Louisville Under Exceeds Expectations

What … ?

You expected more from this Louisville basketball team in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. Expected players to emerge from a season-long mediocrity, represent the name on the uniform, make a surprising run.

Nice dream. The wishful thinking clashed with reality quickly, California getting off to a 22-4 start. Rick Pitino’s team making some runs, getting within four a few times, but losing more impetus every trip down the court.

Everybody that is except Rakeem Buckles, with unbridled bundles of energy, never seeming to tire. Just when he seems unstoppable and U of L is within reach, Buckles is pulled to the bench. All signs of offense going with him.

• All the effort aimed at getting the ball in the middle to Samardo Samuels is wasted if he’s having still another off night. He ends the season where he began, having trouble catching the ball, posting up on anyone near his size, unable to make a decent pass, getting pushed around.

• Edgar Sosa getting three fouls early, the look creeping back on his face, too easily letting doubt control his game, something he will have to live with for a long time.

• Jerry Smith not really back from the hand injury, his shooting obviously still affected, even the clunker that rolled in off the back of the rim. He will largely be remembered for scoring 23 points in his first game as a freshman, hitting a three-point winner at Marquette, and scoring the first eight points in the second win over Syracuse.

• Reginald Delk didn’t receive enough exposure to really create much of an impression. A few three-pointers here and there, a few memorable defensive stops. Gone already.

• Terrence Jennings is going to bite his tongue off some game chewing that gum. Maybe it affects his thinking.

• Jared Swopshire should fatten up over the summer, eat mashed potatoes and gravy five meals a day, become the significant factor the analysts keep telling us he will become. But he should always be hungry, playing with a sense of urgency once in a while.

Rick PItino talked a lot about youthfulness on a team that started three seniors in the final game. Sometimes he outsmarts himself. He will have a few months to get back to a few basics.

...

Another Madison Square Nightmare For Louisville

One More Homecoming Wreck For Edgar Sosa

One could see it coming early.

Edgar Sosa pumping his chest, waving his arms, winking at the camera, the kind of stuff players usually do when a game is in the bag.

Doing it in the first half, acting as if a 10-point lead was 25, and it was only a matter of time before Rick Pitino would clear the bench.

The Louisville basketball team was playing well in the first half, probably one of the better halves this season, sticky quick on defense, challenging every pass, every shot, every defensive rebound.

Feeling good about themselves. Real good. Especially Edgar Sosa.

Danger time. That’s when bad things begin happening for this team.

Second half, different Sosa, over-confident, making circus passes, NBA-distance three-point attempts. Throwing the ball to wrong people — Terrence Jennings and Jared Swopshire — at the worst possible times, neither of them known for hitting shots at clutch time.

Sorry, Sosa, no Kyle Kuric around for much of the second half to bail anybody out this time around. His hot shooting hands relegated to the bench. Pitino’s most predictable decision this day.

Sosa with 20 points in the first half, lucky to get eight in the second.

Still, just another bad night for Sosa in Madison Square Garden. This is the one that will hurt the most.

...

Cautious Approach Leaves Louisville Flat

Rick Pitino made a big point about taking care of the basketball in his pre-game remarks, pointing out how teams with fewer than 10 turnovers had done well against Georgetown.

May have been a little too emphatic. University of Louisville players perhaps concluding, “Take fewer chances, make less mistakes, our team wins.”

So they go overboard taking care to protect the ball. No crazy stuff, no reckless abandon, and no emotion but a lot of missed hook shots, layups and other close-in shots.

Reminded the observer of a mid-season NBA game, players expending a minimum of effort on both ends of the court. A plodding, mechanical, methodical affair with a minimum of risk and emotion.

Louisville makes only nine turnovers. Mission accomplished in that area.

*      *       *

The crowd also being careful, guarded, tired of being jerked around, displaying a minimum of emotion in the next to last scheduled game at Freedom Hall. Little, if any, spontaneity, cheering only when expected, sitting on hands, young and old. Against Georgetown, the nation’s 11th-ranked team.

Perhaps U of L having been spoiled by late February runs in recent seasons, waiting for it to happen again on schedule. Poke us when it’s time to get excited, okay?

By the time many Freedom Hallers returned to their seats after the intermission, Georgetown was in the midst of a 21-3 run.

*       *      *

With apologies to Edgar Sosa and his 24 points, eight assists and two rebounds, Terrence Jennings seemed to be the only Louisville player not on automatic pilot. His backboard rattling dunk was one of the few genuinely exciting moments all night. He was also intimidating Georgetown shooters, daring them to shoot over him.

Alas for Jennings and anything to get the crowd stirred, Jennings would become a rare commodity in the second half, wasting away, getting still more on-the-job training riding the bench.

...

New Look For Terrence Jennings In Louisville Win

Just when fans are about to give up on someone during the Rick Pitino era …

That player seems to emerge, playing a key role, forcing doubters to question themselves, regretting premature conclusions. Pitino never gives up on a player, applying all the considerable motivational, even psychological, tools at his disposal. Sometimes it takes a while, other times only good for a brief while.

The Louisville-DePaul game in the second half, every play critical. Yet that’s Terrence Jennings out there, playing most of the half. The same player Pitino was fearful of using in the Notre Dame cliffhanger. Standing in, mind you, for an associate who had scored 36 points on Wednesday.

The probably premature conclusion here is that Jennings sat on the bench long enough to get that hungry look in his eye. Pitino recognizes the look, knows Sarmado can use a break, and hustles Jennings to the score table, into the fray.

Jennings, eager to please, happy to play again, responds with a game on the line. Five offensive rebounds, four on defense, four of six field goal attempts, and four huge shot blocks.

One can only see the look up close on television when a player goes to the free throw line, Jennings making only one of six attempts. A new expression, replacing the spaced out look and chewing gum-induced chomping. One of intensity, knowing he was on the spot, having to respond.

Terrence Jennings would respond in a big way on this day, hopefully taking mental notes about what it takes to succeed on a more consistent basis.

Louisville-DePaul Box Score

...

Like Louisville Can Still Get Ticket Punched

Here goes an exercise in futility.

For the University of Louisville basketball team to get to the NCAA tournament, some unlikely things will  have to occur, including some unbelievable breaks over the next three weeks or so. Meanwhile, here’s a few suggestions:

• Samardo Samuels — Quit being nice. Shock teammates, get in their faces, demand intensity and toughness. Transform that permanent look of disappointment into a scowl. That seems to be what gets attention these days.

• Terrence Jennings — Wise up, get serious in practice, learn the offense, know what a rebound is, guard someone, admit it’s not cool looking lost. Otherwise, quit wasting the scholarship

• Edgar Sosa — Pick up where he left off before the St. John’s loss, remembering why he wasn’t in the last five minutes of that embarrassment — not finding his teammates, not making clean passes, not protecting the ball.

• Jerry Smith — Return to being a long-range shooter, convince himself he’s not in a permanent slump. Time is short, playing days almost over.

• Jared Swopshire — Show some kind of emotion — happy, sad, even bored will do, proving he’s not a robot. Looks mechanical whether he’s shooting a free throw, rolling around in a scuffle or diving for a loose ball.

• Preston Knowles — Take care of the ball, go back to being fearless.

• Peyton Siva — Take more of those NBA-range three-point shots, being careful with the passes.

• Rick Pitino — Figure out which of the seven or eight players are most effective. Get past the experimentation and mind-playing games. Constantly changing the formula not good science or good for team chemistry.

...

Heady Stuff, A Win Over UConn

Just when one has filed a University of Louisville basketball player in the marginal to wasted category, Rick Pitino does his thing, getting inside the player’s head, pointing out the obvious, showing him ways to get better, making him a contributor.

Yes, sometimes Pitino must go back to the well many times, taking a while for a player to grasp the obvious. He knows the players better than they do, so he often has to introduce and educate them about themselves.

• Who would have believed three weeks ago that Samardo Samuels would ever get the post-up move down so well, consistently connecting on hook shots or becoming a reliable rebounder. And how about the recent emotion, the smiles, even laughter from the shy one, and the swagger. Samuels is all in, believing in himself.
  

• Too soon to know whether Jerry Smith of the UConn game is the new one. He’s the last player one expects to be dribble driving, being an offensive force, with few vestiges of his three-point prowess remaining. Pitino says the three-point drought has made him a better player.
  

• Edgar Sosa’s tears after the Pittsburgh game may have had something to do with the decisions against UConn, finding his teammates with eight assists while hitting six of nine shots himself. More than enough points to go around, and he’s much happier.

• Terrence Jennings is still way behind on the learning curve but those blocked shots always seem to come at the right time. Pitino says he will be a very good basketball player. Trust him.
  

• Reginald Delk is enjoying the game, now that he’s more than a spot shooter, four rebounds, two blocks and a steal to go with his 10 points.

• Credit one Stephen Van Treese with some valuable relief work during his six minutes in the first half, getting schooled by the UConn big men, collecting three fouls destined for Samuels or Jennings.

• You can bet that Pitino is focused on Jared Swopshire, the player who hit the three-point shot from the corner but thinks too much and leaves other shooters open too often. Pitino is on the case.

...

Louisville-West Virginia Not Child’s Play

By Tom Stosberg

Anybody got some extra flak jackets Samardo Samuels and Terrence Jennings could borrow for a couple of hours? They promise to give them right back after Saturday.

One of those puny WWE smackdowns will seem like an afternoon in a church library compared to the Louisville-West Virginia basketball game at the cleverly named West Virginia University Coliseum.

About six years ago they put a new roof on the coliseum. Sorry. It’s coming off this weekend.

Sam Sam and T.J. will have their hands full banging with WVU’s biggies. The Mountaineers are led by DeSean Butler, a 6-foot-9, 225-pound senior averaging 16 points and 6.4 rebounds. He’s accompanied by a couple of sophomores who play like upperclassmen – 6-foot-9 Devin Ebanks and 6-foot-8 Kevin Jones, who are averaging 11.3 and 14.9 points, respectively, while pulling down eight rebounds apiece.

Oh, and their guys all have played a minimum of 30 minutes per game. So they know how to play together very well. I repeat, the two youngsters play like veterans.

The guards know how to find these guys. When sweet and lovable Bobby Huggins isn’t helping old ladies across the street, he’s teaching these studs how to block out under the basket.

Bring ‘em on. This just could be the game that our bigs get ticked off and tear down the backboards! Hope so. Go get ‘em, Cards!

...