Preview South Florida at (7) Louisville: Bobby E’s Breakdown

Date: Wednesday, January 28th
Time: 7:04 p.m. EST
Site: Freedom Hall (18,865) in Louisville, KY
Series History: UofL leads 22-3 (11-1 in Louisville, 9-2 in So Fla, 2-0 neutral)
Last Meeting: UofL 71, South Florida 59 (Jan. 7, 2009 in the Sun Dome)
National Rankings: UL No. 7 AP and ESPN/USA Today (Jan. 26)
Officials: Mike Kitts, Jim Haney, Jeff Clark

The Cardinals are soarin’ high as they return home to the Hall of Freedom Wednesday night to host the South Florida Bulls.  The way the Cardinals are playing right now, the Bulls might want to consider staying down south.  Louisville has now won seven strait, and remains unbeaten in the Big East at 6-0.  This will be the second meeting between these two schools in 2009; Louisville defeated USF 71-57 in the Cards’ Big East opener in the Sun Dome back on January 7th.  Notre Dame and West Virginia will be the Cardinals other repeat opponents in Big East Conference play this year.

Louisville is 15-3 overall and hasn’t lost since a one point defeat at home to UNLV on New Year’s Eve 2008.  During their current streak, the Cards have defeated four teams ranked in the top 18 in the country.  They continued a recent trend of wearing teams down and then shutting them down by allowing a Syracuse team that was averaging 80.4 ppg to connect on only TWO field goals in the final seven minutes of Sunday’s game en route to scoring a season low 57 points. 

The Bulls are coming off a nine point loss to then number 20 Villanova last Saturday. The Bulls are currently 7-12 (2-5) and on the road they have only 2 wins against 8 losses. USF is 9-48 in Big East play since joining the conference four years ago.

Sophomore guard Dominique Jones leads the Bulls in scoring – 18.3 points per game, rebounds – grabbing 4.9 boards per game, assists – handing out 4.1 per contest, and steals – swiping 1.6 per game. Jones’ backcourt mate, senior Jesus Verdejo is averaging 14.2 points while shooting 37% from beyond the arc. The Bulls third weapon is freshman forward/center, Augustus Gilchrist. He is averaging 10.2 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks per game, and is coming off his first career double-double two games ago versus Depaul when he put up 16 points and grabbed 11 boards.

University of South Florida Head Coach Stan Heath was a promising young talent just under 7 short years ago. Heath, in his first year as a Head Coach, had just guided the Kent State Golden Flashes to 30 wins, and the Elite Eight in the 2002 NCAA Tourney. Heath was hired, just days after Kent State fell to Indiana, by the University of Arkansas, replacing Nolan Richardson. It took Heath four years to get the Razorbacks to the tournament, and lost in the first round in both 2006 (Bucknell) and 2007 (USC). He was fired following the 2007 season, and shortly thereafter signed a five-year deal to coach the USF Bulls. South Florida was 12-19 last year, Heath’s first at the helm.  Reggie Hanson (UK ’91) will be returning to the Bluegrass State as an assistant coach under Heath.

Home Sweet Home — Louisville owns a 663-136 record in its 54th season in Freedom Hall (.830 winning percentage), the Cards’ home since 1956. U of L was 15-2 at home last season (10-1 thus far this year), and averaged 19,481 fans last year (fifth in the nation). U of L has ranked among the top five in the nation for the last 25 consecutive years. The Cardinals have been sold out every game during Coach Rick Pitino’s tenure at Louisville.   

Bobby E’s Gamebreaker: FOCUS!!!

I don’t really see any way possible the Cards lose this game, so the only thing they need to focus on, is focus itself.  Just like last week’s game at Rutgers, Louisville must find a way to dispatch of the Bulls.  Shouldn’t be too difficult, the home crowd should get ‘em fired up enough to win handily.  And hopefully Jenn Sterger won’t land an endzone seat, cuz concentration could get a little tough…..

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

Hopefully Jenn travels with the team, but sits behind the Bulls' bench...