Preview (9,12) Louisville at Rutgers: Bobby E’s Breakdown

Date: Wednesday, Jan. 21
Time: 7:02 p.m. EST
Site: Louis Brown Athletic Center (8,000) in Picataway, N.J. aka “The RAC”
Series History: UofL leads 6-1 (3-0 in Louisville, 1-1 in Piscataway, 2-0 neutral)
Last Meeting: UofL 87, Rutgers 50 (Feb. 2, 2008 in Freedom Hall)
UL National Ranking: No. 9 AP; No. 12 ESPN/USA Today (Jan. 19)
Officials: Ed Corbett, Curtis Shaw, Tim Higgins

It is now five strait wins for the University of Louisville Cardinals (13-3, 4-0), and three strait over ranked opponents, as Slick Rick’s boys will travel north to face the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers (9-9, 0-5). Terrence Williams and Samardo Samuels are coming off being named BIG EAST Player and Freshman of the Week, respectively.  Yep, the Cards are flying high as they make a quick pit stop in Piscataway, New Jersey (home state of Joey Jumpoff – Joe Budden) before landing in Syracuse, NY on Sunday.

Rutgers is looking to snap a six game skid (five of those to nationally ranked opponents) and get their first win in the BIG EAST.  The Scarlet Knights are coming off a 71-59 loss last Wednesday at Cincinnati in which they had 9 assists and 17 turnovers.  Coming into this game, Rutgers has 275 turnovers on the season, to 198 assists.  For a team led by senior guard Anthony Farmer and led in scoring by a freshman guard Mike Rosario, guard play has inexplicably been their downfall. 

The Scarlet Knights are averaging 11 assists per game.  That’s good for 289th place out of 330 Division I programs.  Factor in the turnovers and Rutgers ranks 318th in the nation.  The guards do know how to score though.  As mentioned, freshman Mike Rosario leads the team with 17.1 ppg, and senior guard Anthony Farmer is 18 points shy of becoming the the 37th player in Rutgers men’s basketball history to reach 1,000 career points.  The 36th player was fellow senior J.R. Inman, who reached the plateau earlier this year against Marquette.

Rosario ranks fourth nationally in both scoring (17.1) and free throw percentage (89.3) among freshmen, while pacing the BIG EAST Conference and ranking 15th overall nationally from the charity stripe.  Joining Rosario in the national and league rankings is freshman forward Gregory Echenique from Venezuela, who ranks third nationally in rebounding (8.8) and second in blocks (2.6) among freshmen, while placing sixth in the BIG EAST in field goal percentage (.586).

As a team Rutgers ranks second in the country in blocked shots (7.2) and third in three point field goal percentage defense (.276). Junior center Hamady Ndiaye (Dakar, Senegal) is sixth in the country in blocks, swatting away 3.2 shots per contest.

This is a better Scarlet Knights team than their record suggests.  Defense is definitely not an issue, and with a nice mix of senior leadership and experience, to go along with some exciting freshman talent, if coach Fred Hill (30-48 in third year) can find a group that meshes well together on offense, this team is capable of stringing together some impressive wins.

Coming off three strait emotionally draining games, it may be tough for the Cards to get up for the cellar-dwelling Scarlet Knights, especially if they start looking ahead to Sunday’s top ten battle at the Carrier Dome.  However, even at 75%, Louisville should still be 15 points better than Rutgers.

Before announcing the Gamebreaker, I’d like to take a moment to recognize the 10 University of Louisville Cardinals who were recently named to the AD Honor Roll for the fall 2008 semester, signifying a 3.0 or better GPA. The list includes: Chris Brickley, Earl Clark, Preston Knowles, Kyle Kuric, Samardo Samuels, Will Scott, Jerry Smith, Edgar Sosa, Jared Swopshire and Terrence Williams.

Bobby E’s Gamebreaker: THREE POINT SHOOTING!!

Take these factors into account: (1) Rutgers is third in the country at defending the three point shot.  (2) Louisville is 9-0 when they make more than 7 three-point goals, and 4-3 when they make 7 or fewer three-point goals.  (3) Louisville jacks up 23.44 three point fg attempts per game.  And (4) The Cardinals are shooting only 24% (29-121) on threes away from Freedom Hall.  Rutgers’ defense just might keep them in this game. A hot shooting U of L team however will spell definite doom for the Scarlet Knights.

She's a hoops fan as well...

Tune in Wednesday night to ESPNU to hear Dan McLaughlin (play-by-play) and Mike Kelley (color commentary) calling the action live from the RAC. If you don’t have the U, tune into WKRD 790 AM, 101.7 FM, or SIRIUS Ch. 126 to hear Paul Rogers (play-by-play) and Bob Valvano (color) call the game. Then come on back to the Pinkie for Rolf’s Recapsulation of the game!