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Cards bomb top-seeded
Huskies en route to Elite 8
ALBUQUERQUE — Rick Pitino
pushed all the right buttons, while Francisco Garcia and Taquan Dean
made all the tough shots.
The result for Louisville
was a 93-79 victory over top-seeded Washington — a win that put the
Cardinals in the Albuquerque Regional final and turned
their insulting fourth seed into
little more than an afterthought.
``Um, that's not something
we think about,'' forward Larry O'Bannon said. ``Coach tells us, `You've
got to go out there and play the game,' so we just go out there and
play.''
Taking advantage of
Pitino's instruction to penetrate, then kick the ball out, Garcia and
Dean hit five 3-pointers apiece. The Cardinals (32-4) finished with 11
treys total, and improved to 24-1 this season when they make at least
seven from long range.
``You wonder what it
would've been like if they hadn't been making all the 3s,'' Huskies
coach Lorenzo Romar said. ``But they've won 31 other times this year.
I'm sure there are 31 other teams who have said that.''
The Cardinals moved on to
Saturday's regional final against West Virginia, which beat Bobby Knight
and Texas Tech 65-60.
This was billed as a
matchup between Washington (29-5), the team trying to prove it really
did deserve a top seed, and Louisville, the team that had lost only once
since Jan. 8 and couldn't believe it was only a No. 4.
Garcia, who finished with
23 points, made three 3-pointers and had an assist as part of a 21-5 run
to close the first half and help Louisville to a 47-35 lead.
Meanwhile, Washington's
top two scorers, Nate Robinson and Tre Simmons, struggled to defend
against Pitino's inside-outside offense and wound up languishing on the
bench with three fouls for a big chunk of the first half.
Robinson picked up his
third at the 8:51 mark and Simmons picked up his third with 3:50 left.
``It was weird,''
Washington guard Brandon Roy said. ``I was playing, kind of going
through the motions, I looked at coach and said, `Why isn't Nate in
there?' He said Nate had three fouls. It was kind of disappointing.''
The teams traded buckets
through much of the second half, and things got chippy when O'Bannon (18
points) went down in a heap with Jamaal Williams and Bobby Jones of
Washington. O'Bannon appeared to tap Williams with his foot while
Williams was down and the Huskies got angry.
Robinson responded with a
steal and dunk — his only field goal of the night — and Hakeen Rollins
made back-to-back baskets to pull Washington within 67-61.
But less than two minutes
later, Garcia hit his fifth 3-pointer to make it 76-65 and the Cardinals
never let the lead fall below double digits.
``Coach said when I'm
open, please shoot the ball,'' Garcia said. ``I saw a couple of open
shots and I took them.''
Juan Palacios shot
6-for-11 for 14 points and Ellis Myles had eight points and 13 boards to
help Louisville finish with an 11-rebound advantage in the battle
between two teams, neither known much for their inside presence.
Robinson finished with
eight points — 0-for-5 from 3-point range — and Simmons went 3-for-6 for
10 points.
The guards, each averaging
more than 16 points this season, struggled mightily in the second half,
unable to shake the effects of sitting on the bench for such a long time
earlier. Williams finished with 18 points, Roy had 15 and Will Conroy
had 14 points and eight assists to keep the Huskies within reach.
But neutralizing the
Huskies guards was the key, and Pitino deserves a tip of the hat for
that. Not only did the inside-outside strategy work, but the veteran
coach with 448 career wins and four trips to the Final Four also
mercilessly worked the officials over the first 9 1/2 minutes, while the
Cardinals were picking up six fouls.
Louisville only committed
two more the rest of the half while both Simmons and Robinson — neither
of them normally foul prone — found themselves on the bench.
``We have a normal
rotation and that was disrupted tonight,'' Romar said. ``But give
Louisville credit. They put us in positions where we had to foul.''
Thus ended a very nice run
for the Huskies, who won the Pac-10 tournament and surprised pretty much
everyone but themselves when they picked up their top seeding. This was
their first trip to the regional semifinals since 1998, but the Huskies
will have to wait to make the Final Four; they haven't been there since
1953.
Pitino and the Cardinals,
meanwhile, are regulars.
Louisville is seeking its
eighth trip to the Final Four and its first since 1986, when coach Denny
Crum and Pervis Ellison led the Cards to the national title. Pitino was
last there in 1997, when he coached Kentucky.
His return to the
Wildcats' archrival in 2001 caused an uproar around the state, but
nobody can argue with the results. After a 3 1/2 -year stint with the
Boston Celtics, he returned to the Bluegrass state and turned the
Cardinals into a winner in his first season.
Now, he's got them
thinking about the title.
``I like pro ball ... but
it's winning with misery,'' Pitino said. ``College basketball has so
much to be happy about.''
The 11 3-pointers tied
Louisville's NCAA tournament record. The Cardinals hit 11 in a 2003 game
against Butler.
Page updated:
02/23/07 10:41 AM
©2005
The Associated Press. Bonesville.net contributed to this report. All
rights rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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