Junior quarterback Matt Grothe found junior tight end Ben Busbee for a 13-yard touchdown, capping a 13-play, 77-yard drive and giving USF a 24-7 lead with 4:15 left in the first half.

More on Grothe, who surpassed 10,000 yards of offense in his career in the first half. Grothe is the second player in Big East history to accomplish the feat, with West Virginia QB Pat White being the first. Grothe trails White (10,142) by 15 yards, and will likely overtake him today.

USF dominated the early part of this game, but Memphis is showing a lot of fight. The Bulls drove down to the Tigers 3-yard line, but only managed a field goal, increasing their lead to 17-7. 

Memphis’ junior corner Alton Starr was injured on the series and helped off the field by two trainers with what looked like a knee injury.

Three Bulls players were suspended from starting for violating team rules. Junior cornerback Jerome Murphy and seniors Carlton Williams (safety) and Cedric Hill (tight end) have yet to even check into the game.

Minnesota (10-0) led throughout the majority of the game and played like a team that expected to come out with a victory. Louisville (7-2) just had the look of a team that was not ready to go.

The Cardinal offense was just out of sync throughout the entire game and their poor shooting put them in an early hole. Both teams went through many scoring droughts in the second half, but Louisville produced only eight second half field goals and finished shooting just 39% from the field.

Sophmore guard Al Nolen led the Gophers and finished with a game high 18 points and added three assists.  

After falling behind by as much as 13 points in the second half, the Cards found themselves in a position to make it a one possession game. Down 64-59 with just under two minutes remaining in the game, Jerry Smith had a look from three that could have cut the lead to two, but the shot rimmed out.

Louisville also had many missed opportunities from the free throw line. The Cards converted on 7 of its 10 foul shots in the first half, but missed half of its 20 attempts in the second.

In the end, its a bad loss for the No.9 ranked Cards. But an understandable bad loss. Louisville will have a week to think about it as they don’t play again until next Saturday at home against UAB.

The Memphis Tigers have shown signs of life, driving 77 yards on six plays to cut USF’s lead to 14-7.

The Tigers were aided by USF’s sloppy defense, which gave up two personal fouls (15 yards each) and an offsides penalty (5 yards).

USF gave up nearly 70 penalty yards per game in the regular season, so this isn’t a big surprise. However, if the Bulls keep giving up free yards, Memphis has the talent on offense to capitalize.

Junior quarterback Matt Grothe has surpassed 10,000 yards of total offense in his USF career.

He reached the plateau on a 14-yard pass to sophomore wide receiver Carlton Mitchell.

On the same drive, Grothe drove the Bulls to the Memphis 3-yard line, and senior running back Ben Williams put the Bulls up 14-0.

The run capped a six-play, 57-yard drive.

Just 62 seconds into the St. Pete Bowl, and USF has jumped out to a 7-0 lead.

After sophomore receiver Dontavia Bogan returned the opening kickoff to the Memphis 43, USF needed three plays to put the ball into the endzone. Junior quarterback Matt Grothe hit senior receiver Taurus Johnson for a 26-yard touchdown.

Greetings from Tropicana Field, where the South Florida Bulls and the Memphis Tigers are getting ready to kickoff the first St. Petersburg Bowl.

USF is debuting a new-look uniform for the bowl. The normal home uni is green on green with a gold helmet and green USF logo. The Bulls have green jerseys, white pants with white helmets and a green USF logo.

The Trop is not very full, with an estimated attendance (mind you, this is my estimation) at about 16,000 or so. 

The Bulls and Memphis were old Conference USA rivals, and they have 2-2 records against each other.

Stay tuned for updates throughout the game, which is airing on ESPN2. 

Any comments? Thoughts? Rants?

Go ahead and post them and I’ll do my best to respond.

Yet again, Rutgers head coach Fred Hill Jr. turned to his two star freshmen – Mike Rosario and Gregory Echenique – to carry his team over a sub-par opponent. The Scarlet Knights beat Bryant College 67-37 minutes ago at the Louis Brown Athletic Center for RU’s third win in a row.

Rosario led the team yet again in scoring with 18 points to go along with a career-best seven rebounds and Echenique provided another double-double from the power forward position with 11 points and 11 boards.

Sophomore guard Corey Chandler continued to struggle, missing all six of his field goals and scoring just one point. Rutgers’ next game is again NJIT, yes that team that didn’t win a single game last year, and will need to use the game to figure some things out because they hit Tobacco Road to play No. 1 North Carolina next weekend.

At the end of the first half, Minnesota leads the No. 9 ranked Louisville by five. The Cards, as expected, have been flat throughout the first half of play and have the look of team that is not as prepared and fatigued.

Minnesota definatly looks like a team that has benefited from 10 days of prepartation for the game.  The Gophers have been the scrappier team and have outhustled the Cards on the boards. Louisville was outrebounded 16-10 after 20 minutes of play. Sophmore guard Al Nolen leads the Gophers with 10 points.

Earl Clark has been the go to guy on offense for the second game in a row. The junior finished the first half with 10 points, but added just 2 rebounds.

With all that said, the Cards are still down just five points. There’s still plenty of time for U of L to take control of the game, but they will have to get their offense on track and star knocking down some shots. The Cards shot 46% from the field, but just 2-8 from three.

The Louisville men’s basketball team faces a rough set of circumstances today as they take on the undefeated Minnesota Gophers.

After defeating Ole Miss in the final game of the Big East/SEC Challenge Thursday night, the Cards jumped on a plane and traveled to Pheonix for their showdown against the Gophers. Led by former University of Kentucky head coach and Pitino assistant Tubby Smith, the 9-0 Gophes have had 10 days off to prepare for the No. 9 Cards.

A tremendous amount of focus and maturity will have to be shown by the Cards in order to come out with a victory after such a quick turnaround with limited preparation time. Louisville (7-1) is probably the more talented group, but have yet to live up to their potential thus far. If the Cards are to be considered a legit final four team, they will need to prove it today with a W!