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BEChampsBaseball
Louisville Baseball Wins 16-Straight to Close Season, Win Big East Regular Season Title

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LOUISVILLE EARNS TOP SEED FOR 2013 BIG EAST BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

Cardinals claim fourth regular-season title in the last five years

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – After closing the regular season with 16 consecutive wins, Louisville has earned the No. 1 seed in the 2012 Big East Baseball Championship, which begins Wednesday, May 23, at Bright House Field in Clearwater, Fla.

The top eight teams in the final regular-season standings qualify for the Big East Championship, which features a double-elimination format through the semifinal round. The championship final is a winner-take-all affair Sunday, May 27, which will determine the Big East’s automatic entrant to the NCAA Championship. The double-elimination round games will be carried live on ESPN3 and BigEastBaseball.com. Sunday’s final will be televised at noon ET on ESPNU.

The tournament’s opening ceremonies and awards presentations will be Tuesday, May 22 at 7 p.m. at Bright House Field, followed by the third annual Big East Home Run Derby at 8 p.m.

The Cardinals (46-10, 20-4 Big East), who entered the final weekend of conference play in second place in the Big East standings, extended their winning streak to 16 games by taking three straight against Pittsburgh to win the regular-season title by two games. The late-season rally has become the norm for the Cardinals, who moved into first place in the last weekend of the regular season to take the title for the fourth time in the last five years.

The No. 1 seeding pairs Louisville against Connecticut (30-25, 9-15 Big East), which comes in as the No. 8 seed. The Cardinals and Huskies will meet Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET in first-round play. Louisville won back-to-back Big East tournament titles in 2008 and 2009, while Connecticut is looking for its first championship since 1994.

Seton Hall (36-17, 18-6 Big East) and Pittsburgh (40-15, 18-6) tied for second in the final regular-season standings, but the Pirates earned the No. 2 seed in the Big East Championship based on the conference’s tiebreaking procedure. Seton Hall, which won Big East titles in 1987, 2001 and 2011, will face No. 7-seeded Notre Dame (31-23, 10-14 Big East) at 1 p.m. Wednesday. Notre Dame won five straight tournament championships from 2002 to 2006

Pittsburgh, which won a school-record 40 games in the regular season, opens the Big East Championship with a 10 a.m. matchup against No. 6-seeded St. John’s (23-33, 10-14 Big East) – the winner of two of the last three conference titles. The Panthers won their only Big East tournament title in 1995, while the Red Storm have won a record seven crowns.

Wednesday’s first round is capped by a matchup between No. 4-seeded USF (35-20, 17-7 Big East) and No. 5-seeded Rutgers (26-28, 14-10 Big East) at 8 p.m. The Bulls, who reached last year’s championship game, are looking for their first conference title, while the Scarlet Knights have won three titles, most recently in 2007.

The May 26 Big East Championship final will be televised live on ESPNU, marking the eighth straight year in which the title game will be carried live on the ESPN family of networks.

Coverage of the BIG EAST Championship also will be available on the web at BigEastBaseball.com. The site will include the ESPN3 telecast of all games from the first four days of competition along with live coverage of Tuesday’s opening ceremonies and Home Run Derby.

2013 BIG EAST Baseball Championship Schedule

Tuesday, May 21

Opening Ceremonies/Award Presentations/Home Run Derby – Gates open at 6 p.m.; ceremonies begin at 7 p.m.

                Home Run Derby Participants

Connecticut – LJ Mazzilli (.362, 5 HR, 45 RBI)

Louisville – Zak Wasserman (.223, 0 HR, 20 RBI)

Notre Dame – Trey Mancini (.396, 6 HR, 52 RBI)

Pittsburgh – Elvin Soto (.318, 6 HR, 40 RBI)

Rutgers – Ross Costello (.172, 3 HR, 14 RBI)

St. John’s – Frank Schwindel (.348, 5 HR, 52 RBI)

Seton Hall – Sal Annunziata (.322, 6 HR, 37 RBI)

USF – Jimmy Falla (.306, 2 HR, 46 RBI)

Wednesday, May 22 - Four games

(ESPN3 and BigEastBaseball.com)

Game 1 – No. 6  St. John’s (23-33) vs. No. 3 Pittsburgh (40-15), 10 a.m.

Game 2 – No. 7 Notre Dame (31-23) vs. No. 2 Seton Hall (36-17), 1 p.m.

Game 3 – No. 8 Connecticut (30-25) vs. No. 1 Louisville (46-10), 5 p.m.

Game 4 – No. 5 Rutgers (26-28) vs. No. 4 USF (35-20), 8 p.m.

Thursday, May 23 - Four games

(ESPN3 and BigEastBaseball.com)

Game 5 – Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2, 10 a.m.

Game 6 – Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2, 1 p.m.

Game 7 – Loser of Game 3 vs. Loser of Game 4, 5 p.m.

Game 8 – Winner of Game 3 vs. Winner of Game 4, 8 p.m.

Friday, May 24 - Two games

(ESPN3 and BigEastBaseball.com)

Game 9 – Loser of Game 6 vs. Winner of Game 5, 4 p.m.

Game 10 – Loser of Game 8 vs. Winner of Game 7, 7 p.m.

 

Saturday, May 25 - Two, three, or four games

(ESPN3 and BigEastBaseball.com)

Game 11 – Winner of Game 6 vs. Winner of Game 9, 10 a.m.

Game 12 – Winner of Game 8 vs. Winner of Game 10, 1 p.m.

Game 13 – Loser of Game 11 vs. Winner of Game 11, 5 p.m. (if necessary)

Game 14 – Loser of Game 12 vs. Winner of Game 12, 6:30 p.m. or 8 p.m.

(if necessary; game would be at 6:30 if Game 13 is not necessary, 8 p.m. otherwise)

Sunday, May 26 - Championship game

(live television on ESPNU)

Game 15 – Winner of Group 1 vs. Winner of Group 2, Noon

All times Eastern

2013 Baseball Bracket

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2013 Louisville Championship Open Edition Print by Scott Scinta via Smashgraphix. All Rights Reserved.
2013 National Champions Print Available

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Kentucky artist, Scott Scinta, brings us his version of Louisville Cardinal pride with this new sophisticated watercolor print. Recall the magic of that Championship season. Share in the spirit of Cardinal pride as the team led by senior point gaurd, Peyton Siva, captured the hearts of Louisville basketball fans everywhere.

Scott is a graduate of the prestigious Ringling College of Art & Design in Sarasota, Florida and resides in Louisville, Kentucky. A national award-winning artist, he has won numerous competitions and has been selected to create championship prints for various schools such as the University of Kentucky and Bellarmine University, to name a few. Scott’s 16”x 20” watercolor will truly be a collector print for University of Louisville fans to enjoy.

In 2013, everything came together as the newly elected college basketball Hall of Fame coach, Rick Pitino, who led the Louisville Cardinals to a 35-5 (14-4) record while capturing the Cardinals’ third national championship by defeating the Michigan Wolverines, 82-76, to win the NCAA Division I men’s basketball championship in Atlanta.
After trailing by 12 points in the first half, for the second time in the 2013 Final Four, the
Louisville Cardinals mounted a second half comeback to win the national championship.
The showdown was one for the ages, with a dazzling array of airborne theatrics, jaw-dropping dunks and 3-pointers from well behind the line. The Cardinals surged from a double-digit deficit in the first half to lead during much of the second half and finally clinch the victory.

Louisville Head Coach, Rick Pitino, said his team was able to top the Wolverines’
“absolutely incredible” performance “probably because I have the 13 toughest guys I’ve
ever coached.” The win was the culmination of a season-long journey for the Louisville
coaches, players, and support staff. Representing not only the University, the team has
been embraced by the greater community, and showed a nationwide audience an
exciting brand of basketball played by student-athletes who conduct themselves with
class and dignity. Pitino said, “We competed as students, sons, and young men, and now we have another national championship to bring home.

I’ve known Scott for several years now.  The print that he has available is actually an original painting, and he takes great pride in his work.  Scinta has a lot of work available from past Louisville conquests, including the 2013 Sugar Bowl & 2007 Orange Bowl. You can see all of Scinta’s prints at: SmashGraphix.com 

Here are a few pics during the creation of the original Championship portrait, ORDER FORM BELOW. 

Here are the Sugar Bowl Details:

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Patterson-Stadium-Bats
No. 10 Louisville Baseball Hosts No. 16 Pittsburgh in BIG EAST Showdown Series

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Series set for Thursday (6 p.m., ET), Friday (6 p.m.) and Saturday (noon, ESPNU) at Patterson Stadium

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The 10th-ranked Louisville baseball team will close the regular season at home against No. 16 Pittsburgh in a three-game series that will determine the BIG EAST Conference regular season champion.

The series will open on Thursday at 6 p.m., ET at Jim Patterson Stadium and will continue on Friday at 6 p.m. Saturday’s finale is set for a noon start and will be televised nationally by ESPNU with Mike Morgan and Chris Burke calling the action. Admission is free throughout the weekend.

Live play-by-play of the series can be heard on News/Talk 1570 AM and will also be available to subscribers of CardsTV at GoCards.com. Live scoring will be available through the Gametracker feature on the baseball schedule page at GoCards.com.

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Louisville Guard Russ Smith Cuts the Nets on the Floor of the Georgia Dome following his Cardinals victory over Michigan in the 2013 National Championship game. Russ wears a shirt of him and his high school coach (late) Jack Curran. Picture by Mark Blankenbaker
FINAL TVT: OOC, Conference, Post Season, Total Season

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2013 is in the Books.  We won the whole damn thing.  Not bad.

I have the final TVT ”top 5″ for the team broken down into 4 parts; Total Season, OOC, Conference, and Post Season Tourneys.  Some of the results might surprise you.

History

I started TVT, because I saw many fans devaluing Luke Hancock solely due to his shooting early in the season.  We now know how hurt he was, but the reality was – he was chipping in quite a bit, just not with the 3 ball.  He sure chipped in the 3 ball at the end of the year, but TVT was born.

I evaluate most statistical categories (good and bad), made a formula that takes the net of this statistics, and divide it by minutes played.  A player gets a value, which essentially means: “When I play for 1 minute, I net the team ‘X’ amount of positive contributions”.

Note:  I find it interesting to see how players move depending on the segment of the season:  Total Season, Out Of Conference schedule (OOC), Conference league play (Conference), and Post Season Play (BET, NCAA). 

I also tracked the team average for each leg of the season to see if we were rising or falling in production averages as the season progressed.  As we all witnessed – in the post season, the averages freaking skyrocketed to levels not seen all season long.  It was beautiful.  That is peaking at the right time.

 

Final Season Rankings

I tracked 37 of our 40 games – not all played those full 37 (example, Gorgui was out for 7).

Team average: 0.48, which means that the team average – everyone factored in for all 37 games, averaged about 1 net positive statistic just slightly over 2 minutes played.  That is a pretty good score

Full Season Top Performer:  Gorgui Dieng (0.65) 

Mr. Consistent delivering night in and night out.  We will miss Gorgui next year.

Next 4: Smith (0.63), Behanan (0.58), Harrell (0.57), Siva (0.43)

Some usual suspects, and how nice to see Frosh Harrell in the mix for top performing “per minute played”?  37 games of tracking, and he is in top 5.

 

OOC ONLY Final Rankings

I tracked 10 of Louisville’s OOC games.  This is how the team fared in those games.

Team Average: 0.53, an uptick compared to the entire season, not uncommon.  The Big East is a battle, and we had some weak RPI’s in the OOC (mixed in with some toughies). Averaged about 1 net positive statistic just slightly less than 2 minutes played.  That is above our season average, a strong OOC run for the cards.

OOC Top Performer:  Russ Smith (0.81)

Whoa, Russdiculous blew the roof off the competition in the OOC schedule, and it helped “re-brand” the meaning of Russdiculous, and put him in the POY discussion with great games again some tough OOC matchups.  This is a moderately insane score.

Next 4:  Behanan (0.69), Dieng (0.63), Harrell (0.63), Siva (0.58)

None of the names on this list should surprise you.

 

 

Conference Final Rankings

I tracked all 18 games.  This is how the team fared in those games.

Team Average: 0.48, Hit the season Average.  Hardest run of the regular season not surprised to see a drop in production compared to OOC, averaged about 1 net positive statistic just slightly over 2 minutes played.  That is a pretty good score.

Conference Top Performer:  Dieng (0.84) 

You can see why Dieng was the season’s leader.  Averaging an extremely high score over a period of 18 games.  Well done, big fella.

Next 4:  Behanan (0.67), Smith (0.62), Harrell (0.56), Blackshear (0.57)

Behanan was bigger in conference play than people seem to remember, and the Frosh Harrell remains on the list.  I guess we will keep him on the team.  Blackshear finally shines for the team, and rounds out the top 5.

 

Post Season Final Rankings

I tracked all 9 post season games. This is how the team fared in those games.

Team Average: 0.63, That is not a typo.  The team went nuts, from the starting 5, to the last sub in.  They out produced their efforts at a higher level than any point in the season, playing the toughest opponents.  Wow.  The team was averaging 1 positive net statistic well inside of 2 minutes.

Post Season Top Performer:  Dieng (0.70), SVT (0.70)

Many thought Luke would be near the top, but the reality is everyone on the team produced at a high level, so everyone moved up together and not as many changes in the order.  SVT benefited hugely from a few production packed minutes where he only played 2 or 3 minutes, so consider Dieng your winner, and I will toss SVT out of the top 5.  He did play well for us though, and should be noticed, that is why I listed him above for peeps to see.

Next 4: Smith (0.63), Harrell (0.67), Behanan (0.56) Hancock (0.55).

The “next 4” all return for the Cards.  That makes me happy.  Siva finished 6th, but his contributions are not just measured on a stat sheet.  He will go down as one of the great floor/team leaders ever.  His calming effect on the team, and his ability to turn a team into a brotherhood should always be remembered.

 

Final Thoughts

We are returning 6 of the top 8 TVT leaders.  We lose #1, Gorgui Dieng, that is a factor.  We are replacing our most productive player “per minute played” with an unknown commodity (Mangok), a reserve (SVT), or potentially a power forward (Harrell).  I personally do not think Rick would play Behanan and Harrell together because the PF spot is a crucial one, and we don’t have a reliable replacement on the boards if they both get into foul trouble.  I believe they will remained hitched to keep production steady.  I think we will need to “out shoot” our lost production from Gorgui, and with the shooters we are adding – we might shoot better than our play on the court, and that is ok.  As a coach much smarter than me once said “Shooting will hide a multitude of sins”.

A new year, a new challenge – is there anyone you would rather figure the new puzzle out than Hall Of Fame Coach Rick Pitino?

Not me.

Go  Cards.