Caveat Emptor: Your venerable Cardinal chronicler takes no responsibility if what you read makes zero sense, nor for any of the typos which may be contained herein.
My fingers have the hippy hippy shakes.
I have skipped a light fandango, turned cartwheels ‘cross the floor to get to my keyboard. I am exhausted.
I am exhilarated.
Because these are the afternoons fans pray for.
I rarely reference betting lines, but . . .
. . . for some unfathomable reason, the Louisville Cardinals, staggering to the finish line of the regular season, hobbled by injury and illness, opened as a one and a half point favorite.
Huh?
Which soon experienced a three point flip to + 1.5.
Well, ladies and gents, U of L was a toke, an Adrian Wooley trey and a pair of Ryan Conwell FTs over the line.
Louisville, fashioning its best effort of the campaign bested surging Miami, winners of 9 of their last 11.
Cardinals 92, Miami 89.
Can I get a witness?
I’ll take a Huzzzzah!
And a Boooyahhh!
In a game with fatigue factoring in and marksmanship reminiscent of a biathlon, U of L outshot a similarly en fuego Miami squad.
In the opening half, U of L was 18/29 (62%) and 9/15 (60%) from South Beach. The Hurricanes themselves hit 55% from the field and had cut the smokin’ Cardinals once 12 point advantage to four.
Playing maturely, to the intermission buzzer, the Cards sandwiched a McThreely, and deuces by Wooley and Conwell around a lone Miami tally for 46-37 lead at the break.
After halftime, the Cardinals continued to answer every Miami foray, maintaining measure . . .
. . . until 3:48 was left. When the home team, newly in the Top 25, forged ahead 79-78. And then by 81-78.
Lady luck showed up in Cardinal gear.
A missed McKneely J was tipped in by a dude from the U.
Poca Dot dat.
Wooley’s pair of FTs was answered with triple.
Oh, I’m too nervous still to go through the whole sequence.
My point. Louisville surrendered its advantage four times, had an absolutely horrible possession ending with a shot clock giveaway at :51, until with eighteen seconds remaining, Adrian Wooley bullseyed a three for an 89-87 advantage.
Which they did not relinquish.
* * * * *
There was strategy, kids.
Half of U of L’s makes before the break were from beyond the arc.
In the 2d, a dozen of the Cards’ 15 makes were at the rim or pull up Js in the paint.
It’s been awhile, my memory is foggy, but I think they call those “mid range.”
Sweet.
Credit Pat Kelsey. The offensive tweak in the 2d was obviously by design.
U of L was outscored by 13 on second chance points. By five at the line. By five off the bench.
And won.
Because they continually responded when peril was present.
* * * * *
Ryan Conwell had a huge opening stanza with 18 total, 7/12 from the field, 4/7 bombs.
But didn’t force it in the second, attempting only a couple more FGs.
He was 6/6 at the line, led U of L with 24.
Isaac McKneely was magnificent, his 15 points came with but two triples.
His four boards tied for best for Louisville with the Player of the Game.
That would be Adrian Wooley who also had four, along with 15 points. Six (6) assists. NO turnovers.
And, you know, the Shot of the Season.
Do I ever not mention J’Vonne Hadley?
Of course not.
He was the rudder with 16 on 6/8 shooting.
Louisville wobbled, but did not falter.
Can you tell I’m pumped?
Enough. My fingers are still shaking.
If I missed something you consider important, sorry.
Feel free to fill in the blanks below.
— c d kaplan
I’m sure everyone heard this but Kelsey being 49-0 when leading at the 5:00 mark is truly surprising. Rooths is not a good fit for this offense. He is very talented around the basket and a good rebounder but can’t shoot the 3 or guard anyone out on the floor. He needs to spend all his time in the paint and that’s not in our game plan. Ali is knocking on the door of being a 40% shooter from 3. Hadley has looked like a leader for the last couple of weeks. McNeely also starting to score in the paint.
The ladies were good today. They lack a good PG. Any of our good ones, and we’ve had a lot of them, could take this team to the Final 4.
Good day for Card fans.
My man, Hadley has not only looked like the leader, but been the leader since he first donned a Cardinal jersey.
I was at the game. Couldn’t have more than 4,000 people there, but they got loud at times. I was sure that last shot was going in but alas it careened off the rim. I think (hope) this team has finally figured out that defense wins. Great win. I hope the guys who can come back next year do come back.
Not sure it was defense that won this game. Miami shot 56%, 42% from three. Scored 89 points. That’s not exactly lock down. U of L had more O.
Totally agree w Monsieur Seedy.
That defensive effort “was nothing to get home about”. But for the grace of God shining down on Wooley Booley the “sun ain’t gonna shine any more” today. Nice to win but this W is coated with iron pyrite. My fellow fans don’t bet the come line for the Cards in the upcoming tournaments.
Dough Boy – I I surmise that the paucity of comments about the game is directly related to the realistic ones among us happy for a W – first road win over a Ranked team since 2020 – but sanguine about our prospects in the ACC tourney &!Big Dance –
Was a bit more concerned about Seedy’s tingling fingers and hoping he wasn’t gonna bust a move into a hippy hippy shake ‼️ But hey / if this is what it takes to bring a few hours of joy to our fearless Commentator so be it ‼️
Or we can wake up from this beautiful dream to this morning’s headlines on CNN
“Blackened rain fall on Teheran after Israel strikes on oil storage facilities –
Oil and gas prices rise as Iran war escalates”
My purpose here is to keep this a politics free zone.
I remember a time when you’d have been as ecstatic as I am and most fans. Every other Card fan seems pumped.
Fair point on the politics – My pacemaker/defibrillator insertion has tempered my “pumposity” –
in fact I was merely agreeing with his Doughness on tempering our enthusiasm – not curbing it – that reminds (non-politically of course) of my vote for the greatest Curb episode – Just polling the crew here – Hands down for me is “ The Palestinian Chicken” for this :57 sequence alone
https://youtu.be/erDugh3RPHE?si=tf_qxwbd6p38wkns
Bunny Rabbit, you keep hopping around until you just can’t boogey no more. In other words, enjoy and celebrate the win. No curbing. Simple modulation-that’s all. And while you are at it, please pass me some Palestian chicken.
It’s worthy of being happy about it. It’s not worthy of convincing ourselves that at this point something that can only be realistically evaluated as on aberration has suddenly and magically become the norm.
I too expect them to falter in the post season, because if you look at the big picture, at this juncture this is nothing more than that. An aberration.
We shot well, which has been inconsistent all season, and Miami is the only good team we’ve beaten in a season when we have lost to every single good team we have played. Several.
Let’s not get carried away just yet. If they replicate this win in the ACC tournament, then there may be a glimmer of hope for 2 or 3 wins in the NCAA tournament, depending on match-ups.
Speak for yourself. I get carried away with every W. Especially the improbable ones.
“NATTY GUARANTEED!!!!”🏀🏆 – Seedy
Operative word…”improbable”.
Beating a good team is still “improbable”. I play the lottery sometimes for kicks, but I don’t get carried away thinking I’m going to win the jackpot just because I hit two numbers and the powerball once.
But perhaps he has finally made some relevant adjustments that will make a difference. I don’t get carried away thinking I’ll win the lottery jackpot, but I do hope I will. I hope PK has made some adjustments that will actually make a difference. We’ll see.
Wonder if Kelsey will have McNeely run stairs for shooting mid-range jumpers.
I believe it was by design.
I’ve had concerns that he is so caught up in his numbers that he loses sight of the fact that the game is played by people out there on the court running around and sweating. Numbers have a place in the equation, but relying on number too much won’t win games for you. Maybe he finally looked at the number of losses when relying to much on a large number of threes.
I don’t think the adjustment (fewer threes) was as much by design as how the game played out against the Miami game plan. That and Wooley taking the ball as point instead of Conwell. Wooley was the difference in this game, and not just the big shot. I guess Wooley at point was an adjustment by design.
They have been taking a LOT of contested threes against other teams. Also rushed threes. If they have backed off of that and are looking for other better open mid-range shots that is likely a conscious adjustment. Previously only Mikel was taking any mid-range twos.