A New Era -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Welcome Back! 

Before I get into today's article, which will be fairly short given that the schedule is bare and I don't feel like being the umpteenth person to provide an in-depth primer of the red/blue game, allow me to say "hello!" I feel like I need to reintroduce myself for as long as I've been gone. I've gotten all moved, and I finally became a world traveler. I've been to 38 states so far in my life, but to this point last week, had not yet put my passport to use. Thanks to my cruise, that fact is a thing of the past as I spent all last Saturday lounging on a beach bed on a private beach in Haiti. It was beautiful, and the social disconnect over the five day cruise was fantastic. My wife and I have also turned in the keys at our old apartment, making the move to our new house complete and final. We still have some unpacking to do, but it's really coming together. Anyway, that's where I've been for the last month, so how about some Cardinals talk.

MBB Hosts UK Today at 2PM

There isn't much on the schedule as far as Louisville sports go. The next women's game isn't for nearly a week, and there isn't anything other than this game on the calendar before that. This annual match-up is a pretty good one, though, and there is a lot to be excited about for Louisville fans this year. First, if you haven't read Mike Rutherford's article about what this game means for Calipari for the college basketball SB Nation site yet, I would advise you to go do that. You can find it on his Twitter or on Google. Mike is a great guy and he is really the reason that I am still writing about sports five years after deciding to give it a go (big shoutout to Paulie as well). The article is about how Cal has owned Louisville during his time at UK, which is no surprise to Louisville fans, but how this game may be a key to UK's season and to Cal's legacy at the school. 

There are a few things that are working in Louisville's favor for the game today. (I was going to say two things, but then the list kept getting longer in my head.) The first two things that came to mind are in a very similar vein; Louisville looks a lot better than people expected them to be this year, and Kentucky looks a lot worse. That is not to say that Louisville looks on paper like they could beat the brakes off of Kentucky, it just means the game looks a lot closer than it would have three months ago. Vegas agrees, as they've tabbed UK as just a one point favorite. A favorite has not covered the spread in 8 of the last 10 meetings.

The next major thing is that this is a home game. The Yum! Center at its best is an insane environment. I've been a part of a lot of the biggest games there. Add on the fact that this is a game against the team's most hated rival and the environment ratchets up one or two notches. As Rutherford pointed out in his article, the two times that Calipari has lost to Louisville while at Kentucky were both games in which his team was playing its first true road game of the season. Guess who hasn't played a true road game yet this year... (Also, can we talk about the fact that we're two months into the season and a perennial powerhouse hasn't yet played a true road game? Come on, man. Man up with the schedule.) In addition to the "first true road game" issue, this rivalry against Calipari has mostly been determined by home court advantage. Cal is 9-2 against Louisville, which is admittedly bad for the Cardinals. However, only two of those nine wins have come in Louisville. Cal is 7-0 in Rupp or on a neutral floor, but is only 2-2 in Louisville (against the Cards). Chris Mack's squad has a chance to push that to a winning home record.

The last item I'll talk about that is working for Louisville this season is the addition of head coach Chris Mack. John Calipari was in Rick Pitino's head. He lived there. Pitino hated the way that Calipari succeeded at the forefront of the one and done era, and he regularly couldn't get it done against Cal. More than that, though, Pitino really wasn't great against UK before Cal got there. Louisville was only 4-4 against UK under Pitino before the Cal era and almost half of those games were against Billy Gillespie. Chris Mack is different. He allows himself to be caught up in the rivalry, but no differently than he allows himself to be caught up in any other game. To say that rivalry games don't mean more to Mack would be a lie, but that doesn't mean it's going to eat him up to the point where he doesn't know how to coach for a week. Mack is ready for this game, and he's clearly getting his team ready for it. He said himself of the game, "As a competitor, if you haven't internalized that and thought about that 90-61 ass-whooping, then I don't want you on my team." Chris Mack comes from a history of a fierce rivalry. You'd better believe he's excited to be in charge of another one.

I'm not going to give a prediction for today's game. Call me a coward if you'd like, but I just can't do it. Neither team has been consistent enough this year to be defined in any way. I wouldn't be surprised by an extremely close game that comes down to the wire (although I'm already a bit worn out on those types of games from the Cards this season), but I also wouldn't be particularly surprised if this game was a blowout in either direction. Only the guys on the court will be able to tell us how this game will go, and we'll find out that answer in a matter of hours.

Cards-Cats, Yum! Center, 2PM, ESPN2. Appointment television.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

My return to the pages coincides with my return to the studio! I'll be back on Mellwood Avenue today with the gang for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. I can't imagine what we'll talk about. Join us on WCHQ from 11AM-Noon. WCHQ is available on 100.9 FM, the new WCHQ app, wchqfm.com, and on Facebook Live. We don't take call-ins, but if you ask questions on FB Live, I do my best to at least bring attention to them.

LINK:  THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR

Until next time, Go Cards!!

-CH-

Sunday Cardinal Couple -- UofL vs UofK Recap

Louisville 80 Kentucky 77

-Cards get 6o points from Siva, Smith and Behanan in win.
 

Louisville's Chane Behanan blows a kiss goodbye after his late dunk sealed the deal for UofL

The final score was much closer than the game as a whole. Louisville proved they were the better team, despite the fact that UK nearly clawed back to take a late lead. Louisville's patented defensive pressure forced UK into 14 turnovers, the most important of which led to a Chane Behanan slam with 17 seconds left to seal the game. However, give credit to Ryan Harrow who stayed under control the entire game for the Wildcats and managed to avoid turning the ball over at all. 

The game got off the a fast start with both teams trading punches. Kentucky opened an early 7-4 lead behind and Archie Goodwin and-1 and Nerlens Noel put back. Louisville found a way to answer though, as a Peyton Siva jumper was followed by a Russ Smith defensive board which he took past four UK defenders for an easy lay-up. This gave Louisville an early 8-7 lead at the 15:21 mark.

Louisville continue their mini-run as Russ Smith contorted in the corner to find Wayne Blackshear for an easy dunk. However, Kentucky answered on the other end as Ryan Harrow found Kyle Wiltjer open for a three. Wiltjer drained the three, causing Rick Pitino to call a full timeout at the 13:58 mark with the score tied 10-10. 

The crowd roared as Gorgui Dieng collected an offensive board and finished with a slam dunk to put the Card up 12-10 with 13:48 left in the first half. However, the excitement was short lived as UK went on an 8-0 run capped by an Alex Poythress three pointer to put UK up 18-12.

After this juncture the first half was all UofL, a Peyton Siva lay-up was followed by a Harrell tip-in that forced Calapari to call a full timeout. That timeout was followed by a Russ Smith foul and the official TV timeout. 

Louisville quickly forced three straight UK turnovers, two of which resulted in easy baskets giving Louisville a 20-18 lead with 7:44 remaining. 

Louisville would go on to finish the half on a 16-10 run that saw them take an eight point lead into the half. Peyton Siva hit two threes during said run to really give Louisville major momentum going into halftime. 

End of 1st: Louisville 36 Kentucky 28

Louisville played the majority of the first half without Gorgui Dieng who had to sit with foul trouble. Gorgui played great in his first action since Louisville beat Missouri, but it's obvious he still has a ways to go on the defensive end to get his timing back. Chane Behanan had 11 points to lead the Cards in the first, he scored in  a number of ways and seems to be the Chane Behanan of last March again.

Louisville jumped on Kentucky early, starting the half on a 5-0 run to take a thirteen point lead 41-28 with 18:04 left in the 2nd. Louisville and Kentucky traded punches after that point as the two teams scored on their next 6 possessions. Louisville got the edge though as they took a fourteen point lead, 48-34 into the first official TV timeout of the half.

Louisville pushed their lead out further after a Peyton Siva made free throw was followed by a Russ Smith steal and score. This gave Louisville their largest lead of the game at seventeen points, 51-34. The celebration was short lived though as Kyle Wiltjer hit back-to-back threes to cut the lead back down to eleven, 51-40. This forced a Rick Pitino full timeout with 13:58 left in the 2nd. 

The two teams again traded punches, a Kyle Wiltjer three at the 10:59 mark was followed by a Peyton Siva made jumper to stretch the lead back out to 10, 57-47 with 10:44 left. 

Then the worst case scenario for Louisville happened, Peyton Siva picked up two quick fouls in the span of about 30 seconds. This forced Rick to sit Peyton who now had 4 fouls. After a Chane Behanan dunk pushed the Louisville lead to 61-49 with 9:35 left, Russ Smith picked up his fourth foul. 

Kentucky went on a 12-2 run from this point on, as a Ryan Harrow jumper at the 5:35 mark pulled UK within two points, 63-61. Louisville responded with a 10-3 run which saw them take a nine point lead with 2:20 remaining in the game. 

However, two Peyton Siva free throws were sandwiched in between Goodwin and Mays three pointers. This left the Louisville lead at five points, 75-70 with 1:44 left in the game.

The two teams went scoreless for the next minute before a Nerlens Noel turnover led to a Chane Behanan breakaway slam. This pushed the lead to seven points with only 44 seconds remaining and seemingly sealed the game. 

Archie Goodwin proceeded to drain a three with Peyton Siva providing seemingly great defense. But, Siva was whistled for his fifth foul on the made three. Goodwin made the resulting free throw and this brought the game to 77-74 with 35 seconds left. 

Russ Smith was fouled immediately and made one of two. This gave Kentucky the ball down four with 33 seconds remaining. Chane Behanan jumped the lane on an Archie Goodwin pass, he strode down the court and delivered a one-handed tomahawk that brought the crowd to its feet. A meaningless Archie Goodwin three made the final score 80-77. Louisville got their first win over a John Calapari coached Kentucky team.

-Donny Yaste

Final: Louisville 80 Kentucky 77   

Russ Smith loves waffles and scoring against the Wildcats, he has 51 points combined points in the last two regular season meetings against UK

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Lady Cards 2011 Class ranked 7th,... Is anyone worth $5 million a year?

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Spring Class bumps Lady Cards WBB to #7 ranking

-What would you do with $5 million a year?

The revised ESPN 2011 women's basketball class rankings are out and Louisville's incoming class has jumped from #31 to #7...largely based on Jeff Walz's spring signings. Although Monny Niamke, the French 5'4" point guard who will spend her first season at Lindsey Wilson, was included in the rankings...additions of Bria Smith and Jude Schimmel to go with Sara Hammond caused the Cards to climb the ladder. The top 10:

1) Tennessee
2) Connecticut
3) Rutgers
4) Duke
5) California
6) Stanford
7) LOUISVILLE
8) USC
9) Texas A&M
10) Texas

Kentucky finished at #12...largely because of Indy's Bria Goss committing to the Cats. What does it all mean? For Louisville, it's their second straight class ranked in the top ten in the nation. Unfortunately, two of their BIG EAST foes are ranked above them. Can't help but notice the West coast presence here...with (3) Pac 10 teams listed.

Over-hype? Maybe...when is the last time that a Pac 10 school won the NCAA Championship? 1992 (Stanford). Who is the only PAC 10 school to make the Final Four in the 21st century? Stanford.

Who will win the Pac 10 title in 2011-12. Oregon State...
Just kidding, it's Stanford's world and the rest of the Pac 10 is just living in it.

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You get tired earning $12,000
a day...

John Calipari is going to receive about $5 million a year over the next eight years to be the head coach for the University of Kentucky basketball team. Incredible. $3.4 million of that per year is for broadcasting and endorsements...which has nothing to do with fast breaks, NCAA appearances or recruiting. We, here at CARDINAL COUPLE, would like to apply for the right to get paid for telling you to eat at PANERA, drive a Ford and utter statements like "I thought the kids played good defense tonight." And, we'll work much cheaper than that. $50 a pop and we'll tell you we like Hanes underwear, shopping at Kroger and getting gas at Speedway. 

What would you do for $12000 a day? WE asked CARDINAL COUPLE special correspondent David Watson how he'd spend that 24 hours at roughly $500 per hour:

7 a.m. Wake up and turn on Sportscenter.
7:30 a.m. Wolf down a bowl of oatmeal and a piece of whole wheat toast. Maybe an egg...
8 a.m. Hit the shower, shave and brush the teeth.
9 a.m. Out the door! Maybe stop by Starbucks on the way to the office.
9:30 a.m. Review my e-mails. Check my horoscope and play Farmville.
10:30 a.m. Summon my assistants and see what's going on.
11:15 a.m. Call my investment broker.
11:30 a.m. Lunch time!
1 p.m. Head over to the gym and watch the guys take a few jumpers. Shout at a couple.
2 p.m. Head to the broadcast studios to talk about appliances and my recruiting class
3 p.m. Sauna and massage time!
4 p.m. Review my e-mails
5 p.m. Close up the office and head over to the driving range . My short game is terrible!
6 p.m. Stop by Malone's for a steak and glass of merlot. Overtip the blonde hanging over me.
8 p.m. Finally home! Put on the t-shirt and Dockers and chat with the kids and wife.
9 p.m. A chance to count my loose change on the dresser drawer. $1.78. YES!
9:15 p.m. Pop on Facebook and see what people are saying about me. Adding a few things...
10 p.m. Catch the News at Ten and do the Sudoku puzzle in the Lexington Herald Leader
10:50 p.m. Call Mom and see how she's doing. Call Pitino and hang up after chuckling.
11 p.m Sportscenter again...no mention of me? Harumph, harumph...
11:30 p.m. Kiss the wifey goodnight and turn out the light.

It's good to be King of the Bluegrass. Beats ribs and Beale Street blues.
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