While sitting in Surin West, a Thai restaurant in the 5 Points section of Birmingham, I thought I'd reflect on the Cards 79-61 win over Boise State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. I really thought the Broncos were going to give the Cardinals problems, but that's why I report on sports and don't actually play or coach. Shows you how much I know.

This was the kind of performance Louisville needed to show their fans and everyone outside the program the two game losing streak was behind them. They were thought to have been in a shooting slump but they broke out of that slump in a big way last night. Behind 15 points from sophomore Earl Clark and 13 from Juan Palacios the Cards put on a shooting exhibition. They were hitting nearly everything they put up. The stats really tell the story of the game. While the Broncos hit only four three pointers, Louisville went off for 12. It's the first double digit three point effort for the Cards since they hit 11 against Rutgers back in early February. Tey shot 12-24 from behind the arc and hit 56 percent of their shots overall.

Now they move on the second round to face a very physical Oklahoma team. The inside tandem of freshman Blake Griffin and senior Longar Longar is very intimidating. Inside stuff definitely won't come easy. I think the Cards will have to continue their hot outside shooting if they're going to move on to their first Sweet 16 since their Final Four run in 2005. Then again what do I know.

Let me know what you think.

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