Louisville-UNLV Postgame Notes

Dec. 11, 2010

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TEAM

Louisville improves its record to 8-0 for the first time since the 1996-97 season, in which the Cards began 10-0. The school record for victories to open a season is 13, achieved in three different seasons (1960-61, 1966-67, and 1974-75).

The loss for the UNLV was just its fourth in the Rebels' last 15 true road games.

Saturday's game was the eighth of a stretch of 10 straight home games to begin the season for Louisville, tying for the most consecutive home contests in school history.

Most consecutive home games, Louisville history
1. 10 - 11.16.10-12.18.10
1. 10 - 12.8.06-12.30.06
3. 8 - 12.2.09-12.30.09
3. 8 - 12.1.01-12.26.01
3. 8 - 12.6.75-1.3.76
3. 8 - 12.3.66-12.23.66
3. 8 - 2.22.61-12.6.61
8. 7 - 12.14.04-1.2.05
8. 7 - 12.16.78-1.8.79
8. 7 - 12.10.59-12.29.59
8. 7 - 2.16.46-12.7.46

The win for Louisville was its third straight against ranked teams dating back to the 70-60 defeat at the hands of #11 Georgetown on Feb. 23, 2009. The Cards last won four consecutive matchups with ranked teams in 2008-09, when Louisville took down #18 Villanova (61-60), #13 Notre Dame (87-73, OT), #1 Pittsburgh (69-63), and #8 Syracuse (67-57) from Jan. 10-25.

Saturday's meeting marked the ninth time in the 11 games of the series that at least one of the teams was ranked. The only matchups of an unranked Cardinal squad against an unranked Rebel team came on Dec. 22, 1994 (89-72 Louisville victory) and Nov. 21, 2000 (86-85 overtime win for U of L).

The Cards defeated the Rebels for the first time since Nov. 21, 2007 (68-48) but still have won five of the last seven in the series, which U of L now leads 6-5.

Louisville extended its streak of consecutive games making at least five three-pointers to 28 on Saturday afternoon after hitting 10 treys. Only VMI (81), Northern Colorado (37), Chattanooga (35), Weber State (30), Canisius (29), and Eastern Kentucky (29) have longer current streaks in Division I (after Saturday's afternoon games).

UNLV's seven first-half threes were the most surrendered by the Cards in a half since Charlotte hit eight (16 attempts) in the first stanza on Dec. 5, 2009.

Louisville forced the Runnin' Rebels into 18 turnovers in the game--every U of L foe this season has turned the ball over at least 16 times. The eight straight games with at least 16 opponent turnovers is the longest for a Louisville squad since the 2003-04 season (13-game stretch) and the longest to begin a season since 1998-99 (12 games).

Most consecutive games with 16+ opponent turnovers, since 1998-99
1. 13 - 12.13.03-1.28.04 (18-17-23-16-20-23-22-23-16-23-19-23-22)
2. 12 - 11.22.98-1.13.99 (20-17-25-21-21-19-18-29-24-16-23-21)
3. 10 - 12.4.99-1.12.00 (29-31-27-16-30-21-20-17-21-24)
4. 8 - 11.16.10-Present (17-17-25-19-22-16-16-18)
4. 8 - 2.4.99-2.25.99 (29-20-20-22-27-16-20-20)
6. 7 - 12.12.09-1.2.10 (20-21-25-18-17-21-18)

The Cards, on the other hand, have 50 assists and just 24 turnovers over the last three games. Louisville finished with 11 turnovers in the game, nearly becoming the first Cardinal squad in the last 31 seasons to turn the ball over fewer than 10 times in three straight games.

U of L was outshot from the field (.467 to .414), from behind the arc (.471 to .357), and from the line (.731 to .704) in a win for the first time since Jan. 12, 2009, against Notre Dame. In that contest, the Irish held advantages in field goal percentage (.429 to .425), three-point percentage (.450 to .333), and free throw percentage (.800 to .643) but the Cards pulled out an 87-73 overtime victory at Freedom Hall.

PLAYER

Junior Chris Smith scored in double figures for the fourth straight game (12.3 points per game over that span), finishing with 17 against UNLV. Over the four games, Smith has shot 60.0 percent (18-for-30) from the floor, 46.2 percent (6-for-13) from three, 77.8 percent (7-for-9) from the line, and has eight assists with just two turnovers.

Smith's season averages of .545 (field goal percentage), .500 (three-point percentage), and .769 (free throw percentage), and 1.56 (assist-to-turnover ratio) are marked improvements over his career numbers of .377, .286, .694, and 0.65, respectively, in his two years at Manhattan College.

Sophomore Peyton Siva set a new career best with seven assists against the Rebels, breaking his previous career high of six (set in the Jackson State game on Nov. 20). He also set career marks in free throws made (five, tied) and attempted (nine).

Siva's seven assists were the most for a Louisville underclassman (freshman or sophomore) since Terrence Williams had nine on March 9, 2007, against Pittsburgh in the BIG EAST Tournament.

Junior Kyle Kuric set new career highs in both threes made (five) and attempted (eight) against UNLV.

The last Louisville player to make more threes in a game was Andre McGee, who went 6-for-9 from long range against Hartford on Nov. 17, 2007.

Senior Preston Knowles scored all 20 of his points in the second half, the highest-scoring half of his 107-game Louisville career. His previous best 20-minute period came in the second half against Austin Peay on Dec. 13, 2008, in which he scored 18 of his career-high 21 points. The 20 points in a half were the most by a Louisville player since Kuric had 22 in the second half in last year's regular-season finale against #1 Syracuse. Kuric also scored all of his points in the second half that game.

Knowles went 6-for-6 from the stripe in the game and has now made eight straight free throws.

With two three-pointers on the day, Knowles has now made at least one trey in each of his last 11 games.

Freshman Elisha Justice played 13 turnover-free minutes on Saturday and still has never committed more than one turnover in a college game. Justice has a current string of 40+ minutes of floor time without a turnover.

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Elisha Justice

Elisha Justice

Preston Knowles

Kyle Kuric

Peyton Siva

Chris Smith

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