PDA

View Full Version : Cards meet Slowpoklahoma



Ton Loc
3/23/2008, 04:05 PM
My mom who lives in KY called me to tell me about the headline in the Louisville Courier Journal's sports section today. :mad:

Cards meet Slowpoklahoma (http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080323/SPORTS02/803230564/1002/SPORTS)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- And now for something completely different.

Round 2 of the NCAA Tournament for the University of Louisville men's basketball team offers a challenge quite unlike the first. The No. 3-seeded Cardinals dispatched Boise State 79-61 Friday night in a wide-open, sprint-to-the-three-point-line affair.

That's the last kind of game that sixth-seeded Oklahoma wants to get into this afternoon in the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center. The Sooners (23-11) prefer to slow it down and bang bodies in the post.

"This is probably a Big East kind of game or a Big 12 game for them," U of L center David Padgett said. "The two leagues are very similar and very physical."

Boise State's players looked surprisingly small in person, raising questions about exactly who measured them. That's not the case with Oklahoma, which has legitimate beef in 6-foot-10, 243-pound freshman Blake Griffin and 6-11, 234-pound senior Longar Longar.

The Sooners would rather run later -- or not at all. Nine times they have scored fewer than 60 points.

They haven't always been able to impose their style on opponents, however. In four tries against the Big 12's two most athletic teams, Texas and Kansas, they lost all four by an average of 21 points and failed to score more than 55 in any game. Oklahoma has tried 614 three-pointers to U of L's 728.

"The strength of our team has always been the big guys inside," guard David Godbold said. "We've got to come out and be aggressive and try to get (the Cardinals) to play at our tempo. They like to play fast and we want to pound them inside, so we're going to try to execute our game plan as best as possible."

The Cards (25-8) might own a reputation as a fast-paced team because of coach Rick Pitino's history, but easy labels don't apply to their style this season. They've been deliberate against opponents such as Georgetown and have pushed it against fast-breaking clubs such as Notre Dame.

"If it gets down to a physical game, we're comfortable, and if it gets into a shooting game, we're comfortable, too," forward Terrence Williams said. "I think it's too late in the season to dictate how you're going to play. However the game is going to go, that's how you should play."

How U of L plays Griffin and Longar probably will determine the outcome today.

Griffin is one of the nation's top freshmen and makes Padgett look like a slow healer. He sprained the medial collateral ligament in his left knee in January and was expected to miss up to four weeks. He returned 12 days later with a 17-point, 15-rebound game against Baylor.

Then on March 1 against Texas A&M, he suffered a partial tear of the medial meniscus in his right knee. He had arthroscopic surgery the next day but missed only game.

Longar has been a similar medical marvel. He played through a lower-leg stress fracture that led to a broken bone on Feb. 2 against Texas A&M, but he missed only two games and says he's almost back to 100 percent.

Griffin is shooting 56 percent and is so strong underneath that he commands nearly constant double-teams. Saint Joseph's tried to trap Griffin and Longar in the paint on Friday, but Godbold burned the Hawks with five three-pointers and a career-high 25 points in the 72-64 victory.

"We're interested to see if (the Cards double-team the big men)," Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said. "Watching the tapes on them, that's not something I've seem them do a lot. They play a lot of zone, which seems to negate that a little bit."

Pitino understandably deflected a reporter's question yesterday about how the Cards would defend Griffin "because I would lie to you, and I don't believe in lying to the press." He likened Oklahoma to Pittsburgh, which beat U of L in the Big East Tournament and lost by two points in the teams' regular-season meeting.

But at least some of the Cards are looking forward to another rough-and-tumble contest.

"Hopefully, it's a lot more physical than the Boise State game," sophomore center Derrick Caracter said. "I just feel we have some of the best big men in the country, and I think we'll execute and we'll show that. Earl Clark … he's definitely one of the best out there. This is definitely a game to show it."

The Cards spent all season adjusting to different styles. They say it's not easy to switch gears so quickly, especially with just one day between such contrasting opponents.

"That's what makes this tournament so interesting," forward Juan Palacios said. "There are so many different styles, and the teams that focus the most will be able to accomplish what they want."

Brian Bennett can be reached at (502) 582-7177.



Actually the article is not all that bad but the title sucks.

StoopTroup
3/23/2008, 04:39 PM
We need to play them with OUr "A" Game today.

SleestakSooner
3/23/2008, 04:45 PM
nm

jccouger
3/23/2008, 05:14 PM
Looks like they were right....

StoopTroup
3/23/2008, 06:56 PM
Pretty much.

bri
3/23/2008, 06:57 PM
Heh.

Eielson
3/23/2008, 08:14 PM
:(

Curly Bill
3/23/2008, 08:18 PM
Lets face it: we had one player that would have seen significant minutes were he playing for Louisville.

BarryBnds
3/24/2008, 09:41 AM
They can eat a dick for all I care. It should say something about your school when you love Howard Schnellenberger!

Sooner_Bob
3/24/2008, 09:43 AM
burp

S.PadreIsl.Sooner
3/24/2008, 11:25 AM
bummer of a game. The Sooners are, BTW, on their way back! Just a hiccup in the road.

SteelClip49
3/24/2008, 12:03 PM
I never did watch the OU/WVA game but how similar or different are West Virginia and Louisville from each other?

Ash
3/24/2008, 12:48 PM
I never did watch the OU/WVA game but how similar or different are West Virginia and Louisville from each other?

Night and day.

WVU has some athletes but not nearly the thoroughbreds that Pitino rolls out. Not nearly the depth either.

Another thing to consider is that Louisville played as well as they have all season. They've been prone to dropping some stinkers, but played lights out this game. Not an excuse but they played well enough to beat any team in the field that game.