2010 St. John's Red Storm Basketball: St. John's vs UConn

The coaches and players in the Louisville locker room said all the right things Thursday night, after they endured the kind of loss that can take down an entire season. Yet, as much as the Cardinals might want to deny it, it's hard to shake the notion that they got swallowed up by the controversy their head coach created.

Several hours before Louisville took the court at Madison Square Garden on Thursday, many different reports - originating with a story in the New York Daily News - indicated that Cardinal coach Rick Pitino, whose wife Joanne has long loved the big city and not the different tones of Kentucky's more pastoral environment, had sent intermediaries to talk to New Jersey Nets President Rod Thorn about the team's head coaching position, which will come up for discussion once the NBA regular season ends. The Daily News story, filed by reporter Mitch Lawrence with contributions from legendary basketball man Dick "Hoops" Weiss, quoted a high-ranking Nets official as saying that "Pitino is interested in the job."

Pitino spent most of Thursday - including his postgame press conference - vehemently denying the rumors connected to his own actions, but as much as the Louisville leader tried to shoot down speculation, it's rather difficult to deny that his team played with the uncertainty and listlessness of a group that had its mind elsewhere.

Pitino-coached teams might be young, sloppy and overly impatient at times, and that's certainly been the case on many occasions in a trying 2009-10 campaign. Without Terrence Williams and Earl Clark, Louisville is a shell of the team that stormed to the Big East regular season and tournament championships last season. It's not outrageous at all to see the Cards struggling this particular year, but what does leave a bitter taste is this face-plant in New York on a night when UL needed to get its second road win of the season and bolster its NCAA Tournament credentials.

Louisville's only road triumph to date is a Jan. 6 win at Providence. In every other road game, this club has gone down to defeat. Surely, a St. John's team residing in the bottom tier of the Big East standings offered the promise of a get-well tonic, but a limp Louisville lineup - which sure didn't seem to care all that much about competing - set a horrible tone inside Madison Square Garden, which was sparsely filled due to the snowstorm that's raging through the Northeastern United States.

St. John's bolted to a 12-0 lead, as the Cards didn't dent the scoreboard until the 13:23 mark of the first half. A short while later, from the 9:57 mark of the first half until 2:39 left before halftime, UL hit just one field goal. The visitors from the Commonwealth of Kentucky scored just 23 points in the first half, and never really got their teeth into this tussle against Norm Roberts' Red Storm. The Cardinals briefly flirted with the idea of being competitive, as they pulled within six points (40-34) with 15:29 left in regulation, but then they folded the tent against the Johnnies' defensive pressure. A five-and-a- half-minute scoring drought enabled the Red Storm to amass a 54-34 bulge with 9:59 remaining, and the competitive phase of this laugher was over.

No one on Louisville's bench - especially Mr. Pitino - was in any mood to smile. Not after a miserable and distracting day for a team and a program that have been immersed in misery this season... thanks in large part to their wayward and ethically challenged head coach.

St. John's vs Louisville Basketball Recap