By ERIC CRAWFORD
The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Welcome to Pitino Standard Time. Please set your watches ahead two years.

University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino and his team turned up the clock on his Cardinal rebuilding project Saturday with an 81-63 demolition of the University of Kentucky.

Louisville coach Rick Pitino gets a little fired up sometimes. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

The Wildcats came into the game with a No. 14 national ranking and three straight wins in the series, including a 20-point rout last season in Pitino's return to Rupp Arena. But UK (6-3) left with its most lopsided loss ever under Tubby Smith in a game that U of L dominated after a slow start.

With 50 seconds to play and their lead at 20 while Erik Brown was at the foul line, U of L's players embraced near the other foul line, enjoying the jubilation of the second-largest U of L crowd in Freedom Hall history, 20,061.

"We've been through a lot on this team," junior forward Ellis Myles said. "You have to enjoy a moment like that. We wanted to come out and show we're legitimate."

They're not just legitimate, but at 7-1 they're poised to crack the Top 25 for the first time since January, 2000.

"This was a big win for our program," Pitino said. "I usually say I don't want to be there till the end, but we want to get into the Top 25. I think our guys have deserved it and they earned it. ... We won't embrace this too long with tough road games at Ohio State and Charlotte coming up, but it's a big builder for this program, because our respect level is off the charts for Kentucky."

Pitino and the Cards are building their national case on a foundation of Stone. UK transfer center Marvin Stone, in his third game as a Cardinal, outshined his former teammates on the interior to score a game-high 16 points while pulling down seven rebounds. In the final minute, officials had to warn Stone to stop laughing at his former teammates on the bench. Later, he said he was so happy he couldn't help but laugh.

"We came in hungry and we kicked their butts," Stone said. "That's what it's all about. ... It felt good. It was exciting. It was great to get out and play against these guys."

For UK, the loss stalled any momentum the Wildcats built before Christmas in a six-point victory over Indiana in Freedom Hall. It was even more difficult for UK's players to swallow, given the way they started the game.

UK blew out to a 20-9 lead. It grabbed 14 of the first 15 available rebounds. Three times, the Wildcats had chances to add to that lead, but came up empty, with a turnover by Marquis Estill and missed three-pointers from Keith Bogans and Gerald Fitch.

"This is embarrassing," junior point guard Cliff Hawkins said. "We should be ashamed of our effort in the second half."

Two U of L role players made the difference. Junior Bryant Northern, who had seen just 18 minutes of playing time in the Cards' past two games, came off the bench late in the first half and sparked the team. He drilled a three pointer from the left wing to pull the Cards within 26-24, then after UK stretched its lead back to seven points, made another three to pull the Cards to 31-27.

Those two baskets were enough to ignite some confidence in the Cards' other shooters. Pitino nearly didn't use Northern, but chose him over transfer guard Prileu Davis - who Pitino said had a better week of practice - because of experience.

"It just takes one guy," Northern said. "I'm an experienced point guard, and I played in some big games last season. I knew we needed a lift and they gave me some open looks. And with us, we have a lot of great shooters. You give us confidence, and we're going to make some."

The confidence was contagious. Freshman Taquan Dean nailed a three with 1:21 to play in the half, and the Cards went to the locker room down just 33-30 despite being dominated inside. UK held a 24-14 edge in rebounds and had outscored the Cards 20-6 in the paint.

Pitino, in the locker room, had two emotions: rage and relief. He told his assistants that if the slaughter continued on the boards, the team was coming back to practice at midnight. And he told his players that what he saw of them on offense was nothing like he had seen in the two-a-day practice sessions leading up to the game.

"I think our inexperience showed in the first 10 minutes of play with our shot selection," Pitino said. "We wanted to win so badly that we pulled the trigger quickly, which is something we haven't done. And that got us behind because they're a great rebounding team and they run really well. ... I just told our guys that we've got to play the second half like our real basketball team.

"But coming out of the locker room we felt great. We felt we didn't do the job mentally (in the first half), but we had gotten a reprieve."

If Pitino could have written a second-half script, it wouldn't have differed much from what happened next.

The three-point spurt that began late in the first half became an all-out spree in the second. Freshman Francisco Garcia nailed a three to open the scoring and the game was tied. Then after a Chuck Hayes layup put UK up momentarily, Brown drained a three from the top of the key, igniting an 11-0 spurt.

Five minutes into the second half, the Cards led 44-35 and had outscored UK 17-2 in a span of 6 1/2 minutes.

"When a team catches fire like that and gets the momentum, like Pitino's teams can do, it's tough to stop," Smith said. "When they started making the threes, we needed to get out there and defend it. Then they were able to get on the boards and get two or three chances."

While the Cards shooters were heating up, it was a second role player who helped feed the U of L roll. Myles had just two rebounds at halftime, but he crashed the glass from the outset in the second half. He had grabbed four rebounds before the half was two minutes old and went on to finish with a game-high 14.

At the same time, he settled down offensively to score nine second-half points and finished with a team-high five assists.

"Coach really got after us at halftime," Myles said. "And I really wanted to win this real bad, because of the way they treated coach last year in Rupp Arena. Coach cares so much for me that I just wanted to get this one real bad for him."

When Northern hit his third three of the game to put the Cards up 55-42 with 11:43 left, the Cards had hit 7 of their past 10 threes. After UK pulled within 10, U of L senior Reece Gaines hit another three off a feed from Myles.

UK made one last stab after that, scoring five straight points to pull within seven and prompt a 30-second timeout by Pitino with 9:07 left. The Cards responded by scoring the game's next 11 points to put it out of reach. UK did not score from the 9:07 mark until 4:24 remained and the deficit was 18 points. The Wildcats missed eight straight shots in the run and committed three turnovers. Stone scored five straight points in the middle of the run, in the process drawing Estill's fifth foul with 5:25 left in the game.

U of L pushed its lead to 22 in the final two minutes.

"They just wanted to win the game more," said Estill, who finished with six points and six rebounds. "They outworked us and beat us to loose balls."

Bogans led UK with 14 points but made just 1 of 9 three-pointers. Hayes was the only other Wildcat in double figures with 11 points. UK made just 3 of 18 threes in the game and shot just 37.1 percent overall. U of L shot 53.6 percent in the second half and 46.2 percent for the game. The Cards actually shot better from three-point range than they did from two, making 10 of 21 threes for 47.6 percent.

Five U of L players scored in double figures, including freshmen Garcia (12 points) and Dean (10). After being outrebounded in the first half, the smaller Cards outrebounded UK, 21-12 in the second.

U of L also was more active defensively in the second half, blocking three shots while appearing to wear down the Wildcats late.

"Last year, for us, anything was gravy," Pitino said. "It was one of my favorite years because it was the least amount of basketball talent I've had as a coach. ... This year, with the infusion of Marvin Stone, the improvement of Luke Whitehead and Ellis Myles, and the addition of our freshmen, we've gotten significantly better in one swoop. We're nowhere near where we need to be, but we learned a valuable lesson today, and anytime you can learn and win, you have to be happy."