Our Cards made it to the top of the college basketball rankings today for the second time in program history and only the first time during the regular season. And tonight was the first time they have had to defend a number one ranking in a regular season game. And they did just that as they outscored Uconn in the second half 45-24 to cruise to a 73-58 victory and now lead this series 8 to 6. Cards have now won their 11th straight and are 16-1 on the season, 4-0 in the Big East.
It was a very impressive win for the Cards. A quick turnaround after just playing on Saturday, on the road in hostile environment, good Uconn team, flew into Connecticut this morning, didn’t have a shoot around, and overcame a 10 point deficit at halftime. That is what you would expect from a great team. Behind every great team is great players. Russ Smith was on a mission tonight and he single-handedly kept the Cards in the game tonight in the first half. He finished with 23 points in one of his most impressive games of the season. ESPN’s Jay Williams said after the game “Can we start talking about Russ Smith in the POY conversation? Can we? I mean, he’s the POY right now.” Chane Behanan was another guy with passion in his eyes as he dominated the paint area on the offensive end of the floor. He had 16 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assist. Gorgui Dieng is proving to be a rebounding machine as he now has 57 in Big East play. He tied his season high tonight with 16. It looked like Peyton was going to be slowed down tonight as he picked up some cheap fouls early in the first half and spent most of it on the bench. But he came out and did a great job in the second half leading the Cards to the victory. He finished with 11 points and 4 assist. He is now tied for second all-time in assist with TWILL. LaBradford Smith is the top assist guy in the history of Louisville basketball with 713. There are 168 assist separating him from Siva and Williams. The Cardinal defense came up big again tonight as they forced 16 turnovers and had 10 steals. Really good job on the boards out-rebounding the Huskies 33 to 25. Cardinal bench was quiet tonight as Luke Hancock was the only scorer with 8 points.
Cardinal fans have to be very excited about this team and about the opportunity it has to become one of the best ever. But still a long way to go and the schedule doesn’t get any easier as the Cards will return home this Saturday to face #6 Syracuse.
