The Cardinals were in prime time tonight in a nationally televised game and they put on a show beating Missouri State 90-60. The Cards have now won five games straight and move to 10-1 on the season. This will be the last home game for the Cards as they will hit the road for the next 23 days.

I really thought that this Missouri State team might give the Cardinals a decent challenge, but that wasn’t the case tonight. Coach Pitino said after the game “That was by far the best game we have played so far” and it was really fun to watch. The Cards were running and gunning, dipping and dunking looking like they are prepared to make another run at this thing again this year. Anyone notice that Luke Hancock’s Beard is back? Yup I gotta think that the magical facial hair is somewhat responsible for this teams performance tonight. Right?

Smith, Rozier, Blackshear, Harrell, and Mathiang got the start tonight and this group looked really solid. They really seem to be meshing together well and Coach Pitino let them play together for about five minutes before making a substituion. Out of this group four players had double digit scoring with Montrezl leading the way with 17 points. This group was also terrific on the boards tonight and of the 38 rebounding opportunities in the first half, Louisville snapped up 71% of them. They had 13 offensive rebounds off 15 misses. They would out rebound the Bears tonight 51 to 30 for the game. Very.. Very good job.

Terry Rozier is becoming that breakout player that most expected him to be this season and is getting more and more comfortable with every game. He finished with 11 points but more impressively is how he goes to the glass. He would finish with 8 rebounds and has 18 rebounds in his last two games. We needed someone to help make up for Gorgui’s boards but I didn’t think it would come from the guard spot. Speaking of Dieng, the guy that has taken his place is starting to get it going. Mango had 8 points with 9 rebounds tonight. He is starting to catch up with Dieng’s numbers from last year as well. Dieng had a block rate of 9.4 percent and committed 3.3 fouls per 40 minutes, and Mathiang’s block rate is 8.2 percent and he’s fouling 3.6 times per 40 minutes. You can take a look at the stat sheet below for the rest of the performances on this great night of action. Really the only blemish of the performance was free-throw shooting where they shot 16 for 30 at 53%.

This one has Cardinal fans fired up and ready as we now start towards the meat of our schedule. It all starts on the 28th and chants of “Beat UK” filled the Yum Center tonight after the game. I can’t wait.. Go Cards!

U of L’s Mangok Mathiang after win over Missouri State:

Russ Smith on Louisville’s improvement and 10-1 start:

Terry Rozier on rebounding and a win over Missouri State:

Luke Hancock on a win over Missouri State for U of L:

Chris Jones on his return against Missouri State: