Anyway, Louisville is on the way to the Final 4, baby! Overcoming a seemingly insurmountable 20 point lead and some of the 3-pt best shooting ever seen in a tournament, Louisville has finally goten back to the Final 4. West Virginia worked hard, and shot an incredible 71% from the 3 pt line in the first half, Kevin Pittsnoggle was a machine from behind the line, they made clutch threes right up until the last few minutes of regulation and into the OT. Somehow, even without Garcia, they pulled out the win. And how dod they do that? Defense. Defense defense defense. When you deny the opposing team shots, and make your own, why the score can turn around for you.
And on a small side note, I almost feel as bad for Darius Washington of Memphis, the freshman who (almost) single-handedly took Louisville out in the C-USA final. He missed the last two of three free throws. Those were the ones that would have won (or tied) the game.
The Mountaineers played a heck of a game and made it much much closer that I thought it’d be, but I’m glad the Cards won. Way to go Larry O’ and a gutty performance by Taquean Dean.
Oh, and I felt (and still do feel) absolutely terrible for Darius Washington. Poor guy Bill Bucknerized himself.
I’m not a sports guy, but ended up watching this game because Dad’s here, and Dad watched the game. The first ten minutes were like watching the Globetrotters. WV would lure Louisville out of position, sink a three, lather, rinse, repeat. It was like clockwork, and pretty amazing to watch.
Then, with the Mountaineers usual strategy in all sports, they got lazy and choked.
That said, The Traitor had his team playing pretty sharp in the second half. Losing Garcia hurt, but O’Bannon and Dean carried that team.
I’m just getting excited that we could possibly see a Louisville-UK championship game. I’m also excited that I may get to participate in a celebration at Woodland & Euclid, since I wasn’t here for the 1998 championship.
While I can’t be objective here, I do think Louisville is the superior team. And WV didn’t start “choking” until the OT, when the threes got a little desparate. All through regulation they were hitting the three automatically. Pitino adjusted, pushed the D, and they worked the ball inside and either got the 2 plus a foul or zipped it outside for a three themselves. That worked better than gunning a three, missing and also missing the rebound. This was especially bad since WV hit 70+% of their threes in the first half.
I’m prety bad about watching these kind of games, I pace and yell and I turn the channel a lot, cause I just can’t watch. Well, I watched every dang minute of this game. and I’ll watch against Illinois, too.
People don’t like to watch Kentucky games with me. I yell at players as though they can hear me, and I’m usually screaming obscenities, drinking copious amounts of sweet tea and cursing either John Clougherty or Gerald “I Hate Kentucky” Boudreaux.
Louisville-Illinois is gonna be a better game than the Arizona game, I think. Pitino loves to play up-tempo and push the ball, and Illinois is one of the fastest teams I’ve seen in years, if today was any gauge.
I’m a little worried about our game against Michigan State, just because it’s always a close game when we play them. I’m also a little disappointed that we don’t get to smack Duke around.
brianjedi, I hope you’re not one of those Wildcat fans.
It was awesome watching Tubby put Bogut in his place the other night. Bogut’s a hell of a player (apparently, I’d never seen Utah play till that night), but Orbzut and Alleyne handled him pretty well.
Big Woo and Shagari played WAY over what we usually get from them. There’s a reason why many of us refer to Woo as Lukasz “Walking Foul” Obrzut.
As for “one of those Wildcat fans,” I’m not sure what that means, but yes, I do tend to get upset by even minor lapses. “Two hands! TWO HANDS!” is a pretty common utterance, as is “Why are Sheray Thomas and Josh Carrier in the game?!”
I’m a firm believer that by the time you get to college, you should have a solid grasp of the fundamentals, and so when someone makes a stupid play, I get angry.
Anyway, I try to not take it so close to the heart, but man I was pissed when Myles fouled Sparks (Sparks!) on a 3-pt (three pointer!) to lose the game last year. He’s made up for it since then, probably. My wife doesn’t like to watch sports in general, but she really doesn’t like watching with me for sure. Especially tournament time. But I’ve seen like three games this season which is an improvement over last season.
I honestly was kinda pleased when Pitino left the Wildcats. Every offseason it was the same old song – which NBA team was he going to go to? Now, it obviously wasn’t his fault that NBA teams were throwing gobs of money at him, but it was his fault that he would allow the speculation to go on so long. When he finally did leave for the NBA, I said, “Good riddance. Let’s find a coach who actually wants to be here.”
I was surprised to see WVU go as far as they did, and despite the bad blood between my beloved Herd and the Mountaineers, I’m proud of them. Although I’m kinda ticked they gave up a 20 point lead, and to pansyass Louisville at that!
Duke got beat, though, and in the end that’s all that matters. Proof of a benevolent God, it is.
In UK news, does Kentucky still pay their coach more than their Governor?
i think most coaches make more than the governors. I think even our women’s coach makes double what the governor makes.
I was rooting for WV, felt bad they lost it at the end. But Louisville really stepped up the D and that’s what won it. They were guarding those guys 5 feet beyond the arc.
I feel sorry for Chuck Hayes, because he deserved a Final Four. I want to know what Tubby was thinking having Sparks on the bench for the last 5 minutes of regulation (excepting his CLUTCH 3 at the horn to put us in OT.) It’s almost like Tubby was trying to lose that game.
Now, nothing will make me happier than seeing North Carolina stomp a mudhole in the Spartans and walk it dry.
after the “those fans”.