Thirteen thoughts: Louisville 66, Syracuse 60

1. Just how big was this win? Before Sunday, U of L had won just one road game (at Providence) and their signature victory was a toss-up between home wins over South Florida and Cincinnati. When the buzzer sounded inside the Carrier Dome, Louisville' s RPI jumped 14 places from No. 45 to No. 31 and the Cards went from absolutely out of the NCAA Tournament to absolutely in the NCAA Tournament. 

If last year's season finale at West Virginia hadn't been for an outright Big East title, this would have been the msot meaningful regular season victory for the Cardinals in quite some time. 

2. Louisville had to have a win like this, so Card fans (understandably) aren't particularly concerned with how it came to be, but I don't think we can completely overlook the near collapse that took place at the end of the game. I mean I guess we can, but we shouldn't, you know, because it's Fat Tuesday and everything, and part of Fat Tuesday has always been taking a close look at things which are unpleasant but necessary to review. Read a book.

Swop - our best free-throw shooter at 84% - again bricks the front end of a one-and-one. Rakeem Buckles - a liability with the ball who, for whatever reason, is trusted with inbounding it - gets away with stepping over the in-line and finds Edgar Sosa, who barely draws iron on his free-throw miss. Following a 'Cuse score to make it a two-point game, Sosa wants no part of heading back to the stripe and quickly passes the ball back to Buckles who promptly throws it out-of-bounds. The Cards dodge a bullet, Jerry Smith is intentionally fouled and then regularly fouled and goes 2-for-4 at the line. The Orange miss a few more shots and Buckles caps a win with a runaway dunk. 

A win like this was a necessity for this team to make the dance, but to do any sort of damage once they're there, I think the Cards are going to have to have a night where they make the key plays in the final minute (instead of just sitting there and praying for an avoided disaster) to pull out the victory sometime between now and when they head back to New York. 

3. If it were possible to get a crazy clown tattoo on my arm that only showed up when I traveled to the Northeast, well, I would do that. Make it happen, Jobs.

While Mike Marra might not be (at the moment) quite the shooter we thought he was going to be, it's becoming pretty apparent that he's a much better all-around player than any of us could have imagined. 

He's pretty good right now and he's only going to get better. 

4. It's remarkable that we held Wes Johnson to 5-of-20 shooting on a day when Reggie Delk, our starting three and the best defender on the team according to his head coach, didn't play one second. 

Great work in the zone by our forwards and guys up top. Jerry may not have scored a point, but he and Preston both did a tremendous job defensively both from their assigned spot and when they were asked to locate Andy Rautins. I thought this was also easily Swop's best defensive effort of the year. 

5. Fact: Syracuse doesn't beat Louisville in basketball. 

6. Samardo really stepped up when we needed some buckets in the second half, but too often he allowed his frustration on the offensive end to carry over on defense. He was out of position and backed away from challenging shots several times over the course of the game, which was even more frustrating when you watched how hard the other four guys in black were working. 

Samuels may have scored 18 points against St. John's, but he was every bit as lazy on the defensive end in that contest as he was for stretches on Sunday. He deserved the significant praise that he was receiving before last week, but we can't afford for him to take defensive possessions off now just because more and more of his shots are falling. It's no coincidence that Syracuse's run ended and the Orange went on a long scoring drought when he left the game with two fouls in the first half. 

7. With the exception of his short-armed free-throw and the first five minutes of the game, I thought Edgar Sosa responded extremely well to his disastrous performance against St. John's and really stepped up when his team had to have him. We just really need him to make a clutch play or shot with the game on the line.

8. If it weren't for Marra's heroics, Lethargic Syracuse Mop Kid would have been my player of the game. 

9. The most worrisome aspect of last Thursday's game wasn't that the Cards were blown out by a seemingly inferior team, it was that no one seemed to particularly care. Every U of L player appeared so lethargic and un-enthusiastic that I was seriously worried that some major rift or controversy had taken place. That worry was put to bed on Sunday, however, as the bench was as into the game as I've ever seen a Louisville team. 

At one point I mistook Peyton Siva for Jerry Smith because of his towel antics. It gave me goosebumps. 

10. Pitino (or somebody) draws up a tremendous out-of-bounds play that leads to a gorgeous Samardo dunk, and ESPN misses it because they're showing a promo. Biggest "figures" moment of the season. 

11. I watched the first half of the game with just my mom, and it was a truly amazing experience. She's a huge fan of "Kyle" (the only name she'll call him by), is a devout fan of Lost but can't seem to get a handle on the and-one rule, and thinks every other thing that happens during a game "shouldn't be allowed." She never wavered in her belief that a Cards victory was imminent, however, and for that she deserves some CC kudos. 

12. Preston!

13. Huge, huge win that has me giddy two days later. Please god don't Krag  drag us back down.