Pitino's Cards fall, Lacrosse wins

FRIDAY at CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Harper harpoons Cards 62-61

-Lacrosse 5-0 after Sacred Heart win

-Gadd, Bergstrom in NCAA Swimming

-Lady Cards prepare for Vandy

-So...how's your bracket doing?

The picture speaks a 1000 words as Louisville bows out of the NCAA Tournament to #13 seed Morehead 62-61. Demonte Harper drills a three at the top of the circle with 4 seconds to go for the win and Kenneth Faried blocks a Mike Marra three as time expires to give the Eagles the win.

Louisville had their chances. Slow and disorganized early, the Cards came back to tie it at the half. They had a 48-41 lead until a spirited 16-4 run late in the second half put the Eagles in front 57-52. Louisville led 61-59 with seconds to go, though...until the Harper dagger.

Rick Pitino has referred to this season as a "bridge year" for Louisville basketball. That bridge is closed now until November. Preston Knowles leaving in the second half with a foot injury certainly didn't help the Cards chances.

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Guard the shooter next time. Morehead did...and Marra's chance to become a hero got swatted away, just like the Cards tournament run.

Heard some grumbling that Pitino needs to be fired after the game. Hogwash. Those of like opinion need to take a few days to cool out and calm down. Louisville lost a great opportunity to win this game when Preston Knowles hopped to the sideline with an injured foot. Rcik didn't cause that and his accomplishments here at Louisville far outweigh an NCAA tournament loss.

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Louisville Lacrosse goes to 5-0 with a 19-8 win over Sacred Heart in Fairfield, CT. yesterday. The Cards got seven goals from Bergan Foley and used a late 12-2 run to raid the win from the Pioneers. Liz Lovejoy got Louisville off to a quick start by scoring Louisville's first 3 goals, her first one less than a minute into the game and Louisville led early 4-0 after Lianne Bobal scored. The Cards saw Sacred Heart roll back and tie the contest 6-6 before Louisville dominated the rest of the way.

Freshman goalie Ashley Herbst had four saves and the Pioneers only got 17 shots off in the Louisville rout. Louisville attempted 49 shots in the contest, a Cardinal record. Katie Oliverio had six assists for the Cards, also a school record.

The Cards head next to Manhattan for a Saturday match.

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Hannah Gadd finished 25th in the 1 meter diving in the NCAA Championships at the University of Texas yesterday. Gadd, the BIG EAST diver of the year is a sophomore and is the first Cardinal to ever compete in the NCAA diving championship. Senior Therese Bergstrom will represent the Cards in the breaststroke today and Saturday.

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The Lady Cards basketball team will face Vanderbilt Sunday in Cincinnati, OH. for their first round game in the NCAA Tournament. For Keisha Hines, it's a final chance to go for the title. Hines was instrumental in the 2009 Cards run...having huge games against Maryland and Oklahoma to help guide Louisville to the final game. She is one of several Cards left from that team...Monique Reid and Becky Burke were also players who contributed to that thrilling Louisville run in the post season.

The remainder of Louisville's roster will be getting their first taste of the Big Dance and nerves and butterflies hopefully won't be a problem for Jeff Walz's crew. Louisville's Shoni Schimmel and Reid will be key elements if the Cards are advance to a Tuesday match up against either Xavier or South Dakota State. Louisville's nightly wars in the tough BIG EAST conference should have them well prepared to face a Vanderbilt team that went 10-6 in the SEC.

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Vandy hasn't seen the quickness and transition based hoops that Louisville has to offer very often this season and if the Cards can get "the survivor" Hines to have a big game on the boards...Louisville should do well in this first round matchup. Hines is the only Cardinal so far who has played four years for Jeff Walz and her leadership, skills and paint prescence will be a "must have" Sunday at noon. WE expect the Cards to win a close one against the Commodores and hope that South Dakota State can come in and pull the upset over Xavier in the Cintas Center.

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So, how does your bracket look after the first day of the NCAA Men's Tournament? I never should have let the CARDINAL COUPLE intern chimps get ahold of mine...going a woeful 9-7 after the first day of action. Sonja, on the other hand, had a very successful first sixteen games and torched the stats with a 14-2 beginning. Like the majority of us, she had Louisville beating Morehead and she also wrote in St. John's...who stumbled against Gonzaga. The rest of her picks were spot on perfect. I fully expected this, she dominates me every time we do one of these things and I'm quite used to residing in the basement of "bracket house" Tomorrow brings another day, though and I'll see if I can do a little better with bold picks like Oakland, Florida State and Marquette.

No need to quit my day job and become a high stakes gambler on college basketball. I'd be broke and standing in line at the soup kitchen faster than Shelby Harper can advance a basketball into the front court.

The Louisville loss was the major upset of the first "real" day of action. I'm not a fan of this 68 team stuff and don't see any advantage to it...except pouring more money into the NCAA coffers. We almost saw a couple of more huge upsets, though...Kentucky needing a final seconds score to squeak by Princeton and Michigan State giving UCLA all they wanted before falling to the Bruins. Games on, Friday! I'll be watching and drawing lines through my many probable losers.

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