Snapshot of the Louisville Cardinals

by joenewby4040 on Mar 23, 2009 4:02 PM PDT in Basketball Comment 3 comments

LOUISVILLE CARDINALS
Location: Louisville, Ky.
Founded: 1798
Enrollment: 21,000
Colors: Red and Black
Coach: Rick Pitino
Home Court: Freedom Hall
Capacity: 18,865
Record: (30-5, 16-2 Big East)

The Louisville Cardinals are this year's number 1 overall seeded team in the Tournament. They will be playing only 114 miles away when they take on the Wildcats in Indianapolis on Friday. They are likely to have a huge home court advantage, unless Arizona fans make the trip from the heavily alumni populated Chicago. Louisville has gone 2-0 in the Tournament by defeating Morehead State 74-54 and Siena 79-72. They put together a tremendous season going 28-5 in the regular season and 19-2 in the strong Big East conference. They won their first Big East Conference championship by defeating Syracuse 76-66.

Starters and Key Players

Earl Clark leads the Cardinals averaging 13.9 ppg. He is shooting 45.3% from the floor and grabs 8.8 rebounds/game. Louisville only has three players who average in double digits. This obviously does not translate into a weak team. The Cardinals also have eight players who have played in 30+ games this year. They are the epitome of a team, and their strength lies in their depth.

Earl Clark leads the powerfu Louisville Cardinals.

The Cardinals are led by coach Rick Pitino, who has been rumored to be courted by Arizona to be their next head coach. Louisville has won 12 games in a row dating back to February 12, 2009. Louisville averages 73.9 ppg and hits 36% of their three pointers. Arizona's three point defense is obviously going to play a huge part in this game. Expect the Cardinals to go to their bench often and try to wear out the Wildcats. Check back in this week for the preview to the game and hopefully a Q&A from CardChronicle on the game. Here are the team stats from Louisville so far this year:

			FG			3PT			FT			Rebounds			Misc
	G	M	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	Off	Def	Tot	Ast	TO	Stl	Blk	PF	PPG
Earl Clark	35	34.1	5.3	11.8	45.3	0.8	2.5	31.0	2.5	3.8	65.2	2.7	6.1	8.8	3.3	3.3	1.1	1.4	1.9	13.9
Terrence Williams	35	34.2	4.7	10.7	43.7	1.5	3.9	38.4	1.9	3.2	57.5	1.4	7.3	8.7	5.0	2.4	2.4	0.8	1.7	12.7
Samardo Samuels	35	25.2	4.5	7.7	58.7	0.0	0.0	0.0	3.0	4.5	65.4	2.5	2.3	4.8	0.9	2.1	0.6	1.3	3.0	12.1
Jerry Smith	35	21.5	2.5	5.1	48.3	1.4	3.5	40.5	1.2	1.8	66.7	0.6	1.6	2.2	1.3	1.0	1.1	0.1	1.9	7.6
Edgar Sosa	35	19.9	2.5	6.4	38.4	1.0	3.4	29.7	1.3	1.7	73.8	0.2	1.1	1.4	2.3	1.8	0.8	0.1	1.7	7.2
Preston Knowles	35	16.6	2.3	5.2	43.6	1.3	3.1	43.0	0.3	0.5	52.9	0.8	1.3	2.1	0.9	0.7	0.9	0.1	1.5	6.1
Andre McGee	35	19.5	1.8	5.1	35.6	1.4	3.7	37.7	0.5	0.7	73.1	0.3	1.4	1.7	1.8	1.1	1.2	0.0	2.0	5.5
Terrence Jennings	31	11.8	1.7	2.9	58.2	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.7	1.4	51.2	1.6	1.2	2.8	0.3	0.6	0.4	1.7	1.4	4.1
Will Scott	20	4.3	0.7	1.8	40.0	0.5	1.5	34.5	0.3	0.4	71.4	0.1	0.3	0.4	0.3	0.0	0.2	0.0	0.6	2.2
Reginald Delk	26	5.3	0.6	1.3	44.1	0.2	0.8	30.0	0.2	0.3	55.6	0.2	0.4	0.6	0.4	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.6	1.6
Kyle Kuric	16	5.7	0.6	1.1	50.0	0.3	0.7	45.5	0.1	0.1	100.0	0.6	0.4	1.0	0.3	0.4	0.1	0.2	0.4	1.6
George Goode	26	6.0	0.5	1.2	46.7	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.3	75.0	0.5	0.8	1.3	0.3	0.2	0.3	0.8	0.7	1.3
Jared Swopshire	35	5.6	0.5	1.4	33.3	0.1	0.5	26.3	0.2	0.4	53.3	0.4	0.7	1.1	0.2	0.5	0.2	0.1	0.5	1.3
Lee Steiden	2	0.5	0.0	0.5	0.0	0.0	0.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
	34	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.4	1.2	2.7	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0

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Three keys for the Cats

I’m sure you’ll cover more of this as we move along, but just wanted to get some licks in now.

1. Keep them Off-Balance with Pacing – a buddy of mine said early in the season that the thing he really liked about Pennell is that he manages pace really well. It’s largely out of necessity because the bench is so thin. Pennell switches how far out he’ll extend his defense and how much the team runs based on opponent and foul difficulty. L’ville wants to run. Arizona CAN run with them… In fact, a more wide open game may serve to keep our key players out of foul trouble. The key is to give L’Ville different looks and a different pace throughout. Speed it up. Slow it down. To me the quintessential game on beating L’ville wasn’t Notre Dame’s rout. It was UNLV, who kept them off-balance.

2. Find minutes for Lavender – Defensively, we have to keep L’ville’s guards out of the middle and away from Jordan. I love, love, love Kyle Fogg. He’s the new Reggie Geary. He looks and plays just like Reggie (who I hope Livengood insists the new coach keeps). I’m a bit less in love with Zane Johnson. I like him, but his shot comes and goes. When he’s off he doesn’t bring anything else, plus he’s a foul magnet. With Lavender you get far superior defense, an extra ball handler, and decent decision-making.

3. The role players will determine the outcome – I don’t fear any of the matchups between the key players on both sides. We might lose but Terrance Williams isn’t much better than Chase, if at all. Jordan is better than Earl Clark. Nic and Sosa are probably a dead heat. Nic’s the better scorer. Sosa’s the better pure point. The real difference is the other guys. On paper they should beat us based on players 4-10. But I like what I’ve seen the past few games from Fogg and from Horne. Horne didn’t score much in the opening round game, but was super active defensively. I wasn’t at all surprised that he scored in the second game. He could have a big game, especially if Pennell isn’t afraid to run.

"Those who fear disorder more than injustice inevitably produce more of both." -- Rev. William Coffin

by dcrockett17 on Mar 24, 2009 9:09 AM PDT reply actions

Excellent

I liked all your analysis and I agree with every point. I really do think that Arizona is a team with the ability to change their pace and throw off the Cardinals.

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