The Cardinals ran over the Wildcats 32-14 as the defense let Joker Phillips’ team down.

Louisville was in sync as Kentucky just sinks.

Phillips: “You can’t give up 76 yards on four-plus drives.  You can’t do that, and we are better than that on defense.”

D-coordinator Rick Minter: “It’s demoralizing and unacceptable, especially when a team can do that running the ball.”  (UK gave up 219 rushing yards.)

Offensive coordinator Randy Sanders hopes QB Maxwell Smith “proved something to all the UK fans” with his excellent 35-0f-50 passing performance.

Has the Kentucky/Louisville rivalry helped or hurt the Cats?

It’s almost time for the big Kentucky-Louisville showdown in New Orleans.  We continue to give this monster game its own set of headlines…


1.  Everyone in Kentucky is taking sides for tomorrow’s Final Four matchup.

2.  This Cards-Cats game overshadows the rest of the weekend.

3.  The players don’t feel the off-court hate that UK and U of L fans do.

4.  John Calipari thinks it’s bad karma to root against a team.

5.  Here’s a Calipari/Rick Pitino history lesson as told by coaches, players and more.  Good stuff, ESPN.  Good stuff.

6.  For the uninitiated, the two coaches have a bit of an ongoing feud with one another.

7.  Louisville wants to create chaos with its defense.

8.  This year’s Kentucky team is different from Calipari’s previous squads.

9.  Anthony Davis’ knee is 90% healthy.  (He also won the AP’s Player of the Year Award today.)

10.  In the end, reality is not on Louisville’s side.

With Kentucky and Louisville shaping up as the biggest story at the Final Four, we thought we’d give that game its own set of headlines today.  Here goes…


1.  Kentucky-Louisville is a dream matchup for Bluegrass State residents.

2.  CBS’ Clark Kellogg says: “When you talk about Louisville and Kentucky playing, that goes to the stratosphere of intensity and history and tradition… This is way off the charts.”

3.  Get ready for a week’s worth of pregame build-up.

4.  While the media fuels up the hype machine, UK’s players will continue to enjoy the ride.

5.  The roles have reversed for John Calipari and Rick Pitino (who faced each other in the 1996 Final Four with Pitino at UK and Calipari at UMass).

6.  The Wildcats set up the matchup with a blowout win over Baylor…

7.  And big-game Michael Kidd-Gilchrist came up large again for UK.

The NCAA Tournament — by its sheer design — creates wonderful storylines and incredible sideshows each and every season.  For three rounds, small schools most folks have never heard of take down a few giants.  Then over the last three rounds, the biggest fish swallow up the remaining guppies which leaves coaches to face their old schools, local rivals to meet, and feuding program-runners to do battle with one another.

Thanks to Louisville’s tight win over Florida on Saturday and Kentucky’s blowout victory over Baylor yesterday, all three of those things will occur in New Orleans at the Final Four:


Coach facing old school: Check.  Rick Pitino versus Kentucky.

Local rivals meeting:  Check.  Kentucky versus Louisville.

Feuding coaches doing battle:  Check.  John Calipari versus Pitino.


The only downside to this  Battle of the Bluegrass State?  It’s slated for the national semifinals and not the actual final game.  And let’s face facts, that would be an even bigger, even better storyline.

Kentucky’s run this season has been dominant.  Calipari is looking for his first ever national title.  What could be better for Cat fans than capturing their first national crown since 1998 against Louisville and ex-UK coach Pitino?

On the flipside, imagine the pain Kentucky fans would feel if their latest “best shot” at a title was undone by those same Cards and that same turncoat — in most Cat fans’ eyes — coach.

Even in a sport that gives us electric, emotional storylines every March, such a set-up would provide the potential for the greatest mood swing in modern sports history.  Toss in the fact that there’s little love lost between Coach Cal and Ricky P and the finals would shatter television ratings records across the Commonwealth.

Don’t get me wrong, Saturday’s matchup will still be a doozy and one bitter rival will send the other bitter rival packing.  Calipari or Pitino will still block the other’s pursuit of a title. 

Oh, but if that Kentucky-Louisville game were still a possibility for Monday’s championship game?  Bedlam.  Complete and utter bedlam.  Suicide hotlines would have to add extra staffing.  Police in Louisville and Lexington would have to unbox their riot gear in preparation. 

Saturday will be fantastic for basketball fans inside and outside Kentucky’s state lines.  But a clash in Monday’s finals would have been seismic.  If only those brackets could be redrawn today.