Louisville-Butler Postgame Notes

Nov. 19, 2011

TEAM

Louisville breaks a 5-5 tie in the all-time series with Butler, winning for the sixth time in the last seven matchups. The Bulldogs have not defeated the Cards on either team's home court since Dec. 10, 1937 (BU's only win since came in the 2003 NCAA Tournament).

UofL has now won three straight at Hinkle Fieldhouse dating back to that 1937 meeting.

Louisville won on the home court of a team reaching the national championship game the previous year for the sixth time in school history and first since Dec. 27, 1997. On that date, UofL took down #4 UK 79-76 in Rupp Arena nine months after the Wildcats fell in overtime to Arizona in the 1997 title game.

Won road game over national title game participant from previous year, Louisville history
11.19.11 - Louisville 69, Butler 53 (Connecticut 53, Butler 41 in 2011 championship)
12.27.97 - Louisville 79, Kentucky 76 (Arizona 84, Kentucky 79 in 1997 championship)
1.11.92 - Louisville 85, Kansas 78 (Duke 72, Kansas 65 in 1991 championship)
12.17.83 - Louisville 83, NC State 79 (NC State 54, Houston 52 in 1983 championship)
12.21.74 - Louisville 80, Marquette 69 (NC State 76, Marquette 64 in 1974 championship)
2.19.55 - Louisville 79, Bradley 59 (La Salle 92, Bradley 76 in 1954 championship)

Saturday's game was the first of three for Louisville this season against a 2011 Final Four team, with games against Kentucky (Dec. 31) and Connecticut (Feb. 6) still to come. It will be the first time in UofL history the Cards have faced three-fourths of the previous year's Final Four during a season. No other NCAA team is scheduled to face three of last year's Final Four teams this year.

The Cardinals begin the season 3-0 for the third consecutive year, the first time they have had three straight 3-0 starts since doing so in eight straight years from 1949-50 to 1956-57.

Butler lost for just the sixth time at Hinkle Fieldhouse (57-6) in five seasons under head coach Brad Stevens. Louisville and Evansville are the only non-Horizon League teams to win at Hinkle in the last three years, with the Cards the only to do so in regulation (Purple Aces won 71-68 in overtime on Nov. 27, 2010).

UofL handed Butler its worst home defeat since a 103-56 loss to fifth-ranked North Carolina during the 1992-93 season. All of the Bulldogs' other home losses since the 1999-00 season have come by nine points or less.

Louisville was the highest-ranked team to visit Hinkle since that UNC matchup.

The Cards held Butler to just six points for a stretch of 9:13 at the end of the first half and beginning of the second, allowing UofL to turn a 22-17 deficit into a 34-28 advantage. BU went 1-for-8 from the floor during that time, including 0-for-5 from three (after starting the game 4-for-6 from deep).

The Bulldogs missed their final 12 three-point attempts of the game after that 4-for-6 start. Junior Chase Stigall missed his final five tries after hitting his first three from long range.

Louisville saw itself down by five on four different occasions in the first half before rallying for the win. After Butler took a 41-40 lead with 12:11 to go, UofL scored 29 of the game's final 41 points, including an immediate 8-0 run to go back up 48-41.

Opposing teams have scored just 149 points (49.7 per game) against the Cards this year, the fewest points allowed by Louisville in a three-game span since Dec. 26, 2007-Jan. 1, 2008 (49 for Morehead State, 36 for Iona, 58 for Cincinnati).

Louisville has held its first three opponents of the season to fewer than 55 points for the first time since 1960-61, when Alabama (53), Wittenberg (36), and Bellarmine (52) all failed to hit the mark. The 149 combined points are also the fewest for the Cards' first three foes since that season. Louisville has not started a season with four straight games holding its opponent to less than 55 points since 1945-46; in fact, it has not held any four-game stretch of opponents to fewer than 55 points each since Dec. 4-14, 1946 (40 for Georgetown College, 52 for Western Kentucky, 43 for Hanover, and 46 for Indiana).

Butler's 25 rebounds tie for the fewest by a Cardinal opponent since Providence had 21 on Jan. 6, 2010. For UofL, the four steals tied for its fewest since getting only three at Syracuse on Feb. 14, 2010.

Louisville improves to 89-6 under head coach Rick Pitino when shooting .500 or better from the field, winning its 10th straight such game.

PLAYER

Making his first career start in place of the injured Peyton Siva, sophomore Russ Smith tied a career high with nine points in the game (also nine at Western Kentucky last season). He also tied career marks for field goals (three) and free throws (two) made.

Smith nabbed two steals in 17 minutes in the game to give him five in 40 minutes of action this season. For his career, Smith has 18 thefts in 136 minutes, translating to an average of 5.3 per 40 minutes of floor time.

Smith recorded his second career block in the first half of Saturday's game.

Senior Kyle Kuric finished with six rebounds in the game - including five in the first half - continuing his increased play on the boards beginning during the stretch run last year. Kuric put up 2.2 boards per outing over the first 68 games over his career, but has grabbed an average of 5.7 per contest since Feb. 22 of last season, including 5.0 per outing in 2011-12.

Kuric has also upped his scoring over that time period, putting up 14.3 points per contest. He had 17 on Saturday, 12 of which came in the second half.

With three assists and one turnover in the game, Kuric now has 12 assists and just four turnovers in his last five games dating back to 2010-11.

Freshman Chane Behanan's seven rebounds give him 32 over the first three games of his career. No Cardinal of any class has had more boards in a three-game span since Samardo Samuels had 35 from Dec. 23-30, 2009. Earl Clark was the last to have more in the first three games of the season, snagging 38 in wins over Hartford, Jackson State, and UNLV to start the 2007-08 campaign.

Junior Jared Swopshire put together his third straight solid outing since returning from injury, collecting eight points and six rebounds. He has had at least eight points and five boards in all three games this year, averaging 9.7 and 6.3, respectively.

After combining for just seven points in the first half, seniors Kuric and Chris Smith teamed up for 25 points in the second stanza, including 13 by Smith, who was 4-for-5 from the field and 4-for-4 from the stripe in the period.

Smith's 15 points leave him 44 shy of reaching 1,000 for his career (counting his 596 points in two years at Manhattan).

Sophomore Gorgui Dieng notched yet another multiple-block game, his third straight to begin the year and the 16th of his career.

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Chane Behanan

Earl Clark

Gorgui Dieng

Kyle Kuric

Samardo Samuels

Peyton Siva

Chris Smith

Russ Smith

Jared Swopshire

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