By Glypie Grider
What a whirlwind winter for the Louisville Cardinals!
We broke for the winter break just as the men’s and women’s basketball seasons opened and the Cardinal football team closed with an impressive 10-1 record. Adorned with Conference USA championship honors and the AutoZone Liberty Bowl bid, the football team prepared for the Dec. 31 Boise State match-up in Memphis. And then a blizzard tore apart the Louisville football program.
Petrino, LSU and the bowl game
Head coach Bobby Petrino talked with Louisiana State officials the day after Christmas, a maneuver reminiscent of his 2003 secret meeting with Auburn officials. Not only did the meeting come right before the Liberty Bowl, it occurred five days after the university enhanced his contract from $550,000 to $1 million.
The Louisville football team still managed to pull out a 44-40 victory over No. 10 Boise State. Stefan LeFors, the senior quarterback from Baton Rouge and the Co-Offensive C-USA Player of the Year, said his final farewell to Cardinal football, as did the likes of Kerry Rhodes, Lionel Gates and J.R. Russell.
Volleyball team shines in NCAA tournament
The No. 15-ranked women’s volleyball team also closed out their season. For the third time in the program’s history, the women’s team advanced to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen. Despite their C-USA tourney and conference title, the women’s team fell short to the No. 1 Nebraska Cornhuskers, closing out the season at 30-3.
Pitino, the Cats and the Billy Minardi Classic
During finals week, freshman center Terrance Farley was dismissed from the men’s basketball team for a violation of team rules. He was later reinstated. Later that week, U of L took on UK in the highly touted “Battle of the Bluegrass” at Freedom Hall. It came down to the wire (despite a 16-point U of L halftime lead), and the Cards fell 60-58 in a heartbreaker.
The Cards channeled their frustration into the Billy Minardi Classic. U of L pulled out the championship title.
Women’s basketball can’t top Florida’s finest
Led by sophomores Jazz Covington and Missy Taylor, the U of L women’s basketball team brought in four wins and two losses (both to Florida teams) over the break. U of L topped the WKU Hilltoppers, a huge in-state rival, by 10 points. Louisville went on to stomp the Murray State Racers, the Alabama State Hornets, and the Xavier Musketeers. Louisville fell to Florida Staet and South Florida.
A look ahead at Cardinal sports
Whether you watched the heart-wrenching two-point men’s basketball loss to Kentucky, the thrilling four-point bowl victory in Memphis or the Petrino soap opera that surrounded it, you Louisville fans have had much to talk about over the break. For the moment, it seems as if Petrino is here to stay. The football season is over, but the men’s and women’s basketball programs are in full swing.
And don’t forget to check out the tennis programs. The men’s tennis program opens their season against Murray State on Friday in the Bass-Rudd Center. The women’s program starts Jan. 22 against Butler.
