On the heels of a trying three day stretch that saw our heroes in red and black fall 66-73 at Rupp Arena, the dismissal of Chane Behanan, along with the likely red-shirting of Kevin Ware, the 14th ranked Louisville Cardinals (11-2) return to action tonight to ring in the New Year in a familiar city, albeit versus an unfamiliar opponent. The CFE Arena located in Orlando, the home of the Russell Athletic Bowl, will play host to the defending national champions, as the Cards battle the Knights of Central Florida (8-3) to open American Athletic Conference play at 5 pm, televised on ESPN2, and for only the second time in the history of the two programs. The only previous meeting occurred on December 15, 1999 in Freedom Hall, and saw Coach Crum’s squad defeat the Knights 78-58.
Much like the Wildcats, tonight’s opponent is one with considerable size. Their starting lineup features only one player shorter than 6-6, who happens to be the team’s leading scorer in Oklahoma senior-transfer Calvin Newell. The point guard, an excellent finisher around the basket, averaged nearly 30 points at Strath Haven High School, and in this, his final collegiate season, is scoring 14.8 points a game, to go with nearly 3 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals.
When not racking up buckets himself, Newell has a plethora of options to distribute the ball to, a point of emphasis from head coach Donnie Jones, who played his college ball at Pikeville and is an 11 year veteran of Billy Donovan’s staff, helping guide the Florida Gators to their back to back national championships in 2006 and 2007. Jones’ Knights will go 10 deep in their rotation, often relying on size, depth, and experience to grind down their opponents. But this is also a talented offensive basketball team. Four players are averaging double-digit points, three of which shoot stronger than 40% from 3-point range. 6-8, forward Tristan Spurlock, who paced the Knights with 22 points in their most recent contest, nine days ago, that saw them defeat Valparaiso 90-62, has hit on 22 of his 52 long range attempts. The senior averages 14 points, 7 rebounds, a steal and an assist. The Cards will also have to be wary of 6-7, forward Kasey Wilson. The junior from North Port, Florida can drain it from behind the arc, converting 54.8% of his attempts, while also contributing better than 11 points and 6 rebounds each game.
Though the Knights’ most marquee victory comes in the form of a road win over a struggling Miami team (not a good end to 2013 for the Hurricanes), they can score the basket, having reached or topped 80 points in five of their eight home games, including 90 three times, and the century mark once. UCF has also had over a week to prepare for the Cards, and present similar match-up issues due to length that Louisville faced in Lexington. It also goes without saying there will have to be an adjustment period to life without Chane Behanan, that will likely result in Wayne Blackshear seeing time at power forward; much like how the Cards were forced to play in their “bridge year” that saw The King Kyle Kuric, and Chris Smith manning the forward spots. If the Cards come out reeling from their loss last Saturday and the dismissal of Chane, they will fall to 1-2 on their current four game road trip that will culminate in Piscataway next Saturday night. However, since the 2006-2007 season, the Cards under Coach Pitino are a combined 43-14 in games following a loss, so I would expect them to be fired up and will right the ship to start out conference play 1-0, and enter the New Year on a happier note than its final week (and maybe get a little payback for that football game a few months ago).
Go Cards, Beat UCF!
Louisville Cardinals Season Statistics:
|
Player |
|||||||||||
|
13 |
27.1 |
16.9 |
3.1 |
4.9 |
1.6 |
0.1 |
2.5 |
.441 |
.691 |
.312 |
|
|
12 |
25.9 |
13.8 |
2.7 |
2.7 |
2.0 |
0.1 |
1.3 |
.462 |
.750 |
.392 |
|
|
13 |
24.4 |
12.0 |
8.0 |
1.0 |
1.2 |
0.9 |
1.2 |
.646 |
.551 |
1.000 |
|
|
13 |
20.2 |
9.8 |
3.0 |
0.5 |
1.4 |
0.5 |
0.4 |
.380 |
.872 |
.436 |
|
|
12 |
18.1 |
7.8 |
1.9 |
1.3 |
0.6 |
0.3 |
0.7 |
.319 |
.857 |
.250 |
|
|
12 |
18.6 |
7.6 |
6.3 |
1.0 |
0.9 |
0.3 |
1.3 |
.636 |
.447 |
.000 |
|
|
13 |
17.1 |
5.7 |
3.2 |
1.8 |
0.5 |
0.2 |
0.3 |
.361 |
.667 |
.343 |
|
|
13 |
17.8 |
4.9 |
4.5 |
0.5 |
0.1 |
1.5 |
0.5 |
.611 |
.541 |
.000 |
|
|
13 |
17.4 |
2.9 |
4.8 |
0.3 |
0.8 |
0.8 |
0.5 |
.696 |
.667 |
.000 |
|
|
12 |
5.7 |
1.9 |
0.8 |
0.8 |
0.4 |
0.0 |
0.1 |
.389 |
1.000 |
.412 |
|
|
11 |
5.4 |
1.9 |
1.0 |
0.2 |
0.1 |
0.0 |
0.2 |
.412 |
.400 |
.250 |
|
|
9 |
5.9 |
1.7 |
0.6 |
0.3 |
0.3 |
0.1 |
0.7 |
.375 |
.500 |
.000 |
|
|
7 |
2.9 |
1.1 |
0.4 |
0.0 |
0.1 |
0.0 |
0.1 |
.400 |
.500 |
.500 |
|
|
8 |
4.8 |
0.3 |
1.1 |
0.1 |
0.0 |
0.4 |
0.1 |
1.000 |
.000 |
.000 |
|
|
Totals |
13 |
— |
85 |
41 |
15 |
9 |
5 |
9 |
.470 |
.654 |
.348 |
Central Florida Knights Season Statistics:
|
Player |
|||||||||||
|
11 |
29.3 |
14.8 |
2.6 |
3.6 |
2.4 |
0.1 |
2.5 |
.457 |
.596 |
.286 |
|
|
11 |
25.5 |
13.9 |
5.5 |
3.4 |
1.7 |
0.0 |
3.1 |
.516 |
.412 |
.364 |
|
|
11 |
30.5 |
13.8 |
6.8 |
1.6 |
1.3 |
0.6 |
1.1 |
.490 |
.757 |
.423 |
|
|
11 |
26.4 |
11.5 |
6.1 |
0.6 |
0.5 |
0.6 |
1.5 |
.478 |
.657 |
.548 |
|
|
11 |
17.9 |
6.4 |
3.2 |
1.0 |
0.5 |
0.1 |
0.7 |
.436 |
.000 |
.423 |
|
|
10 |
13.9 |
5.4 |
2.9 |
0.3 |
0.1 |
0.7 |
0.5 |
.606 |
.583 |
.000 |
|
|
11 |
15.3 |
4.1 |
3.0 |
2.6 |
0.5 |
0.1 |
1.0 |
.481 |
.621 |
.250 |
|
|
11 |
14.2 |
3.8 |
1.7 |
1.7 |
0.2 |
0.1 |
1.2 |
.341 |
.625 |
.368 |
|
|
11 |
12.6 |
3.6 |
2.9 |
0.0 |
0.2 |
0.7 |
1.0 |
.593 |
.421 |
.000 |
|
|
11 |
6.0 |
1.8 |
0.5 |
0.2 |
0.1 |
0.0 |
0.2 |
.375 |
1.000 |
.400 |
|
|
6 |
3.5 |
1.3 |
0.3 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.2 |
.600 |
.000 |
.500 |
|
|
11 |
7.9 |
0.7 |
1.7 |
0.2 |
0.2 |
0.6 |
0.4 |
.375 |
.400 |
.000 |
|
|
Totals |
11 |
— |
80 |
41 |
15 |
8 |
4 |
13 |
.479 |
.574 |
.401 |
Erich Kline
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