Today was the last basketball game that Louisville will ever play in Freedom Hall. A lot of history has taken place in that building. A lot of legends in the basketball world have, in some way, been affiliated with the Louisville basketball program.
That's why today's game against was more than a game. It was an event.
And with all the Louisville heroes among a raucous crowd decked out in red and senior night for Jerry Smith, Reginald Delk, and Edgar Sosa (whose mother was watching him play for the first time), Kyle Kuric stole the show.
Who's Kyle Kuric?
This kid.(photo credit: Hell in the Hall)
He's a sophomore shooting guard for the Cardinals from Evansville, IN, that scored all of six points in January and 28 for the month of February. He's the guy that filled in for an injured Jerry Smith.
He's the guy that set a career-high by scoring 22 points in the second half to spark Louisville to their second win over Syracuse in three weeks.
Kuric did it all in the second half. He hit four threes, he had four dunks, he made plays on the defensive end, he got out and scored in transition. The key stretch for came at the eight minute mark of the second half. Kuric buried a three to cap a 21-9 Louisville run that had given the Cardinals a 60-51 lead. Syracuse's Scoop Jardine immediately answered with a three of his own, but Kuric wasn't done. Not 20 seconds after Jardine's three, Kuric hit another one to push the Louisville lead back to nine.
The Orange weren't about to go away. After a Wes Johnson jumper cut the lead to five, Kuric answered with yet another triple to push the lead back to eight. He would go on to throw down three more impressive dunks, including the proverbial exclamation point, catching an oop from Preston Knowles with 42 seconds left that brought the house down (well, what was still left standing, at least).
Smacking the No. 1 team great way to send off Freedom Hall, right?
Well, there's more to it than that. Louisville was a bit bubblicious coming into this one. Their road win over Syracuse was the lone diamond on a resume full of rough. A nice record in the Big East was hiding the fact that Louisville has done a lot of their damage against the bottom of the league. And as pretty as that win against Syracuse was, home losses to Western Carolina and Charlotte (by 22!) made it lose some luster.
Many were questioning Louisville's inclusion in the tournament. And after beating Syracuse again, ... they still are?
Believe it or not, but Louisville's record against the RPI top 50 actually went down today. The thing that no one thinks about when watching teams like UConn, or URI, or Dayton, or Georgia Tech piss away their tournament chances is that it doesn't just hurt the teams that are losing; it hurts the teams that have beaten them.
Thanks to UConn's loss to South Florida, the Huskies are now on the wrong side of the bubble, and will be on the wrong side of the RPI top 50 come tomorrow morning. Two of Louisville's three best wins were against the Huskies.
Louisville isn't the only one. Virginia Tech knocked off Georgia Tech on the road today, which, on paper, looks like their best win given the Yellow Jackets home performance this season. But Georgia Tech is now 7-9 in the ACC without anything of significance on the road.
Georgia Tech could very well miss the NCAA Tournament.
Todays win doesn't look as impressive now, does it?
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2 comments:
pretty sure the win today remains rather impressive but the ones against the huskies took the hit... and little brother just locked up their bid
What Kyle Kuric did was legendary. Not memorable or historic, but LEGENDARY.
He could not pick up a basketball for the rest of his life and his contribution to the game would be remembered forever.
What Kuric did even eclipses what Skylar McBee did earlier this year (hitting a GW'er against the #1 team in the country), and what he did was just short of legendary.
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