Around this time of the season in 1836, Antonio López de Santa Anna wore down the stalwarts in the mission, and prevailed over the locals in the Battle of the Alamo.

Louisville’s 82-71 grind of a win on Saturday in the longhorn town of Fort Worth, if not nearly as significant or bloody, was similar in that the Bears finally wore down and were overcome.

As a thing of beauty, the Cardinals’ victory in front of lots of empty seats was anything but.

Yet the Cardinals 19th W of the campaign it was.

After some serious strangeness and frankly absurdity in the opening frame, the Cards found some ballast right before intermission to knot it at 34.

Then after briefly surrendering the lead in the 2d, immediately grabbed it back on a J’Vonne Hadley runout deuce, a stop and Mikel Brown three point trip at the stripe, an MB pilfer and feed to Sananda Fru for a 46-39 lead.

The offensively challenged Bears measure was kept the rest of the way. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Baylor →

On December 1, 1967, senior Westley Unseld, the greatest player in Louisville basketball history, scored 45 points in a 118-86 win over Georgetown.

That would be seriously overmatched Georgetown Ky. Tigers, not the Georgetown Hoyas.

Fifty eight years, two months and eight days (21,255 days) later Mikel Brown Jr., a heralded freshmen, thought by many observers to have been underperforming, tallied 45 points, tying Unseld’s all time U of L individual game scoring record.

This against North Carolina State, ranked 27th in the NET, 24th in Ken Pomeroy, winners of six in a row, eight of their last nine, 11 of their last 13.

Unseld led the Cards that night in yesteryore with 29 rebounds.

Brown led the Cardinals with 9 rebounds.

He also missed a breakaway slam after he stole the ball.

Tsk, tsk.

But, and it’s a big but, that super duper diaper dandy performance was far from the only superlative in the most surprising performance by a Cardinal outfit in memory. Continue reading U of L CardFile: NC State →

Given that Sunday evening’s upcoming halftime show, bookended by two halves of football, shall take place nearby, any number of hundreds of lead-in shows have come from Alcatraz.

Scenic, I suppose.

ACC Country is a continent away from the iconic prison, but make no mistake, U of L’s 88-80 victory over Wake Forest was an escape.

Of the harrowing variety.

No Burt Lancaster, but what the hell, call the Cardinals the Birdmen of Winston Salem.

Louisville made 27/51 of its FGs. 53%.

Ten of their 25 attempted triples. 40%.

In what evolved as FT shooting contest — Where’s the Elam ending when we really need it? — the Cardinals drained 24/31. 77%.

And yet . . . and yet . . . against a Demon Deacon squad that had, coming in, lost 4 in a row, 6 of 7, 8 of 10, U of L’s once 15 point advantage (which should have been greater frankly) had totally evaporated with 4:44 left.

80-80. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Wake Forest →

Thinking long term, which seems apropos since it’s that February turn for the home stretch of the season, there’s a singular vision that haunts.

And, no, it’s not Kasean Pryor firing a triple, thereby pushing  good fortune during far and away his signature performance of the year. As scary as that open FG attempt from the corner was.

I’m thinking of viewing back-braced J’Vonne Hadley trundling through the tunnel beneath the stands toward the locker room with plenty of time left in the 1st.

Listed as “Probable” before the tilt, he started. Then exited for the duration with a lone rebound on his stat line in three minutes of action.

This is not an inconsequential development, given his importance and that the rest of the Cardinals’ ACC schedule is daunting. Plus a trip to the Lone Star state.

Stagnant in the first half, U of L steadied to prevail 76-65.

It was a blessing that injury-plagued Notre Dame, losers of 7 of 8 coming in, was the opponent. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Notre Dame →

It was disturbing and obvious at the start, that the Louisville Cardinals had not dusted themselves off from the butt kicking last time out in Durham.

At the first media timeout, the Cards trailed 4-14 to the stampeding Mustangs.

Four different visitors had already netted a wide open three.

Defense was lax.

Coming off the bench due to some missed practices, Mikel Brown was compounding his felonies of the last outing. Three turnovers in three minutes.

Something was amiss.

Louisville was out of sync. To say the least.

 * * * * *

That U of L trailed only 44-47 at the break was a testament to ??? Continue reading U of L CardFile: SMU →

With 4:30 left in the opening half, Louisville had overcome.

Overcome a weekend of travel uncertainty because of weather.

Overcome having to fly to Tobacco Road on game day.

Overcome a torrid start by the Blue Devils in Cameron Indoor.

Overcome a scoring drought of seven minutes or so, when the Cards missed nine field goals in a row.

Then, a triple, followed by an old fashioned three point play, followed by another trey and . . .

. . . lo and behold, the scoreboard read Visitors 25, Home 24. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Duke →

It is now time — long past time actually — for you conspiratorial Philistines to crawl back down that hole you crawled out of.

Let Snowmageddon freeze it shut and seal you there once and for all and forever.

I’m talking about those who came with No Nothing Chitter Chatter about Mikel Brown Jr during his injury absence.

Calling into Glorious Editor’s or Marques Maybin’s show and espousing some BS you heard from a dude on his 11th Bud at Gerstle’s how MB and his dad are keeping him out because: 1) They don’t want to hurt his draft stock; (As if that strategy actually made sense.) or 2) They want more money, or 3) Some other poo poo ka ka.

During Brown’s absence, the Cards went 4-4 (following a 9-1 start with him), averaging 15 less ppg.

In case you were tied up standing in a check out line at Aldi behind people actually handwriting checks for their groceries and balancing their account before moving on, here’s what Brown did on Saturday in Louisville’s 85-71 W over an icy hot shooting, shot blocking Virginia Tech squad.

After in case you didn’t notice, Brown wore his back brace during warmups. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Virginia Tech →

Here’s what will put all the exotic animals to sleep at the Oakland zoo.

An Isaac McKneely three, a Sananda Fru deuce, a J’Vonne Hadley deuce, another IM trey, and one more McThreely.

In Louisville’s first six possessions.

13-0.

An astonishingly ineffective Pittsburgh team was on its heels and out of the game from the tip.

Skeptical the orangutans may be of changes in the their cages, but they were in slumber early.

The Panthers all seemed like they’d gotten into the zookeeper’s cache of rum.

With seven and half left before intermission, the Cards were up 39-8.

+31 was the margin at the break. Continue reading U of L CardFile: Pitt →