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.

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.

This is, without question, the most intriguing 4/13 matchup in the history of 4/13 matchups.

And you can't question that because I said "without question."

4. THE 2005 CONFERENCE USA CHAMPIONSHIP GAME (3/12/05)

Let's skip the details and go straight into the reasons why this may have been the most fulfilling victory of the decade,

1. It was against Memphis.

2. We hate Memphis

3. The game was played in Memphis in front of a crowd of mostly Tiger fans.

4. It was the last Conference USA game we would ever play

5. It was the league title game.

6. The only chance Memphis had to make the NCAA Tournament was to win that game.

7. Darius Washington had spent the entire game pounding his chest and sticking out his tongue.

8. Washington looked over to Calipari and mouthed "it's over" after he was fouled by Garcia.

9. There is absolutely no worse way to lose a game than by missing two out of three free throws with your team down two and no time on the clock.

I've said it before and I'll say it again right now: if I died today and god told me "yeah, Heaven's awesome but the only catch is you're only allowed five minutes of television for eternity so choose wisely," I would pick the last five minutes of this game to be played continuously.

The horror I felt when Garcia was whistled and I realized that it was Washington who would be shooting three being replaced with the sheer joy I felt watching our beloved Cardinals celebrate as he feel to the floor may have been the biggest shift of emotion I've ever had in a five-minute period. Anyone who felt sorry for Washington was either a Memphis fan or didn't watch the game.

Ellis Myles summed it up perfectly afterward: "It's kinda hard to feel sorry for a dude when he spends the whole game thumping his chest and sticking out his tongue."

The victory set the tone for the best Cardinal postseason of the decade.

13. THE 2009 BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP GAME (3/14/09)

Obviously, this tilt lacked the final drama of it opponent, but let's go over the reasons why the higher seed deserves your vote here.

1. The first game was the Conference USA title game, this was the Big East title game. Enough said.

2. The game was played in Madison Square Garden and against Syracuse.

3. The victory locked up the program's first No. 1 ranking and the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.

4. The win made Louisville both the regular season and tournament champion of one of the strongest conferences in the history of college basketball.

5. The game itself was actually very entertaining.

It's easy to forget that Louisville actually trailed for the majority of this game and carried an eight-point deficit into halftime. The Cards started the second half on a 13-3 run and didn't really put things out of reach until the final five minutes.

It was a special night for the program.

Vote or a puppy somewhere will die an unspeakable death.

This is my favorite matchup of the first round and I'm very interested to see how it plays out.

7. LOUISVILLE STUNS TENNESSEE IN THE FINAL MINUTE AT THE HALL (12/20/01)

Just about everyone I've talked to who attended this game claims it was the loudest they've every heard Freedom Hall. There are also countless stories of high-fives and hugs with nearby strangers.

Neither team would end up making the NCAA Tournament, but this game was special for a number of reasons.

1) It was Pitino's first year.

2) This team was sorely lacking in talent but was already overachieving and playing with more energy than the fans had seen in years.

3) The frustration of the final Crum years were still fresh in everybody's minds.

4) It very well could have been the most exciting finish of the decade...

10. EDGAR SOSA STICKS A DAGGER IN THE COLLECTIVE HEART OF BIG BLUE NATION (1/4/09)

Coming off of a one-point home loss to UNLV - the third already for a squad that was a fixture in every major preseason top five - Louisville avoided a massive meltdown in the final minute against arch-rival Kentucky when Edgar Sosa buried a bomb from 30-feet out with just under three seconds to play.

Yes, this would probably end up being the worst Wildcat team of the decade, but that doesn't make the shot any less important or the finish any less thrilling. Who knows where the season goes if Sosa's shot is a couple of inches to the right or if he doesn't take it at all.

"It would have been difficult if we had lost," Pitino said afterward. "We played great, basically outplayed them for 38 minutes. To lose that game would have been emotionally and physically devastating. I wouldn't have wanted to be in the locker room trying to motivate those guys if we had lost that game."

A Louisville basketball victory over Kentucky that was decided in the final seconds.

I celebrated.

This is a toughie, but if you don't make a decision the Thanksgiving Pilgrim won't bring you any toys this year.

In my mind there are three games this decade which clearly stood out above all the others. After those three, however, the comparable contenders are bountiful.

There is a legit case for the higher seed in each of the matchups not involving the top three, and perhaps the biggest example of this is the 6/11 matchup we tackle today.

6. REECE GAINES BREAKS HEARTS AT MARQUETTE (2/15/03)

Coming off of a 59-58 Wednesday loss to St. Louis that was their first since an early season defeat at the hands of Purdue, Reece Gaines and No. 2 Louisville broke the hearts of a record crowd at the Bradley Center that saw No. 11 Marquette's home-winning streak snapped at 28 after a crushing 73-70 loss.

With the Cardinals leading 70-67, Marquette point guard Travis Diener came off of a screen and stroked a three-pointer to tie the game with 15.3 seconds to go.

Before Marquette fans even had a chance to stop high-fiving, Gaines had brought the ball down the floor and pulled up from well beyond the three-point line to deliver a dagger with six seconds remaining. Diener missed a desperation three at the buzzer.

"I knew that was the best shot I was going to get because I couldn't move to the basket," Gaines said. "They were going to trap me, and (force me) to pass it to somebody else."

Gaines finished with 20 points, including 4-of-6 from 3-point range, and Taquan Dean added 18 points for the Cardinals.

This is still the single greatest Louisville-related celebration I've ever been a part of. One second I'm sitting with five or six of my favorite depressed for the moment Cards fans in my buddy's basement, the next I'm in the middle of a pile-on on the other side of the room, and when I look over our host is running around the room holding his dog in the air.

It was awesome.

11. LOUISVILLE STOMPS PERENNIAL POWERHOUSE MIAMI AT PJCS (9/16/06)

The game wasn't competitive, but this was the moment Louisville football really captured the attention of the American public.

After the Cards had suffered a crushing three-point loss in Miami two years prior, this statement game was hyped all summer by Louisville fans and local media. The intensity was ratcheted up a notch when a war of words broke out between U of L linebacker Nate Harris (a UM transfer) and Hurricane quarterback Kyle Wright in the days leading up to the contest, and then set ablaze when players from The U elected to stomp on the Cardinal bird during pregame warm-ups.

After falling behind 7-0, Louisville ripped off 31 straight points to score one of the biggest victories in program history and establish themselves as a legitimate contender for the national championship.

"Well it was pretty obvious today we were embarrassed," Miami coach Larry Coker said after the game. "Our players are embarrassed. Our coaches are embarrassed. We thoroughly got whipped."

Everyone knows the details: Harris' fumble recovery, Brohm's injury, Cantwell's first pass, George Stripling's ridiculous speed and, of course, the Mario stiff-arm.

What an ass-kicking and what a day to be a Louisville football fan.

Voting closes in 24 hours.

Not gonna lie, setting this up is pretty fun.

The first round rages on as the top seed is revealed...

1. LOUISVILLE BEATS WEST VIRGINIA TO GO TO THE FINAL FOUR (3/6/05)

After dismantling top seed Washington two days prior, it's safe to say that Louisville fans were confident heading into an Elite Eight matchup with seventh-seeded West Virginia. That confidence was shaken quickly as the Mountaineers quickly hit the Cardinals with a barrage of three-pointers and built a 20-point first half lead.

"I've never seen anything like it in my life," Rick Pitino said. "They were falling out of bounds, shooting from half-court and banking them in. You've got to give them all the credit in the world."

Pitino abandoned the zone defense in the second half and Louisville pressed, trapped and clawed its way back into the game.

With leading scorer Francisco Garcia on the bench with five fouls and Taquan Dean suffering from cramps, homegrown Larry O'Bannon took the game over. His driving lay-up with less than a minute to play ultimately sent the game into overtime where the Cardinals were able to hold off an exhausted Mountaineer squad.

The win secured Louisville's first trip to the Final Four since 1986 and made Pitino the only coach to ever lead three different programs to the national semifinals.

When Brandon Jenkins blocked J.D. Collins' shot and Taquan Dean started toward the other end of the floor with the clock ticking down in regulation, I'll always remember thinking in the back of my mind: "I've never felt a feeling like this in my chest...oh my god, am I dying?" It was an amazing, amazing day.

16. THE 2001 LIBERTY BOWL (12/31/01)

Dave Ragone threw three touchdown passes as Louisville (11-2) set a school record for wins in the process of knocking off No. 17 BYU 28-10 in the 2001 Liberty Bowl.

"What I've always said about this team is we might not have the most talent, but we have the most heart and we play together," Ragone said. "This is one of the best Louisville teams to come through in here."

The Cougars had started the season 12-0 and campaigned hard for a spot in a BCS game, but fell to Hawaii in their season finale and were throttled by the Cardinals three weeks later.

Ragone, the game's MVP, was 19 of 28 for 228 yards. He put away the contest with a 49-yard TD strike to Ronnie Gant 49 seconds into the final quarter.

The Cardinals, who had captured their second Conference USA title in as many seasons, secured the program's first bowl victory since a Liberty Bowl win over Michigan State in 1993.

If "We in Da Liberty Bowl" or "Rollin' to Da Liberty Bowl" were anywhere online, you can bet your life that you'd see them below.

Voting closes at 2 p.m. tomorrow.

My uncontrollable affinity for year-end lists has been pretty well documented on this site, so with an actual decade coming to a close in about 50 days, you can expect rankings of just about anything and everything to be hurled your way at a furious pace for the next month and-a-half.

The pageantry begins with a 16-team (or game) tournament to decide what was the best Louisville Cardinal game of the culminating decade.

Some notes:

1. Only basketball and football games were included since those are the two major sports this site covers.

2. Only Louisville wins were selected.

3. I didn't use any specific criteria to determine which games were selected and how they were ranked. There's a healthy mix of great games, games that were important to the program and blowout victories that were awesome for one reason or another.Your voting philosophy is your own.

The seedings were extremely hard for me to do and are easily debatable, but this leads me to believe that a lot of the matchups will be highly competitive. Everything will be settled on in the field voting box.

Without further ado, here's your opening matchup: a very solid 8/9 death game .

8. THE 2004 LIBERTY BOWL (12/31/04)

The '04 Cardinals were a dropped interception at Miami away from an undefeated regular season and a likely spot in a BCS bowl game. Instead, the C-USA champions were relegated to the Liberty Bowl and a date with undefeated Boise State.

What followed was nearly 900 combined yards of total offense, the highest scoring Liberty Bowl of all-time and a Louisville victory sealed with an interception by Kerry Rhodes, the star safety who had let the ball bounce off his chest months earlier in the Orange Bowl.The 44-40 victory snapped Boise's 22-game win streak and vaulted the Cardinals to a season-ending ranking of No. 6.

Senior quarterback Stefan LeFors earned MVP honors by going 18-of-26 through the air for 193 yards and rushing 12 times for 76 more yards. The Cardinals rushed for 329 yards against a defense that had been the nation's fourth-best against the run. In all, Louisville outgained the Broncos 564 to 284.

The game also served as a coming out party of sorts for one, Michael Bush.

9. LOUISVILLE UPSETS NO. 1 KENTUCKY IN LEXINGTON (12/27/03)

In what Rick Pitino stilo refers to as the best win of his coaching career, the 20th-ranked Louisville Cardinals came into Rupp Arena and stunned No. 1 Kentucky 65-56, snapping the Wildcats' 27-game regular-season winning streak. UK hadn't been beaten outside of the postseason since an 18-point pummeling by the Cards the year before.

"Kentucky is a great basketball team that just happened to lose tonight," Pitino said after the game. "We were very fortunate to win. We had that special moment that happens once in a lifetime."

The surprising star of the game was reserve Otis George, who finished with 13 points and eight rebounds. Larry O'Bannon and Luke Whitehead each added 11 points while Francisco Garcia netted 10.

"This is just a great feeling," Whitehead said. "Coach Pitino already told us how much this game means to him. He said it meant a lot to us, him and the city and it just makes us so happy."

The Cards trailed by five at halftime but shot 54.2 percent from the field in the second half and knocked down 15-of-16 free-throw attempts. They also out rebounded the heavily-favored Wildcats 38-30.

So who moves on to the round of eight? It's your call.

The poll closes tomorrow at noon.