Fantastic Finish at Freedom Hall

If you watch a thousand basketball games this season, you won't see a better finish than the last 33 seconds of today's Kentucky/Louisville game.

A quick recap of the action:

• With Louisville up by seven, 71-64, and 33 seconds left in the game, Kentucky guard Jodie Meeks is fouled on a three-point attempt.
• Meeks cans all three freebies. Louisville, ahead by four, inbounds the ball.
• Kentucky knocks the ball out of bounds. Louisville is forced to inbound again on the sideline.
• Wildcat forward Patrick Patterson steals Earl Clark's inbound attempt and finds Meeks cutting to the basket. Meeks' layup makes it a two-point game.
• Clark's inbounds pass is stolen -- this time by Meeks. Clark fouls Meeks, who hits both, tying the game. The foul is Clark's fifth... meaning Louisville will be without their best player if this one goes into overtime.
• Louisville inbounds to Edgar Sosa. Sosa calmly walks the ball up the court. Everyone in Freedom Hall... and the national audience watching the CBS broadcast... assumes he'll call a play, try to set up a high-percentage shot to win the game. Instead, as the game clock ticks down to single digits, Sosa launches a three-pointer from well beyond NBA range... and nails it.
• Michael Porter's desperation heave comes up short... and that's the ball game.

The win could provide a major lift for Louisville. Pitino's Cardinals were a top-five team in the preseason, but losses to UNLV on New Year's Eve and Minnesota on December 20 -- along with the shocker they dropped to Western Kentucky back on November 30 -- pushed that ranking all the way down to 18th. This win -- over their traditional in-state rivals -- could be a big confidence booster as they start Big East games.

For Kentucky, on the other hand, this game was a major missed opportunity. If they won this game, we might have been talking about Billy Gillespie's Wildcats as a possible contender in the SEC. Now, the story will be, "They've rolled up a good record playing inferior opponents at Rupp Arena. But put 'em up against a quality opponent on the road and they can't deliver."

And that won't make the Wildcat faithful happy.