Louisville

He helped lead a late surge that almost enable Kentucky to overcome a 17-point second-half deficit at Louisville Saturday, but that didn't make freshman Archie Goodwin take the 80-77 loss any better. “I just, I hate losing. Any loss, no matter who it's against, is going to affect me,” said Goodwin, who had 22 points and five turnovers. “I want to win so bad. I know my teammates do as well. It's just one of those things where we should've won the game, we know we could've won it, and that's what makes it worse.” Goodwin was 8-for-15 from the field, including 3-for-5 from 3-point range, and 3-for-4 at the foul line.

Freshman Willie Cauley-Stein struggled to explain exactly how he felt after Kentucky lost to Louisville for the first time in four years Saturday. “The expectations here are so high. You are not supposed to lose to Louisville ... it's just depressing to know that we have to live what that the rest of the year. If we had just made free throws, we would have won,” said Cauley-Stein after the 80-77 loss at No. 4 Louisville. Cauley-Stein was 0-for-4 from the foul line - he actually went 0-for-6 as twice Louisville was called for lane violations on his misses and he missed the extra attempts both times.

LOUISVILLE - Louisville guard Peyton Siva wasn't surprised when Kentucky made a run at the Cardinals during the second half of an 80-77 triumph over the Wildcats Saturday night at the KFC Yum! Center. The fourth-ranked Cardinals, favored by many to end a four-game losing streak to Kentucky, built a 51-34 advantage with 14:33 remaining, but the Wildcats bounced back with a 10-0 scoring spree, sparked by back-to-back 3-pointers by Kyle Wiltjer that prevented a runaway rout by the hosts on their own home court.

LOUISVILLE - As he drove into traffic with less than 40 seconds remaining in Saturday's game, Kentucky freshman Archie Goodwin knew he was in trouble against Louisville's trapping defense. Kentucky had rallied from a 51-34 deficit five minutes into the second half to get back in the game and was down 78-74 thanks in large part to Goodwin, who had 10 points in the final four minutes of the game. However, he threw a pass that Louisville's Chane Behanan intercepted and turned into a dunk that sealed No. 4 Louisville's 80-77 victory.

LOUISVILLE - It's not often that coaches John Calipari and Rick Pitino are going to agree on anything. But guess what? After Louisville's 80-77 victory over Kentucky here Saturday, they agree on not one thing, but two things. First, both agree that No. 3 Louisville has a chance to be a special team despite squandering most of a 51-34 lead early in the second half against unranked UK. “Hats off to them. What a good team they are,” said Calipari. “They play hard, play aggressive, play rough.

LOUISVILLE - Louisville guard Peyton Siva wasn't surprised when Kentucky made a run at the Cardinals during the second half of an 80-77 triumph over the Wildcats Saturday night at the KFC Yum! Center. The fourth-ranked Cardinals, favored by many to end a four-game losing streak to Kentucky, built a 51-34 advantage with 14:33 remaining, but the Wildcats bounced back with a 10-0 scoring spree, sparked by back-to-back 3-pointers by Kyle Wiltjer that prevented a runaway rout by the hosts on their own home court.

He doesn't really think Kentucky can win at Louisville Saturday, but Sporting News college basketball columnist Mike DeCourcy knows pregame assumptions often can be wrong. The logic is that Louisville is just too experienced and deep for Kentucky this year, especially playing at home as it will be Saturday when it tried to end a four-game losing streak to the unranked Wildcats. “That would be the assumption, but if the games were not played by human beings we would simply feed it all into a computer and then take those results at face value,” said DeCourcy.

With Louisville and Kentucky renewing their rivalry Saturday in Louisville, oddsmakers agree that this is the year Rick Pitino's Cardinals finally beat John Calipari. Since arriving at UK, Calipari is 4-0 against Louisville, including a win in the Final Four last year when the Cats won the national championship. However, this year No. 4 Louisville is a solid favorite over unranked Kentucky, which has already lost to Duke, Baylor and Notre Dame. Three previous times in this series when Louisville was ranked this highly and UK was unranked, the Cardinals won each time.

LEXINGTON  - Louisville has had enough of losing to Kentucky. The No. 4 Cardinals have dropped four in a row to the Wildcats, including last spring's national semifinal in New Orleans. Kentucky won that game 69-61 and went on to beat Kansas two days later for its eighth national championship. That Final Four loss still bothers Cardinals coach Rick Pitino, who is 0-4 against Wildcats counterpart John Calipari. Fortunately for Pitino, he enters today's showdown in Louisville with an experienced team that's 11-1 and favored to reclaim Bluegrass State supremacy.

Hal Morris, the assistant sports editor at the Advocate-Messenger, is a lifelong Louisville fan. He still has his T-shirt from the original “Dream Game” between Kentucky and Louisville from 1983, but notes that he has sadly outgrown it in the last 29 years. Morris grew up in Louisville, but also lived in Cynthiana, home of former UK coach Joe B. Hall. But that did not sway his allegiance to his Cardinals. David Brock grew up rooting for Kentucky and likes to voice his disdain for that school to the west of Lexington when he can. If Kentucky loses, Brock has vowed to congratulate Hal before beginning an angry hibernation for several months in an undisclosed location where he won't have to hear about the game.