Louisville Preview

Word from the Marquette Boards is that Travis will not play. If that's the case, look for a long night for Marquette. It will be fun to see everyone else get to play though. If Travis plays though, we will have to see what happens. Last season, MU was kept in the game at the Bradley Center when Louisville kept pressing. Marquette constantly broke it for open lay ups and wide open 3's. And they eventually pulled it out. Which leads me to the Top 5 games UL-MU History in the last 4 seasons (my history at Marquette).

5. February 24, 2001: Louisville 77- Marquette 74 (3 OT's). The main thing about this game was the fight at the end and then the whole Reece Gaines family flipping off their entire section behind the Louisville bench. The "fight" was Greg Clausen pushing a Louisville player who had "fouled" Brian Wardle on his last second three point attempt. This game was signficant, because it was the last game we would lose until...

4. February 15, 2003: Louisville 73- Marquette 70. This game was the most hyped game in my four years as an undergrad at MU. I remember getting to the BC about 4 hours before game time. My parents were visiting for the game and could not sit together as only individual seats were left. My old roommate was so drunk that he missed practically the whole second half passed out, but woke up for the last 1:20. I was so sick in the second half ( a severe cold) that I sat down for many of the timeouts, as I remember. It was a great ball game. It seemed like both teams were looking to get over a hump and couldn't do it. MU found itself down by 3 with about 45 seconds remaining. I remember looking at another old roommate and asking "2 for 1?" to which he agreed. But we didn't and ran the clock down to about 20 seconds and Travis nailed a 3 on the right wing to tie the game. But Gaines came down and hit about a 25 three to put Louisville in the lead. MU had a chance to tie but Diener's three was no good. The play went the whole length of the court and Wade had a wide open Novak on the other wing to pass to, but missed seeing him. The only loss on Al McGuire court in 2 seasons.

3. March 7, 2002: Marquette 84- Louisville 76. This was the win in the Conference USA tournament, the third time MU had beaten Louisville that season. Supposedly the MU players were chanting NIT at the Louisville players during the game, which got changed to outside of the locker room after the game. I don't remember it being a particularly good game, except we won, so that's why it's #3.

2. February 27, 2003: Marquette 78- Louisville 73. This game has so many stories attached to it. A couple of roommates were at a buddy's house who said he would take 10 straight shots if MU came back from 19 down to win. Beer bottles were thrown in the street. This was the first game that I went outside afterwards to celebrate, walking to a buddy's house on Kilbourn to high-five everyone. Wade and Gaines had a great duel. I remember Wade had a few lesser performances before this one, but afterwards I told myself that he was too good for college and he wasn't staying past this season. This game will probably be remembered for the devastating injury to Ellis Myles (torn patellar tendon) more than anything. And then Travis Diener screaming after his free throws that sealed it and head butting Steve Novak in the chest. Man did MU want to win that one.

1. March 6, 2004: Marquette 81- Louisville 80. I picked this as Number 1 because I have always felt that it was the best game ever in my 4 years as an undergrad, and it happened on Senior Day. I remember the last 5 minutes took about a half hour because the officials were trying to sort out three pointers and who was shooting foul shots. Diener got maybe the worst call I have ever seen when he picked up his 5th foul with about 20 seconds left. But MU had a chance down 2 with 20 seconds left. Brandon Bell took a shot from the top of the key that hit the back board and went in and out and tipped out off of Louisville, giving MU the ball. I remember looking at my roommate at the time and saying "I can't beleive Brandon Bell almost beat Louisville with that shot." MU still had to inbound the ball, and ran the wrong play (not surprising that season) and Merritt found Mason on the opposite baseline for a shot and was knocked over on the play, tieing the game and sending him to the line. The BC went nuts and I thought he had a 3 and the game was over. Mason calmly hit his free throw and Louisville's attempt was knocked away giving MU the win. I will always remember that one, it was unbeleivable.

So that's it folks. Enjoy the game. And agreat pre-game article by this site: http://cardinalempire.com/Empire/content/view/273//
I didn't know we have given Louisville 5 out of their 8 losses at Freedom Hall in the last six seaons.