At some point early in the telecast of U of L’s most unusual Monday game with Georgia Tech, color announcer Chris Spatolo — who played for Coach K at West Point, then married one of his daughters — declared what a treat it was to be watching college hoops at such a strange hour.
“I’m a big fan of 2:00 o’clock Monday afternoon basketball.”
Well, me too. Especially on a cold gray February day.
For me it felt like a NCAA first round 6 vs 11 Thursday matchup in, oh I don’t know, Provo, Utah.
You don’t know which team is going to show up, which team isn’t?
Well, we do now.
The Louisville Cardinals took care of biz in the first of three important ACC battles this week.
U of L 74, Georgia Tech 58.
The Cards fell behind early. Down 7-14 at the 13:43 timeout, because GT had been quicker to the boards, quicker to the ball, Louisville took the lead for good, 27-25 on a Carlik Jones J, at the 3:57 mark, increased it to six at the intermission buzzer.
And never looked back.
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It is at this point that I considered giving Sam Williamson some faux grief about his underwhelming performance in the first half.
I mean, he only tallied 9 on 4/6 shooting. Plus he grabbed a paltry 8 rebounds.
Why the consideration of the fake grievance.
Because Sam Williamson — Make that Samuell Williamson, double ll, double ll — had a DOUBLE DOUBLE in the second half.
I guess it’s happened before by a Card. I’ll have to ask Kenny Klein somewhere along the way.
Uh, well, yeah, SW, whose whole game has changed for the much better since he started coming off the bench — Go figure! — went for 11 (4/7 FG) and 10 after intermission.
This is the baller Cardinal fans have been waiting see since the Big Mac A-A showed up on the Belknap Campus.
Oh it’s so too too too trite, but I’ll say it anyway.
Sam was “The Man” on Monday.
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So, during a run in the 2d when Williamson could have gotten a Windex endorsement, Spatola and play by play guy Chris Cotter name David Johnson as Player of the Game.
And, I’m thinkin’, what, you kiddin’ me?
It also was feigned resentment.
DJ had 14 and 7 at the break.
He was 3/3 from 4th & Broadway in the opening eight minutes. 4/7 from beyond ye olde arc at halftime, 6/11 for the entire affair, finishing with 24 points.
And 10 boards. Giving him his own Double Double.
But, ya know, it took him both halves to do it.
Piker.
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My favorite stat of the game, that doesn’t have anything to do with either of the Cards’ soph phenoms discussed above.
2d half rebounding.
U of L 34, Tech 18. That +16 on the boards after the break gave the Cardinals a +11 advantage (14-3) on 2d chance points.
Louisville also got 24 points off the pine, while the visitors, who start 4 seniors and a junior, only scored 8.
Truth is Josh Pastner’s obviously fatigued crew was pumped and prideful after their huge W on Saturday over Florida State. Plus they had to travel with just a quick 48 hour turnaround.*
* Which — and it scares me a lot — U of L faces as they travel to take on Boeheim’s Orange in the frigid NE on Wednesday.
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I love how U of L shut down the Yellow Jacket that really scares me, Jose Alvarado. The visitor’s PG scored 7 on 3/11 shooting. But he didn’t score in the 2d, until he netted a meaningless, garbage time triple with 1:08 to play.
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Love the yellow sneaks that CJ and SW wore.
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I’m not going to harp on a couple of not so good things, but will just mention.
11/17 at the Charity Stripe. 65% won’t win big, close games.
Louisville had 11 of their shots blocked. Seven by Moses Wright. At least half of those were point blank “gimmes” in the paint, and various and sundry Cardinals didn’t go up as strong as they should.
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Indispensable Carlik Jones dished out 8 assists, while scoring 12 and grabbing 6 rebounds.
Dre Davis was solid and alert all night, with 6 and six and loads of hustle.
Jae’Lyn Withers finally showed up in the 2d, ending up with 6 points (2 in the 1st) and 7 rebounds, all of which came after intermission.
Gabe Wiznitzer played a wholesome 16 minutes, scoring 4, snaring 6 rebounds.
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Big Basketball Week continues for the Gentlemen Cardinals on Wednesday in the Carrier Dome.
U of L’s top ranked Women’s Team faces its biggest test of the campaign tonight at 7:00, hosting NC State.
— c d kaplan
There was a lotta rebounds to be had. Gabe W might be the worst FT shooter I’ve seen in a while, Ellis Myles maybe? So, as a team, ur going to struggle to get 75%, but damn, u can’t argue with his hustle. That 2nd was as aggressive as they have played all yr, much fun to watch. Don’t know what Chris said to Withers at break but he needs to bottle it, he was the one in 2nd he was dishing it out, heartwarming really.Samuel almost joined an exclusive club, the Tyra,Unseld,Beard,Grosso club, 20/20, so proud of him. And except for a smattering of lazy passes, Johnson played as well as he ever has. He gets off the snide quickly, he’s a force. Jones was very good indeed. Don’t know what to think about our other grad transfer. He wanders around the court like Mack has been dropping him on his head during pregame.His shot sucks, he can’t guard a parked van and his passing is abysmal cause he’s always out of position. Oh well, 1outta 2 ain’t bad. I’m thrilled after today’s game, we start getting anything out of Traynor, we could get en fuego!!! As always…GO CARDS….GO KROGERING!!!!