Louisville could end trying season in NCAAs

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Don’t overlook Louisville’s ability to give just about anything away — the 2013 national title, dozens of vacated wins, a four-point lead with a second left in last week’s loss to Virginia, all of the goodwill and most of the banners accumulated during the tenure of disgraced former coach Rick Pitino.

Louisville even gave thought to gifting a threetouchdown lead to Florida State in the second round of the Atlantic Coast Conference basketball tournament, and the Seminoles graciously accepted the Cardinals’ offer. Twenty-six points in the black with 11:34 left became 16 points four minutes later, then slipped to 10 points three minutes after that and was even trimmed to six points, albeit with just 16 seconds remaining. Kind and generous Louisville, as always.

“I get a hundred times more nervous about games like that, especially when you have a big lead at halftime,” Louisville coach David Padgett said.

Louisville (20-12) is an enigma, just like the dozen or so other teams angling for the handful of at-large bids to the NCAA tournament. The Cardinals possess few impressive wins but own several commendable losses, and the team’s tournament destination hinges in large part on how the selection committee views that equation.

“This one certainly helped,” said Padgett, a former Louisville forward who was named the Cardinals’ acting head coach after Pitino’s dismissal in September. “I don’t know if any of us know if there’s a definitive answer to what’s required to get into the tournament. I’m sure this significantly helps our résumé.”

The Cardinals own one non-conference win — vs. Indiana — against a power-conference opponent with a winning record. Their best win out of ACC play is against Southern Illinois, which finished four games out of first in the Missouri Valley Conference. Louisville is winless in eight games against opponents currently ranked in the top 25 in the Ratings Performance Index and hold just seven wins against teams in the top 100 in RPI.

On the other hand, Louisville touts just one loss to a team outside the top 50 in RPI — that would be North Carolina State, 52nd in the metric before its second-round tournament 91-87 loss to Boston College. Each team to defeat the Cardinals during the regular season is destined for the tournament, from Virginia, Duke and North Carolina through Purdue, Kentucky, Seton Hall and Clemson.

“It’s not like we’ve had any quote-unquote bad losses this year,” Padgett said. “The only team, if you had to pick one, I guess, our worst loss was Syracuse. They’re on the verge of making the tournament.”

At the very least, Louisville has made a case for the tournament amid perhaps the most tumultuous season in the history of the program.