Preview (9) Louisville at (8) Syracuse: Bobby E’s Breakdown

Date: Sunday, January 25th
Time: 12:04 p.m. EST
Site: The Carrier Dome (33,633) in Syracuse, NY
Series History: UofL leads 8-4 (5-1 in Louisville, 0-3 in Syracuse, 3-0 neutral)
Last Meeting: UofL 61, Syracuse 50 (Feb. 18, 2008 in Freedom Hall)
National Rankings: UL No. 9 AP; No. 12 ESPN/USA Today; ‘Cuse No. 8 AP, ESPN/USA Today (Jan. 19)
Officials: Jim Burr, Bryan Kersey, Jamie Luckie

The Cardinals, winners of six strait, fly into the Carrier Dome Sunday afternoon for a Top Ten battle with Big East rival Syracuse. The Cardinals have 15 Big East Conference road victories over the last three seasons, more than any other league school. Despite this fact, Louisville has never emerged victorious when playing the Orange on their home court, however, Twill and the 2009 version of the Louisville Cardinals appear to be playing at a level that makes winning on Sunday more of a likelihood than a possibility.

Williams is playing out of his mind (or up to his potential?) during the Cards current six game winning streak, shooting a scorching 53.5% from the field (38-71) including 41.7% from downtown (10-24) while averaging a team-leading 16.7 points , 10.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists. He had five dunks on Wednesday night at Rutgers, three of which were three of the most impressive dunks you’ll ever see.

Otto's ready to go!

Syracuse comes into this game sporting a 17-3 record (5-2 in conference). They were destroyed in their last contest by the Pittsburgh Panthers 78-60, a team Louisville had just handed its first loss to. The Orange have five players averaging in double digits, but get only 2.2 ppg production from their Senior class.

Sophomore Jonny Flynn leads Syracuse in scoring (16.1) and assists (6.0). Junior (yep, only a Junior) guard Eric Devendorf provides 13.9 points a contest, and Junior forward Paul Harris leads the team in rebounding (8.4) and contributes 13.6 points per game. The offensive onslaught doesn’t stop there, Junior forward Arinze Onuaku, who leads the nation in field goal percentage (70.1%), gives the Orange 12.4ppg, 8.0rpg, and 1.6 blocks per contest. Finally there is Junior guard Andy Rautins, who led the team in scoring at Pittsburgh, averaging 10.8 points and he is the teams most deadly three point shooter (39.0%).

Look for this to be one helluva game, with two explosive offenses (Syracuse is 11th in the nation in scoring offense (80.4), Louisville is 21st in scoring margin at +14.5 and averages 75.2ppg) and two smothering defenses (Syracuse is 10th in the nation in 3pt field goal % defense at 0.288, and Louisville is 19th in the nation in overall field goal % defense at 0.382). The Orange’s high octane O may run into some difficulty against the Cardinals defensive pressure. Over the last seven seasons since 2002-03, just 16 teams have connected on 50 percent or better from the field against U of L, a span of 220 games. Austin Peay’s 48.3 percent accuracy is a season-high for a Cardinal opponent this year.

There is a rich tradition between the two Hall of Fame coaches, Rick Pitino (183-70 in his eighth year at Louisville, and 535-194 in 23rd year overall) and Jim Boeheim (788-281 in 33rd year at Syracuse and overall). Slick Rick was hired by Boeheim on Pitino’s wedding night in 1976 and served as an assistant to Jimmy on his first two staffs. Pitino is 5-7 all time versus the ‘Cuse, 2-1 while at Louisville, 0-5 with Providence, and 3-1 at Kentucky.

From

TO

Bobby E’s Gamebreaker: FREE THROW SHOOTING!!!

Louisville has struggled from the line this year, though recently they have shot well. I don’t expect either team to blow the other out of the dome, so there should be some clutch moments at the line come nut-cuttin’ time….

The game will be televised on the Big East Network (WHAS-TV in Louisville) with Don Criqui (play-by-play) and Bob Wenzel (color) calling the action. You can also hear the game broadcast on WHAS (840 AM) by Paul Rogers (play-by-play) and Bob Valvano (color) or on SIRIUS satellite ch. 126.

Uh...YUMP!!!