M. hoops hosts Louisville
Loss of four players hurts Cardinals’ chances for victory
By Scott Yamaguchi
Daily Bruin Staff
If ever there has been a case of Murphy’s Law in college
basketball, it is at the University of Louisville this year.
Midway through the season, the Cardinals have already lost an
assistant coach to resignation, two players to academic
ineligibility, one player to a knee injury, and another who is
under investigation for issues regarding his car.
Ranked No. 12 in the Associated Press’ preseason poll,
Louisville lost four of its first 11 games and dropped out of the
Top 25 before Christmas.
Still, head coach Denny Crum has guided his makeshift lineup to
a 13-6 record, including a 5-1 mark in Conference USA, and for this
reason, the Cardinals will not be taken lightly when they visit
Pauley Pavilion for a 1:05 p.m. showdown with UCLA Saturday.
"Louisville is a great game," Bruin head coach Jim Harrick said.
"They were maybe a Top-10 club coming into the year, and if they
can get things straightened out before the season’s over, I don’t
know. But it’s always a great, great game between Louisville and
UCLA."
The Cardinals, who enter Saturday’s game with a three-game
winning streak, have been carried all season by junior Dejuan
Wheat, a 6-foot guard averaging 19.1 points and 3.9 rebounds per
game. Wheat was the leading scorer in 14 of Louisville’s games;
when he scores more than 20 points, his team is 8-1.
But Wheat’s supporting cast is virtually nonexistent, and as he
goes, so go the hopes of the team. Only one other player – Alvin
Sims – is averaging double figures for the Cardinals, with 13.4
points. Senior guard Tick Rogers scores about nine points per
game,but nobody can account for the offensive and defensive
presence that was lost with Samaki Walker and Jason Osborne.
Walker, a 6-foot-9-inch sophomore center, is being withheld from
competition while the school investigates apparent NCAA rules
violations regarding his car. Prior to his suspension, Walker
averaged 15 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. His replacement,
junior Beau Zach Smith, scores about 3.5 points per game and grabs
2.9 rebounds.
Osborne, a 6-foot-8-inch junior, was deemed academically
ineligible and has yet to appear in a game this season. Last year,
he averaged 11.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists as a
second-year starter.
Osborne’s most likely replacement would have been 6-foot-7-inch
sophomore Alex Sanders. But Sanders, who was a Proposition 48
athlete and missed last season, has been ruled academically
ineligible also.
Now, the Cardinals must rely on 6-foot-6-inch sophomore Damion
Dantzler, who’s averaging 7.5 points and 4.9 rebounds.
That should open things up in the middle for UCLA (13-4 overall,
6-1 in the Pacific 10), which leads its conference in rebounding
margin and boasts the NCAA’s best field goal percentage.
STEVEN KIM/Daily Bruin
Center Jelani McCoy looks to swat Louisville like flies when the
Cardinals descend on Pauley Pavilion Saturday.
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