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For local interest, the best college basketball game on the tube tonight pits Connecticut at Louisville for a 7 p.m. tipoff at the Yum Center. ESPN has the honors as part of “Big Monday” and “Rivalry Week.”

Louisville has won four straight, including a 78-66 decision over Rutgers on Saturday. But U of L center Gorgi Dieng sprained his ankle in that victory and is questionable for tonight. The Cards are tied for fifth in the Big East with a 6-4 record. Meanwhile, Connecticut is 15-7 overall and 5-5 in the league. The Huskies will again be without head coach Jim Calhoun, who is being treated for stenosis of the spinal cord.

• Dieng’s status unclear for Connecticut-Louisville game
• Connecticut ready for Louisville’s press
• ESPN3 preview of Connecticut at Louisville

The list of tonight’s games.

Continue reading ‘U of L-UConn highlights tonight’s TV hoops slate’

Rick Pitino and our old friend and colleague Chip Cosby had a slight disagreement after U of L’s win over Rutgers on Saturday.

As you may have heard, at his press conference today, Louisville coach Rick Pitino took issue with a Courier-Journal story that quoted former U of L coach Denny Crum and former U of L player Preston Knowles saying that the coach has a reputation for hard practices.

By the way, it is sort of a rant, but Pitino did not yell at C.L. Brown, the Courier-Journal reporter.

Click the continue line to listen to the audio.

Continue reading ‘Rick Pitino reacts to story about his hard practices’

(AP photo)

It’s an important game for Louisville tonight in Rhode Island, and not just because Rick Pitino will be honored for the 25th anniversary of his 1987 Final Four team at Providence.

The Cards are slumping. They’ve lost three of their last four — lost to Georgetown at home; lost at Kentucky; won at St. John’s; lost at home to Notre Dame — to fall to 13-3 overall and 1-2 in the Big East. Both those Big East losses came at home, including that 67-65 double-overtime loss to the Irish last Saturday.

Continue reading ‘As Pitino is honored, U of L can’t afford another loss’

(AP photo)

About last night in college basketball:

• Seton Hall 75, Connecticut 63 – Kevin Willard’s Pirates pulled a big upset, rolling to a 35-22 halftime lead then holding off the Huskies. Jordan Theodore scored 19 points for the winners, who held UConn to 35.1 percent shooting. Andre Drummond had just four points and five rebounds for the losers. Seton Hall is now 13-2 overall and 2-1 in the Big East.
• Louisville 73, St. John’s 58 – Louisville got back on the beam, snapping a two-game losing streak with a win at Madison Square Garden. After scoring 30 points at Kentucky, Russ Smith came off the bench to lead the Cardinals with 17. St. John’s shot 28.1 percent, after UK shot 29.8 percent against Louisville on Saturday.

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In my column this morning, I wrote about Rick Pitino becoming a pauper in the Kentucky kingdom of John Calipari. It’s interesting when you look at Pitino’s record. He is a great coach, but the greatness of his record is built primarily on his time at Kentucky. His winning percentage at UK was an amazing 81.4 percent. His winning percentage everywhere else he has coached is 59.3 percent. Even if you separate out his NBA record, Rick’s winning percentage at his coaching stops besides UK is 68.9 percent.

Continue reading ‘Take away UK and Pitino’s winning percentage pales’

(AP photo)

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Big Blue Links for Monday:

• UK a finalist for Amile Jefferson, reports Rick O’Brien of Inquirer.
• Pitino a pauper in Calipari’s kingdom, says my Monday column.
• UK women escape upset bid to beat Florida, reports Jim Harvin of Sun.
• Cousins’ mess tip of the iceberg, writes Ailene Voisin of Sacramento Bee.
• Harrellson steps up for Knicks, reports H-L wire services.
• U of L basketball says problems fixable, reports C.L. Brown of C-J.
• Harrellson offers toughness lesson, writes Eric Crawford of C-J.
• Calipari gives his New Year’s resolutions on CoachCal.com.
• Some leftover UK-U of L notes, from Aaron Smith of the Kernel.
• The circle is now complete, writes Glenn Logan of A Sea of Blue.
• How good is Michael Kidd-Gilchrist? asks Zagsblog.
• Jones’ resolution comes a day early, reports Chris Fisher of Cats Pause.
• Photo gallery from Josh Harrellson’s big night.

(H-L photo/Jonathan Palmer)

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Big Blue Links for Sunday:

• Michael Kidd-Gilchrist turns Superman for Cats, says my Sunday column.
• Kentucky’s Kidd-Gilchrist comes of age in slugfest, writes Pat Forde of Yahoo.
• Great defense makes an ugly game beautiful, writes Sporting News’ Mike Decourcy.
• MKG carries the Cats, reports Eamonn Brennan of espn.com.
• MKG powers the Cats past the Cards, writes Jerry Tipton of the H-L.
• As Louisville will attest, Kidd-Gilchrist is the man, writes Garry Parrish of CBS Sports.
• Anthony Davis arrives late to the party, says H-L’s Mark Story.
• Kentucky’s domination of the boards kills Cards, writes Mark Maloney of H-L.
• Darius Miller “decent” despite miscues, reports Tipton.
• UK takes third straight win over Cards, reports Kyle Tucker of C-J.
• Kentucky’s blue-chip talent provides the edge, says C-J’s Eric Crawford.
• Louisville could use another shooter, writes Rick Bozich of C-J.
• Cats claim Kentucky, writes Matt May of the Cats Pause.
• MKG was the MVP, writes Brett Dawson of Cats Illustrated.
• MKG happiest that mother could see him play, says Jody Demling of C-J.
• Behanan fouls into Kentucky curse, reports C-J.
• Calipari says Jones not there yet, reports Demling.
• M-K-G is looking like a S-T-A-R, writes Brian Rickerd of State-Journal.
• Kidd-Gilchrist knew he was in right game, reports Aaron Smith of Kernel.
• Turnovers, poor shooting doesn’t stop UK, writes Jon Hale of Ky Forward.
• Fouls were dumb fouls, reports Larry Vaught of A-M.
• Davis provides a second-half boost, writes Guy Ramsey of Cat Scratches.

Louisville post-game player quotes:

#3, Peyton Siva, G

On climbing back in the game in the second half …

“Russ Smith was doing alright for us. He played well. Everybody just really stepped up in the press. We got a couple key steals and Russ (Smith) made shots. He is a great player and at the end, (Kentucky) just hit the lob and it got the crowd back involved. We had a couple fouls called after that, and it just didn’t go our way.”

On why he thought Louisville could never get over the hump to take the lead …

“I just think we didn’t step up and block out at the end. They (Kentucky) just hit the glass and got rebounds. It really hurt us that they got rebounds. Typically after they got a rebound, they got a foul call or an and-one.”

On if Anthony Davis was more of a factor than he expected …

“Definitely. He was a big factor in the second half. He was long, and athletic. He altered a lot of shots.”

Continue reading ‘Post-game quotes from Louisville players’

Full transcript of Rick Pitino press conference after his Louisville team’s loss to UK:

Opening statement … 

“I think the turning point for us was Gorgui (Dieng) leaving the game. We just broke down and he is the guy we have to have on the court at all times. I’ve coached a lot of teams that have given great effort but I have never coached a team that is willing to give the effort that this team gives. Unfortunately there are no moral victories. We struggled shooting the basketball tonight; we forced a lot of turnovers tonight but didn’t make them pay. We didn’t do a good job on the backboard with Gorgui out of the game. Gorgui is one thing and then you are playing two six-foot guards and that doesn’t help rebounding. Kyle didn’t rebound so we were really overmatched rebounding tonight. If we can somehow get our execution to match our effort then we’ll have an outstanding ball club. I’m real proud of our guys, I’ve never coached a group that has this much will to win but we’ve got to start shooting the ball better because if you work that hard and get nothing out of it then it’s really frustrating.”

On coming back from an early deficit…

“I don’t know every team in the country but I don’t think any team comes back like we do because, again, that’s just incredible will power and effort. The good thing is we are getting more bodies back so we won’t have to worry about foul trouble as much. We’re always going to make comebacks, we did the other night. You can’t always come back and win. This was a very good basketball team, we fought them hard but they were better than us.”

On Russ Smith…

“He’s impressive doing things with the ball. He’s got to go in there and hit somebody, he’s staying out on the perimeter and we’re in a fight five versus four. We’re getting the hell beat out of us and we just need another guy to come in and hit somebody.”

Continue reading ‘Full transcript of Pitino’s presser after loss to Kentucky’