SI’s “Vault”, Lindy’s fouls, and more…
It’s gameday. The University of Louisville men’s basketball team starts their NCAA journey tonight at 9:45pm against Boise State with dreams of becoming national champions. But it wasn’t too long ago(ok 22 years, but who’s counting) that the Cards were winning their second title in six years. Now, thanks to SI.com, we can relive those heady, fantastic days as the Cardinals look to recreate them in Birmingham.
The SI Vault bills itself as “Your Link to Sports History” and it doesn’t disappoint. SI has put together thousands and thousands of archived articles, photos, videos, and of course, magazine covers. Just type ‘Louisville’ into the search bar and you’ll be delivered to page after page of Cardinal history.
You’ll find images of Lancaster Gordon and Scooter McCray cutting down the nets after a certain overtime victory in Knoxville, or maybe the good Doctor Dunkenstein operating on UCLA in 1980. You can read about the heart and desire it took for the ‘05 birds to storm into the final four as a four-seed.
With the 2008 NCAA Tournament underway and UofL sporting a shiny 3-seed and dreams of title number three, SI has given us reason to smile while we remember the past and enjoy the present.
NCAA calling fouls at an alarming rate by Empire Lindy
Yeah yeah, this is my charitable cause of the opening round. Watching the games last night, I couldn’t get over how disjointed the flow was. It was almost like the teams couldn’t play even three possessions without a stoppage. And why? Because the referees were calling EVERYTHING.
Hand checks, bumps, touching… I think I even saw a player for Cal State-Fullerton get whistled for waving at his mom in the crowd. It was just a bad display by the black & white stripes making these games their personal performance stages.
I decided to look at the 16 games played last night to see just how the total fouls called compared to the season averages in the NCAA. Six of the 32 teams playing last night (about 20%) were called for 20 ore more fouls, led by the 25 called on Cal State and the 24 called on Southern Cal… maybe it’s a Cali thing. At any rate, those teams would rank in the bottom 10% for personal fouls per game based on that single observation.
Additionally, of the closest games played yesterday, the fouls were coming in droves. Blowouts like UCLA (18 total fouls), Washington State (24), Pitt (24), and Notre Dame (29) probably kept the refs from using their whistles too often. But on the other end, the USC-KS State game (tight until the end, 45 total fouls), Marquette-UK (40 fouls), and Duke-Belmont (38 total fouls) gave the neck accessories a serious workout.
All told, there were 507 fouls called on opening night, including 187 in the five games I thought were the closest (Xavier-UGA, Marquette-UK, USC-KS St, Duke-Belmont, BYU-TX A&M). That’s nearly 32 fouls per game and 37.4 fouls per game in the tight ones.
Just an observation from watching the games yesterday. For a Cardinal team that does not shoot free throws well and would rather play rough and tumble, I don’t like what we’re seeing so far.
To keep Cardinal fans up to date, we’ve put together a list of links related to tonight’s match-up with the Boise State Broncos. Here are a small sampling…
This time, Cards ‘don’t want the lights to go off’
Tickets still available at Cardinals’ venue
Louisville looks for its lost outside shot
Cardinals arrive fast and loose
Boise State counting on its seniors in NCAA tournament
For more articles and gameday conversation, head over to the Freedom Hall forum and chat with other Card fans about the past, present, or future.
