<span style='color:grey'>Updated: March 28, 2005, 1:04 AM ET</span>

<span style='font-size:15pt;line-height:100%'>Cardinals rely on up-tempo defense to spark rally</span>

By Andy Katz, ESPN.com


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – When Patrick Beilein took a swing pass, calmly squared up and let fly from the middle of the Lobos logo a good 30 feet from the West Virginia basket, it was the ultimate heat check.

When his shot ripped through the net to stake the Mountaineers to a stunning 27-11 lead with 7:22 left in the first half, it appeared to signify this was indeed WVU's day.

It also did something that ultimately made sure it wasn't – it forced Louisville head coach Rick Pitino to mothball the Cardinals' 2-3 zone.

The gimmicky defense that had treated them so well down the stretch of the season and had baffled Georgia Tech and Washington in Louisville's last two games was being eviscerated. Pitino had no choice.

So first he went back to man-to-man and, after the Mountaineers had rained three more triples to finish the first half with 10 and a 13-point bulge, he reverted to his staple – full-court trapping pressure.

It worked. Louisville rallied from 20 down late in the first half to win 93-85 in overtime, sending the Cardinals to the Final Four for the first time since 1986 and making Pitino the first coach to ever lead three different programs to the Final Four (Providence and Kentucky are the others).

"To go back and press at this altitude without a bench with the best players being injured is truly amazing," Pitino said. "I've never seen anything like this as a coach in 31 years."



Garcia fouled out in regulation,
but enjoyed the celebration.

A few weeks ago, Pitino said the Providence Elite Eight win in '87 against Georgetown was his most rewarding. But this one tops the list.

"West Virginia was banking in 3s and everything they were shooting was going in," Pitino said.

Yes, Beilein banked in a 3 before his loooooong-range connection combusted the zone, but his teammates were pure as well. The Mountaineers made 18 of their first 23 attempts from 3-point range. What did Louisville have to lose by going man?

"We knew we had to play man which we hadn't done in a long time and we just started to get them on defense, start turning them over and that was the turning point of the basketball game," Louisville senior Ellis Myles said.

"They crept back and they crept back and there's no doubt in my mind that that was going to happen," West Virginia coach John Beilein said. "Our kids hung tough and we had some tough breaks."

The Cardinals overcome some as well.

Louisville still trailed by four points when star guard (and primary ballhandler) Francisco Garcia fouled out with four minutes left. Taquan Dean had to go on and off the court because he was cramping. Still, the Cards finished off regulation with a 10-6 spurt to force overtime.

"We tear teams up usually in the man-to-man [but] I think that pressure kind of hurried us up in our offense and we didn't take our time and slow down." West Virginia's Patrick Beilein said. "It's frustrating 'cause we had them right there and to let it slip away hurts."

"The momentum was on our side and the fire that the guys had in their eyes, I had seen it," Dean said. "I knew that we were going to come through and pull it out."

They did. They got inspired play from regional MVP Larry O'Bannon, who scored a team-high 24 points, Dean, who chipped in 23, Brandon Jenkins, who had three steals, and Myles, who had a block and a steal.

"Our road to the Final Four was so difficult," Pitino said. "As a 4-seed we got [last year's] runners-up in Georgia Tech, the type of team that a 4-seed doesn't normally get. We got a very good 1-seed in Washington."

Pitino said the selection committee gave him plenty of fond memories by giving him this path to the Final Four. And he would relish in seeing Kentucky on the opposite bracket if the Wildcats were able to beat Michigan State to reach St. Louis too.

"I would love it because my good friend Tubby Smith would be there," Pitino said of the Kentucky head coach and his former assistant. "I want Kentucky to be there. They treated me like royalty and were nice enough to hang my jersey. They don't treat me like royalty now, but I'm the Louisville coach and I live with that every day of my life."

Getting to the Final Four after all the adversity he and his players have faced was even more rewarding for Pitino on Saturday night. He flew in the nieces and nephews of his two late brothers-in-law.

"I wanted to see the smile on the faces of my team, for our fans and personally for my family that has suffered so much," Pitino said. "I wanted it for them. They know that their [fathers] were proudly looking down on them."

That's what makes this regional final his sweetest. A team that he thought would be a bubble team won the regional by coming back against one of the best shooting teams in the NCAA Tournament.

"I've been involved in some incredible comebacks, incredible," Pitino said. "[But] none ever so satisfying and as big as this one."

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com


<span style='color:blue'><span style='font-size:11pt;line-height:100%'>How Rick Pitino has fared in previous Final Fours</span></span>
• Providence (1987) -- lost to Syracuse 77-63 in semifinals.
• Kentucky (1993) -- lost to Michigan 81-78, OT in semifinals.
• Kentucky (1996) -- beat Massachusetts 81-74 in semifinals; beat Syracuse 76-67 for championship.
• Kentucky (1997) -- beat Minnesota 78-69 in semifinals; lost to Arizona 84-79, OT for championship.
• Louisville (2005) -- vs. Illinois in semifinals.

<a href='http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/ncaatourney05/news/story?id=2022936' target='_blank'>ESPN.com</a>

<span style='font-size:15pt;line-height:100%'>Pitino makes triumphant return to Final Four</span>

<span style='color:blue'>Vinnie Iyer /</span>




ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Bad news for the other teams in the Final Four: He's back. Taking three different programs to the prom court of the Big Dance? Of course it was a matter of time before Rick Pitino would become the first coach in NCAA tournament history to do it.

But it's the way he and his current team, Louisville, did it that should give the Cardinals great confidence they can win the national championship, even with a tough matchup in top-ranked Illinois awaiting them in the national semifinals. Good things tend to happen to Cardinals in St. Louis.

After dispatching heavyweights Georgia Tech and Washington with room to breathe in the two previous rounds, the Cardinals needed to become Cardiac Cards to outlast pesky underdog West Virginia in the Albuquerque regional final. Without Pitino's two identities on the sidelines, the charismatic communicator and the calculated coach, Louisville couldn't have turned a 13-point halftime deficit into a 93-85 overtime victory.

"That's the best thing I've seen since I have been a coach, and I have been involved in some incredeible comebacks," Pitino said of his players' effort. "Not one ever so satisfying and as big as this one."

Taking into the account the obstacles his team had to overcome, it's hard to dispute that.

In a game in which the teams combined for a NCAA tournament-record 29 successful 3-pointers, the Cardinals needed sharpshooter Taquan Dean to go 7-for-17 from beyond the arc to offset the Mountaineers' ridiculous 18-for-24 team performance. With a limited bench at a high-altitude venue, the Cardinals needed to scrap the 2-3 zone that was so successful against Washington and go to relentless man-to-man pressure to cool off West Virginia.

"I've never had to abandon a whole scouting report at halftime", Pitino said. "I felt it had to be abandoned because our confidence was down."

Pitino also said he didn't panic. His players didn't panic. They just went out scored 50 second-half points and dominated the overtime, even with superstar leader Francisco Garcia fouling out of the game with 4:02 left in regulation.

With other leaders such as senior guard Larry O'Bannon on the floor, why would Pitino panic? O'Bannon picked up the slack for Garcia with 24 points, including the layup with 38 seconds left that sent the game into OT tied at 77.

"He kept it positive the whole night no matter what the situation was," O'Bannon said of Pitino's coaching attitude.

Two more seniors, forwards Ellis Myles and Otis George, came up with key defensive plays down the stretch. Freshman forward Juan Palacios played like a seasoned veteran with his inside game.

Considering the magic he conjured up at Providence and the loaded rosters he had when at Kentucky, Pitino paid a great compliment to all the players on his current team in calling them "the gutsiest most take-control group I've ever been around."

Every spring in St. Louis, April brings anticipation of a successful Cardinals season. For Pitino's team, the arrival of the month means a chance to culminate one.


Vinnie Iyer is a projects editor for Sporting News.


<a href='http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/3494402' target='_blank'>foxsports.com</a>

<span style='font-size:16pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:navy'>Forde: Final Forde Minutes</span></span>

<span style='font-size:11pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:blue'>After the elitest of Elite Eights, how can the Final Four actually live up to the hype?</span></span>

Pat Forde
ESPN.com
Mar. 27 And now for the anticlimax. The Final Four.

Before you charge The Minutes with being legally insane, please remember that we're staggering to St. Louis still drunk on the greatest 27½ hours in NCAA Tournament history (1). From Saturday afternoon into Easter Sunday evening, we got the maddest Madness ever, the most vivid evidence yet that this is America's best sporting event.

Louisville (2), on the verge of being Pittsnogled (3) right out of the Tournament, rises from 20 down to beat West Virginia (4) for its first Final Four in 19 years. That made Rick Pitino (5) the first coach to take three different schools to the Promised Land. That seemed impossible to top.

And then, 2½ hours later, there was Bruce Weber (6) in tears, Final Four-bound and thinking of his mom who died before the tournament began. His Illinois (7) team had merely come back from 15 points down with a little more than four minutes left to beat Arizona (8).


Sunday led off with the stinker of the group. North Carolina (9) merely pulled out an 88-82 victory over relentless Wisconsin (10), in a game that was closer and more entertaining than most envisioned. On a normal March weekend, that's a tremendous game. Sandwiched between what came before and what came after, it was a dud.

The second game Sunday went double-OT and featured Patrick Sparks (11) making the most dramatic shot of the 2005 tournament – and, arguably, the most dramatic shot in the impossibly rich history of Kentucky (12) basketball. And it still wasn't enough to stop on-a-mission Michigan State (13).

Four games. Four overtime periods. Four hundred memories. Four thousand thrills.

Yo, Bucknell was swell. Vermont added verve. Wisconsin-Milwaukee was Wisconsin-Magnificent.

But part of the beauty of the NCAA Tournament is how the cute early stories are gradually replaced by something of grander scope: the great teams, the great games and the great drama. We got that this weekend. We got as much as our hearts could handle.

Now it's time to play for keeps. So pass the glycerin pills, keep the shock paddles handy and get ready for more – even if it can't live up to what we just saw …

… Can it?


<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>SCALPER'S PARADISE

Illinois is right across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, but the Illini are now going to face feverish competition for seats in the Edward Jones Dome.</span>

Louisville is a four-hour drive on I-64, and its fans are out of their minds with excitement over their Cardiac Cards. North Carolina fans aren't going to sit home when their team is this close to its first national title in 12 years. And Michigan State fans are well within reach of the Arch as well.

Bottom line: The Minutes predicts record demand, and record ticket prices. All the college assistants who annually sell their ducats to ticket brokers will make out like bandits.

And just think what the market would have been like if Kentucky had made it.


<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>RALLY CAPS IN ALBUQUERQUE, RALLY CAPS IN CHICAGO

Comeback Cardinals to Indomitable Illini: Ours was bigger.</span>

Insurmountable Illini to Cardiac Cards: Ours was later and greater.

It might have been the most exciting day of regional finals ever. If not, The Minutes at least marks it as the most exciting day of regional finals since March 28, 1998. Stanford came from six points down with 59 seconds left to beat Rhode Island 79-77, and then Kentucky rose from a 17-point second-half deficit to defeat Duke 86-84 in the Laettner Payback game.

Somehow, Saturday seems even better.

Now Louisville and Illinois collide in an epic confrontation of teams that, to infringe on John Calipari's trademark, refuse to lose. (And by the way, how's that NIT going, Cal?)

The Illini are merely 36-1, the lone loss coming by a point on a 3 in the final seconds. The Cardinals are 33-4, have won 13 straight and 21 of their last 22. But they have more in common than that, and their jaw-dropping Saturday comebacks.

Start with six creative, gutsy perimeter players who figure to attack each other with maximum ferocity. Louisville's Francisco Garcia (14), Taquan Dean (15) and Larry O'Bannon (16) scored 60 of the Cardinals' 93 points against West Virginia, including 20 of the last 24 in regulation. Illinois' Deron Williams (17), Luther Head (18) and Dee Brown (19) scored 57 of the Illini's 90 against Arizona, including all of the last 20 in regulation.

Then go to four underrated but effective post players. Louisville has fifth-year senior Ellis Myles (20), who is packing averages of 10.2 points, 9.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists, and skilled freshman Juan Diego Palacios (21), averaging 11.5 points and 6.3 rebounds in the NCAAs. Illinois counters with long James Augustine (22), averaging 12.4 points and 10.3 rebounds in postseason play, and wide Roger Powell (23), who averaged 14 points and seven rebounds in two games in Chicago.

They even have a similar senior sub who was vital Saturday. Louisville's Otis George (24) made all four shots he took, and Illinois' Jack Ingram (25) also scored eight big points.

The similarities end at the coaches. Pitino stands next to Mike Krzyzewski (26) on a higher plane than the rest of their colleagues. They're simply the two best in the business. Bruce Weber (27) has never been to the Final Four without a ticket, not even as an assistant, but is now overseeing what looks to The Minutes like the finest season in college basketball since Duke '92.

Pitino took his best shot at derailing that express. Now he'll have a go at Illinois.



<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>BLUEBLOODS VS. MEAN GREEN

This national semifinal was supposed to happen earlier. Last year, at least. Michigan State's core group of Paul Davis (28), Chris Hill (29), Kelvin Torbert (30) and Alan Anderson (31) were supposed to be Final Four regulars by now. North Carolina's junior triumvirate of Sean May (32), Raymond Felton (33) and Rashad McCants (34) were supposed to have traveled this route already, too.</span>

Hell, they were all supposed to be in the NBA by now.

But look what can happen when you hang around Old Siwash long enough to actually grow up and learn a little about the game. And about life.

After being called "losers" earlier this season in one Detroit newspaper, the Spartans rose up and proved their winner's resolve over two heroic games in Austin. First they took down No. 1 seed Duke, then they overcame No. 2 seed Kentucky, barely blinking after a certain victory got away at the end of regulation. Bravo, Tom Izzo (35), truly one of the great guys and great coaches in the business. Anyone who thought his best days had passed with the back-to-back-to-back Final Fours of 1999-2001 had better think again.

The Spartans will play a Carolina crew that was called the Chapel Hill Lakers – all talent, no trophies. All they needed was some maturity, and a top-shelf coach like Roy Williams (36) to show them the way.

And now Ringless Roy is two wins away from finally getting the coaching King Kong off his back. We're down to the final weekend, and Williams still hasn't had his season-ending cry yet.

If the Tar Heels win Saturday, they'll advance to the final Monday still waiting to face their first opponent seeded fourth or higher. But seeding is out the window at this point, at least with Michigan State.

The Spartans – and let's pause for a moment to congratulate a league The Minutes has dissed on many occasions, the Big Ten (37), for fielding half the Final Four – like to go from defense to offense just as quickly as the Heels. They'll have the athleticism on the perimeter to match up. They'll have the depth to hang around. And if Davis can avoid being shoved around by May for position in the paint, his length will make it hard for the Carolina powerhouse to duplicate the Herculean 29 and 12 he dropped on Wisconsin.

The fact that the two fan bases had grown so itchy for another Final Four trip goes to show how effectively they'd been spoiled. For perspective, just look at the other side, where Louisville ('86) and Illinois ('89) made their last trips when rap was young.

There were no headbands or braids to be seen back in the day. To Milt Wagner (38) and Kenny Battle (39), Dee Brown would look like some kind of cartoon character.



<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>LAST-SECOND SHOT

When hungry in St. Louis and in the vicinity of the dome, The Minutes recommends the toasted ravioli at Charlie Gitto's (40). The Minutes would love to join you for a bite, but if the games replicate what we saw this weekend, all meals will be taken from a hospital bed.</span>

Pat Forde is a senior writer for ESPN.com.

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