Dieng, No. 23 Louisville throttle UConn
Gorgui Dieng scored 15 points and No. 23 Louisville beat Connecticut 80-59 on Monday night, the Cardinals’ fifth consecutive win.
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Surging Louisville thumps reeling UConn (AP)
Louisville senior guard Chris Smith emphatically answered a question meant for teammate Chane Behanan. After a resounding 80-59 victory over Connecticut on Monday night, the Cardinals are in sync on the court and off it. “We just had more fun than they did,” Smith declared. They outworked the Huskies, too.
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College Basketball Top 25: Kentucky No. 1, Louisville in B/R Writers Rankings
Kentucky is still No. 1, but more upsets led to yet another shakeup in the B/R Writers Rankings.
Duke, Michigan State, UNLV, Marquette and Creighton all fell to unranked foes last week.
Check out how far they dropped.
If you’re a Bleacher Report college basketball writer who wants to participate in the weekly poll, message me with your email address to indicate your interest.
Voters: Ryan Eshleman, Ari Kramer, Jesse Kramer, Thad Novak, Daniel O’Brien, Matt Overing, Robert Pace, Andrew Pregler, Jordan Schwartz, Gene Siudut, James Sullivan, Dan Vasta
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No. 25 Louisville holds off Seton Hall
The Cardinals nearly let a 17-point second-half lead slip away before holding off Seton Hall for a 60-51 victory.
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Villanova Basketball: Another Tough Loss for the Wildcats Against Louisville
Perhaps no single player in the Big East is as important to his team as Maalik Wayns. They say that one player doesn’t win or lose a game, but Wayns seems to defy that trend. That was the story of Wednesday night’s 84-74 loss at Louisville.
The Wildcats played a great first half, leading 44-39 at the break. Wayns had nine points in 14 minutes. James Bell scored 11, going 5-of-5 from the field while pulling down nine rebounds. The Wildcats had three other players with at least five points in the first half.
When Villanova gets scoring from players other than Wayns, they become very hard to beat. The problem was Wayns was whistled for three fouls in the first half. Just 1:41 into the second half, Wayns was called for a questionable charge, relegating him to the bench for the next 8:17.
In that time, Louisville outscored Villanova 19-7, taking a 61-51 lead. When Wayns came back in, the Wildcats went on a 14-6 run of their own, getting to within two at 67-65. In the end, Louisville was too much to overcome. The Wildcats won at St. John’s after trailing by 10, but it’s too difficult to topple big leads on the road.
To show the stark contrast in play with and without Wayns, Villanova scored 44 points in the first half, shooting 49 percent from the field. They had seven assists as a team to just five turnovers. In the second, they shot just 30 percent, turning the ball over eight times against just three assists.
Offensively, they just have no punch with Wayns off the floor. Despite playing just 10 minutes, he still scored 10 of their 30 second-half points. He finished the game with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Outside of Wayns, the ‘Cats were just 19-of-55 from the field.
Even losing Wayns for such an extended period, Villanova’s young team was able to scrap and fight and stay in the game against a Top 25 team on the road. For a team trying to find it’s way, that is a big step in their development.
Among other bright spots was freshman JayVaughn Pinkston, who registered his third straight double-digit rebounding game, grabbing 12 boards to go along with eight points. James Bell finished with an impressive 14-point, 13-rebound double-double.
Last but not least is Mouphtaou Yarou. After a shaky first half, he attempted to put the Wildcats on his back and kept them close, finishing with 10 points and seven boards.
Losing their best player for almost 25 percent of the game was extremely unfortunate, but Villanova is proving they can compete every night. They fell below .500 to 10-11, but they are progressing and should be able to string some wins together down the stretch.
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Louisville Basketball: Grading the Performance of Each Cardinals Player
The Louisville Cardinals started the 2011 season on a 12-0 run and appeared to be one of the strongest teams in the country.
Since then, the season has been a roller coaster ride, with the Cards only coming out victorious in two of their last seven games.
Yet, is this losing streak due to a failure on the coaches’ part or the players’?
The following list will breakdown and grade each Cardinal for his play so far this season.
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No. 23 Louisville drops Pittsburgh
Kyle Kuric scored 21 points in his return to lead No. 21 Louisville to a 73-62 victory over struggling Pittsburgh Saturday.
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Louisville vs. Pittsburgh: Return of Tray Woodall Will Aid Panthers’ Victory
The act or result of helping; assistance, is the definition of aid, according to thefreedictonary.com. Is there a better aid in the Big East than Tray Woodall of the Pittsburgh Panthers?
When healthy, Woodall is one of the best point guards in the country. His return will give the Panthers a victory Saturday night against Louisville at the Petersen Events Center.
Pittsburgh experimented with Preseason Big East Player of the Year Ashton Gibbs at the point guard position, but that was pretty much a failure. He is a shooting guard that needs to be worked off screens in order to get shots. Playing with the ball, off the dribble is not his strong-suit.
He was asked to be the leading scorer and distribute to teammates that struggle collectively to score the rock. It was destined to fail.
Gibbs has shot 38.3 percent from the floor and 34.1 percent from beyond the arc, easily career-lows. Now that Woodall returns, Gibbs can move to the two which will make him more comfortable on the offensive side of the floor.
He can return to doing what he does best and that’s score the basketball. Expect Gibbs to have a great game.
In Pittsburgh’s seven-straight losses Woodall has either been injured or hasn’t been 100 percent healthy on the floor.
Woodall has averaged 12.4 points and 7.5 assists this season. His groin injury was extremely unfortunate given how well he has played this season. His points, rebounds, assists, free-throw percentage, shooting percentage and three-point percentage are all career highs. He was blowing his previous numbers out of the water.
His presence was obviously missing.
Even though Pittsburgh has lost eight games this season, we are seeing the potential of a NCAA Tournament team which they wouldn’t be if the season ended today.
They played Syracuse, the No. 1 team in the country, to an eight-point game on Monday night. Pittsburgh shot 39 percent from the floor, 30 percent from three-point range, missed 11 free-throws and received a 4-12, 10 point game from Gibbs.
But easily the biggest doughnut to their loss was from the point guard position. Isaiah Epps didn’t record an assist or a single point.
Despite all of these issues, Pittsburgh lost by eight to the best team in the country on the road. I’m not one for moral victories, but I’m guessing Pittsburgh will feel more confident on Saturday night in front of the Oakland Zoo with their play making point guard in the starting lineup.
Prediction: Pittsburgh 70, Louisville 67
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Pitt, Louisville trying to end struggles (AP)
It seemed like a good idea three months ago. Pittsburgh. Louisville. The Big East’s winningest team over the last decade against a club ranked in the preseason Top 10 in a rivalry that’s developed into one the best in the league since the Cardinals joined in 2005. Throw it in primetime in late January to give it a big-game feel.
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Louisville vs. Pittsburgh: TV Schedule, Live Stream, Spread Info and More
Rick Pitino‘s Louisville Cardinals got off to a sizzling start, winning their first 12 games, but lately they’ve fallen on hard times.
The Pittsburgh Panthers haven’t been doing any better recently. After winning 11 of their first 12 games, they’ve lost their last seven games, although they did play Marquette and Syracuse tough.
Both teams will be looking to get back on track on Saturday and improve their Big East record.
Where: Petersen Events Center, Pittsburgh, PA
When: Saturday, January 21, 9:00 p.m. ET
Watch: ESPN and ESPN 3
Listen: ESPN Radio
Betting Line: Pittsburgh – 2 (According to VegasInsider.com)
Injuries: CBSSports
Louisville
Kevin Ware, G, Probable
Wayne Blackshear, G, Questionable
Kyle Kuric, G, Doubtful
Pittsburgh
Tray Woodall, G, Probable
What They’re Saying
Said Louisville guard Russ Smith, via the Courier-Journal:
“Pitt needs a win bad, and we kind of need a win bad. We understand that. Pitt’s scenario is a little bit more serious. We definitely know the way we have to play to try to just sustain the lead the whole game and try to come out with a victory.”
Pittsburgh should be encouraged by playing Syracuse close on Monday, but they also could have won that game.
Said Pittsburgh guard Ashton Gibbs, via the Post-Gazette:
“We got to make layups and we gotta make free throws. It was the key to the game. If we made layups and we made free throws, we would have won the game.”
“Missing 13 layups isn’t acceptable at all.”
Key Matchup: Ashton Gibbs vs. Russ Smith
Ashton Gibbs is the Panthers’ leading scorer, for better or for worse. He’s averaged 16.5 points this season, but is shooting 38 percent from the field. What’s odd is that he’s shooting 34 percent from long range. Make no mistake about it, Gibbs also missed some layups against Syracuse.
Russ Smith is averaging just 12.6 points per game this season, but he’s performed well in the Cardinals’ last two games, scoring a combined 45 points while they’ve dealt with numerous injuries. Smith has also racked up eight steals in the last two games. Gibbs has been pretty good with the ball this season but he’s going to have to be extra careful against Smith.
Prediction: Louisville 70, Pittsburgh 67
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