The Cardinal rule: Louisville moves on
THIS MAY not be the best team Louisville Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino has brought to March Madness. But his fourth-seeded Cardinals have a history of coming to life in the NCAA Tournament.
Louisville took a giant step toward a Final Four appearance Friday night, defeating ACC rival N.C. State, 75-65, at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse to advance to the East Regional final Sunday against Michigan State. Forward Montrezl Harrell shot 9-for-12 and scored 24 points and guard Terry Rozier went off for 17 points and 14 rebounds for the Cardinals, who put four players in double figures and shot an uncharacteristic 50% against the Wolfpack.
This is the Cardinals’ third trip to the Elite Eight in four years. They won the national championship in 2013.
Harrell, was a freshman on that team. He had been waiting for this game for more than a month. When these two teams played in the regular season, N.C. State won on the road and Harrell was limited to seven points, back when the Cardinals were struggling badly with their offense.
But the 6-9 senior looked totally rejuvenated in a revenge game.
“We took a lot of bumps early, but we kept playing as a team and we came together at the right time,” Harrell said. “We had an early exit in the ACC Tournament. We didn’t want to take an early exit here.”
Louisville (27-8) got huge contributions from a three-guard lineup that included Quentin Snider, who has replaced the dismissed Chris Jones at the point and contributed 14 points. Sophomore Anton Gill came off the bench to shoot 3-for-3 and score seven points down the stretch after Wayne Blackshear picked up a fourth foul to help the Cardinals close out the Wolfpack (22-14) with a 22-11 run.
Gill grew up in Raleigh near the N.C. State campus.
“I was talking to him the other day about our Final Four team at Providence in ’87,” Pitino said. “We had a player named Darryl Wright, who came off the bench and it was the South Region when we beat Alabama and Georgetown. Anton made some big shots for us.”
The Cardinals never allowed the Wolfpack to do much damage inside with its big bodies, forcing N.C. State into being a jump-shooting team by playing a matchup zone. The Wolfpack, which got 18 points from fifth-year senor guard Trevor Lacey, was held to just 38% shooting and got to the foul line only 14 times.