To Providence...and beyond!

We're getting all our shit together here at CL headquarters, because the Mrs. and I have a 6:00 AM flight to Boston, where we'll rendevous with Mr. Black and then head to Providence on Saturday for the Cards 5 o'clock tipoff against the Friars.

It'll be the furthest I've ever travelled to see a Louisville game, and as the strange but entertaining new sports anchor for WHAS, Matt Hobbes, would say, it makes me feel all tingily inside.

We'll cheer, we'll drink, and we'll do our best to endear ourselves to the locals by pointing out every way in which the Kayefseum is superior to their own arena and by asking what time the Patriots play on Sunday.

This is also a heads up that posts on Cardinal Laws will waver between slight and nonexistent tomorrow until we can secure sufficient Wi-Fi, but we'll do our best to provide behind-enemy-lines quips and pics when we can.

Rest assured a full recap will be forthcoming Monday.

Go Cahhh-ds!

He bounced

Yesterday I asked with concern about how Peyton Siva would bounce back from his late-game benching against Marquette.

Well, he answered. In style.

Siva flirted with a triple-double, logging 10 points, 10 dishes, and 7 steals in the Cards remarkably easy win.

I woke up this morning happy and drove to work only to be treated to the Early Birds Morning Show, where they expounded ad nauseum about how Siva's been "treated" from the fans and how most of it can be chalked up to Sosa-backlash.

And it's unfair to both.

I'm drawing a line in the sand against the anti-Sosa sentiment that seems to pervade every discussion of Cardinal basketball.

Lest us forget, Sosa was good. He frustrated the hell out of fans at times, but he also provided many of the highlight moments of Louisville basketball from the 2006 Final Four run till now.

I cringe when I hear so many turn against a UofL player that served the Cards faithfully.

And it's also unfair to Peyton Siva, a totally different player playing on a totally different team. Unlike Sosa, who the Cards relied on for offense, Siva doesn't have to fill up his point total to do his job admirably.

Last night's stat line, complete with only two turnovers, is precisely what Siva can, and needs to do, for his team to achieve greater goals.

Replay

Here's the ESPN3 link to the Louisville-St. John's game in case anyone missed it and would like to see. It expires next Wednesday, January 26. The cold opening using footage of the Marquette comeback is worth a glance alone.

Checking in on these games that come before those other games

Great win yesterday. Maybe the best performance by the Cards this year. Coming on the tail end of the Marquette comeback, and multiple reports that the Cards are turning in some of their best performances in practice, it isn't crazy anymore to think that we're on the cusp of playing our best basketball of the season.

Just in time too. If we can hang tough through these next two games, we'll position ourselves about as well as we could hope for the most treacherous part of our conference schedule, when we play four ranked teams in five games. Check out the Big East standings -- Louisville currently finds itself tied for third place at 4-1 in the league. I posted before that a 5-2 conference record heading into those games was the objective to shoot for. That remains true, but... well... if we can somehow pull out the next two and be 6-1, that would be just sensational. Pad those victories while we can. They will be harder to come by later.

But first thing's first -- in the Big East, every game is big. We've got to head up to Providence and beat the Friars on Saturday, then come home and get ready for Huggie Bear and his West Virginia Mountaineers. That latter game is going to be tricky -- West Virginia is ranked in one of the polls, has beaten Georgetown, and is coming off its upset of #8 Purdue. Huggins' teams are always physical, never flashy, but you can usually count on them to beat the hell out of us -- one way or the other.

But even that's getting too far ahead. Beat Providence -- 0-6 in the conference or not, they're Big East and deserve our respect, lest we regret it -- then Huggins and company, then we can talk about where things stand.

Go Cards.

The OC

Lots of sources reporting that Steve Kragthorpe has been named the next offensive coordinator for LSU. Best of luck to him, a good man that was a terrible coaching fit for Louisville. But I recognize that some are better coordinators than head coaches, so maybe it could work out. But there you have it. UK, don't say we never did nothing for ya.

Louisville-St. John's highlights and interviews

Cards impressive at home, do it all to top St. John's 88-63

Louisville picked up right where they left off against Marquette, raging out to a large first half lead and never taking their foot off the gas.

It was a complete performance. The defense created 20+ turnovers, Siva slashed and dished at will, Preston and Kuric rained 3s, Gorgui ran the court and blocked shots.

After extending the margain the Cards never lost focus and turned the remainder of the game into an old-fashioned dunk fest.

It's already been a rollercoaster season; there's moments of nausea but mostly it's been a hell of a lot of fun. UofL moves to 15-3 overall and 4-1 in the Big East.

Good times.

How will Peyton bounce back?

Tonight's an important game for Peyton Siva, who must be spinning out a little after being benched for the final five minutes of UofL's dramatic win; Pitino opted to go with Elisha Justice, who responded nicely.

If the comeback itself wouldn't have sucked all the oxygen from the post-game coverage, Siva's benching certainly would have. Coach Pitino did discuss it in his presser, and gave some borderline-strange remarks about how fans need to be nicer to Siva and pump him up rather than bring him down.

Umm, OK, point taken, but that's not exactly the kind of thing you want to hear about your floor leader. Siva has flashes of brillance but hasn't figured out how to consistently marshall his team for 40 minutes. If fans are "hard on him" (which I cannot really testify too, though I admit I haven't been to the last few games in person) it's only because they recognize both his potential and his importance to this team's success.

No one's giving up on him, but we're just itching for Siva to take the reigns and make it his team from an execution standpoint in the same way that it's Preston's from an emotional standpoint.

He'll get a chance to prove his mettle again tonight going against savvy senior point guard Malik Boothe. Boothe hales from Queens, and as you may recall, basketball law mandates all New York guards be described as hard-nosed and tough. He's also lightning-quick, averages 3 assists a game with a solid 2.5 assist to turnover ratio.

We're behind you, Siva. Time to bring it.

Kragthorpe interviews for LSU OC position

Or he did yesterday, anyways. And most of the buzz swirling around LSU blogs, here and here, seems to indicate that the Tigers have had their eye on Krags as early as 2009 before deciding to give their previous OC another season to turn things around.

Believe it or not, most of the fans on the message boards are actually talking themselves into the hire, and clearly have swallowed the meme that Kragthorpe walked into a "cesspool" at UofL, which has been debunked so many times it's not worth going into. But whatever helps you sleep at night, don't say we didn't warn ya.

And if he is the frontrunner, it would be terrific news for Cards fans in that Mike Sanford will almost certainly be back to lead the Louisville offense next season (though get ready, our success is going to thin the ranks of our assistants, it's inevitable. Just focus on keeping The Big Guy).

It would also make every LSU game next season instant Must See TV just to catch a glimpse of the Miles-Kragthorpe brain trust expressionlessly munching grass on the sidelines after another fake punt gets snuffed out.

Geaux Tigers!

Rodney Purvis outduels other top guard

Debbie Downer analyzes the first 34:16 of the Marquette game

Let's be honest, what the Cards achieved on Saturday was the basketball equivalent of Shooting the Moon or hitting an inside straight on the river or any other impossibly improbable cards-related metaphor you can think of.

That everything did fall into place, in sequence, from both teams, is what will make the miracle comeback so memorable, one that'll be talked about for years to come.

But what may or not be forgotten, is just how terribly the Cards had played up till that point. Not just run-a-the-mill losing basketball, but cringe-worthy, watch-out-Mr. Red's-hurling-projectiles basketball.

Pitino's uber-fast style of play he wanted to introduce this season was exposed for what many suspected all along, that it's more an abstraction than an offense. For looooong stretches at a time it looked like the Cards would struggle to put any more points on the board. There was no reason to think they would, there was no half-court offense being run that was putting players in position to score.

For those that watched the game on TV, there was one segment where Marquette coach Buzz Peterson broke down the Xs and Os on a marker board of what Pitino's teams like to do in half-court sets. Other than high-post screens, most of it was confusing to me, but his team sure did seem to have it figured out. Rewatching the game, it looked like Louisville was playing a half-second too tentative on every possession. Once a screen was set or an extra pass made, the player would hesistate before making a move, letting the defense reset, and rendering all the moving parts of the offense meaningless before jacking up a contested jumper. Clang.

It's going to fall mostly on Siva, but all the Cards have to make drastic improvements in their half-court offense to have success going forward; Pitino's stylistic approach of relentlessly pushing tempo may sound good, but it's not going to cut it. I think it starts with the Cards aggressively taking the ball to the hole, and more importantly (for Siva especially) making good split-second decisions once they do so.

That's what makes tomorrow's game so important. What we witnessed on Saturday was powerful. But tomorrow we'll see if the victory is powerful enough to shake the team back into a competent group that can execute against solid, Big East competition. If not, the comeback will be viewed as a momentary blip of good fortune in what could still be a long season.

And, my tests just came back from the hospital and the news isn't good. And there's signs of more trouble in the Middle East. And it's supposed to snow. Wah-wahhhn.

The road ahead

Even before the Marquette game, opinion on Planet Cardinal seemed to have settled on the notion that Louisville could afford to lose conference games against this year's heavyweights -- Syracuse, UConn, Villanova, Pitt -- without damaging our tourney credentials, so long as we took care of business against the rest of the league. In that sense, there's more on the line when we play teams we're favored to beat than there is when we're trying to play the top teams.

If that's the case, then we're in the middle of a most treacherous patch in our schedule.

It started with the Marquette game. The rationale described above is what underscored the dramatic turn of events we saw Saturday. No doubt the Golden Eagles have played other teams tough, but we were more talented and expected to beat them. A loss at home would have been catastrophic.

Having barely beaten Marquette, the Cards now move on to other tricky games -- three opponents whom we should feel reasonably capable of beating, but each of whom could beat us handily if we're asleep at the wheel. It starts tomorrow when the Cards play host to St. John's, which, having knocked off Georgetown and Notre Dame already, is vastly improved from last season's squad -- and that team was capable enough to embarrass us last year, a visit to New York that some of us are still trying to forget.

Next after that, the Cards head to the Great Northeast to play Providence on Saturday. There hasn't been any recent scares from Providence that I can remember. And that scares me. Providence is 0-5 in conference play, and that scares me too. Bad things happen to good people.

Then, on Jan. 26th, it's Bob Huggins and his West Virginia Mountaineers coming to town. Disaster always lurks on the horizon when we face off against Huggie Bear. I still shudder at the memory of last year's game, when the Cards took on a solid lead, tried to coast their way to a season-defining victory, then coughed up everything through their own ineptitude and some very controversial officiating decisions (seriously, check the link, or this other link, and tell me it doesn't get your blood boiling again).

Upon completing the stretch of games highlighted above, the Cards, hypothetically, could be 6-1 in conference play and believing again the sky's their limit; more easily, they could be 3-4 and reeling. Those are the best-case and worst-case scenarios, but the most likely outcome is probably going either 2-1 or 1-2 down the stretch.

The difference between winning two and losing one, or winning one and losing two, is, I think, sizable. Pitino's talk about approaching conference play as a bunch of three-game series must be having its effect. Nonetheless, taking a 5-2 record into the really mean part of our conference schedule will help keep our heads above water. So these next three games are important. We can't take anyone for granted.

We here at Cardinal Laws will be doing our part. Of the next three opponents, Providence should be the most overmatched against us -- and hence, potentially, overlooked. Through fortuitous circumstances, Mr. Red, Mrs. Red, and I will be in New England this weekend, and we have secured tickets to the Louisville-Providence game at Dunkin Donuts Arena in downtown Providence.

So in a game that might otherwise have slipped from radar -- not only because the Friars aren't very good this year, but also due to its remote location deep in the frigid, uninhabited, arctic-tribal, wild wild east Rhode Island frontier -- we will be there, dressed in our parkas, cheering on the Cards in the flesh.

But St. John's first. Take care of business tomorrow fellas. Go Cards.

The Sharphead Redemption

If you wanna hurl criticism, you need to be able to pump praise with equal verve.

Terrence Jennings, whipping boy for all the ails the Cards have experienced this season, played a man's game in the instant-classic comeback against Marquette.

A huge, monster rebound when the Cards were down 5. Clutch free throws in the most pressure-packed moments of the contest. And the blocked shot that gave his team a chance to cap-off the miracle.

I'm not saying that those critical of TJ's play this season were wrong or hypocritical, but for coming through with such panache after being so disparaged, Jennings deserves to be singled out for some kind words.

When it counted most, he became the player we've all hoped he could be. Keep it up, TJ.

Ingredients to staying alive until Preston Knowles catches fire

Lost in the offensive explosion saving us from disaster, are these key facets about Saturday's game:

* Mr. Ball Control -- Elisha Justice played heady ball late and quarterbacked the run. Pitino said afterward that it wasn't Peyton Siva's night and that we're all gonna have to live with the ups and downs. So be it. But if that means he's going to be in a funk sometimes, then Justice's coldly efficient, level-headed style of play is a Godsend.

* Defense -- Everyone understands that we won because Preston Knowles exploded from beyond the arc. What might not be as obvious is that Marquette had 63 points at the seven minute mark and finished the game with 70. Seven points allowed in seven minutes. A single point more, and we don't complete the comeback.

* Rebounding -- Likewise, Louisville found at last a way to hit the boards hard, limiting Marquette to one shot instead of three, even (gasp) providing themselves with a few second-chance opportunities. I can't remember where I read it, I think maybe Bozich's column, but it said that right before the run Marquette was outrebounding Louisville handily. By game's end, Louisville had won the battle of the boards, 38-34. (stats here).

* Chris Smith -- Before TJ was shaken awake from his rebounding coma and dominated the glass during the run (he had 8 overall), Chris Smith was leading the way on the boards -- he finished with 7, another remarkable rebounding stat for his size. Still would rather have a big man leading the way on rebounds, and given that Jennings pulled down 8 and George Goode had 6, hopefully Marquette will constitute a turning point. But until we're certain, Chris Smith seems to be our only hope.

* Kyle Kuric -- Trying desperately to keep us in the game during the first half with his three-point shooting and defensive prowess. The kid plays quietly, smart, under control -- maybe to a fault. But he's increasingly finding new ways to lead on defense these last few games, and as we saw, still capable of shaking alive the U of L offense with his three-point shooting. Solid play all around from K. Kuric, who of course also hit the game-winner.