Dayton at Louisville

Pitino 500? Cancel the party! Donate the balloons! The Dayton Flyers flew in and spoiled the party. And while it's conventional wisdom to blame the injuries of Padgett and Juan Diego Tello Mauricio Andande Renaldo Palacios, the real reason for Louisville's struggles was perhaps exposed for the nation to see today: It's the guards!

Pitino's primary trio of guards is not performing at a Pitino-level. Jerry Smith, the most touted is under-performing, Edgar Sosa is having point guard issues, and Andre Magee is the type of a point guard a Top 10 teams brings off the bench. Pitino was so frustrated that he sat them during crunch time and brought in high-energy Preston Knowles, who will probably see his playing time increase after his energy infusion. Earl Clark was probably the only one who played at his talent level, although he did make some "freshman" mistakes towards the end of the game.

On the other side of the court, with the writer's strike putting his show on ice, Jon Stewart is able to spend more time with his basketball team. And it paid dividends as the Daily Flyers showed a lot of "onions" when they got punched by Louisville and the crowd at the score of 41-39, and sprung back to take over the game once again.

Speaking of 41-39, the game turned into a soccer game for a few minutes when the score was 39-39 (zero-zero). Viva Defense! Chris Wright was all over the place, with some impressive moves but also his share of humble pie in the form of him getting blocked left and right.

Finally some national love for Dayton senior Brian Roberts who put 20+ on PitinoVille, and was excellent in the first half!

More on this game from Brian Bennett (Courier Journal blog), Card Chronicle, Miami Herald, and March Advantage.