Louisville dances on UA
Cardinals stay on a roll with 103-64 rout
INDIANAPOLIS – Rick Pitino enjoyed watching Friday night’s game almost as much as his Louisville players enjoyed celebrating.
Fun-loving forward Terrence Williams danced on the sideline. Guard Edgar Sosa posed for the television camera. Even backup Kyle Kuric dunked. For the top-seeded team in the NCAA tournament, this was more fun than a team scrimmage or a pickup game.
Earl Clark scored 19 points and had nine rebounds and the Cardinals delivered one of the most crushing blowouts in regional history with a 103-64 victory over Arizona.
“We played great tonight because we really passed the ball beautifully,” Pitino said. “It’s fun as a coach to watch the guys be so unselfish.”
Should they follow the same script Sunday, against Michigan State in the Midwest final, the Cardinals (31-5) will return to the Final Four for the first time since 2005.
But if they play like this, they could fulfill another goal: winning their third national championship.
The Big East has four teams playing in this weekend’s regional finals, including its regular-season and tournament champ, Louisville. Pitino improved to 9-0 in the regional semifinals.
Louisville was incredibly efficient in the highest-scoring game in its NCAA tournament history, shooting 57.6 percent from the field and dishing out 29 assists on 38 baskets. It shot 48 percent on 3-pointers and grabbed nearly as many offensive rebounds (11) as Arizona had on defense (17).
The Cardinals were even better on defense.
They rattled the Wildcats with constant pressure, forcing nine turnovers in the first half and 15 in the game. Arizona was so out of sync, it threw away an inbound pass in the first half and twice had ball-handlers get crossed up just dribbling up the floor.
The combination put Louisville within one point of cracking the top five for most lopsided victories in a regional round. UCLA set the record with a 49-point rout over Wyoming in 1967, and the next four all occurred before 1972.
It was by far the Cardinals’ biggest rout in their long NCAA tournament, and easily the Wildcats’ most-lopsided loss.
The Louisville players savored every precious moment.
“We came out with more intensity, and that’s what you’ve got to do when you’re up big because it’s hard to play with a lead,” Clark said.
It sure didn’t look hard in the semifinals.
The Cardinals built a 21-point halftime lead, then put it away by opening the second half on an 18-5 run that set off the revelry.
Chase Budinger led Arizona (21-14) with 22 points, and Jordan Hill had 14 points and 11 rebounds. But Arizona shot 38 percent from the field, and never had a chance after the opening minutes.