people in the 20s, in the 30s, three-point-wise. Injuries can do that to you, they can really affect your team.”

Although players get few breaks during practice, Pitino said he isn’t worried about them hitting a wall this month from fatigue.

“They call it the dog days of February and,

sure, the guys are a little tired,” he said. “But I can assure you we’re going to be very fresh come the end of February.”

The Cards will have to be fresh and muster as much fi repower as they have all season in order to beat Notre Dame in South Bend Wednesday. Not only has UofL not won there in two trips under Pitino, but he suffered the second-worst loss of his coaching career on their last visit in February of 2009 when the Irish jumped on the Cards early and often en route to a 90-57 rout two years ago.

Louisville didn’t lose again for more than a month, winning 13 in a row before falling to Michigan State in the NCAA Elite Eight.

“They just take it to a whole new level up there,” said UofL center Terrence Jennings, who was a freshman on that 2008-09 club. “We have a good idea of what they’re trying to accomplish and what kind of sets they’re trying to run. We really have to concentrate on stop-ping their three-pointers.”

“I don’t think they missed a three-pointer the last time we went up there,” said senior George Goode. “They couldn’t miss; I swear, they hit like 100 threes.”

Goode joked that he knows why the Irish are so tough on their homecourt.

“It’s that leprechaun,” he said. “He’s just dancing around over there the whole time and maybe that distracts teams.”

Whatever it is, Notre Dame has already beaten three top-10 teams, including then-No. 2 Pittsburgh 56-51 on the Panthers’ homecourt for Pitt’s only conference loss.

Notre Dame is second in the Big East in three-pointers made per game at 7.4 to UofL’s 9.0, and the Irish rank third in shooting per-centage behind the arc at 37.6.

Notre Dame features a Big East Player of the Year candidate in senior guard Ben Han-sbrough, who has averaged 21 points during the current fi ve-game winning streak and is at 17.2 on the season. He also leads the team in assists (4.0 per game), steals (27) and minutes played (34.6). He’s also hitting 46.5 percent

from the fi eld and 83 percent from the free-throw line.

“Electric, powerful, amazing, and that’s who he is,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey saidof Hansbrough, the brother of former NorthCarolina star Tyler Hansbrough. “He’s a fl at-outassassin. He wants his team to do well. He talksabout winning all the time and backs it up.”

In his most recent outing, Hansbrough scored 25 points despite a tough start to leadND over Rutgers, 76-69, Sunday.

“When you step back a bit, look at this, and get away from the preseason hype machine,certainly he is a Big East Player of the Year can-didate as well as national Player of the Year,”Brey said. “Flat out. I mean, we are in the top10 and he has driven us into that position andwe are in the hunt for the league title. It isstarting to be really evaluated. Some peoplesay, ‘Let’s see what he does next game.’ Well,he did it again.”

After a slow start, Hansbrough took the Rutgers game over. At one point he was 2 of 8from the fi eld, but he used his drive-the-paintstyle to draw fouls and ended up making 11 of13 free throws in a game that saw Notre Damescore only twice in the last eight minutes.

“Hansbrough just took the ball and man-handled us,” Rutgers coach Mike Rice said.

The Irish, with fi ve senior starters, think they have positioned themselves well to make a runat their fi rst Big East regular-season champion-ship or league tournament title.

“I’m realistic where we are after being here 11 years,” Brey said. “We dream about busting through. Certainly this group, what they’ve done the end of last year and this year – they can almost chart a course for you to get into that territory. But the farthest I’ve gone is, ‘What would it be like to cut those nets down in the Garden?’”

“It’s crunch time,” said senior forward Carleton Scott. “It’s going to be fun.”

The Cards just hope some of that fun doesn’t come at their expense, like it did two years ago.


10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASON10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASONRECRUITING NOTEBOOK

By Jeff Wafford and Howie LindseyBy the time the dust settled at the end

of last Wednesday’s annual recruiting rodeo called National Signing Day, University of Lou-isville football coach Charlie Strong stood tri-umphant with the Big East’s No. 1 recruiting class.

Strong announced UofL’s 2011 signing class Wednesday afternoon, telling reporters he is excited about the 20 student-athletes he signed to National Letters of Intent.

“The foundation has been laid for this pro-gram, and we will continue to build on it,” he said, adding that he wanted to give the new players “a chance to come on this campus and become part of this university” before people judged them.

Strong mentioned that he doesn’t like to put too much stock in new players, but in-stead wants to focus on what the older play-ers have done for the program. That’s one of the reasons he has declined having a Universi-ty-sponsored Signing Day party at the Brown and Williamson Club at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium, as occurred under previous UofL re-gimes. Instead, Strong has opted to introduce his new recruiting class with as little fanfare as possible.

But given this year’s lofty ranking - No. 30 by Rivals.com, the highest ranking in school history - a little fanfare is hard to avoid. The Cardinals signed just 20 recruits, fi ve of whom are already enrolled, but the star power in the class is undeniable.

“We wanted to recruit speed,” Strong said. “We wanted to recruit mentally and physi-cally tough young men. We want guys who are dependable with good character, so when guys come into this program, they understand what we are all about. We are not going to take a step backwards.”

The Cardinals signed four four-star recruits, according to Rivals.com: quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, wide receiver Eli Rogers and de-fensive backs Gerod Holliman and Andrew Johnson. All the rest of Louisville’s recruits were rated three-stars, which denotes that they are legitimate Division 1 prospects, ex-cept for kicker John Wallace, who was a two-star (kickers are rarely rated at all).

Strong also netted two former four-star recruits in Jarvis Giles and Brandon Golson. Giles, a running back who was a freshman at South Carolina last season, transferred to Lou-isville at the mid-year semester break and will begin working out this spring, although he won’t be eligible until the 2012 season. Gol-son signed with South Carolina in 2010 but went to Hargrave Military instead, then re-opened his recruitment and enrolled at UofL

in January. He’ll be eligible this fall.Louisville’s No. 30 ranking (based on total

points using aformula that awards points per recruit) is great, and the Cardinals’ 3.16 aver-age star ranking is by far the best in school history as well. By average star ranking, Lou-isville’s class is ranked No. 23 in the nation, ahead of such traditional powers as Penn State, Wisconsin and Miami.

With 13 of the 20 players in the class hail-ing from Florida, it’s clear Strong used his coaching staff’s connections in the Sunshine State.

“You look at what we recruited, a lot of things are going to be said that we are Flori-da-heavy,” Strong said. “The reason why we are so Florida-heavy is because of our coach-ing staff. You look at Clint Hurtt, he coached at the University of Miami and recruited in Southern Florida. It is all about relationships.

“(Hurtt) was able to develop a lot of re-lationships with those high school coaches. When you had the change at the University of Miami, he already had those relationships developed. Guys had enough confi dence and belief in him that he would take care of the players, so we were able to go and recruit those young men. Then you look at guys like (assistant coaches) Kenny Carter, Vance Bed-ford, Brian Jean-Mary, Ron Dugans and my-self, guys who have been in that state and re-cruited. We were able to get the ties and the roads in that state. We were able to get some of the players out of there.”

The Cardinals also inked four players from Kentucky, including three from Louisville and Wallace from Central Hardin High in Eliza-bethtown.

“When you look at the local talent, you take Jamon Brown, a defensive tackle at Fern Creek who is a big-bodied guy,” Strong said. “We were looking for size. We needed a de-fensive tackle inside.... Brown is a guy who can add inside size. Then you look at DeVante Parker (from Ballard), a wide receiver that has a ton of ability. When you watch him play bas-ketball, he can get up and down the court. I actually think he is a basketball player some-times, but he is a really outstanding football player with good size and height. Jalen Har-rington is a safety who played at Fern Creek and can come in and help us. There was some really good local talent here, and we felt like we had to come in and keep this talent within our program.”

BRIDGEWATER WAS THE KEYBridgewater, who is from Miami, is cer-

tainly the headliner of the class. Holliman is Louisville’s highest-rated recruit (No. 93 in

the nation), but Bridgewater is the Cardinals’ quarterback of the future.

“He is a quarterback, a position we need-ed somebody in,” Strong said. “When you look at our roster right now, we only have two quarterbacks (Will Stein and Dominique Brown). Teddy is going to have to come in and learn the system. He has a strong arm and a good release. He is very athletic. He is a young guy and a quarterback who is going to have to learn the system.”

ESPN rated Bridgewater the No. 1 mid-year enrollee in the nation, regardless of position.

“(Bridgewater) is a wiry triggerman with a great knack for making big plays -- both with his arms and his legs,” ESPN.com’s Bruce Feld-man wrote. “He was a huge recruiting coup for Charlie Strong and fi lls a big need, because the Cardinals lost their top two QBs, Adam Froman and Justin Burke, from last year, leav-ing 5-foot-10 former walk-on Will Stein as the top challenger for the vacant starting quarter-back job.”

In addition to being an elite prospect (he is rated No. 113 overall in the nation and the No. 6 dual-threat quarterback in the class), Bridgewater made recruiting in Florida easier once he committed, Strong said.

“Usually when you look at a recruiting class, one guy gets you going,” Strong said. “Teddy has so many friends in South Florida and so many guys knew him from that area. Central, Northwestern, Jackson and Booker T. (Washington) all play each other. They all grew up in the Little League. Teddy was their Little League quarterback. Now you get Teddy, who was at Northwestern. Gaines came over from Central, and then Jermaine Reve, the young man that was committed to Central Florida, who also was at Northwestern.

“You are now able to get those guys, and the relationships are already built with them. You get Teddy here who talks about how much he likes it. It was not hard to go back and recruit because Teddy is calling his friends to jump on board with us. When Teddy com-mitted, the two defensive backs from South-ridge (Holliman and Johnson) jumped on board, because if Teddy is going there, it must be a really good place. Once one guy goes, you watch the domino effect and other guys come with him.”

Strong also highlighted his current players’ ability to sell the recruits on UofL’s campus life and the current coaching staff. He also men-tioned the overall academics at Louisville, in-cluding the business school.

“Our players did an outstanding job,” he said. “With our College of Business in the top

7 percent and having a 22 percent minority,we have a lot to sell here. We were able torecruit young men who are going to come inand fi t into this program. I told our players,‘We’re not going to become them; they aregoing to become us.’”

ONES THAT GOT AWAYThree highly rated players from Kentucky

left the state -Lamar Dawson, Jon Davis andDaMarcus Smith. Dawson (Southern Cal) andDavis (Illlinois) announced their choices onWednesday, National Signing Day, and Smithmade his choice known (Central Florida) onFriday.

“A lot has been said about the two men (Dawson and Davis) who left this state,”Strong said on Wednesday. “One of themnever visited and the other one only came inhere and visited for one day. We never had thechance to really recruit those young men andget to know them and their family.”

Smith, a quarterback from Louisville Sene-ca High, was committed to Louisville for morethan a year before he made a dramatic switchto Central Florida. Strong has not commentedon Smith and probably won’t, but Louisvillestill has an excellent opportunity to land an-other of the city’s top prospects in Fern Creek’sJerrell Moore. The speedy back is expected tochoose between UCF and Louisville Friday at apress conference at his school.

“When we came in we said we cannot lose the players within the city,” Strong said. “Weare the university within the city and can’t losethose players. We really concentrated on that.We wanted to keep the top players close tohome.”

MORE COMING?Moore likely won’t be the only recruit Lou-

isville could add in the next few weeks. Withjust 20 prospects on board, it’s possible formore to be added, including a couple morelinemen.

“You can defi nitely add to it because you have the scholarships,” Strong said. “I don’tknow what we’re going to add, but if a goodplayer comes along you have a scholarshipavailable to you.”

The Cardinals could add as many as four more recruits in the class in the coming weeksand still be under the 25 scholarship limit.

CHANGE OF ATTITUDEStrong was asked how different it was that

Louisville was competing with schools like Mi-ami, Florida, Florida State and Nebraska thisrecruiting season. He bristled at the insinu-ation that Louisville shouldn’t be competingwith the larger programs.

“It’s all about the attitude within the pro-gram and this university,” he said. “We haveto change the attitude. We are a BCS school.That’s what we are. When we recruit againstMiami or against Florida, that has to be ex-pected for this program to move forward.We want to recruit players of this stature. Ifwe’re going to talk about going to a BCS bowlgame or a BCS championship game, you haveto recruit those types of players.”

Strong then pointed out the jobs Denny Crum and Rick Pitino have done with the UofLbasketball program, building it to a big-timelevel.

“In order for us to move forward, we have to recruit classes like this,” he added. “Whenyou have a coaching staff on board and every-one on board to recruit like this, it will happen.But the whole attitude has to change for it tohappen. It has to change with our players, ourcoaches and our administration. When thathappens, you will get results like this.”

LOUISVILLE LANDS BIG EAST’S TOP CLASS

Louisville signees Jamon Brown and Jalen Harrington signed with Louisville Wednesday at Fern Creek High School. Brown, a

defensive tackle, and Harrington, a safety/linebacker, are two of the top fi ve players in the city for 2011. - photo by Howie Lindsey

Louisville coach Charlie Strong landed the Big East’s top-rated

recruiting class last week. It was Strong’s fi rst full recruiting class

at UofL after being hired last December. - photo by Howie Lindsey


Admit it: In your most optimistic of sce-narios you never dreamed that the UofL men’s basketball team would be tied for second in the Big East midway through the season and sporting a 7-3 league record that included a victory at Connecticut. It’s not surprising that the Cards have an 18-5 overall record due to the weakness of the early-season schedule that included only one team (Kentucky) ranked in the top 25 in the AP poll. The surprise wins came in the Big East, where the Cards have beaten top-25 teams UConn and West Virginia. Last week’s loss to Georgetown on its court was a result of physical and mental fatigue after playing in Hartford, Conn., on Satur-day and traveling to Washington D.C., for a Monday night game with the Hoyas.

Mental fatigue is the result of being so tired physically that you are unable to respond to what your mind is telling you to do. Although a player practices the prop-er techniques over and over and knows the cor-rect thing to do, it takes a mature mindset to still do

it when tired. This malady especially strikes freshmen and sophomores and was evident in sophomore Peyton Siva’s seven first-half turnovers against Georgetown. It struck ju-nior Kyle Kuric toward the end of the game as the 91 percent foul shooter missed 2 of 3 free throws and went behind a screen al-lowing a Georgetown player to hit a crucial three-point shot.

But I have come to praise this over-achieving group of inexperienced players and their unexpected accomplishments. An 18-5 record without a returning starter is a significant attainment for a team lacking a power forward and with nobody on the team to even masquerade as one. The re-turning players averaged 28.3 points and 16.1 rebounds last season, all off the bench. The leading rebounder from last season, Rakeem Buckles, has been out because of injury for the entire Big East schedule so far (he may return Saturday), contributing to the Cards’ rebounding deficiencies (al-though on the season they are outrebound-ing their opponents 36.7-35.1).

And only the most optimistic of Cardi-nal fanatics could have predicted that the Cards would reach the top15 in both lead-ing polls, the AP and Coach’s.

So what has been the key to this almost wet-behind-the ears group of underclass-men becoming highly ranked?

As I wrote before the season began, I felt that this team possessed things that last year’s team lacked -- humility, work ethic and unity. No one player is trying to pad his average or impress the pro scouts. Each person knows his role and tries to fulfill it. There is no sulking, moping or bad attitude that disrupts team chemistry.

Statistically, the 2010-2011 squad isn’t overly impressive in scoring or rebound-ing but does have some areas that are an improvement over last season and have been conducive to improved performance on the floor. Preston Knowles is averag-

ing 14.9 points per game, good for 13th in the league, but no other Cardinal is in the top 30 in scoring in the Big East. There also are no Cards in the top 15 in assist-to-turnover ratio, and no player in the top 20 in rebounding. UofL is second in the league in assists per game at 17.9 but has no indi-vidual in the top five, with Siva sixth at 5.0 per game. Oddly for a team depleted by in-jury, there is no UofL player in the league’s top 10 in minutes played. Coach Rick Pi-tino’s plan to use the entire bench and ro-tate players worked well until the injuries started to mount. The DePaul game was the first with five players on the floor for more than 30 minutes, including the two-overtime win at UConn.

This team does shoot the ball fairly well, except for three throws. It is averaging a 46.5 field-goal shooting percentage, seven points better than the opposition. Three-point shooting is good at 36.7 percent, six points better than opposing teams. Terrence Jennings is the only Cardinal in the top 20 in shooting percentage, 10th at .514. Louis-ville does shine in three-point shooting per-centage, with three players in the top 15 – Chris Smith (2nd), Kuric (6th) and Knowles (15th). All are shooting above 39 percent. There are also three Cards in the top 14 in three-pointers made -- Knowles (2nd with 66), Kuric (12th, 41) and Mike Marra (14th, 29). The Cards lead the league with 9.1 three-pointers made per game, ahead of second-place Notre Dame at 7.5.

But where this team shines is on defense, holding teams to under 40 percent overall shooting and 30.9 on three-point shots. The Cards are outscoring opposing teams by 13 points, good for third in the Big East. Siva leads the league in steals at 2.3 per game, second in the Big East, with Knowles fifth at 1.8 per game. The Cards lead the Big East with 9.8 steals per game, which is fourth in the nation. Gorgui Dieng and Jen-nings are in the top seven in the league in blocked shots, with Dieng third at 2.3 per game and Jennings seventh with 1.9 per game. As a team the Cards block 5.5 shots per game, good for fourth in the league.

Other than steals, there is nothing extraor-dinary about this “bridge” team representing the University of Louisville. But these players have the intangibles of attitude, hustle, ca-maraderie, respect, humility and focus to win basketball games.

Maybe the “bridge” was shorter than we thought.

WHAT MAKES THESE CARDS SUCCESSFUL? ATTITUDE, HUSTLE, HUMILITY AND FOCUS

COMMENTARY BY JACK COFFEE [email protected]

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

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Junior shooting guard Chris Smith was helped off the court by trainer Fred Hina after he was

bloodied during the DePaul game Saturday. Smith told CardinalSports.com that Hina super-

glued his eyebrow shut after a gash opened above his eye. - photo by Gail Kamenish

Points per minute – Knowles, .526

Assists per minute – Siva, .195

Rebounds per minute – Dieng, .285

Blocks per minute – Dieng, .144

Steals per minute – Siva, .08

3-pointers per minute – Knowles, .106

3-point % -- Buckles, .476

TO’s per minute – Kuric, .033 (lowest)

MEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM LEADERS PER MINUTES PLAYED


BIG EAST FOOTBALL RECRUITING

SIGNING DAY BLITZ: RANKING THE BIG EASTBy Mike Farrell, Rivals.com Recruiting AnalystLouisville fi nished with a top-30 class on

National Signing Day after securing a signature from Gerod Holliman and landed at No. 1 in the Big East.

Check out the breakdown of the conference in a special edition of the Big East Blitz.

1. LOUISVILLEHeadliner: Four-star defensive back Gerod

Holliman of Miami (Fla.) Southridge is a 6-0, 180-pound safety prospect who should fl our-ish in Louisville’s strength and conditioning pro-gram, and he also has the skill set to line up at cornerback. Holliman has great ball skills and is not afraid to make contact.

Sleeper: Offensive linemen standing 6-2 tend to be overlooked nowadays, but at 295 pounds, three-star John Miller of Miami (Fla.) Central is extremely strong and has great feet. The Cardinals staff also did a great job fending off several other schools vying for Miller lead-ing up to Signing Day.

Overview: Charlie Strong is proving to ev-eryone that he is still a recruiting force in the Sunshine State. Twelve of the 20 signed players for the Cardinals come from the state of Flori-da, including such four-star talents as Holliman, Teddy Bridgewater, Eli Rogers and Andrew Johnson. He also went head-to-head with the big three in Florida on several recruits, and he even stole away defensive end Bryant Dubose from Miami on Signing Day.

2. RUTGERSHeadliner: Four-star running back Savon

Huggins may be the most important recruit in the program’s history. Not only is he the No. 58 prospect in the nation and the No. 1 prospect in New Jersey, it also shows everyone in the state that Rutgers can keep the best New Jer-sey players home. With no clear-cut returning starter next season at running back, Huggins should see early playing time.

Sleeper: Tight end Tyler Kroft of Exton (Pa.) Downingtown East has a chance to make an early impact. At 6-5, 225, Kroft has a frame that can easily add on size, he runs routes like a wide receiver and has soft, reliable hands.

Overview: Coming off of a 4-8 season, this was an impressive job done by Greg Schiano and his staff. Rutgers kept three of the top four players in New Jersey at home while also grab-bing two top players from New York, Quentin Gause and Al Page, and maintaining some con-tinued success in Florida. Rutgers also profi ted greatly from the coaching chaos at Pittsburgh by grabbing three top recruits who were previ-ously committed to the Panthers.

3. WEST VIRGINIAHeadliner: Four-star running back Andrew

Buie of Jacksonville (Fla.) Trinity Christian is the type of back who should fl ourish in West Virgin-ia’s wide-open offense, especially because he is equally effective as a runner and receiver.

Sleeper: Wide receiver Kenneth Myers of Jacksonville (Fla.) First Coast is another player who is made for WVU’s offense. He has great size, soft hands and is quick off the line of scrimmage.

Overview: While not as impressive as some of their recent classes, the Mountaineers still pulled in a strong group. Buie should see early playing time, four-star Terrell Chestnut can do a little bit of everything and four-star Vance Roberts got a quick start by enrolling early. An-other player to watch is three-star junior col-lege linebacker Josh Francis, who also enrolled early and will be given every chance to make his mark in 2011.

4. CINCINNATIHeadliner: The Bearcats thought they were

out of it for four-star running back Jameel Poteat, but when Pittsburgh underwent its coaching changes, Poteat went back on the market. The Cincinnati coaching staff quickly swooped in and received a commitment from the Pennsylvania back two weeks later.

Sleeper: The last Bearcat to commit, defen-sive end Chad Hannah, may prove to be the most valuable down the road. A raw player who fl ourished late, Hannah has all the tools to succeed if given the time and coaching.

Overview: Cincinnati signed 24 players in this class, 20 of whom were three-star players. Two of the important additions were quarter-backs Stephen Weatherford and Patrick Coyne, who should strengthen a thin position. Line-

backer Nick Temple is a big hitter, while wide receiver Shaquille Washington should excel in coach Butch Jones’ offense.

5. PITTSBURGHHeadliner: Four-star defensive tackle

Khaynin Mosley-Smith never wavered from his commitment after the Panthers’ two head coaching changes, and he should see early playing time after enrolling in January.

Sleeper: Jason Frimpong may not have envisioned himself at Pittsburgh a couple of months ago, but the speedy athlete, who will play defensive back for the Panthers, should feel right at home in the secondary.

Overview: Coach Todd Graham did not have much time to work with upon his arrival at Pittsburgh, but he did an admirable job. Graham fi lled his roster with speed and more speed and will likely fi gure out if they belong on offense or defense later. One late addition was local athlete Lafayette Pitts, who fl ipped from Rutgers on signing day. The Panthers were hoping to add a few more local recruits, but that will have to wait until next season after Graham’s late arrival. One glaring ques-tion mark is that out of 20 signed players, only three are linemen.

6. USFHeadliner: The Bulls had to wait until

Signing Day to fi nd out that they grabbed four-star defensive tackle Elkino Watson of Miami (Fla.) Booker T. Washington, but their patience should pay off. Watson chose the Bulls over Miami, Florida and Louisville.

Sleeper: Three-star defensive end Clavion Nelson of Hollywood (Fla.) South Broward did not emerge as a top recruit until his se-nior season, but at 6-4, 225, he can grow into a talented speed-rusher.

Overview: The addition of Watson defi -nitely bolstered this class, but there are other key players that should help the Bulls. Local wide receivers Andre Davis and Ruben Gon-zalez are both talented, while Max Lang and David Simon should add depth to the offen-sive line. However, they did miss out on local athlete Joshua Grady, who pulled a surprise on Signing Day by committing to Vanderbilt.

7. SYRACUSEHeadliner: At 6-1, 175, cornerback Ritchy

Desir of North Miami Beach (Fla.) has the po-tential to grow into a safety down the road butdefi nitely has cornerback skills. He was ableto showcase his athleticism at the high schoollevel by lining up at safety, quarterback, punter,kicker and return man.

Sleeper: Shutang Mungwa of Oradell (N.J.)Bergen Catholic was originally committed toStanford before making a late switch to theOrange. As a 6-2, 200-pound safety prospect,he can stay in the secondary or more likelymove over to linebacker after a little time in theweight room.

Overview: Coach Doug Marrone is still try-ing to establish a recruiting foothold in the re-gion, and by signing 12 New York recruits in aclass of 26 he may be closer to accomplishingthat. However, look for a few of the Florida re-cruits, aside from Desir, to potentially see earlyplaying time. Wide receiver Durell Eskridge andlinebacker Oliver Vigille, both of Miami (Fla.)Central, are hard-nosed players who give theOrange speed at both positions. Georgia line-backer Cameron Lynch is an SEC-caliber talentbut was just a few inches too short to earn anoffer from the Bulldogs.

8. CONNECTICUTHeadliner: Linebacker Jefferson Ashiru

of Powder Springs (Ga.) McEachern bringstoughness and smarts to Storrs. Very im-pressive physically, Ashiru has the ability toplay either inside or outside linebacker.

Sleeper: Joining Ashiru at the linebackerposition is Marquise Vann of Fairfield, Ohio.This duo should give the Huskies a strongfoundation at linebacker for several years.

Overview: After the departure of coach Randy Edsall, there was a great deal of un-certainty in Storrs. Despite this uncertainty,the remaining staff did a remarkable job ofkeeping the class together, aside from theloss of three-star defensive back AdrianAmos to Penn State. Late additions fromAshiru and teammate Xavier Hemingwaysolidified this defensive class, while theearly enrollment of quarterback MichaelNebrich gives him a jump start heading intospring practice and the 2011 season.


CARDINAL FOOTBALL VS. RUTGERS PHOTO GALLERY

The men’s basketball team gutted out another win Saturday, this time over lowly DePaul. We realize blowing a trumpet over a win over the 0-10 Blue Demons is a bit silly, but it isn’t that silly

when you consider that the Cardinals were playing without current or former starters Preston Knowles (hamstring), Rakeem Buckles (fi nger), Jared Swopshire (groin) and Gorgui Dieng (concussion), and with several other players nursing smaller injuries. Even without all of those players, the Cardinals had 17 assists on 21 made baskets and looked sharp for most of the night on offense (save Mike Marra’s continuing slump from beyond thearc). Defense is another story. Louisville gave up way too many transition buckets, but the Cardinals still got the “W,” which is what counts, after all.

UofL must get healthy as quickly as possible because the Cardinals can’t - they simply can’t - keep going as they have been. Now 18-5,

7-3 in the Big East, Louisville has been remarkably bouyant despite all its injuries. We have a bad feeling it is all going to catch up to the Cardinals eventually though, and that could be this week if UofL doesn’t start getting some players back onto the court. Its next four games are against tough teams, starting with Wednesday night at Notre Dame. If the Cardinals’ powerhouse team two years ago couldn’t win at Notre Dame, how do we expect this hobbled team to get the job done? And there is no rest for the weary after that. Louisville will host Syracuse Saturday, play at Cincinnati next Wednesday (Feb. 16) and host Connecticut three days later.

Louisville should get Rakeem Buckles back this week. Buckles, a 6-foot-9 power forward who led the Cardinals in points and rebounds the fi rst fi ve games of the season, had a spiral fracture in his fi nger the day before the Kentucky game on Dec. 31. Since then,

he’s had surgery and has been rehabbing, although he has been unable to practice. “Thursday I get an X-ray. Hopefully, they’ll clear me,” he said Saturday night. “If they don’t, I guess they’ll give me another time period.” Buckles gives the Cards a big presence who can hit the glass, block shots and extend the defense. The sophomore averaged 8.5 points and 7.5 rebounds before going down. “I feel like I’m ready to play right now,” he said. “I want to be out there. That’s what I told the doctor. The doctor just wants it to fully heal because he said any contact and it could break again. I’m just waiting and hoping to get some good news on Thursday.”

Louisville’s 1986 NCAA championship team will be recognized at halftime of Saturday’s game against Syracuse. It’s the 25th anniversary of the achievement of the 1985-86 Cardinals, who posted a 32-7 record and were guided by future Hall of Fame coach

Denny Crum. The Cards beat Duke 72-69 in the title game in Dallas, and Pervis Ellison became the second freshman in NCAA history to be named the Most Outstanding Player after getting 25 points and 11 rebounds against the Blue Devils. The current UofL team will wear retro uniforms for the Syracuse game in the style worn by the 1986 team. Here’s hoping they leave the short shorts in the 1980s.

The good thing about this reunion is that it is available to fans. Prior to the game, members of the team will be available for autographs in the Woodford Reserve Club (main concourse level overlooking the river) from 10:30-11:30 a.m. A commemorative

poster, sponsored by United Graphics, will be provided to fans in attendance at the game. Following the game, the team will visit T.G.I. Friday’s restaurant (415 S. Fourth Street) in Fourth Street Live to sign autographs and mingle with fans from 3:30-5 p.m. What a great opportunity for fans to meet and greet their old team, and for newer or younger fans to get a glimpse of some of Louisville’s all-time greats. We can’t wait to catch up with such stars as Herbert “Superb Herb” Crook, Billy Thompson and Jeff Hall. Milt Wagner is currently an assistant coach at Auburn University and likely won’t be able to make it. Auburn has a home game that day against Mississippi State at 5 p.m.

We always fi nd it fascinating that several of the players on the 1986 team believe the 1983 team that lost to Houston in the Final Four in Albuquerque, N.M., was actually better than the ‘86 team. Milt Wagner is one of the players who shares that opinion.

“My sophomore year was the most talented team,” Wagner told The Sporting News. “We had Rodney McCray, Scooter McCray, Lancaster Gordon, Charles Jones. And Billy Thompson was a freshman coming off the bench. We won it in ‘86, but I think that (1983) team would have won it if it was played anywhere else (besides Albuquerque). We had a lot of problems with the altitude.” That altitude issue has been a problem for many teams over the years, but never more famously than with that 1983 Louisville team. Many also believe that 1986 was the Final Four that started college basketball’s rise to national prominence. Houston lost to NC State and Jim Valvano in one of the most memorable championship games in any sport in history.

Speaking of championship games, two Louisville players made the Super Bowl this season. Pittsburgh Steelers DB William Gay has been called “one of the league’s premier nickel backs” by The Sporting News. He’s a playmaker who had a fumble recovery for a

touchdown to help the Steelers win the AFC title game. On the Packers’ side, Jason Spitz, now a center but a tackle at UofL, is in his fi fth year in the league. Spitz started 13, 12 and 16 games in his fi rst three years but was limited to fi ve games last season because of a herniated disk. He has played mostly on the fi eld-goal protection team this season. Spitz told The Florida Times-Union he is enjoying the Super Bowl experience and isn’t frustrated that his playing time has been limited this season. He hopes to rebound and win back his starting job next season. “You learn to deal with it,” he said. “I’m happy to be in the game and to get another opportunity.”

The latest chapter in the Matt Simms saga took an odd turn Saturday at pre-game festivities for the Super Bowl in Dallas. That’s when ESPN analyst Desmond Howard claimed on Twitter that NFL

analyst Phil Simms, a Louisville native, threatened to take a swing at him due to comments he made about Phil’s son Matt being “one of the three worst quarterbacks in the SEC.” Matt Simms originally signed with Louisville before transferring to a junior college and then to Tennessee, where he played this season.

We don’t like criticizing high school seniors for the choices they make in recruiting, but you have to wonder what was going through the mind of Seneca quarterback DaMarcus Smith last week when he reneged on his year-long commitment to Louisville and signed

with Central Florida. Even after he made his commitment to the Knights public at a press conference at his school, Smith told reporters that it was always his dream to play for Louisville. Huh? Then why did you commit to Central Florida? Smith, right before announcing his pick, told reporters that this was a “business decision.” Later, he said that he was told he’d have a shot at quarterback at Central Florida because starter Jeff Godfrey, a freshman starter last year, could move to wide receiver next year. A day later, ESPN quoted an unidentifi ed UCF coach as answering the question about moving Godfrey to wide receiver: “Hell, double hell and triple hell no. Godfrey is 100 percent a quarterback for UCF the next three years.” Smith is a good kid, but seeing that quote makes us wonder to whom he was listening.

For the second time while announcing a Kentucky game, Dick Vitale went on a rant about Enes Kanter being ruled ineligible and then drew an analogy of players that had been allowed to “repay” money they had received for basketball. The only problem with

Vitale’s reasoning is that no one has ever been able to “repay” monies received for playing professionally as Kanter did in Turkey. Previous payments were for stipends, expenses, plane fares and other disallowed payments. No NCAA player has ever been granted eligibility after playing professionally. Vitale has become a caricature of a color man for basketball. He is more like a Saturday Night Live skit than professional TV commentator these days. It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.

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UGLY

SIMPLY STUPIDAny Louisville fan looking for a good laugh could have found a barrel full of them Saturday night on CatsPause.

com. The Wildcats lost two games last week - at Ole Miss and at Florida - and the UK fans were having a historic meltdown on their message boards. Like fi reworks on the Fourth of July (or Thunder over Louisville), the meltdown was spectacular. One thread titled “I blame the NCAA” was particularly amusing. Another titled “When you die do you take your timeouts with you?” was a good one as well.

TWEET OF THE WEEK@rpurvis_44 (2012 elite recruit Rodney Purvis)I’m 110% committed to UofL, anything other than that is false. So don’t bother to ask !!

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LOUISVILLE BASKETBALL

TEDDY BRIDGEWATERMiami, Fla., Northwestern QB, 6-3, 185

The No. 6 dual-threat quarterback in America and No. 113 overall recruit in the nation, Bridgewater is an elite prospect. The Miami Northwestern star has been a starter since his sophomore season and has the height and arm to be a major player in college football. Once he grows into his frame, he could be a starting quarterback in the Big East. Bridgewater backed off a prior commitment to Miami (Fla.) when its coach was fi red, and he picked Louisville over LSU, Tennessee, Florida and many others. The No. 3 quarterback in the state of Florida, Bridgewater threw for more than 2,600 yards and 22 touchdowns as a senior. He was selected to play in the 2011 U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio, Texas, and threw a TD pass. He threw for 2,606 yards and 22 touchdowns as a senior and 2,546 yards and 32 touchdowns as a junior. He led his team to the 6A Florida State Championship as a sophomore. He was named as ESPN’s No. 1 early enrollee in the nation and was a fi rst-team All-Dade pick by the Miami Herald. He’s already enrolled at UofL.STRONG ON BRIDGEWATER: ““He is a quarterback, a position we need-ed somebody in. When you look at our roster right now, we only have two quarterbacks. Teddy is going to have to come in and learn the system. He has a strong arm and a good release. He is very athletic. He is a young guy and a quarterback who is going to have to learn the system.”

JERMAINE REVEMiami, Fla., Northwestern DB, 6-0, 180

The speedy safety/corner picked Louisville over offers from USF, Syracuse, UCF, FIU and others. Another one of the talented prospects from Miami Northwestern, Reve made a visit in early January and liked it so much he enrolled for the spring semester. He was headed to Central Florida but chose Louisville instead because he wanted to play alongside his teammates and he liked the UofL coaching staff. Reve was upgraded from two to three stars after a strong senior season. He was a second-team All-Dade County selection his senior season after he recorded 70 tackles, two fumble recoveries and an interception while playing safety. He was rated the 73rd best prospect in Florida by the Orlando Sentinel.

REVE ON LOUISVILLE: “I just went up there to go and see it, but I already knew I was going to Louisville. I actually got a chance to spend time with the coaches and I got one-on-one time with coach (Vance) Bedford and coach (Larry) Slade, and I met with coach (Charlie) Strong on my visit. That trip was just about spending time and just basically putting icing on the cake with me coming to Louisville.”

CHARLES GAINESMiami, Fla., Miami Central WR, 5-11, 170

COMMITTED: 9-25-10

Possibly the biggest sleeper in the class, Gaines is rated the No. 43 wide receiver in America and No. 63 overall prospect in Florida. He was a star on the fi eld his senior season. He and his Miami Central teammates are coming off a 42-27 vic-tory over Orlando Dr. Phillips in the class 6A state-title game in December. Gaines contributed to the victory with a crucial interception and subsequent touchdown return that sparked his team late in the second quarter. He also had four recep-tions for 40 yards. He averaged better than 18.0 yards per catch during his high school career, and he was fi rst-team All-Dade County and 6A Honorable Mention All-State as a senior. He’s already enrolled at UofL. He picked Louisville over offers from West Virginia, UCF, Minnesota, Marshall and Duke.GAINES ON LOUISVILLE: “I felt comfortable and I felt like I was at home. The only thing that was different was the snow, but that was a great experience.”

JAMON BROWNLouisville, Fern Creek DT, 6-3, 330

One of Strong’s fi rst recruits, Brown was among three Fern Creek stars to commit to the Cardinals, along with Jalen Harrington and Jerrell Moore. Brown is a big-framed DT with strength and power in his lower body. He’s rated the No. 1 defensive tackle in Kentucky and the No. 58 DT in the nation, according to Rivals.com. He was selected to the Orlando Sentinel’s All-Southern First Team and was rated the 47th best DT by ESPN.com. Brown benches 300-plus and squats 525. He chose Louisville over offers from Kentucky, Illinois, Purdue and others. Brown stuck with Louisville over a late push from Kentucky.

STRONG ON BROWN: “Jamon Brown, a defensive tackle at Fern Creek, who is a big-bodied guy. We were looking for size. We needed a defensive tackle inside. You look at Brandon Dunn, (Greg) Scruggs and Roy Phi-lon, who are already inside players. Brown is a guy who can add inside size.”

2011 FOOTBALL2011 FOOTBALLRECRUITING CLASSRECRUITING CLASS

BRANDON GOLSONFork Union, Va., Fork Union Military AcademyLB, 6-2, 208

COMMITTED: 1-10-2011

A strong linebacker with good size and a strong frame, Golson was expected to sign with South Carolina in 2010 but went to Fork Union (Va.) Military Academy instead. He received several new offers after his prep school season, when he was rated the No. 27 prep school prospect in the nation and the No. 3 prep school linebacker, according to Rivals.com. A three-star prospect, he picked Louisville in part because of linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary. He was rated as a four-star prospect by ESPN and the 15th best outside linebacker in the nation. Golson has a 79-inch wingspan. He is already enrolled at UofL.

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JARVIS GILESTampa, Fla., Gaither (South Carolina) WR/RB, 5-11, 187

A mid-year transfer from South Carolina, Giles was a four-star prospect coming out of high school and was a 2009 Under Armour All-American. He was rated the No. 22 player in the state of Florida and the No. 3 all-purpose back in the nation by the website. He was ranked 53rd on the ESPNU 150, and was listed among both Rivals.com and PrepStar’s Top 250. He originally selected South Carolina over a prior commitment to Tennessee.

AT SOUTH CAROLINA: Giles carried 12 times for 114 yards and two touchdowns in the 2009 Garnet & Black Spring Game, but transferred after playing sparingly early last season. As a true freshman he was third on the squad with 277 yards rushing, an average of 5.3 yards per carry. He rushed for a career-high 113 yards and a touchdown in the win over Florida Atlantic. Giles became the fi rst Carolina freshman to rush for 100 yards in a game since Taylor Rank in 2006.

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CARDINAL FOOTBALL - SIGNING DAY RECAP


TERRELL FLOYDPort St. Lucie, Fla., Port St. Lucie DB, 5-10, 186

The fast and sturdy Floyd is ranked the No. 71 multi-position athlete in America by Rivals.com. Floyd picked Louisville over offers from Purdue, Rutgers, Kentucky, South Carolina, Syracuse, Wisconsin and others. He could play either safety or cornerback depending on need. He’s got good speed, his highlight fi lm shows him closing in on ball-carriers extremely quickly, and he likes to make the big hit. Floyd recorded more than 50 tackles and one interception as a senior. He played in the 17th annual Outback Bowl for high school All-Stars in Florida. He recorded 70 tackles and recovered two fumbles as a junior. Floyd has been clocked at 4.59 seconds in the 40-yard dash, and he ran a 22.3 in the 200-meters as a junior that was good for fi fth in his region.

RYAN MACKMemphis, Tenn., Wooddale OL, 6-6, 315


Mentioned as one of the top three-star sleepers in the South for 2011, Mack is a big-bodied lineman with loads of potential. He was ranked the No. 9 player in Tennessee for 2011 by Rivals.com and is ranked the No. 61 offensive tackle in the nation. Mack picked Louisville over offers from Kentucky, Memphis, Southern Miss and others.

MACK ON LOUISVILLE: “Coach (Dave) Borbely said he’s ready for me to come up there. He wants me to come up there and compete with the other players for my starting spot right away. He said he’s ready for me to come up there.”

JALEN HARRINGTONLouisville, Fern CreekSS/LB, 6-3, 215


A tall, long-armed prospect, Harrington could play multiple positions at the next level. He reminds CardinalSports.com’s Howie Lindsey of former UofL linebacker Brandon Johnson, now in the NFL. Like Johnson, Harrington needs to gain some weight, but he has the speed and athleticism college coaches look for. He was ranked the top safety in Kentucky for 2011, and he picked Louisville over offers from Illinois, Indiana, Purdue and Kentucky. The least heralded of the three Fern Creek recruits heading into his senior season, Harrington could have the most potential of the three. He was named 6A, District 4 Player of the Year.

STRONG ON HARRINGTON: “Jalen Harrington is a safety who played at Fern Creek and can come in and help us. There was some really good local talent here and we felt like we had to come in and keep this tal-ent within our program.”

ANDREW JOHNSONMiami, Fla., SouthridgeDB, 5-9, 180

A Miami-Dade All-Star, Johnson is the No. 23 cornerback in America. He is a speedy but small cornerback prospect who has the speed to stay with any receiver in the country. Rated the No. 41 overall prospect in Florida, Johnson is the No. 4 corner-back in Florida this year. He was named 6A All-Dade County by the Miami Herald as a senior. He was primarily an offensive threat as a senior, registering 2,500 all-purpose yards and scoring 19 touchdowns while playing quarterback, running back and wide receiver. He was previously committed to Ole Miss, but he picked Louisville over Ole Miss, LSU, West Virginia, Nebraska, Kentucky, Maryland, Texas Tech and others.

JOHNSON ON LOUISVILLE: “The atmosphere felt good. The players showed love and the coaches showed a lot of love. And the fans were great. A lot of them even knew who I was, even though I wasn’t from up there, they knew my name. It showed me they really wanted me to come up there.”

JOHN MILLERMiami, Fla., Miami Central OL/OD, 6-2, 295

A Dade County top-25 pick, Miller is an ox-strong offensive guard who can abso-lutely dominate an opponent. He picked Louisville over offers from Kansas State, USF, UCF, Marshall, FIU and others. Miller helped Miami Central win the 6A Florida state championship. West Virginia made a late run at him, but he signed with Louisville. He was rated as the 84th-best prospect in Florida by SunStateFootball.com, and was named fi rst team All-Dade County as an offensive lineman by the Miami Herald.

COACH ALEXANDER SNIPES ON MILLER: “He had been talking to coach (Clint) Hurtt. Coach Hurtt was at UM, so he had called coach Hurtt a couple times on the phone, and that’s who we had spoken to in the spring. He liked the feel up there and liked how the coaches talked to him and handled him. He felt comfortable with the coaches, and that’s the most important thing.”

GEROD HOLLIMANMiami, Fla., Southridge DB, 6-0, 180

Holliman is one of Louisville’s top-rated recruits ever as one of the top-100 overall players in America. A four-star prospect, he’s rated as the No. 4 safety in America, the No. 20 player in Florida and the No. 96 player in the nation. Holliman was a U.S. Army All-American, an honor for the best of the best in high school football, and he made his pick of Louisville during the game’s live broadcast on NBC. A former Ole Miss commitment, Holliman also had offers from Miami, Tennessee, Nebraska, West Virginia and many others. He is known as one of the hardest hit-ters in Florida. He was ranked No. 49 overall by ESPN and the No. 3 safety in the nation. He led Dade County with 12 interceptions his senior season, returning fi ve for touchdowns. he also had 80 tackles, four interceptions, six sacks and two de-fensive touchdowns as a junior. RIVALS.COM ON HOLLIMAN: “A very instinctual player that reads run/pass very quickly. His ball skills are excellent, and he always seems to be in the right place at the right time. He is not afraid to come up and lower the boom.”

DEIONTREZ MOUNTFt. Walton Beach, Fla., FWB High DE, 6-5, 205

Louisville got in on Mount early and hung on as he worked through his senior sea-son. Ranked as the No. 34 defensive end in America by Rivals.com, Mount has the size and athleticism to be a special player at Louisville. He picked Louisville over offers from Wisconsin, South Carolina, North Carolina, Wake Forest and Florida State and others. Most of those offers came after he committed to Louisville. Mount played both outside linebacker and defensive end in high school, and was timed at 4.6 in the 40-yard dash. He recorded 54 tackles and 5.5 sacks as a senior, and was a state qualifi er in the FHSAA 3A Outdoor State Championship in the 110-meter hurdles.MOUNT ON LOUISVILLE: “They are just talking about how I’m the top guy on the board and they think I can help turn the team around. They are going to have me play outside linebacker until I get the strength to play on the line again. But they said they want to see me in the three technique either way.”

DEVANTE PARKERLouisville, Ballard WR, 6-3, 185Kentucky’s top wide receiver for 2011, Parker is an elite-level talent. Even though he’s rated as just the No. 77 wide receiver in the nation by Rivals.com, most local scouts think Rivals’ rating of Parker is baloney. One of the best multi-sport ath-letes to come out of Jefferson County since Michael Bush, Parker is also a standout in basketball. He’s a got the athleticism to out-jump any defender, and he’s got the speed to make covering him with a larger defender impossible. A repeat fi rst-team All-Stater according to The Courier-Journal, Parker caught 68 passes for 1,793 yards and scored 19 touchdowns as a senior. He averaged an amazing 26.4 yards per catch. He had his biggest games against the best opponents, going for 209 yards and a TD against Trinity, 321 yards and four TDs in two games against St. Xavier and 227 yards and three TDs against Male. He fi nished his high school career with 3,274 yards receiving and was named co-Paul Hornung Award Winner as the state’s top player along with Southern Cal signee Lamar Dawson. His father, Anthony Shelman, played for Louisville.STRONG ON PARKER: “DeVante Parker, a wide receiver that has a ton of ability. When you watch him play basketball, he can get up-and-down the court. I actually think he is a basketball player sometimes, but he is a really outstanding football player with good size and height.”

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By Jeff WaffordWith National Signing Day 2011 behind

us, Cardinalsports.com takes a look at a few players in the class and hands out its class superlatives. Who is the Most Likely to Succeed? Who is the Most Underrated?

Check out our analysis.Most Likely to Suc-

ceed the FastestDefensive back Gerod

Holliman is a four-star player, and he may chal-lenge for immediate playing time. With se-niors Bobby Burns and Johnny Patrick both gone from the UofL sec-

ondary, it’s going to be a battle to see who lines up there in the fall, and Holliman has the size and credentials to win that battle.

Honorable mention: There’s no doubt Teddy Bridgewater’s stock is high, but choosing a quarterback for this award is risky, and with Bridgewater’s versatility, he could be used at a different position as a freshman.

Most UnderratedWe have tried everything to get a fourth

star for wide receiver Devante Parker. The Ballard H.S. product did everything he could do to earn it this season, and he was still not able to impress some enough. Could that have something to do with making an early commitment and then not constantly craving attention? We think so.

Honorable mention: Offensive line-man Ryan Mack is rated by Rivals.com as a major sleeper, and we agree. He already has the size (6-4, 310) to compete for play-ing time, and he had a tremendous senior season.

Most Likely to Win a SprintThis one is likely to stir up some de-

bate, especially if the recruits read this, but I’m taking Charles Gaines and the Miami speed. Everything we hear about this wide receiver is that he is a big-play guy. We’ll see.

Honorable mention: Hard to tell on this one, but I’d love to see Andrew John-son and Eli Rogers line up in a sprint against Gaines.

Most Likely to Pancake Block You Right Now

To me, Mack is the most ready offensive lineman at this point, and he could playvery early.

Honorable mention: John Miller is sup-posedly a very nasty lineman, and he alsocould get into a spirited competition forearly playing time.

Most Likely to Knock Your Block OffWatching the second half of Terrell

Floyd’s highlight tape on Rivals.com did itfor me on this one. There are several mind-numbing hits on that tape, and in talkingwith Floyd, he seems like the type whodoesn’t mind using his speed to run awayfrom you - but if he runs into you, watchout.

Honorable mention: Similar to Floyd, Calvin Pryor shows the ability on video tocome up and make the big hit from thesafety position. In a couple of clips hethrows his entire shoulder into the offen-sive player - nasty.

Most Likely to Give a Good Inter-view

We have interviewed Fern Creek H.S. defensive lineman Jamon Brown time andtime again over the past 2½ years, and henever disappoints with his ability to waxpoetic about his future as a Louisville Car-dinal. It was always a pleasure to call andinterview him.

Honorable mention: Defensive end Deiontrez Mount is another young manwho was always a pleasure to talk to. It’salways fun when a player starts asking youquestions about the recruiting process, andMount was always engaging in a two-wayconversation.

Most Likely to Grow from a Boy to a ManAt 6-6, 245, offensive lineman Aaron

Epps should take a lot of pictures of theway he looks now if he wants to remem-ber that body a couple of years from now.Under the proper weight room guidance,Epps could leave UofL weighing close to300 pounds. That sounds promising toCardinals fans -- and scary for opponents.

Honorable mention: Jalen Harrington ,another player who looks physically giftedat 6-3, 215, will benefi t from a professionalweight room. Depending on the amountof size and strength he gains, Harringtoncould end up anywhere from outside line-backer to defensive end.

JEFF WAFFORDJEFF WAFFORD

SIGNING DAY SUPERLATIVES

PAGE 14 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT FEBRUARY 9, 2011

CARDINAL FOOTBALL - SIGNING DAY RECAP

CALVIN PRYORPort St. Joe, Fla., Port St. Joe DB, 6-2, 200The No. 31 safety in the nation, according to Rivals.com, Pryor was a steal for Louisville. He’s the No. 88 overall prospect in Florida for 2011, and he’s got great size and speed for a college safety. A two-way standout who made big plays at running back and safety, he was rated by SunStateFootball.com as the 37th-best prospect in Florida. He earned second team All-State honors as a running back... played in the North-South All-Star game. He recorded 114 yards rushing, 117 yards receiving and six total touchdowns in fi nal prep game. He was a fi rst team All-State selection as a junior running back and a second team All-State honoree as a defensive back. Playing baseball for the fi rst time, hit nearly .400 and was a catalyst offensively and defensively in center fi eld as the Tiger Sharks reached the Region 1-2A fi nals. Pryor picked UofL over offers from Tennessee, Arkansas, Maryland, Stanford and others.

JOHN WALLACECecilia, Ky., Central Hardin K, 5-10, 185

Committed to Louisville since last spring, Wallace was rated the top kicker in Ken-tucky for 2011, according to Rivals.com. He made 11 of 14 fi eld goal attempts with his longest a 50-yarder as a senior. Two of the three misses on fi eld goals last season were from 57 and 59 yards, the 57-yarder was two yards wide right and the 59-yarder was a yard short. Wallace earned second team All-State honors as a punter, averaging 42.4 yards on punts, and was also 40 of 41 on extra points. He booted 90 percent of his kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks. He connected on 32 of 40 career fi eld goals and made all but three of his extra points. His 32 fi eld goals ranks second all-time in state history for most in a career, only behind former Owensboro Catholic kicker Shawn Payne’s 39 from 1996-99. Wallace said he has talked with the coaching staff about handling punting, kickoffs and fi eld-goal du-ties, although he said UofL may not ask him to punt right away.

ELI ROGERSMiami, Fla., NorthwesternWR/DB, 5-10, 180His teammates and coaches had been telling anyone who would listen that Rog-ers was underrated. Then he went out and proved it. One of the few three-star prospects named to the Under-Armour All-American game, Rogers excelled against elite competition. He won the Best Hands award at the Under-Armour All-American Combine, and he moved up from the No. 67 WR in America to No. 35. He made a similar rise in the Florida Top 100, going from No. 96 overall to No. 48, according to Rivals.com. He moved up even more on ESPN, pushing his way into its national Top 150. An electric offensive player with over 800 all-purpose yards as a senior, Rogers was selected Miami Hearld All-Dade County 6A-5A-4A fi rst team during his senior campaign. He recorded 59 catches for 691 yards and three scores a senior (missed two games with an injury). Rogers picked Louisville over offers from Miami, Cincinnati, Ole Miss, South Florida, UCF and others.

BRYANT DUBOSEOakland Park, Fla., Northeast DE, 6-4, 240The No. 1 6A player in Broward County for 2011, Dubose was a big surprise signee for Louisville on Signing Day last week. A three-star prospect by Rivals.com, he is ranked 24th in the Rivals.com poll of best strongside defensive ends and was 64th in the Rivals.com Florida postseason top 100. Dubose recorded 60 tackles to go along with 11 sacks as a senior. A pass rush specialist, he notched 55 tackles, 11 sacks and three forced fumbles as a junior en route to third-team all-state ac-colades. He chose Louisville over Miami (Fla.), Rutgers and West Virginia.STRONG ON DUBOSE: “He is an outstanding defensive end with a ton of athletic ability. He can rush the passer and drop into open field. He has a ton of speed and is so competitive, which is what we needed out of him.”

MIKE ROMANOPort St. Lucie, Fla., Treasure Coast OL, 6-4, 269COMMITTED: 3-18-2010A tall offensive guard prospect from a strong program in Florida, Romano also had offers from Memphis, Southern Miss, Marshall, Central Michigan and others. After he committed to Louisville more than a dozen schools contacted him. He was named to the North Florida vs. South Florida All-Star Game that was played on the same weekend as Louisville’s win in the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl.

ROMANO ON LOUISVILLE: “I have the utmost faith in Charlie Strong. I knew we were going to get to a bowl game this year because of Charlie Strong and the staff he’s brought in.”

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AARON EPPSTucker, Ga., Tucker OL, 6-6, 238

Epps is a sleeper offensive tackle with a big body, wide shoulders and room to grow. A three-star prospect who will need a redshirt to gain weight, Epps could be a big-time steal for the Cardinals. His high school coach, Franklin Stephens, said, “I think with that frame, the long arms and the feet that he has, he has a chance to be an unbelievable offensive lineman.” Epps played tight end as a junior before moving to offensive tackle. He helped lead team to state semifi nal during his se-nior season as the team fi nished with a 13-1 overall record in 2010. An offensive tackle who received Georgia Class 6-4A accolades, Epps gave up football for two years of high school to concentrate on basketball. Epps chose Louisville over offers from Memphis and UCF. ★★★

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CARDINAL FOOTBALL

HURTT COMES UP BIG FOR LOUISVILLE RECRUITINGBy Howie LindseyIt seems only natural that the biggest fac-

tor in Louisville’s landing the top-ranked re-cruiting class in the Big East was Clint Hurtt. A former defensive tackle at Miami, Hurtt is the biggest member of the coaching staff and is taller and stronger than most players he’s coaching.

Hurtt just completed his fi rst season as Louisville’s defensive line coach. He came to the Cardinals after a successful two-year run at Miami, where he was the Hurricanes’ re-cruiting coordinator. He was given the task of being the Cardinals’ primary recruiter in the Miami area for the 2011 recruiting class, and he came up - well, big.

“I told him this was his recruiting class because of the number of guys he signed from South Flori-da,” Strong said.

Louisville signed 13 players from Florida. While every UofL coach had a part in landing the baker’s dozen, Hurtt was the pri-

mary baker. The nine recruits from the Miami area were his focus.

“You look at Clint Hurtt, he coached at the University of Miami and recruited in Southern Florida,” Strong said. “It is all about relation-ships. He was able to develop a lot of relation-ships with those high school coaches. When you had the change at the University of Mi-ami, he already had those relationships devel-oped. Guys had enough confi dence and belief in him that he would take care of the players, so we were able to go and recruit those young men.”

First, lineman Mike Romano from Port Saint Lucie Treasure Coast High committed in March of 2010. Then in August the Cardinals landed Miami Central lineman John Miller. In late September, after making a visit to Louis-ville, Port Saint Lucie (Port Saint Lucie High) defensive back Terrell Floyd committed to the Cardinals.

Then three days later Miami Central wide receiver Charles Gaines Jr. committed to the Cardinals. That gave Hurtt four commits from South Florida. It took three months for the next set of commitments to roll in from the Miami area, but these were big ones. On Dec. 20, quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and his Miami Northwestern teammate Eli Rogers, a wide receiver, committed to the Cardinals.

Then on Jan. 8, Gerod Holliman of Miami Southridge High committed to the Cardinals on NBC’s national telecast of the U.S. Army All-American game. Holliman’s teammate, cornerback Andrew Johnson, committed to Louisville on the same day while back home in Miami. They were Louisville’s seventh and eighth commitments from the region.

All four of Louisville’s four-star recruits (Bridgewater, Rogers, Holliman and Johnson) are from Dade County. The fi nal Miami recruit came on Signing Day last week when Miami commitment Bryant “BJ” Dubose fl ipped from Miami to Louisville.

“That goes back to Coach Hurtt,” Strong said. “First he went to see BJ, and he wasn’t interested. Then he went back and he was in-terested. So BJ visited here and then visited Miami and said he wanted to go to Miami, I guess. But we just kept recruiting him. That’s the thing about Coach Hurtt. He’s so relent-less and he never wants to give up. He does not want to lose a recruit. He takes it person-ally.”

Strong called Dubose “an outstanding de-fensive end with a ton of athletic ability who can rush the passer or drop back into open fi eld; that’s what we really needed.” The Play-er of the Year in Broward County (the county north of Miami), Dubose was rated one of the top 10 recruits in South Florida by Rivals.com and the No. 1 defensive end in the Miami area. He said Hurtt won Dubose over with his ability to develop strong bonds with his recruits and their families.

“He developed a relationship with BJ, and his Mom was a key factor there,” Strong said. “She just wanted to make sure her son will be taken care of. She had Coach Hurtt, Coach Bedford and myself on speakerphone a couple of nights ago to make sure the best interests of her son would be taken into account and we said that would happen.”

Hurtt drew national attention for his ef-forts in South Florida. CardinalSports.com nominated Hurtt for National Recruiter of the Year as well as Big East Recruiter of the Year, and those honors will be decided within the next week. National Rivals.com analysts took notice as well.

“I really cannot say enough about what Clint Hurtt did in South Florida,” Rivals.com’s Florida recruiting analyst Chris Nee said. “When Randy Shannon departed the Hurri-canes, (Hurtt) quickly raided the commitment list and stole away Bridgewater. He also land-

ed a talented wideout in Rogers. The job he did in landing and securing the commitments of Gerod Holliman and Andrew Johnson, both major SEC and ACC targets, is a credit to the relationship he built with those prospects. It is clear that he has become a major thorn in the side of his previous employer and is a force to

be reckoned with in South Florida.”Hurtt was a major thorn in the side of Mi-

ami, especially. The Canes still had a solid re-cruiting class, but Louisville’s class was rated higher in the national rankings for the fi rst time in Rivals.com’s decade of recruiting rank-ings.

HOWIE LINDSEYHOWIE LINDSEY

Defensive line coach Clint Hurtt is a candidate for National Recruiter of the Year and Big East Recruiter of the Year after he helped the Cardinals land nine elite players from the Miami area. - photo by Dave Klotz

THE MIAMI HERALD’S DADE COUNTY TOP 15 RECRUITS FOR CLASS OF 20111. Teddy Bridgewater, QB, 6-3, 190, Northwestern -- LOUISVILLE2. Devonta Freeman, RB, 5-9, 195, Central -- FSU3. Gerod Holliman, S, 6-0, 185, Southridge -- LOUISVILLE4. Denzel Perryman, LB, 5-11, 210, Coral Gables -- MIAMI5. Anthony Rabasa, DE, 6-3, 220, Columbus -- NOTRE DAME6. Robenson Therezie, DB, 5-10, 185, Jackson -- AUBURN7. Jabari Gorman, DB, 5-10, 180, Monsignor Pace -- FLORIDA8. Arrington Jenkins, LB, 6-3, 220, Coral Park -- FSU9. Tacoi Sumler, WR, 5-9, 180, Columbus -- OREGON10. Charles Gaines, WR/DB, 5-11, 180, Central -- LOUISVILLE11. Elkino Watson, DT, 6-2, 285, Booker T. Washington -- SOUTH FLORIDA12. Eli Rogers, WR, 5-10, 180, Northwestern -- LOUISVILLE13. Miles Pace, LB, 6-1, 230, Central -- UCF14. Ritchy Desir, Athlete, 6-1, 185, North Miami Beach -- SYRACUSE15. Andrew Johnson, DB, 5-9, 175, Southridge -- LOUISVILLE


RIVALS.COM’S 2011 TOP-50 RECRUITING CLASSES (As of Sunday, Feb. 6)


LOUISVILLE BASKETBALL PREVIEW - SYRACUSE

By Rick CushingThe Orange started the season 18-0 and climbed to No. 3 in

the country before it lost four straight games – at Pittsburgh, to Villanova and Seton Hall at home, and at Marquette. Having never lost fi ve in a row under coach Jim Boeheim, who’s in his 35th season at SU, the Orange, who had dropped to No. 17, snapped back with a 66-58 victory at No. 6 Connecticut last Wednesday, then romped 72-49 at South Florida on Saturday to improve to 20-4, 7-4.

Except for its inexplicable 90-68 loss to Seton Hall, Syracuse didn’t play that poorly during its losing streak. Defense and shooting were its principal downfalls. In three of the losses SU allowed its opponent to shot 50 percent or better, and in two of the losses the Orange shot less than 40 percent.

The vaunted Syracuse defense – a 2-3 zone Boeheim has been employing for years – returned to form against UConn, holding the Huskies to 36.2 percent shooting, although the Or-ange didn’t fare much better at 37.7 percent. Syracuse held USF to 35.3 percent shooting, just 13.3 percent on treys. The Orange shot 44.6 percent but just 26.7 on treys.

Syracuse will play host to red-hot Georgetown on Wednesday before visiting Louisville Saturday.

COACHBoeheim is in the Naismith Hall of Fame, having won one

national title – in 2003 – and gone to the Final Four three other times and having taken SU to the NCAA Tournament 27 times. He is 849-297 and has a Division I record 33 20-win seasons.

GUARDSScoop Jardine, a 6-2 junior who was named National Sixth

Man of the Year last season, averages 12.7 ppg, third on the team, and leads at 5.96 assists per game, which is second in the Big East and 19th in the country. His assist-to-turnover ra-tio is a good 2.02/1, and he leads the team in steals at 1.6 per game. But he is shooting just 40.9 percent overall, 32.7 percent from beyond the arc, and making only 67.4 percent of his free throws. He averages 2.2 rpg.

Brandon Triche, a 6-4 sophomore, is averaging 10.2 points a game, fourth on the team, and is shooting 45.1 percent over-all, 35.1 percent on treys. He is averaging 74.5 percent on free throws, second on the team, and 2.4 rpg. He led the team with 16 points against UConn, and he scored 20 points against UofL last season.

The top backcourt sub is 6-3 freshman Dion Waiters, who’s averaging 6.6 ppg, fi fth on the team, and is shooting 39.2 per-cent overall, 31 percent on treys. He’s the team’s top free-throw shooter at 88.3 percent.

BIG MENSyracuse’s best player is Rick Jackson, a rugged 6-9 senior

who is averaging 13.4 ppg, second on the team, and 11.5 rpg, which leads the Big East and is fi fth in the country. He’s had a league-leading 16 double-doubles this season after getting a season-high 21 points and 12 rebounds against USF. He’s shooting 58.3 percent, tops in the Big East and 17th in the

country, leads the team in blocks at 2.35 a game, and is second in steals at 1.5 a game. He has tried no three-point shots. He had 10 points and 10 rebounds against UofL last season.

Kris Joseph, a 6-7 junior, leads the team at 15.2 ppg and is second at 4.9 rpg. He’s shooting 46.4 percent overall, 38.3 percent on treys.

The starting center is 7-0 freshman Fab Melo, who was rated the top recruit in the country by many last year. He nar-rowed his choice to Syracuse and UofL, and it appears that the Cards got lucky when Melo chose Syracuse because they sub-sequently recruited Gorgui Dieng, who has much better stats and looks to have a far superior upside. The not very mobile Melo is averaging 2.0 ppg and 1.8 rpg and has blocked just 15 shots. He’s shooting 55.6 percent from the fi eld (he rarely strays far from the basket) but a pitiful 36.8 percent on free throws. One has to wonder whether the fact that he’s still starting has anything to do with a promise made to him during the recruit-ment process.

Backing up the unfabulous Melo is 6-10 freshman Baye Moussa Keita, who’s averaging 2.7 ppg and 4.2 rpg and shoot-ing 57.1 percent from the fi eld, 50 percent from the line. He’s actually now seeing more playing time than Melo and had four points and 11 rebounds against UConn.

The top frontcourt subs are 6-8 sophomore James Souther-land (5.6 ppg, 2.7 rpg), and 6-7 freshman C.J. Fair (5.4 ppg, 2.9 rpg). Southerland is shooting 36.2 percent on treys, Fair is shooting 51.2 percent overall.

MISC.As usual, Syracuse excels defensively, holding the opposition

to 39.1 percent overall shooting, which is fourth in the league and 22nd in the country, and 30.5 percent from beyond the arc, fi fth in the league and 39th in the country. It blocks 6.5 shots a game, tied for fi rst in the league and for fi fth in the country, and averages 8.6 steals a game, second in the league and 27th in the country. The Orange also make just 11.9 turnovers a game, which is tied for 37th in the country. Shooting has been a prob-lem, however. Last year the Orange shot 51.6 percent and led the nation. This year overall shooting is good – 47.5 percent, fourth in the league, 35th in the country – but SU is shooting only 35.1 percent on treys, which is 133rd in the country, and is making just 63.7 percent of its free throws, 299th in the coun-try. Shooting is the main difference between this year and last.

ALL-TIME SERIESUofL and Syracuse have met 16 times dating to 1964, with

the Cards holding a 12-4 advantage. They have won the past six meetings, including 78-68 last March 6 in a memorable game that marked UofL’s fi nal appearance in Freedom Hall. Syracuse, which was ranked No. 1 in the country at the time, couldn’t handle Kyle Kuric, who made 9 of 11 shots and scored 22 points in a phenomenal performance.

After three seasons as an assistant at Hawaii (1974-76), Rick Pitino served two seasons (1976-78) as an assistant to Boeheim. He then took his fi rst head coaching job at Boston U. at age 25. He’s 9-7 all time against Boeheim, 6-1 at UofL.

NO NAME POS HT WT YR HOMETOWN 0 RICK JACKSON F SR. 2V 6-9/240 PHILADELPHIA, PA (NEUMANN-GORETTI)2 NICK RESAVY G JR. 6-2/199 WEST MILFORD, NJ (WEST MILFORD)3 DION WAITERS G FR. 6-3/214 PHILADELPHIA, PA (BURLINGTON LIFE CENTER ACADEMY)5 C.J. FAIR F FR. 6-7/200 BALTIMORE, MD (BREWSTER ACADEMY)11 SCOOP JARDINE G JR. HS 6-2/190 PHILADELPHIA, PA (NEUMANN-GORETTI)12 BAYE MOUSSA KEITA F FR. 6-10/220 MOUTH OF WILSON, VA (OAK HILL ACADEMY)13 GRIFFIN HOFFMANN G SO. 6-0/173 NEW YORK, NY (YORK PREP)14 MATT LYDE-CAJUSTE F SO. 6-4/205 MOUNT VERNON, NY (IONA PREP)20 BRANDON TRICHE G SO. HS 6-4/198 JAMESVILLE, NY (JAMESVILLE-DEWITT)21 MOOKIE JONES F SO. HS 6-6/220 PEEKSKILL, NY (PEEKSKILL)24 BRANDON REESE G JR. HS 5-11/160 DAVIE, FL (PINE CREST)32 KRIS JOSEPH F JR. HS 6-7/207 MONTREAL, PQ (ARCHBISHOP CARROLL D.C.)33 DASHONTE RILEY F SO. HS 7-0/233 DETROIT, MI (DETROIT COUNTRY DAY)34 MATT TOMASZEWSKI F JR. 2V 6-8/232 SEABROOK, NH (HOLDERNESS)43 JAMES SOUTHERLAND F SO. HS 6-8/205 BAYSIDE, NY (NOTRE DAME PREP MASS.)51 FABRICIO MELO F FR. 7-0/265 SAGEMONT, FL (SAGEMONT HS)

SYRA

CUSE

ORA

NGE

2010-11 SYRACUSE BASKETBALL ROSTER

Saturday, Feb. 12Syracuse at Louisville

12 Noon, ESPN

Coach: Jim BoeheimLast season: 30-5, 15-3 Big East

Overall record: 849-297 (34th season)At SU: 849-297 (34th season)

Member of Naismith Hall of FameOne national championship

SCOOP JARDINESCOOP JARDINE

2010-11 SCHEDULEDATE OPPONENT TIME NOVEMBER Nov. 12, 2010 Northern Iowa W, 68-46 Nov. 14, 2010 Canisius W, 86-67 Nov. 16, 2010 Detroit W, 66-55 Nov. 21, 2010 William & Mary W, 63-60 Nov. 26, 2010 Michigan1 W, 53-50 Nov. 30, 2010 Cornell W, 78-58

DECEMBER Dec. 4, 2010 NC State W, 65-59 Dec. 7, 2010 Michigan State W, 72-58 Dec. 11, 2010 Colgate W, 100-43 Dec. 18, 2010 Iona W, 83-77 Dec. 20, 2010 Morgan St. W, 97-55 Dec. 22, 2010 Drexel W, 93-65 Dec. 28, 2010 Providence W, 81-74

JANUARY Jan. 1, 2011 Notre Dame W, 70-58 Jan. 8, 2011 at Seton Hall W, 61-56 Jan. 12, 2011 at St. John’s W, 76-59 Jan. 15, 2011 Cincinnati W, 67-52 Jan. 17, 2011 at Pittsburgh L, 74-66 Jan. 22, 2011 Villanova L, 83-72 Jan. 25, 2011 Seton Hall L, 90-68 Jan. 29, 2011 at Marquette L, 76-70

FEBRUARY Feb. 2, 2011 at Connecticut W, 66-58 Feb. 5, 2011 at South Florida W, 72-49. Feb. 9, 2011 Georgetown 7:00 pm Feb. 12, 2011 at Louisville 12:00 pm Feb. 14, 2011 West Virginia 7:00 pm Feb. 19, 2011 Rutgers 4:00 pm Feb. 21, 2011 at Villanova 7:00 pm Feb. 26, 2011 at Georgetown 12:00 pm

MARCH Mar. 5, 2011 DePaul 4:00 pm

ORANGE HAS REGROUPED AFTER FOUR-GAME SKID


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

By Russ BrownJust in time for its Saturday visit to Louis-

ville, Syracuse seems to have recovered from its unexpected four-game slide.

Coach Jim Boeheim isn’t so sure the Or-ange learned much from a four-game losing streak, but he believes his team has played

well in bouncing back from the sudden skid that followed an 18-0 start.

“I don’t particularly think anything helps you when you lose,” Boeheim said Saturday after Rick Jackson scored a season-high 21 points and Kris Joseph added 14 to spark

a 72-49 victory at South Florida.“I think you can learn by losing one. I

don’t think you have to lose four,” Boeheim said. “But this league is like that. It’s the league we’re in. Everybody recognizes it’s a tough league. Everybody understands that, but when you lose they don’t understand it…. They say they get it, but they don’t get it. It’s a very diffi cult league.”

No Big East team has been harder on Syracuse in recent years than Louisville. The Cards have beaten the Orange six in a row, including two upsets last season. UofL upset No. 2 Syracuse 66-60 in the Carrier Dome, then three weeks later stunned the Orange again 78-68 in the fi nal game in Freedom Hall after they had ascended to No. 1.

Syracuse’s four losses during its plunge came at Pittsburgh, against Villanova and Seton Hall at home and at Marquette. The Orange snapped the streak with a 66-58 win at No. 6 Connecticut last week.

Before traveling to Louisville, Syracuse will host Georgetown Wednesday.

“We were at a dark point,” said Jackson, who also grabbed 12 rebounds against USF for his 16th double-double of the season. “We just had to get out of there. Right now we’re playing well. Guys are confi dent. I think we’re all playing how we’re supposed to be playing.”

UofL center Terrence Jennings will have his hands full with the 6-9, 240-pound Jack-son, who is leading the Big East in rebound-ing at 11.5 per game and also is averaging 15.0 points while shooting 58 percent from the fi eld.

“He’s a load,” USF coach Stan Heath said. “He does that to everybody, so it’s not like I didn’t watch fi lm and see it before. But he did a great job.”

“Ricky’s been good from Day 1,” Boe-heim said. “He’s been good right from the beginning. He’s been there every time. He’s not had a bad night, he literally hasn’t. He’s been consistent for us all year long.”

Said USF forward Toarlyn Fitzpatrick of Jackson: “He’s a very strong and physical player down in the post. But he’s very mobile as well as physical. I think he’s the toughest post guy we’ve faced all season.”

Syracuse has now won at least 20 games in all but two of Boeheim’s 35 seasons. His 849 career victories rank second among ac-tive Division I coaches behind Duke’s Mike

Krzyzewski.The string of 33 20-win seasons is a Divi-

sion I record, three more than Dean Smith had at North Carolina.

“It’s still nice to do,” Boeheim said of 20 wins. “We’re very happy to get there. “We like to get there early, so that is good.”

The crowd of 10,051 in Tampa had a heavy Orange hue, and attendance more than doubled USF’s previous season-best for a home game – 4,510 for Villanova.

“They all live down here,” Boeheim said of the Syracuse fans. “They’re not stupid. They come down here in the winter time. I bet there were 7,000 people, maybe 8,000, from Syracuse. Kind of like a home game, a little bit.”

PITT’S GIBBS SIDELINEDIf Pittsburgh’s Panthers are to maintain

their lead in the Big East Conference, they’ll have to do so without their best player.

Junior guard Ashton Gibbs suffered an MCL injury to his left knee and will be out 10-14 days, which includes key road games this week at West Virginia (Monday) and at Villanova on Saturday.

Gibbs is coming off his best game of the season, scoring 25 points and making all fi ve of his three-point shots in a 71-59 victory over visiting Cincinnati last Saturday.

Pitt spokesperson Greg Hotchkiss told ESPN.com that “wear and tear” on Gibbs’ knee caused the injury. Gibbs will wear a brace that will allow the injury to heal and avoid surgery or further injury to the knee.

Travon Woodall will assume Gibbs’ min-utes in his absence. Woodall is averaging 20.4 minutes, 6.7 points and 3.6 assists as a reserve. He will join Brad Wanamaker and Gilbert Brown as the backcourt starters.

Gibbs is averaging 16.3 points, 3.1 assists and is shooting 46.3 percent on treys and

89.7 at the foul line. Going into the WVU game in Morgantown Monday night, Pitt (21-2, 9-1) held a two-game lead over Notre Dame, Villanova and Louisville in the loss col-umn. But the Panthers are heading into the most diffi cult portion of their schedule, with three of the next four on the road at West Virginia, Villanova and at St. John’s after a home game against South Florida.

If the 10- to 14-day projection is cor-rect, Gibbs could return for the home game against West Virginia on Feb. 24. Pitt fi n-ishes with road games at Louisville (Feb. 27) and South Florida before hosting Villanova.

CINCY’S GATES SUSPENDEDCincinnati coach Mick Cronin said there

are only a few basic rules his players must follow: “Play hard, have a great attitude, be a good guy. It’s not that hard to be a Bearcat. You either do it that way or you don’t play for us. It doesn’t matter who you are.”

Yancey Gates, a 6-9 junior who is UC’s top rebounder (6.9) and second-leading scorer (11.4), found that out the hard way. He was suspended indefi nitely last Friday for violating team rules and didn’t make the trip to Pittsburgh for UC’s 71-59 loss.

Asked which of the rules Gates violated, Cronin said, “Probably all three in my opin-ion.”

“It wasn’t one incident,” Cronin added. “It was all week. Now, you might have had a culminating incident.”

It’s not known whether Gates will be re-instated before the Bearcats host UofL next Wednesday in Fifth Third Arena. Cronin said he has no meetings scheduled with Gates and has no idea when he’ll return.

“I’m worried about the guys that are here,” Cronin said.

Cronin said he was disappointed with Gates and that Gates’ teammates should be

disappointed in him, too.“The problem with college basketball to-

day is it’s gotten lost that it should be a privi-lege to play for Jamie Dixon at Pittsburghor to play at Cincinnati, the home of OscarRobertson,” Cronin said. “That you shouldtake that and make the most of it.

“Too many kids think you’re doing every-body a favor being around. What they don’trealize is if you don’t want to be around,then somebody else will take your spot.”

Even though the Bearcats shot only 33.3 percent in the loss to Pitt, Cronin insisted thattheir offense fl owed better without Gates.

“Our ball movement and execution is a lot better with him out of the lineup be-cause we don’t throw the ball to him in thelow post without him posting,” Cronin said.“We have better spacing. We get a lot moreplayer movement and our screening is bet-ter. I think it showed. We were just missinglayups and missing shots.”

Cincinnati (18-5, 5-5), which still has hopes of making the NCAA Tournament,returns to action Tuesday at DePaul, thenwill entertain St. John’s Sunday before fac-ing UofL.

WRIGHT SHUFFLES LINEUPVillanova coach Jay Wright has shaken up

his lineup and started bringing sophomoreguard Maalik Wayns off the bench so he can start 6-8 sophomore Isaiah Armwood to get more defense and rebounding on the fl oor early in the game.

Wayns has adjusted to his new role quickly and helped spark the No. 12 Wild-cats (19-4, 7-3) to a 66-50 victory over West Virginia Saturday in the Wells Fargo Center. As a reserve, Wayns has averaged 14.0 points and 4.0 assists in 26.7 minutes.

“At fi rst I was in shock,” Wayns said. “But I know it’s making our team better. I know it’s making us a better defensive team. And then it helps for other reasons on offense. Me and Fish (Corey Fisher) play a lot together. When we’re on the fl oor to-gether, a lot of good things can happen.”

“We weren’t defending and rebound-ing,” Wright said. “We weren’t getting any easy baskets because we weren’t get-ting stops. I told the team it wasn’t a pun-ishment to anybody. I just thought this is what’s best for us right now. Isaiah brings so much energy, and he’s so smart defen-sively. I know Maalik likes starting better, but these guys are good. They’ll do what’s best for the team. He knows he’s still get-ting starter’s minutes.”

West Virginia’s shooting problems against Villanova sounded similar to the ones the Mountaineers experienced in their 55-54 loss to Louisville two weeks ago. WVU missed 18 of its last 20 shots in the fi rst half and was 1 of 13 during ’Nova’s decisive second-half run.

“There’s probably eighth-grade teams that shoot the ball better than that,” WVU coach Bob Huggins said.

He added: “We had more open shots than Villanova did. We have open shots, we just don’t make them. It’s kind of frustrat-ing having that many open looks and not

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon has his Panthers leading the league at 9-1 as of Sunday. The Panthers have a two game lead on all other teams, including second place Villanova, Notre Dame and Louisville, which are all tied at 7-3. - photo by Pittsburgh Sports Information

RUSS BROWNRUSS BROWN

P I T T L E A D S T H E L E A G U E D E S P I T E G I B B S ’ I N J U R Y

SYRACUSE HEATING UP AS OLD NEMESIS LOUISVILLE NEARS


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

making any of them, and I think it hurts our defense. You kind of get your head down a little bit.

“I continue to explain to them, we’re not just going to run you down and beat any-body in this league. We can win, but we’ve got to win doing it the way we have to do it. I don’t like it that way, but that’s the way it is.”

Senior guard Casey Mitchell, WVU’s lead-ing scorer who had been suspended for the previous three games for a violation of team rules, returned and played 13 minutes but did not score.

Asked why Mitchell had been suspended, Huggins said: “Because I’m the coach and I decide who plays and who doesn’t.”

BROOKS BURNS HOYAS FOR 43Turns out that Marshon Brooks’ 27 points

against Louisville a couple of weeks ago was a bad day for Providence’s senior guard. Brooks torched Georgetown for 43 points – the fi fth-highest total ever in a Big East game – as the Hoyas escaped with an 83-81 win in the Verizon Center last Saturday.

Brooks had the ball and was dribbling downcourt in the fi nal seconds, trying to get one more basket for a tie or win, but Chris Wright stole it to end the game.

“He’s a special player who had a special day,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III said of Brooks. “We put a lot of different people on him. He scores in every way pos-sible.”

Brooks hit 17 of 28 shots and 7 of 10 free throws. He also grabbed 10 rebounds and

played all 40 minutes. His point total was the second-highest all-time for a Providence player in a Big East game, behind Eric Mur-dock’s league-record 48 against Pittsburgh in 1991. It matched the career high set by former Georgetown coach John Thompson when he played for the Friars in the 1960s.

Brooks, the only senior in Providence’s starting lineup, is now averaging 24.1 points for a team that is 0-7 on the road and hasn’t won an away game since Jan. 14, 2010.

“I wouldn’t say it’s frustrating,” Brooks said, “because we’re such a young team, and it’s tough to win in this league with one senior playing a lot of minutes. I can’t feel sorry, man. Just got to keep fi ghting.”

Providence broke its 17-game Big East los-ing streak by upsetting UofL 72-67 on Jan. 22. The Friars may have a chance to snap their road losing skid when they visit the KFC Yum! Center for the rematch on March 2 if they lose at both UConn and Marquette in the meantime.

QUOTABLE -- Rutgers coach Mike Rice wasn’t about to argue about a big discrep-ancy between his team and Notre Dame at the free-throw line in Sunday’s 76-69 loss. ND was 27 of 34, the Scarlet Knights only 8 of 12.

“You don’t do anything with the referees in the Big East,” Rice said. “They have their own fraternity. You just leave them alone and make adjustments, and for the last two weeks we have. Believe me, some of those were fouls.”

Big East Basketball Standings

1. Pittsburgh 21-2 (9-1)Panthers played at West Virginia Monday night, at Villanova Saturday in what fi gures to be a barnburner.

2. Notre Dame 19-4 (8-3)Inhospitable Irish host UofL Wednesday, go to South Florida Saturday.

t-3. Louisville 18-5 (7-3)Cards step into it at ND Wednesday, entertain Syracuse Saturday as 1986 national champs are honored.

t-3. Villanova 19-4 (7-3)Wildcats, back on track after 2-game skid, at Rutgers Wednesday, host Pitt Saturday.

t-5. Georgetown 18-5 (7-4)Hoyas put six-game win streak on line Wednesday at Syracuse, host Marquette Sunday.

t-5. Syracuse 20-4 (7-4)Orange hosts Georgetown Wednesday, plays at UofL Saturday.

t-7. Connecticut 18-4 (6-4)Suddenly struggling Huskies at St. John’s Thursday, entertain Providence Sunday.

t-7. West Virginia 15-7 (6-4)Sliding Mountaineers to undergo fi re-and-ice treatment -- entertained Pitt Monday, host DePaul Saturday.

t-9. Cincinnati 18-5 (5-5)After 15-0 start, Bearcats have lost 5 of last 8; at DePaul Wednesday, entertain St. John’s Sunday.

t-9. Marquette 14-9 (5-5)Golden Eagles at South Florida Wednesday, at Georgetown Sunday.

t-9. St. John’s 13-9 (5-5)Red Storm hosts UConn Thursday, at Cincinnati Sunday. Bearcats won at St. John’s Jan. 22.

12. Seton Hall 10-14 (4-8)Improving Pirates at Rutgers Saturday.

t-13. Providence 14-10 (3-8)Marshon Brooks show off until Sunday at UConn.

t-13. Rutgers 12-11 (3-8)Knights entertain Villanova Wednesday, Seton Hall Saturday.

15. South Florida 8-16 (2-9)Bulls entertain Marquette Wednesday, Notre Dame Saturday.

16. DePaul 6-16 (0-10)After playing Cards tough, Blue Demons host Cincinnati Tuesday, at West Virginia Saturday.

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CARDINAL STARSAHLIVIA SPENCER - WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELDThe freshman clocked a season-best 56.13 seconds in the indoor 400m for a fi rst-place fi nish at the Virginia Tech Elite Meet in Blacksburg, Va., Saturday. It was her fi rst victory in the event this year. She earned her fi rst collegiate win in the season opener in December, capturing the 600m at the Fast Start Invitational. The native of Indianapolis was a three-time Indiana state champion on the 4x400m relay team and fi nished second in the state in the outdoor 400m as a senior with a time of 55.77. She was named Athlete of the Year at Lawrence North High.

KHADIJA ABDULLAH - WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELDThe sophomore from Markham, Ill., continued to roll in the shot put. She registered her fourth straight victory of the season in the event with a toss of 16.59m (54 feet, 5 1/4 inches) at the Virginia Tech Elite Meet Saturday. It is her second-best throw of the season, behind her season-opening throw of 16.96m (55 feet, 7 3/4 inches), an NCAA automatic qualifying mark. Teammates D’Ana McCarty and Chinwe Okoro also posted top-fi ve fi nishes in Blacksburg, placing fourth and fi fth respectively.

TONY ZYCH - BASEBALLThe junior right-handed pitcher was named preseason fi rst team All-America by Baseball America Friday. It was the second preseason All-America honor for Zych, who previously was named third team Louisville Slugger All-America by Collegiate Baseball. The Monee, Ill., native was 5-2 with a 5.13 ERA as a sophomore last season, and in 2009 he earned Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America honors. Last summer Zych earned the Russ Ford Award as the Cape Cod League’s Outstanding Relief Pitcher and also earned the Robert A. McNeece Award as the Outstanding Pro Prospect, two of the most prestigious honors the league has to offer. A 2010 Cape Cod League All-Star, Zych also was named to the Cape Cod Baseball All-League Team after collecting a league-leading 12 saves with a 0.89 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 20 1/3 innings of relief for the Bourne Braves.

D’ANA MCCARTY - WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELDThe senior from Indianapolis Pike High recorded her third victory of the season in the weight throw, registering a 20.91m (68 feet, 7 1/4 inches) mark in the event at the Virginia Tech Elite Meet Friday. It is her 20th career victory in the weight throw. McCarty, who already qualifi ed for the NCAA Indoor Championships, fi nished 12-hundredths of a meter ahead of the second-place fi nisher. Also competing and fi nishing in the top 10 in the event were teammates Amashi Kendall (7th) and Patrice Gates (8th). McCarty, a two-time NCAA Indoor Champion in the event, has a personal best of 22.76m (74 feet, 8 1/4 inches).

CHARACHESICIA LOCKHART - WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELDThe junior from Dallas won the long jump at the Virginia Elite Meet on Friday with a mark of 6.15m (20 feet, 2 1/4 inches). She earned her second victory of the season, having posted her career-best mark at the Kentucky Invitational last month -- 6.22m (20 feet, 5 inches). Lockhart qualifi ed for the NCAA Championships last season in the long jump.

REX ECARMA - MEN’S TENNISThe 13th-ranked University of Louisville men’s tennis team stands at 7-0 on the season, tying for the best start in school history. The Cardinals have matched last year’s 7-0 start, having beaten four opponents ranked in the top 75 along the way, including No. 18 Ole Miss in the fi nal of the ITA Kickoff Weekend. “What I had hoped for to start this season has come to pass,” Ecarma said. “We wanted to pass the fi rst three tests in our matches against Old Dominion, North Carolina State and East Tennessee State. These three programs are regulars in the NCAA Tournament, and NC State made a recent run to the Elite Eight. Then to host our fi rst ITA Kickoff Weekend and win was yet another memorable experience for this team.” The Cards are back in action Friday at 5 p.m. against No. 24 Oklahoma at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center.

THERESE BERGSTROM - WOMEN’S SWIMMINGThe senior from Motala, Sweden, posted two individual wins as the Cardinals defeated Virginia Tech 205-95 while losing to Indiana 181-119 in a double dual meet here on Jan. 29. She won the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:03.01 and the 200-yard version in 2:15.59. Her time in the 200-breast was an NCAA B-cut time. She also had the fastest split in the 200-medley relay, helping Louisville win in a pool-record 1:42.19. Bergstrom was named Big East Women’s Swimmer of the Week on Wednesday.

SPENCERSPENCER

ABDULLAHABDULLAH

ZYCHZYCH

McCARTYMcCARTY

LOCKHARTLOCKHART

ECARMAECARMA

BERGSTROMBERGSTROM

HOWIE LINDSEY’SHOWIE LINDSEY’S

OF THE WEEKOF THE WEEKBy Russ BrownWhile building and maintaining the University of

Louisville men’s tennis programs, coach Rex Ecarma has channeled both past and current Cardinals coaches in various sports.

He has adopted the scheduling policy of former UofL basketball coach Denny Crum, who always be-lieved in playing the best because he felt it toughened his team for the NCAA Tournament.

Ecarma was a fan of ex-football coach Bobby Pe-trino’s game preparation. He likes hoops coach Rick Pitino’s detailed game prep and hands-on practice ap-proach. He favors the vision of former football coach Howard Schnellenberger, who famously believed that UofL was on a collision course with the national cham-pionship.

Over the years, Ecarma has integrated their strengths into his coaching philosophy. And now he has added UofL soccer coach Ken Lolla, who guided the Cards to the national-championship game this past season, to his list of achievers and motivators.

Ecarma said he is using Lolla’s success with the soc-cer team as a blueprint for his tennis team, which has entered the season ranked in the top 15 and with high hopes. At Ecarma’s invitation, Lolla talked to the tennis players as the indoor season got under way.

“I want this team to be on a mission like the soc-cer team was,” Ecarma said. “So I had Lolla talk to them about how he envisioned the season and started talking about a national championship to get his team in the right frame of mind... Ken is the most positive person I’ve ever met in my life. I call him the ‘Pied Piper of Positive Thinking.’ I wanted him to explain how he upgraded the mental culture of his team. How does a team that started ranked No. 20 or 21 like they did make it to the championship game? He told stories, it was really, really good. I think it went really well.”

So have the early stages of Louisville’s season. The No. 13 Cards have equaled the best start in program history at 7-0 and can set the record by beating No.

24 Oklahoma Friday at 5 p.m. at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center.

UofL will play at Tennessee on Feb. 14, then com-pete in the National Indoor Championship Feb. 18-21 in Seattle. The Cards earned a spot in that Sweet 16 by beating No. 18 Mississippi 4-2 in the fi nals of the 2011 ITA Kickoff Weekend at Bass-Rudd last month.

The Cards returned their entire starting lineup from last year’s NCAA Sweet 16 club that lost to No. 2-seed-ed Tennessee, and the experience and talent shows. They have dominated their opponents so far, shutting out Old Dominion, North Carolina State, East Tennes-see State, Columbia, Murray State and Morehead State by 7-0 scores, in addition to beating Ole Miss, whose string of 17 indoor Sweet 16 appearances in a row is second only to UCLA.

UofL’s veteran group consists of seniors Austen Childs, Simon Childs, Viktor Maksimcuk and Alejandro Calligari, along with juniors Robert Hall and Andrew Carter.

They’re coming off a record-setting 2010 season in which they posted a best-ever 24-6 record, won the Big East championship and fi nished 13th in the fi nal ITA rankings.

“These guys are used to winning,” Ecarma said. “This year we feel we’re among the talk, the small group people are talking about that has a chance to win the national championship. We’re in that conver-sation. Now we’re trying to get them to think, ‘Let’s expect it.’”

Ecarma doesn’t know yet who Louisville will face in Seattle. If the pairings were made today, it would be No. 5 Texas. The draw will be made next Monday.

Can UofL seriously challenge for the title?“We’re a team that’s really hot, and I think we could

make a severe run,” Ecarma said. “Are we ready to win a national championship this early in the season? I really think there’s a chance, but this team still needs more Mississippi-type wins to really sink their feet in as a team that expects to win a national championship.”

WITH LOLLA’S HELP, ECARMA’S TEAM OFF TO A FAST START

MEN’S TENNIS


WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

WOMEN GET BACK TO WINNING AT VILLANOVABy Howie LIndseyThe University of Louisville women’s basketball

team got back in the win column Sunday after-noon in Philadelphia with a 64-48 victory over struggling Villanova (8-14, 0-9). It was a rare breather for the Cardinals, who have faced the 12th-toughest schedule in the nation this season.

“It’s nice to be able to come on the road and play well,” coach Jeff Walz said. “We had it up to a 23-point game with 10:20 left, and I thought we did a nice job attacking. We got a little careless with the basketball after that ... but it is always nice to be able to go on the road and get a win, especially at Villanova.”

Louisville (15-9, 6-4) took care of business on the road, winnings its fi rst Big East road game since a 78-40 victory at Cincinnati on Dec. 15. The Cardinals led the entire game, jumping ahead 5-0 and then 11-2 thanks to early threes by Tia Gibbs and Shoni Schimmel.

The score stayed 11-5 from the 14:45 mark until the 10:30 mark when Monique Reid fi nally broke the game’s four-minute-plus scoreless streak with a rebound putback. The Cardinals built a 34-19 lead at the half on the strength of 10 points and seven rebounds by Reid and 4-of-8 shooting from three-point range.

The Cardinals pushed the lead to 54-34 with just over 11 minutes left after a jumper by Reid. A win was a certainty when 6-foot-4 center Sher-onne Vails nailed a three-pointer, her fi rst of the season, on the next possession to increase the lead to 23. Vails missed both of her previous three-point attempts this season.

The only thing that kept the Cardinals’ lead from getting into the 30s was strong outside shooting by Villanova. The Wildcats hit fi ve sec-ond-half threes.

Louisville kept the lead between 14 and 23 points throughout the second half, closing out the 64-48 win despite hitting just one fi eld goal in the fi nal 5:28. Louisville remained undefeated against the Wildcats, improving to 6-0 in the all-time series.

Reid fi nished with 20 points and 13 rebounds. She played 34 minutes and hit 10 of 17 shots.

“I was really proud of Mo,” Walz said. “We need that same effort out of her Sunday against West Virginia or we won’t have a chance to win. Mo is an important part of this team, and she knows that. I told her that.”

Schimmel had 10 points and four assists. After a rough performance against Georgetown earlier in the week that saw her cough up 10 turnovers and hit just 4 of 10 shots, Schimmel had three as-sists against Villanova.

“She is continuing to grow,” Walz said. “As she grows in that area (making the easier pass), her game will continue to improve. Every now and then we hang on to the ball a little too long be-fore making the pass where, if we got it out of our hands earlier, we’d have a chance to make really good things happen.”

GOAL IS A BIDNow with six conference wins, Louisville will

likely need three more league wins to assure a bid to the NCAA Tournament. The league schedule is composed of 16 games, and a winning league record (9-7 or better) will likely get the bid.

According to the RPI computer rankings, the Cardinals are expected to fi nish 19-11 with a 10-6 league record. If that prediction comes true, UofL would safely be in the NCAA Tournament as one of the top eight teams in the Big East.

Up next is a home game against West Virginia (20-4, 6-4).

“We are very excited about the opportunity to play a very good West Virginia team,” Walz said. “We’re going to have to improve. We have a week to prepare. We’ll come in Monday and watch fi lm and shoot some free throws. On Tuesday, we’ll

take the day off and then we’ll come back and practice Wednesday through Saturday. We have got to be prepared to play for 40 minutes. We can’t play 20 minutes like we did against George-town, it has to be all 40 minutes.”

GEORGETOWN LETDOWNAbout that Georgetown game. Yikes, what

a meltdown. The unranked but fi esty Cards ap-peared to be on the verge of extending their home wining streak to 11 games with a 30-19 halftime lead over then-no. 17 Georgetown, but the Hoyas came roaring back in the second half. Georgetown turned an 11-point halftime defi cit into a 24-point win at the KFC Yum! Center last Tuesday night.

The Hoyas, who were one spot ahead of Lou-isville in the Big East standings coming in, looked sloppy in the fi rst half. They scored only 19 points and hit just 7 of 30 shots. They committed 14 fi rst-half turnovers and hit just 1 of 11 three-point shots.

As bad as the Hoyas looked in the fi rst half, they made up for it in the second half. They didn’t just chip away at the Cardinals’ lead, they chomped. They hit 7 of their fi rst 12 three-point shots and used a stifl ing full-court press to frus-trate the young Cardinals.

Georgetown opened the second half on a 26-7 run to take an eight-point lead. After tying the score at 37 with just under 14 minutes left, they didn’t stop there.

Walz’s best efforts to stem the tide were in vain as Georgetown pulled away. The Hoyas were up 67-50 with 3:50 to go, outscoring the Cardinals 48-20 through the fi rst 16:10 of the second half. They increased the lead to 76-52 by the fi nal gun, ending one of the most remarkable runs by an opponent in Yum! Center history.

After the game, Walz stayed in the locker room to speak with his team, sending assistant coach Michelle Clark-Heard out to speak with the media instead.

“We’ve got to fi nd some answers,” she said. “There’s going to be a quick turnaround for us, so he’s in there now talking to the team, trying to fi g-ure out what exactly was the problem. There were supposed to be adjustments in the game as far as handling the press. We worked on it for three days after knowing they were going to press.”

TAYLOR STARTING Walz decided to put sophomore Asia Taylor in

the starting lineup instead of junior shooter Becky Burke against Villanova. He said the move was all about defense.

“We need to become a better defensive team,” he said. “I thought I’d get Asia out there and give her some more minutes because she is a better defender than Becky is. This didn’t affect Becky’s minutes because she still played 25 minutes, but we have to get a little more defensive productivity out of a few of our players.”

Taylor was Louisville’s highest-rated recruit in the 2009 class.

“Asia Taylor did a really good job tonight,” Walz said. “She went 4 for 5 (shooting) and played within herself. She had three turnovers, so we’ll need to work on that, but it is something we’ll continue to grow with.”

TURNOVERS STILL AN ISSUEEven with Schimmel improving, turnovers are

still an issue. Louisville had 20 against Villanova, most of them unforced.

“We have stressed that for the past two days,” Walz said. “We have to take care of the basket-ball. We have to get better at this. We have to value the basketball. Every possession counts.”

“We’re coming back home and we’ll have a West Virginia coming to town that is in the top 15 in the country. We can’t turn the ball over 20 times against them and even have a chance to win.”

Freshman guard Shoni Schimmel soared through the air while fl ipping a pass behind her for a waiting teammate. Schimmel, Louisville’s second-leading scorer, is second in the league in assists per game with 5.5, but also averages 4.0 turnovers per game. - photo by Shelley Feller

2010-11 WOMEN’S SCHEDULE

DATE OPPONENT SITE TIME RECORD CONF OCTOBER 30 Indiana Wesleyan (Exh) KFC Yum! Center W, 67-42 NOVEMBER 12 Then-No. 2 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 Then-No. 4 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 4-3DECEMBER 2 MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE KFC Yum! Center W, 96-37 5-35 Then-No. 8 KENTUCKY KFC Yum! Center W, 78-52 6-311 DAYTON KFC Yum! Center W, 69-55 7-315 at Cincinnati Cincinnati, Ohio W, 78-40 8-3 1-018-20 Dual in the Desert Las Vegas, Nev. 18 vs. Marist Las Vegas, Nev. L, 68-74 8-419 vs. Houston Las Vegas, Nev. L, 80-92 8-5 20 vs. No. 21 Nebraska Las Vegas, Nev. W, 65-51 9-528 UT-MARTIN KFC Yum! Center W, 92-67 10-5 JANUARY 4 Then-No. 17 ST. JOHN’S KFC Yum! Center W, 84-73 11-5 2-09 PITTSBURGH KFC Yum! Center W, 79-68 12-5 3-012 at No. 12 Notre Dame South Bend, Ind. L, 80-60 12-6 3-115 at Connecticut Hartford, Conn L, 78-55 12-7 3-222 CINCINNATI KFC Yum! Center W, 83-47 13-7 4-2 26 at Marquette Milwaukee, Wis. L, 76-65 13-8 4-329 RUTGERS KFC Yum! Center W, 56-45 14-8 5-3FEBRUARY 1 GEORGETOWN KFC Yum! Center L, 76-52 14-9 5-46 at Villanova Philadelphia, Pa. W, 64-48 15-9 6-413 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


BIG EAST NOTEBOOK - FOOTBALL2007 CARDINAL CARAVAN10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASONLOUISVILLE BASKETBALLWOMEN’S BASKETBALL

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MAKE YOUR PICKSLAST WEEK:

LAST WEEK:_____OVERALL:_______

KENT TAYLORWAVE TV

LAST WEEK: 6-4OVERALL: 45-25

TERRY MEINERSWHAS RADIO


GARRY GUPTONRED AND BLUE REVIEW

ION CHANNEL 21LAST WEEK: 8-2OVERALL: 46-24

RUSS BROWNSPORTSREPORT


FRED COWGILLWLKY TV


TOM LANEWDRB FOX 41


MATT WILLINGERSPORTSREPORT


HOWIE LINDSEYSPORTSREPORT


DREW DEENERWHAS PLAY-BY-PLAY

WKRD RADIOLAST WEEK: 5-5OVERALL: 45-25

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 basketball 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 basketball season to earn the honor of top dog in the LSR’s Top Tom contest.

ZACH McCRITE93.9 THE TICKET


#15 LOUISVILLE AT #9 NOTRE DAME LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE NOTRE DAME#13 GEORGETOWN AT #17 SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE#23 NORTH CAROLINA AT #5 DUKE DUKE DUKE DUKE#3 TEXAS AT OKLAHOMA TEXAS TEXAS TEXAS#6 CONNECTICUT AT ST. JOHN’S UCONN UCONN UCONN#10 KENTUCKY AT #23 VANDERBILT VANDERBILT UK VANDERBILT#1 OHIO STATE AT #19 WISCONSIN WISCONSIN WISCONSIN OHIO STATE#9 NOTRE DAME AT SOUTH FLORIDA NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME#4 PITTSBURGH AT #12 VILLANOVA VILLANOVA VILLANOVA VILLANOVA#17 SYRACUSE AT #15 LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE

JACK COFFEESPORTSREPORT


U OF L PRESIDENTJAMES RAMSEY


JEFF WAFFORDSPORTSREPORT


LOUISVILLE NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME LOUISVILLE NOTRE DAMESYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE GEORGETOWN SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE

DUKE DUKE DUKE DUKE DUKE DUKE DUKE DUKE DUKE DUKE TEXAS TEXAS TEXAS TEXAS TEXAS TEXAS OKLAHOMA TEXAS TEXAS TEXASUCONN ST. JOHN’S UCONN UCONN ST. JOHN’S UCONN UCONN UCONN UCONN UCONN

VANDERBILT UK VANDERBILT UK VANDERBILT VANDERBILT VANDERBILT VANDERBILT VANDERBILT UKWISCONSIN WISCONSIN WISCONSIN OHIO STATE WISCONSIN WISCONSIN OHIO STATE WISCONSIN WISCONSIN WISCONSINNOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAMEVILLANOVA VILLANOVA VILLANOVA PITT PITT VILLANOVA VILLANOVA PITT VILLANOVA VILLANOVALOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE

DEB HARBSMEIERWHAS TV TEAM


AL PARRISHPARRISH HOUSE

80 UNDER 80LAST WEEK: 8-2OVERALL: 49-21

TONY CRUISEWHAS RADIO


LACHLAN MCLEANWHAS RADIO


DAVE JENNINGSWHAS RADIO


PAUL ROGERSWHAS RADIO TEAM


TONY VANETTIAFTERNOON UNDERDOGS

WKRD RADIOLAST WEEK: 7-3OVERALL: 46-24

LOUISVILLE NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE DUKE DUKE DUKE DUKE DUKE DUKE DUKE TEXAS TEXAS TEXAS TEXAS TEXAS TEXAS TEXAS UCONN ST. JOHN’S ST. JOHN’S UCONN ST. JOHN’S UCONN UCONN VANDERBILT UK VANDERBILT VANDERBILT VANDERBILT UK VANDERBILT WISCONSIN OHIO STATE OHIO STATE WISCONSIN WISCONSIN WISCONSIN WISCONSIN NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME NOTRE DAME VILLANOVA PITT VILLANOVA VILLANOVA PITT PITT VILLANOVA LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE SYRACUSE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE

SURVIVORS

Sophomore forward Asia Taylor glared at a Georgetown Sophomore forward Asia Taylor glared at a Georgetown opponent as Taylor waited at the defensive end. Louisvile’s opponent as Taylor waited at the defensive end. Louisvile’s women needed more intensity in the second half, losing a women needed more intensity in the second half, losing a 13-point lead against the No. 17-ranked Hoyas. 13-point lead against the No. 17-ranked Hoyas. - photo by Shelley Feller- photo by Shelley Feller

INTENSITY

Louisville women’s basketball celebrated Cancer Survivors Louisville women’s basketball celebrated Cancer Survivors at the recent Think Pink game. This year’s game was against at the recent Think Pink game. This year’s game was against Georgetown last Tuesday night, and the lower-arena was sold Georgetown last Tuesday night, and the lower-arena was sold out. - photo by Dave Klotzout. - photo by Dave Klotz


2007 CARDINAL CARAVAN

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Also check out the Louisville SportsReport’s Howie Lindsey on ION Channel 21 in

Louisville Wednesday and Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. Coming to more cities soon.

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feb. 9 issue (2011)

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