Top ten U of L games of 2008

I love year-end lists.

Keep in mind that all games on the lists are ranked based on our perspective as Cardinal fans, not on the overall quality of the contest itself.

10. Louisville 38, Kansas State 29 (September 17)

A game that makes the list not because of the quality of the win - the Wildcats turned out to be massive pretenders - but because it marked the official coming out party for one Victor Anderson. The eventual 1,000-yard rushing freshman went off for 183 yards and three scores as the Cardinal faithful received momentary hope for the future.

9. Louisville 67, West Virginia 60 (March 10)

Angel McCoughtry scored 24 points as the women's team held off the 16th-ranked Mountaineers to advance to the Big East Tournament championship game for the first time in program history. The Cards would fall to perennial powerhouse Connecticut by six a day later.

8. Louisville 6, Kentucky 5 (April 22)

Eventual Big East Co-Player of the Year Chris Dominguez singled up the middle with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth to help the Cardinal Nine avenge an extra-inning loss to their arch-rivals in Lexington three weeks earlier. The win commenced a stretch where Louisville won 13 of 14 games and set itself up for a conference tournament championship run.

7. Louisville 24, South Florida 20 (October 25)

A game that brought both misguided hope and the final victory of the 2008 season.

6. Louisville 89, Kentucky 75 (January 5)

It feels sort of wrong to put a men's basketball win over Kentucky so low, especially one that featured an altercation with a pretty unlikeable opposing player, but the Cards were expected to handle the Cats in last season's grudge match and did so easily even without the services of Earl Clark.

5. Louisville 78, Oklahoma 48 (March 23)

The third-seeded Cardinals dominated Blake Griffin and Oklahoma from start to finish and earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament's second weekend.

4. Louisville 57, Rutgers 56 (March 9)

When Angel McCoughtry recorded a steal and dribbled out the final seconds of a one-point victory over fourth-ranked and second-seeded Rutgers in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament, it may have very well marked the biggest victory in the history of the U of L women's basketball program.

3. Louisville 6, Cincinnati 3 (May 24)

The Cards made it a clean sweep of the Big East Tournament and secured back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. Chris Dominguez had two hits for the fourth straight game and was named the tourney's Most Outstanding Player.

2. Louisville 59, Georgetown 51 (February 9)

David Padgett got the better of Roy Hibbert and helped the Cardinals outlast the then once-beaten Hoyas in front of a Saturday night ESPN audience. Still the best fan performance I've ever been privileged enough to be a part of inside Freedom Hall.

1. Louisville 79, Tennessee 60 (March 27)

In what had been billed as the best potential Sweet 16 game since the moment the brackets were unveiled, Earl Clark went off for 17 points and 12 rebounds as the Cardinals rolled over the second-seeded Volunteers and into the East Regional final.

I was there and had a public erection I felt no desire to hide.