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The University of Louisville, fresh off a Big East Tournament championship, earned the No. 1 overall seed in this week’s NCAA Tournament. The Cards will open play Thursday against the winner of the play-in game between North Carolina A & T and Liberty at Rupp Arena. Game time will be announced later. Here’s what UofL Coach Rick Pitino had to say about the bracket in a statement released by the school: “We are ecsctatic to be the number one seed, particularly after... Read more 

The Louisville basketball team earned its second straight Big East Tournament championship with a thrilling 78-61 win over Syracuse at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The Cards trailed 35-22 at the half and would fall behind by as many as 16 points before a devastating 27-3 run allowed them to take control. UofL outscored Syracuse 49-16 over the final 13 1/2 minutes. Freshman Montrezl Harrell scored 20 points and grabbed six rebounds off the bench for the Cards, who could be the... Read more 

The University of Louisville earned its fourth trip to the Big East Tournament final in five years last night with a 69-57 win over Notre Dame at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The guards were led by its backcourt of Russ Smith and Peyton Siva. Smith scored a game-high 20 points and dished out six assists, while Siva had 12 points, six assists and swiped seven steals. Siva passed Darrell Griffith for tops on the all-time UofL steals list. Luke Hancock knocked... Read more 

University of Louisville assistant coach Clint Hurtt has received a notice of allegations from the NCAA, a UofL spokesman told Yahoo Sports’ Pat Forde Wednesday morning. Hurtt, who recruited 2013 Heisman Trophy candidate Teddy Bridgewater to UofL from Miami, has been under scrutiny for his stint as an assistant coach at the University of Miami from 2007-09. CBS Sports.com reported last month that Hurtt was on the verge of being notified by the NCAA, but that was delayed due to unethical conduct... Read more 

Rick Pitino and Russ Smith have had their moments, but the junior guard said that it was his head coach’s positivity that helped him overcome a nightmarish performance at Notre Dame last Saturday. Smith scored a game-high 24 points in UofL’s 72-58 bounce back win over St. John’s. The Cards (20-5, 8-4 Big East) will take on Big East cellar dwellar South Florida (10-14, 1-11) on Sunday.  Read more 

via UofL athletics University of Louisville men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino is one of 12 finalists from the North American and Women’s committees to be considered for election in 2013 in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The finalists were announced today at NBA All-Star Weekend in Houston. Joining Pitino among the dozen finalists are, from the North American Screening Committee, players Maurice Cheeks, Tim Hardaway, Spencer Haywood, Bernard King, Gary Payton and Mitch Richmond; and coaches Tom Heinsohn, Guy... Read more 

This Louisville team has taken turns driving both its fans and Coach Rick Pitino crazy. Its late-game execution has left a lot to be desired. Its shot selection, at times, can be labeled sketchy at best. This certainly hasn’t been a group that has captured the hearts and imagination of the fan base, at least not yet anyway. But there’s a reason why no one has given up, despite the season-long rollercoaster. If you know these Cards, you know if they’ve proven... Read more 

It’s just about mid-February, and in college basketball that means that most of your fine tuning should be done by now. Roles should be defined. Rotations should be settled. Chemistry should be formed. For the most part, you are what you are. Next month’s NCAA Tournament figures to be a hodgepodge of good teams, but no great, dominant ones. With the talent so evenly spread out, intangibles mean more than ever. Both the University of Louisville and University of Kentucky have the talent... Read more 

This year more than ever, the rankings don’t mean jack. This figures to be one of the most wide-open NCAA Tournaments ever, so much so that the seedings might not mean jack either once the bracket is announced on Selection Sunday. There’s still over a month of regular-season basketball left to be played, which is enough time for the landscape to change another five or six times before the Big Dance. But as I sit here on Feb. 8, I’ve started to... Read more 

They’re both former defensive coordinators whose last names contain six letters and starts with an ‘S.’ But that’s where the similarities between Charlie Strong and Mark Stoops end. They wear different colors and have different agendas, and usually when those things clash, there are casualties. Think about it. How many times in the UK-UofL rivalry has one coach gaining the upper hand cost the other coach his job? Ron Cooper picked up a lot of juice by beating Kentucky in his first two... Read more