StraitCards Previews: Louisville Cardinals (16-5, 4-4) at Seton Hall Pirates (15-5, 4-4)

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Date – Saturday, January 28, 2012
Location – Prudential Center, Newark, N.J. (18,711)
Time – 8:05 p.m. ET
Television – Big East Network (WHAS-TV in Louisville), Jason Benetti (pbp), Bob Wenzel (color)
Radio – WKRD (790 AM), SIRIUS/XM Ch. 91, Paul Rogers (pbp), Doug Ormay (color)
Series – 9-5 Louisville (last: U of L 73, SHU 54, 1/5/11 in Louisville)
Officials – Jim Burr, Mike Roberts, Lamar Simpson

With a modest two-game winning streak, the Cards journey to Newark to take on the Seton Hall Pirates on Saturday night. Seton Hall is one of two Big East teams (along with Notre Dame) that Louisville has not beaten on the road since joining the conference in 2005-06. Not even a 14-point lead with 12 minutes left and a Terrence Williams triple double in 2008 was enough to earn the Cards a victory as Jeremy Hazell (thank God he’s gone) knocked down eight threes and scored 29 points en route to a 10-point Pirates victory. In 2010, Hazell dropped 25 as the Hall led nearly the entire way (and by as much as 14) before squeaking out with a three-point win.

U of L will have to defend the perimeter Saturday night. Seton Hall has six players that have hit at least ten shots from deep this season. Jeremy Hazell is not walking through the doors of the Prudential Center, but the Pirates still have the ability to shoot their way to another home win over the Cards. Peyton Siva will be an important factor again in the road environment. His jump shot finally came around against Villanova and if he can consistently hit those types of shots, the offense will open up much more down low for Gorgui Dieng and on the perimeter for Chris Smith and Kyle Kuric (and everywhere on the 94 feet of hardwood for Russ Smith).

Last year, the Cards dominated Seton Hall, led by former U of L assistant under Rick Pitino, Kevin Willard. The Cards won 73-54 and led by as much as 28 at the first Big East game in the KFC Yum! Center. Siva and Mike Marra each scored 14.

Pey-Pey had fun against Seton Hall last season.

The 2012 Pirates started off the season 11-1 before splitting their last eight contests, all in the Big East. Syracuse welcomed them to conference play with a 26-point drubbing in the Carrier Dome. Then, the Hall rattled off four straight wins over West Virginia, UConn, Providence and DePaul before dropping their last three to South Florida, Villanova and Notre Dame. They are on a slide and looking to rebound against the Cards.

Hall senior Herb Pope, who has played for Seton Hall since 2001-02, leads the team in scoring (16.1 PPG), rebounding (10.3 RPG) and blocks (1.7 BPG). Senior point guard Jordan Theodore is averaging 16.0 PPG to go along with his 7.2 assists. Peter Dill, the Hall’s third and final senior, a walk-on who has only played five minutes this year, is best known for his sideline celebrations:

Willard has a young team this year with half of his twelve-man roster being freshman. They also have three sophomores and no juniors. Sophomore Fuquan Edwin averages 14.0 PPG and shoots better than 50 percent from the field. He is also the best three-point shooter for the Pirates, having hit on 28 of 66 attempts (42 percent) and averages 3.1 steals. Aaron Cosby, though not shooting as good of a clip from deep as Edwin, has hit 40 treys this season in 101 attempts (39.6 percent). Cosby has attempted 72 percent of his field goals from three-point range.

After the road win at Pittsburgh and win over Villanova on Wednesday, the Cards appear on the verge of digging themselves out of the hole they dug at the beginning of the conference schedule. U of L won’t play for another week until they meet Rutgers in the Big Double Down on Saturday, February 4. The next three games following Rutgers are at home against Connecticut, at West Virginia and at home against Syracuse. There is still a lot of digging left to be done, but the upcoming schedule will provide the opportunity to make big strides towards getting the team where it wants to be in March.