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VOLUME XV • NUMBER 23JANUARY 25, 2011

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LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT JANUARY 25, 2011

JANUARY 25, 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 23 • JANUARY 25, 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

6 MEN’S AND WOMEN’S BASKETBALL SCHEDULES, STATS10 THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY By Howie Lindsey11 CARDS IGNORE INJURIES, TAKE JOHNNIES TO WOODSHED By Russ Brown14 MCGEE, PADGETT HOPE THEY’RE ON COACHING FAST TRACK By Russ Brown 15 RECRUITING: CARDS WRAPPING UP RECRUITING CLASS By Jeff Wafford

16 HUSKIES A SURPRISE; WALKER HAS BEEN GREAT By Rick Cushing 17 HOYAS HAVE BOUNCED BACK FROM RECENT SLUMP By Rick Cushing20 393 ON LOUISVILLE’S ACADEMIC HONOR ROLL21 CARDINAL STARS OF THE WEEK By Howie Lindsey

4 WEST VIRGINIA UP NEXTLouisville needs to get back on track, but Bob Huggins and West Virginia stand in its way Wednesday night. The ‘Eers are tough and gritty, but would you expect anything else from Huggins?

9 FIELD HOCKEY’S NEW LEADERJustine Sowry is UofL’s new fi eld hockey boss, taking over for Pam Bustin. Sowry hopes to take the Cardinals from a top-15 program to a national contender. The Aussie spoke with Howie Lindsey last week.

7 SIVA KEEPING HIS HEAD UPAfter struggling against Marquette, Peyton Siva came back with one of his most-complete games of the season against St. John’s. Rick Pitino says Siva is the kind of player fans should always root for, regardless of how well he plays.

13 SHONI, CARDS CLOBBER CINCYLouisville women’s basketball got back in the win column in a big way by trouncing old rival Cincinnati Saturday in front of a sold-out crowd at the KFC Yum! Center. The Cardinals went on runs of 13-0 and 18-0 in the fi rst half.

8 KORDES IS THE RIGHT HIREGeneral Manager Jack Coffee says it must have been a tough decision to let Leonid Yelin retire, but Louisville’s hire of Anne Kordes is a sign that UofL’s goals are set higher than simply making the NCAA Tournament.

18 RISING OR FALLING?Which teams are rising and which are falling in the Big East standings this week? Check out the full list of all 16 programs along with a quick look at the week ahead for each team in the league.

5 TOP STORY: CARDS ‘SEGMENTS’ WILL BE TOUGHER THE REST OF THE WAYLouisville coach Rick Pitino divided the Big East season into six three-game segments to keep his team focused and motivated. Pitino said his team’s goal is to win two of three games in each of the segments. So far so good as the Cards are 4-2, but the future looks to be tough sledding with seven games against top 25 foes in the next eight games.

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LOUISVILLE BASKETBALL PREVIEW - WEST VIRGINIA

WEST VIRGINIA MOUNTAINEERS HAVE WON FIVE OF LAST SIXW

EST V

IRGI

NIA M

OUNT

AINE

ERS

Wednesday, Jan. 26WVU at Louisville

7 pm, ESPNU

Saturday, March 5Louisville at WVU12 Noon, ESPN2

By Rick CushingThe Mountaineers have had an up-and-down season.

They went 8-2 in their non-conference season but opened Big East play with consecutive losses to St. John’s (at home) and at Marquette. They bounced back with victories at DeP-aul and Georgetown and at home against Providence, then beat then-No. 8 Purdue 68-64 on national TV on Jan. 16 to attain a No. 21 national ranking, only to turn around and lose to in-state rival Marshall 75-71 last Wednesday. The Mountaineers shot just 33.3 percent against Marshall, in-cluding 29.2 percent on treys.

“We came off a big win against Purdue on Sunday,” coach Bob Huggins said. “We didn’t play with that kind of intensity, and we didn’t take care of the ball.”

Huggins has been after his team all season to play team ball. A couple of weeks ago he lamented: “We don’t rebound and we don’t run offense. It’s hard to figure out who can score. Then to figure out who can make a pass. And who can remember what to do. We have a lot of work to do.”

After beating South Florida 56-46 on Sunday, WVU is 13-5, 4-2 heading into Wednesday’s game at Louisville.

COACHHuggins is a familiar face to UofL fans, having coached

for 16 seasons at Cincinnati (1989-2004), which was the Cardinals’ rival in the Metro Conference and C-USA. He led the Bearcats to the NCAA Tournament his final 14 years there, including to the Final Four in 1992. He left Cincinnati under a cloud (improper conduct involving alcohol), sat out a season before coaching at Kansas State in 2006-07, then left to take over at WVU, his alma mater. This is his fourth season there, and he’s 93-35, winning the Big East Confer-ence Tournament last season and advancing to the Final Four after knocking off Kentucky in the Elite Eight. Overall he’s 683-246 in 28-plus seasons. His teams are known for a rugged style of play.

GUARDSCasey Mitchell, a 6-4 senior, leads the Mountaineers in

scoring at 16.8 ppg, which is fourth in the Big East, and is averaging 3.7 rpg, fourth on the team. He’s shooting 45.4 percent overall, 37.7 percent on treys. He’s a good free-throw shooter at 87.1 percent, fifth in the Big East, but he has more turnovers (32) than assists (29). He had 13 points and 14 rebounds against South Florida.

Darryl “Truck” Bryant, a 6-2 junior, is third on the team at 12.1 ppg and leads in assists at 3.5 a game. He’s shooting just 37.9 percent.

The top backcourt sub is 6-2 senior Joe Mazzula, who’s seeing about the same amount of playing time as Bryant and averaging 5.7 ppg and 3.35 assists. He leads the Big East and is 14th in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.85. He’s shooting 46.3 percent overall but just 7.7 percent on treys (1 for 13). He was the MVP of the East Regional last season after getting a career-high 17 points in a 73-66 vic-tory over UK. Both he and Bryant are good defenders. Other backcourt subs are 6-3 senior Jonnie West (3.9 ppg), a 43.3 percent three-point shooter, and 6-5 sophomore Dalton Pep-per (3.4 ppg). West is the son of all-time great Jerry West.

BIG MENKevin Jones, a 6-8 junior, is second on the team at 13.8

ppg and leads at 6.9 rpg. He’s shooting 45.9 percent overall but just 27.4 percent on treys. He had 13 points against USF.

John Flowers, a skinny 6-7, 215-pound senior, is fourth on the team at 9.5 ppg and second at 6.4 rpg. He’s the team’s best shooter at 52 percent, and he leads in blocked shots at 2.29 per game, which is second in the Big East and 27th in the country. He also had 13 points against USF.

Deniz Kilicli, a 6-9 sophomore, rounds out the starting frontcourt and is averaging 7.0 ppg and 3.9 rpg. He’s shoot-ing 49 percent and has not tried a three-point shot all sea-son. He’s also not a very adept ball-handler, with 17 assists and 28 turnovers.

The top frontcourt subs are 6-10 freshman Kevin Noreen (2.6 ppg), 6-8 sophomore Dan Jennings (2.1 ppg) and 6-7 senior Cam Thoroughman (1.8 ppg, 3.5 rpg).

MISC.WVU leads the Big East and is eighth in the country in

three-point defense at 27.7 percent. The Mountaineers held USF to 7.7 percent shooting (1 of 13) on treys. They are 22nd in the country in assists at 16.3 per game, 29th in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.28, 75th in turnovers per game at 12.7 and 90th in overall field-goal defense at 41 percent. USF shot 31.4 percent overall.

ALL-TIME SERIESUofL and West Virginia have met 10 times dating to 1959,

with the Cards holding a 7-3 advantage. WVU won last sea-son, 77-74, in Morgantown, but UofL won the previous four matchups. The teams will meet again this season, with UofL visiting WVU on March 5 to close out the regular season.

The teams’ first meeting, in 1959, came in the Final Four, when WVU, behind Jerry West’s 39 points, beat the Cards 94-79 in Freedom Hall.

NO NAME POS YR EXP. HT/WT HOMETOWN 2 CAM THOROUGHMAN F SR. 2V 6-7/235 PORTSMOUTH, OH (CLAY HS)

4 JOHNNIE WEST G FR. HS 6-3/195 MEMPHIS, TN

5 KEVIN JONES F JR. HS 6-8/255 MOUNT VERNON, NY (MOUNT VERNON)

12 KENNY ROSS G FR. HS 6-0/175 FURLONG, PA (ACADEMY OF NEW CHURCH)

14 NOAH COTTRILL G FR. 6-3/195 LOGAN, WV (LOGAN HS)

15 BRYAN LOWTHER G SO. HS 6-6/215 EDINBORO, PA (EDINBORO)

21 JOE MAZZULLA G SR. 2V 6-2/200 JOHNSTON, RI (BISHOP HENDRICKEN)

25 DARRYL BRYANT G JR. HS 6-2/205 BROOKLYN, NY (ST. RAYMOND’S)

30 DANNY JENNINGS F SO. HS 6-8/270 STATEN ISLAND, NY (ST. THOMAS MORE, CT.)

32 DALTON PEPPER G SO. HS 6-5/230 LEVITTOWN, PA (PENNSBURY)

33 CASEY MITCHELL G SR. 2V 6-4/220 SAVANNAH, GA (CHIPOLA J.C.)

34 KEVIN NOREEN F FR. 6-10/235 MINNEAPOLIS, MN (MINNESOTA TRANSITIONS CHARTER SCHOOL)

41 JOHN FLOWERS F SR. 2V 6-7/215 WALDORF, MD (ST. MARY’S RYKEN)

42 DENIZ KILICLI F SO. HS 6-9/270 ISTANBUL, TURKEY (MOUNTAIN STATE ACADEMY, W.VA.)

2010-11 WEST VIRGINIA BASKETBALL ROSTER

Coach: Bob HugginsLast season: 31-7, 13-5 Big East

Overall Record: 683-246 (29TH SEASON)At WVU: 93-35 (FOURTH SEASON)

Huggins has taken two schools to the Final Four, Cincinnati and West Virginia

DARRYL BRYANTDARRYL BRYANT

2010-11 SCHEDULEDATE OPPONENT TIME NOVEMBER Nov. 12, 2010 Oakland W, 95-71 Nov. 18, 2010 Davidson1 W, 84-70Nov. 27, 2010 VMI W, 82-66

DECEMBER Dec. 1, 2010 American W, 71-50 Dec. 4, 2010 at Miami-FL L, 79-76 Dec. 7, 2010 Robert Morris W, 82-49 Dec. 12, 2010 at Duquesne W, 64-61 Dec. 18, 2010 Cleveland St. W, 74-63 Dec. 29, 2010 St. John’s L, 81-71

JANUARY Jan. 1, 2011 at Marquette L, 79-74 Jan. 4, 2011 at DePaul W, 67-65 Jan. 8, 2011 at Georgetown W, 65-59 Jan. 13, 2011 Providence W, 93-63 Jan. 16, 2011 Purdue W, 68-64 Jan. 19, 2011 Marshall L, 75-71 Jan. 23, 2011 South Florida W, 56-46 Jan. 26, 2011 at Louisville 7:00 pm ET Jan. 29, 2011 at Cincinnati 8:00 pm ET

JANUARY Feb. 2, 2011 Seton Hall 7:00 pm ET Feb. 5, 2011 at Villanova 12:00 pm ET Feb. 7, 2011 Pittsburgh 7:00 pm ET Feb. 12, 2011 DePaul 3:00 pm ET Feb. 14, 2011 at Syracuse 7:00 pm ET Feb. 19, 2011 Notre Dame 1:00 pm ET Feb. 24, 2011 at Pittsburgh 9:00 pm ET Feb. 27, 2011 at Rutgers 12:00 pm ET

MARCH Mar. 2, 2011 Connecticut 7:00 pm ET Mar. 5, 2011 Louisville 12:00 pm ET


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

By Russ BrownGoing into the 18-game Big East portion of

the University of Louisville’s basketball sched-ule, coach Rick Pitino decided to resurrect a tactic he had fi rst employed as an NBA coach and divide the slate into six three-game seg-ments.

The goal was to win at least two of three in each segment, which would give UofL 12 wins in what is unanimously considered the nation’s toughest conference, which would in turn un-doubtedly punch the Cardinals’ ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

So far, so good. Sort of.Uof L (15-4, 4-2) went

2-1 in its fi rst segment and appeared on its way to a 3-0 sweep in the second segment until lowly Provi-dence (12-8, 1-6) stunned the Cards 72-67 Saturday in the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.

So UofL is 2-1 in both segments, but the task

gets tougher from here, beginning with a visit to the KFC Yum! Center by No. 21 West Vir-ginia (13-5, 4-2) on Wednesday and continu-ing with a challenging two-game road swing to No. 8 Connecticut (16-2, 4-2) Saturday and No. 23 Georgetown (14-5, 3-4) Monday.

(Editor’s Note: Because LSR publishes Mon-day morning, records and rankings do not re-fl ect any games or polls after Sunday night).

Of Louisville’s four Big East wins, none has come against a team currently in the upper division of the conference, but eight of the Cards’ next 12 games will be against top-25 teams and in the top 15 of the RPI.

No wonder Pitino said, ominously, after the loss at Providence, “We’re going to lose a lot of games this year.”

“We hit our segment, we’re 2 for 2 in that,” he added. “We’ve just got to get our 2 for 3 and get into the (NCAA) tournament.”

Before the Providence game, Pitino noted that a sweep was important, and it certainly looked like a good bet against a Friars team that had lost 17 straight Big East games.

“We realize there are going to be some seg-ments where we’re one out of three, so we’ve got to hope for a sweep here,” Pitino said on Friday.

“It’s very diffi cult to do in the Big East, but it would be great.”

Pitino said he devised the segment approach in order to keep his team positive in what fi gured to be an up-and-down ride in the conference.

“The reason is that if they get an oh-for-three or one-for-three, they still can come back and get a sweep or two out of three,” Pitino said. “I used to do it in the NBA on fi ve-game sets to keep a positive infl uence and look at the big picture, not the small picture, not get too down after a loss.

“The other thing is we set very lofty goals at the beginning of the season. We didn’t think realistically we’d come anywhere near 12 vic-tories. We were hoping to fi nish at the .500 mark, so we put some pretty lofty goals behind it as well.”

With a victory at Providence, which beat UofL for the fi rst time in seven tries under Pi-tino, the Cards could have tied Villanova (17-2, 5-1) for second place in the conference, a game behind league-leading Pittsburgh (19-

1, 7-0). Instead, going into the West Virginia game they’re tied with UConn for fourth, which doesn’t look bad until you take into con-sideration how tough their remaining schedule is.

“It’s early,” Pitino said. “We’re 5-6 games into the season of an 18-game schedule, so it’s very early. I think the standings mean very little right now. I do think, obviously, Pitt right now if you evaluated a third into the season, they’re the best team. But that could change. You have an injury here or there, or you have 18 like we’ve had, it could change.”

In the loss at Providence, “bonehead” was the operative word when Pitino described UofL’s play during crunch time. He was talking about a lob pass that Mike Marra attempted to Peyton Siva on a 3-on-1 fast break and a step-back three-point shot Chris Smith took from the wing instead of passing to an unguarded Siva at the top of the key.

“So we made a lot of bonehead plays down the stretch,” Pitino said.

“But you’ve got to give Providence credit; they were hungry for a win and they got it. They’re a young team with a great player. I’m not happy with certain things; we had the game in our control.”

Pitino also said that three illegal screens called on the Cards was a signifi cant factor, and he criticized one by veteran offi cial Tim Higgins against Kyle Kuric that wiped out a three-pointer by Preston Knowles with UofL trailing 64-61.

“What really hurt us was the illegal screens,” Pitino said. “The one on Kuric was just a bad call by the offi cial. It was ridiculous. The guy hooked him by the arm and moved him around, just grabbed him into it. We didn’t get

a kind whistle tonight. I’m really upset about it, but that’s the road sometimes.”

Still, Pitino was able to joke about the of-fi ciating in his post-game press conference. “Father Shanley hired those three guys,” Pitino said, referring to the Rev. Brian Shanley, Provi-dence’s president. “I never saw any of those offi cials before.”

Despite being by far the youngest team in the conference, with two freshmen and two sophomores in the starting lineup, Providence looked more poised at the end than the Cards. But regardless of bad calls or questionable plays, the bottom line was that UofL didn’t shoot well enough to win the game. In fact, it’s amazing they were even in position to do so.

The Cards entered the game leading the Big East in three-pointers made at 9.35 a game and third in three-point shooting at 37.8 per-cent. But they missed all 12 of their shots from beyond the arc in the second half and fi nished 4 of 23 (17.4 percent) while being held to 24 points in the second half.

Knowles, UofL’s leading scorer at 16.1 ppg, was 1 for 8 from the fl oor for a season-low two points, and he didn’t make a three-pointer for just the second time this season. Knowles, Marra, Kuric and Siva combined to miss all 14 of their three-point attempts.

Providence, meanwhile, hit 8 of 20 threes (40 percent), half of them by senior Marshon Brooks, who exploded for 20 second-half points. After being held without a fi eld goal until a dunk in the fi nal minute of the fi rst half, he hit 4 of 5 treys in the last 20 minutes -- in-cluding the one that put the Friars ahead to stay -- to fi nish with 27 points.

With Brooks struggling in the fi rst half, freshman guard Gerard Coleman bailed out

Providence by scoring 14 of his 19 points.“Brooks took two threes that were six feet

beyond the NBA line; there’s not a whole lotyou can do about that,” Pitino said. “We dida better job when we trapped him and madehim pass the ball, but Coleman did a very goodjob. He’s very quick, and sometimes when youtake away certain options, you don’t take awayothers.”

Chris Smith led Louisville with 19 points, while Stephan Van Treese had 10 points and sixrebounds. Gorgui Dieng, who was consideredquestionable due to a sprained ankle, also gotsix rebounds along with eight points.

Van Treese’s layup gave UofL its biggest lead of the game at 43-35 with 1:55 left in the fi rsthalf. Until Providence’s decisive late surge in thefi nal two minutes, not more than four pointsseparated the teams in the second half, andthere were 10 ties and eight lead changes inall.

The Friars closed the game with a 16-8 run, wrapping it up with a 6-0 spurt that gavethem a 70-63 lead at 0:27.5. Providence got itsfi rst Big East victory since beating then-No. 19UConn on Jan. 27, 2010.

“There was a lot of chanting and singing in the locker room,” Providence coach Keno Da-vis said. “It was a relief for them.”

The Friars will pay a visit to the KFC Yum! Center on March 2, and Davis probably isn’tlooking forward to the rematch.

“I really like Louisville’s team,” he said. “I like their ability to shoot the ball. That’s a toughmatchup for any team when they’re able toput out three, four or even fi ve shooters onthe perimeter and spread you out. And thenshoot often and get into that running type ofgame.”

RUSS BROWNRUSS BROWN

B R O O K S , P R O V I D E N C E P U L L 7 2 - 6 7 U P S E T

CARDS’ ‘SEGMENTS’ WILL BE TOUGHER REST OF THE WAY

Manhattan transfer Chris Smith scored a season-high 19 against Providence Saturday. Smith and

the Cardinals will face seven ranked teams in their next eight games. - photo by Dave Klotz


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

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. 8 p.m. 29 RUTGERS KFC Yum! Center 6 p.m. FEBRUARY 1 GEORGETOWN KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m.6 at Villanova Philadelphia, Pa. 2 p.m. 13 WEST VIRGINIA KFC Yum! Center 5 p.m. 16 at Syracuse Syracuse, NY 7 p.m. 19 at USF Tampa, Fla. 2 p.m.23 DEPAUL KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m. 26 SETON HALL KFC Yum! Center 2 p.m.28 at Providence Providence, RI 7 p.m.MARCH 4-8 BIG EAST Tournament Hartford, Conn. TBA

2010-11 MEN’S SCHEDULE DATE OPPONENT (TELEVISION) SITE TIME/RES 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 7 p.m. 31-7 NCAA Sat. 29 at Connecticut Storrs, Conn. Noon 18-16 NIT Mon. 31 at Georgetown (ESPN) Washington, D.C. 7 p.m. 23-11 NCAA FEBRUARY Sat. 5 DEPAUL KFC Yum! Center 8 p.m. 8-23 Wed. 9 at Notre Dame (ESPNU) South Bend, Ind. 7 p.m. 23-12 NCAA Sat. 12 SYRACUSE (ESPN/2) KFC Yum! Center Noon 30-5 NCAA Wed. 16 at Cincinnati (ESPN/2) Cincinnati, Ohio 7 p.m. 19-16 NIT Fri. 18 CONNECTICUT (ESPN) KFC Yum! Center 9 p.m. 18-16 NIT Tues. 22 at Rutgers (ESPNU) Piscataway, N.J. 9 p.m. 15-17 Sun. 27 PITTSBURGH (CBS) KFC Yum! Center 2 p.m. 25-9 NCAA MARCH Wed. 2 PROVIDENCE KFC Yum! Center 7 p.m. 12-19 Sat. 5 at West Virginia (ESPN/2) Morgantown, W. Va. Noon 31-7 NCAA Tues. 8-Sat. 12 Big East Championship at Madison Square Garden New York City

## SUMMARY GP GS Min/G FG% 3PT% FT% Reb/G Ast/G Stl Blk Pts/G 02 Knowles, Preston 19 18 27.1 .421 .413 .881 3.9 2.5 37 5 15.4 03 Siva, Peyton 19 19 25.2 .485 .302 .695 2.8 5.1 43 2 10.6 05 Smith, Chris 19 10 24.1 .530 .488 .644 4.4 2.3 14 3 10.0 23 Jennings, Terrence 18 9 20.7 .518 .000 .650 4.7 1.1 12 35 8.6 04 Buckles, Rakeem 11 8 21.3 .485 .476 .571 7.5 1.9 11 3 8.2 33 Marra, Mike 15 9 22.2 .333 .274 .824 2.2 2.7 15 5 8.0 14 Kuric, Kyle 17 6 21.7 .480 .414 .909 2.6 1.2 13 4 7.9 10 Dieng, Gorgui 18 9 16.2 .662 .000 .622 4.7 0.8 8 44 6.5 44 Van Treese, Stephan 19 6 14.9 .681 .000 .318 4.1 0.2 15 3 3.7 22 Justice, Elisha 15 0 13.9 .349 .280 .621 1.5 1.6 5 0 3.7 00 Goode, George 16 1 8.5 .511 .333 .600 1.4 0.2 6 8 3.3 24 Smith, Russ 11 0 6.2 .429 .500 .600 0.2 1.1 9 0 3.0 15 Henderson, Tim 14 0 3.9 .353 .333 .500 0.8 0.4 4 0 1.1 TM TEAM 19 0 0.0 .000 .000 .000 1.8 0.0 0 0 0.0 Total.......... 19 .476 .374 .668 37.2 18.5 192 112 80.4 Opponents...... 19 .394 .320 .691 35.0 11.3 129 41 65.1

SCORING GP FG FGA FG% 3FG FGA 3PT% FT FTA FT% PTS PTS/G KNOWLES, Preston 19 99 235 .421 57 138 .413 37 42 .881 292 15.4 SIVA, Peyton 19 64 132 .485 16 53 .302 57 82 .695 201 10.6 SMITH, Chris 19 70 132 .530 21 43 .488 29 45 .644 190 10.0 JENNINGS, Terrence 18 58 112 .518 0 0 .000 39 60 .650 155 8.6 BUCKLES, Rakeem 11 32 66 .485 10 21 .476 16 28 .571 90 8.2 MARRA, Mike 15 40 120 .333 26 95 .274 14 17 .824 120 8.0 KURIC, Kyle 17 48 100 .480 29 70 .414 10 11 .909 135 7.9 DIENG, Gorgui 18 47 71 .662 0 1 .000 23 37 .622 117 6.5 VAN TREESE, Stephan 19 32 47 .681 0 0 .000 7 22 .318 71 3.7 JUSTICE, Elisha 15 15 43 .349 7 25 .280 18 29 .621 55 3.7 GOODE, George 16 24 47 .511 2 6 .333 3 5 .600 53 3.3 SMITH, Russ 11 12 28 .429 6 12 .500 3 5 .600 33 3.0 HENDERSON, Tim 14 6 17 .353 2 6 .333 1 2 .500 15 1.1 Total.......... 19 547 1150 .476 176 470 .374 257 385 .668 1527 80.4 Opponents...... 19 411 1043 .394 109 341 .320 306 443 .691 1237 65.1

TOTALS GP Min O-Reb D-Reb Tot Reb PF DQ Ast TO Ast/TO Hi Pts KNOWLES, Preston 19 514 12 62 74 53 3 47 35 1.34 31 SIVA, Peyton 19 478 6 47 53 47 2 96 57 1.68 29 SMITH, Chris 19 458 30 53 83 24 0 44 32 1.38 19 JENNINGS, Terrence 18 373 38 46 84 48 1 19 23 0.83 15 BUCKLES, Rakeem 11 234 29 53 82 28 0 21 24 0.88 17 MARRA, Mike 15 333 6 27 33 18 0 40 19 2.11 23 KURIC, Kyle 17 369 14 30 44 28 0 21 14 1.50 25 DIENG, Gorgui 18 291 35 49 84 42 3 14 22 0.64 15 VAN TREESE, Stephan 19 284 39 38 77 32 0 4 14 0.29 12 JUSTICE, Elisha 15 208 2 20 22 25 0 24 9 2.67 12 GOODE, George 16 136 11 12 23 17 0 3 6 0.50 8 SMITH, Russ 11 68 0 2 2 10 0 12 7 1.71 9 HENDERSON, Tim 14 54 3 8 11 9 0 6 3 2.00 4 Total.......... 19 3800 240 466 706 381 9 351 267 1.31 114 Opponents...... 19 3800 236 429 665 354 - 215 337 0.64 88

## SUMMARY GP-GS Min FG% 3PT% FT% R/G A/G STL BLK PTS/G 33 Reid, Monique 20-11 26.1 .556 .167 .714 5.5 2.1 34 8 16.2 23 Schimmel, Shoni 20-20 29.4 .436 .376 .759 3.3 5.7 47 3 15.8 11 Burke, Becky 20-14 24.9 .453 .415 .875 2.9 1.2 17 0 8.8 25 Gibbs, Tia 20-20 25.2 .418 .380 .650 4.2 1.4 52 7 8.4 45 Hines, Keshia 20-20 20.7 .553 .000 .540 6.4 1.2 33 27 7.4 03 Vails, Sheronne 20-9 19.6 .457 .000 .641 2.8 0.7 20 35 6.6 04 Slaughter, Antonita 19-0 11.1 .419 .434 .727 2.4 0.4 11 1 4.4 31 Taylor, Asia 16-6 14.2 .443 .000 .538 4.2 1.0 12 2 4.3 05 Tay, Charmaine 18-0 15.8 .362 .308 .561 2.9 1.9 16 3 3.8 20 Harrington, Polly 11-0 5.7 .421 .167 .667 0.8 0.3 5 1 2.3 10 Johnson, LaToya 5-0 7.2 .800 1.000 1.000 1.2 0.6 1 0 2.2 30 Story, Rachel 16-0 6.4 .273 .250 .833 0.9 0.9 4 0 0.8 01 Harper, Shelby 16-0 10.1 .143 .056 .500 0.9 0.9 9 0 0.8 TM TEAM 20-0 0.0 .000 .000 .000 3.2 0.0 0 0 0.0 Total 20 .458 .369 .659 38.5 16.8 261 87 77.1 Opponents 20 .385 .309 .654 36.7 12.1 156 49 61.0

SCORING GP FG-FGA FG% 3FG-FGA 3PT% FT-FTA FT% PTS PTS/G Reid, Monique 20 124-223 .556 1-6 .167 75-105 .714 324 16.2 Schimmel, Shoni 20 120-275 .436 53-141 .376 22-29 .759 315 15.8 Burke, Becky 20 58-128 .453 39-94 .415 21-24 .875 176 8.8 Gibbs, Tia 20 64-153 .418 27-71 .380 13-20 .650 168 8.4 Hines, Keshia 20 57-103 .553 0-0 .000 34-63 .540 148 7.4 Vails, Sheronne 20 53-116 .457 0-1 .000 25-39 .641 131 6.6 Slaughter, Antonita 19 26-62 .419 23-53 .434 8-11 .727 83 4.4 Taylor, Asia 16 27-61 .443 0-1 .000 14-26 .538 68 4.3 Tay, Charmaine 18 21-58 .362 4-13 .308 23-41 .561 69 3.8 Harrington, Polly 11 8-19 .421 1-6 .167 8-12 .667 25 2.3 Johnson, LaToya 5 4-5 .800 1-1 1.000 2-2 1.000 11 2.2 Story, Rachel 16 3-11 .273 1-4 .250 5-6 .833 12 0.8 Harper, Shelby 16 4-28 .143 1-18 .056 3-6 .500 12 0.8 Total 20 569-1242 .458 151-409 .369 253-384 .659 1542 77.1 Opponents 20 427-1110 .385 116-375 .309 250-382 .654 1220 61.0

TOTALS GP MIN OFF DEF TOT PF FO A TO A/TO HI Reid, Monique 20 522 42 68 110 34 0 41 41 1.0 29 Schimmel, Shoni 20 587 18 47 65 41 0 114 82 1.4 26 Burke, Becky 20 498 9 48 57 15 0 24 23 1.0 21 Gibbs, Tia 20 504 18 66 84 40 1 27 27 1.0 18 Hines, Keshia 20 414 56 71 127 76 7 23 49 0.5 15 Vails, Sheronne 20 392 27 29 56 51 1 13 30 0.4 22 Slaughter, Antonita 19 210 17 28 45 16 0 8 8 1.0 11 Taylor, Asia 16 227 32 35 67 33 0 16 24 0.7 16 Tay, Charmaine 18 284 17 35 52 24 0 34 26 1.3 9 Harrington, Polly 11 63 6 3 9 12 1 3 6 0.5 10 Johnson, LaToya 5 36 1 5 6 3 0 3 2 1.5 9 Story, Rachel 16 102 1 13 14 7 0 14 10 1.4 5 Harper, Shelby 16 161 2 13 15 26 0 15 14 1.1 4 Total 20 4000 278 493 771 379 10 335 351 1.0 100 Opponents 20 3982 263 471 734 356 - 242 465 0.5 92

MEN’S BASKETBALL INDIVIDUAL PLAYER STATS WOMEN’S BASKETBALL INDIVIDUAL PLAYER STATS


10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASON10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASONLOUISVILLE BASKETBALL

By Russ BrownA few days after one of his worst show-

ings as a Louisville Cardinal, Peyton Siva put the smile back on his face with the best performance of his young collegiate career. Now he faces a further challenge after an-other sub-par outing.

If his turnaround last week is any indica-tion, he’ll be fi ne.

The sophomore point guard was playing so poorly against Marquette on Jan. 15 in the KFC Yum! Center that he was benched in favor of fresh-man Elisha Justice for most of UofL’s remarkable late rally that resulted in a 71-70 victory.

Siva’s stat line was ugly. He missed all fi ve of his fi eld-goal attempts, belied his season free-throw shooting percentage of 0.70 by making just 5 of 10, and fi nished with four assists, four turnovers and fi ve points.

He bounced back with a vengeance, though, four days later when he chalked up career highs in both assists (10) and steals (7) while also contributing 10 points and committing just two turnovers in 26 minutes in an 88-63 victory over St. John’s.

“I thought Peyton did an unbelievable job,” Pitino said afterward. “I thought he was great. He played like a point guard should. He really ran the team, made great decisions, got his shots.”

“Peyton played great,” backup center

George Goode said. “I was so proud of Pey-ton ... like my son. Being out there passing, playing hard defense, scoring. He did every-thing the team needed him to do. He played his heart out.”

Siva said he has to learn to keep smiling through the good times and bad.

“I wasn’t down, but I’ve had better days,” he said, refl ecting on the Marquette game. “Everybody says you go through those days, and I just thank God for getting me through it and coming back and getting the win (over St. John’s).

“Coach P has been telling me that my smile hasn’t been there, and he told me to keep on getting everybody up and not down. I try to stay positive about everything and not force an issue, and it helped.”

Siva can draw the lessons learned from the contrast of his performances against St. John’s and Marquette to get back on the right track against West Virginia Wednesday night after enduring another rough outing at Providence last Saturday.

Getting into early foul trouble and playing just 22 minutes, Siva took only three shots, scored fi ve points and had as many turnovers (4) as assists as UofL lost 72-67.

Just as he did after the Marquette game, he will try to stay upbeat, watch fi lm and try to correct his mistakes before taking the fl oor against the Mountaineers.

“You have to realize you’ll probably have worse days ... because there will also be bet-ter days,” he said. “You just have to forget about it and go out and play the next game.

Coach P sticks with me and gives me the confi dence to do it.”

Pitino said Siva’s maturity and outlook will help him rebound from poor performances like Marquette and Providence.

“What’s so great about him is he was the happiest guy in the locker room (after the win over Marquette), and in our culture today we don’t usually have that,” Pitino said. “Guys will be happy, but they won’t be overly happy. I mean, you would have thought he had a double-double and set an assist record that night he was so happy. I haven’t seen him really have a down day un-less there’s a death in his family or some-thing that severe.”

BROOKS A KOBE IMITATORPrior to the Providence game, Pitino had

this to say about Friars senior swingman Marshon Brooks, who was averaging 23.4 points and 7.7 rebounds and was the sec-ond-leading scorer in the Big East after Con-necticut’s Kemba Walker.

“If it wasn’t for Kemba Walker he’d prob-ably be the guy right now who’d be MVP of the league,” Pitino said. “He patterns himself as a Kobe Bryant. It’s a little scary; he tries to copy all his mannerisms. He kicks his leg out on his jump shot just like Kobe. It’s an eerie thing watching him because he consistently tries to emulate him to the point where it’s a little ridiculous. Every little kick of his leg, every jump shot, the way he goes to the basket, it’s just like Kobe. It’s really funny.”

But Pitino wasn’t laughing after Brooks

scored 20 of his game-high 27 points in thesecond half to spark Providence’s upset win.

PITINO USES HORSE SENSEYou never know what is coming when Pi-

tino starts a sentence with, “I want to setthe record straight,” but in last Friday’s pressconference it was the prelude to a light-hearted reference concerning one of his for-mer race horses.

The horse, Coach Ryan, was named af-ter his son Ryan, who was coaching youthleague basketball at the time. Because a re-cent ESPN spot featuring Jets coach Rex Ryanand the four-legged Coach Ryan could havegiven viewers the wrong idea, Pitino wantedto set the record straight.

The footage, hyping last Sunday’s AFC championship game between the Jets andPittsburgh Steelers, showed the horse rac-ing at Gulfstream Park juxtaposed againstRyan running down the sideline the previousweek when the Jets beat the Patriots.

“That horse was a fairly expensive horse that went for $12,500 in a claiming race atChurchill Downs,” Pitino said. “It was notonly a debacle having that horse, it was sub-terfuge at its best where somebody claimedthat horse and publicly made it seem like itwas Rex Ryan’s horse.

“The way Rex Ryan ran down the sideline is exactly the way that horse ran for me. Hespent most of his time in the hospital whileI owned him. So that is not Rex Ryan’s horsecoming down the stretch, that is Rick Pitino’smoney washed down the drain.”


Sophomore guard Peyton Siva struggled against Marquette and Providence but was fantastic against

St. John’s. He had his most complete game ofthe season against the Red Storm, scoring 10 points,

dishing out 10 assists and collecting seven steals with just two turnovers. - photo by Shelley Feller.

SIVA KEEPS SMILING THROUGH HIS UPS AND DOWNS


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

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

If you could select one word to describe the reason for success in the Athletic Department at the University of Louisville, it would be LEADERSHIP. To make something as large and monolithic as a $60 million operation work, it also requires good management. At UofL both leadership and good management are at play in explaining the winning ways of the men’s and women’s sports teams. Oh, I know some have problems with ticket selection or having their address cor-rect on the CAF rolls, but at the top the process is working just fi ne.

An example is the recent change made in the women’s volleyball program. I don’t know any more than you do about the retirement of longtime coach Leonid Yelin or the hiring of Anne Kordes as his replacement, but I suspect a case of unmet high expectations. This is not the UofL athletics of years gone by, where giving it the “old college try” will suffi ce. Coming in second in the league is good and winning the league is better, but losing early in the NCAA Tourna-ment year after year is not acceptable, especially when you have highly ranked teams. In spite of sharing or winning the league or tournament every year since entering the Big East, UofL’s inability under Yelin to go deep into the NCAA Tournament was causing some consternation at the university.

I commend Tom Jurich and Julie Hermann for making a tough decision. It’s my guess that after consulting with Tom, Julie had her normal yearly sit-down with Leonid and things evolved from there. It’s well known around the athletic department that Julie has Tom’s trust to run women’s athletics at UofL, and she does a great job. She must enjoy her role at Louisville and evidently has said no to every school that has come after her. That’s good for the home team.

The second good move by Julie was the hiring of hometown star Anne Kordes as the new volleyball coach. If you read Howie Lindsey’s article a couple of weeks ago, you know Anne is a UofL grad after attending Assumption and comes from the fi rst family of local high school vol-leyball. I don’t know much about women’s volleyball except for what I see when watching the Cards, but one thing I’m fi nding out -- high schools girl’s volleyball is big time in Louisville and Southern Indiana. I’ve never seen a high school game, but I know that some of the best high school volleyball in the country is played here. I live on a court with eight houses, and four are involved or have been involved with local volleyball on the club, high school and college level.

Hundreds of young girls participate in the club programs at Ohio Valley Volleyball run by Ron Kordes, known as KIVA, and the MidAmerica Volleyball Association, or MAVA. There are other lesser-known training centers, but these are the most popular and largest. Parents send their children there to learn the skills of volleyball and improve their games. Teams from these two centers travel all over the country for competition and have won numerous tournaments in all age groups.

Ron Kordes, Anne’s father, has been the coach at Assumption High School for many years and uses his program at Ohio Valley to identify and encourage young girls to take part in high school volleyball. Kordes has won 14 state championships at Assumption, including eight in a row from 1995-2002. He also won in 1992 and 1993 in Anne’s junior and senior years.

Catholic girl’s schools have won every state volleyball tournament since the fi rst in 1979. Notre Dame Academy in Covington has won eight tourneys but has been shut out since 1994. Mercy in Louisville has won six, including the last two.

In the early years Northern Kentucky dominated Kentucky state volleyball, but since 1995 Louisville schools have won every tournament.

The emergence of local volleyball started with the creation of the Kentucky Junior Volleyball Association by Bob Blandford in the early 80s. He established a place for young girls to learn the skills of volleyball and improved the level of play in the Louisville area. He also interested adults in coaching and increased the level of professionalism. As a result Margie Gillooly, a product of Presentation High School, led Mercy to three state championships in the 80s and broke the Northern Kentucky hold on the championship trophy. As local volleyball started to dominate in the state, top coaches such as Kordes and the Garveys (Todd coaches as Mercy, Eric at Sacred Heart) gravitated away from football and basketball in the Catholic schools and became in-volved in volleyball.

Anne Kordes is a product of a system that has produced the best high school volleyball in the country. As a result of the growth of the club teams, public schools are now producing out-standing players. Manuel High grad Deja McClendon, a freshman at Penn State, was recently named MVP in the NCAA championship game won by Penn State.

Therein lies the challenge for Anne Kordes -- how to keep the best local players home. Currently there are more than 125 girls from the Kentuckiana area on scholarship at four-year colleges. Kentucky has Stephanie Klefot and Melanie Hicks; Alabama has Kelsey Anderson and Stephanie Riley; Western Kentucky has Sarah Rogers, Ashley and Kelly Potts and Paige Wessel; Louisville has Emily Juhl, Caitlin Welch and Maci Wachtel; and Cincinnati has Emily Hayden. All of these are outstanding college programs and are regular participants in the NCAA Tourna-ment, and these girls are just a small sampling of the total.

I think Anne will get it done. Add one more sport at the University of Louisville to the list of potential national champions.

RECENT VOLLEYBALL HIRE EXEMPLIFIES THE DRIVE FOR

EXCELLENCE AT UOFL

COMMENTARY BY JACK COFFEE [email protected]

New volleyball coach Anne Kordes will “add one more sport at the University of Louisville to the list of potential national champions,” according to Louisville SportsReport owner Jack Coffee. - photo by Dave Klotz


FIELD HOCKEY

By Howie LindseyLike Tom Jurich, associate athletic director

Julie Hermann always has a list of names. Like Jurich, she’s always updating that list in her mind should one of her coaching positions become available. And like Jurich, Hermann hand-picks her top candidate and pursues her vigorously.

When 13-year Louisville fi eld hockey coach Pam Bustin left in early December to take over as Duke’s head coach, Herman went into overdrive pursuing former UofL assistant

(1998-2002) and UMass head coach Justine Sowry. And like Jurich, Hermann landed her top candidate.

“When Julie called and told me of the op-portunity, I defi nitely was interested,” Sowry said. “In working with Tom and Julie before and knowing the facilities and support

that I’d be working with, it was a tremendous opportunity.”

Bustin took the Duke post on Dec. 7. Just over a week later, UofL issued the press re-lease that Sowry will lead Louisville fi eld hock-ey forward.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to bring a world-class head fi eld hockey coach to our nationally ranked program,” Jurich said. “Justine is an elite competitor and a great player’s coach. She and her outstanding staff will lead us to the next level.”

Sowry, an international fi eld hockey player turned coach, returned to the school where she started her coaching career, where she was an assistant to Bustin. Since taking over at UMass, she has been one of the hottest names in collegiate fi eld hockey the last three seasons.

She’s only been a head coach for four sea-sons, but she’s already highly decorated. A two-time Dita/NFHCA Division I Northeast Re-gion Coach of the Year, Sowry guided UMass to three Atlantic 10 championships and four NCAA appearances. Now, she said she’s ready for a new challenge.

“I’d like to thank Tom Jurich and Julie Her-mann for this incredible opportunity,” she said. “After eight years away, I am thrilled to return to where my collegiate coaching career began with the chance to lead this amazing program.”

Sowry believes Louisville fi eld hockey should be competing for a national title. The Cardinals have been ranked in the top 15 for years thanks to Bustin, but Sowry said she be-lieves the program can - and will - take the next step.

“With world-class facilities and a com-mitment to athletic excellence, the tools are available to make Louisville one of the nation’s elite,” she said. “I look forward to working with the student-athletes and together build-ing a championship program.”

Sowry wasn’t hired just for her connection to the Louisville program. She likely would have been a top candidate even if she’d never stepped foot in Louisville. During her four sea-sons at UMass she compiled a 58-31 overall record, including a mark of 22-4 in Atlantic 10 play.

During her tenure there, she coached 19 all-conference selections, 17 all-region selec-

tions and fi ve All-Americans.Prior to her time at UMass, Sowry served

as a USA High Performance coach with the U.S. Field Hockey As-sociation (USFHA) from 2003-07. Dur-ing her stint there she was the director of all goalkeeping programs and the camp direc-tor of the FDIC, High School Open Camp and the Junior National Camp. Sowry coached Amy Tran, who was named the Goalkeeper of the Tournament at the 2006 World Cup in Madrid, Spain, in addi-tion to being named to the FIH World Team of the Year.

QUITE A PLAYERSowry, a native of Australia, was a mem-

ber of the Australian National Hockey Team from 1991-2001. She played in 128 interna-tional games and was a member of the coun-try’s 1996 and 2000 Olympic squads. She earned gold medals while playing on World Cup teams in 1994 and 1998. Sowry earned a Bachelor’s degree in physical education and mathematics from the University of South Australia in 1991.

NEXT SEASONSowry takes over a program much farther

along than the struggling program she inher-ited at UMass. Louisville was 13-7 last season and fi nished 5-1 in the tough Big East. The Cardinals were ranked No. 12 in the nation entering the league tournament.

But as good as the Cardinals were last sea-son, and as strong as Bustin left the program, Sowry will have to account for large holes in the starting lineup due to graduation.

Sowry won’t have the pleasure of working with fellow Aussie Nicole Youman, who grad-uated last spring as one of the most decorated fi eld hockey players in Louisville history. You-man led the Big East in goals (17), assists (19) and points (53) last season.

“Not just her but that whole senior class was very strong,” Sowry said.

Youman and fellow seniors Rachel Hollen-bach and Tuli Lim were named to the NFHCA/

Longstreth All-West team. The Cardinals also lost seniors Jenna Ahern, Si-

mone Attles, Nikki Auker and Karah Nall to graduation.

“We have some serious work to do in our strength and conditioning programs,” Sowry said. “We need to get to work this spring and make sure we are in the best condition as a team.”

The team leaders fi gure to be senior mid-fi elder Hayley Turner (another Australian), the Jurich twins - Haley and Lacey, junior forward Amber Thomas and junior goalkeeper Erin Conrad. Turner was an All-West

Region selection last season, and Conrad started all 20 games for Louisville and fi nished the season with a 1.76 goals-against average and 71 saves.

EXTRA PRESSURE?It would be natural for a new coach to feel

extra pressure when she scans the roster and realizes a pair of the athletic director’s daugh-ters are on the team. Haley is a 5-4 junior who plays both midfi eld and forward. Lacey, her twin, is also 5-4 and plays midfi eld and some defense. After speaking with their father, Sowry said she’s not concerned in the slight-est about needing to tip-toe on the practice fi eld.

“Ha, you’d think, right?” Sowry said. “That could have been a concern coming in, but I spoke with Tom Jurich and he told me to be as tough and demanding on them as I will be on all my players. He told me to kick their butts in workouts and practice, and that is what I

intend to do with all of our players, not justthem.”

UMASS LOVES HERSometimes you can tell how good a coach

is by how they leave the program they arecoming from. Louisville soccer coach Ken Lollaleft a championship caliber program behind atAkron when he came to Louisville fi ve yearsago. Likewise, Sowry left UMass in great shapefor next season. And they love her for it.

Writing in his column in the student news-paper, The Massachusetts Collegian, NickO’Malley wrote a piece last week thankingSowry for the work she did while on campus.His review of her performance is absolutelyglowing.

“Since Justine Sowry took the head coach-ing job for the Massachusetts fi eld hockeyteam back in 2007, she repeated one goal: totake the program to the next level,” O’Malleywrote. “And in four short years, she did justthat. During her time at UMass, Sowry wasAtlantic 10 Coach of the Year three times andNational Field Hockey Collegiate AssociationNortheast Region Coach of the Year twice.She posted a 58-31 record, all while facing abrutal non-conference schedule, and domi-nated the A-10 with a 22-4 record and threeconference titles.

“At the same time, what Sowry did for the UMass fi eld hockey program isn’t in thenumbers (and she has some great numbers).Rather, it’s the way she took a program thatwas stuck in a rut and turned it into a confer-ence juggernaut in just four (years).”

COACHING STAFFFormer USA Field Hockey national team

members Kelly Dostal and Abbey Heird willround out Sowry’s coaching staff.

Dostal spent four seasons as an assistant coach at UMass under Sowry. A native ofHatfi eld, Mass., Dostal was a member of theUSA fi eld hockey team following a stellar ca-reer at Wake Forest where she was one of themost decorated players in program history.She helped lead the Demon Deacons to threenational championships (2002-04) and was athree-time All-American. She earned severalindividual honors and received the most pres-tigious individual award in women’s collegiatesports, the Honda Award, in 2004. She’s beenon some version of the U.S. National teamsince she was 16 in 1999 and has 15 interna-tional appearances.

Heird just completed her fourth season as an assistant coach at UofL. While serving asan assistant coach under Bustin, Heird’s dutiesincluded assisting with practice and game-daypreparation while developing the skill andmovement of the attack and working with theattack penalty-corner strikers. She also assistsin recruiting and the development of youthfi eld hockey within the community.

Heird (nee Woolley) was a member of the USA national team from 2002-05, scoring fourinternational goals in 26 appearances. Hermajor competitions include the ChampionsChallenge and Pan American Games in 2003,and the Olympic Qualifying Tournament andPan American Cup in 2004. Prior to her timeon the national team, she was a member ofthe U.S. Under-23 team in 2002 and the U21team from 2000-01, serving as captain of theJunior World Cup Team. In 1999 she was amember of the U20 team. She was a second-team All-American at North Carolina.

C A R D S ’ N E W C O A C H M A D E U M A S S A N N C A A P O W E R

SOWRY EXCITED TO TAKE FIELD HOCKEY TO NEXT LEVEL

, ymance coach with the

l ds

erat in di-to of

,

mone Attles, Nikki Auker and Karah Nall to graduation

New Louisville fi eld hockey coach Justine Sowry built a successful program at UMass before she was hired to be Louisville’s next

coach last month. Below: Sowry and her UMass team captains posed with the Atlantic

10 trophy. - photos by UMass Athletics

HOWIE LINDSEYHOWIE LINDSEY


CARDINAL FOOTBALL VS. RUTGERS PHOTO GALLERY

Louisville’s victory over St. John’s last week is its best win of the season according to the RPI. While the victory over Butler to start the season made bigger headlines, the win over UNLV in December appeared

more impressive at the time and the win over Marquette was much more exciting, the St. John’s win is the one that helps the Cardinals the most in the computer rankings. Even though the Red Storm is just 11-7 and 4-4 in Big East play, it is rated in the top 15 in the RPI because it has beaten West Virginia, Georgetown and Notre Dame. All three of those teams are rated in the RPI top 15. The Cardinals have played fi ve teams rated in the RPI top 35 - Villanova (11), Kentucky (14), St. John’s (15), Butler (26) and UNLV (33). They are 3-2 in those games. The Cardinals were 31st in the nation in the RPI prior to Saturday’s loss at Providence. Sunday they were ranked 36th.

In the wake of all the fl ak UK coach John Calipari received after being caught on ESPN cameras cursing Terrence Jones, UofL coach Rick Pitino said he always tries to be on his GOOD behavior so he isn’t seen hurling

expletives. After saying with a smile, “I don’t swear, so it’s no problem,” Pitino added: “I am very conscious of it. What you have to understand is anything you say on the sideline, if you’re upset, the camera will be on you. If you’re being upbeat and positive, the camera will never be on you. That’s what people do. If they want to take a picture of you and put it in the newspaper, they don’t use a picture of you smiling and your arm around a player, they use one of you yelling and screaming. So you have to understand that, put a big smile on your face when you yell and clap, and say, ‘I’ll kill you when you come out of the game.’”

We recognize it is commonplace for coaches to curse and swear and act wild on the sidelines at times, but wouldn’t it be great if it wasn’t? Pollyannish, we know. Anyone who has coached young people knows just how frustrating it can be when the play that you’ve been

working on for the last few weeks doesn’t work because someone forgot his assignment or someone didn’t listen to the play call. It is easy to curse up a storm when those things happen. And that is what makes coaches who refrain from lewd speech even more remarkable. They have the ability to channel that anger into a more constructive path. Louisville has coaches in several sports who exhibit that kind of forceful but clean confl ict resolution. It is remarkable to watch in action, and it is amazing to see the players respond to a different method. A player’s reaction to a coach’s scolding is much more dependent on the trust the player has that the coach cares for his/her well-being than the actual words used to convey a point. We all likely carry fond memories for a coach in our past who we knew cared for us as a person and a player even if the coach used salty language. That’s great, but we can also marvel at the coaches who did all that AND refrained from demeaning language.

Congratulations to Arthur Albiero and Louisville’s swimming and diving team for completely boiling the water at the Lancaster Aquatic Center in Lexington Saturday. The Cardinals didn’t just beat the archrival Wildcats, they demolished them. Louisville’s men won 186-

115 and the women 186-114, and the Cardinals collectively won 21 of 32 events. There was a time - not too long ago - that UK dominated the state in swimming and diving, with very little competition from any other school. But now with a new natatorium on campus and a dynamite coaching and training staff, UofL is attracting the best swimmers from around the state and in the city. Louisville is becoming a fi xture in the top 25 and has produced some national and international stars.

Despite a 4-2 record in bowl games, Big East football’s BAD reputation -- which took hit after hit in the media last fall -- didn’t get any better after the season ended. ESPN Stats & Information has been ranking the conferences all year using a mathematical formula, and the

Big East didn’t climb in the fi nal rankings. It fi nished eighth in the standings, behind both the Mountain West and the WAC (though just one spot behind the ACC). The factor that hurt the league most was the formula’s inclusion of the Associated Press rankings. According to the Stats & Info group, the Big East became the fi rst major conference since the ACC in 1971 to fi nish without a team in the top 30 in the fi nal AP poll. One writer called the Big East “a torso league: all middle with no top or bottom,” because it was competitive with midpack teams from other leagues. Not surprisingly, the SEC ranked No. 1. It will be interesting to see whether the Big East is stronger next year, with improved young quarterbacks, new coaches and more marquee non-conference games at home.

Evidently, Steve Kragthorpe’s disastrous tenure at UofL didn’t hurt his standing in the college ranks. Kragthorpe, who had a 15-21 record at UofL from 2007 to 2009 before being fi red, was hired last week as LSU’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Kragthorpe came

to Louisville from Tulsa with the reputation as an offensive wizard, but his Cardinals teams were never very creative or productive. In his fi nal season UofL averaged just 18.1 points and 334.1 yards per game. This past season, basically the same players under head coach Charlie Strong and offensive coordinator Mike Sanford improved to 26.4 points and 369.0 yards per game. After leaving UofL, Kragthorpe was named wide receivers

coach at Texas A&M but resigned before the 2010 season because of his wife’s medical issues. It was a reminder that Kragthorpe actually had a stellar resume and was considered a bright and up-and-coming coaching mind before his time in Louisville. LSU’s previous offensive coordinator, former BYU coach Gary Crowton (2001-2004), made $400,000 last season. He’s now the OC at Maryland.

Kragthorpe’s hiring was actually GOOD for Louisville because it meant the Cardinals could hang on to Sanford, who was also one of the fi nalists for the LSU job. Sanford interviewed for the spot last Sunday, but the Tigers chose to go with Kragthorpe instead. Given Louisville’s

spike in points and yards last season, we believe the Cardinals have a better OC in Sanford. The former UNLV head coach (2005-09) was loudly praised by Louisville’s quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers last season for bringing a more cohesive system to the offensive attack. He also was praised by Strong for the offense’s resiliency despite injuries throughout the season. With nearly the entire offensive line graduating (along with the top two quarterbacks and star running back Bilal Powell), the Cardinals will need Sanford’s steady hand and creativity to lead the offense forward with new pieces next season.

As we can attest, some Kentucky fans are idiots. We get the hate mail, the e-mails and the messages on Twitter. They seemingly have no concept of where the line of normalcy is when it comes to being a fan of college athletics. The latest example of Kentucky fans crossing the line

came in a USA Today story Saturday on the added security now following NCAA president Mark Emmert. While the article cited several controversial decisions (Cam Newton, USC sanctions, Enes Kanter) as the reason for the added security, the article implies that the responses from UK fan have been particularly awful. NCAA vice president of communications Bob Williams said UK fans in particular were the reason that Emmert’s Facebook page was shut down, blocking posts by all outsiders. One e-mail even contained the warning, “You’d better check your car.” Williams said the NCAA almost has to take everything seriously, just in case. “People have a tendency to express their opinions,” he said. “Sometimes it’s constructive. Other times it’s not. You have to deal with the rant factor. And in this day and age ... you take everything seriously. If someone just says they don’t like your decision or they think you’re an idiot or whatever, that’s one thing. If they threaten you, that’s something else.” And if you think we are overreacting about UK fans, google search “Kentucky fans, Pete Thamel” when you have a chance. The messages they sent to the New York Times writer after his Enes Kanter story was published will make your skin crawl.

It was fantastic to see a sold out crowd at the KFC Yum! Center Saturday for the women’s basketball game against Cincinnati. The lower bowl and mid-levels - consisting of around 11,000 seats - were

sold out. And the crowd was treated to some exciting basketball. Louisville went on runs of 13-0 and 18-0 on Cincinnati in the fi rst half and completely dominated the game. With freshman show-woman Shoni Schimmel directing the attack, this Cardinals can put a game away in a hurry. They’ve gone on 17 runs of 12 or more points in a row this season, including three runs of 20 or more points. That means the Cardinals not only can put a game away in a hurry, they also can quickly cut a defi cit. The Cardinals’ outside shooters - Schimmel, Becky Burke, Tia Gibbs and Antonita Slaughter - are potent. The Cards already have six games with 10 or more threes this season, the most of any season dating to 1993-94.

We still think the Cards will make the NCAA Tournament this season, even if they fi nish with a 9-9 league record, but if they miss it the loss to Providence Saturday could be the killer. Providence is not a

strong team. We realize the Friars have lost several close games and beat Alabama, but it is the worst loss Louisville has suffered this season (we believe Drexel would handle Providence on a neutral court). It also was frustrating to see a regression in Preston Knowles that we thought he had conquered. If he can’t be a leader for the Cardinals, their chances to survive seven of the next eight games against teams ranked in the top 25 are slim. Hopefully, he steps back up and regains the form he had prior to Saturday’s loss.

Oct. 14, 2004 was a BAD day for Card fans as thousands traveled to southern Florida to see the Cards take on No. 3 Miami. The 17th ranked Cards led the Hurricanes 31-21 going into the fourth quarter, but were outscored 20-7 in the fi nal quarter and lost 41-38. Canes’ punt returner

Devin Hester returned one 78 yards to lead the onslaught. The Louisville faithful can take some solace in the fact that Hester was now the leading punt returner in the NFL this season, leading in TD’s and yards per return. Kerry Rhodes, now a star safety for the Arizona Cardinals, dropped an interception that would have sealed the win.

UofL product William Gay, a reserve defensive back with the Pittsburgh Steelers, was named co-MVP (along with DB Ike Taylor) of Sunday’s AFC championship game after returning a fumble 19 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter to give the Steelers a 24-0 lead over

the New York Jets. Taylor caused the fumble by sacking QB Mark Sanchez. Pittsburgh won 24-19.

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

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

By Russ BrownHo-hum. Another game, another injury.

But the good news is, it doesn’t seem to mat-ter how many players are forced to stay on the sidelines, the gritty University of Louisville basketball team just keeps rolling along.

Faced with yet another shorthanded work-force, the No. 15/19 Cardinals (15-3, 4-1 Big East) jumped on St. John’s (11-6, 4-3) and ran to a surprisingly lopsided 88-63 victory last Wednesday night in the KFC Yum! Center to remain unbeaten in league play at home and stay on the heels of the leaders in the confer-ence race.

The Cards took the wind out of the Red Storm early, snapping a 13-13 tie with a 27-6 run that resulted in a 40-19 lead at the 5:09 mark of the fi rst half. UofL was on top 44-31 at halftime and led by as many as 28 points, 88-60, in the closing seconds while handing St. John’s by far its worst loss of the season.

The game was the opposite from the mi-raculous 71-70 comeback win over Marquette fi ve days earlier because UofL was in control of this one almost from the start.

“The other night was a tremendous victory; tonight was a complete shock,” UofL coach Rick Pitino said. “We really had major prob-lems with injuries. I’m in a little bit of shock right now with the way we played tonight through tremendous adversity, but extremely pleased that we can play this well. I’m excited about that, obviously.”

The latest Cardinal to take up residence in Fred Hina’s training room was center Terrence Jennings, whose hip pointer made him the seventh player to miss a game with an injury this season. Jared Swopshire (groin, out for the season), Rakeem Buckles (broken fi nger) and Mike Marra (ankle) also sat out the St. John’s game.

So Pitino’s heart rate probably increased watching Stephan Van Treese -- the only re-maining healthy power forward -- give every-one a scare when he went down with 11:34 left in the game after trying to block a shot. Van Treese’s problem turned out to be only

leg cramps, however, and he was expected to play Saturday at Providence.

The Cards have had their share of injuries during Pitino’s 10-year tenure, but nothing approaching the number and seriousness of this season.

“Swop has a mystery injury that puts him out for the season,” Pitino said. “We’ve had more concussions than a football team. Now we’ve had cramping. I’ve never seen any-thing like this. As bad as it is, it’s just amazing how well these guys play under that. They’ve shown great resilience. We played a great game in every phase. These guys don’t care about injuries, someone else just steps up.”

Although it hasn’t shown up in UofL’s re-cord, Pitino said that the last-minute injuries in particular, such as Jennings’ hip pointer and Buckles’ broken fi nger the day before the Kentucky game, are the most diffi cult to deal with because they can wreak havoc with a game plan.

“I’m a big preparation guy,” Pitino said. “I don’t like surprises. I don’t like last-second things happening. I put a lot of thought and we put a lot of work into our preparation, so this has been the most diffi cult thing because you prepare a certain way and all of a sudden you have to change on the fl y.

“There’s been much more strategy during game nights because of coaching on the fl y like that. It’s been fun because these guys lis-ten so well and they make it fun, but it’s been diffi cult.”

Sophomore point guard Peyton Siva, who bounced back from a poor performance against Marquette by getting 10 points and career highs of 10 assists and seven steals against St. John’s, said the aftermath of the injuries could actually help the Cards later in the season.

“I mean, it’s not a good sign, but it’s good for us because everybody gets to step up and play a bigger role,” he said. “You see (walk-on) Tim Henderson come in and grab those rebounds, you see George Goode come in and give us positive minutes, Van Treese give

us positive minutes, it gives us more depth for later on in the Big East.”

UofL buried St. John’s under a barrage of three-pointers and 65.4 percent shooting (17 of 26) overall in the fi rst half. Kyle Kuric led the way by drilling four straight treys in the half, and Preston Knowles joined in later to get 20 points in the second half and fi nish with a game-high 25 points. The Cards made 7 of 10 three-point shots in the fi rst half and fi nished 13 of 26 from behind the arc.

“It seemed like everybody was on fi re,” Siva said.

Kuric, who played the power forward spot during the fi rst-half run and was able to step out against St. John’s matchup zone, wound up with 20 points. Chris Smith contributed nine points, six rebounds and fi ve assists.

UofL converted 19 of 26 fast breaks into points -- which Pitino called “pretty unbeliev-able” -- and handed out 24 assists on 33 bas-kets.

The Cards are tied with Kansas for third place in Divison I in assists per game at 18.5 (Pittsburgh is the leader at 20.1).

UofL also forced St. John’s into a season-high 25 turnovers, more than double its aver-age of 11.8. It was the Red Storm’s worst Big East defeat since a 74-45 drubbing by Mar-quette in the 2009 conference tournament.

“This is how Notre Dame felt when we took them to the woodshed on our home-court,” St. John’s coach Steve Lavin said, re-ferring to a 72-54 rout of the Irish three days earlier. “This was a woodshed moment for us. Louisville beat us to the punch in all aspects of the game. We were passive and a step slow.

“They were aggressive on defense and were able to rattle us. They play with great confi dence on offense. They really had their way for the most part of 40 minutes. Coach Pitino is doing a wonderful job with this team. You’re starting to see them surge now.”

“They tattooed us,” said senior Justin Burrell. Pitino, who improved to 587-213 in his

800th game as a college coach, has been ribbed this season about being the only Big

East coach to pick St. John’s to win the leaguechampionship, so naturally he was askedabout his choice after the rout. The Red Storm already has three conference losses, withgames remaining against Georgetown, Mar-quette, Villanova, Connecticut and Pittsburgh,among others.

“I wasn’t blowing smoke,” Pitino said. “I think we just had a great night and they hada bad night. Obviously now, I think Pittsburghis the number one team. But I told them (theSt. John’s players) in the (handshake) line af-ter the game that they, without question, canmake the NCAA Tournament.”

The loss ended a stretch of fi ve consecutive games against top-25 teams for St. John’s,with the Red Storm going 2-3. After a breakfrom that gauntlet to host slumping Cincinna-ti last Saturday, St. John’s will face two moreranked teams in fi ve days -- at No. 23 George-town Wednesday and against No. 4/5 DukeSunday in Madison Square Garden.

INJURY UPDATE-- Buckles says he is prob-ably at least another two weeks are so awayfrom returning, which means the earliest hecould play would be against DePaul on Feb. 5or at Notre Dame on Feb. 9.

Buckles was supposed to have the pins taken out of his fi nger last week, but doctorspostponed the procedure until this week tomake sure it had healed properly. Then he willface about two weeks of rehab before he canplay again.

Swopshire underwent successful surgery last Thursday in Philadelphia to repair a groinabductor injury suffered during the preseasonand returned to Louisville the next day. Pi-tino said the junior forward will be sidelinedfor another three months before he can startworking out.

Center Gorgui Dieng suffered a sprained ankle in practice last Thursday, but was ableto play against Providence. So was Mike Mar-ra, who had missed the previous three gameswith an ankle sprain.

CARDS IGNORE INJURIES, TAKE JOHNNIES TO ‘WOODSHED’



By Howie LindseyThe University of Louisville women’s bas-

ketball team got back into the win column Saturday in front of a sold-out crowd of more than 10,000 fans at the KFC Yum! Center. With 16 points and eight rebounds from Monique Reid and 13 points from fel-low junior Becky Burke, the Cards crushed visiting Cincinnati 83-47. They used two quick bursts of points and stifl ing defense to smother the Bearcats.

“We just had to pick up the intensity, and we did,” Reid said. “Our best game is scoring in transi-tion, so we just kept run-ning them. Since they only had seven players, that was the game plan. We wanted to get them tired.”

The game didn’t look like it was going to be a blowout early on. The score was tied at 6 before Louisville went on a 13-0 run that included three-pointers by Tia Gibbs and Becky Burke, four points from Monique Reid and a pretty 16-foot jumper by Shoni Schimmel. Louisville coach Jeff Walz was asked what he said in the huddle with the score tied at 6 that sparked the run.

“I really didn’t have to say much,” he admitted. “I thought we were playing hard. We were getting good shots. We just weren’t converting them. We had two in the post for layups that we let slip out of our hands that should have been easy bas-kets, but unfortunately we dropped it. We just continued to play, continued to push the ball in transition. It was exciting for me to see us fi nally fi ght through some adver-sity and not quit on the defensive end of the fl oor.”

Louisville was up 19-6 before Cincinnati fi nally scored again, a rebound putback with 11:02 remaining in the half. The Car-dinals followed up the 13-0 run with an 18-0 run to put the game completely out of reach for the struggling Bearcats.

“I defi nitely think there is a sense of ur-gency when you play at home,” Burke said. “It is so important in this league to protect your home court because it is so hard to steal a game on the road. You have to take care of business at home.”

The Cards defi nitely took care of busi-ness. As they hit shots, Cincinnati contin-ued to either turn the ball over or shoot bricks. The Bearcats missed 18 of their fi rst 21 shots and had eight turnovers in the fi rst 15 minutes. Louisville’s full-court pressure had the Bearcats fl ustered, and its run continued even when Walz put in a lineup consisting of Reid and four fresh-men. The scoring barrage continued as Antonita Slaughter hit her second three of the game with 3:15 to go. Slaughter hit an-other three on Louisville’s next possession to make it 37-8.

At that point the Bearcats had hit just 3 of 26 shots and had been without a fi eld goal for more than 10 minutes when a rebound putback by Tiffany Turner broke their scoreless streak. Louisville went into halftime with a ludicrous 39-13 lead.

The Cardinals stayed hot in the second half. Burke, Gibbs and Schimmel each hit a three in the fi rst fi ve minutes of the half. Cincinnati’s offense woke up as they had three baskets in the fi rst four minutes, but the Cardinals increased their 26-point half-time lead to 36 at 56-20 by the fi rst media timeout with 14:20 left.

Another three by Burke, her third of the game, put the Cardinals up 59-20. With the game in hand since halftime, the only remaining question was the fi nal margin. The Cardinals were ahead 72-33 with just under six minutes left and coasted to the 36-point victory by playing every avail-able player on the bench. Every player also scored, marking the fi rst time in Big East play that has happened for the Cardinals.

“It’s great. It’s an exciting feeling, be-cause we’ve got competition (for play-ing time),” Walz said. “Competition is a great thing. There are some players that play to be the best they can be -- Candyce Bingham is one of them, and Angel Mc-Coughtry. They competed because they wanted to be great. You’ve got others that if they see there’s no one behind them, they coast. Now we’ve got players behind every single player, so there’s no time to coast or you’ll get passed by. Competition has really helped our team.”

SCHIMMEL INJUREDSchimmel, Louisville’s star freshman, was

hit in the mouth early in the second half and spent most of the next 20 minutes on the bench with an icepack on her mouth. Action was stopped briefl y as Schimmel’s blood was cleaned off the court.

HINES FOULS OUTKeshia Hines, Louisville’s starting power

forward for most of the season, fouled out after playing just 13 minutes against Cin-cinnati.

Hines, who had two fouls in nine minutes in the fi rst half, picked up three more fouls in just four minutes in the second half.

“There were two (fouls) that I’m OK with,” Walz said. “She’s just a step late on Mad Dog, our trap, our press. She should

come up with the steal, but she’s just a step late. I like the effort. Then there was one in the second half where she goes over there and tries to stop the dribble drive, it ended up being her fourth foul. She was just try-ing to cut the baseline off. I’m OK with that. But her third foul was simply the fact that she didn’t box somebody out. They get the rebound and then she clobbers them. If you do your job and box out, you’re not going to pick up a third foul.

“That’s what we’re trying to get Kes-hia to understand. With all of our players, you’re going to foul. The way we’re trying to play, if you’re aggressive, you’re going to pick up some fouls. What you have to be able to do is not come up with the crazy fouls that you can control.”

CINCINNATI IN FAMILIAR SPOTCincinnati this season looked a lot like

Louisville last season. The Bearcats came into Saturday’s game with just two substi-tutes on the bench and had six players in street clothes injured or out for the game for other reasons.

The Bearcats were down to fi ve players, no subs, with 1:38 to go when Shelly Bell-man fouled out. Cincinnati survived the rest of the game without having to resort to just four players on the court, but its lack of depth was evident throughout the game.

“Sure, Jamelle (Elliot, Cincinnati’s head coach) is a friend. I understand,” Walz said. “It is frustrating. You’re out there, things aren’t going well, you look at your bench and half your team is hurt. It is demoral-izing. I know exactly what she’s going through.”

ANOTHER BIG CROWDWith 10,533 in the crowd Saturday, the

Cardinals are currently No. 2 in the na-tion in attendance behind only Tennessee (12,790 average).

“It’s just really awesome that so many people come support us,” Burke said. “They’re not just sitting there, they are

getting into the game. That’s defi nitely atribute to our people in marketing and ev-erybody else that works so hard to get ev-erybody here. It’s defi nitely special. On theroad it is different because you have to getyourselves fi red up and you have to playfor each other and your team. If your teamis not getting hyped up and ready to play,it doesn’t matter who is in the crowd.”

The Cardinals fi nished 11th in average attendance last season with 6,398 fansper game. This season Louisville is bring-ing in 10,644 fans per game.

“We love our crowd,” Reid said. “Coach always gives thanks to them and alwaystells us to be thankful because most teamsdon’t get this. We’re very appreciative andthankful.”

MARQUETTE UP NEXTLouisville will take on Marquette

Wednesday night at 8 p.m. in Milwaukee.The Golden Eagles aren’t ranked in eithernational poll, but they are rated No. 20 inthe RPI and are 15-3, 3-2.

“Marquette does a very good job,” Walz said. “Terri (Mitchell, Marquette’shead coach) does a fantastic job of teach-ing a match-up zone. They’re very activein it. It’s really hard to fi gure out at timesif they’re in man, or if they’re in zone.They’ve got a great post player, a fresh-man, and then they’ve got two outstand-ing guards. We’re going to have our handsfull. We’re going to have to defend, andwe’re going to have to do a much betterjob of boxing out.”

The Golden Eagles are the top team in the also-receiving-votes’ category in theESPN coaches’ poll. Walz said he doesn’tworry that their lack of ranking will makehis team take them lightly.

“I don’t pay any attention to that,” he said. “We see that they are15-3, and wesee how they play. Coaches and playersdon’t really pay much attention to rank-ings when we are working on our scout-ing report.”

S O L D - O U T C R O W D G E T S L O U D F O R C A R D S

TWO KNOCKOUT RUNS BURY BEARCATS

Freshman Shoni Schimmel grinned and stuck her tongue out as Louisville headed back to the bench during a media

timeout. Schimmel and teammates Antonita Slaughter (4) and Becky Burke are three of Louisville’s top outside

shooters. When they get hot, opponents beware. Louisville has recorded 17 runs of 12 or more points in a row this

season. - photo by Shelley Feller

HOWIE LINDSEYHOWIE LINDSEY



By Russ BrownThe branches of Rick Pitino’s coach-

ing tree spread far and wide, with 19 of his former assistants having moved on to the head coaching ranks during the past quarter-century, including six who are currently guiding Division I teams.

The tree may soon be adding two more limbs if current aides and former players Dave Padgett and Andre McGee follow through with their plans to try and make a living in the coaching ranks.

After brief professional careers on for-eign soil, both returned to the University of Louisville within the last year to serve their apprenticeships, so to speak, under Pitino. Padgett’s title is assistant strength coach, but many of his duties are more basketball-related, and McGee is a pro-gram assistant who also is trying to learn the ropes.

Padgett’s last season with the Cards was 2008, while McGee’s was 2009, then each took a different route back to UofL. Padgett played professionally in the Ca-nary Islands and McGee spent some time in Germany before deciding to end their playing days within a few months of each other.

In the meantime, Padgett also got married last summer in Florida to Megan Carmicle, the daughter of Pitino’s close friend, Ron Carmicle.

Padgett said he simply tired of play-ing overseas and wanted to start learn-ing how to coach, so toward the end of his season last April he spoke to Pitino about the prospect of being hired at UofL. He turned down an opportunity to join former Pitino assistant Kevin Willard at Seton Hall as a graduate assistant.

“I kind of got to point where I just didn’t want to (play) any more,” said Padgett, who was plagued by knee prob-lems throughout his college career. “It was too far away from home, I wanted to be back in the States and I figured it was time to move on and figure out what was next.

“I called Coach two weeks before my season was over and said, ‘Coach, I don’t know if I want to do this any more; I think I want to try the coaching thing.’ So here I am, doing everything I can.”

That includes helping strength and conditioning coach Ray Ganong in the weight room, keeping statistics during practices and games and pitching in with scouting and whatever else comes up.

“Just getting the gist of how the whole coaching world works,” is the way Padgett explained it. “Just trying to learn everything I can, and it’s a long process. If he needs me to do something, I’ll do it. I’m trying to learn from the best.”

After failing to get a tryout with any NBA teams, McGee spent only about 6 1/2 months playing in Germany before deciding to return to the U.S. a year ago because he was unhappy with the orga-nization he was with and was considering changing teams. He was supposed to be at UofL only until he signed with another

foreign team, but then decided to stay. “I was sitting over in Germany think-

ing about my life, and I realized I was at a crossroads,” McGee said. “If I wanted to continue to play, would I be OK as far as living in the situation I was in? It wasn’t bad, but living in a foreign country for X amount of years to play wasn’t very ap-pealing.

“Coach Pitino had talked to me about coming back and learning to be a coach and working under him. I figured the best time would be to do it while I’m young, because I didn’t know how long Coach would be here and if I decided 6-8 years later to come back and he’s not here any more that avenue for me to jump into this business wouldn’t be there, so I had to make a decision.”

McGee is also in graduate school, studying for his Master’s Degree in ex-ercise physiology. Perhaps even more so than Padgett, McGee is a jack-of-all-trades around the basketball offices at the Yum! Center on Floyd Street.

“I have a number of jobs, but primar-ily I’ve done a lot with compliance stuff, tickets, looking up recruiting stuff, help-ing with film work,” he said. “Basically, I’m a helper, anything that needs to be done.... I’m always available to help.”

After spending so much time under Pi-tino as players, both McGee and Padgett say they’ve had an eye-opening experi-ence seeing him and his full-time assis-tants from another perspective.

“You are seeing the other side,” Mc-Gee said. “As a player you see the coach-es for individual instruction and practice, but you have no idea as far as their life or what the job entails. But being on the other side you find out coaches put in a lot of hours and there’s a lot goes into it

as far as being a successful program on this level.

“Recruiting, strategy and so much talk about the teams we play and film break-down. Coaches watch hours of film, and there’s a lot of talk about how certain things are going to be played. Strategy is talked about for a week just on one op-ponent. They’re in here at 6-6:30 in the morning, and they stay after practice and watch more film. So it’s a whole lot of hours.”

Said Padgett: “Compared to being a player, seeing things on the other side of the fence is pretty interesting. Seeing the behind-the-scenes stuff. I had a pretty good relationship with Coach when I was a player, but when you’re a player it’s just different, you don’t see everything that goes on.

“It’s been a great experience so far; I’ve really learned a lot. The detail, espe-cially when it comes to scouting, is just incredible. We were pretty good at that as players, as far as paying attention, but the effort and work the assistants put into scouting is just unbelievable. That’s the biggest thing I’ve noticed so far.”

Pitino has a well-deserved reputation for being very demanding as a coach, and McGee and Padgett say that, not surpris-ingly, he’s just as much -- if not more -- of a stickler for hard work and long hours as an employer.

“It’s similar in a lot of ways, but in a lot of ways it’s different,” Padgett said. “He expects the best for everybody at all times. With the players, a lot of the stuff he does, obviously, is for motivational reasons. He’s one of the best motivators there is. But when you’re on the coach-ing side he doesn’t really need to moti-vate you because he just expects the best

from you. So it’s a little different in thatregard.

“I’m still trying to make that transition from not being a player to being a coach.And I think sometimes he still probablygets mad at me or yells at me like I’m stilla player, so I think we’re both still try-ing to adjust to that. But it’s going reallywell, and I’m just glad to be back in townand back in the program and help outany way I can.”

McGee said he was well aware of what he was getting into from a workloadstandpoint and that he had no reserva-tions about rejoining the program.

“I knew from being around him he’s a guy who accepts nothing less than hardwork and striving to be successful,” Mc-Gee said. “I wanted to play for him be-cause I knew he would get the most outof me and I knew he would be on me thesame way as far as being his employee.It’s a great thing because working for himyou can’t be anything but successful be-cause he makes you work that hard. Butin the long run, as you see, all the peoplewho worked for him have all become agreat success. So you’re just in line wait-ing your turn.”

Both Padgett, who will turn 26 next week, and McGee (23) say that seeing allthe work and long hours that go into atop-flight program like UofL’s from theinside hasn’t changed their minds aboutcoaching.

“I definitely still want to coach,” Mc-Gee said. “It’s hard work and all thescrutiny comes back to you when lossescome, but it’s a great opportunity. I’m ina great position. I’m not at a junior col-lege or something, I’m in a big-time pro-gram and working for a (future) Hall ofFame coach. Being able to work for a Hallof Fame coach is priceless.”

Said Padgett: “It’s only my first season on the coaching side, but so far I’m re-ally enjoying it, and when you’re part ofa winning program like I was as a playerand like we’ve been this year, it makes ita lot better. But it’s something I think Iwould really enjoy and be good at.”

Although Pitino enjoys having both Padgett and McGee on his staff, he sug-gests that it will soon be time for them toleave Louisville and get jobs that wouldallow them to build their coaching re-sume’ and be more involved in recruit-ing.

“They’re both very dedicated, they’re both hard workers and they’re bothextremely bright,” Pitino said. “Whatthey’ve got to do is move on and get re-cruiting experience, because as bright asthey are, as hard-working as they are, putin 15-hour days, it’s irrelevant becauserecruiting is the name of the young per-son’s game today, so they’ve got to learnto get on the road and recruit.

“And they’re both different -- they bring different things to the table -- soboth guys need to get out of here and getfulltime jobs and get out into the recruit-ing world and learn how to recruit.”

F O R M E R P L A Y E R S P A Y I N G T H E I R D U E S U N D E R P I T I N O

MCGEE, PADGETT HOPE THEY’RE ON THE COACHING FAST TRACK

Back in 2007-08, David Padgett was Louisville’s starting center and Andre McGee was the Cardinals’ fi rst backcourt substitute. The Cardinals made the Elite Eight before falling to North Carolina. Now Padgett and McGee are both on staff at UofL. - photo by Dave Klotz


RECRUITING NOTEBOOK - FOOTBALL

By Jeff WaffordWith less than two weeks remaining until

National Signing Day (Feb. 2), the stress levels in college football coaches’ offi ces across the nation are extremely high, awaiting decisions from high school and junior college players. Verbal commitments seem to change daily, with players making pledges, taking visits and changing their minds. Nothing in the recruit-ing world is fi nal until a recruit signs his name to a letter of intent and faxes that letter to his school of choice.

Last weekend, three players who have been committed to the Cardinal for more than a year fi nally made their offi cial visits to the school as Charlie Strong and his coaching staff tried to ensure that the players felt comfort-able and kept that pledge through signing day.

After the visits, it ap-pears Jamon Brown, Jalen

Harrington and Devante Parker – all three-star players – remain satisfi ed with their initial choices and plan to sign with the Cards.

Brown (6-5, 330), a defensive tackle from Fern Creek H.S. (Louisville), is “really solid with Louisville” following his offi cial visit, according to his father, Kyrus Rowan.

“It was pretty good,” said Rowan, who made the offi cial visit with his son. “When we got there, we went bowling with the guys. And of course we’ve had a relationship with the coaching staff for as long as they’ve been here.

“Then they took us out to dinner and we just bonded with the guys. Jalen Harrington and Devante Parker were also there with us on their offi cial visits, and Jamon has a relationship with those guys outside of football. It went re-ally well, and they have high hopes for all of them at Louisville.”

Harrington (6-3, 210), a safety/linebacker, is a teammate of Brown’s at Fern Creek. Rowan mentioned that Harrington said he remains solid in his commitment as well.

Brown, who is hoping to fi ght for early play-ing time once he arrives on campus, has spent the winter working on his body with his father, who is working as his personal trainer.

“He has his bench press up to 350 pounds, and he’s squatting in the neighborhood of 600 pounds,” Rowan said. “I want him to lose about 20 pounds and get down to about 310.”

Brown is making good progress academical-ly as well. When asked whether Brown was on track to be eligible immediately, Rowan said, “Right now everything is falling into place.”

Rowan admitted that the recruiting process has started to wear on the family. “A bunch of schools made some big pushes late, real hard, to the point where it became stressful,” he said. “There are some teams that are still after him. He’s done looking around. Louisville has been there to support him, and the way it looks with playing time next year, it looks like he’s going to have a chance to surprise some people.”

Like Brown and Harrington, all signs point to Parker (6-3, 190), a Ballard H.S. (Louisville) wide receiver, also keeping his verbal commit-ment and signing his letter of intent with the Cardinals at his high school on Feb. 2.

While the Cardinals were able to host those three prospects in an attempt to hang on to their commitments, several players went on of-fi cial visits elsewhere, including a trio of four-star players – DaMarcus Smith, Gerod Holliman

and Andrew Johnson.Smith (6-1, 190), a quarterback from Seneca

H.S. (Louisville), took an offi cial visit to Central Florida. Smith, who made a verbal commit-ment to UofL more than a year ago, had hoped to enroll at Louisville in January, but he was un-able to do so because of a shortage of credits.

That, combined with the commitment of heralded four-star quarterback Teddy Bridge-water from Miami (Fla.), has made Smith at least take a look at other schools. While Smith isn’t going into details about his recruitment with reporters, it’s thought that the Cardinals still hold an upper hand in hanging on to his commitment.

Holliman and Johnson, four-star teammates at Miami Southridge H.S. who had previously been committed to Ole Miss, visited the school last weekend, but it appears the trip to their previously favored school wasn’t enough to sway them to come back.

Holliman, a talented safety, told Rivals.com on Sunday morn-ing that he’s “still 80 percent com-mitted” to Louis-ville following his offi cial visit to Ole Miss. He said Ole Miss cornerbacks coach/recruiting coordinator Chris Vaughn will come see him in Miami next weekend but that he anticipates signing with Louis-ville on Feb. 2.

“(The visit to Ole Miss) was all right,” said Holliman (6-1, 190). “I had a good time. They showed us around the campus, like on all the other visits. I had a great time with the football players in the free time they gave us.

“I really didn’t expect anything. I had seen most of everything they had to offer. This was my third time to be there. I didn’t expect to see anything new.”

Johnson (5-11, 190) said Sunday morning that despite Internet speculation to the con-trary, he “never had a problem with Louisville. I’m still committed to Louisville.”

The cornerback said the trip to Oxford was “all right,” but he said he is no longer consider-ing the Rebels.

“I had already been up there twice, so I al-ready knew how the city would be,” he said. “I thought once I got up there they would sur-prise me, but the visit was all right. The best time was the free time with the players.”

The news wasn’t all good for the Cards over the weekend, however, as they lost out on three-star defensive back Jacquese Kirk (5-10, 170), who committed to Vanderbilt after hearing that the Commodores would allow him to play both offense and defense at the next level.

The Cardinals are also trying to get players to change their minds, and one of the guys they’re working on is Jon Davis (6-3, 233), a tight end from Eastern H.S. (Louisville) who committed to Kentucky very early in the process.

Now the three-star player is re-thinking his initial pledge, and he took a trip to Illinois last weekend before heading to UofL for an offi cial visit this week.

According to Lexington Herald-Leader writ-er Chip Cosby, Davis was surprised when the Cats took a commitment from another tight end last week.

“Jon was a little surprised by that,” Reg-

gie Davis, Jon’s father, told Cosby. “Things are changing a little bit. He’s believing he’s the guy, and here comes another tight end. Now all of a sudden they’ve got eight tight ends. He’s not trying to play games. He just wants to make

sure. He doesn’t want to get to Kentucky and all of a sudden after a practice wonder if he did the right thing.”

While many feel that Davis will eventually decide between the Cats and the Cards, the Illini could stand a legitimate shot at changing Davis’ mind, and former

Louisville coach Jeff Brohm (now an assistant with Illinois) could come out ahead in this one.

There are several other players who are still undecided at this point in the process, and you can bet that UofL’s coaches will be hitting the road this week to make one last pitch to several players, including the following four who are still undecided:

Elkino Watson (6-2, 275, defensive tackle) –

This four-star product of Booker T. Washington(Miami, Fla.) has a top three of Miami, Florida,and Louisville. His mother has made commentsrecently that she wants her son to play closeto home, meaning the Cards may be the longshot in this race.

Kaleb Johnson (6-5, 280, offensive line-man) – This three-star product of Ed White H.S.(Jacksonville, Fla.) took an offi cial visit to Louis-ville two weeks ago, and it appeared the Cardswere the leader for his commitment. Then lastweek Miami came in with a last-minute schol-arship offer, and it appears Johnson is now veryinterested in the Canes.

Spencer Region (6-6, 330, offensive lineman) – This three-star product of Cullman H.S. (Ala.)took an offi cial visit to Louisville two weeksago, and he may visit Wisconsin this comingweekend. However, Region said following thetrip to Louisville that he may actually come toUofL this weekend instead. That would bodeextremely well for the Cards if he is spotted oncampus this weekend.

B.J. Dubose (6-4, 240, defensive end) – This three-star product of Northeast H.S. (OaklandPark, Fla.) also visited UofL two weeks ago,and he’s still considering Texas Tech, Miami andFlorida State. He’ll visit Miami this weekend,but the Cardinals made a positive impressionduring his offi cial visit.

CARDS WRAPPING UP RECRUITING CLASS, LOOKING FOR MORE

2011 FOOTBALL COMMITMENTS2011 FOOTBALL COMMITMENTSPROSPECT POS HOMETOWN HIGH SCHOOL HT. WT. 40

Teddy Bridgewater QB Miami, Fla. Northwestern 6-2 180 4.5The No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in America and No. 70 overall recruit in the nation. Bridgewater picked Louisville over Miami, LSU, Ten-nessee, Florida and others. He’s already enrolled at UofL. Jamon Brown DT Louisville Fern Creek 6-3 305 --Big-framed DT with strength and power in his lower body. Top DT in Kentucky for 2011. No. 58 DT in the nation according to Rivals.com.Aaron Epps OL Tucker, Ga. Tucker 6-6 238 4.9Sleeper offensive tackle with a big body, wide shoulders and room to grow. Epps is a three-star prospect who will need a redshirt to gain weight.Terrell Floyd DB Port St. Lucie, Fla. Port St. Lucie 5-10 186 4.5No. 71 multi-position athlete in America. Floyd picked Louisville over offers from Purdue, Rutgers, Kentucky, South Carolina, Syracuse, Wisconsin and others. Charles Gaines WR Miami Miami Central 6-1 190 4.42Possibly the biggest sleeper in the class. No. 35 wide receiver in America. No. 70 overall prospect in Florida. He’s already enrolled at UofL. Jalen Harrington SS/LB Louisville Fern Creek 6-3 215 4.7Tall, long-armed linebacker prospect. Top safety in Kentucky for 2011. Picked Louisville over offers from Illinois and Kentucky. Gerod Holliman DB Miami, Fla. Southridge 6-0 180 4.5No. 4 safety in America. No. 20 player in Florida. No. 93 player in the nation. Holliman was a U.S. Army All-American, an honor for the best of the best.Andrew Johnson DB MIami, Fla. Southridge 5-10 170 4.4A Miami-Dade All-Star, Johnson is the No. 19 cornerback in America. No. 41 overall prospect in Florida. Picked Louisville over Ole Miss, WVU, Nebraska, others.Eddie Johnson LB Selma, Ala. Selma 6-2 218 4.6No. 25 overall player in Alabama for 2011. Moved to Georgia for senior season. No. 63 outside linebacker in the nation.Ryan Mack OL Memphis, Tn. Wooddale 6-4 310 --No. 9 player in Tennessee for 2011. No. 61 offensive tackle in the nation. Picked Louisville over offers from Kentucky, Memphis, Southern Miss and others. John Miller OL/DL Miami, Fla. Miami Central 6-2 295 --Short but ox-strong offensive guard who can absolutely dominate an opponent. Picked Louisville over offers from Kansas State, USF, UCF, Marshall, FIU and others. Deiontrez Mount DE Ft. Walton Beach, Fla. FWB High 6-6 202 4.7No. 31 defensive end in America for 2011. Picked Louisville over offers from Maryland, Iowa State, Minnesota, Southern Miss, USF, UCF and others. DeVante Parker WR Louisville Ballard 6-2 180 4.49Kentucky’s top WR for 2011. No. 66 wide receiver in the nation. One of the best multi-sport athletes to come out of Jefferson County since Michael Bush.Calvin Pryor DB Port St. Joe, Fla. Port St. Joe 6-1 190 4.5No. 29 safety in the nation. No. 64 overall prospect in Florida for 2011. Picked Louisville over offers from Florida State, Arkansas, Maryland, Stanford and others. Jermaine Reve DB Miami, Fla. Northwestern 6-0 175 4.45Speedy safety/corner picked Louisville over offers from USF, Syracuse, UCF, FIU and others. He’s already enrolled at UofL. Eric Robinson-Berry DB Indianapolis Warren Central 6-1 175 4.45No. 2 cornerback in Indiana for 2011. No. 17 overall prospect in Indiana. Picked Louisville early in the process and has stuck with it.Eli Rogers WR/DB Miami, Fla. Northwestern 5-10 180 4.4Won Best Hands award at Under-Armour All-American Combine. No. 67 WR in America. No. 96 overall prospect in Florida. On ESPN’s Top 150 national list.Mike Romano OL Pt. St. Lucie, Fla. Treasure Coast 6-4 269 5.1Tall guard prospect also had offers from Memphis, Southern Miss, Marshall, Central Michigan and others. DaMarcus Smith QB Louisville Seneca 6-1 180 4.5Top quarterback in Kentucky for 2011. No. 11 dual-threat quarterback in America. Four-star prospect was invited to Elite 11 QB camp.John Wallace K Cecilia, Ky. Central Hardin 6-1 175 --Top kicker in Kentucky for 2011. Committed to Louisville last April. Booted 50 yarder in high school.

GEROD HOLLIMANGEROD HOLLIMAN

ANDREW JOHNSONANDREW JOHNSON

JEFF WAFFORDJEFF WAFFORD


LOUISVILLE BASKETBALL PREVIEW - CONNECTICUT

CONN

ECTI

CUT

HUSK

IES

Saturday, Jan. 29Louisville at UConn

12 PM noon, WHAS-11

Friday, Feb. 18UConn at Louisville

9 PM, ESPN

By Rick CushingNot a lot was expected this season from the Huskies, who

were picked to fi nish 10th in the Big East in a preseason poll of coaches. After all, they lost three of their top four scorers from last season’s 18-16 team, and they would be counting on several young players this season.

Not so fast.How long does it take you to say Kemba Walker? The 6-1 junior

has put the Huskies on his shoulders and led them to a 16-2 re-cord as of last Sunday, including an 84-67 spanking of then-No. 8 Kentucky in the fi nals of the Maui Invitational in December , an 82-81 victory at then-No. 12 Texas two weeks ago, and a 61-59 victory over then-No. 7 Villanova last week, with his last-second baskets winning the latter two games. He’s led the Huskies in scoring in all 18 games, with a high of 42 against Vermont, has reached the 30-point plateau six times and is averaging 25.5 ppg, which is second in the country.

“He’s a very special player, in my opinion, as important as any player in the United States,” coach Jim Calhoun said recently of Walker.

The No. 8 Huskies beat Tennessee 72-61 last Saturday, with Walker’s season-low 16 points still a team high. He also had seven assists. The Huskies play at Marquette on Tuesday before playing host to the Cards Saturday at noon.

COACHCalhoun is in the Naismith Hall of Fame. He’s won two na-

tional titles (1999 and 2004) and has been to the Final Four one other time (2009).

He’s in his 39th year as a head coach (the fi rst 14 at North-eastern University) and is 839-360 overall, 591-223 at UConn, where he’s in his 25th season. He’s won 10 Big East regular-season titles, six BE tournament titles and, except for the 2006-07 and 2009-10 seasons, he’s had UConn in the top four in the Big East every season since 1998.

GUARDSWalker, who went to the same high school as Edgar Sosa, is

shooting 46.3 percent overall, 85 percent on free throws, is lead-ing the team at 3.8 assists and 2.3 steals per game, the latter stat leading the Big East, and is third on the team at 5.4 rpg.

Can you say, “He can do it all?” He had 15 points in an 82-69 loss to UofL last Feb. 1 at Freedom Hall, then rang up 28 points in a 78-76 loss to the Cards on Feb. 28 at UConn. He is very fast, as fast a collegiate player as there is on the dribble, and he will give the Cards fi ts. If the game comes down to a fi nal shot by UConn, you can bet the mortgage that Walker will take it.

The other starting guard is 6-5 freshman Jeremy Lamb, who’s averaging 7.6 ppg and and 4.7 rpg, both fourth on the team. He’s

shooting 45 percent overall but just 28.2 percent on treys. He scored 16 points against Tennessee to share team honors with Walker.

The top backcourt sub is 6-0 freshman Shabazz Napier, who’s actually playing more minutes than Lamb. Napier is averaging 8.5 ppg, third on the team, and 4.2 assists per game, second on the team. He’s also getting 1.8 steals per game. He’s shooting only 38.6 percent overall but 37.9 percent on treys.

A swingman who sees a lot of action is 6-7 sophomore Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, who’s averaging 5.1 ppg but is shooting just 35.4 percent.

BIG MENAlex Oriakhi, a 6-9 sophomore, is a force in the middle. He’s

averaging 11.1 ppg, second on the team, and 9.2 rpg, second in the Big East and 43rd in the country. He’s also blocking 2.4 shots per game, third in the Big East. He didn’t do much against UofL last season – 10 points and seven rebounds in the two games – but he’s now living up to his McDonald’s All-American status out of high school. He had 12 points and 10 rebounds, his seventh double-double of the season, against Tennessee.

Roscoe Smith, a 6-8 freshman, is starting at one forward and is averaging 7.2 ppg, fi fth on the team, and 5.5 rpg, second on the team. He’s also blocking 1.6 shots per game. He had 12 points and three blocks against Tennessee.

The third starter up front varies. Charles Okwandu, a 7-foot senior, has started nine games and is averaging 2.2 ppg, 2.3 rpg and 1.5 blocked shots. Tyler Olander, a 6-9 freshman, has started nine games and is averaging 2.0 ppg and 3.0 rpg. NIEls Giffey, a 6-7 freshman from Germany who became eligible only in December, has started six games and is averaging 3.4 ppg and 1.7 rpg.

MISC.Walker drives the bus, but UConn is making things happen

as a team, too. The Huskies lead the country in blocked shots per game at 7.2, are 12th in fi eld-goal percentage defense at .381, 14th in free-throw shooting at 76.5 percent, 30th in turnovers per game at 11.6, 33rd in rebounding margin at plus-6.1, 55th in fouls per game at 16.9 and 56th in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.17. Calhoun vowed before the season that the Huskies would “get back to basics” – chemistry, teamwork and defense. So far, so good.

ALL-TIME SERIESUofL and UConn have met nine times dating to 2000, with the

Huskies holding a 5-4 advantage. The Cards won the last two meetings, both occurring last season. The teams will meet twice again this season, with UConn coming here on Feb. 18.

NO NAME POS YR EXP HT/WT HOMETOWN 2 DONNELL BEVERLY G SR. 2V 6-4/190 HAWTHORNE, CA (LEUZINGER)3 JEREMY LAMB G-F FR. 6-5/185 NORCROSS, GA (NORCROSS HS)4 JAMAL COOMBS-MCDANIEL F SO. HS 6-7/210 DORCHESTER, MA (TILTON, NH)5 NIELS GIFFEY F FR HS 6-7/210 BERLIN, GERMANY10 TYLER OLANDER F FR. 6-9/225 MANSFIELD, CT (E.O. SMITH HS)13 SHABAZZ NAPIER G FR. 6-0/170 RANDOLPH, MA (CHARLESTOWN HS)15 KEMBA WALKER G JR. 1V 6-1/172 BRONX, NY (RICE)22 ROSCOE SMITH F FR. 6-8/205 BALTIMORE, MD (OAK HILL ACADEMY)23 BENJAMIN STEWART F JR. 6-5/205 DENVER, CO (KENT DENVER HS)25 MICHAEL BRADLEY F-C FR. 6-10/235 CHATTANOOGA, TN (TYNER ACADEMY)34 ALEX ORIAKHI F-C SO. HS 6-9/240 LOWELL, MA (TILTON, NH)35 CHARLES OKWANDU C SR. 2V 7-0/255 LAGOS, NIGERIA, (HARCUM JC)55 KYLE BAILEY G SR. 2V 6-3/170 LANCASTER, NH (WHITE MOUNTAINS)

2010-11 UCONN BASKETBALL ROSTER

Coach: Jim CalhounLast season: 18-16, 7-11 Big East

Overall record: 839-360 (39TH SEASON)At UConn: 591-223 (25TH SEASON)

Calhoun is in the Hall of Fame, has won two NCAA titles

KEMBA WALKERKEMBA WALKER

2010-11 SCHEDULEDATE OPPONENT TIME NOVEMBER Nov. 12, 2010 Stony Brook W, 79-52 Nov. 17, 2010 Vermont W, 89-73 Nov. 22, 2010 Wichita St.1 W, 83-79 Nov. 30, 2010 New Hampshire W, 62-55

DECEMBERDec. 3, 2010 Maryland-BC W, 94-61 Dec. 8, 2010 Fairleigh Dickinson W, 78-54 Dec. 20, 2010 Coppin St. W, 76-64 Dec. 22, 2010 Harvard W, 81-52 Dec. 27, 2010 at Pittsburgh L, 78-63 Dec. 31, 2010 South Florida W, 66-61

JANUARYJan. 4, 2011 at Notre Dame L, 73-70 Jan. 8, 2011 at Texas W, 82-81 Jan. 11, 2011 Rutgers W, 67-53 Jan. 15, 2011 at DePaul W, 82-62 Jan. 17, 2011 Villanova W, 61-59 Jan. 22, 2011 Tennessee W, 72-61 Jan. 25, 2011 at Marquette 9:00 pm ET Jan. 29, 2011 Louisville 12:00 pm ET

FEBRUARYFeb. 2, 2011 Syracuse 7:00 pm ET Feb. 5, 2011 at Seton Hall 7:00 pm ET Feb. 10, 2011 at St. John’s 7:00 pm ET Feb. 13, 2011 Providence 7:00 pm ET Feb. 16, 2011 Georgetown 7:00 pm ET Feb. 18, 2011 at Louisville 9:00 pm ET Feb. 24, 2011 Marquette 7:00 pm ET Feb. 27, 2011 at Cincinnati 12:00 pm ET

MARCHMar. 2, 2011 at West Virginia 7:00 pm ET Mar. 5, 2011 Notre Dame 2:00 pm ET

HUSKIES A SURPRISE; WALKER HAS BEEN GREAT


LOUISVILLE BASKETBALL PREVIEW - GEORGETOWN

By Rick CushingThe Hoyas began this season with high hopes, with a Final Four

berth a realistic goal. They lost just one starter from last year’s 23-11 team, albeit a big one in Greg Monroe, the 6-11 center who left after his sophomore year and was the NBA’s overall No. 7 draft pick by the Detroit Pistons. But heading the returnees was leading scorer Austin Freeman, a 6-3½ senior who was named the pre-season Player of the Year in the Big East, along with fellow senior Chris Wright, a point guard who was a second-team all-Big East preseason pick, and junior guard Jason Clark, a dangerous outside shooter, giving Georgetown a three-man backcourt that was among the best in the nation. Add to that returning senior forward/center Julian Vaughn, a couple of key reserves and a highly regarded four-man recruiting class, and the Hoyas looked plenty dangerous.

“We will miss Greg, no doubt about that,” coach John Thomp-son III said before the season. “We’ll just have to skin the prover-bial cat a little differently.”

The Hoyas started the season 7-0, were upset at Temple, then won four more in a row to enter the top 10 at 11-1. UofL coach Rick Pitino, who had picked St. John’s to win the conference in a preseason poll, switched his pick to Georgetown as the Big East part of the schedule got under way.

Oops.The Hoyas proceeded to lose four of their fi rst fi ve Big East

games, falling at Notre Dame, at St. John’s, and to West Virginia and Pitt at home. The latter three losses came in a row, with Pitt pounding the Hoyas 72-57 on Jan. 12. Georgetown’s only victory in that stretch came against lowly DePaul.

What happened?The defense and rebounding were sub-par, especially for

Georgetown standards, and the three-man backcourt hit a collec-tive slump. In their four Big East losses, their outside shooting prowess virtually disappeared. Freeman was 6 of 20 from beyond the arc, Wright 3 of 21 and Clark 4 of 15.

The Hoyas appear to have righted the ship, winning at Rutgers and Seton Hall last week. Freeman hit 4 of 6 treys and scored 25 points against Rutgers, with Wright going 3 for 5 from long range and adding 15 points, and Freeman was 3 of 4 on treys and 10 of 13 overall in notching 28 points against Seton Hall on Jan. 18.

Georgetown, which has eight days off following the Seton Hall game, will have two games this week – a rematch at home with St. John’s on Wednesday and at No. 7 Villanova on Saturday – before playing host to the Cards on Monday night. As of last Sunday, the Hoyas were 14-5, 3-4 and ranked No. 23.

COACHThompson, whose father won the 1984 NCAA title and fi nished

runner-up twice in a 20-year career as coach at Georgetown, is in his seventh season as coach of the Hoyas, having been head coach for four years at Princeton, his alma mater. He’s 153-67 at Georgetown, 221-109 overall.

He took the Hoyas to the Final Four in 2007, where they lost 67-60 to Ohio State in the semifi nals.

GUARDSUofL fans know all about Freeman, who lit up the Cards for

29 points in sparking the Hoyas to a 70-60 victory last Feb. 23 in Freedom Hall.

He hit 9 of 12 shots that night, including 5 of 6 from three-point

range. He also made all six of his free throws, and he had four rebounds and four assists, with no turnovers. It was one of the best games played against the Cards last season.

This season, despite his recent shooting slump, Freeman is av-eraging 18.5 ppg, third in the Big East, and is shooting 54.8 per-cent overall, 47.9 percent from three-point range. He’s a very good free-throw shooter, averaging 85.7 percent from the line. Keeping him in check will be a challenge for the Cards.

The 6-1 Wright, who mans the point, is second on the team at 12.9 ppg, although he’s shooting just 42.9 percent overall, 32.1 on treys. In Big East play his shooting is far worse: 36.2 percent overall, 21.2 on treys. He’s averaging 5.5 assists a game, third in the Big East and 29th in the country. He’s better at driving than shooting.

The 6-2 Clark is third on the team at 12.7 ppg and is shooting 50.8 percent overall, 36.5 percent on treys. His outside shooting slump has continued, however, as he’s shooting just 18.5 per-cent on treys in seven Big East games. He fi gures to snap out of it eventually because he shot 42.5 percent on treys last season. He’s averaging 4.4 rpg but has made 45 turnovers as opposed to 31 assists.

The top backcourt sub is 6-3 sophomore Vee Sanford, who’s averaging 3.5 ppg and is 10 of 15 on treys. When he comes into the game, look for him to hunt three-point shots.

BIG MENThe 6-9 Vaughn is averaging 8.7 ppg, fourth on the team, and

leads in rebounding at 6.4 a game. He also leads in blocked shots at 2.1 per game, which is sixth in the Big East, tied for 39th in the country. The Hoyas were hoping to get more production out of him this season, however.

The other starter up front is 6-7 sophomore Hollis Thompson, who’s averaging 8.4 ppg and is shooting 52.2 percent overall, an impressive 66.7 percent on treys (20 of 30). You can bet that latter stat will be a point of emphasis on Pitino’s scouting report. Thomp-son is averaging 4.5 rpg.

The top two frontcourt subs are 6-10 junior Henry Sims (4.4 ppg, 3.6 rpg) and 6-8 freshman Nate Lubick (3.5 ppg, 3.1 rpg).

MISC.The Hoyas lead the Big East in fi eld-goal percentage at 50.8

percent, which ranks third nationally. GU also ranks second in the league in three-point shooting at 38.5 percent, which is 35th in the country.

The Hoyas are shooting 73.3 percent from the foul line, third in the Big East and 46th in the country.

Uncharacteristically, Georgetown ranks 13th in the Big East in scoring defense at 67.3 ppg, a result of its being 12th in fi eld-goal percentage defense at .420. (UofL is holding its foes to 38.7 per-cent shooting.) The Hoyas are not rebounding as they normally do, either, ranking 14th in the league at 34.1 rpg and 10th in rebound-ing margin at plus-3.9. They also rank next-to-last in turnover margin at minus-2.26.

ALL-TIME SERIESUofL and Georgetown have met 10 times dating to 1948, with

the Hoyas holding a 6-4 advantage. They’ve won six of the past eight meetings, including last year in Freedom Hall. The Cards are 1-2 at Georgetown, which has won three of the fi ve games played in Louisville. The other two games were played on a neutral court.

NO NAME HT WT POS YR HOMETOWN 1 HOLLIS THOMPSON F SO. HS 6-7/205 CONCORD, CA (DE LA SALLE)

4 CHRIS WRIGHT G SR. 2V 6-1/208 WASHINGTON, MD (ST. JOHN’S PREP, MD.)

5 MARKEL STARKS G FR. 6-2/175 ACCOKEEK, MD (GEORGETOWN PREP)

11 VEE SANFORD G SO. HS 6-3/180 LEXINGTON, KY (LEXINGTON CATHOLIC)

12 RYAN DOUGHERTY G SR. 2V 6-0/192 WASHINGTON, DC (ST. ALBAN’S)

15 AUSTIN FREEMAN G SR. 2V 6-3/227 HYATTSVILLE, MD (DEMATHA)

20 JERRELLE BENIMON F SO. HS 6-7/242 WARRENTON, VA (FAUQIER)

21 JASON CLARK G JR. HS 6-2/170 ARLINGTON, VA (BISHOP O’CONNELL)

22 JULIAN VAUGHN F SR. TR 6-9/247 VIENNA, VA (OAK HILL ACADEMY)

23 AARON BOWEN F FR. 6-6/200 JACKSONVILLE, FL (QUALITY EDUCATION ACADEMY)

30 HENRY SIMS C JR. HS 6-10/230 BALTIMORE, MD (MOUNT ST. JOSEPH)

32 MOSES AYEGBA C FR. 6-9/250 KANO, NIGERIA (PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIAN HS)

34 NATE LUBICK F FR. 6-8/238 SOUTHBOROUGH, MA (ST. MARK’S HS)

2010-11 GEORGETOWN BASKETBALL ROSTER

2010-11 SCHEDULEDATE OPPONENT TIME NOVEMBER Nov. 12, 2010 at Old Dominion W, 62-59 Nov. 15, 2010 Tulane W. 69-53 Nov. 18, 2010 Coastal Car.1 W, 80-61 Nov. 27, 2010 UNC-Asheville W, 87-72 Nov. 30, 2010 at Missouri W, 111-102

DECEMBER Dec. 4, 2010 Utah State W, 68-51 Dec. 9, 2010 at Temple L, 68-65 Dec. 12, 2010 App. State W, 89-60 Dec. 18, 2010 Loyola Maryland W, 86-69 Dec. 23, 2010 at Memphis W, 86-69 Dec. 29, 2010 at Notre Dame L, 69-55

JANUARY Jan. 1, 2011 DePaul W, 86-75 Jan. 3, 2011 at St. John’s L, 61-58 Jan. 8, 2011 West Virginia L, 65-59 Jan. 12, 2011 Pittsburgh L, 72-57 Jan. 15, 2011 at Rutgers W, 74-65 Jan. 18, 2011 at Seton Hall W, 80-75 Jan. 26, 2011 St. John’s 7:00 pm ET Jan. 29, 2011 at Villanova 12:00 pm ET Jan. 31, 2011 Louisville 7:00 pm ET

FEBRUARY Feb. 5, 2011 Providence 12:00 pm ET Feb. 9, 2011 at Syracuse 7:00 pm ET Feb. 13, 2011 Marquette 1:00 pm ET Feb. 16, 2011 at Connecticut 7:00 pm ET Feb. 19, 2011 at South Florida 7:00 pm ET Feb. 23, 2011 Cincinnati 9:00 pm ET Feb. 26, 2011 Syracuse 12:00 pm ET

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

Coach: John Thompson IIILast season: 23-11, 10-8 Big East

Overall record: 221-109 (11TH SEASON)At Georgetown: 153-67 (SEVENTH SEASON)

Shot 49.9 percent last season,2nd in league, 4th in country

AUSTIN FREEMANAUSTIN FREEMAN

GEOR

GETO

WN

HOYA

S

Monday, Jan. 31Louisville at Georgetown

7 PM, ESPN

HOYAS HAVE BOUNCED BACK FROM RECENT SLUMP


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

By Russ BrownWouldn’t you know it. Just in time for Lou-

isville’s visit to Gampel Pavilion this Saturday, Connecticut’s freshmen look as if they could be ready to take some of the burden off star guard Kemba Walker.

Walker scored a season-low 16 points last Saturday, but he had enough help from some youngsters to enable the eighth-ranked Hus-kies (16-2, 4-2 Big East) to beat unranked Tennessee 72-61.

Freshman guard Jeremy Lamb also had 16 points and fellow rookie Roscoe Smith added 12, hitting 4 of 5 three-point shots. And sophomore center Alex Oriakhi had 12 points and 10 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the season and fourth in

his last fi ve games.“Far and away our best team effort,”

UConn coach Jim Calhoun said. “Winning solves a lot of problems, but coaching a team that is getting better and listens to you, and you can see it, there is a lot of pleasure in that, too.”

UConn, which hit 9 of 19 from three-point range, will take a fi ve-game winning streak into Tuesday’s game at Marquette before hosting UofL. The Huskies had beaten No. 7 Villanova 61-59 fi ve days earlier, with Lamb getting 14 points, eight rebounds, two assists and two steals. Lamb has looked like a dif-ferent player since playing only eight minutes against Texas and then being pulled from the starting lineup against Rutgers because of poor defense.

“I don’t know (if it was a wake-up call),” he said. “I just kept working hard and kept trying to keep my head up and cheer on the team. It didn’t really make me mad, but of course, I was a little edgy.”

Walker, who has been a one-man show at times, was 6 of 17 from the fi eld against the Vols, missed his fi rst fi ve shots and didn’t score for the fi rst 15 minutes of the game.

“It’s going to be easier on Kemba if we are knocking down shots for him,” Lamb said. “He can get 30 any night he wants. Tonight he got us involved and that was good. We took some big shots, and we were able to make some big shots.”

Said Walker, who averages 25 points: “They threw guys at me, and I was able to fi nd others. I’ll gladly sacrifi ce points.”

Walker had seven assists against the Vols. The Cards have won four of their last six

games against the Huskies, including three of four in Connecticut.

UConn lost four starters from last year’s disappointing team and was picked 10th in the Big East in the coaches’ preseason poll. It is probably unrealistic to think the Huskies have a legitimate shot at the regular-season title considering Pittsburgh is off to a 7-0 start and also easily won (78-63) the only meeting between the two on Dec. 27. But don’t try telling the UConn players that.

“We approach every game to win,” Walk-er said. “We’re not settling for anything less. We’ve been showing that we belong among the elite. We’re a good team, and we’re tough to beat. Everybody we play has to come prepared because we’re going to come out strong.”

Said Oriakhi: “Defi nitely, I think we can contend for the title. I feel we can play with anybody. A lot of people say we’re young, but we’re not playing like it. I defi nitely think we’re one of the best teams in the country.”

Calhoun said he talks about short-term goals with his team and avoids the subject of aiming for a Big East championship.

“We really don’t talk about that,” he said. “I’m not as long-range with this team. I just can’t be, honestly.”

HOYAS ON UPSWING?Georgetown’s Hoyas (14-5, 3-4), who

will host Louisville Monday night in the Ve-rizon Center, hope their troubles are behind them, but it’s too early to tell because their

two most recent wins came against Big East bottom-feeders Rutgers and Seton Hall.

We’ll know more, though, before they play UofL, because they meet St. John’s Wednesday, then travel to Villanova Satur-day. Georgetown ended a three-game skid by beating Rutgers 74-65, then rallied for a come-from-behind 80-75 victory over Seton Hall.

“It’s a huge confi dence-booster,” George-town’s Julian Vaughn said of the two wins. “We had a little adversity, but this group has never pointed fi ngers, has always stayed to-gether. This group is together as one unit.”

Senior guard Austin Freeman, who aver-aged only 9.7 points during the losing streak, broke out of a shooting slump and scored 25 against the Scarlet Knights and 28 against the Pirates.

“When I’m making shots, our team is play-ing well,” he said.

Senior point guard Chris Wright also shot well again in the two games.

“It’s related,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III said when asked about gettingthe wins and seeing his senior captains put anend to their shooting woes. “It’s really goodto have those two guys back. We need thoseguys. With the way this team is put together,Chris, Austin and Jason (Clark) have to playwell. We can’t go through a stretch where allof them are slightly out of sync.”

One area UofL might be able to exploit the Hoyas is inside. Georgetown allowedSeton Hall to score 44 points in the paint af-ter Rutgers got 34. Thompson blamed it onthe Hoyas’ transition defense allowing toomany fast break baskets, which could also bea good sign for the running Cards.

TEAMS SOLVING ‘CUSE ZONEIt wasn’t a good week to be Jim Boeheim

or Syracuse. After starting the season with 18straight victories, the Orange fell twice lastweek, once again leading Boeheim to ques-tion the legitimacy of his club’s No. 3 ranking.Of course, the Orange won’t be No. 3 anymore. Playing without leading scorer Kris Jo-seph, Syracuse lost 74-66 at No. 5 Pittsburgh,then suffered a surprising 83-72 defeat atthe hands of hot-shooting Villanova in frontof 33,736 in the Carrier Dome, the second-largest crowd in the building’s history.

Maybe teams are beginning to fi nd an-swers for Syracuse’s trademark 2-3 zone (pos-sibly from watching UofL’s Kyle Kuric riddleit last season). Pitt cracked the zone frominside, getting the ball into its post players.Perimeter-oriented Villanova took a differ-ent approach, attacking from outside with afl urry of three-pointers.

The Wildcats made 8 of 13 treys in the fi rst half and fi nished the afternoon 11 of 24,their 45.8 percent shooting marking the bestthree-point accuracy against the Orange thisseason. After its fi rst-half barrage, Villanovascored more from inside in the second half.

“They went outside and then they went inside,” Syracuse guard Brandon Triche said.“They hit three-balls, so we had to go out atthem and they pump-faked and got in thelane.”

Said Villanova coach Jay Wright: “Even a couple Corey Stokes hit and Maalik’s (Wayns)in the fi rst half weren’t great threes, butwe made them and that’s what gives you achance. If you’re not making shots, you’re introuble.”

Wayns led Villanova with 21 points, while Corey Fisher and Stokes each scored 16.

“Their zone is not unstoppable,” said Fish-er, who also had seven assists. “You’re go-ing to look bad sometimes, and you can lookgood sometimes.”

As opposed to Syracuse’s guards, who looked bad all the time. Scoop Jardine hadtwo points on 1-of-8 shooting and Dion Wait-ers was 2 of 12, and they combined to go 1for 10 from three-point land.

“Obviously, I think they’re a top-fi ve or -six team in the country and, right now, we’renot,” Boeheim said. “We played two teamsthis week that I think are legitimate top-fi veor -six teams, and we weren’t good enough.

Louisville senior Preston Knowles elevated for a

dunk during Louisville’s recent win over St. John’s. Knowles and the Cardinals

are tied for fourth in the league after Saturday’s loss

to Providence. - photo by Shelley Feller

YOUNGSTERS BOOSTING UCONN BY HELPING WALKER MORE



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

We’re just not good enough right now.”Syracuse will visit Louisville Feb. 12 for a

noon game, trying to snap a six-game losing streak against the Cards.

WILLARD TAKES BLAMESeton Hall fi rst-year coach Kevin Willard

can’t say he wasn’t warned. UofL coach Rick Pitino told his former assistant that he would be in for some diffi cult times with the Pirates, and sure enough. ... Seton Hall is 2-6 in the Big East, has lost six of its last seven games and is facing a trip to Syracuse Tuesday.

After a disheartening 66-60 loss to New Jersey rival Rutgers Saturday at the Pruden-tial Center in Newark, Willard put the blame on himself. “I’ve done a very bad job with this team,” he said after the game, which dropped Seton Hall to 8-12 overall. “I’m not disappointed in them. They played hard. I’m disappointed in myself. We were close to becoming a good team a few weeks ago, and we’ve gotten away from that. I need to do a better job.”

But his players were having none of it.“Coach isn’t on the fl oor,” said senior

guard Jordan Theodore. “We’re the ones who have to make plays, and we’re looking like a bad team right now.”

“That’s Coach being top dog,” agreed Herb Pope, the team’s leading rebounder. “He’s not to blame. It’s on us.”

QUOTES FROM AROUND THE LEAGUECincinnati coach Mick Cronin: “We’re

not in Conference USA any more. These are top-20 teams.... These are hard games to win, and you need to play 40 minutes of good basketball.”

Boeheim: “There are no easy games.”Syracuse guard Brandon Triche on Vil-

lanova’s guards: “You want to take Corey Stokes away because you know he’s their best shooter. Then Wayns without even hes-itating goes ‘Boom!’ OK, that’s one. I guess that was kinda lucky. Then two, three, four. Now he’s got 17 points in the fi rst half and I’m like, ‘OK, what just happened? I thought Stokes was the shooter.’”

Cronin, using a football analogy after Yancey Gates converted a three-point play with eight seconds left to beat St. John’s

53-51: “I just told them in the locker room sometimes you’ve got to go sweep right and they’ve got to know it’s coming and you’ve still got to get the fi rst down or the touchdown.

“That’s how you win games in this league. You’ve got to have a guy who’s good enough to where you can go sweep right. You throw him the ball and if they don’t double him he’s going to score.”

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon: “In most games, we’ve been up early, but some of my teams have been down 12-15 points and come back. These guys have been through so many games and situations, in high school, sum-mer leagues, AAU and now college, they’ve seen a lot of different situations. They know that we’ve just got to stay with what we do and things will go the right way.”

More Dixon: “This may be the best and deepest group of guards we’ve had. Wan-namaker, Brown, Gibbs all really pass and shoot well, and that’s a hard thing to guard. They have experience, they’re smart, they’re improving, they can handle it, dribble and pass it, and that’s a good combination.

Even More Dixon, on the Big East: “There are so many good teams and players. We replace them with more good players when they move on. People have to get used to the fact that the Big East is going to be good every year.

“It will be good from top to bottom, with an occasional team moving up from the bot-tom and making some noise, like Cincinnati and St. John’s. The depth of the conference is unsurpassed. Teams in the top -- in the RPI -- you can’t say much more than that.”

Marquette coach Buzz Williams on junior guard Darius Johnson-Odom: “He’s got a lit-tle bit of idiot savant in him. He knows more about what’s going on around the country than I do and probably you do.”

Calhoun: “Maui certainly wasn’t a fl uke, but what Maui was, was early season. Early season we had all kinds of energy and peo-ple didn’t know us. Now that people have been watching, the tapes have caught up with us a little bit, and we have to catch up with the tapes.”

Big East Basketball Standings 1. Pittsburgh 19-1 (7-0)The Panthers’ 7-0 isn’t fool’s gold. Pitt has wins over UConn, G’town, Syracuse

2. Villanova 17-2 (5-1)Win at Syracuse was a shocker; Providence and G’town next

3. Syracuse 18-2 (5-2)Back-to-back losses after starting 18-0; Seton Hall and at Marquette next

t-4. Connecticut 16-2 (4-2)Tough week coming up with games at Marquette and vs. UofL and Syracuse

t-4. Louisville 15-4 (4-2)Louisville will face top 25 foes in 7 of next 8 starting with WVU Wednesday

t-4. West Virginia 13-5 (4-2)At Louisville Wednesday, at Cincinnati Saturday then a breather with Seton Hall

7. Notre Dame 16-4 (5-3)Irish are 15-0 at home; Games at Pitt and at DePaul this week

t-8. Cincinnati 17-3 (4-3)After 15-0 start, Bearcats have lost 3 of last 5; Home games vs. RU and WVU

t-8. Marquette 13-7 (4-3)How about these next three? UConn then Syracuse then at Villanova. Ouch.

10. St. John’s 11-7 (4-4)Red Storm have lost four of last fi ve; Games at G’town and Duke up next

t-11. Georgetown 14-5 (3-4)After a road trip to St. John’s, Hoyas have games at Villanova and home vs. UofL

t-11. Rutgers 12-7 (3-4)Two wins in a row vs. USF and Seton Hall is as easy as it gets in this league

13. Seton Hall 8-12 (2-6)The Pirates’ next chance for a win is- well, we’re not sure. At Rutgers on Feb. 12?

14. Providence 12-8 (1-6)Win over Louisville broke a six-game losing streak. Nova and at Seton Hall next

15. South Florida 7-14 (1-7)Bulls could have two wins this week with DePaul and Providence on the schedule

16. DePaul 6-13 (0-7)Blue Demons lost to Pitt and Marquette by 30, they’ll likely go 0-18

Louisville trainer Fred Hina helped power forward Stephan Van Treese

off the court during Louisville’s win over St. John’s. Louisville is

one of several Big East teams that has struggled with injuries this

season. - photo by Dave Klotz


SPIRIT GROUPS

Albanese,Elizabeth Marie

Burke,Tessa Carolyn

Everitt,Kelsey Ann

Ferry,Ashley E

Goldstein,Molly Anne

Gritton,Caleigh M

Lafferty,Lei Lani

Lewis,Courtney Elizabeth

McWhorter,Brittany N

Moore,Marcela Lynette

Page,Amanda N

Perkins,Audrey Louise

Santos,Chelsea Nicole

Short,Amber Nicole

Smith,Elle B

Sunderhaus,Kelsea Jo.

Swearingen,Bryana Elizabeth

Whiting,Molly Elisabeth

Wilbur,Camille Nicole

Wright,Brittany Danielle

Becton,Demi Michelle

Berra,Alexis L

Blake,Jennifer Lynn

Byerly,Lorin Paige

Cheripko,Brooke Marie

Chism,Chelsea Christine

Combs,Victoria Lenee

Crosby,Alyssa N

Debaro,Kimberly Lynn

Dewees,Victoria A

Drescher,Taylor M

Elrod,Austin

Ford,Ronald R

Grider,Zachary A

Grilliot,Jennifer Ann

Hammac,Corey

Hanle,Kaysie Lynn

Harrold,Molly Anne

Heifner,Tamara Renee

Huber,Erran Michael

Ingle,Edward Scott Collins

Jacobi,Chanda Renee’

Jones,Meghan Adriana

Krumlinde,Jamie Lee

Krumlinde,Jennifer L

Latta,Kristian Courtney

Levasseur,Kristie Marie

Logue,Jerica Lynn

Lose,Michelle Rhea

Masters,Callie Ann

Mastrocola,Joseph Robert

Newcomb,Katlyn Morgan

Patterson,Katherine Elaine

Pike,Kramer A

Prochnow,Jessica Rae

Ramsay,Bailey Kendall

Rodger,Alyssa Marie

Schilling,Caitlyn A

Schmitt,Samantha Rae

Seller,Caroline Anne

Sequeira,Julie Christine

Simpson,Melissa Michelle

Spencer,Kelsie Ann

MANAGERS

Beiting,Burke Thomas

Book,Deidre Elizabeth

Calabrese,Richard T

Chalk,Kristopher Anthony

Conway,Kent William

Corum,Arthur Dale

Deyer JR,David Duane

Gilpin,Tiffany Brooke

Hackert,Travis Alan

Higgins,William M

Hines,Jacob Kenneth

Horan,Philip Callahan

Ickert,Alexis Nicole

Jordan,Joshua Donald

Kipfstuhl,Paul Joseph

Klasic,Renata

Lucas,Justin Lee

MacGregor,Morgan Aileen

McKeel,Wesley C

McRay,Kasey Brock

Miller,Tyler Matthew

Nord,Jessica L

O’Meara,William

Paul,Devrinn Thomas

Pfeiffer,Andrew Jonathan

Riordan,Amy Michelle

Scott,Matthew David

Taylor,Ryan Scott

Turner,David Jake

Wall,Taylor Duane

Warkentien,Ryan J

Williams,Kelli Deann

Zuege,Samuel V

VOLLEYBALL

Artemeva,Anastasia

Juhl,Emily Ann

Lech,Malgorzata

Mango,Lindsey C

Mattingly,Brooke elizabeth

Rucker,Gwendolyn LaReece

Simmons,Amanda Christina

Wachtel,Maci R

Welch,Caitlin Marie

TRACK

Abdullah,Khadija S

Baker,Hannah Elizabeth

Borsare,Emily Louise

Briggs,Ariel Alyssa

Cardeiro,Kimberly Dawn

Cox,Kacey Kyanne

Davidson,Madeleine Joy

Dooley,Paige Kathleen

Dunn,Cassandra Lee

Frigo,Maria Lee

Gates,Patrice Danyel

Gehret,Rachel M

Gilbertson,Margaret Marie

Grieshaber,Kimberly Dawn

Hernandez,Monica Lynn

Horvath,Olivia Marie

Jackson,Gabrielle Anna Nicole

Lucas,Chelsea Leigh

Okoro,Chinwe Lynette

Sabbatine,Andrea Jensen

Schubert,Megan Elizabeth

Theophille,Michelle Marie

Wargo,Jenna Lynn

WOMEN’S TENNIS

Brown,Mandy Louise

Duncan,Gabrielle Cady

Fellerhoff,Julia Christine

Harris,Amelia J

Mandry,Kaysara Sancofa

Miller,Sarah

Shine,Rebecca Lynn

Villajuan,Stefanie Olga Oracion

SWIMMING

Apanaviciute,Grite

Bergstrom,Therese Marie

Brandenburg,Kristina Pless

Chambers,Anne M

Cole,Aileen Marie

Collier,Cristyn Danielle

Conway,Emily Paige

Danckwardt-Lilliestrom,Fanny

Eramo,Kristine Marie

Gadd,Hannah N

Hartman,Sara Elizabeth

Juncker,Stephanie A

Landisch,Nicole Terese

LaPorte,Lindsey Leigh

McDowell,Breann O’Grady

Mittel,Mary Bernadette

Munchel,Carly Elizabeth

Ormand,Samantha Jo

Sherrard,Jackie Lynne

Steele,Melissa Ann

Stephens,Lindsey Elizabeth

Thompson,Lorraine Leigh

SOFTBALL

Austin,Kristin Ann

Bemis,Chelsea Marie

Collins,Victoria Christine

Connell,Jordan Caralisa

Fowler,Alexandria Taner

Keller,Katherine Anne

Kiyohara,Hannah Teruko

Leonard,Chelsea E

Paysen,Tesha M

Roberts,Chrisanna Marie

Wherry,Lauren C.

SOCCER

Beck,Caitlin Nicole

Berberich,Megan Elizabeth

Cardell,Emily Maria

Casselman,Julie Ann

Cunningham,Katelynn A

Davis,Erin L

Egan,Caley E

Holtz,Courtney Lynn

Hunter,Chelsea Morgan

Jones,Jennifer Marie

Kiefer,Catherine Chloe

Kulinczenko,Ariana Natalia

Kuric,Katelyn M

Leamy,Shannon Eileen

McDonald,Kaitlyn Marie

Mitchell,Nicole Tammy

Pawlik,Jordan Elizabeth

Prokopik,Emily Meehan

Racette,Ashley Evaline

Rehder,Caitlin S

Tolley,Meredith C

Walz,Kathleen Rose

ROWING

Baumgartle,Morgan Ann

Campbell,Mallorie Louise

Cromwell,Keri Peyton

Dunham,Morgan Briar

Elliott,Kirsten Ann

Falovo,Kristin Marie

Grigsby,Kellie Tanner

Hastings,Shelby Karen

Howard,Katie Gayle

Jackson,Cynthia Michelle

Jenkins,Alison Marie

Jennings,Lana Jane

Kayser,Samantha M

Knaszak,Brittney C

Kroninger,Kayla Jo

Lawson,Kira Barkauskas

Linneweber,Kelsie Alaine

Littleton,Cara Jo

McKiernan,Tara S

Mensch,Lauren M

Monchenko,Ekaterina

Motsch,Amelia M

O’Conor,Kelly Cunningham

Proctor-Brown,Lauren Andrea

Prokopenko,Anastasia Valerievna

Ritter,Hannah Sibyl

Siu,Allison Won-Sze

Thumhart,Rebekka Liane

Tran,Irena Chi Mai

Van Syoc,Amy Lynn McCall

Woods,Ali Janine

GOLF

Anderson,Laura Caroline

Castellanos,Maria Melinda

Juneau,Sara-Maude

Karlsson,Sara Josefin

Klein,Maike

Ljungstrom,Annakarin M

Petrino,Kathryn Patricia

FIELD HOCKEY

Attles,Simone L’nese

Auker,Nicole Ashley

Barry,Nicole Marie

Collins,Caitlin Ann

Flannery,Katelyn Rose

Gerrick,Jacquelyn Anne

Hollenbach,Rachel Ann

Jurich,Lacey Anne

Leickly,Natasha CBatherine

Lim,Tuliaan G

Nall,Karah G

Rosenmeier,Kelsey Brooke

Stevens,Heather Lea

Turner,Hayley Elizabeth

Youman,Nicole Louise Pamela

Ziobro,Meghan Ann

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Burke,Rebecca Rose

Dyer,Shawnta’ Tiara

Gibbs,Tia M

Harper,Shelby A

Hines,Keshia Renee

Johnson,Latoya Nicole

Schimmel,Shoni I

Slaughter,Antonita Kenya

Warren,Michael Jon

TRACK

Angermeier,Neil B

Banks,Weston Michael

Bessler,Benjamin Vincent

Bombaugh,Samuel Clasby

Bruce,Matthew Brendan

Byrne,Tyler Mitchell

Dooley,Gordy Gerard

Eaton,Michael E

Eaton,Ryan W

Gann,Kyle Joseph

Greenwald,Joshua James

Hibbs,Evan Gregory

Hobbs,Marcellus E

Jackson,Kevin Alan

Lovelace,Luke Dantzler

Vivace,Bradley John

Wolfe,Chris Ken

TENNIS

Carter,Arren Tyler

Donaldson,Adam

Swimming

Andrews,Brendon Richard

Bandy,Kevin Michael

Burtch,Alex Robert

Coleman,Clayton Ronald

Collins,Richard Timothy

Crapse,Kenneth Daniel

Dehn,Cameron Reed

Gunter,Scott Joseph

Haefner,Michael J

Isaacs,Adam L

Linton,Lemar Micah

Martin,Riley Christopher

Ogle,Benjamin Todd

Stratton,Michael Bradley

Zamkov,David Joseph

SOCCER

Berry,Greggory Austin

Boudreaux,Andre Michael

Campbell,Charles R

Corliss,Nick Ralph

Crick,James Patrick

Farrell,Andrew Mikobi

Keller,Daniel Joseph

Knight,Mark James

Mauro,Michael Thomas

Obbey,Alexander Elliott

Stockum,David C

Torp,Zachary Paul

Walker,Kenneth Allen

GOLF

Biuso,Christopher Michael

Clements,Karsten Phillip

Dorward,Justin R

Iceman III,Daniel Frederick

Malec,Christopher Robert

BASKETBALL

Buckles,Rakeem

Jennings,Terence T

Justice,Elisha Joe

Kuric,Kyle Matthew

Marra,Michael Angelo

Siva,Peyton Robert

Smith,Jamahl C

Van Treese,Stephan Conrad

FOOTBALL

Ashley,Darius Terrell

Benavides JR,Mario Alberto

Brown,Daniel L

Carr,Lincoln Jordan

Castaneda,Joseph Edward

Clark II,John Jay

Conner,Anthony Terrell

Curtley,Jeremiah Malik

Davis,Drew A

Donovan,Grant Matthew

Kessling,Ryan James

Lee,Richard Ellis

Mitchell,Malcolm Xavier

Nord,Nathan M

Paschal,Jordon Levi

Philpott,Christopher John

Robinson,Stephan DeShawn

Stein,William Blake

Stewart,Rashad M

Topp,Demarcus R

Walker,Christopher Edward

Wetterer,Mark D

Zelli,Christopher Scott

BASEBALL

Engel,Adam T

Gardner,Jeffrey William

Grieshaber,Kyle Daniel

Haynes,Andrew C

Koch,Matthew David

Nastold,Michael Christopher

Self,Derek Austin

Shaw,Gabriel

Stilphen,Joseph Michael

Sturgeon,Cole Michael

Wasserman,Zachary James

Wright,Ryan Taylor

Young,Tyler Benjamin

LACROSSE

Allen,Samantha Britni

Bobal,Lianne Marie

Boltja,Nicole Elizabeth

Bushway,Hillary Anne

Dashiell,Emily Mae

Devine,Ruby E

Dzikewich,Janaye Elizabeth

Falk,Emily Anne

Hefner,Leslee

Herbst,Ashley Katherine

Lovejoy,Elizabeth

Negron,Monica Alexandra

Oliverio,Katie Ann

Pawliw,Danielle Christine

Poteet,Amelia Louise

Redding,Jamie Kathryn

Ryan,Meghan Elizabeth

Stearns,Shayna C

Wah,Abigail Elizabeth

Ward,Jamie Maddox

Wilkinson,Victoria Anne

Zoeller,Kathryn

FIFTH YEAR

Arnold,Jeffrey Kenneth

Edwardson,Ashley Vivian

Irvin,Ashley Anne

Kiernan,Zachary Michael

Parker,Daphne Aileen

Talle,Andrew Joseph

Terry,Laura Faith

Burke,Justin Gregory

Burns,Bobby J

Byrom,Joshua Reed

Canady,Antwon Edward

Froman,Adam Christopher

Hartman,Jordan Patrick

Heckelman,Kasey Colleen

Nochta,John Edward

Powell,Bilal Matan

Sowell,II,Eugene Dixon

Stingily,Byron Andrew

Tatum,Malcolm Jerome

Weedman,Daniel John

Academic Honor Roll list

The University of Louisville recognized its 393 members of the 2010 fall semester Athletic Director’s Honor Roll -- 32 of whom achieved a 4.0, with the rest achieving a 3.0 or better grade point average -- at halftime of Wednesday’s game against St. John’s, a

fi gure which represents more than half of the Cards’ student-athletes.

“I am pleased and proud of our young athletes who did a great job in the classroom,” said associate athletic director for academ-ics Marvin Mitchell. “I am impressed by the consistency with which we keep improving in Tom Jurich’s 10-plus years here.”


CARDINAL STARSCARLOS ALMEIDA - MEN’S SWIMMINGThe junior from Lisbon, Portugal, had three wins Saturday to help Louisville ruin archrival Kentucky’s Senior Day at the Lancaster Aquatic Center in Lexington. Almeida won the 100-breast, 200-breast and 200-IM as the Cardinals beat the Wildcats 186-115 in their home pool. “We are glad to win this meet on the road,” coach Arthur Albiero said. “More importantly, we performed well in many spots and our balance and depth was the difference.” Almeida won the 100-breast in 45.86 and the 200-breast in 2:01.23, a full three seconds ahead of the rest of the fi eld. He won the 200-IM in 1:51.14.

RAINE THOMPSON - WOMEN’S SWIMMINGThe sophomore from Paducah, Ky., was named Big East Swimmer of the Week after posting two individual wins in the Cardinals’ 211-83 victory over Cincinnati Jan. 15. She fi nished the 200-butterfl y in 2:03.14 and the 500-freestyle in 4:58.62. She also assisted in the winning 400-medley relay, which posted a pool-record time of 3:45.37. She was just as strong last week, winning two events to help the Cardinals beat archrival Kentucky 186-114. She won the 200-fl y in 2:03.19 and the 100-fl y in 55.78.

TANJA KYLLIANEN - WOMEN’S SWIMMINGShe’s not on campus yet, but she’s already making a big national splash. The UofL signee from Baltimore is a senior in high school. She won her third national title and set a second national record this year when she won the 200-fl y at the USA Junior National Championships on Dec. 12 in Atlanta. Kyllianen won the 200-fl y in a national-record time of 1:56.01. Earlier, she won the 200-IM and the 400-IM, setting a junior national record in the 400-IM.

AUSTEN CHILDS - MEN’S TENNISThe eighth-ranked senior star from Mount Maunganui, New Zealand, beat NC State’s top player, Jaime Pulgar, 6-2, 6-3 Friday. Childs beat the No. 61 player in the nation handily to help the Cardinals beat the Wolfpack 7-0. Louisville, ranked No. 13 in the nation, also won the doubles point as Childs teamed with Viktor Maksimcuk to win at No. 1 doubles and Alejandro Caligari and Robert Hall won at No. 3 doubles. The Cardinals are 3-0 to start the spring season dual matches after wins over Old Dominion, NC State and ETSU.

JULIE FELLERHOFF - WOMEN’S TENNISThe Louisville women started the dual match season 3-0 with wins over Bowling Green, West Virginia and Morehead State last week. The Cardinals were paced by Fellerhoff, a freshman from Deerfi eld, Ill., who is playing as Louisville’s No. 1 singles player already. She beat West Virginia’s top player, Melis Tanik, 6-1, 6-1 to help Louisville beat its Big East rival 7-0 Sunday at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center. Fellerhoff and sophomore Mandy Brown teamed to win at No. 1 doubles as well. They are ranked No. 33 in the nation in the most recent ITA standings.

WESTON BANKS - MEN’S TRACK AND FIELDThe senior thrower from Greesnburg, Pa., fi nished fi rst in the shotput Saturday in Bloomington at the Indiana Gladstien Invitational. Banks, who earlier won the event to open the season at the Saluki Fast Start Invitational, took fi rst in Bloomington with a toss of 17.32m (56 feet, 10 inches). Banks holds the second-best mark in the Big East, and his throw Saturday was almost more than a meter better than the second-place fi nisher.

KIM GRIESHABER - WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELDThe senior from Versailles, Ky., won the 3,000m run at Indiana’s Gladstien Invitational on Friday. Grieshaber knocked nearly fi ve seconds off her previous lifetime best (9:57.15) with a time of 9:52.33. That mark qualifi es her for the Big East Championships in the event. Grieshaber fi nished 14th in the league at last season’s indoor championship meet at the New York City Armory.

ALMEIDAALMEIDA

THOMPSONTHOMPSON

KYLLIANENKYLLIANEN

CHILDSCHILDS

BANKSBANKS

GRIESHABERGRIESHABER

HOWIE LINDSEY’SHOWIE LINDSEY’S

OF THE WEEKOF THE WEEK

Come see Cy Young Award runner-up Adam Wainright and Louisville Bats manager Rick Sweet

Friday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. SOUTH WING OF THE KENTUCKY EXPOSITION CENTER

Tickets for the event can be purchased for $50 each by calling (502) 852-0706 or by completing the registration form above and

emailing it to [email protected].

The deadline to register is Jan. 21, 2011. The annual dinner is the primary fund-raising event for the U of L baseball team.

For more information, contact (502) 852-0706

Baseball Leadoff Dinner

t w o t h o u s a n d e l e v e n


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

D

MAKE YOUR PICKSLAST WEEK:

LAST WEEK:_____OVERALL:_______

KENT TAYLORWAVE TV

LAST WEEK: 6-4OVERALL: 34-16

TERRY MEINERSWHAS RADIO


GARRY GUPTONRED AND BLUE REVIEW

ION CHANNEL 21LAST WEEK: 5-5OVERALL: 32-18

RUSS BROWNSPORTSREPORT


FRED COWGILLWLKY TV


TOM LANEWDRB FOX 41


MATT WILLINGERSPORTSREPORT


HOWIE LINDSEYSPORTSREPORT


DREW DEENERWHAS PLAY-BY-PLAY

WKRD RADIOLAST WEEK: 6-4OVERALL: 33-17

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


#21 WEST VIRGINIA AT #19 LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE#14 PURDUE AT #1 OHIO STATE OHIO STATE OHIO STATE OHIO STATE#6 SAN DIEGO STATE AT #9 BYU BYU BYU SAN DIEGO STATE#8 CONNECTICUT AT MARQUETTE CONNECTICUT MARQUETTE CONNECTICUT#2 KANSAS AT COLORADO KANSAS KANSAS KANSAS#15 MINNESOTA AT #14 PURDUE PURDUE PURDUE PURDUE#23 GEORGETOWN AT #7 VILLANOVA VILLANOVA VILLANOVA VILLANOVA#3 SYRACUSE AT MARQUETTE SYRACUSE MARQUETTE SYRACUSE#21 WEST VIRGINIA AT #25 CINCINNATI CINCINNATI CINCINNATI WEST VIRGINIA#19 LOUISVILLE AT #8 CONNECTICUT LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE CONNECTICUT

JACK COFFEESPORTSREPORT


U OF L PRESIDENTJAMES RAMSEY


JEFF WAFFORDSPORTSREPORT


LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE WEST VIRGINIA LOUISVILLE WEST VIRGINIAOHIO STATE OHIO STATE OHIO STATE OHIO STATE OHIO STATE OHIO STATE OHIO STATE OHIO STATE OHIO STATE OHIO STATE

BYU BYU BYU BYU BYU BYU BYU BYU BYU BYUCONNECTICUT MARQUETTE MARQUETTE CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT MARQUETTE CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT

KANSAS KANSAS KANSAS KANSAS KANSAS KANSAS KANSAS KANSAS KANSAS KANSASPURDUE PURDUE PURDUE PURDUE MINNESOTA PURDUE PURDUE PURDUE PURDUE PURDUE

VILLANOVA VILLANOVA VILLANOVA VILLANOVA VILLANOVA VILLANOVA VILLANOVA VILLANOVA VILLANOVA VILLANOVA SYRACUSE MARQUETTE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE CINCINNATI CINCINNATI CINCINNATI CINCINNATI WEST VIRGINIA CINCINNATI CINCINNATI CINCINNATI CINCINNATI WEST VIRGINIALOUISVILLE CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT

DEB HARBSMEIERWHAS TV TEAM


AL PARRISHPARRISH HOUSE

80 UNDER 80LAST WEEK: 6-4OVERALL: 35-15

TONY CRUISEWHAS RADIO


LACHLAN MCLEANWHAS RADIO


DAVE JENNINGSWHAS RADIO


PAUL ROGERSWHAS RADIO TEAM


TONY VANETTIAFTERNOON UNDERDOGS

WKRD RADIOLAST WEEK: 6-4OVERALL: 33-17

LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE LOUISVILLE OHIO STATE PURDUE OHIO STATE OHIO STATE OHIO STATE OHIO STATE OHIO STATE BYU BYU BYU BYU SAN DIEGO STATE BYU BYU CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT MARQUETTE CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT KANSAS KANSAS KANSAS KANSAS KANSAS KANSAS KANSAS PURDUE PURDUE PURDUE PURDUE PURDUE PURDUE PURDUE VILLANOVA VILLANOVA VILLANOVA VILLANOVA VILLANOVA VILLANOVA VILLANOVA SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE SYRACUSE CINCINNATI WEST VIRGINIA CINCINNATI CINCINNATI WEST VIRGINIA CINCINNATI CINCINNATI LOUISVILLE CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT CONNECTICUT LOUISVILLE CONNECTICUT

RECRUITING STRONG

Coach Rick Pitino implored freshman Elisha Justice to focus Coach Rick Pitino implored freshman Elisha Justice to focus during the Marquette game. Pitino said he was likes having during the Marquette game. Pitino said he was likes having Justice as an option when starter Peyton Siva is out of the Justice as an option when starter Peyton Siva is out of the lineup. - photo by Sheller Fellerlineup. - photo by Sheller Feller

STAY FOCUSED

Louisville coach Charlie Strong is set to sign the highest-Louisville coach Charlie Strong is set to sign the highest-ranked class in Louisville football history. Come celebrate ranked class in Louisville football history. Come celebrate with fellow Cardinals fans on Signing Day, Feb. 2 at the with fellow Cardinals fans on Signing Day, Feb. 2 at the Parrish House across from the stadium. - photo by Dave KlotzParrish House across from the stadium. - photo by Dave Klotz


2007 CARDINAL CARAVAN

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