Terrence Williams is used to this.

For the past three years, he's watched his Louisville team come out of the gates slow.

His sophomore year the Cardinals lost to Dayton, Arizona, UMass at home and Kentucky en route to a 6-4 start. Last season Louisville started out 4-4 after losses to BYU, Dayton, Purdue and Cincinnati.

This time it was to three teams all of which are currently unranked - Western Kentucky and Minnesota on neutral sites and UNLV at Freedom Hall.

``Every year," the senior wing said. "We'd lose three or four games and then we'd get going - but we never started the Big East 6-0."

T-Will also feels as though this team doesn't compare to the last two.

``Don't get me wrong, we lost a lot with David Padgett," he said. ``But we're more experienced. We have two seniors and four juniors. Today (against Syracuse), we were down one late and we didn't panic. Last year we had a lot of mental lapses."

Williams said the season turned around prior to the last-second victory at home against Kentucky a few weeks back in which Edgar Sosa hit the game-winner.

``We knew something had to change," he said.

Instead of jacking up shots early in the shot clock - as the Cardinals had done in the all three losses - Louisville has been more patient on the offensive end.

As Padgett did a year ago, Williams has assumed leadership duties - and also seen much of the offense run through him.

Over the past five games, he averaged 18.4 points, 11.4 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 2.8 steals.

``I feel as though the last few games teams are keying on me and that's a big mistake because we have so much talent," Williams said.

HARRIS WILL UNDERGO MORE TESTS

Kentucky junior wing Ramon Harris, who fainted outside of the locker room just before the start of Saturday's game at Alabama and was taken to DCH Medical Center, returned with the team on the flight and met with the team's medical staff on Saturday night.

Harris, who regained consciousness just after he fainted, did not practice Sunday and will undergo further testing today before a determination will be made on his status for Tuesday's game at Ole Miss.

CORPUS PICKED LAST, IN FIRST

His name hasn't - and probably won't - be mentioned in the mix for National Coach of the Year, but just take a look at what Perry Clark has done so far this season at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

The Islanders are 5-0 in league play and the lone unbeaten team left in the Southland conference.

Corpus was picked to finish fifth in the west and 10th overall in the 12-team league.

Then throw in the fact that Clark has basically been without four key players this season. Talented freshman point guard Terrance Jones still hasn't been cleared by the NCAA, fellow floor leader Lamar Drake was deemed ineligible at the break due to academics, last year's third-leading scorer, Kevin Perkins, is done for his career with a knee injury and Antonio Topps just returned from what Clark anticipated was going to be a season-ending wrist injury. Demond Watt, who is second on the team in scoring (9.4), has been out since the first league game with an ankle injury.

Clark has gone primarily with seven scholarship players for much of the season and he said his team gained confidence in playing teams like Illinois and Northwestern close.

``The kids gained some belief in our ability," said Clark, whose young team finished 9-20 a year ago. ``We felt like we were better than our record."

``Our kids were really mad after those losses," he added. "It was good and bad because on paper, we're not supposed to beat them. I had to reel them back in a little bit."

With two of his top point guards out of the lineup, Clark hasn't relied on one player to run the team, instead electing to see which match-ups are more beneficial. That means that the team's leading scorer, Kevin Palmer (17.4 ppg), is often the guy with the ball in his hands.

Palmer is a junior college transfer out of Cecil Community College in Maryland.

``It's easy to talk about his offensive game, but he's so competitive and takes pride in his total game," Clark said. "In Saturday's game (a win against UTSA), he was better defensively than he was offensively. He's got a chance to be really special."

ROBERT MORRIS HEAD OF NEC CLASS

Robert Morris has a two-game lead in the NEC.

The Colonials have won seven straight after a blowout of Farleigh Dickinson on Saturday.

RMU lost two of its top three scorers from a year ago - guard Tony Lee and forward A.J. Jackson - but the addition of freshman Rob Robinson has been key for Colonials coach Mike Rice.

``In our league, he's a monster," Rice said of the 6-foot-8 Robinson, who is averaging 11.6 points and 4.7 rebounds. ``He's making a big difference."

``Last year we couldn't score in the post," he added. "This year we're able to do that with Rob."

Rice's team is also able to win on the road. In fact, the Colonials - after the win at FDU - now have 20 road victories in the past 1