By Catherine Laroche
Cardinal fans who watched the men’s basketball team this week may be wondering why the Cards don’t change their name from the “Louisville Cardinals” to the “Louisville Terminators.” After all, the Cards destroyed Marquette and Tulane like Orkin men nixing roaches.
On Jan. 26, the Cards took on the Golden Eagles of Marquette minus star senior point guard Travis Diener. Diener had aggravated a left ankle sprain in the Eagles’ 76-66 loss to Charlotte the previous Saturday.
Freedom Hall is known as Marquette’s “home away from home” because the Eagles haven’t had any trouble winning there over the past few years. Not so this year. The Cards cruised over Marquette 99-52, the biggest deficit loss that the Eagles have ever seen.
It wouldn’t have been smooth sailing without Louisville’s Larry O’Bannon. The senior guard scored a career-high 30 points, including a career-high six three-pointers. He also made five rebounds and seven assists.
“My teammates were looking for me, and I was looking to shoot it,” O’Bannon said. “I just had the hot hand and my teammates knew it.”
“Larry had a special night,” head coach Rick Pitino said. “I’m really pleased for him. It’s wonderful to see a person like him have a game like this. He exemplifies everything we’re trying to build with our program.”
As proof of his great game, the crowd couldn’t help but chant his name as he walked off the court in the final minutes.
“You can’t beat that – 20,000 people yelling for you. You can’t even dream of that,” O’Bannon said. “I didn’t want to crack a smile, but I was sunshine on the inside.”
The Cardinals also dominated Tulane on the road Jan. 29. In the Cards’ 105-69 victory, Francisco Garcia lead all scorers with 21 points. Five other Cardinals scored in the double digits: Taquan Dean tallied 19 points, Lorenzo Wade, 14, O’Bannon, 12, and Ellis Myles and Juan Palacios each had 11 points.
“We did what we had to do,” Dean said.
Louisville has been winning by an average of 32.9 points during their current seven-game winning streak.
Although U of L has had no problem blowing out teams lately, they still have a tough road ahead before the Conference USA tournament begins. Their remaining schedule (all conference games) includes: Cincinnati, UAB, Memphis, South Florida, Saint Louis and Charlotte.
Just a few weeks ago, the Cards stole a nail-biting 69-66 victory from the Bearcats on their home court. Cincinnati hasn’t forgotten that loss and plans on returning the favor to Louisville in Freedom Hall tomorrow.
U of L also has yet to test the Memphis Tigers. In the past, Memphis is usually right outside the top 25, if not in it. They always make the Cards work hard for a “W.” The Tigers already have quality wins over Marquette, South Florida and DePaul.
The Cardinals will travel to Wisconsin to take on the Golden Eagles again on Feb. 17. This time, Diener should be back in the rotation, and the Eagles will give U of L a run for their money.
If the NCAA tournament were to start today, ESPN predicts that C-USA would have at least 5 teams entering the field of 65. Louisville and Cincinnati lead the conference with a 6-1 record. Following close behind them are Charlotte, UAB, DePaul and Memphis with a 5-2 conference record.
