Inside the games

Saturday’s leaders

Scoring

Rebounding

Assists

Illinois versus Louisville

Both needed an extra five minutes and an impressive comeback in their regional semifinal wins on Saturday.

The top-ranked Illinois Fighting Illini beat third-seeded Arizona 90-89 in overtime to win the Chicago Regional. The Wildcats held a 75-60 lead with 4 minutes left in regulation.

The fourth-seeded Louisville Cardinals beat seventh-seeded West Virginia 93-85 in overtime to win the Albuquerque Regional. The Mountaineers led 38-18 in the first half.

The road

Illinois beat No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson, No. 9 Nevada, No. 12 Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Arizona to earn its first Final Four berth since 1989.

Louisville beat No. 13 Louisiana-Lafayette, No. 5 Georgia Tech, No. 1 Washington and West Virginia to earn its first Final Four berth since 1986.

The coaches

Rick Pitino became the first coach to lead three schools to the Final Four. He took Providence there in 1987, Kentucky in 1993, 1996 and 1997 and Louisville. Pitino, who has been to the tournament 11 times, won his only national championship in 1996 when Kentucky beat Syracuse in the title game.

Bruce Weber has taken Southern Illinois and Illinois to the tournament twice each. This is his first trip to the Final Four.

Offense

Louisville averages 81.3 points per game with five players scoring in double figures, led by Francisco Garcia’s 16.0. The Cardinals are like most of Pitino’s teams, perimeter-oriented and effective 3-point shooters. Louisville shoots 40 percent from beyond the arc and averages about 10 3s per game. Taquan Dean leads the team with 120 3s while Larry O’Bannon has 83, and Garcia 71.

Illinois is very similar to the Cardinals on offense, averaging 76.9 points with five double-figure scorers, led by Luther Head at 15.6. The Illini have one of the best three-guard attacks in recent memory with Head, Dee Brown (13.4) and Deron Williams (12.4). The Illini shoot 39 percent from 3-point range and average just over eight per game. Head leads the team with 100 3s while Brown has 92 and Williams 59.

Defense

Louisville plays a lot of zone defense, allowing 63.9 points on 38.6 percent shooting, including 32.8 from 3-point range.

Illinois is usually in man-to-man and allows 60.0 points on 40.9 percent shooting, including 35.3 from 3-point range.

Rebounding

Both frontlines have taken a back seat to the backcourts this season.

Louisville has a plus-6.5 rebound average, while the Illini are about plus-3.

Ellis Myles is the Cardinals’ leading rebounder at 9.3 per game but his more impressive stat may be 122 assists as he constantly finds players behind the arc after the ball goes inside.

James Augustine pulls down 7.7 rebounds for the Illini and he has 46 blocked shots.

Free throws

Both teams shoot about 73 percent from the line but Louisville has one weak link among the starters.

While Garcia, O’Bannon and Dean are all over 80 percent, Myles has made just 57 percent. He was 3 for 8 on Saturday.

Injuries

Both teams had a star nursing an injury in the regional semifinals.

Dean sprained his right foot in the win over Washington but he looked fine against West Virginia.

Head has been playing with a hamstring injury but he showed no ill effects.

Intangibles

Illinois was ranked No. 1 for the final 15 weeks of the season, and the Illini are trying to become the first team to win it all with one loss since North Carolina State in 1974. They have also had a “home” tournament, so far, with stops in Indianapolis and Chicago and a third bus trip coming up to St. Louis.

Louisville felt it deserved a No. 1 seed and was upset when it was given a No. 4. That hurt ended with the win over top seed Washington in the round of 16. Pitino is one of the best in the business at getting the most out of his teams.

Associated Press