First, please pause for a brief moment of silence before reading the rest of this entry in honor of Oral Roberts, who died yesterday at the age of 91. 

MOMENT OF SILENCE

Thank you.  Now, on to a preview of a must-win mid-December game against Oral Roberts, who just lost to Indiana State.  

Basketball Prospectus has a must-read-and-weep piece about how this year's team may not be able to turn this around like the last couple of years:

If you’re Pitino the biggest red-flag to arise even in murky December might be this: Louisville’s opponents so far this season (Arkansas, East Tennessee State, Morgan State, Appalachian State, UNLV, Stetson, Charlotte, Western Carolina) are shooting better from the floor than did the historically scary monster known as the Big East last year. That doesn’t bode well for the ‘Ville this year.

Ya, that's a pretty big red flag.  The whole article is worth reading. 

Oral Roberts limps into Freedom Hall with a couple of wounded big men, according to the Tulsa World.

ORU will be trying to regroup from Sunday's 60-54 loss at Indiana State and another sobering round of bumps and bruises. The Eagles started the game with six scholarship athletes and were down to five after sophomore swingman Kyron Stokes sprained his ankle in the first half and played only 10 minutes.

Apparently Stokes will play, though. 

Finally, patience, not panic and other words words words from the Courier-Journal:

"Our backs are up against the wall," UofL guard Edgar Sosa said. "Right now everybody is considering us to be an NIT team, and we know we're better than that. These two losses really hurt us, and now we really have to play with all we got and leave it all out on the floor because we can't afford to lose anymore."

Hopefully Good Edgar shows up tonight. 

Speaking of which, does this mean Chris Smith can play tonight? 

A loss tonight would not end the season, of course, but like Mike said, it would certainly lead to some national "what is wrong with Louisville?" stories after losing 4 of our last 5, including three at home.  Especially with Western coming Saturday, we could limp into the Big East with a (gulp) losing record.  So, you know, play good tonight guys.  Please.