ESPN Men's Basketball

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- To say California vs. Louisville was a game of runs is like saying the ocean has a few waves.

The Bears opened the game with a 22-4 lead, then saw Louisville get it back to single digits late in the first half. After Cal built a 14-point edge in the second half, the Cardinals stormed back to get within four points with seven minutes left.

But Cal had the last run and the last laugh, advancing to play Duke on Sunday with a 77-62 win.

The end came for Louisville when the Cardinals were called for an intentional foul with 2:43 left after coach Rick Pitino yelled for his team to foul. Pitino argued and was slapped with a technical, giving California four free throws and the ball.

Really, though, the Bears won with their outside shooting. Every time Louisville got close, a Cal shooter would hit a big jumper. Jerome Randle, Theo Robertson and Patrick Christopher combined to make all eight of the team's 3-pointers and scored 59 points together.

The Cardinals, on the other hand, got very little from their backcourt outside of Edgar Sosa. Starting guards Jerry Smith and Reginald Delk and top reserve Preston Knowles were a combined 3-for-17 from the floor.

NEW YORK -- Playing without Jerry Smith hasn't changed the impact of Louisville's backcourt. The senior Smith is on the bench in street clothes, nursing a hand injury that will make him day-to-day for the duration of the Cardinals' stay in New York.

No big deal. Edgar Sosa and Reginald Delk have made up for his offense. The often unpredictable Sosa has been rock solid in the first half, with 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Delk, meantime, has been equally reliable. He's a perfect 4-of-4 from the floor and 2-of-2 from the free-throw line and goes to the locker room with 13. The duo is spearheading a torrid 51-percent shooting effort for Louisville.

The only thing standing between Louisville and a blowout right now is the backboard. The Cardinals are getting smoked on the boards by Cincy. The Bearcats have 11 offensive rebounds, giving the Bearcats, who are shooting 26 percent, just just enough putbacks to hang in the game.

Lance Stephenson, the newly minted Big East rookie of the year, continues his struggles playing in his hometown. He's only 1-of-5 for four points in the half.

The Big East admitted Monday that officials made procedural and communication errors at the end of Saturday's West Virginia at Louisville game.

An out-of-bounds call was never made as official Mike Kitts ducked his head away from the ball. The ball was awarded to West Virginia and the Mountaineers ultimately won the game. This came after the officials blatantly missed a call when the ball bounced off Joe Mazzulla’s head on the previous possession. The ball was awarded to West Virginia and the Mountaineers scored on the inbounds with a game-winning Da'Sean Butler shot from the side with 17 seconds left.

The official rule states that if no call is made then the officials have to award the ball to whoever has the alternating possession arrow, which was Louisville. But the ball went to West Virginia. Louisville’s Reginald Delk had missed a 3-pointer with seven seconds left prior to the disputed out of bounds play.

Officials still went to the monitor after the no-call was made. The official word from the Big East office is they went to the monitor to see why the shot clock was still on after Butler’s basket with 17 seconds left. The shot clock should not have been on but was never shut off.

Still, it was suspicious that the officials went to the monitor to review the shot clock and then after that gave possession to West Virginia. The unofficial word is that the officials knew the ball went off Louisville (which was later proved correct upon close replay) but never enunciated that point to West Virginia or Louisville, hence the “lack of communication” issue from the Big East.

Following the game, Louisville coach Rick Pitino said he was “tired of the officiating.’’ Big East officials said that there would be no action taken with the general comment. Not sure what would have happened had Pitino singled out a specific official.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Texas-Kansas on Feb. 8 should live up to the hype as the most anticipated game of the season.

Let’s hope so.

Louisville at Kentucky was supposed to be 1A to Texas-Kansas, but the game was hardly memorable beyond the first 45 seconds. Kentucky’s 71-62 victory Saturday at Rupp Arena had its moments of angst, anger and exhilaration -- because the crowd generated so much enthusiasm. But there was something missing -- like quality play, for one -- for most of the afternoon.

The game started with jawing from Edgar Sosa and Eric Bledsoe, a scrum with DeMarcus Cousins that involved an elbow that could have been deemed flagrant but wasn’t, and technical fouls for Cousins, Reginald Delk and Jared Swopshire.

But the chippy play subsided and when it was time to actually attempt to put the ball in the basket in the first half, both teams were off, with Louisville 1-of-20 at one point. Kentucky struggled as well, shooting just 30 percent.

Louisville forced tempo, and while John Wall was once again nursing cramps that kept him out of the game, the Wildcats were out of sync. Louisville made quite a comeback to take a one-point lead at 42-41 with just under 10 to play.

The Wildcats had a bit more stamina and size with Cousins and Patrick Patterson too tough to handle inside. Wall made some cameos getting to the basket, but on the whole this wasn’t his best effort.

The game was hyped as Rick Pitino’s return to Kentucky for the first time since admitting he was being extorted by a woman he had had an affair with six years earlier. But the crowd was well-behaved and only booed Pitino upon his entrance.

The game lasted into a third hour and was painfully slow at times. What was learned is that Louisville will be a pest in the Big East, but not a title contender. Meanwhile, Kentucky could be extremely vulnerable to a zone and careless play on the road.

This was hardly the crowning Kentucky thought it was going to be heading into next week's SEC opener. The Wildcats are still a national title contender, but there is still much to be done for this largely inexperienced squad.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Well, that was eventful.

The first 45 seconds of the Louisville-Kentucky game included Edgar Sosa jawing at the Wildcats' bench and a rugby-like scrum with Kentucky’s DeMarcus Cousins and Louisville’s Jared Swopshire and Reginald Delk, resulting in technical fouls for all three.

Through the first 45 seconds neither team had attempted a shot and the game was scoreless.

The rest of the half looked like it was going to belong to Kentucky, even with the Wildcats unable to put together any sort of shooting spree. There was a point when Kentucky was 6 of 17 while the Cardinals were 1 of 17. Louisville missed its first 12 field goal attempts.

As you can see, there wasn’t much offense. The only consistent presence was Cousins diving on the floor, creating shots for his team and putting forth his best effort. Patrick Patterson deserved a nod as well as he finished the half with a dozen points and was 5 of 7 from the field. While Wall did breeze through the lane for a layup at one point, the Wildcats could never get their mojo going and clung to a 27-19 lead at the half as Louisville got hot at the end. I say that liberally as they made four more field goals, including a 3-pointer to finish 5 of 29 for the half. The two teams could not have played worse and the dozen Cardinals’ turnovers didn’t help their cause.

The intensity of the jawing from the first few minutes and the booing of Louisville coach Rick Pitino had subsided. So now its time to actually play the game in which neither team was doing well for the first 20 minutes.