5 questions: Card Chronicle

With UK and U of L headed toward their roundball clash tomorrow at Freedom Hall, I thought we'd get a little perspective from the excellent Card Chronicle blog.

The blog's Mike Rutherford (not the Genesis' bass player, we presume) was kind enough to play along.

His thoughts (and I really  liked No. 4):

1) What are your thoughts on Louisville's start this season?

 Well I’m not thrilled.

I wasn’t as optimistic as most before the season began (I thought, and still do think, that simply making the tournament will mark a successful season), but I never imagined we’d be 5-3 after eight games.

Dayton has exceeded preseason expectations thus far, but I still think that eventually we’re going to look back and view that game as one that we most certainly should have won. UMass is going to do very well in the A-10, but they’re not a team that should ever beat us at home.

The Arizona game definitely inspired the greatest amount of optimism. Of course it’s never a good sign when after eight games the vast majority of positives have all come from one contest, and it was one your team lost. 

The September Canada trip was advertised as a sort of summer camp deal in which the older and younger guys could gel, well if that was the intention then I think it’s safe to say that it didn’t work. Thus far the team has played with all the cohesiveness of a randomly selected five-man team in a YMCA pick-up game. They’re young, but they’ve played together long enough that by now they should be able to run some semblance of an organized offense.

2) What kind of season do you think the Cards will end up having? 

It’s really a toss-up at this point, so much hinges on how these guys are going to react to all this adversity. Tomorrow’s game is definitely the proverbial fight or flight moment.

Before the season I said they would lose 2 non-conference games, and then go 9-7 in the Big East for a regular season record of 21-9. Obviously the non-conference mark is now unreachable, but I still think this is a team that will finish with right around 20 wins.

Kentucky is the last chance for a meaningful non-conference victory, and even with a win over the Cats Louisville will still have to finish in the top six of the Big East and probably win a game in

New York to go to the big dance. This group has all the makings of a squad that will beat at least one of the top four teams in the conference, and will lose to at least one of the bottom four teams in the conference.

3) How unhappy are U of L fans with Pitino and are the critics justified?

I’d say the approval mark is right around 50% at the moment, which is a Bushesque accomplishment considering the state of things 21 months ago.  

I was big on the whole grace period after a final four deal, but when you’ve got a guy saying things like “We will never be out of the top 25 again,” and “From here on out we should be competing to go to the final four every year,” he’s kind of asking for it when the actual product isn’t anywhere near what he said it would be.

If EA Sports issued a public statement tomorrow morning saying something along the lines of “From here on out, we guarantee that none of our games will have any glitches,” and then the next two games they released featured massive glitches, people would be justifiably upset. 

I think he’s still far removed from being in any real jeopardy of losing his job, even if we were to finish this season with a losing record, but missing the tournament for a second straight year would most certainly result in Tom Jurich putting some heat on before the ’07-’08 campaign.

4) What do you think will be the key matchup Saturday?

I’m going to go with Randolph Morris vs. his teammates.  

Rashaun Freeman scored 21 points in Freedom Hall Wednesday night, making him the fourth opposing low-post player to score over 20 points against the Cardinals in their last five games.

Anyone who watched the UK/North Carolina game would agree that Morris got the better of preseason all-everything Tyler Hansbrough, and that the only thing keeping him from completely taking over was his teammates. In a key stretch in the second half when UK had an opportunity to get right back in the game, they went five straight trips without Morris touching the ball, and predictably didn’t score once.

If I’m Tubby I make sure that everyone wearing a blue jersey knows that on every possession after a
Louisville score, the ball is going to touch the hands of #33 at least once.

5) Who will win Saturday, and why?

For whatever reason, I can’t convince myself that this Louisville team isn’t going to put it all together.

Word is that after the game Pitino went ballistic and that yesterday the squad pulled double duty. Coming off an infuriating loss, playing against Kentucky and with the game being in Freedom Hall, if the Cards don’t come out playing like their lives depend on it then something is very, very wrong.

I just can’t help but feel that somehow Louisville is going to pull this one out.

I’ll go: Louisville 67, Kentucky 64

Comments

[mason]

Very good web site, great work and thank you for your service.+r