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The Louisville Cardinals lost a tough five overtime game versus the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Saturday by a score of 104-101.
The game turned out to be the longest game in Big East regular-season history.
1. Emotional investment – The players invest so much emotional energy in the game and on the bench that teams can feel the effect for weeks to come. The adrenaline and energy used to simply cheer on teammates is costly from an emotional standpoint.
2. Physical investment – Again the players had to play and extra 25 minutes so injuries are more likely to occur when players fatigue. Five Cardinal players notched over 40 minutes, while four fouled out, so there were definitely the possibility of pulled muscles or cramping during or after the game.
3. Drop in rankings – The Cardinals came into the game ranked No. 11 and dropped one spot to No. 12 because of the “upset” (not sure how accurate that really is…) that the No. 25 Irish handed them.
4. Bragging rights – With the Big East as it is known now is coming to an abrupt end and these types of classic match-ups will be a thing of the past. In addition, since this is the longest regular season game in Big East history the Cardinals will always be the answer to that trivia question unless it can be topped by the end of the conference as we know it.
5. Damaged Clipboards- Rick Pitino in disgust threw a clipboard that landed in his coaching staff’s lap. One can only hope that is was salvaged for future game…although the Cardinals budget should be able to replace it if it is a goner.
So are there any benefits? Yes.
Since the game went so long, other Cardinals players were able to come off the bench and play important minutes for Pitino. This could be very important come tournament time and maybe the coaching staff would not otherwise have confidence or the insight to go deeper down its bench.
Coaches are always looking for a positive…even in a 5 overtime thriller.
Follow Bert DeSalvo on Twitter @CoachDeSalvo
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