“We played a good game against Boise State and we played a great game tonight both on offense and defense. Everybody on the team really did something well. I can’t really find a weakness with the way they played.”

“I’m real proud to be in the Sweet 16.” Rick Pitino

“You couldn’t dream a night like this.” T-Will

“That was nuts! ” Jerry Smith (on Will Scott’s 35′ bomb to end the 1st half.)

Tidbit from Cardinal Empire: “These Cardinal shooters may not be the best to ever make the NCAA Tournament, but they leave Birmingham the owners of the top two three-point performances in Louisville history. The Cards tied the previous record Friday night, making 50% of their attempts against Boise State to match a 5-for-10 performance against Delaware in 1993. Sunday’s 52.9% (9-of-17) effort set a new best for the Cards in the NCAA Tourney.

SI.com: “Louisville marches on in the Big Dance. A typical TEAM performance. 78 points on the board & only 2 players in double figures (Clark 14, Smith 12). They should be well rested going into Charlotte.

When looking at the remaining teams left in the tourney this year, one common theme is really showing: Pressure defense.If you look at UCLA, North Carolina, Louisville, Wisconsin, Michigan State and a few of the others, these teams play very aggressive and physical team defense. ” Brian Rud

This is Louisville’s second Sweet 16 appearance under Pitino. The Cardinals also advanced to the Sweet 16 and Final Four in 2005. The winner of the Louisville-Tennessee contest will play the winner of the #1 seed North Carolina- # 4 seed Washington State game for the right to advance to San Antonio for the Final Four.

These two first games have given us the spark and confidence I was hoping they would. I like our chances against Tennessee — or against anyone the way we’re back to playing now.

Bring ‘em on!

In addition to my review of the game in the post below this one, here are some more fast facts that I gleaned mostly from Cardinal Empire:

The Sooners are 22-2 when they score at least 60 and 13-1 this season when guard Austin Johnson scores in double figures.

Blake Griffin is the real deal–and one big train at 6’10′ and 243.

His 10 boards/game rank him the top 35 in the nation. But his real threat is hitting the offensive glass for easy put-backs. Kenpom.com rates Griffin as one of the nation’s top offensive glass eaters, grabbing 14% of all offensive rebound opportunities for the Sooners.

As a team, Oklahoma could very well be one of the biggest that Louisville faces in the postseason. With a 6′11″ center, 6′10″ power forward, and two guards taller than 6′5″, the Sooners may be one of the only NCAA teams capable of literally seeing Louisville eye to eye.

The Sooners have primarily played just a seven-man rotation with the return of Blake Griffin (knee) and Longar Longar (broken leg), who both recovered from injuries late in the season. Beyond the dynamic front-court duo, the Sooners are very thin in the paint.

As mentioned in my post below, the Sooners are turnover prone, and are very inconsistent from the outside. If we match their inside strength, shoot a good % from outside, and keep them from doing the same–it could be a runaway for us by 15+.

I hope for that…but I truly expect a Big East style meat grinder of a game.

Cards 63- Sooners 59.

Go Cards!

“We played well tonight for an opening game but I thought we played better in the Garden and against Georgetown. I think we guarded the three well and did a lot of good things in the interior. And we did a good job of moving the basketball.”

Rick Pitino

*************************************************************************

Well, that was a pleasant change from the WWF smackdowns we’ve been playing in lately in the Big East.

I was hoping the matador defense that Boise plays would allow us to have an Ole! shooting night –and it certainly did. We shot over 50% from everywhere in both halves.

We flat out-shot the “shooters.”

We knocked down the wide-open 3′s in this game–unlike in the last two games. This may be the spark of confidence our outside shooters need. It would eliminate our biggest weakness.

Yeah, we were sloppy with turnovers and our free throw shooting continued to be a notch below pathetic. And, yeah, we let a smaller team slightly out-rebound us.

But, this game was definitely a good opening round.

*****************************************************************

Now for the expected match-up with #6 seed Oklahoma.  Scout.com OKLA: “This is Oklahoma’s 25th NCAA Tournament appearance and 12th in 14 years. The Sooners are back in the NCAA Tournament after seeing their nation’s-longest 25-year postseason streak (20 NCAAs, five NITs) come to an end last year.

Prognosticators around the country had Oklahoma pegged for a No. 8 seed or – at best – a No. 7 seed as the NCAA Tournament selections approached. Imagine their surprise when the brackets were released and the Sooners were a No. 6 seed in the East Region.

In fact, it surprised several of the Sooners, including head coach Jeff Capel.

“I wasn’t really paying attention, I was writing on my bracket,” Capel said. “We are really happy, really excited and really anxious to get going.”

The Sooners shoot around 44% from the field, 68% from the foul line. Defense and a good inside game are their strengths. Blake Griffin is their main man, averaging 16 points and 10 boards per game.

They are shaky in their outside shooting and in turnovers.

This game will definitely be a grinder. This from a Sooner blogger:

“The bottom line with us is we are dang tough when our guards are hitting 3′s. But they are very inconsistent. Most teams double and triple the post daring them to shoot.We play very good D and just aren’t a fun team to play. You will probably feel like you are the better team as you watch the game but the score will be close or we may even lead most of the game. Unless you guys come out and put on a show I like our chances to keep it competitive. We’ve played a tough schedule and have played the elite teams and players in the country– 5 of our losses came to KU, Memphis, and Texas 3 times.”

Ok, Okie.
This is a team we SHOULD beat–by 8-10. But we must again hit our outside shots. In fact, both teams will pack the D in, and force the issue from the outside.The Sooners guard the 3 well. We will also have an edge in size and depth–as usual–which we must take advantage of.

Below is a table of the comparative stats on the two teams.

Louisville -vs- Oklahoma head to head stats

Louisville Key Team Stats Oklahoma 71.9 Points scored 68.4 61.3 Points allowed 63.4 .453 FG% own .442 .383 FG% opposition .406 .342 3PT% own .348 .310 3PT% opposition .319 374 Offensive Rebounds 375 834 Defensive Rebounds 812 1285 Total Rebounds 1266 1.1 Assist/Turnover Ratio 1.0 18.2 Fouls Per Game 16.9

Finally, poster HarveyGlass at the Cardinal Empire blog, found this shiny nugget: The keys to Sports Illustrated’sVault of great sports pics and mag covers from over the decades–including some wonderful U of L stuff! http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/

“I’ve only got a couple weeks left in my college career and I’m going to give it all I’ve got.” David Padgett

**********************************************************************

Vegas may like us by 13. But, if we’re not focused, we could blow this first game.

Very worthwhile insights from a man who coached against Boise St. three times this year–and also knows the Cards very well:

From Idaho Statesman: … New Mexico State coach Marvin Menzies knows Louisville and BSU as well as anyone. He was an assistant at Louisville under Pitino the past two seasons and recruited many of the Cardinals’ current players. Menzies coached against the Broncos three times this season. http://www.idahostatesman.com/sports/story/327666.html

“This is going to be an interesting game,” Menzies said. “When I saw the matchup, I was like ‘Hmmm’ … I think it’s going to be a good game. I think it’s one of the better 14 vs. 3 matches because I think Boise is very capable.”

“Boise has got to continue to improve – they are going to have to play better than they played against us to beat Louisville, I can tell you that,” Menzies said. “At the same time, I think they have enough tools to do that. Senior-laden teams at the mid-major level, on any given night, can compete with a high-major program.”

Menzies said he thinks the game will hinge on how Louisville guards the perimeter against the Broncos….”They handled our (athleticism) in the championship game,” he said. “They did a good job and they played smart. From top to bottom, they don’t match up with the athleticism of Louisville, but they’ve got big hearts. It will be an interesting matchup.”

Hey, ck out the T’s!

And from the Bronco players (courtesy of the Card Chronicle) :

“Louisville is a good team with a great coach,” Noonan said. “They’re deep, athletic and big, but we’re going to come out and play; we’ve got nothing to lose. This game means a lot, there’s going to be a lot of great memories and it’s going to be a good experience. Hopefully we can play tough and pull one out.”

“It can’t be anymore hostile then it was at New Mexico State. There we had 10,000 people against us,” said Graham. “Louisville is close. I know a lot of people will drive down, but I am thinking at least half the people should be rooting for us because we’re the underdog.”

“We’re not predicted to win, but that helps us. It’s not like, ‘oh since we’re not predicted to win we’re just down.’ We weren’t predicted to win the WAC and we won and we kept out heads up so we’re going to keep our heads up regardless,” said Larry.

Look closely at the SI Madness cover…

Tough day, Billy?

Fox Sports: Kentucky far from being among college hoops elite.http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/7937598/Kentucky-far-from-being-among-college-hoops-elite

And in case you haven’t seen it. A hilarious story about UK fans rioting on a cruise ship, written in a blog by a bewildered British deck hand:
http://johnhealdsblog.com/2008…ky-fried-chaos/