5. LOUISVILLE STUNS NO. 4 FLORIDA STATE (9/26/02)

The Louisville football program's first "signature win" had come more than a decade earlier via a thrashing of Alabama in the Fiesta Bowl, but this was the monumental victory that set the tone for U of L's rise to prominence over the next few years.

In a torrential downpour, the Cardinals - who had already dropped games to Kentucky and Colorado State after entering the year with their highest preseason ranking in history - forced the fourth-ranked and unbeaten Seminoles into overtime.

On the first play of overtime, FSU quarterback Chris Rix had his pass intercepted by U of L free safety Anthony Floyd. One play later, Louisville running back Henry Miller burst through the middle and waltzed into the endzone, inspiring the soldout crowd at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium to storm onto the field and tear down the goal posts.

"They were better than we were," said Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden. "Before the season, I was very concerned about this game because they were playing as good as anybody last season. We simply did not stop them."

Bowden also praised Cardinal quarterback Dave Ragone, who he said was "as good as any quarterback in the country."

"We fed off an unbelievable crowd in a torrential downpour," Ragone said afterward. "They started ripping down the goal posts, ripping off my helmet, ripping off everything."

12. JERRY SMITH COMES HOME AND BEATS MARQUETTE (2/18/07)

Desperately needing a signature road-win, the once-struggling '07 Louisville Cardinals found one when freshman Jerry Smith buried a deep three-pointer just before the buzzer to stun No. 12 Marquette in front of a sellout crown in Milwaukee.

The win was especially sweet for Smith, a Wisconsin native who many felt was denied the state's Mr. Basketball honor because of his decision to take his game to Louisville.

"I'm just speechless," said Smith, who played his high school ball at Wauwatosa East. "I could have never dreamed this."

Remarkably, this was the third time in six years that the Cardinals had gone on the road and beaten the rival Golden Eagles with the aid of a made shot in the game's final seconds.

Vote or freedom will immediately cease being.

Every two years, the University of Louisville football teams heads to Tampa to take on the South Florida Bulls with increasingly bad results:

2003: Overtime Loss After Lefors INT

2005:  Total WTF game, USF destroys Brohm, Bush, Mario, etc. 45-14.  CardsFan922's streak of bad luck watching UofL games at BW3s on Bardstown Road continues (2004 @Marquette, 2004 Renardo Foster tears ACL)

2007:  Treat Guy fumbled the opening kick-off for a USF TD and it went down hill from there.  This is the only video evidence I could find of the 55-17 beat down:

So bad things seem to happen in South Florida, for some reason.

But the past doesn't matter, and this will be one of the weaker USF teams to welcome us to Tampa.  And the Cards defense has quietly put together defensive scores of 13 (Ark. State), 17 (WVU) and 9 (Syracuse) in the last three weeks.  Do we have a shot?  Will Froman do a Groethe impression?  Also, please note that in the simulated season, BJ Daniels was the starting QB.  And we win tomorrow 30-3.  We here at CardChron headquarters don't know if the fact the season was right about the first means it will be right about the second.

So what do we know about tomorrow?

According to the Courier-Journal, Adam Froman was mentally there even if he wasn't physically 100%, and they almost put Will Stein into the game against Syracuse.  The decision not to proved prescient (your move, Heiser) as Froman led them on the winning TD drive:

"You could tell he was a little rusty," Kragthorpe said. "But he made some nice plays for us off the scrambles. He can make some plays with his feet. He'll be fine."

Coaches considered pulling Froman from the game, but as quarterbacks coach Matt Wells said: "He was so into it mentally."

"If he wouldn't have been there mentally, we would have probably made a change, but he wasn't missing anything mentally," Wells said. "I expect him to come back and play at a high, high level this week."

USF's 9th Year Senior Carlton Mitchell (seriously, how long has that guy been there?) will apparently be healthy enough to play tomorrow, says the Trib: 

University of South Florida WR Carlton Mitchell (ankle) is probable for Saturday's game against Louisville.

Mitchell missed last week's game at Rutgers after suffering a high ankle sprain against West Virginia on Oct. 30.

"He's going to dress for the game," USF coach Jim Leavitt said. "How much he plays depends on how well he feels. He's getting close."

Mitchell, who showed no signs of being limited as he sprinted off the practice field Thursday, leads USF with 29 receptions for 542 yards, four touchdowns and 14 years of eligibility. 

 

Part of that quote is altered from the original.  Can you guess which?

That same link summarizes the pre-game story lines in a nutshell: bowl-eligibility on the line, as long as they don't turn the ball over:

he Bulls (6-3, 2-3 Big East) can become bowl eligible with a win against Louisville (4-6, 1-4). On paper, that shouldn't be a problem as USF is an 11 1/2 -point favorite.

Turnovers, however, are the big equalizer. Through nine games, USF has committed 18 turnovers, but half (nine) have come in its three losses.

"You just can't turn the football over," offensive coordinator Mike Canales said. "That's been the demise of us."

USF has won only once since Oct. 3, but in that game (a 30-19 win against WVU), the Bulls were turnover-free.

USF better be careful, or Jim Leavitt will scare the bulls--t out of them at halftime:

The Bulls not only got trampled on the field, but also ESPN's A-team announcing crew had little good to say about the Bulls once the game got out of reach.

Even before the second half started and USF trailing 13-0, ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews provided a glimpse of the atmosphere around the Bulls.

"It was very loud, very intense, and very scary in there," Andrews reported someone told her of Coach Jim Leavitt's halftime speech.

Anyone who would like to volunteer to comfort EA as part of the D.E.N.N.I.S. system please leave your contact information for her in the comments.

So we face a USF team who was just humiliated on national television, who faces Miami in the Game of the Century next week on ABC at 3:30 PM, and we face them in a place we've never beaten them.

Go Cards! 

The match-ups only get tougher from here on out, Best Louisville Games.  You better bring it.

3. LOUISVILLE NOTCHES FIRST BCS BOWL VICTORY OVER WAKE FOREST IN PETRINO'S LAST GAME

I don't think it is hyperbole to say that this was the biggest victory in UofL football history (with all due respect to the WVU/Black Out game) that was also the least exciting.  Whether it was Fox's terrible coverage, the lack of crowd energy translating to TV, the limited possessions (remember, this was the only season of the new clock rules that allowed teams like Wake to waste a bunch of time), Wake Forest's stingy defense, or the lack of signature moments like a Mario stiff-arm, this game just sorta happened.

But in looking back, there were actually some really great plays, especially on the pivotal drive.  A scoreless third quarter by the Cards, plus 10 unanswered points by Wake put us down 13-10 early in the 4th Quarter.  An 8-play, 81-yard drive, highlighted by a swing pass that Kolby Smith willed into a 25 yard gain (I seem to remember making some guys miss in the backfield) led to an Anthony Allen 1-yard TD run. 

The defense held Wake to a 3-and-out and then Jimmy Riley made the play of his career to complete a first down on third and long - remember, he caught the ball a few yards short of the marker with guys on him but somehow was able to get a huge first down.  Bolen added the nail for a 24-13 lead, and the Cards won the Orange Bowl!

The big questions afterward were who would be back: Brohm?  Mario?  Malik Jackson?  Harry?  Less than a week later....I can't even type it.

At any rate, this is a #3 seed because a BCS bowl win is always a big deal, even if it is not the championship game.  And because I'm sure I wasn't the only cards fan who said to himself, I don't want to spend the money to go down to the Orange Bowl, I'll wait until the Sugar Bowl next year.  And even if Wake is not an ACC power, that was a good team with a smart coach and a stingy defense, and we still beat the spread and were not really challenged in the 4th quarter. 

A formidable opponent for any game.  Who will 2007 Orange Bowl match up against?  The role of "scrappy mid-major champion starting 4 seniors and a junior" to the Orange Bowl's Kansas is...

14. LOUISVILLE DEFEATS KENTUCKY 81-63 IN THE 'MARVIN STONE GAME', DECEMBER 28, 2002

Four hours on youtube (okay maybe just 10 minutes) did not produce any video of this game, but this was a classic.  Marvin Stone had been released from UK the year before and wound up at Louisville, taking the 2002-2003 team to another level.  Gaines, freshmen Garcia and Dean, a Larry O'Bannon who was a year away from making a jump, Otis and Myles, Erik Brown - all have a special place in Cards fans hearts, and Stone getting a second chance, especially against his former team, a team that gave up on him, made the already-bitter rivalry that more interesting.

The Cards got down by double digits in the first half before storming back for a 2nd half beatdown that the loud, intense crowd really helped push to another level during the decisive run.

Stone was the leading scorer, notching 16 points and 7 boards and Myles had a double-double (11 points, 14 rebounds). 

Enjoy this video of 2002-2003 highlights:

This was also Pitino's second game against UK, and the players had his back.

Pitino avenged a 20-point loss to the Wildcats in his much-ballyhooed return to Rupp Arena last December. He was making his first appearance in his former home arena, and fans screamed insults at him from the start in Kentucky's 82-62 victory.

The rude reception stuck with the Cardinals. "We really wanted to get this win for Coach, the way they treated him last year,'' Myles said.

Overall, it was a great afternoon and a memorable win for Marvin Stone and Coach Pitino and a worthy inclusion in the top 16 UofL games of the decade.

What say you?

We'll hop back into the first round action tomorrow, but for now here's a quick status update on where the tournament stands.

1) 2005 West Virginia Elite Eight Game defeated 16) 2001 Liberty Bowl (94%-5%)

2) vs. 15) - TBD

3) vs. 14) - TBD

4) 2003 Conference USA Championship Game defeated 13) 2009 Big East Championship Game (67%-32%)

5) vs. 12) - TBD

11) 2006 Miami Football Game defeated 6) 2003 Reece Gaines Buzzer-Beater at Marquette (71%-28%)

7) 2001 Tennessee Basketball Comeback defeated 10) 2009 Kentucky Basketball Victory (53%-46%)

9) 2003 Kentucky Basketball Victory defeated 8) 2004 Liberty Bowl (53%-46%)

Please, no comments about the percentages not adding up to 100. I'm just going with what the numbers say in the poll boxes and numbers in poll boxes generated by computers have never been wrong.

Some stuff that may have been glossed over in the wake of basketball (BASKETBALL!) season started and the football team winning a league game for the first time since the Johnson administration...

Three-star Brooklyn point guard Russ Smith is expected to sign with Louisville today after fellow New York-native Edgar Sosa helped convince him to verbally commit to the Cardinals over the weekend.

"Sosa kind of took me in as a little brother," said Smith, who visited campus on Sunday. "He was showing me the ropes and boundaries of the city and the do's and don'ts of the school. He's been a real factor in my commitment to Louisville."

Smith said he knew Sosa before the recruiting process from playing in summer pickup games in New York. He also said he knew UofL forward Samardo Samuels, who attended high school at St.Benedict Prep in New Jersey, before coming to campus. Smith said it made committing to the Cards a bit easier.

Smith is a teammate of former Louisville recruit J.J. Moore, who is committed to Pittsburgh.

Here's the only highlight video of Smith available on the net (keep an eye out for me making a celebrity cameo as one of the guys playing defense).

The Louisville women's team is having a little difficulty adjusting to life without Angel McCoughtry. The 19th-ranked Cards squeaked by Dayton by two in their season-opener and then fell at Hartford last night, 62-50.

Freshman cornerback Zed Evans has reportedly decided to transfer.

Peyton Siva again made in appearance in SportsCenter's top ten plays last night. this time, it was his reverse lay-up at Arkansas which checked in at No. 7.

And finally, the Louisville soccer team begins its quest for a national championship tomorrow night in Bloomington against Indiana. No idea why the Cards have to go on the road to play a game against a team it's already beaten by four goals and is ranked much higher than, but then many of the intricacies of the beautiful game escape me.

The Louisville basketball team has played one game and their margin of victory in that contest - played against an SEC opponent away from home - is more than double the combined margin of victory of their football counterpart's three D-1 victories. Scoring lots of points and winning by lots of points is fun, and I remember that now.

The ball is bouncing once again in the Derby City.

So I'm not sure who started at the four for Louisville last night. He looked like Jared Swopshire, he even wore his number, but he didn't play anything like the Swop we've seen for the past 12 months.

Maybe it was playing in front of friends and family in St. Louis, but Swop looked about 20 times more confident than he ever has at any point in his brief Cardinal career. He made smart and bold decisions with the ball in his hands, knocked down open shots and came down with contested rebounds over some pretty big boys.

I've stated on here multiple times that Swop is at least a year away from being a solid Big East forward, and while I still doubt his ability to do a lot of what he did last night against the likes of Connecticut and West Virginia, if he can play at the level he displayed then he absolutely deserves a spot in the starting lineup.

A friend I took in the game with summed things up quite well at one point in the second half: "Swop just looks...cooler."

Reggie Delk again confirmed his status as the least predictable Louisville basketball player of all-time by burying 4-of-5 treys and scoring 20 points. He also did a tremendous job when he was assigned to Rotnei Clarke.

I thought before the season that Delk's performance would be a huge factor in how the season turned out, and while I don't feel nearly as strongly about that statement as I once did, it's an enormous lift when he's knocking down open shots, snatching rebounds and doing all of the other little things that players with his athleticism can do.

Pitino has talked about Delk being a guy whose performance is dictated largely by his confidence level, and if that's the case then last night may have been even more important than it appeared on the surface.

He didn't shoot the ball particularly well but I thought Edgar Sosa put together a nice game. He made a couple of poor decisions early but still finished with a team-high seven assists and turned it over only twice.

Sosa is this team's point guard and he will be for the entire season.

Even with Delk's big night, I love the three-guard starting lineup. Sosa, Knowles and Smith look extremely comfortable on the floor together and produced an assist-to-turnover ratio of 18:4 last night. I still wouldn't be surprised if Jennings replaces Swop in the starting five at some point, but I think the three-guard lineup is here to stay. As it should be.

The Big East is 29-0 right now. That's quite ridiculous.

What do you think the odds are of the entire league being without a loss come Selection Sunday? It's gonna be tough, but I think we've got a shot.

This will be the 9,674th time someone has said this in the past calendar year, but Samardo Samuels has simply got to turn himself into a better rebounder. Last night he was consistently out of position, he was out-muscled and he bobbled multiple boards he should have come up with cleanly. Granted, he was going up against a future first round NBA Draft pick, but without T-Will and Earl Clark, four boards simply isn't going to cut it.

No token photo. Get off your ass, AP photogs.

Apparently there were some network-wide problems that made CC impossible to access for a period during the game last night. In order to make amends, I'm going to go ahead and make all of our content free and open to the public.

You're welcome.

Jerry's excited about the season.

Seriously, can one guy be cooler?

Peyton Siva's and-one was highlight worthy, but he appeared a bit overanxious when the ball was in his hands and struggled to keep his man in front of him on defense. Still, he's a high school All-American with ridiculous potential who doesn't mind waiting his turn as long as his team is winning. 

We love you, Peyton. We love you a lot .

A Big East football win and a 30-point victory over an SEC opponent in the basketball season-opener in the span of four days. It's safe to say Cardwear Sporting Dog is legit.

When Preston buried the no-hesitation three on the first possession of the season, the urge I had to take my pants off was at a March '09 level.

Anyone else have an extremely strong desire to chug Bud Light and pound Reese's Cups after watching that game? I wonder what that was all about.

Rotnei Clarke is really good and we did an outstanding job on him last night. He has as pure a stroke as there is in college basketball and is actually much better at creating his own shot than I thought he was. Kudos to Knowles and Delk for keeping him under 20.

How pissed do you think the two Razorbacks on the end of the bench are that the guy from the golf team plays more than them?

On a related note, I have a friend - who shall again remain anonymous in order to protect him from becoming Louisville's biggest social pariah - who had the gumption to yell "fore" when the golfer missed a free-throw. If that wasn't bad enough, he later admitted that he'd been waiting to use the joke for the better part of the night.

Robert Daniel Sinnard of St. Matthews, the world weeps for you and all you come in contact with.

Mike Marra really needs to make a shot. Just one.

Keep shooting, my man.

How about Chris Brickley's take? That was insanely confident and well-executed.

It was equally awesome to see Sosa, his roommate, going nuts on the bench.

It's really cool to watch how much these guys genuinely like each other.

Ninety-six points, 15 threes, 25 assists, 16 turnovers forced, 30-point win, basketball season.

I'm crying because I'm happy.

Louisville basketball.

Everybody else simply doesn't understand.

Sports Illustrated's college basketball preview issue doesn't hit news stands until next Monday, but because we're Card Chronicle and every piece of sports writing published anywhere has to go through us before it can be viewed by the public, we've got the goods on what the publication has to say about the '09-'10 Louisville Cardinals.

SI tabs Louisville as the 17th best team in the country and highlights Edgar Sosa in its preview of the Cards. Grant Wahl also pens a feature on John Calipari coming to Kentucky and his icy relationship with "the state's other big ego," Rick Pitino.

Both are solid reads and are available for you to check out below (Update: Links should be fixed).

The Very Best of Enemies

Louisville No. 17

Hall of Fame Showcase: LOUISVILLE CARDINALS (0-0) vs. ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS (1-0)

Time: 7:30 p.m.

Location: Scottrade Center: St. Louis, Mo.

Television: ESPN2

Commentators: Dan Schulman/Bob Knight/Holly Rowe

Favorite: Louisville by 9.5

All-Time Series: Tied at 3

Last Meeting: Arkansas won 100-83 on 12/9/97

Arkansas Last Season: 14-16 (2-14)

Arkansas Starting Five

G Rotnei Clarke (So., 6-0) (51.0 ppg)

The sophomore sharp-shooter hit an SEC-record 13 three-pointers and scored 51 points in Arkansas' 130-68 season-opening victory over Alcorn State.

Now get ready for me to blow your mind and show you why I deserve to be making six figures for doing this....Rick Pitino has to make sure his guys know where Clarke is on the floor at all times when the Razorbacks have the ball. See, that's why you come here every day. You're thinking the site's all fun and games and then I completely flip it and throw out coaching advice that would make John Wooden retire out of shame. CardChronicle.com, baby. We take it there.

Clarke is more athletic than some give him credit for but he still isn't a significant threat to score off the bounce and he struggles to create his own shot against teams with athletic guards and wings, but he is a terrific passer and will take advantage if the Cardinal defenders overextend.

G Julysses Nobles (Fr., 6-1) (8.0 ppg)

Nobles is the starter at the point in his true freshman season due to the indefinite suspension of sophomore Courtney Fortson, who led Arkansas in scoring a year ago. Despite his age and slight frame (6-1, 170 lbs.), Nobles is billed as a very confident young man who has already assumed a leadership role on the team.

He looked like a veteran in the season-opener, handing out nine assists and turning the ball over twice. Head coach John Pelphrey was extremely pleased with the way Nobles passed up his own shot in order to create better scoring opportunities for his teammates. This type of play is huge for a team that already has enormous issues from the standpoint of chemistry.

C Michael Washington (Sr., 6-9) (14.0 ppg)

With all due respect to Clarke and Jemal Farmer (who scored 28 against Alcorn State), Michael Washington is the Razorback Louisville should be most worried about. The 6-9, 239-pound behemoth led the SEC in rebounding a year ago at 9.8 rpg and finished ninth in scoring (15.5 rpg), third in field goal percentage (.551%) and eighth in blocked shots (1.3 bpg) on his way to earning a second team all-conference nod. He went through the pre-NBA Draft process before ultimately deciding to return to Faytteville for his senior season.

Washington is a legit inside-out threat who can bang inside as well as knock down the outside jumper with some consistency. He'll give Samardo Samuels and Terrence Jennings all they can handle on both ends of the floor.

F Jemal Farmer (Jr., 6-5) (28.0 ppg)

Farmer, a junior college transfer, is another guy who was thrust into the starting five because of the disciplinary issues surrounding his teammates.So far, so good as the junior scored 28 points, snatched 12 rebounds and dished out six assists against Alcorn State. He hit 9-of-16 shots from the floor and connected on 9-of-10 free-throws.

He's reportedly very athletic (40-inch vertical), but outside of that and his opening game stats I know very little about Farmer.

F Marshawn Powell (Fr., 6-7) (17.0 ppg)

The crown jewel of John Pelphrey's '09 recruiting class, Powell (Charlottesville, Va.) was tabbed as the 47th best player in the country by Scout.com. Like Washington, he's a big body who can dominate the glass, but he's also got good range and the ability to put the ball on the floor if need be.

He recorded a double-double in his collegiate debut, scoring 17 points and hauling in 11 rebounds. Powell could very easily become an All-SEC calibre player, but this will be the first time he's faced front line like Louisville's in his basketball career. It will be interesting to see how he reacts.

Overview

Six months ago Arkansas was billed as a team returning all five starters, poised for a significant improvement from last year's in-conference disaster. All that changed a week ago when Pelphrey suspended five players, including perhaps the team's best player, Courtney Fortson, as well as fellow starter Stefan Walsh.

The suspensions paired with an injury to starting forward Michael Sanchez leaves Arkansas with just nine players, a roster that includes Stephen Cox, a member of the golf team and Brandon Mitchell, a former football player.

Still, the Razorbacks were tremendous in their season-opener, blasting visiting Alcorn State, 130-68. While the Braves figure to be one of the worst teams in one of Division-1's worst conferences, a 62-point win is still a 62-point win.

Louisville has Arkansas outclassed at just about every position and has an enormous advantage when it comes to depth, but Clarke is one of the ten best outside shooters in the country and Washington is probably going to be selected in the first round of next year's NBA Draft. Also important to note is that these guys started last year 12-1 with victories over No. 4 Oklahoma and No. 7 Texas. And then of course there's the issue of Louisville being 1-92 in their first game against a BCS conference opponent under Pitino.

The Cards have to get out and pressure the freshman Nobles. He's Arkansas' only reliable ball-handler and seeing as how the Razorbacks don't currently dress enough players to hold an intrasquad scrimmage, it's unlikely that he'll be able to spend too much time on the bench. I know Pitino likes to experiment during these early games, but given Arkansas' extreme lack of depth and experience I'd still expect to see the Cards press like its midseason.

I'll be a little surprised if the game's outcome isn't still in jeopardy with three minutes to play and very surprised if the evening doesn't possess at least a few anxious moments.

CC Prediction: Louisville 78, Arkansas 74

I'm just so happy.

12 a.m. Cal State Fullerton at UCLA ESPN / ESPN360.com
2 a.m. San Diego State at St. Mary’s ESPN / ESPN360.com
4 a.m. Northern Colorado at Hawaii ESPN / ESPN360.com
6 a.m. Monmouth at St. Peter’s ESPN / ESPN360.com
8 a.m. Drexel at Niagara ESPN / ESPN360.com
10 a.m. Clemson at Liberty ESPN / ESPN360.com
noon Northeastern at Siena ESPN / ESPN360.com
2 p.m. Arkansas Little-Rock at Tulsa ESPN / ESPN360.com
4 p.m. Temple at Georgetown ESPN / ESPN360.com
5:30 p.m. O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic: Binghamton at Pittsburgh ESPN2 / ESPN360.com
6 p.m. Dick’s Sporting Goods NIT from Durham, N.C. (Duke University)* ESPN / ESPN360.com
7 p.m. ESPNU Road to the Championship: Tennessee vs. Texas Tech (women’s game from San Antonio) ESPNU
7:30 p.m. Hall of Fame Showcase: Arkansas vs. Louisville (from St. Louis) ESPN2 / ESPN360.com
8 p.m. Gonzaga at Michigan State ESPN / ESPN360.com
8 p.m. Northern Illinois at Illinois ESPN360.com
9 p.m. O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic: Duquesne at Iowa ESPNU
9:30 p.m. ESPNU Road to the Championship: Connecticut vs. Texas (women’s game from San Antonio) ESPN2 / ESPN360.com
10 p.m. Hall of Fame Showcase: Memphis vs. Kansas (from St. Louis) ESPN / ESPN360.com
11:30 p.m. Dick’s Sporting Goods NIT from Tempe, Ariz. (Arizona State University)* ESPN2 / ESPN360.com