Louisville Beats Georgetown (6)

I have been talking up the Aussies in the US College system of late, but none of them play for the team I supoort. The boys I follow are the mighty Loiusville Cardinals. Do I know why? Not really, I think I saw a player do a monster dunk back in the 90's and it was such a good dunk I thought that would be a good enough reason as any to support them.

Anyway over the weekend bought Louisvilles biggest test of the season. Facing the Big East leaders in the Georgetown Hoyas (9 wins - 1 loss). Having only lost 1 conference game all season and won the past 6 in a row the Hoyas were looking to run away with the conference. They were ranked 6th in the country, whereas Louisville (7 wins - 3 losses) were not ranked at all (Seriously dont know how but that is another story).

This game was being shown on ESPN's prime time so Louisville called for a 'White Out' Night which they got all the crowd wearing white. Even the Cardinals coach Rick Pitino donned a pure white suit. Hey definately looked the part being in Kentucky and all the KFC bosses could have linked him to Colonel Sanders.As the game started it was close for the beginning as the teams started to warm up, but as the quarter progressed Georgetown started to stamp their dominance. Stretching their lead to 8 points at the half with the scoreline being 31-23.

Half time Pitino musnt have been a happy man. He came back after the break in his tradional black suit and this change must have flipped a switch in the Louisville game as well. After about 1 minutes gone in the quarter Louisville revved the accellerator and took control. They sparked a turnaround and with a 3 pointer 6 minutes into the half Lousiville had the lead and never looked back. They then ran away with the match and outscored the Hoyas 20-36, to win the game 59-51.

It was a great effort from the Cardinals who now should crack a national ranking. Finally we got to see the David Padgett we have been waiting for. He was the key to the Cardinals win with 18 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists. I have been waiting for Padgett to be the big man we know he can be and I think this game may have been the turnaround. Now dont get me wrong, I think he is a quality player, it is just he has been hampered with injuries throughout his college career and he just needs to get the games on the board to convince the country he is the player he can be.

Jerry Smith also managed to knock down 4 of 5 three's in his 16 points and was the only other Cardinal in double figures. it was definately not a big scoring event, the Hoyas best was their big man Roy Hibbert and guard Austin Freeman who both ended up with 14 points.

This game brings Louisville within 1 game of top spot in the east. Georgetown is still on top with Notre Dame behind them by half a game. Louisville next play DePaul (5-6) on the 12/2 in which they must keep the momentum going for thier push up the NCAA rankings.

Coach Onski.

As an endnote Pinito told ESPN he changed his suit at halftime as he had spilt Diet Coke on it. Other sources state that he was sweating so much in the Linen that his blue jocks were soon to be seen so he felt he had to change. No matter why he did it, the Hoyas were the ones that cooled down in the second half.

Rick Pitino Photo courtesy of Joe Robbins/US Presswire & www.espn.com, David Padgett picture courtesy of www.scout.com, Cardinal picture courtesy of www.allposters.com