Fortunately for the University of Louisville Cardinals, they were not mired in a letdown after their last encounter, a resonant stupendous W over Arch Rival.

Unlike my compatriots, a bleary eyed crew along Media Row.

At least those who had covered the pigskin disappointment Friday night. An anecdotal survey indicated bedtimes ranging from 1:30 at the earliest to 4:00 am.

The Cards were out of the gate early against the feisty Ohio Bobcats, scoring on 6 of their opening 7 possessions. The other resulted in a turnover, the first of many many many strange calls by the Less Than Final Four quality crew of zebras.

Consecutive Isaac McNeely treys. 3 of 4 at the stripe. An ORB by Ryan Conwell, ending with a couple more FTs. Then just one more immaculate pinpoint Ali Khalifa dime to Conwell for deuce.

13-7 begat the first double digit lead at 19-9.

U of L kept the green clad visitors measured the rest of the way.

The final: 106-81.

It is a testament to the potential of this edition of the Cardinals, who playing a C+/B- game still beat a not awful foe by 25.

Often their ball movement is instruction video gorgeous.

The D can also be shutdown, but there were more than a few open triples for the visitors. Defense wasn’t horrid, simply not deep run in the Dance quality.

Talent and depth reigned.

I guess what I’m trying to impart is the Louisville semi-dominated, but never strangulated.

U of L hit 16/35 from beyond the arc. 46%. It’ll do. And make up for snafus.

34/68 overall. 50%.

In a significantly less fraught encounter than last time, Louisville netted its last 8 FTs  to finish 22/30. A respectable 73%.

Ohio hit 20 themselves, as the quick trigger refs whistled 45 fouls.

Six Cardinals hit double digits.

Now early in the campaign, I pay most attention to the duo whose upside improvement will be significant from February on. Both continue to uptick.

Sananda Fru. 14 points. 5 (3 offensive) boards. A couple of the manly man variety. 6/6 at the line.

Adrian Wooley. scored 11.

Here’s a heartening number. Of U of L’s 41 boards, 23 were by backcourt guys. Wooley 6, Kobe Rodgers 5, Conwell 6, McNeely 6.

 * * * * *

Peripheral: The best performance of the day came from Jesse Donner (Pray that’s his correct name) who sang the National Anthem.

The Dude Has A Voice.

I have dubbed Kasean Pryor and Vangelis Zougris, the Havoc Brothers.

They were on the court together most of the last couple minutes. Harum Scarum ensued.

— c d kaplan