The Cardinals were on an impressive 7 game winning streak that included the run that won a Big East championship. But they weren’t done yet. Game number 8 would be the regional championship game in the NCAA tournament. It would be against the Florida Gators for the chance to advance to the Final Four. This game had all of the build up that you would expect from a regional championship but had something a little extra. Rick Pitino would be facing his former player and the guy he called a son Billy Donovan.

Donovan 0-7 versus his old coach would have a game plan early in this one that would give his Gators the lead 41-33 at the half. The Gator sharp shooters were having a field day with the Louisville zone hitting 8-11 from 3 point range. Rick would make some adjustments of his own at half time bringing his Cardinals out of the zone and putting them in the face of the Gator shooters.

With 10 minutes left in the game the Gators had a 60-49 advantage when the adjustments seemed to swing things in favor of the Cardinals. The Gators would miss all nine attempts from the 3 point line and get sloppy with the ball leading to 14 turnovers. With this aggressive defense the Cardinals would pay the price losing Peyton Siva to 5 fouls with 3:58 left in the game. But as they had done many times during the season the Cardinals would overcome this adversity. Louisville players Dieng, Smith, and Behanan stepped up finishing the game on a 23-8 run stunning the Gators with a 72-68 victory and punching their ticket to the Final Four.

#1 Syracuse would be the final opponent to visit the hallowed Hall. The moment for a big game like this couldn’t have been more fitting. The stage was set and it was time for the show to begin. The Syracuse stars lived up to their ranking in the first half dominating the Cardinals inside the paint 26 to 12. At one point in the first half Cuse would stretch the lead to 8 but a shot by Edgar Sosa would cut the lead to 5 to end the half at 35-30.

With things looking much the same early in the second half with the score 42-39 the Cardinals found their inside game and an unlikely hero would emerge from the bench. Then reserve Kyle Kuric would put his stamp on the Louisville program with a second half performance that will live forever in Cardinal lore. Kuric was described as a one man wrecking crew by all publications as he made 9 of 11 shots from the field with four of those being 3 pointers.

The Cardinals would take the lead in the second half and never look back. With 4 minutes left king Kyle would put a bow on his performance with a dunk that would put the Cardinals up 10. The final score would be 78-68 beating #1 Syracuse and adding one last highlight to their 54 year old home.

This game had all the pageantry for a final home game in one of the most storied venues in all of college sports. “It’s an unbelievable moment,” Kuric said. “It’s what every kid dreams of.” Rick Pitino would say of the moment “this building will close, but what our legends have done for our university will never pass and close.”

The 7th seeded Cardinals would play their first game of the 2012 Big East tourney on Wednesday night against Seton Hall. They would also unveil their new, ultra-lightweight Adidas adizero uniforms. These uniforms were designed to be 25% lighter and the shorts were supposed to increase mobility and speed. The Cardinals would put on a defensive show in their new digs lead by Peyton Siva who had 6 steals and Gorgui Dieng who had 6 blocks. The Cardinals would hold Seton Hall to 33% shooting winning the game 61-55 moving them into the quarterfinal round against Marquette on Thursday night.

The Cardinals would come out on Thursday night against #9 Marquette looking faster than usual in those flashy new uniforms. They were all over the court making the Garden look like a neon light show. They would punish the Golden eagles with their pesky defense beating them 84-71 forcing them into a season high 26 turnovers and holding the Big East Player of the Year Jae Crowder to 10 points. The Cardinals would now move forward with their new found confidence to face #23 Notre Dame on Friday night in the semi-finals.

The Cardinals now looking like the team we’ve heard about all season dominated the Irish in the Semi-finals 64-50. The Irish would be held to 36% shooting and would become the sixth opponent in Louisville’s last seven games to be held to 60 points or fewer. Peyton Siva continued his flawless court performance and Dieng continued his domination in the paint as the Cardinals would advance to their third Big East title game in four years.

It would be the Louisville Cardinals facing their old foe the Cincinnati Bearcats in the Big East finals. The Bearcats would have their own magical run in the new Adidas uniforms including a win over top seeded Syracuse in the Semi-Finals. This game would be the first time that old CUSA teams would play in the finals. These teams have played 90 times before in different conferences. Defense would be the theme of the tourney for our Cardinals and it wouldn’t be any different as they would beat Cincy 50-44 in the lowest scoring game in the history of the Big East finals. Our Louisville Cardinals would win their second Big East Tournament Championship winning four games in four days. Peyton Siva continued his solid play and claimed the Big East tourney MVP. Rick Pitino would say of his teams efforts “We did a lot of really good things defensively,” “We knew it was going to take defense to win this game.” “I think you can see how excited our guys are and how much the tournament means to us.” “It’s special because I love coaching these guys. We have a very unusual group. It’s a throw back.” Peyton Siva was quoted after the game “Nobody really expected us to even get this far.” “It just feels good because a lot of people wrote us off. Coach P had a lot of faith in me. I’m very thankful for that. Everybody really showed a lot of heart today.”

They opened up play in the quarterfinals against Providence with an easy win over the Friars, but would have their hands full with Villanova in the semifinal round. As they had done several other times during this crazy season the Cardinals came out flat and uninspired in the first half. Rick Pitino would tell his guys at half time that he didn’t know who they were. The Cardinals would eventually wake up in the second half and top Villanova putting them in the Finals against Syracuse.

#5 Louisville and #18 Syracuse would face of for the Big East Tourney crown after Cuse had played an epic 6 overtime game against Uconn the night before. This tourney seemed like destiny for Cuse, but the Cardinals would have something for their magical run. The Louisville pressure defense would be too much to overcome for a team that had played an extra half of basketball in overtime games. Louisville would pull away from Cuse in the second half and win 76-66

Louisville would win its first Big East Tournament Championship to go along with the first regular season title they had already claimed. They would do this in what most believed the toughest year since the Big East’s inception. The Big East would have 9 teams ranked in the polls at one time during the regular season, and four teams were ranked in the top 10 when the Big East Tourney started. This included the #2 and #3 teams. Rick Pitino would say of his teams accomplishment “These guys have bought into total team.” “We did it in the toughest year in the history of the Big East to sweep both. I’m gushing with pride.”

Tickets were grabbed up fast by Cardinal fans and the Red/white scrimmage was sold out in days. Louisville Fans weren’t going to pass up the chance to see their new digs. We would be moving into a brand new arena, and Rick Pitino announced that his team would be playing a new style of basketball. Rick said he would turn his guys loose and let them play a fast pace offensive.

The arena would not disappoint it was as shiny and great as I expected it to be. The Red Team would get a 124-113 victory over the White Team as both sides played at a  fast pace and shot over 50% from the field.

“Great crowd, great arena,” head coach Rick Pitino said. “We’re getting what we want out of this style of play. It’s very easy to want to play this way. It’s difficult, but they want to play it.”

A few days earlier the Cardinals had been exposed for every weakness they had against Villanova. It looked as if the same thing would happen again as Marquette dominated the Cardinals for the entire first and most of the second half. With 5:44 left in the game it looked to be over at 65-47. But then the unthinkable happened as the Cardinals started to put together a string of baskets that would end with the Marquette lead being cut to 70-69 with 12 seconds left.

Then with most of the Yum Center crowd in their cars heading home the ball was inbounded to Preston Knowles, and it looked like he would be the one to take the final shot. It seemed the Marquette coach had the same idea as three of the Golden Eagles players converged on Knowles. Knowing he was going to attract the attention Knowles found Kyle Kuric slicing to the basket for a lay-up that seemed to roll around the rim forever before going in to win the game.

The Cardinals had come back from 18 points down with 5:44 left to win the game. Kyle Kuric was quoted after the game “If we were going to lose, we were going to lose fighting.” Knowles said after his heads up play “They were all concentrating on me, and I made them pay for it.” Rick Pitino was in awe of his scrappy team and said after the game “That’s one of the top-five comebacks,” “They outplayed us for the first 34 minutes. I’m really proud of these guys. I’m shaking. It happened so fast.”