louisville sportsreport: dec. 1, 2011

VOLUME XVI • NUMBER 16DECEMBER 1, 2011

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DECEMBER 1, 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 XVI, NUMBER 16 • DECEMBER 1, 2011

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COVER DESIGNED BY SCOTT STORTZ

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W H A T ’ S I N S I D E

4 USF GAME STATS, CAF TERRACE SEATS6 UOFL FOOTBALL SEASON STATS8 LOCAL LEADERS FUEL CARDINALS’ SUCCESS By Jack Coffee10 THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY By Howie Lindsey11 CARDS’S DEFENSE IMPRESSIVE ANY WAY YOU MEASURE By Howie Lindsey12 LOUISVILLE BASKETBALL PHOTO GALLERY

14,24 CARDINAL KIDS: PHOTOS OF THE YOUNGEST CARDINAL FANS 16 LOUISVILLE MEN’S AND WOMEN’S BASKETBALL SCHEDULES 17 SUNSHINE SWEEP FOR WOMEN’S BASKETBALL By Howie Lindsey18 THREE THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED By Rick Cushing 19 RECRUITING: SEVERAL FUTURE CARDS IN POST-SEASON By Jeff Wafford20 CARDINAL STARS OF THE WEEK By Howie Lindsey

15 HELMETS AND PADS NEEDEDHow do you fi ght the injury bug? Louisville coach Rick Pitino is having his players don helmets, facemasks and pads in practice these days. “Last year was bad, but this year is ridiculous,” the Cardinals’ coach said.

5 22 SECONDS CHANGED THE GAMEIn less than half a minute, Louisville’s Florida Flop turned into a comeback win. The Cardinals came back from down 17-3 to beat USF for the fi rst time ever in Raymond James Stadium, 34-24.

18 VOLLEYCARDS EARN NCAA BIDLed by All-American candidate Lola Arslanbekova, Louisville volleyball earned its 13th-straight NCAA tournament bid Sunday. They own the 10th-longest active streak in the NCAA. “I couldn’t be more excited,” fi rst year coach Anne Kordes said.

9 PARKER’S GRANDMA IS HAPPYLouisville coach Charlie Strong said DeVante Parker’s grandma called Strong’s weekly call-in show and said ‘Would you please get him the ball.’ Strong and the Cardinals did as Parker caught two TDs Friday.

21 CARDS IN ELITE EIGHT - AGAIN!UofL men’s soccer will host UCLA in the NCAA Elite Eight for the second consecutive season Saturday night. “A year ago we had such a great crowd for that game. We are expecting a huge crowd,” coach Ken Lolla said.

ORANGES? STILL A POSSIBILITYAfter Louisville’s win over USF Friday, several players tweeted pictures from their phones of themselves with orange slices in their mouths in the locker room. The pictures were grainy and blurred, but the excitement in the players faces came through clear as day. That excitement was heightened when West Virginia beat Pittsburgh Friday night, but diminished when Syracuse failed to beat Cincinnati at home Saturday. Louisville could still make the Orange Bowl if Cincinnati is upset at home by 10-point underdog Connecticut Saturday.

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7 UOFL’S ‘DOCTORS’ HOPE FOR BCS CALLLouisville coach Charlie Strong isn’t fooled. He’s seen a BCS championship team, and this UofL team isn’t it. But, he said, if the BCS comes calling his team will be prepared. It’ll take some serious luck for that to happen now, though.

LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT DECEMBER 1, 2011

LOUISVILLE ATHLETICS

GAME STATS LOUISVILLE vs USF (Nov 25, 2011 at Tampa, Fla.)LOUISVILLE (7-5,5-2) vs. USF (5-6,1-5)Date: Nov 25, 2011 Site: Tampa, Fla. Stadium: Raymond JamesAttendance: 33,416

SCORE BY QUARTERS 1 2 3 4 SCORELOUISVILLE 14 0 7 13 34USF 0 17 7 0 24

SCORING SUMMARY:1st 00:42 LOU - Philpott, Chris 30 yd fi eld goal 6 plays, 21 yards, TOP 2:47, LOU 3 - USF 02nd 13:30 USF - LAMAR, Lindsey 35 yd pass from EVELD, Bobby (BONANI, Maikon kick) 7 plays, 80 yards, TOP 2:12, LOU 3 - USF 707:15 USF - BONANI, Maikon 40 yd fi eld goal 9 plays, 34 yards, TOP 4:02, LOU 3 - USF 1000:35 USF - MURRAY, Demetri 1 yd run (BONANI, Maikon kick) 13 plays, 59 yards, TOP 5:21, LOU 3 - USF 1700:13 LOU - Parker, DeVante 17 yd pass from BRIDGEWATER, T. (Philpott, Chris kick) 2 plays, 25 yards, TOP 0:22, LOU 10 - USF 173rd 08:49 LOU - Philpott, Chris 31 yd fi eld goal 11 plays, 39 yards, TOP 4:50, LOU 13 - USF 1702:40 LOU - CHICHESTER, J. 18 yd pass from BRIDGEWATER, T. (Philpott, Chris kick) 9 plays, 59 yards, TOP 4:50, LOU 20 - USF 1702:21 USF - WELCH, Deonte 37 yd pass from MURRAY, Demetri (BONANI, Maikon kick) 1 play, 37 yards, TOP 0:19, LOU 20 - USF 244th 09:38 LOU - Parker, DeVante 11 yd pass from BRIDGEWA-TER, T. (Philpott, Chris kick) 9 plays, 57 yards, TOP 4:36, LOU 27 - USF 2404:12 LOU - BROWN, D. 9 yd run (Philpott, Chris kick) 2 plays, 17 yards, TOP 0:52, LOU 34 - USF 24

KICKOFF TIME: 11:02 END OF GAME: 2:13 TOTAL ELAPSED TIME: 3:11OFFICIALS: REFEREE: THOMAS TOMCZYK; UMPIRE: MARK PELLIS; LINESMAN: STEVE MATARANTE; LINE JUDGE: JIM CASEY; BACK JUDGE: PAUL VARGO; FIELD JUDGE: DANIEL GALLAGHE; SIDE JUDGE: JAMES BRENNAN; SCORER: CONNOR PENNTEMPERATURE: 63 WIND: NE AT 7 WEATHER: SUNNY

TEAM STATS LOU USF FIRST DOWNS................... 16 16 Rushing..................... 6 3 Passing..................... 10 12 Penalty..................... 0 1NET YARDS RUSHING............. 132 64 Rushing Attempts............ 41 31 Average Per Rush............ 3.2 2.1 Rushing Touchdowns.......... 1 1 Yards Gained Rushing........ 148 86 Yards Lost Rushing.......... 16 22NET YARDS PASSING............. 241 247 Completions-Attempts-Int.... 19-28-0 21-36-1 Average Per Attempt......... 8.6 6.9 Average Per Completion...... 12.7 11.8 Passing Touchdowns.......... 3 2TOTAL OFFENSE YARDS........... 373 311 Total offense plays......... 69 67 Average Gain Per Play....... 5.4 4.6Fumbles: Number-Lost.......... 1-1 3-2Penalties: Number-Yards....... 3-25 3-18PUNTS-YARDS................... 4-153 5-171 Average Yards Per Punt...... 38.2 34.2 Net Yards Per Punt.......... 38.2 33.2 Inside 20................... 1 1 50+ Yards................... 0 0 Touchbacks.................. 0 0 Fair catch.................. 2 1KICKOFFS-YARDS................ 7-486 5-325 Average Yards Per Kickoff... 69.4 65.0 Net Yards Per Kickoff....... 43.1 38.8 Touchbacks.................. 2 1Punt returns: Number-Yards-TD. 2-5-0 1-0-0 Average Per Return.......... 2.5 0.0Kickoff returns: Number-Yds-TD 4-111-0 5-144-0

Average Per Return.......... 27.8 28.8Interceptions: Number-Yds-TD.. 1-9-0 0-0-0Fumble Returns: Number-Yds-TD. 0-0-0 0-0-0Miscellaneous Yards........... 0 0Possession Time............... 35:40 24:20 1st Quarter................. 11:16 3:44 2nd Quarter................. 3:54 11:06 3rd Quarter................. 11:14 3:46 4th Quarter................. 9:16 5:44Third-Down Conversions........ 9 of 18 4 of 15Fourth-Down Conversions....... 1 of 2 3 of 4Red-Zone Scores-Chances....... 6-7 1-1 Touchdowns.................. 4-7 1-1 Field goals................. 2-7 0-1Sacks By: Number-Yards........ 2-16 1-3PAT Kicks..................... 4-4 3-3Field Goals................... 2-3 1-1

INDIVIDUAL STATSRushing No Gain Loss Net TD Lg AvgBROWN, D. 21 78 9 69 1 16 3.3ANDERSON, Vic 10 40 4 36 0 9 3.6BRIDGEWATER, T. 8 28 3 25 0 8 3.1Wright, Jeremy 1 2 0 2 0 2 2.0Perry, Senorise 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.0Totals... 41 148 16 132 1 16 3.2

Passing Att-Cmp-Int Yds TD Long SackBRIDGEWATER, T. 19-28-0 241 3 30 1 Totals... 19-28-0 241 3 30 1

Receiving No. Yds TD Long Rogers, Eli 4 84 0 30Parker, DeVante 3 42 2 17ANDERSON, Vic 3 30 0 22HARRIS, M. 2 17 0 9BROWN, D. 2 10 0 5MCGRIFF-CULVER 1 19 0 19CHICHESTER, J. 1 18 1 18White, Chris 1 12 0 12Wright, Jeremy 1 5 0 5Bellamy, Josh 1 4 0 4 Totals... 19 241 3 30

Punting No. Yds Avg Long In20 TBBleser, Josh 4 153 38.2 48 1 0Totals... 4 153 38.2 48 1 0

Punts Kickoffs InterceptAll Returns No.Yds.Lg No.Yds.Lg No.Yds.LgWright, Jeremy 0 0 0 1 24 24 0 0 0Bushell, Adrian 0 0 0 2 33 27 0 0 0Smith, Hakeem 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 9 9Radcliff, Scott 1 5 5 0 0 0 0 0 0Paschal, Jordon 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0Perry, Senorise 0 0 0 1 54 54 0 0 0Totals... 2 5 5 4 111 54 1 9 9

Kickoffs No. Yds TB OB AvgPhilpott, Chris 7 486 2 0 69.4

DEFENSIVE STATSNo. Player Solo Ast Tot 2 Brown, Preston 5 2 7 21 Bushell, Adrian 4 2 6 46 Heyman, Dexter 2 4 6 29 Smith, Hakeem 3 2 5 25 Pryor, Calvin 4 . 4 93 Philon, Roy 2 2 4 99 Brooks, Jamaine 3 . 3 92 Dunn, Brandon 3 . 3 33 Evans, Mike 3 . 3 90 Dubose, B.J. 2 . 2 48 MOUNT, D. 1 . 1 31 Lee, Champ 1 . 1 23 Simien, Terence 1 . 1 15 Johnson, Andrew 1 . 1 6A Paschal, Jordon 1 . 1 34 Durant, George 1 . 1 24 Brown, Daniel 1 . 1 91 Savoy, William . 1 1 94 MAULDIN, L. . 1 1 32 Perry, Senorise . . .

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

By Russ BrownTAMPA – Twenty-two seconds.That’s all it took for Louisville’s football

team to transform what had all the makings of another Florida Flop into the start of an un-precedented -- for the last two seasons any-way -- comeback.

Thirty-nine years.That’s how long it had

been since UofL had won a regular-season game in the Sunshine State, which the bowl-bound Cardi-nals (7-5) changed with their 34-24 victory over South Florida last Friday in sparsely populated Ray-mond James Stadium.

The Cards had lost 16 consecutive regular-season games in Florida dating to a 17-14 victory over the University of Tampa on Oct. 7, 1972, when current ESPN college football analyst Lee Corso was Louisville’s head coach and the game was played at the old Tampa Stadium.

More importantly, Friday’s victory enabled UofL to claim at least a share of its fi rst Big East championship since 2006 with a 5-2 record, a surprising development considering that this was supposed to be a rebuilding year and the Cards were picked to fi nish next-to-last in the eight-team conference in the preseason poll of the league’s coaches after losing 25 seniors from last year’s team.

UofL now will have to wait until this week-end to learn its bowl destination. A Cincinnati loss to Connecticut Saturday, no matter what West Virginia does at USF Thursday night, would give UofL the Big East’s automatic Bowl Championship Series berth. However, a UC win and a WVU victory at USF would create a three-way tie for the title and would send ei-ther the Bearcats or Mountaineers to a BCS game.

Senior linebacker Dexter Heyman had one word to describe the resiliency and determina-tion of the Cards, who bounced back from a 2-4 record at mid-season to win fi ve of their last six games, not to mention beating USF in Tampa for the fi rst time in fi ve tries.

“Wow!” Heyman said. “There’s a defi nite wow factor when you talk about where we started with a young team. A 2-4 start, then a 5-1 fi nish. It’s just a tribute to all these young guys buying into Coach (Charlie) Strong and the older guys paving the way and showing everybody how to work.”

Never mind that this is a bad USF (5-6) team that is in last place in the Big East at 1-5, has lost six of its last seven games and was playing without injured starting quarterback B.J. Daniels.

Afterward, Strong got a bear hug and con-gratulations from UofL athletic director Tom Jurich, who had shown his faith in the second-year coach by giving him a contract extension and nearly doubling his salary, a deal that was announced when the Cards were 2-4.

“No one thought we could do it,” Strong said. “I’m so overwhelmed. I’m just so hap-py the way our kids battled and the way we played.”

Now about those 22 seconds, which paved the way for Louisville to overcome a halftime defi cit for the fi rst time in Strong’s 25-game tenure. Strong had been 0-8 when trailing at halftime in his career.

Things were looking bleak for UofL after USF backup running back Demetrius Murray scored on a 1-yard run to give the Bulls a 17-3 lead with just 35 seconds left in the fi rst half.

But then Senorise Perry took over and changed the complexion of the contest. Per-ry was the up back on the USF kickoff, and the Bulls tried a squib kick. The sophomore scooped up the ball, started left, then cut back right through a crowd of defenders and blockers and raced 54 yards to the USF 25-yard line.

“I was trying to make a play,” Perry said. “I wanted something to happen, and my chance came to me and I made one cut and took off. If I hadn’t made that cut, I probably would have gotten stopped. We had it all planned from day one in practice this week. They put me at the up back so I could get a squib and

execute the return.”For a while it looked as if Perry might go all

the way, but he was knocked out of bounds by cornerback George Baker, who had slanted across the fi eld.

“I didn’t feel like I was going to get caught, but he had the angle on me,” Perry said. “I tried to get the angle, but I didn’t. But I set up the score, so that was OK.”

Did Perry think he was headed for a touch-down?

“That’s what I think all the time when I get the ball in my hands,” he said, grinning.

Two plays later, UofL quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, who turned in perhaps his fi n-est performance of the season, found fellow freshman DeVante Parker in the back of the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown. So instead of a 14-point halftime defi cit, UofL trailed just 17-10 and had momentum.

“When we got that touchdown, it was a really exciting moment,” Perry said.

Bridgewater was standing next to wide re-ceiver Michael Lee Harris on the sideline dur-ing the kickoff and said he predicted Perry’s long return.

“We were killing ourselves early in the game with penalties and not fi nishing, and

for him to get a return like that was huge,”Bridgewater said. “I told Michael Lee, ‘This isgoing to be a big return,’ and about that timeSenorise broke loose. We didn’t want to gointo halftime fl at, and that gave us momen-tum and carried over to the second half.”

The Bridgewater-to-Parker hookup started a string of 17 consecutive unanswered points,and UofL owned the second half, outscoringUSF 31-7 after falling behind 17-3.

DEFENSE SHINES LATEDaniels hurt his throwing shoulder in a

loss to Miami (Fla.) the previous week, andsophomore backup Bobby Eveld made onlythe second start of his career. After USF’spromising start, UofL’s defense shut himand the Bulls’ offense down in the last 30minutes, with the exception of a 37-yardhalfback pass by Murray for a TD that gaveUSF a 24-20 lead with 2:21 left in the thirdquarter.

Of USF’s fi rst fi ve possessions in the sec-ond half, one went for the trick-play TD,but UofL forced a trio of three-and-outs fora combined minus-11 yards and allowed justone fi rst down on the other possession. Aftergaining 197 yards in the fi rst half, the Bullswere held to just 114 in the second, 44 ofwhich came on the fi nal drive with the gamealready out of reach. Going into the fi nal fi veminutes, USF had managed just one rushingyard. Before the last drive, Eveld had thrownfor a mere 31 yards in the second half.

“It’s always going to be harder to move the ball in the second half because the de-fense has an idea of what you’re trying todo,” said Eveld. “They were fi guring out ourpersonnel grouping, and they probably hada good idea of what was coming at them.”

For the game, the Cards had six tackles for loss, including two sacks, and createdthree turnovers -- two fumbles and an in-terception.

“We were blitzing with a purpose, and a lot of guys were able to make some playsin the backfi eld for us in the second half,”Heyman said.

Without Daniels, a crucial portion of USF’s attack was negated, as UofL defensive co-ordinator Vance Bedford acknowledged af-terward.

“It helped us out,” Bedford said of Dan-iels’ absence. “We knew (Eveld) is a pocketpasser and you could pressure the guy forthe most part. He’s not going to beat youwith his feet.”

As for Louisville’s ability to wipe out a half-time defi cit for the fi rst time this year, Hey-man said: “This was a different type game.There was more on the line than in any othergame I’ve been part of as a college footballplayer, and guys understood that. Youngguys stepped up and were able to send usout the right way as seniors.

“At 17-3 you’ve got to realize it’s a long football game. They gave us their best shotin the fi rst half, we were able to tolerate it,get it back to within seven at halftime and

Preston Brown (2) and Hakeem Smith (29), both sophomores, with help from senior Mike Evans (33), combined to bring down USF’s Demetrius Murray. Brown, a linebacker, led UofL with seven tackles. Smith, a safety, had fi ve tackles and an interception. Evans, a nickel back, had three tackles. - photo by Robert Bishop, USF Oracle

L O N G K I C K R E T U R N , P A R K E R ’ S T D S E T S T A G E F O R C O M E B A C K

PERRY PROVIDED SPARK TO END UOFL’S FLORIDA FUTILITY

RUSS BROWNRUSS BROWN


CARDINAL FOOTBALL

NAME G ATT GAIN LOSS NET AVG TD LG AVG/G BROWN, D. 11 131 533 51 482 3.7 4 55 43.8 ANDERSON, Vic 11 99 500 22 478 4.8 3 61 43.5 Wright, Jeremy 11 72 357 20 337 4.7 1 29 30.6 BRIDGEWATER, T. 12 80 251 156 95 1.2 3 26 7.9 PHILPOTT, Chris 12 2 48 0 48 24.0 0 40 4.0 PERRY, Senorise 12 12 47 20 27 2.2 1 13 2.2 Hogan, Kamal 11 2 12 0 12 6.0 0 11 1.1 Stein, Will 5 24 70 64 6 0.2 0 14 1.2 Davis, Jarrett 11 1 0 6 -6 -6.0 0 0 -0.5 TEAM 6 8 0 16 -16 -2.0 0 0 -2.7 Total.......... 12 431 1818 355 1463 3.4 12 61 121.9 Opponents...... 12 407 1639 397 1242 3.1 11 50 103.5

LOUISVILLE OPPONENTSCORING 261 230 POINTS PER GAME 21.8 19.2 FIRST DOWNS 196 211 RUSHING 85 82 PASSING 107 114 PENALTY 4 15 RUSHING YARDAGE 1463 1242 YARDS GAINED RUSHING 1818 1639 YARDS LOST RUSHING 355 397 RUSHING ATTEMPTS 431 407 AVERAGE PER RUSH 3.4 3.1 AVERAGE PER GAME 121.9 103.5 TDS RUSHING 12 11 PASSING YARDAGE 2475 2692 COMP-ATT-INT 219-338-10 232-389-9 AVERAGE PER PASS 7.3 6.9 AVERAGE PER CATCH 11.3 11.6 AVERAGE PER GAME 206.2 224.3 TDS PASSING 17 17 TOTAL OFFENSE 3938 3934 TOTAL PLAYS 769 796 AVERAGE PER PLAY 5.1 4.9 AVERAGE PER GAME 328.2 327.8 KICK RETURNS: #-YARDS 42-957 38-953 PUNT RETURNS: #-YARDS 18-93 12-5 INT RETURNS: #-YARDS 9-115 10-96 KICK RETURN AVERAGE 22.8 25.1 PUNT RETURN AVERAGE 5.2 0.4 INT RETURN AVERAGE 12.8 9.6 FUMBLES-LOST 11-9 23-9 PENALTIES-YARDS 86-683 62-448 AVERAGE PER GAME 56.9 37.3 PUNTS-YARDS 68-2538 72-2769 AVERAGE PER PUNT 37.3 38.5 NET PUNT AVERAGE 36.4 34.9 TIME OF POSSESSION/GAME 31:59 28:01 3RD-DOWN CONVERSIONS 67/171 69/181 3RD-DOWN PCT 39% 38% 4TH-DOWN CONVERSIONS 6/13 9/16 4TH-DOWN PCT 46% 56% SACKS BY-YARDS 32-250 36-199 MISC YARDS 94 0 TOUCHDOWNS SCORED 33 29 FIELD GOALS-ATTEMPTS 11-16 9-16 ON-SIDE KICKS 1-3 1-2 RED-ZONE SCORES (27-33) 82% (27-34) 79% RED-ZONE TOUCHDOWNS (20-33) 61% (19-34) 56% PAT-ATTEMPTS (30-32) 94% (27-28) 96% ATTENDANCE 291225 285827 GAMES/AVG PER GAME 6/48538 6/47638 NEUTRAL SITE GAMES 0/0

2011 LOUISVILLE CA RDINA LS

SEASON STATST E A M S T A T S

R U S H I N G

PUNT RETURNS NO. YDS AVG TD LONG Rogers, Eli 8 54 6.8 0 30 RADCLIFF, Scott 8 39 4.9 0 30 PASCHAL, Jordon 2 0 0.0 0 0 Total.......... 18 93 5.2 0 30 Opponents...... 12 5 0.4 0 6

INTERCEPTIONS NO. YDS AVG TD LONG Heyman, Dexter 3 18 6.0 0 8 Evans, Mike 2 63 31.5 1 63 CONNER, Anthony 1 0 0.0 0 0 Pryor, Calvin 1 25 25.0 0 25 BUSHELL, Adrian 1 0 0.0 0 0 Smith, Hakeem 1 9 9.0 0 9 Total.......... 9 115 12.8 1 63 Opponents...... 10 96 9.6 1 71

KICK RETURNS NO. YDS AVG TD LONG Wright, Jeremy 17 367 21.6 0 30 PERRY, Senorise 8 210 26.2 0 54 BUSHELL, Adrian 6 206 34.3 1 100 ANDERSON, Vic 6 152 25.3 0 45 BROWN, D. 3 12 4.0 0 6 TEAM 1 0 0.0 0 0 JABOIN, Kenneth 1 10 10.0 0 10 Total.......... 42 957 22.8 1 100 Opponents...... 38 953 25.1 0 62

R E T U R N S

DEFENSIVE LEADERS GP Solo Ast Total TFL-Yds No-Yds Int-Yds BU PD Qbh Rcv-Yds FF Kick Saf 46 Heyman, Dexter 12 52 31 83 15.5 - 58 4.0 - 31 3 - 18 1 4 . . 1 . 29 Smith, Hakeem 12 57 24 81 4.0 - 19 . 1 - 9 9 10 . 1 - 0 3 . 2 Brown, Preston 12 49 32 81 5.0 - 17 1.5 - 10 . . . . . . . 33 Evans, Mike 12 32 16 48 2.5 - 4 . 2 - 63 3 5 . 1 - 0 . . . 21 BUSHELL, Adrian 9 31 12 43 1.5 - 1 . 1 - 0 2 3 . . . 2 25 Pryor, Calvin 12 28 11 39 3.0 - 24 1.0 - 20 1 - 25 5 6 . 2 - 0 2 24 Brown, Daniel 12 24 14 38 4.0 - 17 1.0 - 9 . 2 2 . . . 93 Philon, Roy 11 17 16 33 6.0 - 23 1.5 - 15 . 1 1 . . 1 36 HOLTON, Shenard 7 16 10 26 1.5 - 4 0.5 - 3 . 1 1 . . . 15 JOHNSON, Andrew 10 17 7 24 1.5 - 3 . . 4 4 . 1 - 0 . . 91 Savoy, William 12 12 12 24 7.5 - 37 5.0 - 31 . . . 2 1 - 0 . 35 CONNER, Anthony 7 17 4 21 3.0 - 10 1.0 - 4 1 - 0 1 2 . . 1 95 Salmon, Randy 9 12 8 20 5.0 - 13 1.0 - 4 . 1 1 . . . 90 Dubose, B.J. 12 14 5 19 3.0 - 11 2.0 - 9 . . . . . . 6 Scruggs, Greg 9 12 7 19 6.0 - 47 4.0 - 42 . . . . . 1 44 Butler, B.J. 8 10 5 15 2.0 - 9 1.5 - 7 . . . 1 . . 92 Dunn, Brandon 11 5 10 15 1.5 - 4 . . . . . . . . 19 Floyd, Terell 10 9 3 12 1.0 - 1 . . . . . . . . 99 BROOKS, Jamaine 9 8 3 11 2.5 - 9 0.5 - 5 . 2 2 1 . . 32 PERRY, Senorise 12 8 2 10 . . . . . . 1 - 0 . 1 17 Smith, Marcus 9 8 2 10 5.0 - 38 5.0 - 38 . 1 1 . . 1 48 MOUNT, D. 8 6 3 9 2.5 - 17 1.5 - 14 . . . . . . 1 Bellamy, Josh 12 6 3 9 . . . . . . . . . 41 ROBINSON, S. 7 7 1 8 1.0 - 1 . . . . . 43 Rogers, Deon 12 3 3 6 . . . . . . . . . 94 MAULDIN, L. 12 1 4 5 0.5 - 0 . . . . . . . . 31 Lee, Champ 9 3 1 4 . . . . . . . . . 23 SIMIEN, Terence 8 2 2 4 . . . . . . . . . 47 MITCHELL, M. 5 2 2 4 1.0 - 2 . . . . . 1 - 36 . . 6A PASCHAL, Jordon 7 3 . 3 . . . . . . 12 PHILPOTT, Chris 12 3 . 3 . . . . . . 34 Durant, George 10 2 . 2 1.0 - 8 1.0 - 8 . . . . . .

D E F E N S E

NAME G RUSH REC PR KOR IR TOT AVG/GANDERSON, Vic 11 478 184 0 152 0 814 74.0 Wright, Jeremy 11 337 27 0 367 0 731 66.5 BROWN, D. 11 482 95 0 12 0 589 53.5 HARRIS, M. 12 0 455 0 0 0 455 37.9 Rogers, Eli 11 0 400 54 0 0 454 41.3 CHICHESTER, J. 12 0 365 0 0 0 365 30.4 PARKER, DeVante 10 0 276 0 0 0 276 27.6 PERRY, Senorise 12 27 0 0 210 0 237 19.8 BUSHELL, Adrian 9 0 0 0 206 0 206 22.9 Smith, Andrell 11 0 199 0 0 0 199 18.1 Bellamy, Josh 12 0 182 0 0 0 182 15.2 RADCLIFF, Scott 12 0 65 39 0 0 104 8.7 Davis, Jarrett 11 -6 102 0 0 0 96 8.7 BRIDGEWATER, T. 12 95 0 0 0 0 95 7.9 White, Chris 5 0 73 0 0 0 73 14.6 Evans, Mike 12 0 0 0 0 63 63 5.2 PHILPOTT, Chris 12 48 0 0 0 0 48 4.0 MCGRIFF-CULVER 12 0 30 0 0 0 30 2.5 Pryor, Calvin 12 0 0 0 0 25 25 2.1 Nord, Nate 9 0 22 0 0 0 22 2.4 Heyman, Dexter 12 0 0 0 0 18 18 1.5 Hogan, Kamal 11 12 0 0 0 0 12 1.1 JABOIN, Kenneth 7 0 0 0 10 0 10 1.4 Smith, Hakeem 12 0 0 0 0 9 9 0.8 Stein, Will 5 6 0 0 0 0 6 1.2 TEAM 6 -16 0 0 0 0 -16 -2.7 Total.......... 12 1463 2475 93 957 115 5103 425.2 Opponents...... 12 1242 2692 5 953 96 4988 415.7

A L L - P U R P O S E

Name TD FGs Kick Rush Rcv Pass DXP Saf Points PHILPOTT, Chris 0 11-16 30-32 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 63 PARKER, DeVante 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 36 BROWN, D. 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 30 ANDERSON, Vic 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 24 BRIDGEWATER, T. 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 18 CHICHESTER, J. 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 12 HARRIS, M. 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 12 RADCLIFF, Scott 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 12 Wright, Jeremy 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 6 JOHNSON, Andrew 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 6 Bellamy, Josh 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 6 Rogers, Eli 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 6 Smith, Andrell 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 6 Evans, Mike 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 6 BUSHELL, Adrian 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 6 PERRY, Senorise 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 6 MITCHELL, M. 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 6 Total.......... 33 11-16 30-32 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 261 Opponents...... 29 9-16 27-28 0-0 1 1-1 0 0 230

S C O R I N G O F F E N S E

NAME GP EFFIC CMP-ATT-INT PCT YDS TD LONG AVG/GBRIDGEWATER, T. 12 136.1 167-253-9 66.0 1855 12 58 154.6 Stein, Will 5 141.2 52-84-1 61.9 620 5 39 124.0 BROWN, D. 11 0.0 0-1-0 0.0 0 0 0 0.0 Total.......... 12 137.0 219-338-10 64.8 2475 17 58 206.2 Opponents...... 12 127.6 232-389-9 59.6 2692 17 83 224.3

P A S S I N G

NAME G NO. YDS AVG TD TD LONG AVG/GHARRIS, M. 12 37 455 12.3 2 44 37.9 Rogers, Eli 11 34 400 11.8 1 58 36.4 CHICHESTER, J. 12 27 365 13.5 2 31 30.4 ANDERSON, Vic 11 25 184 7.4 1 41 16.7 Bellamy, Josh 12 19 182 9.6 1 35 15.2 PARKER, DeVante 10 17 276 16.2 6 42 27.6 BROWN, D. 11 14 95 6.8 1 21 8.6 Davis, Jarrett 11 12 102 8.5 0 14 9.3 Smith, Andrell 11 10 199 19.9 1 39 18.1 Wright, Jeremy 11 7 27 3.9 0 7 2.5 White, Chris 5 5 73 14.6 0 26 14.6 RADCLIFF, Scott 12 5 65 13.0 2 25 5.4 MCGRIFF-CULVER 12 3 30 10.0 0 19 2.5 Nord, Nate 9 3 22 7.3 0 16 2.4 Stein, Will 5 1 0 0.0 0 0 0.0 Total.......... 12 219 2475 11.3 17 58 206.2 Opponents...... 12 232 2692 11.6 17 83 224.3

R E C E I V I N G


CARDINAL FOOTBALL

S T R O N G U R G E S C A R D S T O P L O T O W N D E S T I N Y I N F U T U R E

UOFL’S ‘DOCTORS’ HOPE TO MAKE A BCS HOUSE CALLBy Russ BrownUniversity of Louisville football coach

Charlie Strong claims his team isn’t quite ready for a prime-time appearance on the national scene, otherwise known as a Bowl Championship Series berth. But he’ll take it.

Borrowing a line used by Courier-Journal columnist Eric Crawford last week when he wrote that many people would consider a BCS berth going to the 7-5 Cardinals to be a “farce,” Strong noted:

“If we’re fortunate enough to make it to a BCS bowl game, that would be great, but we’re probably not yet ready. But even if you fi nish last in your medical school class, they still call you a doctor. So we’ll be that doctor.”

UofL, West Virginia and Cincinnati all have two losses in the Big East Conference. For the Cards to reach a BCS bowl, they have to hope for Connecticut to upset host Cincin-nati Saturday afternoon. West Virginia plays at South Florida Thursday night. A three-way tie at the top would make the Mountaineers the Big East’s BCS representative due to their higher standing in the polls. A two-way tie with Cincinnati would favor UC because of its victory over the Cards. A two-way tie with WVU would favor the Cards.

Should UofL get a BCS spot, Strong is well aware his team would face a storm of criticism, much like UConn did last season when the Huskies were considered unwor-thy and then proved the skeptics right by getting blasted by Oklahoma 48-20 in the Fiesta Bowl.

“Oh, I’m sure people will (look down at the Cards),” Strong said. “Everything will be said about us. That can all be motivation. But just get it to one game and then who knows. Get it to one game and watch your guys go play.”

Strong said he hasn’t studied the Big East’s bowl tie-ins to see where his team might play if it doesn’t land in a BCS bowl, but most predictions have the Cards facing an ACC team -- probably North Carolina State -- in the Belk Bowl in Charlotte, N.C., on Dec. 27.

“You’re just hoping it works out for us and if it doesn’t, we’ll see where it falls,” Strong said. “We have great fan support, so I know bowls will want us because of what we’ll bring. We’ll rest this week and see what happens. Whatever, it will be icing on the cake.”

Obviously, the Cards will be big UConn fans this weekend, although they know they’re powerless to do anything about it at this point.

“We’ve done our part,” senior linebacker Dexter Heyman said after UofL beat USF 34-24 Friday to earn at least a share of the Big East championship. “Now it’s out of our hands. What you want to happen and what will happen aren’t always the same thing. We’ll just sit back and let everyone else play their games and where we end up is where we end up. We’re just happy to have a share of the conference championship.”

Going into the weekend, Pittsburgh was also in the mix for the title and would have gotten the BCS berth over UofL because of its 21-14 win against the Cards. But West Virginia eliminated the Panthers with a 21-20 win Friday night, prompting a fl urry of messages to Strong from his players.

“I got probably 50 text messages after West Virginia’s win,” Strong said. “The guys were saying, ‘One down, one to go.’”

But Strong noted that he has told his players that in the future they shouldn’t put themselves in the position of having to rely on outcomes of other games to determine their fate. UofL’s two league losses came at Cincinnati, 25-16, and at home against Pitt, the infamous “Call of Duty” contest that Strong feels his team would have won if it had been focused on something other than a new video game. The Cards were also up-set at home by FIU and Marshall, two losses that didn’t affect the Big East race but prob-ably prevented them from moving into the polls later when they won fi ve of their last six games.

“I told guys never again should you let someone else control your destiny,” Strong said. “That’s a life lesson -- control your own destiny by doing the right thing. We had two stumbles that should never have happened. There’s nothing we can do now.

“We’re in the bowl picture. I said, ‘Guys, just think about this, we were 2-4, so what-ever happens is good for us because no one expected you to be here anyway. It goes back to don’t ever let anyone else control your destiny. We didn’t take care of our busi-ness.”

Louisville lost 25 seniors off last year’s 7-6 team and was picked to fi nish next-to-last in the eight-team Big East, and UofL athletic di-rector Tom Jurich said he’s just as impressed and surprised as everyone else by the Cards’ unexpected success, especially after a 2-4 start.

“It’s fantastic, just fantastic. What a great job the guy has done,” Jurich said of Strong. “None of us would have believed this. We were just going to fi ght through it. I look at (the bowl situation) as it’s all gravy. The worst scenario we can be in right now is we’re co-champions of the Big East, and that to me is a great thing. So we’ll just let everything play out and see what happens. Any bowl we go to we’ll be tremendous am-bassadors, as all Louisvillians have been. We have a great track record of going to bowls and how we travel and regardless of where we end up, we’re going to do a great job in the bowl game.”

Jurich didn’t say so, but he also surely

feels vindicated by having given Strong a contract extension and doubling his salary when UoL was 2-4 and Strong was 9-10 midway through his second season at UofL. Although the move was probably a popluar one overall, it had its share of critics.

“We redid his contract because the im-portant thing there was to show him how much we believe in him and what a great job he’s done,” Jurich said. “There’s nothing we can say now, it’s all about him. He’s just done an unbelievable job.”

BRIDGEWATER HONORED BY BIG EASTUofL freshman quarterback Teddy Bridge-

water was named Big East Offensive Player of the Week after throwing for three touch-downs at USF, thus becoming the only Car-dinal to receive the offensive honor all sea-son.

The Miami native completed 19 of 28 passes for 241 yards -- just fi ve yards short of tying his career high. It also was the fi rst time since the Syracuse game that he did not throw an interception.

Bridgewater followed Rutgers’ running back Jawan Jamison as the only freshmen to earn offensive Player of the Week honors this season. Bridgewater was the fi fth Car-dinal to be recognized this year, with line-backer Dexter Heyman and special teams standout Adrian Bushell each having been named twice.

Bridgewater has started nine consecutive games since taking over against Kentucky when Will Stein was injured.

“It’s amazing to watch how each week Teddy has gotten better and better,” Strong said. “Friday (at USF) it was amazing to watch him because when we were down 17-3 I was telling him to take a knee after the kickoff and get out of here, and Teddy says, ‘We’re going to get a big return and then we’re going to go out there and get a touchdown.’ He made some outstanding throws.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever been around a player so poised. He has quick feet, he can feel pressure, get away from pressure, throw the ball very well on the run. He wants to get better and better each week; he knows he’s not anywhere near where he should be.”

RUSS BROWN’S RUNDOWN

UOFL 34, USF 24The game was over when: Louisville freshman free safety Calvin Pryor forced a fumble after a recep-tion by USF’s Andre Davis, then recovered the ball on the Bulls’ 17-yard line. Two plays later Dominique Brown scored on a 9-yard run with 4:12 remaining to wrap up the victory.

Turning point: The combination of Senorise Perry’s 54-yard kickoff return followed by DeVante Parker’s 17-yard touchdown catch from Teddy Bridgewater in the closing seconds of the fi rst half. That pulled UofL within 17-10 and gave the Cards confi dence and momentum for the second half.

UofL Offensive Player of the Game: (tie)Bridge-water and Parker. Bridgewater completed 19 of 28 passes for 241 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. Parker caught two of those TD tosses, for 17 and 11 yards, giving him a team-best six on the season.

UofL Defensive Player of the Game: Coaches are fond of attributing wins to a “team effort,” and this one certainly was from a defensive standpoint. No player had more than seven tackles (linebacker Preston Brown), six different Cards had tackles for a loss, and UofL had three takeaways.

Who’s Hot: In his last two games Bridgewater has completed 33 of 50 passes (66 percent) for 415 yards and three touchdowns with just one interception. On the season he ranks third in the Big East in passing effi ciency at 136.1, be-hind leader Geno Smith of West Virginia (151.3) and the injured Zach Collaros of Cincinnati (140.1). With 1,855 yards, Bridgewater has broken Chris Redman’s school passing yardage record for a freshman quarterback of 1,773 set in 1996.

Who’s Hot, Part II: UofL’s kickoff return team. Adrian Bushell returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown at Connecticut, and then Perry came up with his big return at USF.

Who’s Not: UofL’s kickoff return defense. USF’s Lamar Lindsey returned fi ve kickoffs 144 yards, in-cluding a 62-yarder to the Cards’ 37-yard line that set up a TD that gave the Bulls a 24-20 lead late in the third quarter.

On the Rise: After struggling for more than half the season, averaging just 16 points per game through the fi rst seven contests, the Cards’ offense has av-eraged 29.4 points in its last fi ve outings, scoring 34 or more on three occasions.

On the decline: UofL’s ability to stop the opposing team on fourth down, with UConn and USF combin-ing to convert 4 of 6 such attempts.

Quotable: “Wow!” – UofL center Mario Benavides saying it all about UofL’s fi rst victory over USF in Tampa and the Cards’ earning at least a tie for the Big East title.

Louisville has clinched a share of the Big East Conference championship, but the battle for the league’s automatic BCS bid is coming down to the fi nal weekend of the season. The Cardinals are 7-5 overall, 5-2 in conference play. How-ever, both Cincinnati and West Virginia remain alive in the conference race as well. Here is a look at the scenarios for the three teams to earn the BCS bid.

BIG EAST STANDINGS TOP THREELouisville 5-2Cincinnati 4-2West Virginia 4-2

REMAINING SCHEDULESWest Virginia: Thursday at USFCincinnati: Saturday vs. Connecticut

Louisville: Regular season completed at 7-5 overall, 5-2 Big East

BCS SCENARIOS:• Cincinnati: Beat UConn, and West Virginia

loss to USF (or beat UConn and have a high-er BCS ranking than WVU and Louisville)

• Louisville: Cincinnati loss to UConn• West Virginia: Beat USF and Cincinnati win over

UConn, have higher BCS ranking than Cincinnati and Louisville

CURRENT BCS RANKINGS:23. West Virginia (20th in Coaches Poll, 21st in

Harris Poll, 29.5 computer average)30. Cincinnati (25th in Coaches Poll, Receiving

Votes in Harris Poll, 34th computer avg.)41. Louisville (RV in Harris Poll, 50.5 computer

average)

BCS SCENARIOS


WOMEN’S BASKETBALLCOFFEE BREAK

Every game that this University of Louisville football team reaches a new plateau of suc-

cess makes it harder and harder for hacks like me to fi nd something additional to write

about their unexpected success this season.

Not only are the Cards improving each week, but luck seems to be shining on these

young players. The fact that South Florida lost its star quarterback to injury in the game

before taking on UofL made the Cardinals’ job much easier than if B. J. Daniels had been

under center for the home team. Being a pocket passer, backup QB Bobby Ewald is not a

runner, and that took away the threat of a running QB such as Daniels, who averages 60

yards per game rushing to go along with his 260 yards per game pass-

ing. That’s 320 yards that was missing from the Bulls’ offense. Regard-

less, UofL’s splendid second-half performance ensured victory. The 24

points the Cards scored in the half were their most this season.

This overachieving season for this Cardinals team underscores the im-

portance of having outstanding local players as part of the team. The

leadership of four Kentuckiana members of this team and coaching staff

was critical in the continual improvement ending up in a 7-5 regular-

season record. Coach Charlie Strong has emphasized the necessity of

having on-the-fi eld leadership for a team to perform at peak effi ciency, and that leadership

was provided on offense and defense by four locals. They are:

Dexter Heyman – The middle linebacker became the unquestioned leader of the de-

fense. The Louisville Male High School graduate and bother of former Cardinal Earl Hey-

man became like a coach on the fi eld and very seldom was on the bench for a rest or

otherwise. He was one of the few players on this team who didn’t miss game time because

of an injury. After three seasons of indecision as to where he was best suited to play, de-

fensive end or outside linebacker, the coaching staff installed Dexter at middle linebacker

during spring practice and he took to it like gravy on a biscuit. He led the team in total

tackles (83), tackles for loss (15.5), sacks (4) and interceptions (3). He was twice selected

as Big East Defensive Player of the Week and seems a shoo-in for fi rst-team All-Big East.

He was a vocal leader in the locker room and on the fi eld and was a regular participant in

Strong’s weekly press conferences, where he was very articulate and informative. He took

his leadership responsibilities serious in his dress and behavior. When the team returned

from the South Florida game and was introduced at the basketball game, all were dressed

in warm-ups except Heyman, who was dressed in a tie and sweater. For those not familiar

with the team, he was probably mistaken for a coach.

Victor Anderson – The tailback was the vocal leader of the offense and go-to running

back throughout the season. The St. X grad became the fi rst Louisville player to be named

Big East Rookie of the Year in his fi rst season. After being hampered by injury the previous

two seasons, Victor rebounded his senior year to become part of a running back tandem

with Dominique Brown that carried the bulk of the Cardinals rushing attack, with each av-

eraging more than 43 yards per game. Anderson’s longest run of the season was 61 yards,

and he led the team in all-purpose yards with 814, 74 per game. He scored four touch-

downs and was known to give a rousing speech to the team before games.

Will Stein – Although arriving at UofL as a walk-on, the Trinity H.S. graduate has been

a valuable member of the program ever since he passed up scholarship offers from smaller

schools to play in his hometown. After being named the starter at quarterback this season,

Stein led the team to a 1-1 record before being injured in the Kentucky game. In Louisville’s

loss to FIU Stein passed for 346 yards and two touchdowns. The Cards lost the game in

spite of having 150 more total yards than the Florida school. After being replaced as starter,

Stein has been a leader on the team and has supported freshman Teddy Bridgewater as he

learned the quarterback position.

Justin Burke – Working as a graduate assistant, the cerebral Lexington native has

worked with the quarterbacks and helped in Bridgewater’s development. After quarter-

backs coach Shawn Watson was elevated to offensive coordinator, Burke took on the role

of the quarterbacks coach, and his knowledge of the system and his stabilizing infl uence

on Bridgewater has been especially critical. In the 2010 Beef `O’ Brady’s Bowl, Burke be-

came the seventh quarterback to lead the Cardinals to a bowl victory.

In the history of Cardinals football, from Gil Sturtzel and Lenny Lyles to the Brohms, Chris

Redman and Michael Bush, it seems the Cards fare best with local leaders on the team.

CARDINALS’ SUCCESS HAS BEEN FUELED

BY 3 LOCAL PLAYERS AND A COACH FROM LEXINGTON

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

448-2802www.bobmontgomery.com

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5340 Wide Wide Dixie Highway

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

JACK COFFEEJACK COFFEE

Will Stein, the starting quarterback at the start of the season, was supplanted by freshman Teddy Bridgewater after being injured in the Kentucky game. Stein has continued to be a team leader, however, vocally supporting the team from the sideline and helping Bridgewater. UofL coach Charlie Strong appreciates Stein’s attitude. “Give me a team full of Steins and I’ll go win a championship,” he said. - photo by Howie Lindsey


LOUISVILLE FOOTBALL

R O O K I E ‘ B A L L F E T C H E R ’ R E A P P E A R S W I T H T W O T D C A T C H E S

STRONG AND CO. MAKE DEVANTE PARKER’S GRANDMOTHER HAPPYBy Russ BrownTAMPA – University of Louisville football

coach Charlie Strong hopes DeVante Park-er’s grandmother is satisfi ed now.

Strong said the Louisville Ballard prod-uct’s grandma had phoned his weekly call-in show last week to lodge a complaint on behalf of her grandson, who is a talented freshman wide receiver for the Cardinals.

“She kept saying to me, ‘Would you please get him the ball,’” Strong said after UofL (7-5, 5-2 Big East) had defeated South Florida 34-24 Fri-day in Raymond James Stadium.

Strong, play-caller Shawn Watson and

quarterback Teddy Bridgewater obliged as Parker caught two crucial touchdown pass-es of 17 and 11 yards to help the Cardinals beat USF (5-6, 1-5) for the fi rst time in fi ve tries here and earn at least a share of the Big East championship.

“I hope grandma is listening,” Strong quipped during his post-game radio show.

If so, she heard Strong praise Parker for his TD receptions, both of which were clutch plays with UofL trailing.

First, Parker made a sensational catch of a Bridgewater pass in the back of the end zone, somehow getting a foot down inbounds after leaping to make the catch with just 13 seconds left in the fi rst half af-ter Senorise Perry’s 54-yard kickoff return set up the score. That sent UofL into the locker room at halftime trailing just 17-10 and provided the impetus for a strong sec-ond half.

Then Parker got wide open in the right side of the end zone and snagged an 11-yard TD pass from Bridgewater with 9:38 remaining in the game, giving the Cards the lead for good at 27-24.

Except for Bridgewater, Strong has put his freshmen off limits for interviews with the media for some unfathomable reason, so we don’t know what Parker thought of the best performance of his fl edgling ca-reer. But Strong and Bridgewater naturally had praise for him.

Because of Parker’s sure-handedness, Bridgewater said the players had taken to calling him ‘Ball Fetcher’ in practice last week.

“All week he earned that nickname, and you saw why today,” Bridgewater said. “You just throw it up and he’ll go get the ball for you. That second one (TD) is where he earned his name. We had him on an inside fade route, he had the fi eld to his advantage and also a height advantage, things like that, and we just went with him.”

On that play, UofL took advantage of an inexperienced USF defensive back to get

Parker open. The Bulls were without start-ing cornerback Kayvon Webster (concus-sion), pressing junior George Baker into a starting role after totaling only 10 tackles in the fi rst 10 games, and Baker left Parker uncovered.

“You’ve got a young corner in there ... George Baker played more reps than he has all year today,” USF coach Skip Holtz said. “I’m certainly not throwing him under the bus, but a young, inexperienced guy, and it’s three-deep (zone) and he jumps up on the out cut and leaves the corner route right open behind him. They weren’t hard reads, I promise you. We made it easy, made it easier than it should be.... We weren’t very good in the secondary.”

Said Strong: “DeVante beat his man, and Teddy just laid it out there with pres-sure in his face. On the one right before the half, they were in zone coverage and he came underneath the zone. It was a route we had called for that defense. DeVante makes plays.”

Not many lately, though. The reason for grandma’s call was that Parker had no catches in the previous week’s 34-20 vic-tory at Connecticut and just fi ve receptions in the previous six games, none against Rutgers, Cincinnati or North Carolina.

In fact, his 127 receiving yards (on seven catches) in the previous nine games were

just 20 more than he’d totaled in his fi rst two games. His touchdowns were his fi rst since a 42-yarder against Syracuse on Oct. 29.

Of course, opposing defenses have a lot to say about what receiver is targeted from game to game, and the Cards have a deep receiving corps that includes Michael Lee Harris, Eli Rogers, Josh Chichester, Josh Bellamy and Andrell Smith.

Parker added a 14-yard reception to his two TD catches to fi nish the afternoon with three catches for 42 yards. He leads the team in touchdown catches with six, so a third of his 17 receptions on the sea-son (for 276 yards) have resulted in TDs. No other receiver has more than two.

Parker is the son of former UofL run-ning back Anthony Shelman (1992-94), who rushed for 1,016 yards in 1994 while helping the Cards to a 6-5 record in How-ard Schnellenberger’s fi nal year as coach.

BRIDGEWATER SETS RECORDBridgewater turned in perhaps his best

overall performance as a Cardinal, throw-ing three touchdown passes for the fi rst time. Besides Parker, his other one was an 18-yarder to Chichester that gave UofL its fi rst lead, 20-17, late in the third quarter.

With 241 yards passing, Bridgewater raised his season total to 1,855 yards to break Louisville’s record for passing yards

by a freshman quarterback, surpass-ing Chris Redman’s mark of 1,773 set in1996.

And he did it despite facing pressure from USF’s defense most of the day.

“Teddy played well all day with pressure and got the ball thrown,” Strong said. “Hemade some big throws.”

The Cards drove the ball downfi eld on their fi rst possession, moving from theirown 20-yard line to the USF 17 but set-tling for a 33-yard fi eld-goal attempt byChris Philpott that failed when it hit theleft upright.

“We didn’t get any points there, but it showed we could move the ball,” Strongsaid. “We needed some touchdowns, andour offense answered well.”

Strong and Watson said they didn’t no-tice any dip in the players’ confi dence levelwhen they fell behind 17-3, and Bridge-water agreed.

“We know what we have and what we’re capable of doing, and you can’tcount us out no matter what the score is,”he said. “We know how hard we work,and our game plan and play-calling willset us up to come back in games like this.

“I think we were just killing ourselves early. All coach Strong talks about is fi n-ishing. Even last night at team chapel wetalked about fi nishing, and it was buzzingthrough the air about fi nishing. This is thereason I came to the University of Louis-ville, to win championships.”

NO FLINCHING ALLOWEDEven though the Cards had fi nally

shown signs of life with the Perry returnand Parker’s touchdown, Strong was per-turbed with both UofL’s offense and de-fense at halftime.

“I was so upset because we weren’t playing well,” Strong said. “It wasn’tnothing they were doing, it’s what wewere doing. So the message was, ‘They’renot beating us, we’re beating ourselves.’When we got down 17-3, what I said was,‘Just keep playing and good things are go-ing to happen.’ It was great to see themstill stay focused and locked in.”

Center Mario Beanvides said UofL’s comeback from a halftime defi cit for thefi rst time in Strong’s two seasons didn’tsurprise him, even as rare as it was.

“Honestly, the thing about this group this year is we’ve never really fl inched,”Benavides said. “Guys don’t hold theirheads down; we do a real good job ofpicking each other up.

“Every time the defense gives up a score, it’s, ‘Oh my gosh guys, let’s get go-ing.’ And every time the offense doesn’tdo what it’s supposed to do, the defenseis like, ‘It’s OK, we’ve got your back.’ Andthat’s the attitude we’ve had all year.”

And the attitude the Cards will carry into their bowl game, wherever it is.

DeVante Parker and receivers coach Ron Dugans leaped in celebration after a Parker touchdown catch earlier this season. Parker had a pair of touchdowns Friday against South Florida. - photo by Darrell Russell

RUSS BROWNRUSS BROWN


GAME THREE PREVIEW - KENTUCKY

Louisville’s chances to make a BCS game took a big hit last Saturday when Cincinnati beat Syracuse in the Carrier Dome in Syracuse. The Cardinals needed Cincinnati to lose one of their fi nal two games for UofL to be the league’s BCS representative.

So far? Not so good. The Bearcats beat the Orange 30-13 and are favored by 9 1/2 to 10 points over visiting Connecticut this Saturday. It would take a major upset for the Cardinals to go back to the Orange Bowl. If Cincinnati wins, as expected, and WVU beats South Florida, the league’s representative in the Orange Bowl would be West Virginia. Louisville, of course, beat the Moun-taineers 38-35 on Nov. 5, but each of the three teams tied for fi rst place in that scenario would be 1-1 against each other, meaning that the tie is broken by BCS rank. West Virginia is currently No. 24 in the BCS, Cincinnati is No. 30 and Louisville is No. 41. Louisville improved from No. 61 to No. 41 in the last week, but another jump like that is not likely without a game. If Cincinnati loses to UConn and West Virginia wins, Louisville goes to the BCS regardless of whatever else happens. If West Virginia loses and Cincinnati wins, Cincinnati would be the league’s representative.

Louisville had a heck of a Friday last week. Football won a share of the Big East title, West Virginia beat Pitt to open the door a little further on a BCS dream, men’s basketball came from behind to beat Ohio and women’s basketball beat No. 24

Florida State. But Saturday was UGLY. It was supposed to be an all orange Saturday. Louisville was rooting for the Syracuse Orange to beat Cincinnati so that Louisville could go to the Orange Bowl. And it was a bonus that the Tennessee Vols (in all their orange glory) were expected to beat Kentucky for the 27th time in a row. Go Orange was the rallying cry of the day. In fact, the Louis-ville SportsReport helped get #GoOrange going as the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter for Louisville that day. But Syracuse got creamed by Cincinnati, Kentucky upset Tennessee to snap the streak and Louisville fans felt like their orange got juiced by the end of the day.

We like what Charlie Strong said about Louisville’s chances for a BCS bowl. When asked whether he thought Louisville was a BCS-caliber team right now, Strong laughed and lowered his head before composing himself and saying, “We may not be a

BCS-level team right now, but I tell you if we get that shot, we’ll go and prepare for that game to take our best shot. We know we’ll get criticism.” Strong also noted that he liked Courier-Journal columnist Eric Crawford’s line in a recent column. Strong rephrased it: “The last one in the class that passes is still called a Doctor. If you pass you are a Doctor, so we would still be called a BCS team.” That’s a GOOD attitude to take. Sure, Louisville isn’t the type of national-caliber team you’d expect in one of those BCS games, but if the Cardinals’ get their shot? You better believe Strong will have them ready to play Virginia Tech or Clemson from the ACC or whoever else is selected for the other Orange Bowl slot.

If Louisville doesn’t go to the BCS, the Cardinals have some really nice bowl options, including the Belk Bowl in Charlotte, the BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham or the Beef’ ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl in St. Petersburg. Most bowl projections currently have

Louisville in the Belk Bowl in Charlotte on Dec. 27. Louisville wouldn’t mind a return trip to St. Pe-tersburg, Fla., for the Beef ’O’ Brady’s Bowl. The coaching staff and UofL’s athletic and university administration enjoyed the trip to St. Petersburg last season, and Louisville had a big crowd at the bowl. Recruiting is also a treat for coaches because they can coach their team during practice and spend the rest of the time making visits around the region in Tampa, Orlando, Sarasota, Mi-ami and more. The only downside to that bowl would be that Southern Miss could be the opponent again. The Beef ’O’ Brady’s Bowl has second pick among Conference USA teams, meaning that if Houston doesn’t go to the BCS, they’ll likely go to the Liberty Bowl, sending Southern Miss to the Beef ’O’ Brady’s Bowl.

Two University of Louisville products had GOOD NFL games Sunday -- New England’s Deion Branch and Oakland’s Michael Bush -- while University of Kentucky product Stevie Johnson of

the Buffalo Bills had a very BAD game. Branch, a wide re-ceiver, had six catch-es for 125 yards, including two long receptions that set up touchdowns, in New England’s 38-20 victory at Philadel-phia. Bush, the Raid-ers’ starting tailback

since Bryan McFadden went down with an injury four games ago, rushed 24 times for 69 yards and the TD that clinched Oakland’s 25-20 victory at Chicago. Bush also caught four passes for 24 yards. Johnson, meanwhile, following a TD catch did a mocking pantomine of the Jets’ Plaxico Burress shooting himself in the thigh a couple of years ago, drawing a 15-yard, unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty that was enforced on the ensuing kickoff. The homestanding Jets took advantage of a short fi eld following the kickoff and had to move just 36 yards to score the game-tying TD. Later, a wide-open Johnson dropped a long pass that would have set the Bills up for a winning score. They lost 28-24. In his postgame news conference, Buffalo coach Chan Gailey commented about Johnson: “I told him he can’t be doing stuff like that. It hurts the team.” Johnson, you may remember, caught the long TD pass in the fi nal minute that beat UofL in 2007, Steve Kragthorpe’s fi rst season, and has been a UK hero ever since.

Speaking of Lexington, we’d be remiss if we didn’t congratu-late the Wildcats on fi nally busting that string of 26 straight losses to Tennessee. It must feel great for them to slough off the

mantle of carrying the nation’s longest losing streak to one team. Wait, what’s that you say? Ken-tucky still has the longest losing streak to one team? Wow. How could that be? Sure enough, the Wildcats have lost to Florida 25 straight seasons. That is currently the longest losing streak in the country. Well, at least one streak ended. But seriously UK fans, rushing the fi eld after beating a 5-7 team to become 5-7? Pitiful. And selling commemorative T-shirts? Even worse. You would think they’d be embarrassed about a streak going that long and would want to never mention it again. That’s the exact opposite of making commemorative T-shirts.

We liked seeing the Louisville pride shown by Bush and At-lanta’s Harry Douglas Sunday. Both showed the “L” sign with their hands on camera. For Bush, his “L” sign was seen na-

tionwide and could help recruiting. Louisville coach Charlie Strong had a funny take on it: “Yeah, they can do that now that we are winning. You didn’t see a whole lot of that the last couple of years, but now that we are getting this program back to where it should be you are going to see more excitement around the program like that.” Strong joked that if they weren’t winning, players would keep their college affi liation as quiet as possible. Strong said recent alum and current New York Jet Bilal Powell texted him Sunday saying, “Coach, you know I don’t talk much, but I’ve been talking about Louisville all week in this locker room.”

We had a case of deja vu Sunday night when we realized that Louisville men’s soccer would be facing UCLA Saturday night at Cardinal Park in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. But

that is GOOD news for local soccer fans. The Cardinals, the No. 12 seed in the tournament, knocked off No. 5 seed Maryland 4-2 Sunday on Maryland’s home fi eld to advance to the Elite Eight. UCLA, the team Louisville beat in last season’s Elite Eight, beat Rutgers 3-0 Sunday night in Los Angeles. That sets up a rematch of last season’s game, a 5-4 instant classic that was played in the snow at Cardinal Park. The winner of Saturday night’s game will advance to the College Cup Dec. 9-11 in Birmingham, Ala. Louisville’s game against UCLA last year was as wild and entertaining as any soccer game we can remember. It was so entertaining the teams agreed to meet at Cardinal Park to start this season, a game that Louisville won 2-0.

BAD

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

GOOD

GOOD

GOOD

GOOD

GOOD

BAD

UGLY

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

HARRY DOUGLASHARRY DOUGLAS MICHAEL BUSHMICHAEL BUSH


LOUISVILLE BASKETBALL

By Howie LindseyNo matter how you measure it, No. 6

Louisville is proving to be a good defensive team.

Through the fi rst six games, Louisville’s opponents are averaging just 49.3 points per game. The Cardinals are one of only three teams (Wisconsin and Virginia the other two) whose opponents are averaging fewer than 50 points per game.

“Our defense is confusing people; our defense is hurting people,” UofL coach Rick Pitino said.

Louisville’s opponents are shooting just 33.2 percent. The Cards are among the top fi ve in the nation in fi eld-goal-percentage defense. They appear to be switching de-fenses after the initial pass on some posses-sions. On others, they’ll look like a zone but defend man-to-man.

“Our opponents don’t know which de-fense we are in,” senior forward Kyle Kuric said. “We switch so much sometimes we don’t know which defense we are in, but we talk, we switch, we move, and it just confuses them. We are good about talking and helping each other out.”

The Cardinals are particularly stingy on three-point shots, allowing just 25 of 99 in six games for a paltry 25.3 shooting per-centage. Louisville is ranked No. 21 in the nation in three-point defense.

“Our communication verbally with switching, we are doing some awesome things to master our defense this early in time,” Pitino said. “I don’t know if I have ever had a team that has it down this well this early.”

In the last week, Louisville held Arkansas State to just 27 points during a 54-27 win last Tuesday night. It was the lowest point total for a UofL opponent since 1947. The Red Wolves shot just 24.4 percent and had 22 turnovers and only two assists.

“I give Louisville credit -- you know they run an unconventional type of defense,” Ar-kansas State coach John Brady said. “They are extremely well coached, and there is no doubt about that.”

Then Friday against Ohio Louisville held the Bobcats to just one fi eld goal in the fi nal three minutes as the Cardinals went from down 51-46 to a 59-54 victory.

“They are very hard to score against,” Bobcats coach John Groce said. “I knew that coming in. Both teams did not shoot well. I thought they were very good defen-sively and I thought we were very good de-fensively. It was hard to get good looks out there. Both teams battled, but at the end of the day, it was the rebound margin that was a big key.”

While Long Beach State on Monday be-came the fi rst school this season to score more than 55 points against Louisville, it was by Pitino’s design. The Cardinals sped the tempo up and forced 21 turnovers, in-cluding 14 steals.

Long Beach State coach Dan Monson said, “Our issue was the turnovers - they sped us up - and we struggled fi nishing

around the rim and getting stops.”Through six games, Louisville has forced

103 turnovers (17.2 per game) and oppo-nents have a 0.5 assist-to-turnover ratio. But don’t ask Pitino how it’s done.

“It is really too complicated for me to ex-plain to you, and really, I wouldn’t want to give away what we are doing, either,” Pi-tino told a reporter last week. “I don’t mean to demean your basketball knowledge, but this is really complex.”

LONG WAY FROM HOMELouisville ran the legs off of Long Beach

State 79-66 Monday night. Pitino scouted the 49ers’ travel schedule and saw trips to Pittsburgh (Nov. 16), San Diego State (Nov. 19), Montana (Nov. 26) and then Louisville Nov. 28.

“They (Long Beach State) are a heck of a ball club. They’re traveling more than an NBA team,” Pitino said. “They’re like the Harlem Globetrotters. I imagine they are go-ing back west. They have to come back east to play North Carolina and Kansas. They are going to be a great tournament team. We wanted to press them. We wanted to run them because we knew they were coming from Montana and they probably weren’t fl ying private charter.

“I don’t know if you’ve been to Mon-tana, but there are very few direct fl ights from there to here. So we wanted to get after them right away and try to wear them out.”

The Cardinals outscored the 49ers 44-32 in the fi rst half, and Pitino wanted more of the same in the second half, but he said both teams lost their legs.

“We ran out of gas in the second half be-cause we haven’t practiced at that pace,” he said. “What we have been trying to do in practice is just execute and stay away from injuries. We have gotten a little out of shape to play that racehorse-type basket-

ball game, and we made a lot of mistakes. Defensively, in the second half, we slowed down the pace too much. I can totally un-derstand Peyton (Siva) slowing it down be-cause he is not in shape and hasn’t played in a long time. We got our pace in the fi rst half.

“We should have come back with a 46- or 48-point second half, but we didn’t. We made a lot of good plays. When you play transition basketball, your defense is not as crisp and we made some mistakes.”

The Louisville players liked the change of pace from the previous games of grind-it-out basketball.

“It felt good because we actually tried to get into our real game, our transition fl ow,” senior guard Chris Smith said. “I mean, it feels good to put points up on the board because people have been looking at the score like, ‘Huh, Louisville only scores 50 points. Man, who is that?’”

LOST FRESHMENWhile freshman power forward Chane

Behanan has started every game this sea-son, the other three freshmen in his recruit-ing class are not seeing much clock - if any at all. Guard/forward Wayne Blackshear is out for at least another four to six weeks with a torn labrum, wing Angel Nunez has played just 14 minutes in two of Louisville’s six games and center Zach Price has totaled 18 minutes in his three games.

“They are no different than Otis George, Larry O’Bannon and Kyle Kuric,” Pitino said of Nunez and Price. “They are lost fresh-men. They get a little better and stronger as sophomores, they become better players as juniors and seniors. Like so many of our players who’ve gone that route, they aren’t impact freshmen. They are freshmen that learn. They are weak physically, stamina-wise.

“They are going to be excellent play-

ers, but they aren’t Chane (Behanan) andWayne (Blackshear). I think it’s totally irrel-evant with the schedule we are playing. Youaren’t going to see those guys too much.Putting them in when we are up 20 is notgoing to make them better. They will getbetter in practice and weight training andstamina, and not by putting them in withfour minutes to go in the game to see whatthey can do.”

WINNING STREAK EXTENDEDWith the win over Long Beach State,

UofL extended its home winning streak to14 games, improving to 24-2 in 26 gamesat the KFC Yum! Center. The win streak isthe 16th different string of 14 or more con-secutive home wins in school history andfi rst since a 15-game streak from Jan. 10to Dec. 27, 2008. Louisville has not had ahome winning streak longer than 16 gamessince the 1987-88 and 1988-89 seasons(17 in a row from Feb. 1, 1988 to Jan. 22,1989).

FAST STARTLouisville is 6-0 for the second straight

year, its fi rst back-to-back 6-0 starts sincethe 1954-55 and 1955-56 seasons (6-0 and8-0, respectively). A win over No. 20/19Vanderbilt on Friday would give the Cardsconsecutive 7-0 starts for the fi rst time inprogram history.

VANDY TIME CHANGEUofL’s game against Vanderbilt in the KFC

Yum! Center on Dec. 2 has been moved toa 9 p.m. ET start. The half-hour time change(the game originally was scheduled for an8:30 tipoff) occurred to accommodate ESPNprogramming.

MORE ONLINEFor game stories, player interviews and

more from each Louisville basketball game,log on to CardinalSports.com.

U O F L I S 6 - 0 F O R T H E S E C O N D S T R A I G H T S E A S O N

LOUISVILLE’S DEFENSE TURNING HEADS NATIONALLY

Chris Smith (5) and Elisha Justice trapped an Arkansas State player as Chane Behanan (24) looked on. Louisville held Arkansas State to just 27 points. - photo by Gail Kamenish


WOMEN’S BASKETBALLLOUISVILLE BASKETBALL PHOTO GALLERY

Sophomore Gorgui Dieng blocked an Arkansas State shot. Dieng blocked four shots, scored 10 points and had seven rebounds against the Red Wolves. - photo by Gail Kamenish

Sophomore Russ Smith sliced through a pair of Arkansas State defenders for two of his nine points. - photo by Gail Kamenish

Louisville coach Rick Pitino advised forward

Jared Swopshire during the Arkansas State game. - photo by Gail Kamenish

Dieng had two of seven points on this dunk against Arkansas State. - photo by Gail Kamenish


CARDINAL KIDS EXTRA

Young fan Eva Noel Spalding.

Nathan Knipp, fi ve months old, was ready to offi ciate his fi rst game.

Brooke Schumacher and Walker Greenwald at the UofL-Marshall football game on Oct. 1.

Two-day-old Trey Wiseman is the son of Eric and Charon Wiseman.



By Howie LindseyAfter the University of Louisville’s 79-

66 victory over Long Beach State Monday night, coach Rick Pitino was pleased with the win, but he seemed more upset with all of the Cardinals’ injuries.

The Cardinals Monday night were lim-ited to nine healthy players, with four more working their way back into shape and three

sitting out completely. “Last year was bad,

but this year is ridicu-lous,” Pitino said. “We don’t even talk about in-juries. I just tell them I’ve seen this for 35 years, but I’m lying. I’ve never seen this before. I’ve

never seen it this bad.”At times this season it seems that the list

of players not available outnumbered the list of healthy players. Who is in and who is out has become an almost daily topic of fans.

Just within the past week, the Cardinals got news Thursday that Rakeem Buckles is available to practice and could be back in the lineup in a week or so. Buckles is recov-ering from a torn ACL suffered Feb. 27 and surgically repaired March 16.

Peyton Siva was not expected to play against Ohio last Friday but did anyway. He was clearly favoring his sprained ankle at times but played through it and was instru-mental in the Cards’ late comeback from a six-point defi cit.

Last Saturday Stephan Van Treese was announced to be out indefi nitely after re-injuring his knee in practice. Van Treese had missed all of practice with a left patellar tendon strain before participating in his fi rst individual workout on Nov. 14. He returned to see his fi rst action of the year at Butler and played in two games since but was back on the bench in street clothes Monday night.

Then Monday, just before Louisville’s game against Long Beach State, Pitino an-nounced that reserve guard Elisha Justice was out with a broken nose, also suffered in practice.

“Our team? I think we have had every sin-gle injury,” Siva said. “I mean, dating back to my freshman year, PK (Preston Knowles) hurt his hand, last year PK had a freak foot injury that you really don’t fi nd unless you are in a car accident, Swop (Jared Swop-shire) pulled his groin off the bone, Buckles had an ACL, Mike (Marra) MCL and an ACL, Stephan (Van Treese) has a bad knee, we’ve had concussions and Bullet (Elisha Justice) with the nose. We’ve had ankles and hands and, you name it, we’ve got it.”

When most coaches bring up early-sea-son injuries, they speak of how it could help

build depth on their team for later. Pitino, typically a very positive person, is done with that glass-half-full mentality.

“Injuries never help you,” he said after Monday’s game. “We all would like for the glass to be half-full and look for the silver lining, but those questions are not reality. You don’t want broken noses when a ball hits you in the nose. You don’t want ACL’s when you’re driving down the lane with no contact. You don’t want a torn adductor when you’re working out with your Dad. You don’t want these things. It doesn’t help you.

“You’d like to think that, but it’s just not reality. It hurts you because you can’t prac-tice what you need to do, and it showed tonight.”

Pitino has even taken trainer Fred Hina’s advice, having players wear extra padding and even a helmet for Justice in practices.

“I won’t wear a helmet out there,” Siva said. “That is what I told Fred. He wanted to make me wear it. Coach Pitino told us we have to stay injury free, and that (the pads and helmets) are there to protect us.”

Pitino said he is so sick of injuries it is af-fecting how he views practice.

“Yes, I am just a little frustrated with what we are going through right now from

a practice standpoint,” he said. “You are just so frightened on what shoe is going to drop next that you don’t go up and down like you should.”

The injuries haven’t got Siva down - yet. “Injuries are part of the game, and we

know that,” the junior point guard said. “They could happen at any given time. A guy could be walking along and step wrong and get injured. We just have to continue to pray and trust God that nobody else gets hurt.”

Siva, in particular has battled several inju-ries this season. He sat out two games with a concussion, then had an ankle sprain that had him miss a game and has limited him ever since.

“The ankle felt better tonight,” Siva said Monday night. “But there are still some things I can’t do. I can’t just jump off of it. For us, I have to just have to make smart plays. The plays that I could make athletical-ly when I could jump off of it, I can’t make those right now. I have to play smart and work on it.”

Siva played 22 minutes Monday night, making 3 of 7 shots for 11 points with fi ve assists and six turnovers. He split minutes with Russ Smith, who played 27 minutes, some at point guard and some at shoot-

ing guard, and had 11 points, three assistsand two steals with just one turnover. Eventhough Pitino previously said he’s donelooking for a silver lining about the injuries,he mentioned that Smith has stepped upwhen needed this season.

“He does a good job, but emotionally he has to control himself,” Pitino said. “Heis a terrifi c basketball player. He just has toemotionally control what he is trying to do.If they are in the bonus, you don’t reach inand foul, or if time is on your side, you don’tforce a shot. He will learn all these things,but the best thing about all these injuriesis the development of Russ Smith. I prob-ably wouldn’t have played him that muchif Wayne (Blackshear) was ready to go. Wehave a very good basketball player with himnow, but like Chane (Behanan), he just hasto learn the game. He has to understandtime and score, and he has to understanddefense off the ball. He should be the bestdefender on the team, but he is not.”

Blackshear, out with a torn labrum, is ex-pected back in four to six weeks. He wasoriginally expected to miss the rest of theseason but now could be back by January.Pitino is looking forward to the day whenhe has more than 10 healthy players andcan run a real practice, fi ve-on-fi ve.

“I think this is very good for Peyton to be back, and our goal is to get Rock (Buckles)back so we can have a legitimate backupfi ve-man who really understands the game,”Pitino said. “When Rock comes in we hopeto get him through this week, get him someminutes against IUPUI, a few more minutesagainst Farleigh Dickinson, and let him playfull on for the Memphis game. We are go-ing to bring him along very slowly so he’s100 percent ready to go. Although we arevery anxious, we have to be patient withhim.”

Louisville’s No. 6 national ranking is largely a product of voters casting their bal-lots on potential rather than the Cardinals’current state of affairs. Behanan, who had13 points, seven rebounds, two assists, twosteals and a block Monday, said he believesLouisville will be a top 10-team in the end,however.

“When the people come back from inju-ries, we’ll be rolling,” the freshman forwardsaid. “I mean, we are just going to blow upoff the map. I can’t wait for it! When weget Wayne (Blackshear) back; I can’t waitfor that. I am looking forward to it.”

Chris Smith led all scorers with 18 points against Long Beach State. He also had threeassists, three steals and two rebounds. Swo-pshire added 10 points as the Cards had fi veplayers in double fi gures. They made just 11turnovers and forced 21.

Peyton Siva has missed time for a concussion and a sprained ankle so far this season. The Cardinals have had to rely on backups Elisha Justice, Russ Smith (pictured left) and Tim Henderson to fi ll in at point guard. - photo by Howie Lindsey

HOWIE LINDSEYHOWIE LINDSEY

S I V A B A C K I N T H E L I N E U P , B U C K L E S C O M I N G S O O N

CARDS DON HELMETS AND PADS TO FIGHT INJURY BUG


2011-12 MEN’S SCHEDULE DATE OPPONENT SITE TIME OCTOBER10/14/11 Red-White Scrimmage KFC YUM! CENTER White, 86-8510/22/11 Red-White Scrimmage KFC YUM! CENTER Red, 105-6010/26/11 vs. PIKEVILLE * KFC YUM! CENTER W, 74-55NOVEMBER 11/03/11 vs. BELLARMINE * KFC YUM! CENTER W, 62-54GLOBAL SPORTS INVITATIONAL11/11/11 vs. TENNESSEE-MARTIN KFC YUM! CENTER W, 83-4811/13/11 vs. LAMAR KFC YUM! CENTER W, 68-4811/19/11 at Butler Indianapolis, Ind. W, 69-5311/22/11 vs. ARKANSAS STATE KFC YUM! CENTER W, 54-2711/25/11 vs. OHIO KFC YUM! CENTER W, 59-5411/28/11 vs. LONG BEACH STATE KFC YUM! CENTER W, 79-66DECEMBERBIG EAST / SEC CHALLENGE12/02/11 vs. #19 VANDERBILT KFC YUM! CENTER 8:30 p.m.12/07/11 vs. IUPUI KFC YUM! CENTER TBA12/10/11 vs. FAIR. DICKINSON KFC YUM! CENTER TBABASKETBALL HALL OF FAME SHOOTOUT12/17/11 vs. MEMPHIS TV KFC YUM! CENTER 4:00 p.m.12/20/11 vs. C. OF CHARLESTON KFC YUM! CENTER TBABILLY MINARDI CLASSIC12/23/11 vs. WESTERN KENTUCKY KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m.12/28/11 vs. GEORGETOWN # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m.12/31/11 at Kentucky TV Lexington, Ky. 12:00 p.m.JANUARY01/03/12 at St. John’s # TV New York, N.Y. 7:00 p.m.01/07/12 vs. NOTRE DAME # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 4:00 p.m.01/10/12 at Providence # TV Providence, R.I. 7:00 p.m.01/14/12 vs. DE PAUL # KFC YUM! CENTER TBA01/16/12 at Marquette # TV Milwaukee, Wis. TBA01/21/12 at Pittsburgh # TV Pittsburgh, Pa. 9:00 p.m.01/25/12 vs. VILLANOVA # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m.01/28/12 at Seton Hall # Newark, N.J. TBAFEBRUARY02/04/12 vs. RUTGERS # KFC YUM! CENTER TBA02/06/12 vs. CONNECTICUT # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m.02/11/12 at West Virginia # TV Morgantown, W.Va. 12:00 p.m.02/13/12 vs. SYRACUSE # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 7:00 p.m.02/18/12 at DePaul # Chicago, Ill. TBA02/23/12 at Cincinnati # TV Cincinnati, Ohio 9:00 p.m.02/26/12 vs. PITTSBURGH # TV KFC YUM! CENTER 2:00 p.m.02/29/12 vs. USF # KFC YUM! CENTER TBAMARCH03/03/12 at Syracuse # TV Syracuse, N.Y. 4:00 p.m.BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP: New York, N.Y. (Madison Square Garden) 03/06-10/12 TBD TBA * - Exhibition game, # - Big East Conference game

2011-12 WOMEN’S SCHEDULE

DATE OPPONENT SITE TIME

OCTOBER

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

NOVEMBER

11/13/11 at Missouri State Springfi eld, Mo. W, 73-64

11/15/11 at #4 Texas A&M College Station, Texas L, 76-58

11/17/11 at Eastern Kentucky Richmond, Ky. W, 77-53

11/20/11 vs. XAVIER KFC YUM! CENTER W, 62-44

11/22/11 vs. AUSTIN PEAY KFC YUM! CENTER W, 78-60

11/25/11 at #24 Florida State Tallahassee, Fla. W, 85-76

11/26/11 at Florida A&M Tallahassee, Fla. W, 86-66

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

DECEMBER

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

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

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

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

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

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

JANUARY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FEBRUARY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MARCH

BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP: Hartford, Conn.

03/02-8/12 TBD TBA


WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

By Howie LindseyEditor’s Note: The 10th-ranked Louisville

women’s basketball team played Murray State (2-4) Tuesday night after this week’s Louisville SportsReport went to press. For game results from Murray State, see Cardi-nalSports.com or UofLSports.com.

With wins over Austin Peay, Florida State and Florida A&M last week, the University

of Louisville women im-proved to 6-1 and are ranked No. 10 in the na-tion.

Expected to be one of the best teams in the na-tion since its run to the Sweet Sixteen last sea-son, the Cardinals start-ed this season without

its 1-2 punch of leading scorers Monique Reid, a senior forward who was injured, and sophomore point guard Shoni Schimmel, who was suspended for the fi rst two games by the NCAA for her involvement in an un-sanctioned tournament over the summer.

But both are now back, and Louisville is proving to be a handful for opponents.

The Cardinals have fi ve players averag-ing in double fi gures, with Reid leading the way at 16.8 points per game. Schimmel is next at 13.0 ppg while leading the team with 5.6 assists per game. Senior shoot-ing guard Becky Burke is third at 12.9 ppg, while freshman guard Bria Smith is averag-ing 11.6 ppg and sophomore post Cierra Warren 10.1 ppg.

CARDS SWEEP IN TALLAHASSEESchimmel had 25 points, seven assists

and four steals and Reid came off the bench to score 23 points as the Cardinals beat No. 24 Florida State 85-76 last Friday in the fi rst game of the Florida State Invitational in Tal-lahassee.

Schimmel’s 25 points came on 8-of-16 shooting. Reid fi nished 9 of 12 and had 12 points at halftime without missing a shot.

Florida State (3-4) began the season ranked 14th but has lost four of its last fi ve games and is likely going to fall out of the rankings this week.

Louisville’s pressure defense seemed to fl uster the Seminoles, who turned the ball over 24 times.

The Cardinals jumped out to a 7-0 lead and quickly built a 21-10 advantage. They remained ahead by 11 points as late as 29-18 midway through the opening half, but the Seminoles fought back to tie it at 39 before Schimmel scored 10 points during a 14-2 Louisville run that spanned halftime and gave the Cardinals a 53-41 lead with 18:04 to go.

FSU clawed its way back again to tie it at 66 before Schimmel, who hit 4 of 9 three-point shots, nailed one from long range with 4:23 left that snapped the tie and put the Cards ahead for good.

On Saturday, Reid came off the bench to score 22 points and Burke added 21 as the Cardinals beat Florida A&M 86-66 in the fi -nal game of the Florida State Invitational.

Hot shooting was the order of the day for the Cardinals. Reid was 8 of 9 from the fi eld and 6 of 9 from the free-throw line in just 16 minutes of playing time. Burke made 7 of 9 shots, including 5 of 7 from three-point range during her 29 minutes.

Louisville led 41-29 at halftime and opened its largest lead at 70-44 with 9:23 left on a three-pointer by Burke. UofL coach Jeff Walz played 12 players eight or more minutes and no player had more than Burke’s 29.

The Cardinals shot 53.4 percent to just 31.4 percent by Florida A&M. Bria Smith added 11 points for the Cardinals, who were able to overcome 27 turnovers. Schim-mel had nine points, all on three-pointers.

WALZ’S WIN NO. 100Walz picked up his 100th victory as a

head coach last Tuesday against Austin Peay, 78-60.

Walz, now in his fi fth season with the Cardinals, is 102-47 heading into Tuesday night’s game against Murray State.

“It is one more than 99 and one less than 101,” Walz said, trying to downplay the ac-complishment. “I don’t keep track of the number, but they are important because if you don’t get enough you lose your job. So it is nice to get a bunch of them.”

Walz said his focus isn’t on the number of wins because he isn’t the one on the court.

“I haven’t made a shot in the fi ve years that I have been here,” he said. “I have been fortunate enough to coach really good players. I have had some really good teams that have bought into the way we do things. We try to play hard. We try and get in here and not just teach basketball but teach them about life. Things aren’t always fair, and that is what we try to get them to understand -- that when you walk out on the fl oor things aren’t always going to be fair. You have to be prepared to face ad-versity. We have been very fortunate to do that.”

Walz made sure to thank his assistant coaches. “I have Stephanie Norman andMichelle Clark Heard, two of my assistantsthat have been here all fi ve years, and I amfortunate to have a great staff as well,” hesaid.

Reid, the star of Walz’s fi rst recruiting class, said she knew he was going to winat least 100.

“He told me we were going to do great things here, and I always believed him,” shesaid. “This program is on the rise, and it’s allbecause of Coach Walz.”

REID NOT ALL THE WAY BACKDespite being a leading scorer last week,

Reid is not all the way back. That is why shehas not been part of the starting lineup andhasn’t been playing more than 20 minutesin a game.

“It is a lower back, a sore back,” Walz said. “We’ve gone through all the tests andthe MRIs and X-rays, and everything comesup clean. We will just gradually progress herback into more playing and practicing. Butit is not something that we will throw herback into practicing for two hours. So wewill take our time.”

Reid has played just 78 total minutes in four games but has scored 67 points,grabbed 20 rebounds and has made 27 of41 shots (65.8 percent).

BURKE STEPPING UPWith 21 against Florida A&M and lead-

ing the team in total points scored with 90(12.9 per game), Burke has been a big con-tributor this season.

“She is starting to realize that in order for us to really be as good as I think we can,she is going to have to step up,” Walz said.“With Tia Gibbs out, that is someone whowas a very vocal player for us - very goodon the defensive end and kind of got thingscalmed down. I think Becky has realizedthat she will have to step up her game someand not just be a shooter for us. She is reallydirecting things to the defensive end.”

Burke is getting extra playing time be-cause Gibbs, a junior who started all lastseason, is out for the season with a tornlabrum.

“(Becky) is in great shape, so I never had to worry about her being tired,” Walz said.“It is encouraging as a coach to know thatyou have someone to go out there and playthat hard all the time.”

FOOD DRIVECardinal Athletics teamed up with St.

Matthew’s Area Ministries to provide foodto those less fortunate on Thanksgiving.Fans who brought a canned food item tothe game last Tuesday received a $2 ticket.Fans who missed the event but still wouldlike to help can contact St. Matthews AreaMinistries at stmam.com.

Monique Reid has played in four of Louisville’s seven games, scoring 67 points in just 78 minutes. - photo by Chuck Feist

HOWIE LINDSEYHOWIE LINDSEY

W A L Z R E A C H E S W I N N O . 1 0 0

CARDS’ SUNSHINE SWEEP INCLUDES WIN OVER NO. 24 SEMINOLES


LOUISVILLE ATHLETICS

VOLLEYCARDS EARN NCAA BID IN KORDES’ FIRST SEASONBy Howie LindseyLearning of an at-large bid while watch-

ing the NCAA Selection Show Sunday eve-ning, the University of Louisville volleyball team celebrated its 13th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance at the Yum! Train-ing Center on UofL’s campus.

The Cardinals (23-8) were hopeful but not assured of a bid prior to the Selection Show because they fell in the semifi nals of the Big East Tournament. But Louisville’s strength of schedule and performance down the stretch of the season won out, and UofL secured its 22nd NCAA Tournament bid.

The Cardinals will face Ball State (25-7) in the fi rst round on Friday at 5 p.m. ET in West Lafayette, Ind., on the campus of Purdue University.

“I couldn’t be more excited,” fi rst-year UofL coach Anne Kordes said. “Purdue is a familiar venue for us in tournament time. Coach Steve Shondell has done a phenom-enal job at Ball State since getting there. They will be the toughest ball control and defensive team we will face all year. It is a very tough fi rst-round opponent, but our fi rst goal is to concentrate on preparing for Ball State because they are good, otherwise they wouldn’t be in the tournament.”

Just 2-7 all-time in NCAA Tournament play, the Ball State Cardinals will be making their eighth overall appearance in the NCAA Tournament and fi rst since the 2002 season. In its last tournament match, Ball State also played Louisville, suffering a 3-0 (30-24, 30-24, 30-25) setback at Ohio State’s St. John Arena. Overall, a league-record four Mid-American Conference teams were selected for the 2011 NCAA Tournament, with Cen-tral Michigan (tournament winner), North-ern Illinois (at-large) and Western Michigan (at-large) also receiving bids.

UofL, which earned an at-large bid after winning the Big East regular-season crown, owns the 10th-longest active streak in the NCAA.

On the other side of Louisville’s bracket, Purdue (27-4) will play Morehead State (26-7) at 7:30 p.m. Friday. The winners of Fri-day’s matches will meet at 7 p.m. Saturday. All matches will take place on Belin Court.

Tickets for the events are divided into prime (chair-back) and main seating areas and also are differentiated by adult and student price designations. Students are de-fi ned as age 3 to college. All-session adult prime tickets are $14, while student prime tickets are $10. All-session adult main tick-ets are $12, while student main tickets are $8. All-session tickets cover both Friday and Saturday. Single-session tickets will go on sale at 9 a.m. ET Friday. Single-session adult tickets are $9, while single-session student tickets are $6.

BIG EAST GETS THREEThe NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball

Committee guarantees 31 conferences an automatic qualifi cation to the tournament, and the remaining 33 slots are fi lled with at-large selections to complete the bracket. Louisville was one of those 33.

The Big Ten led all conferences with eight teams selected. The Big 12 and Pacif-ic-12 both have seven teams in the tourna-ment. The Big East has three teams in, with Cincinnati, Louisville and Marquette head-ing to the dance.

VOLLEYBALL SWEEPS MOREHEADIf Morehead State shocks the volleyball

world and knocks off Purdue in the fi rst round, the Eagles will be a familiar foe. Last Saturday the Cards beat Morehead 25-12, 25-20, 25-

Three things you may have missed from the UofL-USF football game By Rick Cushing

HALFTIME ADJUSTMENTS

Halftime adjustments can be a crucial aspect of a football game. No one was better at making those adjustments than the late Johnny Majors, who coached Pittsburgh to an undefeated season and a national championship in 1976. One instance comes especially to mind.

Pitt faced Penn State in the fi nal game of the regular season. The score was tied at 7 at halftime as Penn State had bottled up Pitt by keying on tailback Tony Dorsett, who lined up in a standing position at the tail of Pitt’s I-formation.

Pitt received the second-half kickoff and ran it back to about the 25-yard line. On fi rst down quarterback Matt Cavanaugh handed off to the blocking back, who happened to be none other than Dorsett! He ran up then middle, cut to the outside and went all the way to paydirt and the Panthers went on to win 24-7. They went on to crush Georgia 27-3 in the Sugar Bowl to fi nish 12-0.

Last Friday UofL trailed South Florida 17-10 at the half. It was 17-3 with 35 seconds to go in the half before the Cards scored a TD with 13 seconds to go. UofL had made four crucial mistakes in the fi rst half, as well as allowing USF to mount two long TD drives. The Cards had missed a short fi eld goal attempt; were not lined up and prepared defensively when USF ran its offense on to the fi eld on a fourth-and-short at UofL’s 35-yard line, resulting in a TD pass to a wide-open receiver; committed a roughing-the-passer penalty that kept a USF drive alive; and fumbled away a promising drive late in the half.

So Strong made an adjustment during the intermission, although it was a mental one more than a physical one.

“I told them we were beating ourselves; they were not beating us,” Strong said. “I told them, ‘Just go play gap control, and then just go tackle.’”

Strong’s mental adjustment registered because the Cards shut down the USF offense in the second half. Except for a 37-yard TD on a halfback pass and 44 yards on the game’s fi nal drive, when the issue had already been decided, the Cards allowed just 33 yards in the half (114 total).

“We took care of business,” Strong said.

MATURITY – DEALING WITH ADVERSITY

The sign of a good team is its ability to deal with adversity. Even the very best team in the nation will have at least one game when things don’t go according to plan and a victory is in peril. A senior-laden team is best able to deal with that situation, and it’s well known that UofL is one of the youngest teams in the nation. Last Friday the Cards trailed 17-3 very late in the fi rst half, and things did not look good. But they responded – in a big way – outscoring South Florida 31-7 from there to claim a 34-24 victory in a game they HAD to win.

The Cards deserve credit for not succumbing but overcoming, and coach Charlie Strong deserves even more credit for instilling that never-give-up attitude. When the Cards were 2-4 and had lost games to FIU and Marshall, things looked bleak. But Strong stayed positive, repeatedly telling his players they were good but just lacked confi dence. He kept hammering that theme, and the Cards eventually bought in. It was never more evident than last Friday, when they stared adversity in the face and didn’t blink.

GRIDIRON MUSINGS: SEC OVERRATED

I have long been of the opinion that the SEC is overrated. Such thinking has become diffi cult to defend due to the SEC’s success in national-title games

in the 21st century, but I’ll make my case.Last week the SEC had the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the national rankings. That was

bogus. After No. 1 LSU dismantled No. 3 Arkansas last week, does anybody believe that Arkansas deserved to be ranked No. 3. I didn’t believe it before the LSU-Arkansas game.

Who had the Razorbacks defeated? They had played only one good team – Alabama – and been blown out. Their four out-of-conference games were against three cupcakes and Texas A&M, a moderately good team. Their other games – like so many SEC teams over the years – were against other SEC teams. Of those, only South Carolina is moderately good. The SEC, historically, has claimed to be good by beating each other. Has Arkansas ever played a game north of the Mason-Dixon line? Or west of Texas? You’ll have to show me.

Historically, SEC teams do not travel north of the Mason-Dixon line or go west. Before the 1970s, that was because SEC teams would not play teams with black players. They’d beat each other and claim to be good. All-white Georgia would beat all-white Tennessee. Big deal. Does anybody believe those teams could have beaten Syracuse teams with Jim Brown and Ernie Davis? Michigan State teams with Bubba Smith, Clint Jones and Sherman Lewis? Ohio State with Jim Parker and Hopalong Cassidy?

Even after integration of the SEC’s football programs, the only SEC team that would play teams from outside the South was Alabama. The Crimson Tide, to their credit, played USC, Notre Dame, Penn State, Texas, Michigan et al. To this day, no other SEC team has played a national schedule. You can count on one hand the number of times the other SEC schools have played teams from outside the South.

I grew up in Pittsburgh. Pitt, an independent then, would play such schools as Oklahoma, USC, UCLA, Nebraska, Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State on a regular basis, in addition to traditional foes Notre Dame, Syracuse, West Virginia, Penn State, Army and Navy (when the latter two were perennial national powers). I know, Eastern football is not what it once was, but in those days I saw the best of the best: Navy’s Joe Bellino and Roger Staubach, Penn State’s Lenny Moore and Roosevelt Grier, Syracuse’s Jim Brown and Ernie Davis, Army’s Pete Dawkins and its Lonesome End, Notre Dame’s Paul Hornung, Oklahoma’s Tommy MacDonald, etc.

SEC fans saw none of those players. So I’m prejudiced against the SEC. I won’t change my mind until SEC schools play some games outside the South. Just beating each other doesn’t work for me.

18 in their annual pre-NCAA matchup with the OVC champion. Morehead earned the OVC automatic qualifi er after sweeping Ten-nessee-Martin for the OVC crown.

Outside hitters Emily Juhl and Lola Ar-slanbekova had 13 kills apiece to lead the Cardinals.

“We did what we had to do today,” Kordes said. “Today was about taking care of business, and it was a group effort for the win. Caitlin Welch did a great job defensive-ly, and Taylor Brauneis set a great, balanced offense against a very good Morehead State team. We did what we could to create the opportunity for the NCAA Tournament. Our goal is to advance in the tournament and continue the tradition. Now we wait and see what happens tomorrow on the Selec-tion Show.”

The Cardinals hit .280 as a team and out-blocked the Eagles 10-5. UofL had 40 kills to MSU’s 23 and aced the Eagles fi ve times. Welch notched 14 digs. Juhl added two aces and two blocks, and Arslanbekova had an ace and three blocks. Brauneis had a match-high 34 assists. Morehead was led by Aryn Bohannon’s nine kills.

UofL volleyball coach Anne Kordes (bottom right) addressed her team during a timeout huddle this season. The fi rst-year coach guided the Cards to a regular-season Big East title and a 13th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. - photo by Howie Lindsey

RECRUITING NOTEBOOK


By Jeff WaffordSeveral University of Louisville football re-

cruits are having successful postseason runs with their respective teams. In this week’s notebook, we take a look at three of them, including one who just helped his team win a second consecutive state championship, and two more who will try to win state titles this weekend.

Offensive lineman Sid Anvoots (6-4, 285) led his Bishop Chatard H.S. (Ind.) team to its second consecutive state 3-A championship last weekend, and he talked about winning the title and whether he’s been keeping up with his future team’s late-season success.

Anvoots and his teammates defeated South Bend St. Joseph’s H.S. 21-7 to win the school’s record 11th state title.

“It was a tough game,” Anvoots said. “We were up 21-7 at halftime, and they came back in the second half and made some adjustments and

some tough plays and held us to zero points in the second half.”

“I feel like I had a pretty good season,” said Anvoots, who is rated as a three-star player. “There was one team, Cincinnati El-der, which I had some trouble with ... but overall it was a pretty good season and I felt pretty dominant against most of the teams I played against.”

Anvoots, who worked in the fi lm room when he was in the eighth grade at Bishop Chatard, has now been a part of three cham-pionships. “It never gets old,” he said with a laugh.

“I’m going to be taking a break for about a week. Once that’s over I’ll start getting set up and start conditioning and lifting weights and getting ready for next summer.”

Anvoots, who committed to Louisville in March, said he has been keeping up with his future team and has visited UofL during the season. And while the Cardinals struggled at times early in the year, Anvoots felt con-fi dent they would be in the hunt for a Big East title.

“I had complete faith in them the entire time,” he said. “The team and coaching staff, listening to their goals, they seem like such a determined group of people. Having that determination kind of goes down to the players, and you have success like they’ve had.”

Hunter Bowles (6-6, 245) is hoping to bring a 2A state championship home to his Glasgow H.S. team (Ky.), which would be the fi rst in the school’s history.

“We’re all pretty excited,” said Bowles, who will lead his team against Covington Holy Cross H.S. on Saturday at 3 p.m. at West-ern Kentucky’s stadium in Bowling Green. “There’s never been a state championship at our school, so we want to bring one back. My uncle was the quarterback on the last team that made it to the state fi nals in 1999 and 2000, but we’ve never won it. We have one more to go, and we’re just looking to win.”

Glasgow, which is known for its defense, will face a Covington Holy Cross team known

for its spread offense, which should make for an interesting matchup. Bowles hopes the game is the culmination of a strong senior season.

“I can’t really complain about anything this season,” he said. “I really concentrated more on defense this year. For us to be good we have to have a good defense.... We were about 20 points away from setting a Kentucky state record for the least points allowed in a regular season. The record was like 42 and we allowed 63, and that’s with four kick re-turns for touchdowns against us. If you take away those, and we set the record.”

While Bowles likely will play tight end or even offensive line in college, he didn’t mind spending most of his focus on the other side

of the ball this season. “I didn’t care about catches,” he noted. “I just wanted to win.”

And win the Scotties have, going 14-0 thus far, setting up for the biggest week in the program’s history. “For me it’s just go-ing to be another week,” Bowles said. “It’s really cool to play for the state champion-ship, but it’s going to be any other week for us. We’re still going to eat at Subway after school on Friday like we’ve always done, and we’re going to do pretty much every-thing the same.”

While Bowles has been helping his team to what he hopes is a state title, he’s been keeping a close eye on Louisville, the pro-gram he plans to sign with in February.

“I’m watching every game I can on TV and going to every home game I could,” he said. “It’s pretty awesome they could have a chance to play in a BCS bowl. I knew that would happen. Me and (fellow commitment) Joe (Manley) have been friends for a long time. Before we both committed, we talked and said if we go to Louisville we would have a chance to play for a BCS champion-ship. You have to see where Coach (Charlie) Strong is taking the program, and now it’s like I’m telling everybody, ‘I told you so.’”

Bowles, a two-star player, chose the Car-dinals over Marshall and Kentucky.

Joe Manley (6-7, 307) is on the cusp of leading his Bowling Green H.S. team to a Class 3A state championship. The Purples will take on Anderson County H.S. in the championship game Saturday night at 7.

“I’ve already watched a lot of fi lm on Anderson County, and they’re pretty good,”Manley said. “You have to be good to get tothe state championship. We’ve had a dreamseason so far with how we’ve planned andthen gone out and done it. We’ve been talk-ing about going to the state championshipsince we were eighth graders, and we allplayed in little league together. Everybodyshrugged it off like we were just saying it,but we’ve all played together a long time,and now we’re living it out.”

When asked how he feels about his play this season, the three-star Manley was quickto point the question back to his team. “Ifeel like everybody’s played good,” he said.“Not one person has done it, but every-body’s played together as a unit to get itdone.”

While he remains focused on winning a state title, Manley admits he’s been keep-ing a close eye on the Cardinals, with whomhe plans to sign in February. “They’ve beentaking it one game at a time ... and they’vedone it,” he said of the Cardinals’ mid-sea-son turnaround.

“It hasn’t shocked me at all. I’ve seen them being a BCS bowl game contenderfrom the beginning, and that’s what mademe go there. Just look at the coaching staffand the people they’re bringing in. You can’texpect to have that type of talent coming inand those types of coaches and not expectto be on a collision course with greatness.”

Manley, who said he spoke to UofL offen-sive line coach Dave Borbely over the week-end, admitted that he’ll be pulling for Con-necticut when the Huskies play Cincinnatithis weekend (a Cincy loss will give UofL aBCS bowl berth).

Prior to that, he’s one of several future Cardinals playing for championships, atrend they hope continues once they get tocollege.

“I can’t remember where I heard it, but I heard someone say once that you can’tteach players how to win,” Manley said.“It’s great to be on a team with players thatknow how to win, because people who winknow how to win, and they hate to lose.”

Manley committed to Louisville over of-fers from Illinois, Kentucky and WesternKentucky.

SEVERAL FUTURE CARDS EXPERIENCING POSTSEASON SUCCESS

JEFF WAFFORDJEFF WAFFORD

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

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

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

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

Abraham Garcia OL Miami, Fla. University 6-6 339Big, physical lineman is nicknamed “Nacho.” A three-star lineman with several other BCS offers before he picked Louisville

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ANVOOTSANVOOTS

MANLEYMANLEY



CARDINAL STARSCOLIN ROLFE - MEN’S SOCCERThe senior forward from Canton, Mich., scored a goal and had three assists during Louisville’s 4-2 victory over No. 5 Maryland in the third round of the NCAA Tournament. Rolfe’s masterful performance came while playing just 48 of 90 minutes due to injury. He also took four shots, including two on goal. Despite being the focus of every defense Louisville faces due to his All-American performance last season, Rolfe has nine goals and 10 assists this season, both team highs.

MONIQUE REID - WOMEN’S BASKETBALLThe senior from Louisville Fern Creek H. S. came off the bench to score 22 points as the No. 11 Cardinals walloped Florida A&M 86-66 Saturday in Tallahassee. Louisville (6-1) also got 21 points from senior Becky Burke and outshot Florida A&M 53.4 percent to 31.4 percent. A&M fell to 1-4. Reid also scored 23 points during Louisville’s 85-76 victory over No. 24 Florida State Friday. As a sophomore last season Reid led the team in scoring at 18.4 points per game and was named fi rst-team All-Big East. She also was named Big East Most Improved Player.

GORGUI DIENG - MEN’S BASKETBALLHitting 5 of 10 shots, the sophomore center from Kebemer, Senegal, scored 10 points and had a career-high 16 rebounds during Louisville’s come-from-behind 59-54 victory over visiting Ohio University last Friday. He also had two assists and two blocks. So far this season Dieng is averaging 8.3 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. He has 18 blocks, eight assists, three steals and has hit 55.6 percent of his shots.

EMILY JUHL - VOLLEYBALLThe 5-foot-10 sophomore outside hitter from Louisville’s Sacred Heart Academy had 13 kills to help Louisville beat OVC champion Morehead State 25-12, 25-20, 25-18 last Saturday to improve to 23-8 for the season. Morehead fell to 26-7. Juhl’s 13 kills came on just 17 attempts. She hit .706 for the game. She also had two service aces. As a freshman last season Juhl was named Big East Tournament MVP and was named to the All-Big East second team.

TEDDY BRIDGEWATER - FOOTBALLThe freshman from Miami, Fla., completed 19 of 28 passes for 241 yards as the Cardinals beat host South Florida 34-24 last Friday to secure a share of the Big East title. Bridgewater threw three touchdown passes - one to senior Josh Chichester and two to fellow freshman DeVante Parker. Bridgewater was named the Big East Offensive Player of the Week and the Rivals.com National Player of the Week for his performance. For the season Bridgewater completed 66 percent of his passes (167 of 253) and had 12 touchdown passes and nine interceptions. His passing effi ciency rating is 136.1 through the regular season.

SHONI SCHIMMEL - WOMEN’S BASKETBALLThe sophomore point guard from Mission, Ore., scored 25 points to help No. 11 Louisville beat No. 24 Florida State 85-76 Friday night in Tallahassee. Schimmel, who hit 4 of 9 three-point shots, nailed one from long range with 4:23 left that snapped a 66-66 tie, and the Cardinals didn’t look back. Schimmel also had seven assists and four steals. A Freshman All-American last season, Schimmel was forced to sit out the fi rst two games this season due to an NCAA rules violation but has averaged 13.0 points and 5.6 assists in her fi rst fi ve games for the Cardinals this season. She also has 13 threes and 15 steals in those fi ve games.

HAYLEY TURNER - FIELD HOCKEYThe senior from North Sydney, Australia, has been named to the 2011 Longstreth/National Field Hockey Coaches Association All-America second team. She also was the 2011 Big East Co-Offensive Player of the Year. The UofL co-captain led the team with 11 goals and eight assists for 30 points in the regular season. This marks the third All-West Region selection for Turner, who also is a three-time All-Big East honoree. She is ranked in the top fi ve on the school’s career list for goals (39), assists (32) and points (110). She is the seventh player in school history to earn All-America honors.

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Sophomore center Gorgui Dieng tipped in a basket against Ohio last week. Dieng is averaging 8.3 points and 8.2 rebounds this season and has blocked 18 shots. - photo by Howie Lindsey

LOUISVILLE SOCCER


CARDINALS SET TO FACE UCLA IN ELITE EIGHT - AGAINBy Howie LindseyStop me if you’ve heard this before: The

University of Louisville men’s soccer team will take on UCLA In the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament at Cardinal Park, with the winner advancing to the College Cup.

Last November Louisville beat UCLA 5-4 in a wild, wintery classic to make the pro-gram’s fi rst College Cup appearance. In an exact rematch of last season, the two pro-grams will meet once again for a shot at col-lege soccer’s version of the Final Four, Dec. 9 and 11 in Birmingham, Ala.

The rematch was set when No. 12 na-tional seed Louisville upset No. 5 seed Mary-land 4-2 at Maryland Sunday and No. 13 seed UCLA beat Rutgers 3-0 Sunday night in Los Angeles. Fifteenth-ranked UofL, by virtue of being the higher seed, will host the fourth-ranked Bruins at Cardinal Park Satur-day night at 7.

Saturday’s game won’t just be a rematch of last season’s Elite Eight game. It also will be a rematch of this season’s home opener for the Cardinals. Then-No. 1 Louisville beat then-No. 2 UCLA 2-0 in that game.

“We feel like we’ve gotten better since that fi rst game at Louisville,” UCLA coach Jorge Salcedo said. “Fast-forward to where we are at now, and we’re a much better team that is equipped to go on the road. We keep the ball, we possess the ball, and we plan to go and play and get a result there. We absolutely are going to try and go play our game and see who’s the better team on the night.”

UCLA is 17-4-1 and enters Saturday night’s game with seven straight shutouts. The Bruins have not allowed a goal in 646 consecutive minutes. That will be a test for Louisville’s prolifi c front line of Colin Rolfe, Nick DeLeon, Alex Obbey and Buck Tufty.

Louisville is 14-6-2 and is playing some of its best soccer of the season. The Cardinals had a stretch of just two wins in eight games from Sept. 24 to Oct. 18, but they seem to have fi gured out their lineup now. UofL has won six of its last seven games, the only loss being 1-0 to NCAA Elite Eight UConn in the Big East semifi nal.

For coach Ken Lolla and the Cardinals, Sunday’s win at Maryland was an example of their best soccer. Louisville consistently took advantage of the Terrapins’ shaky back line with long services that allowed the Car-dinals to get behind Maryland’s deepest de-fenders. UofL All-American Rolfe had a goal and three assists.

“We noticed that they played a pretty high line,” Rolfe said. “It was just something that playing in front of the back line wasn’t working as well as we had hoped. There was a bunch of room in behind, and our guys in the back did a good job of recognizing it and playing some good balls.”

Maryland’s senior captain center back, Alex Lee, was injured and didn’t play, and their right back, Marquez Fernandez, went down with injury in the fi rst half. After that, it was open season on goal for the Cardi-nals.

“Anytime we had time and space to play we looked to play in behind them,” Lolla said. “For us, we had the guys like Colin

that could get in behind and get on the end of some things and create some problems for them. Many times, a game will tell you what you need and dictate it, and tonight the game meant for us to be a little more direct.”

DeLeon scored the fi rst goal of the game in the 19th minute when Rolfe sent a cross inside the box and DeLeon knocked it in. Maryland scored the equalizer in the 30th minute, and the teams went into halftime tied 1-1.

Louisville struck again seven minutes af-ter halftime when Kenney Walker sent a long ball to Rolfe, who moved behind the defense and sent a shot off the keeper’s hand and into the right corner of the net for a 2-1 lead.

After Maryland tied the score at 2 in the 67th minute, Louisville got a goal from Dan-iel Keller in the 79th minute and a goal from Michael Roman in the 84th minute to ice the victory.

“We had to reshuffl e some players and had a makeshift back line, and against two of the best forwards in the country and a team that’s as experienced and effi cient as Louisville, it was almost a little too much to ask for,” Maryland coach Sasho Cirovski said.

Despite Louisville’s spotty record in Sep-tember and October, Cirovski believes Lolla’s Cardinals could be this year’s NCAA cham-pions.

“We just couldn’t put together a defen-sive performance worthy of advancing in this round against a very good team,” Cirovski said. “You saw it a couple years ago when Akron lost in the fi nal and came back and won; it wouldn’t surprise me if (Louisville) goes all the way.”

For Louisville, the teams it may face in the coming weeks will be nothing new. Lolla stacked his team’s schedule to include four of the other seven teams in the Elite Eight.

If the Cards beat UCLA, they’ll likely have a rematch with No. 1 North Carolina in the national semifi nals.

Louisville lost to the Tar Heels 2-1 on Sept. 4 in Chapel Hill. It was the third game of the season for both squads. If Louisville wins in the semifi nals, it could face either Con-necticut or South Florida coming out of the other bracket in the national fi nals. Louisville lost 1-0 in double-overtime to Connecticut on Oct. 1 and fell 3-1 to South Florida on Oct. 18.

“I do think that ... us winning tonight was our schedule over the course of the year,” Lolla said after the Maryland victory. “We played some very diffi cult games that were out of conference, and I think they paid off for us.”

HOME CROWDLolla has said that the key to his team

becoming a perennial post-season power is fan support. He’s hoping Louisville fans turn out in force Saturday night.

Tickets can be purchased at the UofL tick-et offi ce or by calling (502) 852-5151. Tick-ets are $7 for adults and $5 for youths, stu-dents and senior citizens. Groups of 10 or more can purchase tickets for $4, but they must be purchased in advance.

“The best part is having it at home,” Lolla

said. “A year ago we had such a great crowd for that game, and really the fans willed us on to victory. We are expecting a huge crowd. We are looking forward to a chance to go back to the College Cup with a chance to bring back a national championship.”

BIG EAST BESTThe Big East placed fi ve teams in the

Sweet 16, and three of those teams - Lou-

isville, Connecticut and South Florida - ad-vanced to the Elite Eight. In addition toLouisville’s game against UCLA, No. 2 seedCreighton will host No. 7 seed South FloridaSaturday at 1 p.m., and No. 3 seed Con-necticut will host Charlotte on Sunday at 1p.m. The other national quarterfi nal is No. 1North Carolina vs. unseeded St. Mary’s (Ca-lif.) Saturday at 5 p.m. in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Nick DeLeon got a big hug from teammate Colin Rolfe after DeLeon scored a goal against Maryland Sunday night. Teammate Alexander Obbey (21) ran to join in the celebration. - photo by Michelle Hutchins


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Four-day-old Cardinal fan Jackson Jeffrey Lyons.

Brenden Pollock, age 6.

Pat Lowber and her grandchildren Sarina and Shoma.

Cousins Ethan Miller and Daylen Buckingham had a great time at a Cardinal football game.

Riley and Daylen Buckingham wrapped up for a cool Cardinal football game and

kept on trucking to the game.

louisville sportsreport: dec. 1, 2011

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