Louisville Cardinals Ready for Another NCAA Run

Cardinal basketball under future Hall of Fame Coach Rick Pitino, is like waiting for a fine wine to reach its fullest flavor and richness. To fully understand where the Cards are today, and their potential for NCAA play,we have to look back to the beginning of the season.

With seven players returning from a 2008 team that reached the Final Eight, expectations were high. Throw in HSPOY Samardo Samuals, along with several other highly touted freshmen, and the Cards were in all the pre-season polls as a Top five team.

Early games had Samardo scoring 25-30 points. Yet Pitino called it fools gold. Freshman Terrence Jennings was having a learning disability and attitude problems, trying to play under Pitino. Then the team lost to WKU in November. Followed by losses to Minnesota and UNLV in December.

Cardinal Nation was in an uproar, while Pitino continued to teach and bring this team along.

2009 saw the Cards go on a nine game win streak, which included a home win over then No. 1 Pitt. The cornerstone of the win streak was a defense that was wearing down opponents, holding them to well under their normal shooting percentage, and creating havoc with the press.

Players began to understand their roles, and Terrence Jennings had gotten on board, proving to be a solid back up to Samardo.

No. 1 UConn came to Freedom Hall and humbled the Cards by 17. A week later Notre Dame ended a seven game losing streak by handing Pitino his worse loss as a Cardinal coach. Was the nine game win streak nothing but fools' gold?

Being the great motivator that he is, Pitino took away Louisville practice jerseys and replaced them with plain red and white T-shirts. Told the players they didn't deserve to wear Louisville on their jerseys. The team responded with a four game win streak, in which the Cards have scored over 90 points twice, are shooting close to 50% FG, 40% on threes and regained their January swagger.

As we head into March Madness, the Cards biggest strength continues to be their defense. The press tends to wear down opposing guards and drastically reduce the teams overall FG %.

Another strength is the Senior leadership and play of forward TWill. Pitino calls him the most valuable and all around player in the Big East. Twill leads the team in assists and rebounds, while improving his FG% to over 40% during the month of February.

Last but not least is the depth that has developed, with Terrence Jennings playing a big role in backing up Samardo Samuals. Preston Knowles has become one of the team's best three point shooters, and Jerry Smith has been scoring and creating off the dribble.

The Cards weakness is at the free throw line. Shooting only 63% from the charity stripe has kept the Cards from winning some games by larger margins. So far it hasn't cost the Cards any games, but is a concern as they prepare for NCAA play.

The biggest room from improvement would be turn overs after making good defensive plays. Several games would not have been as close as they were, had it not been for turnovers, mainly by NBA potential draft pick Earl Clark.

Marquette and an away game at West Virginia stand in the way of a potential Big East Championship. Cardinal Nation is confident the team will end the regular season with no more than three losses, and earn at least a double bye into the Big East Tournament.

At Louisville, success is measured by performance in the NCAA Tournament. Heading into March, the Cards look to be well prepared for another run in the NCAA. Pitino says his team is very good right now, but that in order to win a National Championship they need to become great. The potential is there.

The Cardinals have a good luck charm from their other two National Championships in 1980 and 1986. Both teams had a freshman at center. This year they have Samardo Samuals.