Let's start with the media recap of last night's win. If for no other reason than that we can.

Michael Grant's game story in the C-J looks at how important the "microwave" duo of Preston Knowles and Andre McGee were to Louisville's impressive second half.

"This is a team that shoots 43.8 percent on the season," Pitino said. "They shot 53 percent (in the first half), and that was all because we couldn't do anything defensively. We were taking bad shots and couldn't get our pressure on."

McGee and fellow reserve guard Preston Knowles helped change that.

"We stopped taking quick shots. We ran our offense," Pitino said. "Andre and Preston had to fight to get us back in the game. Then at halftime we had to get them to set the tone right away."

...

Pitino made aggressive use of his bench. Knowles and McGee replaced Sosa and Smith with 18:10 left in the half. They played most of the first half and started the second.

"In the second half we had to have a great start," Pitino said. "We had to have Preston and Andre in at the beginning of the game. They set the tone right away."

Rick Bozich's Thursday column centers around the U of L stat crew, but doesn't miss the opportunity to tie the number of people who braved the elements last night to make it out to Freedom Hall with just how important basketball is in this city.

College basketball goes on in this town, especially with this surging team, which gets West Virginia on Saturday and, now that Duke tumbled against Wake Forest, should have another shot at the nation's No. 1 team when Connecticut visits Monday night.

Pitino said he and his son, Richard, had a friendly pre-game over-and-under wager about the crowd.

The number was 7,500. Richard took the over. Dad will be buying son the dinner of his choice soon.

"To get that many is amazing, but not surprising," Rick Pitino said. "You've got to have priorities in life. For our fans, Louisville basketball is more important than their homes, more important than their lives."

Not much coverage of the game in the Sunshine State, but Greg Auman does call Louisville "the team to beat," which is something.

Another day, another Florida recruit for Steve Kragthorpe. Wednesday it was Tampa offensive lineman Hunter Stout, who chose U of L over Western Kentucky and Florida International after he wasn't offered a scholarship by Auburn.

"I'm glad to be a Cardinal," Stout said. "I really enjoyed my visit and love all of the coaches at Louisville and the attitude they have towards winning."

Stout said the Cardinals recruited him to play guard, where he is ranked No. 103 nationally by Scout.com. He's the eighth player from Florida who has committed to U of L.

The Cards have reached top-seed territory in the new CBS "Projecting the Field." I really, really want to open the tournament in Dayton.

And finally, big congrats to Will Scott who has been accepted to study at Oxford, where he will pursue a master's degree in Modern Chinese Studies.

Additional congratulations to me, who has been accepted to study at St. Matthews College of the Arts where I will pursue a bachelor's degree in Calling People Who Don't Know Me And Asking Them To Give Me Money For No Reason.

It should be an exciting ride.