You wander in the desert for 3290 days, and it makes sense that you might get nervous when you finally spy the promised land.
Louisville 83, South Florida 79.
For the first time since March 17, 2017, the Louisville Cardinals face a 48 hour turnaround to play in the NCAA Round of 32.
So, all you nagging nabobs of negativitude, those of you all over the telly and the interweb and at coffee pots across the land who were oh so bullish on South Florida as the most trendy and surefire of opening round upsetters, gotta question for you.
Who’s your matador now?
The resilient U of L Cards, that’s whom.
Olè Olè.
Gored, battered, undercut, they were.
But, when you fashion a 23 point advantage thanks to D and maturity, you can spring some leaks, take on some water — OK a lot of water — and stay afloat.
Louisville coughed it up a dozen times in the 2d under South Florida’s relentless pressure.
They bent, and bent, and bent, but didn’t break.
So, rotate on that all ye pundits and bracket filler outers.
Consider your brackets B U S T E D.
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The Cardinals played defense.
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Now let me talk about Isaac McKneely.
Who has been the object of scorn most all of the season from way too many of the Cardinal faithful.
Let’s start with the triple he drained out of a timeout with 7:11 left to push the Cardinals’ diminishing lead back to 75-61.
Key play of the game, it says here.
Then there’s the reality that he was money all afternoon.
Netted 11 in the opening half on 4/5 shooting.
Finished the game with 23 on 8/11, 7/10 marksmanship.
Add in a trio of rebounds, a couple of assists and a steal.
His D was, yeah I’ll say it, tenacious.
* * * * *
The Cardinals played defense.
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Yes, U of L wobbled.
But they held on, never relinquished their advantage gained for good at 13:50 of the 1st (By the by on a trey by the Dot from Poca), and put up these offensive numbers after the break:
16/22 from the field.
72.7%.
6/8 from beyond the arc.
75%.
So, rattled they may have seemed — and frankly actually were — they scored in a very efficient manner.
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And never stopped playing defense.
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The Bulls were a “sure thing” to win the battle of the boards hugely.
Especially at the offensive end.
Except that the Greek Tweak let them understand early it wasn’t going to be all that easy.
He had three in the opening couple of minutes. The Cards five at the first media break.
U of L won the rebounding battle, 41-37.
Yes, ye experts that happened.
South Florida did end up with more offensive retrievals for the game.
But, thanks to the Cardinals stoppage resilience, the teams were even in 2d chance scores.
15 apiece.
* * * * *
The Cardinals played defense.
* * * * *
Sananda Fru, who has appeared soft at times this campaign, got in touch with his inner Zoug.
Double double.
10 points. 10 boards, two ORB.
Let’s hope his back doesn’t freeze up overnight. He took a mighty tumble when undercut.
* * * * *
The Cardinals played defense.
* * * * *
For all their pregame talk talk, it was the Bulls who weren’t ready for prime time.
Too little too late.
Bulls talked. Cardinals walked the walk.
* * * * *
The Cardinals played defense.
The Bulls were held to 39% shooting.
Including a key 1/17 from Treyville in the opening period.
* * * * *
A major tip o’ the chapeau to Coach Pat Kelsey.
He had his team ready.
He had a game plan that worked.
He is off the tourney schneid.
Good for him.
* * * * *
Louisville 83.
Trendy pick with the Flavor of the Month coach South Florida 79.
— c d kaplan
LOL!
I am so relieved that we finally won an NCAA tournament game. That part is fun…now. I don’t have the “in-your-face” attitude toward the upset pickers given that the upset damn near did happen. So it’s not like they were totally stupid, or way off, for making the upset pick. We escaped. We did not embarrass the upset pickers. Not even close. Obviously if we had continued the blowout, then we could justify laughing in their faces for thinking USF ever had a chance. We didn’t continue it, and they did…have a legit shot at the upset.
The game was fun when we were up 20+. Excruciatingly painful to watch when we panicked and barfed up the vast majority of that lead. Threatened to be on the wrong end of the second biggest comeback in NCAA tournament history. That the fact it would be the 2nd biggest comeback came up in the broadcast shows the upset picks were not crazy. It was more of a relief than joy when the clock hit 0:00.
Time to hang loose and see what happens next for this highly flawed, but somewhat resilient team.
We are indeed, still dancing.
I hear ya. Relief yes. I couldn’t help myself. I pulled on the reins. Had we not coughed up the lead, I’d have really unloaded.
And you would have been justified to. I was savoring the thought of them having egg on their faces. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be, but the most important thing was meant to be. Onward
Defense wins. To beat a good team while committing 22 turnovers is remarkable but extremely aggravating. And the zebras should have called three times as many as they did against FSU (2 hands on is supposed to be a foul). FSU were punks. Now we go to the State slaughterhouse and perseverate about next year.
The officiated during USF’s press run was abysmal. I usually don’t criticize the refs too much, but it was blatantly obvious. We were getting away with being physical also, but not near to the degree USF was.
I can’t imagine those refs are going to grade out well on that game.
My first thought at the end: the Cardiac Cards have returned!
Does anybody else get frustrated when a team scores a basket and the television cameras show the scorer running down the floor, or fans reacting in the stands? It drives me crazy.
And I think I’ve figured out why it happens. In every other sport that’s televised, when a team scores, the action and the clock stops (i.e. football, baseball, hockey, even darts) For some reason the directors (I assume they’re the ones who decide which camera is live at any given moment) can’t grasp the concept that play is continuing where the ball is being thrown in bounds and that sometimes, something exciting is going on that the viewers can’t see. Especially at tournament time.
I’m always conscious of TV production. Lots of lame choices. “There’s a game goin’ on here,” I yell a lot at the screen.
We won! That is good in the world of won/loss. However, let me point out 20 or 22 turnovers. Frightening at this level of the game and salaries being paid. This ain’t gonna’ fly in a game with a hall of famer nor is it likely his team will shoot one for whatever. In fact South Fla. took a page from our play book and jacked up a verital slew of ill-selected shots. “(We) got a little help from our friends”. Thank you Bulls. At least until the 12:31 mark in the second. Cue the TOS. The vengence will come from a flagrant violation of his Naismith’s first commandment: thou shall take care of the basketball.
North Carolina just coughed up a 19 point lead, lost. We didn’t.
Makes one wonder, had the Cards biggest lead been under twenty points, would they have lost, too?
Turnovers have plagued us all year, many of them unforced and we have made no improvements on this or much of anything for that matter. We are lucky our shots were falling. With the exception of our defense yesterday, there had been little overall improvement with the team as a whole and that is a direct reflection of our coaching. Keeping my fingers crossed but not holding my breath.