Winning the College Basketball National Title is the hardest trophy to win in all of sports. Tonight just further proved that point as the 9th seeded Wichita State Shockers took our #1 overall seed Louisville Cardinals to the very end before the Cards finally prevailed 72-68. The Cards have now won 15 straight games and will finally get a chance to play for a national championship for the first time in 27 years. I’m 40 years old and the last time I seen a Louisville team in the title game I was laying in my parents living room floor watching that 86 group on an old Zenith console. Remember those? This time I’ll see it live in Atlanta and I can’t wait.
Up until tonight Louisville had navigated its rocky road with ease, first handling North Carolina A & T, then destroying Colorado State, followed by a comfortable eight-point win over Oregon and, lastly, a punishing second-half spurt to pull away from Duke in an Elite Eight clash. Aside from Duke hanging tough through the first 20 minutes our Cards hadn’t had much of a challenge. But tonight they got all they wanted from the Shockers and with 13 minutes left were down by 12 points. But just like they had done through this entire tourney and season they turned up the defense and were able to pull it out. Through this tourney the Cardinals had forced turnovers on 27.5 percent of opponents’ possessions. Tonight the Shockers took very good care of the ball up until about 13 minutes left in the game. That’s when Louisville erased a 12-point deficit and outscored Wichita State by 16 points. The Cardinals were able to speed up Wichita State during this stretch forcing them into seven turnovers in the final seven minutes after they’d gone more than 26 minutes without one. The Cards had 26 deflections Saturday, its fewest in the 2013 Men’s Basketball Championship. The Cardinals entered the Final Four averaging 45.0 deflections per game in the tournament. Louisville had 17 of its 26 deflections in the second half.
The MVP of the night was the bearded wonder Luke Hancock. If you have been reading my stuff all season then you know that I had pegged Hancock as one of my x-factors for a national title run. Tonight Luke stepped up his game and truly was the x-factor coming off the bench scoring 20 points including 14 in the second half, to help the Cards rally from a dozen-point deficit. He also had 4 rebounds, 2 assist and 2 steals in his standout performance. He had averaged 6.8 points over his previous four NCAA tournament games. The Cardinals were more efficient tonight with Hancock on the court, averaging 1.34 points per possession in the 31 minutes he played. He has become a very important part of this Cardinal machine and we will need him to continue to play like this on Monday night.
It was great to see Chane have a good game tonight. He had really been in a slump during the NCAA tournament but tonight he broke out of that slup just in time and this team needed it in the worst way tonight. He was very close to a double-double with 10 points and 9 rebounds and was key in the Cardinals come back. I think he is the kind of guy that loves the big spotlight and this is the second time that he has stepped up in the tournament when the Cards chances were on the line. He came up big in that regional final game last year. Ware on Behanan: “Bout time he played.” Behanan response: “He’s probably right.”
Tonight Russ, Peyton, Gorgui and Wayne had their worst games of the season. And yes Russ led the team in scoring with 21 points but he was 5 of 12 from the free throw line and that’s unheard of from him. Gorgui and Wayne were scoreless tonight and Peyton had 7 points but was still very ineffective on the offensive end of the floor. It was the bench that came through tonight and the Cards would have been on a flight home right now if it had not been for those guys stepping up. The above mentioned Luke Hancock along with Montrezl, Stephan and Tim scored 34 of the Cardinals final 72 points and accounted for 13 of the teams 32 rebounds.
Got to give kudos to Tim Henderson for making me look like I know what I’m talking about. In my post game last week I mentioned how I had full confidence that this kid could step in and get the job done in Kevin’s absence. Henderson said after the game: “When Kevin went down, he told me, ‘I believe in you. You can step up. I’ve seen you in practice. I’ve seen you do this.” Tonight he hit two monster 3 point shots that sparked the Louisville comeback. Up until those two shots he had 16 points this season. I was really impressed watching Tim play against the starting unit in the Red & White games back in November. You could tell that he was a hard working kid and that he is the type of guy that doesn’t back down from a challenge. And just like Rick Pitino mentioned tonight in his press conference: “Tim goes against Russ everyday in practice.” I’m glad this kid got his chance to step up on this the biggest stage in college sports. Guys like Tim work their butts off all year just like the rest of these guys do and they very often get a chance to play let alone in a huge game like tonight. I’m sure he will be telling his grand kids about those 2 big three point shots some day.
Coach Pitino: “The players said they weren’t surprised about him making those back to back threes. They’re being very kind. I was shocked.”
Well Cardinal fans we have reached the final stop on this final four journey. Without a doubt our Cardinals are the best team in the country and they must go out on Monday night and prove it one last time. I think tonight was just the kind of game they needed and in my opinion teams need games like this in tournament if they are going to become National Champions. It’s these survive and advance moments that define a title run. The Michigan Wolverines are the only thing standing in the way of one of the greatest moments in Louisville’s basketball history. NO SLEEP TIL ATLANTA BABY!
