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VOLUME XV • NUMBER 36 JUNE 24, 2011 $3.00

June 24, 2011 Isssue

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Louisville is looking forward to big things in 2011-12 in all sports, but specifically men's and women's basketball, soccer and women's lacrosse have an opportunity to make a national splash. Also check out the Governor's Cup rivalry series for all sports as well as updates from the Cardinal Caravan.

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Page 1: June 24, 2011 Isssue

VOLUME XV • NUMBER 36JUNE 24, 2011

$3.00

Page 2: June 24, 2011 Isssue

PAGE 2 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT FEBRUARY 3, 2011

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JUNE 24, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 3

A

E D I T O R I A L S T A F F

GENERAL MANAGER - Jack Coffee

SENIOR WRITER AND EDITOR - Russ Brown

OPERATIONS MANAGER - Howie Lindsey

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES - Mickey Clark, Betty Olsen and Blanche Kitchen

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS - Dave Klotz, Shelley Feller, Gail Kamenish,

Howie Lindsey and Chuck Feist

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNISTS - Matt Willinger, Jeff Wafford,

Jason Puckett and Rick Cushing

GRAPHIC DESIGNER - Scott Stortz

COPY EDITOR - Rick Cushing

The Louisville SportsReport is printed in Kentucky and based in Louisville. It is published weekly in January, February and March, monthly in April, May, June and July and weekly mid-August through late December by Louisville Sports News, L.L.C., in Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville Sports News, L.L.C.: Owner and General Manager - Jack Coffee. The SportsReport was founded in 1996. United States Postal Number: 015255

POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Louisville SportsReport, P.O. Box 17464, Louisville, KY 40217. Four weeks advance notice is required on old addresses as well as new. Periodicals Postage paid at Louisville, Ky. Subscriptions are priced at $56.95 each (plus 6% Ky. tax) for 32 issues. Members of the University of Louisville’s Cardinal Athletic Fund receive a special group rate of $39.75 for their initial subscriptions and that amount is applied from each annual donation. Year-round first-class mailing is available for an additional $53 per year. Please call for Canadian and overseas rates. Not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs unless accompanied by return postage. Publisher reserves right to accept or reject advertisements. Copyright 2008 by Louisville Sports News, L.L.C. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. For subscriber information or circulation questions call 1-502-636-4330. Office hours at 2805 S. Floyd St. in Louisville: Mon-Wed. from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

VOLUME XV, NUMBER 36 • JUNE 24, 2011

CSPACOLLEGESPORTS

PUBLISHERSASSOCIATIONCOVER DESIGNED

BY SCOTT STORTZ

AMERICA’S FOREMOST AUTHORITY ONUNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE ATHLETICS®

Office Phone: (502) 636-4330Fax: (502) 636-9265

E-mail: [email protected]

Official Web site:www.cardinalsports.com

W H A T ’ S I N S I D E

6 STRONG’S CARDS CHARGE INTO SUMMER WORKOUTS By Howie Lindsey8 UOFL ATHLETIC PROGRAM HAS PROVED ITS WORTH MANY TIMES OVER By Jack Coffee10 THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY By Howie Lindsey11-13 CARDINAL CARAVAN PHOTO GALLERIES15 STRONG GETS TWO MORE COMMITMENTS By Jeff Wafford

15 SEVERAL TOP HOOPS PROSPECTS EYEING UOFL By Jeff Wafford16 CARDINAL STARS OF THE MONTH By Howie Lindsey18 MCDONNELL, PLAYERS ALREADY EAGER TO HIT THE FIELD By Russ Brown20-21 HOLGORSEN’S WAIT AT WVU WAS A SHORT ONE By Russ Brown21 BIG EAST FOOTBALL SCHEDULES22 BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL FINAL STATISTICS

9 SORTING OUT THE NUMBERSWith two new recruits signed - a prep star and a transfer from George Mason - Louisville coach Rick Pitino has a roster brimming with 18 talented players. How do the numbers work? Three current Cardinals were taken off scholarship for 2011-12.

4 JURICH HAS VISION FOR THE FUTURELouisville Vice President for Athletics Tom Jurich’s Cardinal Caravan drew hundreds of fans at three regional stops over the last month. Jurich spoke of his optimism for the future of the program.

14 SHONI HAPPY WITH ‘OFF THE REZ’Shoni Schimmel had a big freshman season. She was a star on the court, and off the court, a documentary with her as the star debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival. “We loved the way it turned out. It was awesome, mainly because it wasn’t just about basketball... it was about everything in life,” she said.

7 BENAVIDES FINALLY PAIN-FREE FOR 2012Junior center Mario Benavides, the only returning starter on Louisville’s offensive line, underwent surgery to repair his right knee. The hard-nosed hiker said he feels like a new man after going under the knife.

17 MCCARTY IS A UOFL LEGENDA two-time NCAA titlist and eight-time All-American, senior D’Ana McCarty (above center) will go down as the most decorated UofL track and fi eld athlete in history. McCarty will try out for the Olympics next. “I still don’t think it has sunk in. I’m not sure when it will,” she said.

VOLCANOES, INDIANS, SOUNDS AND FLYING SQUIRRELS? ALL CARDINALSSummer is time for professional baseball. Louisville has 13 former players on active minor league rosters this summer, including two in Triple-A and three in Double-A. Pitchers Sean Green (1998-2000 UofL) and Trystan Magnuson (2004-07) are in AAA with the Nashville Sounds and Sacramento RiverCats, respectively. In Double-A, Chris Cates is with the New Britain Rock Cats, Chris Dominguez is a Richmond Flying Squirrel and B.J. Rosenberg is a Reading Philly. Louisville has two alums in High-A, seven in Low-A and one in Rookie ball.

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WILL BE MAILED IN MID-AUGUST

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5 HUGHES WINS NCAA, LONDON CALLING?Senior Matt Hughes brought home his second NCAA steeplechase title in a row earlier this month at the 2011 NCAA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. Next up for Hughes? A shot at the Canadian national title.

Former Cardinals (L. to R.) Andrew Clark, Jeff Arnold, Adam Duvall and Josh Richmond posed for a picture before their minor league teams played a game earlier this spring. All have since moved on from those teams, but at the time Clark and Richmond were with the Spokane Indians and Clark and Duvall were with the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes in the Single-A Northwest League.

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PAGE 4 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT JUNE 24, 2011

CARDINAL CARAVAN

JURICH NOTES PAST SUCCESS, LOOKS FORWARD TO MORE IN 2011-12By Howie LindseyUniversity of Louisville Vice President for

Athletics Tom Jurich has always looked at the annual Cardinal Caravan as a chance for his program to reach out to its fans, celebrating with them the success of the previous season and looking ahead to next season.

On the fi rst three stops on this year’s Cara-van - Elizabethtown, Shelbyville and Jeffer-sonville, Ind. - Jurich noted there is a lot to celebrate.

The Cardinals fi nished the season with Big East championships in multiple sports, includ-ing team titles in men’s soccer, volleyball, men’s and women’s swimming, men’s tennis and men’s and women’s track and fi eld, and dozens of Big East individual titles and All-America honors. Senior Matt Hughes won the NCAA title in the 3,000m steeplechase at the NCAA Outdoor Championships this spring, and Ken Lolla took the UofL soccer team to its fi rst-ever appearance in the College Cup, soc-cer’s version of the Final Four, before falling in the championship game to Akron.

“We have great coaches,” Jurich said. “That’s why we have success. I don’t say this as a sales pitch or anything. I say it honestly. I wouldn’t trade our group of coaches with anybody in the country. Across the board I think we have great people - people that care about the student-athlete, do the right things and don’t cheat. If you’ve seen some of the problems with programs across the country, our coaches do things the right way.”

While such big-time athletic programs as Ohio State and Tennessee are dealing with major scandals this summer, Jurich is looking forward to the 2011-12 season with a strong group of coaches and several programs poised to take a leap into the national spotlight.

“I love what Coach Lolla did this past year, and our soccer program is going to be sensa-tional again this year,” he said. “I also look for women’s lacrosse to make a big jump. Coach Kellie Young just graduated her fi rst class at Louisville, and they were ranked in the top 20 this year. I think they are on the verge of mak-ing a big jump nationally.

“I think Coach Pitino might have his best coaching staff at Louisville with Richard (Pi-tino) coming back, and Kevin Keatts and Wyk-

ing (Jones) coming in. They have a great team coming back. To see what Jeff Walz and his program has coming back is really exciting. Both of those programs are in great shape.”

Jurich noted success in many sports and a bright future ahead, pointing to “swimming and diving and softball and track and fi eld. We have had so much success in many sports that it is tough to zero in on just one.”

NEW FACILITIES SHINELooking back at the 2010-11 school year, it

will be known as the fi rst year in the new KFC Yum! Center downtown and the fi rst in the expanded Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium.

“Our arena is world class,” he said. “So much credit should go to Jim Host. He navi-gated this project through land mines and got the arena built and open. He deserves a lot of credit for that. That arena is amazing, every square inch of it is top-notch.”

Jurich said the men’s basketball team, which was picked to fi nish eighth in the league but ended up fourth in the regular season before advancing to the league tournament title game, made the fi rst year in the Yum! Center more memorable.

“I don’t think I’ve seen a better coach-

ing job than the one Rick Pitino did with this year’s basketball team,” Jurich said. “When Coach Pitino said it would be a bridge year last season, he meant it. And in some ways it was a bridge year for our entire Athletic De-partment, with a lot of new faces and a lot of new people coming in. But the great thing is, those kids bought into Rick’s plan, and to play like they did was phenomenal. We were 3-1 against teams in the national championship game. For us to make the NCAA Tournament was remarkable, and I think we’ll learn from the experience and be better because of it.”

Men’s basketball wasn’t the only benefi -ciary of the new arena. Women’s basketball also played its home games in the KFC Yum! Center and UofL fi nished the season ranked No. 2 in the nation in attendance with more than 10,700 fans per game.

“We continue to be amazed at the job Jeff Walz and this coaching staff have done,” Ju-rich said. “Finishing the season ranked No. 2 in attendance, and making the Sweet 16, and the future looks bright for them. They are go-ing to be exciting next year.”

FOOTBALL ON THE RISEBack on campus, UofL opened its expanded

football stadium to much fanfare. An upper deck was added to the East side of the sta-dium along with luxury boxes, new loge seats and a wrap-around terrace that connected the East to the West sides of the stadium.

“The fi rst season in the expanded stadium exceeded everyone’s expectations,” Jurich said. “I didn’t think we’d have a chance to make a bowl game. I didn’t think we’d have a chance to go to a great destination like St. Petersburg, and I defi nitely didn’t think we’d have a chance to win a bowl game. But that’s a credit to Charlie Strong and this coaching staff. They play an exciting brand of football. Whether we win or lose, we play exciting football, and their players will play hard for 60 minutes every game.

“We didn’t plan for selling out games in the expanded stadium our fi rst year. But we did. Our fans bought the tickets because they are excited about this program and these coaches.”

Looking back at the last athletic season, Jurich said one of the things he’s most proud of was the job done by Strong in his fi rst sea-son.

“I think he’s done everything right,” Jurich said. “He’s got a passion for being at Louis-ville, and he’s embraced this community and the community has embraced him. He’s the right fi t. That was the thing. I blew it the last

time because I just didn’t have the right fi t.Charlie is the right fi t. We’ve started back onthe right foot.

“He’s revived the program, put energy back into it, he’s recruiting well, and he’s puttogether one of the best coaching staffs I’veever seen in college football.”

Strong salvaged the recruiting class in 2010 by adding several top recruits in the fi nal twomonths of the recruiting season. Then thisFebruary he signed his fi rst full class at Louis-ville. That class was ranked among the top 30in the nation by Rivals.com, the nation’s pre-mier football recruiting scouting service, andwas Louisville’s highest-rated signing class inhistory.

“When we got Charlie we knew we were getting a great recruiter, but what I don’t thinkwe realized is that he’d bring in a staff of ninemore great recruiters,” Jurich said. “It speaksvolumes for guys like Kenny Carter and VanceBedford to leave two-time national championFlorida to come here.”

NEXT BIG PROJECTWhile men’s and women’s basketball and

football got new or expanded facilities lastyear, Jurich is already looking ahead to moreprojects. A new boathouse on the Ohio Riverwas built for UofL rowing, and Jurich wants tosee a new facility for Louisville soccer next.

“The soccer stadium is our next big proj-ect,” he said. “We want to add it right acrossthe street from Papa John’s Cardinal Stadiumand with practice fi elds there in the old pas-ta lot (Delmonico Pasta) that is a parking lotnow. We are going to build a state of the art,stand-alone soccer facility.”

Jurich also would like to see expanded sta-diums for baseball and softball.

“We’re trying to expand the baseball sta-dium - double it in size and put a lot of newamenities in it,” he said. “The terrace in foot-ball worked out so well that we’d like to dothat for baseball, too. We’d like to add seatsand put the terrace all the way around theoutside. We’d like to expand softball as well.We want to add a unique, contemporary roof,add some seats and a bigger press box and aVIP area. We really want the ‘Wow’ factor atsoftball.”

BIG EAST MEETINGSA hot topic this summer has been the fu-

ture of the Big East Conference. Currently at16 members, the league will expand to 17 in2012 with the addition of TCU. Jurich got backfrom the annual Big East meetings with moreinformation about the future of the league.

“All eyes are focused in on the TV con-tract,” he said. “People talk about expan-sion, but I don’t see a lot of enthusiasm forexpanding to 10 (football) teams right now.Nine teams is great. TCU is a phenomenal ad-dition for our league - not only for football,but baseball is a great program, their women’sbasketball is great, and golf. Where we arelocated, it is probably easier for us to go toDallas than it is to Providence. We are excitedabout their addition.”

Offered a new deal by ESPN earlier this spring, the Big East chose instead to wait un-til next year to fi nalize its TV deal. That couldresult in big bucks for Louisville and all themember institutions.

“You are going to hear a lot about the TV contract,” Jurich said. “(Commissioner) JohnMarinatto has done a great job navigating thisprocess. We have 16 schools that are all notalike. That makes it more diffi cult. The Pac-10 are all alike schools, the ACC are all verysimilar. The Big East, we’re all different. I amlooking forward to seeing the end result.”

MEN’S BASKETBALL SEASON TICKET HOLDERS:What an amazing inaugural season in the KFC Yum! Center! We would like to thank

you for your loyal support, which gave us the best home court advantage in the country. As a devoted season ticket holder, you have the option to take part in our

men’s basketball relocation process in August 2011. If you are interested in relocating your basketball seats, please submit a relocation request on the Men’s Basketball Ticket

page found on www.uofl sports.com by July 1, 2010.

IMPORTANT POINTS:• You must pay your current basketball seat donation by May 1, 2011, to take part in the relocation process.

• Submitting a relocation request does not guarantee a favorable relocation will be available for your specifi c situation.

Louisville Vice President for Athletics Tom Jurich was interviewed by the Louisville SportsReport’s Howie Lindsey during the Cardinal Caravan event in Elizabethtown, Ky. Jurich said he sees bright things ahead for a number of UofL athletic teams. - photo by Jack Coffee

Page 5: June 24, 2011 Isssue

JUNE 24, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 5

RECRUITING NOTEBOOK10 AMAZING AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF THE 2009-2010 SEASONTRACK AND FIELD

A N O L Y M P I C R U N I N T H E F U T U R E F O R ‘ T H E S T A C H E ? ’

HUGHES SPRINTS TO ANOTHER NATIONAL TITLEBy Howie LindseyAthletes around the world are looking

forward to the London Olympics in 2012. For one University of Louisville student-ath-lete, a guaranteed trip to London in 2012 is likely just one race away.

UofL senior Matt Hughes, the 2010 and 2011 NCAA champion in the steeplechase, will run in the Canadian Championships this week with a chance to earn his qualifying mark for not only the 2011 World Champi-onships, but also the 2012 Canadian Olym-

pic Team. Hughes, from Os-

howa, Ontario, feels con-fi dent about his chances of winning the Canadian national title, but his time is what he’s really worried about.

“Right now I am ranked No. 1 in Canada

by nearly 10 seconds, so I stand a really good chance of making the team for the 2012 Olympics if everything goes well,” he said.

“In Canada, I can qualify for the World Championships team as what is essentially a rookie if I make the B cut twice. My time from the NCAAs is the fi rst one, and if I run under 8:30 again at the Championships (this week), I’ll be on the World Champion-ship team that will be going to Korea.”

Hughes’ race at the Canadian Champi-onships is on Thursday night. Should he run anything under 8:30 (the national B cut), he’ll be a member of the World Champion-ship team. But Hughes has larger goals. He wants to make the A cut, which is 8:23. He won his second NCAA title earlier this month in 8:24.87.

“I think it is within reach,” he said. “I spent the last 100 meters of the NCAA Championships race celebrating, so I think I can drop that last bit and keep my pace up and get it.”

He’ll have a familiar face (former UofL distance coach Brice Allen) pushing him to stay focused at the Canadian Champion-ships.

“He’ll be coming to the Canadian Cham-pionships, and he’ll be working with my pace and telling me what times to hit,” Hughes said. “That will help a lot. I just need to hit that B cut again or hit the A cut, so he’ll help me with the timing.”

Allen, who recently resigned his posi-tion at UofL to help in the family business in Pennsylvania, helped Hughes go from one of the top freshmen in the country (when Hughes was at Clemson) to a two-time NCAA steeplechase champion.

“I started running it my junior year of high school, and then I was one of the top-rated freshmen in the nation in steeple at Clemson,” Hughes said. “So I had a good base, and then I credit a lot to working with Coach Allen and Coach (Ron) Mann at Lou-isville.”

Everything is looking good for Hughes heading into Thursday’s race. Well, not everything. His best competition won’t be there. That is good for his chances of win-ning the race, but bad for his chances of registering a great time.

“Well, my top competitor runs in the 8:30s, but I just received word that he is hurt and won’t be going to the Canadian Championships,” Hughes said. “That will make it actually tougher for me because I was hoping to have someone there to really push me and make me set the pace.”

In the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, UofL was represented by four coaches and fi ve stu-dent-athletes, all swimmers. Hughes would be the fi rst UofL student-athlete to compete in track & fi eld in the Olympics.

He credits his time at UofL for his suc-cess.

“I am really thankful for Brice Allen, Ron Mann, Tom Jurich and the whole University of Louisville for all they have done for me,” he said. “My teammates are great, and we are all just like a family. These are the guys I’ll still know when I’m 40 because we spent so much time with each other training and going to school.”

That bond between his teammates was forged over hundreds of miles of running

on the streets of Louisville and in the parks around Kentucky and Indiana.

“You do have to be a little off to run 100 miles a week like we do,” Hughes said. “I mean, our sport is every other sport’s pun-ishment, so we have to keep a good sense of humor about it. We keep it light.”

Part of keeping it light is not taking yourself too seriously. Just before last year’s national championships, Hughes grew a shady-looking mustache that he sported throughout the competition. This year, the stache was back at the NCAA Champion-ships.

“I grew it last year and it worked, but I wasn’t going to grow it this year,” he said. “My roommate, Matt Bruce, said that I have to grow it again, and so I did. I think, for me, it just kind of takes the edge off a little bit. When you are going into a big race it is tough to look yourself in the mirror and take yourself too seriously when you are sporting a dirty mustache.”

The mustache may have turned off some of his competition who viewed him as be-ing brazen.

“Other people in my race or people who don’t know me think I’m cocky or arrogant, but that isn’t the case at all,” Hughes said. “You just have to be confi dent when you

step to the line that you can beat anyonein the race.”

And he did. The 2010 national titlist in the event entered the NCAA Champion-ships as the No. 1 seed with a season-besttime of 8:35.74. After winning his semifi -nal race on June 8, Hughes led from startto fi nish on June 10. He crossed the fi nishline in a personal-best and stadium-recordtime of 8:24.87, also shattering the schoolmark that he posted in winning last year’snational title by nearly 10 seconds.

This year, Hughes beat Princeton’s Donn Cabral by seven seconds while he celebrat-ed over the fi nal 100 meters. The rest of thefi eld was 11 or more seconds behind.

Hughes clearly has a bright future. He’s the only UofL athlete to win an NCAA out-door national championship, and he wontwo. His time this year would have placedhim sixth at the Beijing Olympics. He hasLondon squarely in his sights.

“I think a champion has to have confi -dence,” he said. “And confi dence comesfrom knowing that you put in the work, youput in the training, you put in the hours andyou are good enough to win.”

And will the “stache” make the trip to London? Time will have to tell.

HOWIE LINDSEYHOWIE LINDSEYLouisville senior Matt Hughes (1) won back-to-back NCAA titles in the 3,000m steeplechase. He’s ranked No. 1 in his native Canada in the event. - photo courtesy Cheryl Treworgy/Pretty Sporty

Page 6: June 24, 2011 Isssue

PAGE 6 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT JUNE 24, 2011

CARDINAL FOOTBALL

STRONG’S CARDS CHARGE INTO SUMMER WORKOUTSBy Howie LindseyBy all accounts, the University of Louisville

football team has more players on campus this summer than at any time in recent (or not so recent) memory. Dozens and dozens of players are on campus taking summer classes and working to stay in shape for next fall.

That is music to the ears of second-year coach Charlie Strong. After a surprisingly successful 7-6 season with a bowl win last year, Strong has another rebuilding job on his hands because the Cardinals lost 25 seniors. To get his team better prepared for the fall, Strong and his staff recommended summer coursework on campus to as many players as could make it. The players listened.

“Summer consists of a lot of running, a lot of weights,” junior quarterback Will Stein said. “We get a schedule together during the summer so we can run 7-on-7 drills with the receivers and the DBs. It helps us get our timing down between the quarterbacks and the receivers. It defi nitely helps. We can’t look too far into the future, we have to be thinking about now and getting our bodies ready.”

As excited as Strong is about the large number of players who stayed in town, he can’t be present at the actual off-season workouts due to NCAA rules. In fact, none of the position coaches can be present.

“We can’t touch our guys’ workouts in the summertime,” running backs coach Kenny Carter explained. “We can’t be there, so the MVP of our program all summer long is our strength and conditioning coach Pat Moorer. He’s on hand with the kids every day, making sure they are staying in shape, working hard and eating right.”

That’s where the leadership comes in. Last summer, senior quarterbacks Adam Froman and Justin Burke were helped along by a large group of senior offensive linemen. This summer the leaders likely will be seniors Vic Anderson, Josh Chichester, Dexter Heyman and Greg Scruggs and juniors Mario Bena-vides and Stein.

“As an upperclassman I feel like I have to take advantage of this opportunity to be a leader,” Stein said. “I want to make sure guys are doing the right thing because the coaches can’t be out there. I have to be a leader in these workouts, and so do (quarter-backs) Teddy (Bridgewater) and Dominique (Brown). We have to grasp the offense so well we can teach it to our teammates dur-ing these workouts. I am here to help them however I can.”

But just because the position coaches aren’t there doesn’t mean it’s an easier work-load.

“From what I am hearing from my team-mates, they are telling me that summer is a rude awakening,” said Bridgewater, who is a freshman. “The coaches are saying I am in for a rude awakening in the summer also. We just look for the best and hope for the best.”

Summer is also a time for players to get a head start on their studies. Many student-athletes, especially football players, stay in town during the summer and take as many classes as they can handle during summer workouts.

BILAL’S BIG SHOESPrior to last season, Strong and Carter told

anyone who would listen that they believed

Bilal Powell would be the star of the team. That prediction seemed a little far-fetched considering that Powell had a previous sea-son-best of 392 yards in his fi rst three sea-sons.

But spurred on by the expectations of his new coach and a new offense that show-cased his skills, Powell exploded for 1,405 yards his senior year. He emerged as one of the most-productive backs in school history and now is with the NFL’s New York Jets.

“I have seen a lot of great running backs during my days at Florida and elsewhere, and Bilal is as good as anyone,” Carter said.

With Powell gone, that leaves a big hole in Louisville’s offense for someone else to step into. The question is, will it be someone or a group of backs to take up where Powell left off?

“We’ve got a lot of talent returning in the backfi eld when you think of guys like Jeremy Wright, who you saw just a glimpse of in his one game against Rutgers, or Senorise Perry or Kamal Hogan,” Carter said. “And I believe Vic Anderson is preparing for a great senior season.”

At a recent Cardinal Caravan event, Carter was very positive about the talent returning for the Cardinals.

“I believe we have a couple guys in this backfi eld now that can be NFL running backs in the future, every bit as good as Bilal,” Carter said with a smile. But when pressed for names, he replied, “No names, I don’t want to put that on them. No names.”

Offensive coordinator Mike Sanford re-cently summarized the Cardinals’ backfi eld options on UofL’s football blog.

“At running back, you have to have two or three players,” Sanford said. “Basically, those two are a really good compliment to one another. Bilal was a big loss, but we do feel good about those two guys. We expect good things.”

The two front-runners appear to sopho-more Wright and rising senior Anderson.

“Jeremy Wright is recovering from an off-season injury in the spring,” Sanford said. “He isn’t completely recovered. He will be full speed this summer. Victor Anderson is the oldest and most experienced guy. We feel he had a very good spring. I’m excited to have the two of them.

“We are going to be young in the offen-sive line, but we expect really good things

from both players. Vic has been banged up his sophomore and junior years. He made it through spring practice. Ideally, we want to see him stay healthy. He runs hard. I think with a guy like him, there are some times when you can run over people, but some-times you need to try and make them miss.”

WOMEN’S CLINIC A HITMore than 500 women packed the new

PNC Club on the East side of Papa John’s Car-dinal Stadium earlier this month for the sec-ond annual Ladies Love Football Clinic host-ed by Coach Strong. This “no men allowed” program featured interviews and autographs with players, seminars from assistant coaches and a few outdoor drills for the women.

“It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be,” said Benavides, who was one of the players on a panel the women could ask questions of during the clinic. “Not all of their questions had anything to do with foot-ball, but it was fun to see another side of the fan base. It was great to see so many women so passionate about Louisville football.”

NUMBER NOTESUofL football is updating its summer roster

to include many of the newcomers and fresh-men for the 2011 season. The newest update includes most of the members of Louisville’s

2011 recruiting class, the highest-rated classin UofL history. Along with offi cial heightsand weights, the roster includes the players’numbers, including No. 5 Teddy Bridgewaterand No. 9 DeVante Parker.

- Charles Gaines fi lled the No. 3 jersey that was vacant on the offi cial roster last season.The jersey was last worn by Trent Guy, one ofthe top kick returners in school history. An-other wide receiver made the jersey famousas well, J.R. Russell in 2002-04. Both Guy andRussell made NFL rosters after UofL.

- Bridgewater is wearing No. 5, the same number he wore at Miami NorthwesternHigh. Bridgewater will take over the num-ber from last season’s leader of the defense,Brandon Heath. Also one of the top-rated re-cruits Louisville has ever pulled out of Florida,Heath was a four-star recruit coming out ofhigh school, just like Bridgewater. Prior toHeath, the number was worn by QB Bill Ash-burn and safety Antoine Sharp.

- QB Adam Froman most recently wore the No. 9 jersey that will now be on the shoul-ders of Parker. The top-rated recruit in Jef-ferson County for 2011, Parker wore No. 1 atBallard but will make the transition to No. 9because fellow receiver Josh Bellamy has theNo. 1 jersey this season. Joshua Tinch, one ofthe most-beloved receivers in Louisville his-tory for his toughness and basketball skills,wore the No. 9 recently. Former Cardinal andSuper Bowl MVP Deion Branch also wore No.9 for the Cardinals.

- Miami Southridge corner Andrew John-son will have big shoes to fi ll in the No. 15jersey because that was Powell’s jersey atLouisville. Local star Doug Beaumont woreNo. 27 for Louisville the last four years, butthe new No. 27 will be worn by Miami North-western cornerback Jermaine Reve.

- Louisville Fern Creek star Jalen Harrington will take jersey No. 42 this season. That jerseywas made most famous by former Pro BowlRB/FB Ernie Green. After gaining 1,500 yardsduring his years at Louisville, Green was thelead blocker for Jim Brown with the ClevelandBrowns and was a 1964 NFL champion andtwo-time Pro Bowler. No. 42 was worn lastseason by corner Bobby Burns. No. 42 alsowas worn by Tony Stallings, a former starterand Animal Planet’s King of the Jungle.

NEW PLAYERS FOR 2011NO NAME HT WT POS CL HOMETOWN (PREVIOUS SCHOOL) 3 Charles Gaines 5-11 176 CB FR Miami, Fla. (Central)5 Teddy Bridgewater 6-3 192 QB FR Miami, Fla. (Northwestern)9 DeVante Parker 6-3 196 WR FR Louisville, Ky. (Ballard)15 Andrew Johnson 5-9 174 CB FR Miami, Fla. (Southridge)19 Terrell Floyd 5-10 170 CB FR Port Pierce, Fla. (Port St. Lucie)19 Joe Castaneda 5-10 186 DB FR Covington, Ky. (Covington Catholic)21 Brandon Golson 6-2 223 LB FR St. Matthews, S.C. (Fork Union)25 Calvin Pryor 6-2 200 S FR Port St. Joe, Fla. (Port St. Joe)27 Jermaine Reve 6-0 180 S FR Miami, Fla. (Northwest)39 Chris Zelli 5-11 201 LB FR Jeffersonville, Ind. (Jeffersonville)42 Jalen Harrington 6-2 205 LB FR Fern Creek, Ky. (Fern Creek)45 John Wallace 6-0 180 P/K FR Cecilia, Ky. (Central Hardin)48 Deiontrez Mount 6-5 219 DE FR Fort Walton Beach, Fla. (Fort Walton Beach)65 Dylan Kupper 6-5 265 OL FR Louisville, Ky. (Trinity)70 John Miller 6-2 304 OL FR Miami, Fla. (Central)74 Ryan Mack 6-5 316 OL FR Memphis, Tenn. (Wooddale)76 Chase Petersen 6-4 291 OL FR Bentonville, Ark. (Bentonville)78 Aaron Epps 6-7 250 OT FR Tucker, Ga. (Tucker)83 Jerrell Moore 5-10 169 WR FR Louisville, Ky. (Fern Creek)90 B.J. Dubose 6-5 238 DE FR Oakland Park, Fla. (Northeast)94 Lorenzo Mauldin 6-4 225 DE FR Atlanta, Ga. (Maynard Jackson)96 Jamon Brown 6-6 327 DT FR Louisville, Ky. (Fern Creek)

Junior QB Will Stein said he’s looking forward to taking a leadership role in off-season workouts this summer. - photo by Dave Klotz

Page 7: June 24, 2011 Isssue

JUNE 24, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 7

LOUISVILLE FOOTBALL

BENAVIDES NO LONGER PLAYING THE PAIN GAME, EYES BIG YEARBy Russ BrownMario Benavides isn’t one to whine or

complain, so virtually no one outside of the University of Louisville football fam-ily -- and even some inside -- was aware that the tenacious Texas bruiser was play-ing in pain last season due to a damaged patella tendon in his right knee.

“I’ve just been dealing with it,” Be-navides said. “It was something we kept quiet about because I just didn’t think it was that big a deal. I thought it was all part of the game.”

Turns out, though, that the junior center who anchors UofL’s of-fensive line now thinks it was a big deal be-cause after surgery in February to repair the tendon, he feels like a new man. Or at least a man with a new knee.

And he’s looking for-ward to a pain-free sea-

son in which he can elevate his perfor-mance significantly.

The 6-4, 300-pound Benavides pro-nounced himself “100 percent” at the present time, although he is technically still in the recovery period because coach-es have limited him in what he can do.

For instance, Benavides wanted to run the steps at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium with his teammates during a conditioning drill last week but couldn’t get permis-sion to do so, much to his chagrin.

“They’re being real careful with me right now, trying to put me in a bubble, not letting me do too much in the way of changing direction, deep (weight) squats, things like that,” he said. “They just want me to be ready for the season. They told me, ‘We know what to expect from you. Just keep working hard, whatever we al-low you to do, do it to the fullest,’ and that’s what I’ve been trying to do. Person-ally, I feel pretty good.”

Benavides said the knee has bothered him throughout his UofL career, gradually becoming more troublesome. He believes the injury was simply the result of wear and tear on his knee over the years, ex-plaining that he has been lifting weights since he was 12 years old.

“They (the coaches and trainers) fi-nally said, ‘You’ve got to get surgery,’” Benavides said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, what-ever.’”

Despite the bad knee, Benavides missed only one game last season, sitting out the Cards’ trip to Arkansas State, where he was replaced by then-sophomore Alex Kupper.

“It was like a sharp pain any time I had any bend in my knee, any time I loaded the front of my knee,” Benavides said. “It was one of those things I was OK in a game once the adrenalin got going. You’re so into the game. But the warm-ups and the fourth quarter were kind of rough sometimes.

“It hurt a lot. I had to do a lot of things to minimize the pain. It was one of those things that lingered, and I know now that I’m feeling close to 100 percent it’s defi nite-ly going to help my performance because it was something I had to think about every play. Now that I don’t have to think about it, I can just focus on my job.

“I feel like my hip mobility, my flexibil-ity, the dexterity of my knee ... everything is a lot more fluid, everything isn’t so stiff. I just feel like an overall lot better athlete right now. We’ll wait and see when camp comes around, but it sure feels better at this point of the year than it did last.”

Benavides believes the main improve-ment this season will be in his run block-ing because the knee injury made it dif-ficult to plant his right foot, and he also had lost strength in his leg.

“I think it will make a big, big differ-ence this year, not to mention that I’m a year older,” he said. “It’s part of my job and my duty to become better each year.”

Senior defensive end Greg Scruggs said Benavides’ refusal to buckle under to the pain and continue playing and work-ing hard without complaining has been an inspiration.

“Mario is one of the toughest guys on the team, maybe the toughest,” Scruggs said. “Mario doesn’t want to sit out, Mario doesn’t want to do rehab. Mario wants to get surgery tomorrow and be back going on Monday. That’s just the way he is. I admire his toughness and his work ethic. Before ev-ery game I hug Mario and tell him I love him because he inspires me. Even though he’s younger than me, I strive to be like him on the fi eld. He didn’t want anybody to know about the pain, he just wanted to play, and those are the kind of people we need on our team.”

Benavides, a native of Los Fresno, Tex-as, said the injury affected his life off the field, too.

“Every-day things,” he said. “I couldn’t even drive because it hurt just to keep it bent like that. I had to put it in cruise control even in a 30 miles-per-hour zone. Now it feels great. Every day, I’m in the training room stretching it, icing, getting more flexible, taking the pressure off the joint.”

Benavides said he hopes to be ready to go full speed by mid- to late-July before the opening of fall camp on Aug. 4.

With Benavides the only returning reg-ular, offensive line is the only major ques-tion mark for UofL’s offense -- not only starters, but also backups, who will be young and untested. But Benavides said he’s been encouraged by what he’s seen so far.

“I think we look good,” he said. “It’s all about what the younger guys are will-ing to do. You can send them a mes-sage, teach them all you want, but so far they all seem to be willing to buy into the program. We’re taking it upon ourselves, some of the older guys, to teach them things and get them going so by the time they hit camp there’s no learning curve and Coach can do whatever he has to do with them.”

If the depth chart at the end of spring holds up, the four players joining Be-navides on the starting unit will be se-niors Hector Hernandez and Ryan Kes-sling, Kupper and redshirt freshman Jake Smith.

“But we have some new guys, too,” Benavides said. “So as far as I’m con-cerned, until the first game you really don’t know because it’s always, ‘What have you done for me lately?’ That’s the way I look at it.”

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October 7, 2011 – FridayDepart at 7 a.m., a la carte lunch in the Knoxville, Tn., area. Afternoon tour

included at the luxurious Biltmore Estates then a tour of the Winery at Anthers Village in the evening. The tour will stay at the Four Points Sheraton in downtown

Asheville, N.C., a luxury hotel in the heart of the city.

October 8, 2011 - Saturday (Game Day)After a la carte breakfast (a la carte), we’ll depart for Chapel Hill at 8 a.m. and ar-rive at UNC before noon. The busses will take fans to Franklin Street for easy lunch access and shopping before the game. The busses will pick up fans at the stadium and the tour includes Saturday’s night’s hotel stay at the Hampton in Chapel Hill.

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dinner stops en route. Tour arrives back in Louisville by 8 p.m. Sunday night.

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Professionally guided tour with Howie Lindsey of the Louisville SportsReport

Page 8: June 24, 2011 Isssue

PAGE 8 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT JUNE 24, 2011

WOMEN’S BASKETBALLLOUSIVILLE BASKETBALLCOMMENTARY BY JACK COFFEE [email protected]

Here’s a question that has been debated in academic circles for as long as I can remem-ber, and my guess is that it will be around for as long as there are colleges and universities: “Are athletics good for colleges and universities or does the cost far outweigh the positives for most schools?”

Occasionally, the issue will be brought up by faculty or even a trustee as to whether the school should be in the business of big-time athletics. Thankfully, that question has been

put to rest locally, but it has not been so long ago (1970s) that leaders at the University of Louisville were contemplating the dissolution of the school’s football program.

What is the truth about the cost of intercollegiate sports to the uni-versity, and would the school be better off both fi nancially and academi-cally without the distraction of sporting events and an athletic budget in excess of $50 million (low compared to some schools)? In the case of UofL, the answer is a resounding, No!

The contributions of athletics to the university are in my opinion too massive to even be calculated. If that sounds like foolishness from an admitted sports junkie, let me share some of the facts about the program run by Vice-President for Athlet-ics Tom Jurich. (The university administration must get it because they made the AD a VP.)

For a full scholarship, the athletic department pays the total cost of the stu-dent-athlete’s enrollment to the university, including tuition, room and board and books. A full-time non-resident student pays $10,825 per semester in tuition alone, and an in-state full-timer pays $4,465. These costs do not include room and board and books. For the nearly 300 scholarships awarded (the maximum allowed by the NCAA) to athletes of both sexes, as well as stipends to graduate assistants and others, the athletic depart-ment will pay the university almost $11 million for the upcoming school year. Many of these scholarships are partial, especially in the Olympic sports, but the total will add up to 294.1.

More than 700 student-athletes at UofL participate in sports but receive no reimbursement from the athletic department. Some team members receive academic or need-based scholarships, but the majority pay their own way and play for the love of the game. That means that athletics attracts more than 1,000 students to the university, all paying the full tuition personally or reimbursed by the athletic department. Each athlete not receiving fi nancial aid is paying either the out-of-state tuition of $10,825 per semester or the in-state of $4,465. Based on the hometown listed by each player, the university is receiving in the neighborhood of $10 million per semester in tuition payments alone from students participating in athletics.

Athletes generally live on or near campus and give the Belknap Campus a feel of a big-time university. One of the goals of the UofL administration has been to attract students to campus to live and create a university community around the school. Athletics has been a major contributor to that concept, bringing hundreds of students on campus to live, eat, study and socialize on campus or near the school.

Athletics give the school tremendous national exposure and raise the status of the school in the eyes of the general public, especially when the school is winning.UofL has been in the national spotlight in recent years due to winning football, basket-ball, baseball, soccer, volleyball and many other sports. Winning at the highest level gives people a positive impression of the school and helps to interest young people in attending UofL.

Athletics attract thousands of fans to watch events who otherwise would have no reason or opportunity to visit the school. Good teams and excellent facilities have enticed fans to visit the campus and build a connection with the university. Many of these people would have no purpose or interest to become involved with UofL without athletics and the attraction of winning teams.

Athletics bring national media to Louisville and gives the community an oppor-tunity to sell the city to the nation. National television media has been to Louisville to broadcast UofL football, baseball, basketball, soccer and softball. These games have given the school and community an opportunity to showcase the city and the campus in a posi-tive manner.

You be the judge. Do athletics benefi t the University of Louisville?

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Louisville president James Ramsey and Vice President for Athletics Tom Jurich are fond of calling

UofL’s athletic facilities next to Interstate 65 “the University’s front yard.” - photo by UofLSports.com

Page 9: June 24, 2011 Isssue

JUNE 24, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 9

MEN’S BASKETBALL

PITINO ADDS TWO, SORTS OUT NUMBERS CRUNCHBy Howie LindseyEarlier this month, University of Louisville

basketball coach Rick Pitino announced the addition of two new players: Luke Hancock, a 6-foot-5 sophomore transfer from George Mason, and high school recruit Kevin Ware, a 6-4 combo guard from Convers, Ga.

There was just one problem with adding the two new recruits -- where to put them? UofL ended the season with 12 scholarship players with eligibility remaining. Then the Cardinals added a top-10 recruiting class that includes fi ve fi rst-year freshmen, and the ad-dition of Hancock makes for a total of six new players, even though Hancock won’t be eli-gible until 2012-13.

So how does 18 fi t into the NCAA-pre-scribed scholarship limit of 13?

First, junior Terrence Jennings opted for the NBA. The 6-10, 230-pound Jennings was ath-letically ready for the leap, but most were sur-prised that he felt his post game was ready.

Second, senior George Goode, who had a year of eligibility left but was not going to play at Louisville next season, transferred to Missouri. That brought the number down to 16.

Then to get down to 13, Pitino put re-turning starters Kyle Kuric and Chris Smith and freshman reserve Elisha Justice on non-scholarship status earlier this month. Pitino explained his reasoning.

“When Kyle fi rst came here, he wasn’t supposed to be on scholarship and he was put on scholarship,” Pitino said. “When Bul-let (Elisha Justice) was coming here he wasn’t supposed to be on scholarship, he was put on scholarship. Chris Smith was not supposed to be on scholarship, he was put on schol-arship. I told the Kuric family at some point in time throughout his career I might need it for a year, and I’ve never had to do that until now. So we’ve been very up front with everybody.”

Pitino bristled at the notion that being taken off scholarship should be seen as an affront to Kuric, Smith and Justice. Scholar-ships, yearly renewable contracts according to the NCAA, weren’t taken from the three.

“As a matter of fact, it’s just the opposite,” Pitino said. “Those guys weren’t supposed to be on scholarship, but they were. And Kyle has more than not only exceeded but de-served the scholarship he’s been on.

“You know, look. We would not even consider asking unless (Kuric’s) family could afford it. His father’s a brain surgeon. That wouldn’t even be a factor. We wouldn’t even consider it.”

In Smith’s case, his brother, J.R., an NBA player who trains with Louisville in the off-season, signed a three-year deal in 2008 worth a guaranteed $16.5 million. In the case of Justice, he was put on scholarship last sea-son because of unexpected academic troubles with recruit Justin Coleman, a highly ranked small forward who never qualifi ed, then en-rolled at Marshall last fall.

So with the three returning players going to non-scholarship status, Louisville’s offi cial scholarship count is back down to 13. But the roster will stay at 18, with walk-ons Mark Jackson Jr. and Tim Henderson also return-ing.

That roster has Pitino excited about the team’s potential. So excited that he added some meat to the schedule with a series with Memphis. The Cardinals also are working out when to schedule games with UNLV and But-ler.

“We’ve made our schedule like we did two years ago,” Pitino said. “We’ve made our schedule to fi t the team we are going to have. We had a tougher schedule two years ago with T-Will and Earl, and we hope to have that kind of team again.”

The schedule hasn’t been released yet, but Pitino noted that three highly ranked oppo-nents already have been announced.

“We are playing at least three teams that will be rated in the preseason top 10 - Van-derbilt, Kentucky and Memphis,” he said.

The Cardinals have been rated among the

nation’s top 15 in most preseason polls. That’s because the team returns three starters, most of its scoring from last season, and added a strong recruiting class.

Ware became the fi fth high school mem-ber of the Cardinals’ 2011 recruiting class, which is ranked among the nation’s top 10 by Rivals.com. He joined Chane Behanan, a 6-7, 250-pound forward from Bowling Green (Ky.) High School; Wayne Blackshear, a 6-5, 205-pound guard from Morgan Park H. S. in Chicago; Angel Nunez, a 6-7, 190-pound for-ward from Bronx, N.Y., who played last sea-son at Notre Dame Prep in Fitchburg, Mass.; and Zach Price, a 6-10, 230-pound center from Jeffersontown H. S. in Louisville.

Ware, a 2011 Kentucky Derby Festival All-American, averaged 13.2 points and 4.1 as-sists and helped Rockdale County H. S. post a 26-6 record and fi nish as the Georgia 4-A runner-up. A fi rst-team all-state selection, he is rated by Rivals.com as the No. 70 overall prospect in the class of 2011 and No. 94 in the ESPNU Top 100.

“Kevin is someone who can play three po-sitions,” Pitino said. “He gives us great length and height at the point spot. He’ll be out-standing with our full-court press and great with our offensive transition game. We’re very excited to have him as a part of our pro-gram.”

His road to committing to Louisville was a bumpy one. He signed with Tennessee last fall before the Bruce Pearl fi ring and was a hot commodity earlier this spring when he got his release from the Volunteers. After consider-ing home-state Georgia, Louisville and UCF, Ware picked UCF in April.

Some Louisville fans soured on Ware after he committed to UCF earlier in the week and was erratic with the ball during the Kentucky Derby Festival Classic game. Despite saying on Wednesday of that week that he was still undecided, he confi rmed seconds after the game that he was fi rmly committed to UCF.

Then, weeks later, Ware decommitted from UCF just a day before the New York Times and ESPN published stories linking

Ware’s recruitment to UCF to convicted felonKen Caldwell of Chicago. The stories, whichpainted Caldwell as a runner for an agentand a tool for UCF, appeared to have causedWare to back out of his commitment to theKnights.

With all of that back story, is Pitino com-fortable with Ware picking Louisville? Abso-lutely.

“I wanted to hear it fi rst directly from the family what went on,” Pitino said. “They toldme everything. We got that out on the table.I am very, very comfortable with it. He is a ter-rifi c young man, and he comes from a greatprogram. He’s the type of player that fi ts verywell into our program.”

WARE LIKE RONDO?Pitino has described the recruitment of

Rajon Rondo one of his biggest regrets atLouisville. Rondo, a local prep star at Lou-isville Eastern H. S. who transferred to OakHill Academy for his senior season, wantedto come to UofL, but the Cardinals had acommitment from New York City phenomSebastian Telfair. Later that spring, when Tel-fair opted for the NBA Draft, Louisville wasleft out in the cold when Rondo signed withKentucky. He’s now a star point guard withthe Boston Celtics.

In Ware, Pitino says he sees some of the same things that make Rondo such a greatplayer.

“Kevin is someone who athletically I loved this past summer, but he’d already commit-ted to Tennessee,” Pitino said. “When Kevinwas coming up here on a visit we spoke to abunch of people about him, including BrucePearl, and Bruce said Kevin reminds him ofRondo athletically. That is about as good asit gets.”

HANCOCK IS SPECIALHancock announced his transfer intentions

in mid-May, but the school did not formallyannounce his signing of scholarship paper-work until June 7.

“Luke is exactly the type of player that we need for our basketball team,” Pitino said.“He’s a young man who understands how toplay the game. He’s a true triple-threat player-- he can catch, pass and shoot well -- andhe really has a great basketball IQ. If it comesdown to someone needing to make the pass,make the shot or go to the foul line, you wanthim doing all three in crucial situations.”

Hancock transferred to Louisville to join his former prep coach Kevin Keatts, who previ-ously was the coach at Hargrave MilitaryAcademy. The Roanoke, Va., native averaged10.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and a team-high4.3 assists as a sophomore last season whilehelping George Mason to a 27-7 record andthe second round of the NCAA Tournament,knocking off Villanova in Round 1.

“I was speaking to Jay Wright about Luke because he had to prepare for him,” Pitinosaid. “Well, as a matter of fact, Luke madethe shot to beat Villanova. Jay Wright thoughtwe were really getting a special ballplayer. Ev-erybody I speak to says he’s a really specialballplayer. And the fact that he can sit out ayear is only going to help him.”

Hancock will have to sit out the 2011-12 season but can practice with the Cards. Hewill have two seasons of eligibility remainingstarting in 2012.

Louisville coach Rick Pitino will have a roster that includes 18 players next season, fi ve of whom will be non-scholarship

players. That list includes Chris Smith (5) and Kyle Kuric (15) , starters last season. - photo by UofLSports.com

LOUISVILLE’S 2011-12 ROSTER

GUARDS:Peyton Siva (5-11, 180, Jr., Seattle)*

Russ Smith (6-0, 160, So., Briarwood, NY)*Elisha Justice (5-10, 180, So., Pikeville, Ky.)

Mark Jackson Jr. (6-3, 230, r-Fr., Brooklyn, Calif.)Tim Henderson (6-2, 180, So., Louisville)

Wayne Blackshear (6-5, 210, Fr., Chicago)*Kevin Ware (6-4, 170, Fr., Conyers, Ga.)*

FORWARDS:Kyle Kuric (6-4, 195, Sr., Evansville, Ind.)Chris Smith (6-2, 200, Sr. Millstone, NJ)

Luke Hancock (6-5, 200, Jr., George Mason)*Mike Marra (6-4, 200, Jr., Smithfi eld, RI)*

Angel Nunez (6-7, 180, Fr., Fitchburg, Mass.)*POWER FOWARDS:

Jared Swopshire (6-8, 210, Sr., St. Louis)*Rakeem Buckles (6-8, 205, Jr., Miami)*

Chane Behanan (6-6, 250, Fr., Bowling Green, Ky.)*CENTERS:

Stephan Van Treese (6-9, 200, Jr., Indianapolis)*Gorgui Dieng (6-10, 215, So., Dakar, Senegal)*

Zach Price (6-11, 240, Fr., Louisville)** - denotes scholarship player

Page 10: June 24, 2011 Isssue

PAGE 10 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT JUNE 24, 2011

LOUISVILLE SOFTBALL

We had a lot of fun during the fi rst three stops on this year’s Cardinal Caravan. The stops in Elizabethtown, Shelbyville and on the Indiana riverfront in Jeffersonville were met with enthusiastic crowds and a lot of autograph seekers. The annual events give fans a chance to meet and

interact with coaches and student-athletes in their favorite sports as well as a chance to meet other like-minded folks in their community. The Central Kentucky event drew several hundred people to the 3-Putt Willie’s Restaurant in Elizabethtown. The Shelbyville event drew the largest of the three gatherings, with a standing-room only crowd packing the Floral Hall at the Shelby County Fairgrounds. That crowd was treated to an introduction of Rick Pitino’s new three-man coaching staff -- Kevin Keatts, Wyking Jones and Richard Pitino -- before the trio embarked on the recruiting trail. The fi nal stop in June was last Thursday night at Buckhead Mountain Grill in Jeffersonville. Again, several hundred fans wore their Cardinal red and cheered along with the 10-time national champion Ladybirds and the Cardinal Pride Pep Band. Thanks to all who attended. The next stop will be at Captain’s Quarters Restaurant in the east end of Louisville in August (date to be announced later).

It’s GOOD to know that UofL athletic director Tom Jurich is not interested in the job at Tennessee vacated by Mike Hamilton. We’re not sure that Hamilton’s fi nal few years could have gone much worse (save women’s basketball). Men’s basketball ended the season in complete

turmoil and in NCAA hot water, and coach Bruce Pearl was forced out. The football program is still trying to recover from the mess that Lane Kiffi n left after staying just one season. And baseball is looking for a new coach after a tough season. Hamilton might be a brilliant guy, but he’ll be known for a being one of the most controversial athletic directors in recent memory. In all, Hamilton’s fi rings over the last four years came to a total cost of more than $9 million. Women’s sports AD Joan Cronan was named interim AD for the time being, but Hamilton will cash checks totaling $1.335 million over the next three years. That’s one fi nal slap to a program facing NCAA investigations in both football and basketball.

Wow, what a mess at Ohio State. Since our last Louisville SportsReport issue the situation involving free cars and tattoos for football players at Ohio State has gone from rumor to full-fl edged scandal. Jim Tressel, one of the most successful coaches in college football, resigned earlier this

month. At least fi ve players will be suspended for at least fi ve games this fall, and star quarterback Terrell Pryor has quit school and turned professional after investigators discovered he’d been driving loaned cars from local dealerships on a suspended license. OSU offi cials are scheduled to meet with the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions on Aug. 12, and it won’t be pretty. Sports Illustrated, ESPN, The New York Times, the Columbus Dispatch and the Cleveland Plain Dealer all have had quotes from former players saying that the hook-ups on tattoos, cash payments for memorabilia and car deals were rampant over the past 10 years.

The situation gets uglier the more you look at it. According to a report fi led Sunday by News Channel 10 in Columbus, the Ohio State Compliance Director has a car on loan to him from a local car dealership, much in the same way the players are accused of taking advantage of their positions

with Ohio State to gain access to free cars. Compliance Director Doug Archie’s car comes from Miracle Motor Mart, a small dealership owned by 1980s-era Ohio State player Mike D’Andrea, who owns the lot and said he sometimes employs student athletes during the summer. In exchange for the cars, D’Andrea said he received a pair of season tickets to Ohio State football games.

The situation at USC is just as bad. Southern California recently lost an appeal to the NCAA, which imposed a two-year bowl ban and the loss of 30 scholarships over three years for violations. Athletic director Mike Garrett lost his job because of the infractions, Reggie Bush returned his

Heisman trophy, the school’s 2004 national title in football was vacated, and football coach Pete Carroll resigned in early 2010 to become the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. USC’s current coach, Lane Kiffi n, will appear in front of the NCAA Committee on Infractions in Indianapolis over allegations during his one season at Tennessee, and there is a lot of buzz that Kiffi n’s fi rst season at USC has been fi lled with similar issues that could come to light. Kiffi n could face a range of sanctions, including a suspension from games or a “show-cause” penalty, which would prevent him from recruiting. Former USC assistant coach Todd McNair was banned from recruiting for one year for his role in the Bush case.

Back to UofL and good news. Former University of Louisville men’s golfer Adam Hadwin made the cut in the 111th United States Open last weekend at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md.,

with a 75-71 in the first two rounds of golf’s toughest championship. The 23-year-old Abbotsford, B.C., native capped his U.S. Open Sunday with a great 40-foot putt on the 18th hole. Hadwin told The Toronto Sun: “I just needed to get it going over the ridge and it was going to take it down to the hole. The best part was it looked good the whole way, too. It got up over that ridge and it started feeding a little right.” Hadwin’s final putt ran over a ridge and into the cup, bringing the fans in the gallery to their feet. He shot a 3-under-par 68 in the final round to finish as top Canadian at 3-over 284 for the tournament. The former UofL All-American netted just over $40,000 for the tournament and finished four strokes ahead of crowd favorite Phil Mickelson and two strokes up on world No. 1 Luke Donald.

We just saw UofL’s newly released volleyball schedule, and it looks like a winner. New coach Anne Kordes, a Louisville native and UofL grad, will have the Cardinals ready for a run at a sixth straight Big East championship. The Cardinals will face 10 NCAA

Tournament teams from a year ago and three teams ranked in the 2010 top 25. Our favorite part of the schedule? UofL will play six crucial matches in the KFC Yum! Center downtown. “We are extremely excited to be playing in the new arena downtown,” Kordes said. “One of the amazing things our fans provide for us is a great home court advantage by selling out Cardinal Arena time after time. Hopefully, we can expand our amazing fan base by packing the Yum. There is no other team in the country which gets to play in a more gorgeous state-of-the-art arena than we do. It is a privilege for us to have a place like that to call home.” The Yum! Center matches will be against St. John’s on Sept. 23, UConn on Sept. 25, Pittsburgh on Oct. 23, Tennessee on Nov. 2, Syracuse on Nov. 5 and Marquette on Nov. 6.

We like the idea of moving some big games downtown and, if we hear correctly, the Cardinals plan to play more and more of their games downtown as time goes along. The goal is to build Louisville’s season-ticket base to the point where volleyball can play its entire

2012 schedule in the Yum! Center before the University and the city of Louisville hosts the 2012 NCAA Final Four at the arena. That event figures to pack the downtown basketball palace with thousands of volleyball fans, coaches and administrators. Louisville has always been a strong volleyball city, and we can’t think of a better way to show it than to see the Yum! Center become a national center for volleyball. Wouldn’t it be awesome if Louisville was in that Final Four? Kordes has that as a goal. “The most important thing about a schedule is to put a plan in place that will push us toward our goal of a national championship,” she said. “(This year’s) schedule factors in matches against nationally competitive programs.... This gives us the opportunity to prepare and be battle-tested going into the Big East slate that will be very competitive this year.”

We didn’t like hearing that phenomenal cross country coach Brice Allen left the program to join his family’s business back in Pennsylvania. He helped head coach Ron Mann build Louisville’s program into a nationally respected distance group, and he

coached steeplechaser Matt Hughes to two national titles. As bad as it is to lose Allen, Mann hired a fast-rising star in Joe Walker from Alabama. “We’re excited to have a coach of the caliber of Joe Walker come to Louisville with his experience in the SEC,” Mann said. “He has an extensive background, with a coaching family. He’s actually Joe Walker III. Joe Walker II is the head coach at Ole Miss. They’re a very accomplished family in the area of track and field, so we’re excited to add him to our staff, and we’re excited about the capabilities he brings for the future of this program.” Walker III comes to Louisville after spending the past 11 seasons at Alabama, where he served as the head men’s cross country coach and an assistant for the men’s track and field team. He guided his athletes to seven national titles and 23 Southeastern Conference titles, and the Crimson Tide posted four-straight top-15 finishes at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, including sixth in 2007, 10th in 2008 and third in 2009.

It was GOOD to hear what new Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson had to say about Rick Pitino last week. On the popular ESPN show Pardon the Interruption, Jackson was asked whether he was concerned about being named a coach for the very first time, with

not even any previous experience as an assistant coach. Jackson said he wasn’t concerned, that he had played under several outstanding coaches in college and in a long NBA career and had learned a lot from them. He then singled out Pitino as “the best coach I ever played for.” Jackson played under Pitino with the New York Knicks from 1987-89 during a 17-year NBA career. He ranks second all-time with 10,334 assists. His son, Mark Jr., is a redshirt freshman guard at UofL.

BAD

GOOD

GOOD

BAD

C O M M E N T A R Y B Y H O W I E L I N D S E Y

TWEET OF THE WEEK@KenLolla Happy Father’s Day to all dads. No better way to spend it than with my family celebrating my father and his positive impact on our family.

SIMPLY SILLYUK was forced to issue a correction last week after the NCAA Committee on Infractions scolded them for celebrating John Calipari’s 500th win when, in fact, Calipari had 42 wins vacated due to NCAA infractions at UMass and Memphis. The NCAA said Kentucky’s handling of the celebration was “very troubling.”

UGLY

GOOD

UGLY

GOOD

GOOD

GOOD

Page 11: June 24, 2011 Isssue

JUNE 24, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 11

CARDINAL CARAVAN PHOTO GALLERY: PHOTOS BY GARY BAKER

UofL student-athletes including Antonita Slaughter (left) and

Jared Swopshire (second from left) signed autographs for

fans at the Elizabethtown, Ky., Cardinal Caravan.

Louisville Central Cardinal Club photographer Gary Baker posed for a picture with members of Louisville’s 10-time national champion LadyBird Dance Team.

ARE YOU READY TO

GO DIGITAL?Technologically advanced Cardinal fans have been logging on to The Louisville SportsReport’s offi cial web site, CardinalSports.com,

for years. Now, Cardinal fans can get their actual Louisville SportsReport magazine digitally as well.

If you have an iPad, iPod, Android tablet or Android phone, you can access The Louisville SportsReport online and have it delivered wirelessly to your device each time a new issue is published.

WHY GO DIGITAL?Faster access to your magazine: Each time we publish, you will

be notifi ed and your device will download it immediatelyNo more post-offi ce headaches: You won’t have to wait for the

postal carrier to fi nd your mailbox each weekIt’s cheaper! You can save postal cost by going digital

Out of towners? Don’t pay for fi rst class mailing (which can be over $53 in stamps alone), go digital

Save a few trees: Want to go paperless? We can do that.Easy access to back issues: Miss a magazine or want to glance

back in time? We’ve got you covered.Email [email protected]

for download instructions

The Louisville SportsReport’s Howie Lindsey was emcee for this year’s Cardinal Caravan. He was joined by two members of the Louisville women’s basketball team, Antonita Slaughter and Cierra Robertson-Warren.

Volunteer members of the Central Cardinal Club helped hand out door prize tickets and sell raffl e chances at the Elizabethtown, Ky., Cardinal Caravan.

Page 12: June 24, 2011 Isssue

PAGE 12 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT JUNE 24, 2011

LOUISVILLE FAN PHOTO GALLERY

UofL fans gathered at the home of Bill Darragh for this photo. Pictured

L. to R. are Bill Turnball, Mickey Morgan, Tom Armstrong, Jerry Kelsey,

Jim Heins, Bill Darragh, Jim Morgan, Sam Morgan and John Varoscak.

Bill Darragh and Al Parrish posed for a quick picture at a recent Southwest Florida Alumni Club event.

A game-watching gathering at Bokamper’s

Restaurant found UofL fans Fran Acmovic, Vince Tyra and Dr. Jim and Joan Heins enjoying the game.

CARDINAL TIME CAPSULE: 1947

Newspaper clipping submitted by Matt Willinger

Page 13: June 24, 2011 Isssue

JUNE 24, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 13

CARDINAL CARAVAN PHOTO GALLERY

Louisville fans MaryLou Lawken and Betty Zipperle were among the hundreds of Louisville fans at the Cardinal Caravan in Shelybville, Ky.

The Floral Hall at the Shelbyville Fairgrounds was packed with Louisville fans to hear from Tom

Jurich, Rick Pitino and other coaches and athletes.

Louisville Vice President Tom Jurich (left) and men’s golf coach Mark

Crabtree (third from left) posed for a picture with Doyle and Dana Mayton at

the Shelbyville, Ky., stop on the Cardinal Caravan. - all photos by Jack Coffee

Louisville fans Mike and Shanna Rucker with their

children Reece and Rhett were

spotted at the Cardinal Caravan

earlier this month.

DO YOUKNOW A

CARDINALKID?

SUBMIT A PICTURE OF YOUR CARDINAL KID BY SENDING AN

EMAIL TO:

[email protected] McGinnis, a 10-year old fan, loves going to football games with

parents Jeff and Kathy McGinnis.

Young Cardinal fan Justin Cobbs-Bacon liked his No. 3 UofL jersey.

Page 14: June 24, 2011 Isssue

PAGE 14 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT JUNE 24, 2011

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

By Russ BrownAnyone who has ever dealt with cameras,

reporters and video editors for a documen-tary or news report can tell you, it can be a risky proposition. When the fi nished prod-uct is ready for public viewing, it sometimes looks like nothing the subjects of the fi lm would recognize, or it creates a misleading perception.

But University of Lou-isville women’s basketball player Shoni Schimmel and her family had no such complaints about a recent documentary fi lm that aired on TLC entitled “Off the Rez.” Instead, they felt that the fi lm, which was two years in

the making, was an accurate portrayal and created a positive impression for its audi-ence.

It was a fascinating and engrossing documentary of Schimmel, her fam-ily, friends and fellow Native Ameri-cans. Schimmel was the focus of the fi lm, chronicling her determi-nation to overcome the culture of failure and poverty that permeates the lives of many on the Umatilla Indian reservation 200 miles east of Portland, Ore., and on many other reservations throughout the West.

But it was more than a basketball story, which is why Schimmel is proud that she and her fam-ily -- seven siblings and their parents -- allowed producer Jonathan Hock into their lives for two years while he fi lmed al-most 400 hours.

It is the story of a family that dealt with a teenage pregnancy, her father’s loss of a job and the threatened foreclosure on their home -- none of which was any match for the Schimmel family’s deter-mination, love, pride and work ethic.

Schimmel, her family and a group of friends were fl own to New York City in late April to watch the debut of the documen-tary and went away grateful and im-pressed.

“We were excited,” Shoni said. “We didn’t know what to expect because he (Hock) fi lmed a good two years. It was so cool to see what he did with it, how he put it all together. Little Native American kids being fi lmed, that doesn’t happen on a day-to-day basis.

“I think the fi lm showed that we’re an ordinary family, human beings like every-body else. Everyone has diffi culties in life, and it’s how you deal with them that mat-ters. What I wanted everybody to see is that we’re just normal people, and I think the documentary conveyed that.

“We loved the way it turned out. It was awesome, mainly because it wasn’t just about basketball, which is probably what most people thought it would be. It was more like (about) the whole family realizing dreams and stuff. It was about everything in life.”

Shoni’s father, Rick Schimmel -- who is not Native American -- was an all-state football and baseball player recruited to Stanford. He returned to Pendleton, Ore., in March of his freshman season because Shoni’s mother, Cecilee Moses, was preg-

nant at 15 with their fi rst child.Shoni left the reservation af-ter her sophomore year and

played her fi nal two high school seasons at Franklin High in Portland, where she was coached by her mom.

Both her parents were ve ry

open with Hock during the fi lming, but Shoni said that having cameras around all the time naturally took an adjustment pe-riod.

“To be honest, it was diffi cult the fi rst couple of months,” she said. “We weren’t used to having people in our lives. But we warmed up to it, became more open and enjoyed it a lot. It was good to show a big-ger picture (than basketball).”

Hock said he enjoyed the experience too.

“No. 1, we were hoping to convey the story of a family that through its love for each other was going to venture into the unknown together,” Hock told Courier-Journal columnist Rick Bozich. “We were going to see what was going to happen. Succeed or fail, it was going to be their love that carried them through.

“The other thing I really hope people take away from this is what I learned dur-ing the fi lming: how great the obstacles are for Native American kids. With all the great pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstrap Ameri-can stories, these people have really been excluded from that, forcibly, to the point where it became a self-fulfi lling prophecy on the reservation. Shoni’s ongoing strug-gle to break that history, to break that cycle of despair and failure, is really heroic.”

When it came time to select a college to continue her basketball career, her

parents encouraged her to go to Louisville to play for coach

Jeff Walz despite

its be-ing 2,000 miles from home, rather than attend-ing Oregon, Oregon State or an-other Pac-10 school.

“My mom wanted me to get out and see the world because she never had a chance to,” Shoni said. “She said,

‘Go out there, do the best you can do and succeed in life.’ It’s an awesome opportunity, and not many people get an opportunity like this. I liked the community, and the coaches were awesome. Everything just kind of came together.”

It continued coming together when the 2010-2011 basketball season started. Shoni’s skills and exciting style of play were an immediate hit both with her

teammates and fans, and she wound up second on the

Lady Cards in scoring at 15.1 points pergame. She led the team and ranked secondin the Big East in assists with 4.9 per gameand was a unanimous selection to the BigEast All-Freshman squad.

She was among 35 of the nation’s top 19-and-under players who were invited tothe USA Women’s U19 World Champion-ship Team Trials in Colorado Springs, Colo.,earlier this spring, but she couldn’t attenddue to a knee problem.

“I’m defi nitely pleased with it,” Shoni said of her rookie season. “My teammatesare just like my other family. I like the wayit’s turned out.”

In at least one way, it could be even bet-ter next season because her sister, 5-5 guardJude Schimmel, has joined her at UofL.

“We’ve played together since she was in the third grade and I was in fi fth grade, soit’s exciting to have her here,” Shoni said.“We’ve been pretty close. I wouldn’t say Iencouraged her to come to Louisville, I justtold her it would be an awesome thing. ButI told her to make the decision that wasbest for her and right for her, and I thinkthat’s what she did.”

As a senior, Jude averaged 28.4 points, 9.4 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 7.3 steals pergame while earning Class 5A fi rst-team all-state honors.

“Jude will have the opportunity to impact our game with her athleticism and ability toscore off the bounce,” Walz said at the time

of her signing. “She is as hard a worker as I have seen

in some time and willno doubt be on the

fi nishing end of precision plays with her sister.”

After her trip to New York, Shoni returned

to Portland and stayed for about a

month before returning to Louisville to work out with

the Cards in preparation for their upcomingexhibition trip to Canada Aug. 4-15. She’llbe here for about two more weeks, thenreturn to Oregon before meeting the teamin Vancouver, British Columbia.

While back home in Portland, Shoni says much of her free time is spent playing bas-ketball with her brothers and sisters, whorange in age from 2 to 22, and friends.

“Being gone, I haven’t seen them much, so it’s pretty cool to get the privilege,” shesaid. “It’s fun to play with them and watchthem grow.”

C A R D S ’ G U A R D P R O U D O F F I L M ’ S S P O T L I G H T O N M O R E T H A N H O O P S

‘OFF THE REZ’ A PLEASURE FOR SHONI, SCHIMMEL FAMILY

RUSS BROWNRUSS BROWN

Page 15: June 24, 2011 Isssue

JUNE 24, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 15

BIG EAST NOTEBOOKRECRUITING NOTEBOOK

STRONG HOSTING FOOTBALL CAMPERS; NEW COMMITMENTBy Jeff WaffordIt’s been a productive couple of weeks for

University of Louisville football coach Char-lie Strong, as he and his coaching staff have hosted several big groups of high school prospects on campus during their annual football camps. In addition to hosting the camps, the Cardinals also picked up a sixth and seventh known verbal commitments for the class of 2012.

Cincinnati Elder offensive lineman T.C. Klusman camped at Louisville on June 11 and committed one day later. The 6-foot-4, 270-pound prospect has been to sev-eral camps this summer, but none of them struck him like his time in Louisville.

Klusman had offers from Louisville, Pitts-burgh, NC State and others, but liked what he saw at Louisville so much that he made his college pick.

“I’m solid with Lou-isville,” he said. He also noted that he was done with summer camps and

likely wouldn’t be taking other college vis-its.

One of the top linemen in the Queen City, playing for one of the state’s top programs, Klusman is a prize for the Cardinals. He’d been in frequent contact with Louisville of-fensive line coach Dave Borbely.

“I’d been talking to Coach Borbely, my offensive line coach, and Coach (Shawn) Watson as well,” Klusman said. “And then Saturday (at camp), most of the time I was meeting with Coach Strong.”

So what did he think of the Cardinals’ second-year head coach?

“I really like the program, and the coach-es,” Klusman said. “We talked about it as a family, and I believe the coaches at Louisville can push me and make me into the best player I can be. I liked what I saw on the visit and had a good relationship with the coaches, especially Coach Borbely, the of-fensive line coach.”

Klusman said there were a variety of rea-sons he decided on Louisville.

“I like the program, and I like that I am an hour and a half away,” Klusman said. “That means my family can come see me play all of my games. I can also go home when I need to, but it isn’t so close that I would be going home at a whim.

“Plus, being in the Big East, there are some easy road trips. If I had committed to the ACC, the closest trip is about 7 or 8 hours away, and others are longer. I also liked the academic advisors. I want to major in something related to medicine, either bi-ology or bio-chemistry - and I know in a city school there will be a lot of hospitals right there in town for internships.”

Just a week later, Strong and company landed their seventh commitment when Kevin Houchins (5-11, 175), a defensive back from Brush H.S. (Ohio), gave a verbal pledge to Strong last Monday, choosing UofL over Akron, Central Michigan, Cincin-nati, Eastern Michigan, Miami (Ohio), Ohio and Toledo.

Houchins, who has been clocked at 4.6 seconds in the 40-yard dash, is being re-cruited as a cornerback and kick returner. As a junior he registered 50 tackles, two in-terceptions and eight pass breakups.

Among the big-time prospects who camped at Louisville over the past two weeks was Nick Dawson (6-3, 228), a four-star linebacker from Phillip O. Berry Acad-emy of Technology (N.C.) who has a ton of schools that have offered him scholarships, including Arkansas, Auburn, Clemson, Ken-tucky, Illinois, Miami (Fla.), Tennessee and USC.

Although Dawson recently named Clem-son as his leader, the Cardinals have been near the top of his list for some time. It’s thought that he would like to stay within driving distance of his home in North Caro-lina, and he has family in the Louisville area that makes UofL a possible draw for him.

Kelton Brackett (5-11, 186), a defensive back from Blount H.S. (Ala.), was another camper who spent time at UofL recently.

“It was pretty good,” Brackett said of the camp experience. “I got some good work in. Coach (Vance) Bedford said he liked my footwork and he liked how quick I was to the ball.”

Known as a quick cornerback who also has played some safety, Brackett seemed to enjoy getting the chance to show his skills in front of the UofL coaching staff. Aside from the camp, he mentioned that he also took some time to tour the school and take a closer look at Papa John’s Cardinal Sta-dium.

“I talked to my recruiting coach, Coach (Ron) Dugans,” Brackett said. “He said he liked me and wants me to be a part of Lou-isville.”

With offers from FIU, Louisville, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Lafayette, Minnesota, Navy, Northern Illinois, South Alabama, Southern Illinois, UAB and Western Kentucky, Brack-ett was quick to name which school stood at the top of his list at this point.

“Louisville - that’s my top school right now,” he acknowledged. “They are the one school that has been contacting with me the most.”

Caleb Azubike (6-5, 240), a defensive

end from McGavock H.S. (Tenn.), made a late decision to take part in Strong’s camp last week. Despite being tired coming into the camp, Azubike still delivered an impres-sive performance.

“It went really good,” the three-star de-fensive end said of his experience. “At fi rst I didn’t have a ride to go up there. Because of that, the day before, I was swimming all day. But I fi nally found a ride, went up there, and I was really, really tired. I talked to Coach (Mike) Sanford and he made me warm up a little bit. I did my 40 and ran a 4.58 and jumped 32 inches. It was a re-ally good camp. I liked the atmosphere and the coaches. I have a great relationship with them.”

Azubike said he was really surprised he was able to put up the numbers he did, be-cause he was so tired. “When I ran my 40 at fi rst I ran a 4.8 or 4.9, and I don’t run that usually,” he explained. “I told them that couldn’t be true, so I started warming up a little more before I ran my second one. Then I ran a 4.58. I was so happy I was able to perform like I did under short notice.”

One of the coaches Azubike impressed was UofL defensive line coach Clint Hurtt.

“Coach Hurtt said he could really use a player like me on their defense - a fast ex-plosive player,” Azubike said. “He said he

could turn me into a next-level type guy,like Elvis Dumervil, that type of player. Icould disrupt offenses. I really took that intoconsideration.”

While the Cardinals impressed Azubike, they are among a long list of suitors thatincludes Arkansas State, Boston College,Kentucky, Marshall, Memphis, Miami (Fla.),Middle Tennessee State, Mississippi State,Tennessee State, Vanderbilt and WesternKentucky.

“My top two schools have always been Vanderbilt and Boston College, but Ihaven’t really made a top fi ve or top six,”he admitted. “I’m not sure when it’s goingto be out, but hopefully Louisville is goingto be up there, because I think highly of thecoaches there.”

While Azubike has a clear-cut top pair, he noted that doesn’t mean other schoolsshouldn’t recruit him.

“I don’t want to end my recruitment now, and if I feel like there’s a school thatcould beat the other schools,\ then theyshould continue to recruit me,” he ex-plained. “It could change at any point if anyother schools talk to me more or somethingelse happens. But right now Vanderbilt andBoston College are my top two, and that’smore about the relationship I’ve built withthem than anything else.”

JEFF WAFFORDJEFF WAFFORD

Cincinnati Elder offensive lineman T.C. Klusman committed to

the Cardinals earlier this month. - photo by

Howie Lindsey

TOP HOOPS STARS IN VIRGINIABy Jeff Wafford Most of the nation’s top prep basketball

players gathered in Charlottesville, Va., last week to take part in the NBA Player’s Associ-ation Top 100 Camp at the University of Vir-ginia. While college coaches weren’t allowed to attend the event and watch the players in action, several prospects who are being re-cruited by Louisville were in action and men-tioned the Cardinals during interviews.

One of the top players in the camp was Gary Harris (6-4, 170), a shooting guard from Hamilton Southeastern H.S. (Ind.) who helped his team win the championship at the event. A four-star guard who is ranked No. 26 overall in the class of 2012, Harris also narrowed his list to six schools during the event – Louisville, Purdue, Indiana, Michigan State, Notre Dame and Purdue.

“The Indiana native was at his best during the camp’s championship game,” said Rivals.com analyst Eric Bossi after watching Harris play. “He hit a full-court driving runner in the lane to win the game and was otherwise ef-fective. Harris will rebound and is a transition fi nisher who is becoming more reliable as a spot-up shooter.”

Harris has visited Louisville several times and would like to stay close to home to play his college ball.

Another player from Indiana getting a strong recruiting push from Louisville is Mitch McGary (6-10, 250), a power forward origi-nally from Indianapolis who now plays at Brewster Academy (N.H.). A fi ve-star player who is rated No. 5 overall in the class of 2012, McGary is hearing from Duke, North Caro-lina, Louisville, Kentucky and pretty much ev-eryone else who needs a power forward.

It seems pretty clear that Rick Pitino would like to sign at least one guard in the class

of 2012, and it looked at one point that it would be fi ve-star guard Rodney Purvis. But the 6-3, 185-pound guard from Upper Room Christian Academy (N.C.) reneged on his verbal commitment to Louisville when his friend Tim Fuller left UofL to take an assistant coaching job at Missouri.

For a while Purvis continued to mention Louisville as one of his college options, but he backed off of that at the NBAPA Camp, saying the Cardinals and Kentucky were no longer on his list and he was now consider-ing N.C. State, Duke and Missouri.

Now the Cards have offi cially moved on from Purvis as well. Aside from Harris, they are also eyeing J-Mychal Reese (6-1, 170), a four-star guard from Bryan H.S. (Tex.) and D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera (6-4, 215), a fi ve-star guard from Oak Hill Academy (Va.).

Reese, who is rated as the No. 40 player in the class of 2012, is also considering Kansas, Baylor, LSU, Memphis, Oklahoma, Oregon, Providence, Texas and Wake Forest.

Smith-Rivera, who is originally from In-dianapolis, has visited Louisville a couple of times in the past year. He is also consider-ing Baylor, Georgetown, Kansas State, Texas, UCLA and Xavier. He is rated as the No. 21 player overall in the class of 2012.

“Louisville, since they got in my recruit-ment, they have been coming at me pretty hard,” Smith-Rivera told the Courier-Journal. “That alone shows me how much they want me there. It’s a great school, and Rick Pitino is a great coach. He would be a good fi t for me.”

A former Xavier commitment, Smith-Ri-vera averaged 25.1 points and 4.5 rebounds a game as a junior. He helped Indianapolis North Central to the 4-A state title his sopho-more season.

Page 16: June 24, 2011 Isssue

PAGE 16 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT JUNE 24, 2011

CARDINAL STARSMATT HUGHES - TRACK AND FIELDThe senior from Oshawa, Ontario, posted a personal-best and stadium-record time in the 3,000m steeplechase to repeat as national champion at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa, on June 10. Hughes won in a time of 8:24.87, outpacing his nearest competitor by more than seven seconds. “All the props to Matt Hughes,” track and fi eld coach Ron Mann said. “He did a great job preparing. Coach (Brice) Allen got him as prepared as you possibly could. To be a national champion is one thing, to repeat as a national champion is just phenomenal. It’s a great way to end his collegiate career, and we couldn’t be more proud of Matt and coach (Brice) Allen.”

TRYSTAN MAGNUSON - BASEBALLThe former walk-on turned All-Big East closer is currently with the Sacramento RiverCats at the AAA level. The duPont Manual High grad is 2-2 with four saves, 34 strikeouts and a 2.25 ERA in 21 relief appearances and 32 innings in Sacramento this year. In May, Magnuson was called up by the Oakland A’s and made two relief appearances before returning to Sacramento when the A’s bullpen got healthy again. Magnuson played at UofL from 2004-07.

CHRIS DOMINGUEZ - BASEBALLOne of UofL’s all-time best sluggers, the Miami native was promoted from Single-A San Jose to Double-A Richmond on June 16. A third-round draft pick of the San Francisco Giants in 2009, Dominguez hit .291 with 11 home runs, 40 RBIs and 10 doubles in 63 games for San Jose before his promotion. He’s played only four games so far for the Richmond Flying Squirrels, and he has one hit to his credit. Dominguez won the Home Run Derby at the South Atlantic League All-Star Game last summer.

ADAM DUVALL - BASEBALLLouisville sluggers could have won the SAL Home Run Derby two seasons in a row, but Duvall fell a little short in last Tuesday night’s slug-fest. The former Cardinal (2009-10) was named the starting third baseman for the Southern Division in the June 21 South Atlantic League All-Star Game in Salisbury, Md. Through the fi rst half of the season, Duvall is tied for the SAL lead in home runs (17) and RBIs (53) in his 68 games. He is hitting .269 with 17 doubles for the Augusta GreenJackets in Low-A ball, where he is teammates with 2010 grad Jeff Arnold. Both are part of the San Francisco Giants farm system.

RACHEL GEHRET - TRACK AND FIELDGehret earned fi rst team All-America honors this season in the high jump by fi nishing fi fth in the nation at last month’s NCAA Outdoor Championships. An exercise science major, she completed her collegiate career with fi ve Big East titles, winning two at the 2010 Big East Indoor Championships and earning the honor of Big East Female Most Outstanding Field Performer of the Meet for her achievements. She also was one of 29 female NCAA student-athletes to earn a prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Award this spring. To qualify, student-athletes must excel academically and athletically, be in their fi nal year of eligibility and plan to pursue graduate study. Student-athletes also must have an overall undergraduate cumulative grade-point average of 3.20 (based on a 4.0 scale) and be nominated by their institution’s faculty athletics representative.

SARA-MAUDE JUNEAU - WOMEN’S GOLFThe senior from Quebec, Canada, was named a NGCA Honorable Mention All-American for the second straight year. Juneau fi nishes her career as the second-most decorated Cardinal golfer in school history, behind All-American Cindy LaCrosse. Juneau was named the Big East Player of the Year for the second straight season. She led the team and the conference with a 73.2 scoring average and was ranked No. 23 in the country in the fi nal Golfstat rankings. She did not fi nish outside the top 20 in any of her 10 tournaments this year, and she had fi ve top-fi ve fi nishes. Juneau highlighted her year with a fi rst-place fi nish at the William K. Warren Irish Invitational and went on to place sixth at the Big East Golf Championship with a three-round score of 228. She wrapped up her Louisville career by fi nishing 20th at the NCAA East Regional.

MAGNUSONMAGNUSON

HUGHESHUGHES

DUVALLDUVALL

JUNEAUJUNEAU

GEHRETGEHRET

HOWIE LINDSEY’SHOWIE LINDSEY’S

OF THE MONTHOF THE MONTH

DOMINGUEZDOMINGUEZ

DATE OPPONENT / EVENT TIMEDATE OPPONENT / EVENT TIME

Thu., Sept. 1 Murray State (ESPNU) 6 p.m. ET

Fri., Sept. 9 Florida International (ESPN) 8 p.m. ET

Sat., Sept. 17 at Kentucky TBA

Sat., Oct. 1 Marshall TBA

Sat., Oct. 8 at North Carolina TBA

Sat., Oct. 15 at Cincinnati TBA

Fri., Oct. 21 Rutgers (ESPN) 8 p.m. ET

Sat., Oct. 29 Syracuse TBA

Sat., Nov. 5 at West Virginia TBA

Sat., Nov. 12 Pittsburgh TBA

Sat., Nov. 19 at Connecticut TBA

Fri., Nov. 25 at USF (ABC/ESPN/ESPN2) TBA

2011 LOUISVILLE2011 LOUISVILLEFOOTBALL SCHEDULEFOOTBALL SCHEDULE

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Page 17: June 24, 2011 Isssue

JUNE 24, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 17

TRACK AND FIELD

MCCARTY FILLED A TROPHY CASE DURING HER UOFL CAREERBy Howie LindseyEarlier this month University of Louisville

senior D’Ana McCarty completed her stellar career at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships by fi nishing eighth in the hammer throw and 11th in the shot put. The marks netted McCarty two more All-American plaques to add to the moun-tain of accomplishments in her career as a Cardinal.

McCarty, the fi rst athlete in UofL history to win two individual national championship trophies, ends her career as an eight-time

All-American to go along with dozens of meet and event wins, dozens of meet and facility records and a handful of school records.

But her story isn’t one of a high school phenom destined for greatness. Rather, it’s a story of a good high school athlete

who used hard work and a willingness to learn and improve to go from good to great to national champion.

“Well, in high school, I had a coach say that there wasn’t any way I could be a Divi-sion I athlete,” McCarty said. “I feel like part of my motivation was to prove to people that I could do it, prove people wrong.”

When asked what coach would say such a thing, McCarty just laughed and said she’d let the coach off the hook by not mentioning a name. Still, that coach - and other doubt-ers along the way - have to marvel at what she has accomplished. But proving doubters wrong wasn’t the only genesis of her com-petitive nature.

“I have two older brothers, so we were always really competitive,” she said. “I never wanted to lose in anything, no matter what sport I was playing. I think was a big part of my motivation.”

Both brothers were into football and weight lifting, and one ran track, compet-ing in the hurdles. D’Ana played basketball and threw the shot put and discus for In-dianapolis Pike High, but she said she never seriously lifted weights until coming to UofL, where she found that her natural strength would take her only so far at the collegiate level.

“I got to UofL and everybody else I talked to was like, ‘I won state in this’ and, ‘I won state in that event,’ and that was different for me because I never won state in anything,” she said. “It was defi nitely a challenge.”

Long before McCarty became a two-time national champion and eight-time All-Ameri-can, she had to come to grips with that chal-lenge. When asked what she believes makes a champion, McCarty’s answer was revealing.

“I feel like a champion needs to be able to take criticism, to understand where they need to improve and to be open to sugges-tions on how to improve in that area -- to be coachable and to work hard to improve,” she said.

McCarty needed the ability to take criti-cism early in her UofL career because throws coach Dale Cowper was never one to shy away from offering his criticism of her form

or technique.“He is always very honest about what I

need to improve on, and I really like that,” McCarty said. “That’s what I need. He just comes out and says it, and I respect that. I know he’s being critical because I know he wants me to get better.”

Her fi rst year was fi lled with differ-ent and sometimes frustrating instruction. Her form needed to be reworked, starting with her stance, and her technique needed tweaking.

“We changed everything early on,” Mc-Carty said. “Coach Cowper kept telling me that I could be great, but that I was just throwing based on strength and not really good technique. So we changed everything with my shot put and my discus and worked on everything. That was diffi cult.”

That, in part, led to her excelling in the weight throw.

“I think I was like ‘Hey, I like the weight throw. I don’t have any bad habits to break there,’” McCarty said. “It was good because I learned the right way fi rst and had good technique from the beginning.”

She qualifi ed for the league champion-ships in the discus and shot put that fi rst sea-son and began to make a name for herself in the hammer throw, becoming UofL’s fi rst female athlete to advance to the IAAF Junior World Championships.

Then her sophomore year was a break-through. She won the weight throw at the Big East Championships and took fi rst in all nine indoor weight throw competitions. She recalled setting the mark to beat on her fi nal

throw at the national championships that year.

“I remember I was third going into the fi -nal throw,” McCarty said of her fi rst title. “I hit my mark and then had two more people to go after that. I was just watching them throw and hoping that my mark would stay, and it did.”

Neither of the fi nal two passed her mark, and McCarty won the 2009 Indoor national title. McCarty said she was surprised by the trophy. Others were, too. McCarty had the meet buzzing about her win.

“I still don’t think it has sunk in,” she said, laughing. “I’m not sure when it will.”

McCarty returned to campus as Louis-ville’s fi rst female NCAA champion (Louis-ville’s spirit squads have multiple national titles, but they aren’t NCAA events). She said campus life was interesting after her na-tional crown.

“It was different because I came back to campus and the other athletes and even the coaches were coming up to me and say-ing, ‘Congratulations’ and, ‘Great job’ and all that,” McCarty said. “And then I was so thankful that the University was proud of me enough to put me up on billboards in Louis-ville and on banners. That was great.”

Two male UofL track and fi eld athletes had won national titles previously - Tone Belt in the indoor long jump and Andre Black in the indoor triple jump. Both won as sophomores, just like McCarty, but neither followed that title up with another national championship, much less the very next year.

McCarty won seven of eight indoor weight

throw titles her junior season, and she wasnamed the Big East Field Events MVP, help-ing UofL to a Big East team title. She wentinto the NCAA Championships that year asthe favorite and came away with the topprize again.

“It was different because I wasn’t used to having a target on me,” she said. “Every-body was gunning for me, and I was morecomfortable when nobody knew who I was,I think. And then, too, I had to tell somepeople that I was still a person, not just ‘theNational Champion.’ I was like, ‘You can stillcome up and talk to me like normal, I’m stilla regular person.’”

McCarty’s success, in part, came from that humble nature. She continued to be agood teammate and a focused competitoreven after her two national titles. This sea-son she fi nished third at the NCAA IndoorChampionships in the weight throw, won apair of Big East titles (both weight throw),and earned two more All-American titles atthe NCAA Outdoor Championships (shotput and discus).

As her technique was reformed in the other throws events, McCarty became a na-tional contender in them as well. Three ofher All-America honors are in the weightthrow (the weight throw is only an indoorevent), with the other fi ve in the shot put,hammer throw and discus.

She’ll leave UofL as the most-decorated athlete in school history and - along withWNBA No. 1 pick Angel McCoughtry - oneof the greatest female athletes the Cardinalshave ever had. But her throwing career isn’tquite over. McCarty wants to take a shot atthe 2012 Olympics in London.

“I have one semester left, so I will train here in the Louisville with my coach, CoachCowper, and focus on fi nishing school andworking on the hammer,” she said. “It willbe different because Coach Cowper will befocused on the athletes on Louisville’s actualteam, but he’ll also be working with me.”

McCarty knows she’s got some work to do to go from college champion to nationalcontender, but this time there’s not a coacharound who would tell her she can’t do it.She’s proven herself too many times before.Still, it will be tough.

“I need to get into the 70s to have a shot,” McCarty noted. “Right now I’ve hit64, but that was a foul, so I still have somework to do.”

The Olympic Trials will be hosted by the Oregon Track Club at Historic Hayward FieldJune 22 to July 1, 2012, in Eugene. The “B”cut for the trials in the hammer is 69.0m.The “A” cut is 71.5m. Her personal bestcoming into her senior season was 62.24min the outdoor event.

After her throwing career comes to an end, McCarty said she’d like to get intothe human resources fi eld.

“I’m not sure what size company or in what industry, but I know that is what I’dlike to get into,” she said.

And when the time comes, will she list two-time national champion on her re-sume?

“Yeah, I probably will,” she said with a laugh.

HOWIE LINDSEYHOWIE LINDSEY

Eight-time All-American D’Ana McCarty, pictured here with teammates Amashi-ali Kendall (left) and Patrice Gates, completed her eligibility as a Cardinal with an eighth-place fi nish in the hammer throw at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. McCarty is Louisville’s only female NCAA Champion. She won the indoor weight throw in 2009 and 2010. - BIg East Photo

Page 18: June 24, 2011 Isssue

PAGE 18 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT JUNE 24, 2011

LOUISVILLE BASEBALL

C A R D S D E D I C A T E D T O A ‘ H U G E ’ 2 0 1 2 C A M P A I G N

MCDONNELL, PLAYERS ALREADY EAGER TO HIT THE FIELD AGAINBy Russ BrownThe University of Louisville’s 2011 base-

ball season ended only about three weeks ago, but coach Dan McDonnell is already eager to get back onto the fi eld at Jim Pat-terson Stadium. That’s because he has a lingering sour taste in his mouth from last season’s 32-29 record and UofL’s failure to earn an NCAA Tournament bid for the fi rst time in his fi ve years at the Cardinals’ helm.

“We wish fall was starting yesterday,” said McDonnell, taking a break from his baseball camp activities. “We’re anxious and chomping at the bit. There’s excite-ment and anticipation.”

With a young club that featured a number of freshmen and sopho-mores in key roles, UofL never found the con-sistency in any depart-

ment -- hitting, pitching, defense -- that had characterized McDonnell’s fi rst four teams. After showing promise by winning 11 of their fi rst 14 games, the Cards went 21-26 the rest of the way, including a late, record-setting eight-game losing streak.

UofL, which had won two straight Big East Conference regular-season titles and entered last season with high hopes of a threepeat, instead fi nished in a tie for fi fth with Cincinnati at 14-13.

“It wasn’t a terrible, terrible season, but it’s not what we wanted or expected,” freshman center fi elder Adam Engel said. “We couldn’t get things going. We didn’t gel and we never really played to our full potential, which showed with our record. We had the talent and all the pieces, but we never put it all together. It was defi nitely frustrating going back to the locker room after a loss knowing that with one more hit or one less error, we would have gotten a ‘W.’ Sometimes baseball does that, but it happened too many times this year.”

McDonnell was encouraged by the way the Cards fi nished the season, however. They rebounded from their losing skid by winning four of their last fi ve regular-sea-son games, then took three of their fi rst four games in the league tournament in Clearwater, Fla., to advance to the semifi -nals, where they lost to St. John’s 5-1.

“We ended on a pretty good note in the conference tournament, giving the guys some momentum going into the summer,” McDonnell said.

Naturally, McDonnell expects much better things next season, especially with UofL returning the nucleus of its team and adding 14 newcomers, including four ju-nior college transfers. The exact makeup of the 2012 squad is yet to be determined because six members of the current team and six of the recruits were selected in the major league draft earlier this month. The players have until Aug. 15 to decide whether to turn pro or attend college.

In the meantime, a record 19 Louisville players are competing in various NCAA-sanctioned summer leagues around the country, and they are being watched close-ly by McDonnell and his staff, who have put a major emphasis on taking advantage of that opportunity to improve.

“They know we’re following them daily,” McDonnell said. “The goal is not

only to play but to have success. ‘Win The Day’ is the phrase we’re emphasizing, and we’re challenging these guys to get into the weight room, play hard for their team and have success. Just because you play in the summer doesn’t necessarily get you ready for next season.”

As soon as the Cards returned from the Big East Tournament, McDonnell sum-moned them to a team meeting on Memo-rial Day and spent 90 minutes outlining his expectations for summer, fall and next sea-son. That was the same day as the NCAA selection show for the national tourney, which a McDonnell-coached team had competed in for nine of the previous 10 years.

“I told them that this time next year we’ll be watching the NCAA selection show to see who we’re playing,” he said. “So in order for us to be doing that a year from today, it starts right now. We have to have a good summer and fall; this is the fi rst step that will determine our success next spring.

“Those young guys sitting in that the-ater room didn’t come here to not play in NCAAs. They were recruited for a team that has been a staple in the NCAA (un-der McDonnell). They were sitting there as the fi rst group that hadn’t. It’s humbling, embarrassing, frustrating, and you have to make it clear it happens in sports but we’re not going to sit back and just allow it to happen. It has to change, and it starts now. You learn from it because you don’t want it to happen again.”

The players walked out of the meet-ing and into the weight room, and the next day they were off to various summer league teams, dedicated to following Mc-Donnell’s instructions.

“We didn’t know what to expect,” Engel said of the meeting. “He called us out, said it was never going to happen in this program again. I think we all took it to heart. Personally, leaving the meeting, I vowed to work hard this summer and to help the new guys coming in really get ac-climated to the program as fast as possible. That way there will be no speed bumps.

I’m going to try and make sure all the new guys understand and get on board soon as they can and help make sure all the guys returning are getting after it, too.”

Based strictly on their draft status with-out taking any other factors into consider-ation, the two players facing the biggest decisions are relief pitcher Tony Zych, a senior-to-be who was taken 129th overall by the Chicago Cubs, and infi elder Ryan Wright, taken 175th overall by the Cin-cinnati Reds. Zych fi nished with 13 saves, the second-highest single-season total in school history.

There were only a couple of signifi cant losses from the senior class -- outfi elder Drew Haynes and catcher J.J. Ethel. Only fi ve juniors dotted the 34-man roster this spring, so UofL again will be dominated by young players.

The pitching staff returns virtually in-tact, including fi rst-team all-Big East right-hander Justin Amlung (10-1, 2.31 ERA), who will be a junior. Then there are senior Derek Self (3-3, 2.26 ERA) and junior Matt Koch (5-5, 3.48), plus a half-dozen hurl-ers who were freshmen or sophomores last year.

“There are a lot of young arms we’re expecting big things from,” McDonnell said. “They all showed they can have suc-cess at this level.”

Among the key position players return-ing, in addition to Wright if he delays turn-ing professional, are sophomore catcher/designated hitter Jeff Gardner, junior out-fi elder Stewart Ijames, center fi elder Engel and freshman infi elder Alex Chittenden.

“I’m very optimistic,” McDonnell said. “There will be some starpower with Am-lung and Self, and maybe some older guys who might pass up the draft and choose to come back. The coaches and players will only be tougher because of the adversity.”

One of the major goals for 2012 will be to raise UofL’s offensive production, which plummeted from 2010. The bottom fell out of the Cards’ batting average, drop-ping from .314 to .253, and they averaged only 4.6 runs compared to 7.4 in 2010.The only players to hit over .300 were Wright

at .346 and Gardner (.333).Previously known as a power-hitting

team, extra base hits were few and far be-tween. UofL hit just 36 home runs (88 in2010), with all but 13 coming from Wright(12) and Ijames (11).

“We’ve evaluated the year and run down all the reasons it happened withoutmaking excuses,” McDonnell said. “Wewant to address why things went that wayand rectify, fi x, those things.”

McDonnell is accustomed to winning, and winning big. As an assistant coach atMississippi and then head coach at Louis-ville he had coached in eight straight re-gionals, nine of the last 10 and had beento a super regional in four of the last sixseasons, including the Cards’ 2007 CollegeWorld Series appearance. This year’s 32-29record snapped a string of six seasons in arow of 41 victories or more.

He also obviously has an athlete/coach’s competitiveness, so it’s not surprising thathe calls the 2011 season one of the mostfrustrating of his career.

“It was hard. I can’t lie. It was tough,” he said. “I’ll always be very critical of my-self. I didn’t do as good a job as I couldhave. I didn’t push the right buttons. Wewere doing things at certain times duringthe season to get it going, but the thingswe were trying just weren’t working.

“I’m most proud that we did play well late and got some momentum. The kidsdidn’t quit, the young kids fought throughit and showed some toughness. I’m justvery competitive, hard-headed and stub-born. We don’t like to have a rebuildingyear, take a step backward. I challengedour coaches and players that we want tokeep the bar high and shoot to do greatthings, because if you don’t, you won’tsucceed.”

Engel, for one, promises that the Cards will return to their old ways next season,challenge for the Big East regular-seasonand tournament titles and return to theNCAA Tournament.

“Oh yeah, for sure, we’re defi nitely go-ing to bounce back,” he said. “Last sea-son is great motivation, and we’re usingit to push ourselves to not let it happenagain. We feel we have a lot to prove. Ithink we’re going to have a huge, hugeseason.”

NOTES: The baseball team ended thespring semester with a cumulative 3.2GPA. ...

McDonnell and his staff are conduct-ing their annual instruction camps fromnow through July 16. Information may befound at www.uofl sports.com by clickingon “Camp Information” under “Miscella-neous.” ...

Louisville was far from being the only college team that struggled at the platelast season, due in large part to the NCAA’snew testing standard requiring metal batsto perform more like wood -- a changemeant to protect pitchers and reduce theproliferation of offense.

NCAA statistics through midseason -- the most recent fi gures available -- showedthat runs, home runs and batting averageshad dropped considerably in all three divi-sions compared with the same point lastseason. In Division I, scoring fell to 5.63runs per team per game from 6.98, hom-ers to 0.47 from 0.85 and batting averageto .279 from .305.

RUSS BROWNRUSS BROWNJunior Ryan Wright was drafted 175th overall by the Cincinnati Reds. Wright has the option of coming back to school for his senior season or going to minor league ball to start his climb to the majors.

Sophomore Justin Amlung was 10-1 this season with a 2.31 ERA. He’ll be an anchor on Louisville’s pitching staff next season. - photos by Howie Lindsey

Page 19: June 24, 2011 Isssue

JUNE 24, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 19

THE GOVERNORS CUP

MEN WOMEN

BASKETBALL

Both games were blowouts this season. On the men’s side, No. 11 UK got the game of a lifetime from workman-center Josh Harrellson during a 78-63 win in the fi rst game between the two teams at the new KFC Yum! Center. Harrellson had 23 points, 14 rebounds and was 10 of 12 from the fi eld as UK jumped to a double-digit lead early on the No. 22 ranked Cardinals. The women’s game was just the opposite. Unranked Louisville got 26 points from freshman Shoni Schimmel and 21 from junior Becky Burke to blow out No. 8 Kentucky 78-52. The Wildcats were never in the game as everything went right for the Cardinals.

CROSS COUNTRY

Louisville’s men fi nished fi fth in the 2010 NCAA Southeast Region, 16 spots ahead of Kentucky’s 21st place result. The Wildcats’ top runner fi nished 88th in the region, while Louisville placed runners fourth, 13th, 39th, 59th and 61st. The women’s com-petition between the two school was tight at the NCAA Southeast Regional with Louisville winning by one spot. The Cardinals fi nished 13th with a team score of 421 and UK fi nished tied for 14th with Eastern Kentucky with a team score of 439.

FOOTBALL

After giving up 13 points in the fi rst quarter, Louisville’s defense settled and held Ken-tucky to just 10 points in the fi nal three quarters. The Cardinals’ offense, dormant in the fi rst quarter could only muster a pair of fi eld goals by halftime. An 80yard third quarter touchdown run by Bilal Powell cut UK’s lead to 23-13 with 8:41 left, but the Cardinals couldn’t complete the comeback, notching only another fi eld goal in the fi nal 23 minutes of a 23-16 loss.

SOCCER

On Sept. 9, No. 18-ranked Louisville women’s soccer got the Governor’s Cup stand-ings off to a good start by beating Kentucky 2-0 at Cardinal Park. The Cardinals got goals from Angelika Uremovich and Caitlin Rehder as goalkeeper Taylor Vancil reg-istered seven saves during the shutout win. On Sept. 29, nationally ranked Louisville (6-0-2) beat decidedly unranked Kentucky (3-5-1) 2-0 in men’s soccer at Cardinal Park to complete the sweep. The Cardinals got goals from freshman Dylan Mares and junior Austin Berry to notch the win. UofL keeper Andre Boudreaux recorded one of his eight shutouts on the season.

SWIMMING & DIVING

Men’s and women’s swimming and diving swept Kentucky in a head-to-head dual meet on Jan. 22 at Lexington’s Lancaster Aquatic Center. The Wildcats, in front of their home fans, were walloped 186-114 by UofL’s men and 186-114 by the Cardinal women. The Cardinals won 21 of 32 events.

TRACK & FIELD(Indoor)

There were not team totals tallied for the Kentucky Invitational or the Rod McCravy Invitational at Lexington, so the only results between the two programs came at the NCAA Indoor Championships where the UofL women scored six points to fi nish 30th, topping UK, which didn’t score a point. On the men’s side, neither team had a great performance, with UK fi nishing 57th with two points and Louisville not scoring.

MEN WOMEN

SOFTBALL

UofL softball appeared on its way to a two-game sweep of Kentucky when the Cardinals got a 6-0 win over the Cats on March 23 at Ulmer Stadium, but the Cats notched a wild 14-8 win on April 20 in Lexington to even the series 1-1. Both teams were eliminated by eventual Women’s College World Series participant Cal in the NCAA Tournament.

VOLLEYBALL

Wow, what a match! Louisville and Kentucky battled 14-25, 25-19, 25-22, 25-27, 15-10 in a fi ve-set win for the Wildcats in both team’s third game of the season last fall. In front of a crowd of 2,178 fans at Memorial Coliseum, Louisville took Set 1, UK took Sets 2 and 3, before the Cardinals tied it up with a 27-25 win in Set 4. UK got the win by outlasting the Cardinals 15-10 in the deciding frame.

BASEBALL

Coach Dan McDonnell’s Cardinals dropped a 3-2 decision to Kentucky at Jim Patter-son Stadium on April 12 while in the midst of a six-game losing streak, the longest in McDonnell’s tenure with UofL. Later in April, the Cardinals had another shot at the woeful Wildcats, but couldn’t get the split, falling 7-1.

TENNIS

Veteran UK coach Dennis Emery continued his insulting scheduling practices by not signing a home-and-home series with Louisville. Without a regular-season matchup between the state’s two biggest programs, it took the NCAA to force Emery’s hand. The No. 10 Wildcats nearly got knocked off in the NCAA Regional Championship in Lexington by a fi esty bunch of No. 24-ranked Cardinals. UK won the doubles point by two points and was pushed to a 4-3 decision in the match. After the stellar match, Emery continued to stick to his policy to not offer UofL a home-and-home series, de-spite the clear excitement in both fan bases and record attendance for the match.

GOLF

Men’s golf squared off against Kentucky in two tournaments, falling in both by an average of 19-strokes. On the women’s side, the two teams fi nished the year both playing at the NCAA East Regional in Daytona Beach, Fla. The 37th-ranked UofL women fi nished 12th, 28 strokes ahead of Kentucky’s 20th place fi nish in the Re-gional.

TRACK & FIELD(Outdoor)

Helped along by Matt Hughes’ NCAA championship in the steeplechase, the UofL men fi nished 25th in the nation at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Champion-ships in Des Moines, Iowa earlier this month. Kentucky fi nished 41st at the same event. Neither school’s women’s team performed as well, but Louisville won again, fi nishing 44th to Kentucky’s 60th.

LOUISVILLE vs. KENTUCKYH E A D - T O - H E A D C O M P E T I T I O N

KENTUCKY MEN - 6 • LOUISVILLE MEN - 4

LOUISVILLE WOMEN - 7.5 • KENTUCKY WOMEN - 1.5 O V E R A L L

LOUISVILLE - 11.5 • KENTUCKY - 7.5

Page 20: June 24, 2011 Isssue

PAGE 20 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT JUNE 24, 2011

BIG EAST NOTEBOOK

S T E W A R T O U T I N A M E S S Y D I V O R C E

HOLGORSEN’S WAIT AT WEST VIRGINIA WAS A SHORT ONEBy Russ BrownThe head-coach-in-waiting can be a

good, workable concept for some universi-ties, but the situation at West Virginia was a disaster-in-waiting.

Anybody should have been able to see that, but apparently WVU athletic director Oliver Luck and the school’s administration didn’t. Ah, wild and wonderful West Vir-ginia.

Let’s see, Luck has a head football coach, Bill Stewart, whom he wants to fi re. Instead, he hires former Oklahoma State offensive coordi-nator Dana Holgorsen to succeed Stewart after the 2011 season, even though Stewart doesn’t

want to leave. And Luck expects them to work in concert?

Who in the world would think that was a good idea? Expecting there to be no issues in that arrangement is like a woman asking her husband if it would be OK if her boy-friend lived with them, and then also set-ting a date for when their marriage would be dissolved 12 months later.

Was Luck smoking one of West Virginia’s illicit crops when he came up with that ri-diculous scenario?

Predictably, it didn’t work. Not even very far past spring practice. And it was a fi asco -- not to mention a PR nightmare -- with a heavily intoxicated Holgorsen being re-moved from a casino in May after police were called and head-coach-in-exile Stew-art asking a reporter for a Pittsburgh news-paper to “dig up dirt” on his cohort.

The entire mess ended with Stewart’s resignation and Holgorsen’s promotion a couple of weeks ago.

Stewart had spent 10 seasons at WVU, the last three as head coach, and compiled a 28-12 record, but Luck said he didn’t be-lieve the Mountaineers could win a national championship with him at the helm. Which would put Stewart in a lot of company over the last century, because West Virginia’s na-tional championship total stands at zero.

“At the time I thought it made a lot of sense and was a good management prac-tice,” said Luck, a former WVU quarterback. “With hindsight, folks could certainly dis-agree. I will take some time to think about it myself and decide if I made mistakes and, if I did, I will be the fi rst one to acknowledge that I did.

“At the time I thought it made some sense. I had an agreement from both coaches that they liked the idea and were willing to work with us on the concept, but hindsight is always 20/20 as we know.”

It’s not like a coach-in-waiting has never worked. It makes sense when the depart-

ing coach has picked his successor or has his own timeline for when he wants to step down. There were easy transitions at Wisconsin, Oregon, Kentucky and Purdue. Purdue is the only team of that group that has yet to make a bowl game under its new head coach.

The promotions of Kentucky’s Joker Phil-lips, Oregon’s Chip Kelly, Wisconsin’s Brett Bielema and Purdue’s Danny Hope (a for-mer UofL assistant) went smoothly.

But the situation turned ugly at Mary-land, Florida State and now West Virginia. Even Will Muschamp realized he had no idea when Mack Brown would step down at Texas, so he bolted from his coach-in-waiting designation to take the head job at Florida last December. What happened at Florida State is reminiscent of what hap-pened at West Virginia.

You have a coach who’s not quite ready to go, a large part of the fan base eager to see him retire, his replacement standing next to him as offensive coordinator and tensions fl aring on the coaching staff. At FSU, there were Bobby Bowden loyalists on staff and Jimbo Fisher loyalists on staff, and rumors swirled about infi ghting and no sense of direction in the fi nal few seasons when it seemed the situation was unten-able.

Luck believed it would help Holgorsen ease into the job if he learned from a vet-eran coach. Luck said there was nothing concrete that pointed to Stewart being the source of allegations that smeared Holgors-en in recent weeks, but it was obvious the situation was unworkable. Players admitted as much.

Offensive tackle Jeff Braun said: “Coach Stewart said himself that these past six months were tough, and it would be tough for anybody to have a dream job in your hometown basically and to know that in the back of your mind this is going to be it for you. It’s tough. I think everything fell into place the way it should have at this point.

We got rid of any problems and I think for the program itself, it’s going to help us move forward.”

Cornerback Keith Tandy said: “It relieves the tension a little bit, I guess. With Coach Stew and Coach Holgorsen both around, it was hard to fi gure out who to listen to and who was in charge. Now it’s more clear-cut and we can get back to work.”

Stewart, who led WVU to victory in the 2008 Fiesta Bowl as the team’s interim head coach after Rich Rodriguez left for Michi-gan, will make the prorated amount of his 2011 salary of $950,000, plus the $1.125 million he was owed in a separation agree-ment.

Holgorsen will see his salary jump from $750,000 as offensive coordinator to $1.4

million. He is expected to make at least $2.65 million by 2015.

“I understand what the expectations are to wear the Blue and Gold both on and off the fi eld, and it’s something I look forward to living up to,” Holgorsen said. “The West Virginia football team is way bigger than me. I have complete confi dence in the remain-

ing staff to continue doing what they’re doing. We’ll be united as coaches, players and administrators to help bring cham-pionships to Morgantown. It’s all about what’s ahead. You don’t look back.”

West Virginia is considered one of the top contenders for the Big East champion-ship this coming season.

PITT, PENN STATE RENEW RIVALRYAfter a 16-year interruption, Pittsburgh

and Penn State will resume their previ-ously spirited and tradition-rich football rivalry with a two-game series beginning in 2016. The fi rst game and the 97th in the series will be Sept. 10, 2016, at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, with the second on Sept. 16, 2017, at Beaver Stadium.

Penn State holds a 50-42-4 advantage in the all-time series that began in 1893. Theschools played every season from 1900-31and 1935-92, Following a four-year break,the series resumed for four games from1997-2000 before its current hiatus. Therivalry gained national attention during the1970s and ‘80s when the teams regularlymet with both Eastern supremacy and na-tional title implications at stake.

Pitt and Penn State last played on Sept. 16, 2000, when the Panthers won 12-0 atThree Rivers Stadium.

“It’s exciting for college football fans -- the renewal of one of the most historic andexciting rivalries of all-time,” Pitt athleticdirector Steve Pederson said. “Some of thegreatest players in the history of the game

have played in this series.”Johnny Majors, who led Pitt to a national

championship after breaking a 10-gamelosing streak against Penn State in 1976,said the rivalry was the equal of any of the“top-tier” games in college football, includ-ing Alabama-Auburn, Texas-Texas A&M andUSC-UCLA.

RUSS BROWNRUSS BROWN

This photo, from December, shows former WVU coach Bill Stewart pinning a WVU crest onto coach-in-waiting Dana

Holgorsen’s chest. The two have had a very public feud for the last month that resulted in Stewart’s resignation.

After a 16-year interruption, Pitt and Penn State will fi nally renew their football rivalry with a two-game

series beginning in 2016. Penn State football coach Joe Paterno is a long-time opponent of the series.

Page 21: June 24, 2011 Isssue

JUNE 24, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 21

BIG EAST NOTEBOOK BIG EAST FOOTBALL SCHEDULESCINCINNATI

Thu., Sept. 1 Austin PeaySat., Sept. 10 at TennesseeSat., Sept. 17 AkronThu., Sept. 22 North Carolina State Sat., Oct. 1 at Miami (Ohio)Sat., Oct. 15 LOUISVILLESat., Oct. 22 at USFSat., Nov. 5 at PITTSBURGHSat., Nov. 12 WEST VIRGINIASat., Nov. 19 at RUTGERSSat., Nov. 26 at SYRACUSESat., Dec. 3 CONNECTICUT

CONNECTICUTThu., Sept. 1 FordhamSat., Sept. 10 at VanderbiltFri., Sept. 16 Iowa State Sat., Sept. 24 at BuffaloSat., Oct. 1 Western MichiganSat., Oct. 8 at WEST VIRGINIASat., Oct. 15 USFWed., Oct. 26 at PITTSBURGHSat., Nov. 5 SYRACUSESat., Nov. 19 LOUISVILLESat., Nov. 26 RUTGERSSat., Dec. 3 at CINCINNATI

LOUISVILLEThu., Sept. 1 Murray StateFri., Sept. 9 Florida InternationalSat., Sept. 17 at KentuckySat., Oct. 1 MarshallSat., Oct. 8 at North CarolinaSat., Oct. 15 at CINCINNATIFri., Oct. 21 RUTGERSSat., Oct. 29 SYRACUSESat., Nov. 5 at WEST VIRGINIASat., Nov. 12 PITTSBURGHSat., Nov. 19 at CONNECTICUTFri., Nov. 25 at USF

PITTSBURGHSat., Sept. 3 BuffaloSat., Sept. 10 MaineSat., Sept. 17 at IowaSat., Sept. 24 Notre DameThu., Sept. 29 USF Sat., Oct. 8 at RUTGERSSat., Oct. 15 UtahWed., Oct. 26 CONNECTICUTSat., Nov. 5 CINCINNATISat., Nov. 12 at LOUISVILLEFri., Nov. 25 at WEST VIRGINIASat., Dec. 3 SYRACUSE

RUTGERSThu., Sept. 1 North Carolina CentralSat., Sept. 10 at North CarolinaSat., Sept. 24 OhioSat., Oct. 1 at SYRACUSESat., Oct. 8 PITTSBURGHSat., Oct. 15 NavyFri., Oct. 21 at LOUISVILLESat., Oct. 29 WEST VIRGINIASat., Nov. 5 USFSat., Nov. 12 at ArmySat., Nov. 19 CINCINNATISat., Nov. 26 at CONNECTICUT

USFSat., Sept. 3 at Notre DameSat., Sept. 10 Ball StateSat., Sept. 17 Florida A&MSat., Sept. 24 UTEPThu., Sept. 29 at PITTSBURGHSat., Oct. 15 at CONNECTICUTSat., Oct. 22 CINCINNATISat., Nov. 5 at RUTGERSFri., Nov. 11 at SYRACUSESat., Nov. 19 Miami (Fla.)Fri., Nov. 25 LOUISVILLEThu., Dec. 1 WEST VIRGINIA

SYRACUSESat., Sept. 3 Wake ForestSat., Sept. 10 Rhode IslandSat., Sept. 17 at Southern CaliforniaSat., Sept. 24 ToledoSat., Oct. 1 RUTGERSSat., Oct. 8 at TulaneSat., Oct. 22 WEST VIRGINIASat., Oct. 29 at LOUISVILLESat., Nov. 5 at CONNECTICUTFri., Nov. 11 USF Sat., Nov. 26 CINCINNATISat., Dec. 3 at PITTSBURGH

WEST VIRGINIASat., Sept. 3 MarshallSat., Sept. 10 Norfolk StateSat., Sept. 17 at MarylandSat., Sept. 24 LSUSat., Oct. 1 Bowling GreenSat., Oct. 8 CONNECTICUTSat., Oct. 22 at SYRACUSESat., Oct. 29 at RUTGERSSat., Nov. 5 LOUISVILLESat., Nov. 12 at CINCINNATIFri., Nov. 25 PITTSBURGHThu., Dec. 1 at USF

BIG EAST BOWL SCHEDULEThe Football Bowl Association has re-

leased its 2011-12 bowl schedule, which again totals 35 postseason games. Here are the Big East tie-ins and the BCS games. All times are ET.

Dec. 20: Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl St. Peters-burg, Fla., vs. C-USA, 8 p.m., ESPN

Dec. 27: Belk Bowl, Charlotte, N.C., vs. ACC, 8 p.m., ESPN

Dec. 29: Champs Sports Bowl, Orlando, Fla., vs. ACC, 5:30 p.m., ESPN

Dec. 30: New Era Pinstripe Bowl, New York, vs. Big 12, 3:20 p.m., ESPN

Jan. 7: BBVA Compass Bowl, Birmingham, Ala., vs. SEC, 1 p.m., ESPN

BCS GAMESJan. 2: Rose Bowl Game presented by VIZ-

IO, Pasadena, Calif., 5 p.m., ESPN. Big Ten champ vs. Pac-12 champ.

Jan. 3 Allstate Sugar Bowl, New Orleans, 8:30 p.m., ESPN. SEC champ vs. BCS at-large.

Jan. 4: Discover Orange Bowl, Miami, 8 p.m., ESPN. ACC vs. BCS at-large.

Jan. 5: Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, Glendale, Ariz., 8:30 p.m., ESPN. Big 12 vs. BCS at-large

Jan. 9: Allstate BCS National Title game, New Orleans, 8:30 p.m., ESPN. BCS No. 1 vs. BCS No. 2.

HUGGINS RAISES CANCER FUNDSBob Huggins has gotten his share of

bad publicity over the years, some but not all of it well-earned. You have to admire the West Virginia basketball coach for his work with the Norma Mae Huggins Cancer Research Fund. Huggins has hosted three roasts in the past year -- all at his expense -- in an effort to raise money for the cancer-fi ghting operation in his mother’s name.

Norma Mae Huggins died in 2003 from colon cancer. In the past nine months, the coach and the people of West Virginia have helped raise nearly $500,000 to fund re-search toward fi ghting the disease.

“The great thing is that when we do these things, most of the money is matched by the state (through the West Virginia Re-search Trust Fund, a $35 million Legislature-approved funding vehicle available through 2015 to WVU),” Huggins said. “We know we have a long way to go.

“We need to have enough money to be able to really do something. I’ve been in-volved with a lot of charities in my coaching career, but this is a special deal, and not just because of my mom.”

According to the Charleston Daily Mail, before Huggins came on board last year to help the efforts of raising money, the fund was fl oating in the $35,000 range. What a difference a coach can make. It’s not just speaking engagements and the dinners/roasts that have helped the cause. The web-site huggiebearproducts.com sells a slew of WVU-related items, the proceeds of which go toward the fund.

More roasts and dinners are planned for the future as Huggins said he’s not likely to slow down until the fund quadruples its current number, meaning $2 million is the minimum benchmark for Huggins and his team.

COOMBS-McDANIEL OUT AT UCONNFormer Connecticut forward Jamal

Coombs-McDaniel was admitted last week into a state drug education program that could leave him without a criminal record. A judge accepted Coombs-McDaniel’s applica-tion for the program for fi rst-time offenders and ordered him to take 10 drug education classes and perform 75 hours of community service. Misdemeanor drug charges will be

dismissed if he complies with the require-ments in the next year.

Coombs-McDaniel was arrested in April on campus and charged with possession of marijuana and possession of drug para-phernalia. Police say Coombs-McDaniel and two friends were found with 5.6 grams of marijuana, a marijuana grinder and a pack-age of cigars used to smoke marijuana.

Connecticut lawmakers just passed leg-islation that will decriminalize the posses-sion of less than a half-ounce of marijuana. When the law goes into effect on July 1, it will become an infraction, resulting in a $150 fi ne for a fi rst offense.

Coombs-McDaniel was charged under the current law, which makes possession punishable by a possible jail term and larger fi nes.

Coombs-McDaniel and the school an-nounced shortly after his arrest that he would be transferring from UConn. The 6-foot-7 junior said he wants more playing time and that the decision had nothing to do with his legal problems.

Coombs-McDaniel is currently attending summer school at UConn. He plans to visit Missouri next week but said he is leaning toward playing for Hofstra after sitting out next season under NCAA rules.

Coombs-McDaniel played in all 41 of UConn’s games during its national champi-onship season. He averaged 5.6 points and 2.7 rebounds. He had a three-game stretch in February during which he averaged more than 21 points per game, but he was never a consistent threat off the bench after that.

One of Coombs-McDaniel’s best games came in a 71-58 loss to UofL on Feb. 18 in the KFC Yum! Center when he got 16 points and six rebounds in 23 minutes. In UConn’s other two games against the Cards he totaled just six points and fi ve rebounds in 38 minutes.

Jerry West, his son, Jonny, and West Virginia coach Bob Huggins posed for a commemorative picture at Jonny’s

graduation earlier this spring. Jerry, a West Virginia and NBA legend, sent his son to play at WVU as a walk-on.

Page 22: June 24, 2011 Isssue

PAGE 22 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT JUNE 24, 2011

KFC Yum! Center OPENING PHOTO GALLERYSELECTED FALL SPORTS SCHEDULESBASEBALL FINAL STATS

SOFTBALL FINAL STATS

PLAYER AVG GP-GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB SLG% BB HBP SO GDP OB% SF SH SB-ATT PO A E FLD% Ryan Wright .346 61-61 234 49 81 15 4 12 52 140 .598 33 2 32 1 .426 3 0 16-18 112 161 8 .972 J.J. Ethel .251 53-47 171 15 43 12 0 0 16 55 .322 15 5 26 5 .326 2 5 2-4 304 30 4 .988 Stewart Ijames .247 58-58 227 28 56 8 3 11 45 103 .454 23 4 46 4 .324 2 1 6-7 147 10 4 .975 Cade Stallings .237 59-51 186 20 44 13 2 6 28 79 .425 18 7 32 4 .321 4 0 0-1 78 71 6 .961 Ryan Seiz .234 56-43 158 27 37 8 1 2 16 53 .335 14 2 32 2 .301 2 2 2-5 223 13 7 .971 Alex Chittenden .233 56-49 163 20 38 3 1 0 16 43 .264 20 4 29 5 .332 0 2 2-3 82 131 18 .922 Jeff Gardner .333 35-22 90 20 30 9 0 3 13 48 .533 3 2 14 3 .368 0 0 3-3 11 3 1 .933 Kyle Grieshaber .253 35-23 91 16 23 3 2 1 13 33 .363 9 4 13 1 .336 3 2 4-6 5 1 0 1.000 Adam Engel .250 53-38 144 27 36 2 0 0 9 38 .264 15 7 22 3 .345 2 5 16-23 106 2 2 .982 Drew Haynes .248 58-49 137 17 34 3 0 0 19 37 .270 17 4 21 2 .344 2 12 5-7 86 6 3 .968 Kyle Gibson .242 22-19 66 4 16 3 0 0 5 19 .288 5 2 8 2 .311 1 3 1-3 115 10 1 .992 Cole Sturgeon .209 42-28 110 14 23 1 0 0 6 24 .218 13 2 20 0 .304 0 3 4-5 70 2 3 .960 Ty Young .209 52-35 139 22 29 8 2 0 15 41 .295 21 4 43 1 .327 1 0 5-8 41 73 8 .934 Zak Wasserman .204 47-25 93 4 19 3 0 1 8 25 .269 9 3 14 3 .292 1 0 1-1 222 20 5 .980 Totals .253 61-61 2016 283 510 91 15 36 261 739 .367 215 52 353 37 .337 23 35 67-94 1639 627 78 .967 Opponents .252 61-61 2063 244 520 68 10 29 219 695 .337 190 59 410 35 .330 17 42 60-87 1622 652 68 .971

PLAYER AVG GP-GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB SLG% BB HBP SO GDP OB% SF SH SB-ATT PO A E FLD% Trimble, Jordan .410 14-14 39 13 16 4 1 1 6 25 .641 4 0 5 0 .465 0 3 1-2 11 0 2 .846Wolny, Alicja .375 58-58 176 27 66 18 1 4 39 98 .557 20 4 31 0 .448 1 0 2-2 334 9 5 .986Wherry, Colby .368 58-58 174 22 64 8 0 6 28 90 .517 13 1 13 3 .408 3 7 1-3 82 112 9 .956Bemis, Chelsea .343 58-58 166 37 57 19 1 12 49 114 .687 31 8 31 0 .464 2 0 2-2 56 81 9 .938Esteban, Jennifer .335 58-58 203 41 68 3 4 0 15 79 .389 8 0 26 1 .358 1 2 19-20 43 0 0 1.00Kiyohara, Hannah .331 49-42 124 19 41 2 0 0 22 43 .347 7 1 18 3 .368 1 4 3-3 47 5 1 .981Keller, Kate .320 58-57 169 46 54 12 2 6 36 88 .521 32 1 27 1 .420 5 5 5-5 124 84 9 .959Ruckenbrod, M .313 58-57 179 18 56 7 0 2 32 69 .385 11 0 15 0 .349 2 1 2-2 276 40 3 .991Austin, Kristin .271 57-53 140 25 38 1 0 1 6 42 .300 11 3 41 0 .338 0 2 15-20 62 4 5 .930Fowler, Taner .253 56-52 158 16 40 11 0 4 29 63 .399 4 2 25 2 .280 0 4 0-0 94 13 0 1.00Mann, Katelyn .176 29-8 34 8 6 1 0 0 0 7 .206 2 0 13 0 .222 0 2 0-0 10 0 1 .909Roesel, Christina .167 7-0 6 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 .167 1 0 1 0 .286 0 0 0-0 0 0 0 .000Paysen, Tesha .136 31-6 22 11 3 0 0 0 0 3 .136 1 1 9 0 .208 0 0 0-0 11 0 0 1.00Anderson, Sarah .500 3-0 2 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 .500 1 0 1 0 .667 0 0 0-0 0 0 0 .000Roberts, Chris .250 13-0 4 3 1 0 0 0 0 1 .250 0 0 0 0 .250 0 0 0-0 1 0 0 1.00Jordan, Chelsea .000 42-1 4 13 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 3 0 2 0 .429 0 0 2-2 1 0 0 1.00Totals .320 58 1600 301 512 86 9 36 264 724 .453 149 21 258 10 .382 15 30 52-691 1160 424 48 .971Opponents .230 58 1433 175 329 42 10 39 158 508 .355 167 20 355 4 .317 8 41 28-45 1118 459 83 .950

PLAYER ERA W-L APP-GS CG SHO SV IP H R ER BB SO 2B 3B HR AB B AVG WP HBP BK SFA SHA Derek Self 2.26 3-3 21-6 0 0/0 1 75.2 65 21 19 13 34 7 0 4 276 .236 1 6 1 2 6 Justin Amlung 2.31 10-2 15-15 0 0/3 0 105.0 78 31 27 27 80 12 1 4 379 .206 4 15 2 1 6 Matt Koch 3.48 5-5 16-11 0 0/0 0 67.1 73 40 26 21 46 5 1 5 263 .278 5 8 0 1 66-Chad Green 1.93 1-2 21-2 0 0/3 0 42.0 34 17 9 16 23 9 0 1 157 .217 1 2 0 1 1 -Travis Tingle 2.60 3-1 19-5 0 0/2 1 45.0 48 14 13 9 37 10 1 1 172 .279 0 5 0 2 6 -Jeff Thompson 2.75 2-1 18-5 0 0/4 1 39.1 40 16 12 18 43 3 2 3 155 .258 2 3 0 0 0 -Tony Zych 3.00 0-2 28-0 0 0/2 13 30.0 29 11 10 14 30 4 0 1 116 .250 6 3 0 0 3 -Dace Kime 3.96 1-2 15-3 0 0/0 0 25.0 23 17 11 12 25 1 1 1 95 .242 3 6 0 2 3 -Mike Nastold 4.81 3-7 13-11 0 0/3 0 43.0 54 33 23 27 35 6 0 5 174 .310 4 2 0 1 5 -Gabriel Shaw 6.26 0-3 20-2 0 0/2 1 27.1 33 21 19 9 19 4 2 2 105 .314 0 3 0 2 2 Totals 3.06 32-29 61-61 0 6/6 17 546.1 520 244 186 190 410 68 10 29 2063 .252 28 59 4 17 42 Opponents 4.08 29-32 61-61 4 2/1 12 540.2 510 283 245 215 353 91 15 36 2016 .253 46 52 11 23 35

PLAYER ERA W-L APP-GS CG SHO SV IP H R ER BB SO 2B 3B HR B/AVG WP HBP BK SFA SHA Collins, Tori 2.19 16-12 38-26 21 10/0 3 185.0 132 64 58 69 184 22 6 17 .199 6 11 0 5 16Connell, Caralisa 2.40 20-7 36-30 17 3/0 1 186.1 170 88 64 86 155 16 4 19 .244 13 7 0 3 24Leonard, Chelsea 6.72 1-1 3-2 0 0/0 0 8.1 11 9 8 5 13 1 0 0 .314 3 0 0 0 1Petrino, Katie 14.00 1-0 3-0 0 0/0 0 7.0 16 14 14 7 3 3 0 3 .432 2 2 0 0 0Totals 2.61 38-20 58-58 38 13/0 4 386.2 329 175 144 167 355 42 10 39 .230 24 20 0 8 41Opponents 4.36 20-38 58-58 22 5/1 4 372.2 512 301 232 149 258 86 9 36 .320 40 21 10 15 30

Record: 38-20 • Home: 19-7 • Away: 8-10 • Neutral: 11-3 • BIG EAST: 12-7

(OVERALL)

Record: 32-29 • Home: 17-13 • Away: 9-14 • Neutral: 6-2 • BIG EAST: 14-13

(OVERALL)

PITCHING

PITCHING (Selected Pitchers based on 25 or more innings)

Page 23: June 24, 2011 Isssue

APRIL 21, 2011 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT PAGE 19

LOUISVILLE BASEBALL

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PAGE 24 LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT JUNE 24, 2011 L

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LOUISVILLE SPORTSREPORT’S CARDINAL KIDS

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SUBMIT A PICTURE OF YOUR CARDINAL KID BY SENDING AN

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Cardinal kid Morgan Sue Medley was happily tailgating before a recent football game with her parents Troy and Susan Medley.

Carly Wright posed for a quick photo before heading out for another Louisville football game.

Carson Wright prepared to watch the UofL men’s basketball team battle Notre Dame in this year’s Big East Tournament.

Cardinal kids Blake and Addison Pedley showed they were ready for the lake. Their parents, Chris and Stacy Pedley, submitted the photo.

Jason and Lynnette Brooks from Cave City submitted this picture of their Cardinal Kids, Lydia, Jenna and Eli.

Jeff and Tiffany Durbin take their son Mitchell to football games.

Louisville fan William Bacon submitted this photo of his son, Jalon Cobbs-Bacon, in his Louisville hat.