By
The University of Louisville basketball team gave the senior class one last victory at Freedom Hall. The Cardinals, who celebrated Senior Day, beat Seton Hall University 86-71 in front of a sea of 19,712 fans clad in red.
The senior class has seen the ups and downs of Louisville basketball. Last year they struggled through a 6-10 conference record during their inaugural year in the Big East Conference. The year before, they had the opportunity to travel to St. Louis to play in the NCAA Final Four. Regardless of record, all the seniors say the fans have been supportive, and have made their time at U of L very special.
“Even when we were losing at the beginning of the year we were still selling out,” said senior guard Brandon Jenkins. He went on to say that it has been like that all four years he has been a Cardinal and that he really appreciates it.
While the fans celebrated the seniors, the underclassmen shined on the court. Freshmen Edgar Sosa, Derrick Caracter and Jerry Smith all scored in double figures. The success of the team has been dependent on the development of the freshman Caracter.
“If Derrick Caracter doesn’t come back and doesn’t do the things he is told we are not in the tournament,” said Louisville head coach Rick Pitino.
Sosa showed off for his old high school teammate Kashif Pratt. Pratt, a freshman guard for the Pirates, played with Sosa at Rice High School in the Bronx. Sosa showed a little extra spunk, scoring 18 points and going seven of 11 for shooting, while taunting the Seton Hall bench.
“Our confidence level is great,” said Sosa. “It comes from practice. We are going hard every day.
Louisville was able to overcome a first half onslaught from the Pirates to win convincingly. Seton Hall hit eight three-pointers and shot 52 percent from the field in the first half. The Cardinals buckled down on defense and held the Pirates to 30 percent shooting in the second. Louisville had seven blocked shots and six steals.
U of L found their success on the offensive side of the ball by playing as a team. The Cards assisted 20 of their 32 field goals leading to a 48 percent shooting percentage. Nine different Cardinals played at least 14 minutes, and there were five different players scoring in double figures.
The Cards, who posted a 12-4 record in Big East play, will have a first round bye. Pitino said that he was very pleasantly surprised at his team’s performance in the conference, adding that at the beginning of the year they didn’t expect to do better than 10-6 in such a strong league.
The Cardinals are set to play the winner of Providence College and West Virginia University. The game pits two teams that are looking to build upon their resume for a possible at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. Pitino said that West Virginia is one of the teams that he most fears playing, because didn’t face each other in the regular season this year. He went on to say that he is not sure how his young team would react to the Mountaineers’ very complex and pressing 1-3-1 zone.
The Big East tournament will be on ESPN.
