Louisville Elite Again, Annihilate Arizona 103-64; Rolf’s Recapsulation

Rick Pitino continued his dominance in the Sweet 16 as his Louisville Cardinals embarrassed the Arizona Wildcats 103-64. Ladies and gentlemen, the man simply does not lose during the round of sixteen. Slick Rick is now 9-0 for his career in the NCAA regional semi-final and will now turn his attention to the winner of the forthcoming Michigan State/Kansas contest. Louisville jumped on ‘Zona from the get go, and by the end of the first half enjoyed a 49-28 advantage.

Jerry Smith fired up, or going into convulsions

The Cardinals had five players in double figures, lead by Earl Clark’s 19 points and 9 rebounds. Clark was joined in double figures by Terrence Williams, Samardo Samuels, Jerry Smith, and Edgar Sosa. T-Will was his normal stat stuffing self with 14 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists. SamSam had another very good game with 14 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 assists.

SamSam finishing for two of his 14 points

Louisville passed the ball brilliantly tonight. The Cardinals finished with 29 assists on the night. Yes, 29 assists. The smart passing resulted in a 58% shooting percentage, including 14-29 from three point range. Folks, when Louisville passes the ball like this they are the best team in the country. Louisville’s ball handlers constantly got into the lane and distributed the rock for easy finishes or open jump shots. It was beautiful to watch.

Terrence Jennings slams home two of his 7 points

The Cardinals were dominant tonight and will now wait to see who they play on Sunday. Now, the honors:

The Good – Free throw shooting. I’ve gotten on the Cardinals all year about their free throw shooting, but tonight they hit 13-14 from the charity stripe. For all UofL fans, it was a pleasant sight to see.

The Bad – Kyle Kuric’s dunk. With under ten seconds to play, freshman Kyle Kuric streaked toward the basket and slammed home his only two points of the game. The only problem was Louisville was up by 37 points at the time. Kuric is not a bad kid and the excitement most likely got the best of the young man from Evansville, but he should have just held the ball.

The Ari Wolfe – CBS Sports. Look, Louisville won by nearly 40 points, nothing can qualify as Ari Wolfe bad. So I’m going with CBS giving Columbus, Ohio the main feed for the Syracuse/Oklahoma game. Why is this a problem? It’s a problem because a friend of the Pinkie, Ms. Betsy Heck, is a HUGE UofL fan and celebrating her birthday tonight. But instead of being able to watch the Cards, she was forced to watch Oklahoma handle Syracuse as opposed to watching the second half of the Louisville game. C’mon CBS, MAN UP!!!