| Date: Dec. 27, 2003 | Score: Louisville 65, Kentucky 56 |
| Leading Scorers: U of L: Otis George (13) Kentucky: Cliff Hawkins, Kelenna Azubuike (12) |
| Coach Rick Pitino called this year's win over UK the biggest win of his tenure at U of L. And considering that UK was ranked #1 in one national poll and had won 27 straight regular season games -- dating back to last year's loss at Louisville -- it is certainly U of L's biggest win in the series in quite some time, and U of L's biggest win on the national stage in years. It was U of L's first win at Rupp since the 1997-98 season. The Cards had waited about 50 years before knocking off a top-rated team before beating Florida earlier this season; now U of L has done it twice in one month. And the feeling of silencing the Rupp Arena crowd, especially in light of their treatment of Rick Pitino, and the sense that the Cardinals may be taking over this series really for the first time -- well, it doesn't get much better than this in December, does it? |
| Kentucky was riding emotion early, publicly saying earlier in the week that this match-up was a payback game for last year. That emotion fueled UK to a 14-point lead and forced U of L to call two early timeouts. Taquan Dean and Francisco Garcia were each held scoreless in the first half, but both came up with huge shots for the Cards in crunch time. The rough-going at the open was started by a Cliff Hawkins three, another three from Kelenna Azubuike, then a putback and dunk from Chuck Hayes and Erik Daniels. At the first TV timeout, UK was up 12-2. At the 10:00 minute mark, the Wildcats led 24-10, their biggest lead of the game. But like last year, when the Cards erased an 11-point deficit in beating UK, U of L let its pressure defense do the work and its offense eventually show up. As UK was running out of steam (even Coach Tubby Smith admitted U of L had better conditioning and that the Wildcats couldn't match their opening level of intensity), both teams received unexpected help from the bench. 20 of U of L's 26 first half points came from the bench, especially Otis George, who led all scorers with a career-high 13 points plus eight rebounds, Larry O'Bannon and Alhaji Mohammed. Mohammed at one point had back-to-back steals, one of which led to a three-point play that pulled U of L to within three. The Cards trailed at halftime 31-26 after UK made just two of its last 14 shots of the first half. |
| With 9:43 left, George converted a three-point play off a putback to finally even the game at 41. A steal and assist from Garcia led to another George dunk, which gave U of L the lead, and then a three from Garcia on the Cards' next possession put U of L up 46-41. But UK responded. An 8-0 Wildcat run, with six points from Daniels and two from Gerald Fitch, gave UK a three-point lead. UK had its last lead of the game at 51-50 with 4:12 left after two free throws by Azubuike. But the Cards took the lead for good on a Kendall Dartez dunk off a feed from Luke Whitehead. Taquan Dean then hit his first three-pointer of the game, from nearly 30 feet, with 3:11 left, and two free throws from George gave U of L a 57-51 lead with 1:42 remaining. Fitch then converted a four-point play after being fouled by Dean on a made three-pointer, but Garcia came up with his big-time moment by hitting a three with Azubuike in his face that left the Cardinals with a 60-55 lead at the 1:01 mark. UK was held to one field goal in the final 5:47, and missed three three-point attempts in the final minute. |
The keys to the Cardinal victory was the performance of its bench, which outscored UK's by an incredible 33-10, including 11 from O'Bannon. Also, the Cards outrebounded UK 38-30, and 20-10 in the second half, when U of L had fresher legs. U of L also limited UK to 33.9% shooting from the field after UK had made nine of its first 18 shots. Meanwhile, U of L shot 54.2% in the second half, and for the game was 15-16 from the line. Garcia finished with 10 points, while Whitehead had 11 points and six rebounds. For UK, both Azubuike and Hawkins finished with 12 points. It was the first U of L-UK game with both teams ranked since Dec. 31, 1996.  |
| Date: Dec. 28, 2002 | Score: Louisville 81, Kentucky 63 |
| Leading Scorers: U of L: Marvin Stone (16) Kentucky: Keith Bogans (14) |
| It's been a long time since U of L fans came away with a smile as big as the one they left Freedom Hall with on this Saturday afternoon. The Cards continue their six-game winninig streak, seemed poised to enter the Top 25, snap a three-game losing streak to UK, and hand UK its second worst loss in the U of L-UK series since it started up again in 1983. U of L also handed UK coach Tubby Smith his most lopsided loss as a UK coach as the Cards turned the tables on the Wildcats, dealing them a second half beating that left the 'Cats bewildered, dazed and somewhat demoralized. It's a feeling U of L fans know all too well; now state bragging rights belong to U of L...at least for a year. |
| As the game opened, it didn't look pretty for U of L, as UK showed their big-game experience...and U of L showed its lack thereof. In front of the second-largest Cardinal home crowd ever at Freedom Hall (20,061), UK took charge in a big way, grabbing the first 14 of 15 rebounds en route to a 20-9 lead. On a few occassions, the Wildcats had opportunities to blow the game open a little bit, but couldn't capitalize on some three-point shots, and the Cards were able to climb back into it and make UK pay. The key to U of L's turnaround was junior guard Bryant Northern, who once again was there for U of L when it needed him. He hit a long-range three-pointer from the left wing to pull U of L to within 26-24, then after UK went up by seven again, he hit another three to pull the Cards to within 31-27. For the game, Northern was 3-3 from three-point range, and he wound up with nine points in only 11 minutes of action. That got the ball rolling for U of L, and after Taquan Dean hit a three with 1:21 left in the half, the Cards had trimmed the lead to 33-30, which was the halftime score. U of L hit only 1-7 of its first three-point shots, but wound up 10-21 from behind the arc for the game. By halftime, U of L had been outrebounded 24-14, and was outscored in the paint 20-6. |
| Like other UK-U of L games, it was a different story in the second half. Unlike other UK-U of L games, it was all U of L in the second half. Francisco Garcia hit a three for the Cards to open the second half to tie the game, and then after UK got a hoop, Erik Brown hit a three to start an 11-0 Cardinal run. Five minutes into the second half, U of L had opened a nine-point lead, and had outscored UK 17-2 in the last six and a half minutes of action. Besides the three-point shooting, U of L improved its work on the glass, fueled by a monster effort from Ellis Myles. Myles had only two rebounds at halftime, but finished with a game-high 14 to go along with 11 points and a team-high five assists. Northern hit his third three of the game to put U of L up 55-42 with 11:43 left; UK pulled within 10 before Reece Gaines, who finished with 10 points, hit a three-pointer that was like a dagger to UK. The Wildcats, though, scored five in a row and were down seven with 9:07 left, but U of L scored the game's next 11 points to seal the contest. UK missed five shots in a row, committed three turnovers (they wound up with 14 turnovers for the game) and didn't score again until the 4:24 mark. Marvin Stone, who led all scorers with 16 points to go along with seven rebounds, scored five in a row at one point, as U of L built a lead as big as 22. Stone finished 8-12 from the line, giving the Cards a huge spark on both ends of the floor. His defense against UK center Marquis Estill held Estill to only six points and six rebounds, and Estill fouled out with over five minutes left in the game. No question that Stone was the difference in the game; had he been wearing blue, the game would have had a far different outcome. |
| U of L shot nearly 54% in the second half, finishing 46.2% from the field for the game and an impressive 23-28 from the line. Five Cardinal players finished in double figures, including Stone, Gaines, Myles, Dean (10) and Garcia (12). At the end of the game, UK had only outrebounded U of L by one, 36-35. Guard Keith Bogans led UK with 14 points, but he was only 1-9 from three-point range (UK finished a woeful 3-18 from behind the arc). The only other UK player to finish in double figures was Chuck Hayes, who had 11. UK shot only 37% from the field. |
| Date: Dec. 29, 2001 | Score: Kentucky 82, Louisville 62 |
| Leading Scorers: U of L: Reece Gaines, Carlos Hurt, Bryant Northern (10) Kentucky: Tayshaun Prince (18) |
| Beyond the fact Cardinal coach Rick Pitino made his first trip back into Rupp Arena as the coach of U of L, and the fanfare and hoopla surrounding that, a game was actually played -- and it looked like nothing's changed, at least not at Rupp. For the second time in as many games in Lexington, U of L keeps it close in the first half, only to get utterly dominated and embarrased in the second period on their way to what was this time a 20-point loss, the seventh time UK has beat the Cards by at least 20 since the series started again in the mid-1980s. (It was also the second straight U of L-UK game in which U of L scored 62 points.) How surprising was the first half? Although Reece Gaines, who was in foul trouble the whole game and finished with only 10 points, scored only 2 points in the first half and played only 11 minutes, the Cards held UK to 37% shooting and outrebounded UK 24-20 in the first half to trail only 36-32 at halftime. To open the game, UK missed all but one of their first seven shots, while the Cards only hit two of their first seven. UK led 16-11 midway through the first half; the Wildcats went on an 8-2 run to take a 26-18 lead with 3:30 remaining. The Cards pulled to within 33-28 at the 1:30 mark after two free throws by Larry O'Bannon (the Cards shot 8-15 from the line for the game), and Erik Brown had the half's final two baskets, including a dunk, to keep the Cards in the game and down four at the half. |
| The second half was another story, as UK took control: by applying more intense defensive pressure, the Wildcats forced U of L into missing 13 of its first 16 shots in the second half, and by that time it was over. It was an almost total repeat as the 1999 game. After Carlos Hurt hit a three (U of L was 4-19 from behind the arc, though UK was only 6-25) to pull U of L to within 38-37, Tayshaun Prince, who finished with 18 points, and Keith Bogans, who tallied 17, took over and showed why UK is a Top 10 team. Combined, they scored 17 of UK's next 18 points. UK hit five of its first seven shots of the period, and by the first TV timeout led 48-37. After the timeout, Prince, who also had nine rebounds, scored on a lay-up and then a dunk to force a Cardinal timeout with 13:41 left.The Wildcats were up 54-39 eight minutes into the period, and the Cards were never as close as 13 the rest of the way. Up 63-50, the Wildcats then went on a 10-0 run to ice the game. |
| UK center Marquis Estill went 5-5 from the field and had 10 points, while UK's Gerald Fitch also scored 10. UK wound up outrebounding U of L 46-41, and the Cards shot only 36% from the field, 31% in the second half. Bryant Northern had 10 points for U of L but was terrible behind the arc, shooting only of 2-9. Hurt wound up with 10 points, while Ellis Myles scored only two. Forward Luke Whitehead played for the first time in three games, and was effective before he got into some serious foul trouble. Although he played only 14 minutes, it looks like he may be further down the road to recovery than was thought before the game. It was Joseph N'Sima who probably had the best day for U of L. N'Sima finished with eight points, seven rebounds, and an impressive 5 blocked shots. Erik Brown had nine points and nine rebounds, while Brandon Bender, in only 12 minutes of action, had four points, four rebounds, and three steals. |
| Game Summary: Kentucky | Score: Kentucky 64, Louisville 62 |
| Leading Scorers: U of L: Reece Gaines (27) Kentucky: Keith Bogans (16) |
| In what U of L fans feared would be another disgraceful, humiliating loss, U of L fans saw instead an inspired performance and almost another improbable win by the Cards against their archrival Kentucky Wildcats in a game everyone agreed favored UK by a longshot. Although the Cards fell to 4-9, and their losing streak in Freedom Hall stretched to three, there is a lot of hope that can come out of this game. U of L played hard, inspired and tough, three attributes not seen from this Cardinal squad in a long time. |
| As the game started, U of L looked like teams of old and Freedom Hall sounded like the arena of old. The Cards opened the game with a 14-4 run, including two three-pointers. The Cards then hit only one of its next eight shots as UK closed the gap and was able to move into a 29-27 lead at halftime. The Wildcats scored the first eight points of the second half, opening up a 12-point lead. But then U of L was uncharacteristically able to regroup. The Cards held UK to only four points in the game's final 4:21, while sophomore guard Reece Gaines scored 10 of U of L's 12 points in that time span. Gaines hit two straight three-pointers, the last one from 25 feet, to tie the score at 62 with less than a minute left. The Cards played immensely tough defense on UK's next possession, but a foul by Luke Whitehead with two seconds left on the shot clock sent Tayshaun Prince to the line with 26.5 seconds remaining. Prince hit both shots for the final 64-62 lead, then U of L's Erik Brown missed a three-pointer. The Cards retained possession with 2.1 seconds left, but Ellis Myles's inbounds sailed out of bounds. UK inbounded the ball, and the game was over. |
| Gaines had his best game of the season, scoring a career-high 27 points on 5-8 three-point shooting to go along with eight rebounds. He looked tough, he led the team, he took and hit clutch shots, and looked like a solid big guard that everyone hoped he could be. He filled out his Cardinal uniform with pride. UK was led by Keith Bogans, who had 16 points, while Prince had 13. UK's big men made their presence felt, with both Marvin Stone and Jason Parker scoring 11. Muhammed Lasege played only eight minutes and did not score. After U of L had pulled within two at 50-48, Stone converted on a three-point play. He hit another shot inside, was fouled, missed the shot, but UK's Gerald Fitch got the rebound and scored to give UK a 57-48 lead. UK's 64 points marked U of L's best defensive effort of the season, a major move in the right direction for the Cards. |
| Game Preview: Kentucky | Date: Jan. 2, 2001 |
| Site: Freedom Hall | Records: U of L: 4-8, Kentucky 5-5 |
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| What really is there to say? The Cardinal basketball team is desparate for a sign of life on the basketball court, and to make matters worse, the schedule now gets tough every game out, and first up is our archrival, the UK Wildcats. UK has knocked off by some severe margins both good Cardinal teams and bad. This one looks like another spanking. Rex Chapman might not be on hand, but if UK follows the trends set by U of L's other opponents this season, they will set some sort of record in how bad they beat U of L. And against UK, unfortunately, that actually is a tough task. |
| Strategy for this game usually goes out the window even when it looks to be a competitive match-up. Even still, the Cards are beyond X's and O's and now just worry about whether or not they can function like a team. UK has many weapons in Keith Bogans and Tayshaun Prince and Jason Parker and what not, but, really, it seems if U of L played a scrimmage against itself it would lose. Let's face it. A loss under 20 points would be a blessing, and again, considering the nature of this series, U of L could really get hurt. Considering the last half of basketball the Cards played against UK, and the way things have gone so far this year, it's not even out of possibility for UK to pitch a shut-out for if not the whole game or a half, at least long stretches of time. Count on that as a matter of fact. |
| It would be great to see an intense, inspired performance, but folks, be wary of where the program could be come Wednesday morning. |
| Game Summary: Kentucky | Score: Kentucky 76, Louisville 46 |
| Leading Scorers: U of L: Tony Williams (12) Kentucky: Tayshaun Prince (20) |
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| And this is no exaggeration: the second half of the 1999 UK game was one of the worst halves in U of L basketball history. On national television, at Rupp Arena, down only one at the half, UK romps all over the Cards by thirty 76-46. It had been a competitive game in the first half, but it didn't seem like a game in the second half. In fact, it seemed that the Cards forgot to play the second half. There have been blowouts by UK on U of L before, but this is one of the strangest. |
| Consider some second half and game total numbers. UK opened the second half with a 17-2 run. After hitting their first five shots, Keith Bogans hit on a lay-up for an 11-point lead at the 14:33 mark. Now this is where it gets scary. In the second half Louisville was outscored by UK 41-12; from the field they shot a numbing 3 of 27. Three field goals in one half. Unbelievable. Until Reece Gaines hit a jumper with 2:17 remaining, the only field goal in the second half to that point was a three-pointer by Marques Maybin at 10:49. The Cards finished 17-57 from the field for 29.8%, and were outrebounded 41-24. |
| Once again the Cardinals had the uncanny ability of taking an inferior or in this case struggling team and making them look like the Harlem Globetrotters. UK had shot at the 40% clip heading into the game--they wound up 31-52 for 59.6 %, their best offensive game of the season. The Wildcats were also an impressive 7-14 from three-point range, with Tayshaun Prince hitting on 3-5 three-pointers. Prince led the Cats with 20 points, and was as much a weapon as we predicted him to be. Hitting threes, slashing to the basket, handling the ball...Even this U of L fan does appreciate Tayshaun Prince. |
| So U of L has still not defeated UK three times in a row, but who cares at this point? Where does U of L go from here? Well, they can try to help their record vs. Tennessee State on Monday, then get another shot vs. an even better, more polished squad in the classy North Carolina Tar Heels. So although U of L will get back riding again soon, the pain of a 30-point loss, especially when going into a match-up that everyone agreed was more even than this, will last. One three-pointer would have equaled the biggest blowout ever, 85-51 in 1986. It's a thrashing, but with U of L's performance as monumentally poor as it was you've got to believe they will bottom out there and hopefully make as much progress as they can muster. |
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| Game Preview: Kentucky | Date: Dec. 18, 1999 |
| Site: Lexington, KY | Records: U of L: 5-2, Kentucky 4-4 |
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| Wow, what an excitement around Kentucky for what is still the Dream Game. It may not always register on the national radar screen, but it is always top billing in the Commonwealth. Although UK leads the all-time series 20-10, U of L will have its fourth chance to try to win its third straight over the Cats, its second straight in Rupp Arena. The Cards boast a five-game winning streak, though truth be told UK does represent U of L's toughest game to date. The Cats have dropped a few, but all against top competition. |
| It does seem that in order to win, the Cards are going to have to get solid contributions from every position. They will certainly have to battle Marvin Stone and Jamaal Magloire for rebounds. Also, Tayshaun Prince has the likes of a player who could hurt U of L. Tony Williams, the Cards' leading scorer, will have to hit the glass hard--a double-double from him could bode very well for U of L. Dion Edward will do more than enough to grab 10 rebounds and block a shot or two. But also in the backcourt, Reece Gaines, Caleb Gervin, Rashad Brooks, Kevin Smiley and Quintin Bailey must avoid turnovers, try to rebound, and hit at least 25% of their threes. And of course, everyone at all positions must keep it up on defense. For the whole game. All 40 minutes. Anything less might provide some problems. |
| UK fans are riding Coach Tubby Smith a little hard these days. Too bad they can't remember he won them an NCAA title only two years ago. Anyway, the Dream Game may sound cliche, but there seems to be enough build-up for each of these games each year, the fans get so extremely involved to the point of foul language and worse, that the game turns into a battle and some of the most intense basketball played in the state of Kentucky. The game is on national television for a reason. |
