ESPN Men's Basketball

1. Louisville coach Rick Pitino said in a text Tuesday night that Indiana and Louisville couldn’t get a date set to schedule a game next season. Indiana coach Tom Crean wasn’t ready to close the door in his response, saying he wasn’t sure. But Pitino said he’s now trying to start the home-and-home series in 2013-14, which is a shame considering that the two teams could be ranked 1-2 to start next season. Indiana still has a few more games to schedule.

2. Missouri still might have landed Jordan Clarkson without restrictions put on his transfer from Tulsa. In a statement, the Golden Hurricane wouldn’t detail why there were restricted schools like Texas. Somehow, Tulsa escaped national criticism for the way it handled Clarkson. Mizzou coach Frank Haith has five transfers eligible next season, then Clarkson in 2013-14; the use of transfers is helping the Tigers avoid a rebuilding phase. The schools that get these transfers, though, shouldn’t ever block one of their own from seeking a new home.

3. Denver’s plan, according to a source, is to try to convince the remaining WAC members (Idaho, New Mexico State, Boise State and Seattle) that they should stay together to keep the league’s automatic NCAA tournament berth. The WAC could then add available Utah Valley and Cal State Bakersfield. The problem is that NMSU and Idaho will need a home for football and Boise State now would rather be in the Big West or, if the Big East were to fail, head back to the Mountain West. And, according to a source, if Denver had its choice, the Pioneers would go to the stable and all-private WCC.

In an ideal world, Indiana and Kentucky would meet at some point this coming December, preferably in Rupp Arena (but a neutral floor would be fine, too!). We'd get to see two bitter adjacent state rivals square off in a matchup with massive emotional and practical implications, populated with future NBA talent, coached by two of the best in the game.

Of course, ours is not an ideal world. There are reasons -- some of them good, even -- why Kentucky and Indiana won't match up on the floor in 2012-13. But those reasons are about what's good for Kentucky and Indiana specifically, rather than the sport of college basketball generally. That's the biggest drag about all this. The sport deserves this game. We've had it since 1969. Now on the precipice of brilliance, the rivalry dies, and all because of an expanded SEC schedule and some mutual stubbornness and John Calipari's "protection" of his "nontraditional" program.

I'll be honest: Some part of me hoped the outrage from both programs' fan bases would be so loud that Calipari and Crean would realize the error of their ways, schedule a peace accord at the Galt House, and find a way to make this thing happen. Instead, both sides seem to have dug in. Besides, it's not like either fan base is about to criticize their coach. Both are head over heels in love; Crean just resurrected Indiana from the abyss, and Calipari just won a national title. ("Blind faith" doesn't begin to describe the comments on his blog.)

So, no, Kentucky-Indiana isn't happening. I've officially abandoned all hope. Which means I'm ready to settle on the next best thing. As Andy Katz reported in his 3-Point Shot this morning, that next best thing may indeed involve the Louisville Cardinals and one Rick Pitino. From Andy:

Louisville coach Rick Pitino said he wants to play Indiana next season. Hoosiers coach Tom Crean confirmed that the two sides are discussing the idea of a home-and-home series. “This is something we have to consider,’’ Crean said. [...]

“The polls have us 1 and 2,’’ Pitino said. “It would be good for us to have a game a 1-[hour], 45-[minute] bus ride away. It would be good for college basketball.’’

Any time Pitino and Calipari are mentioned in the same 800 words, there's a tendency to assume everything either is saying is intended to tweak the opposite number. And that may indeed be the case here; from a public relations standpoint, Pitino knows exactly what he's doing.

But guess what? I don't care! Because Pitino is right: Indiana-Louisville would be good for college basketball. It doesn't carry the same longstanding rivalry cachet as Indiana-Kentucky, and fans surely wouldn't be quite as rabid for this game as IU-UK, but that dream is dead. In its place is an opportunity for both teams to add a marquee, top-5 matchup, for fans to get to see two of the nation's best teams play early in the college hoops calendar. In a sport that has increasingly been marginalized by an awkward TV schedule and an apathetic approach to much of the regular season, that is a good thing.

It is also the long view. Crean and Calipari may not need the IU-UK game in any obvious tangible way, but discontinuing it in such fashion paints a picture of two programs who have lost the forest for the trees. The long-term approach would be to build a mutual level of interest and national awareness by keeping the rivalry as healthy as possible. That national interest wouldn't just help the sport, it would increase the Q ratings for both programs. Hey, why should UNC-Duke get to have all the "Oh, that game's on? We need to watch that!" casual fan fun?

Maybe that rivalry is now Indiana-Louisville. The two programs share a natural geographic rivalry, even if the historic skirmishes have never been as epic as either team, particularly Louisville, has shared with the Wildcats. Oh well. In the short term, Indiana-Louisville would give us one more great basketball game in 2012-13, and maybe the year after. In the long term, a healthy Hoosiers-Cardinals rivalry could come to be a defining tentpole in the early season nonconference schedule.

Either way, Pitino is right. It would be good for the sport. It would also be good for both programs, and good for their fans. Believe it or not, these concepts need not be mutually exclusive.

Editor’s note: Each week, ESPN.com writers will debate a topic of interest in the college basketball landscape. Today’s topic: Which teams are garnering too much (and possibly unwarranted) preseason buzz? Which teams aren’t receiving enough?

Eamonn Brennan: UCLA

When the magazines hit the shelves this fall, and when the first official preseason poll is released, the expectations for UCLA will be sky-high. They already are. That's what happens when you pull in four top-100 recruits, two of which (small forwards Kyle Anderson and Shabazz Muhammad) are ranked in the top five overall. That's what happens when you add No. 26-ranked Tony Parker, and No. 41-ranked Jordan Adams.

That's what happens when you assemble this kind of talent, when you become the first team in four years to unseat Kentucky at the top of the recruiting rankings: We expect everything, we expect it immediately, and we have no patience for anything less.

Make no mistake: UCLA will be good. Probably very good. But there are very good reasons to ask whether Ben Howland's remarkable recruiting rebirth isn't an obvious guarantee of top-five, national title-level success.

Why? We have little evidence Howland can manage a highly touted assemblage of freshmen stars; in fact, the best evidence we have -- George Dohrmann's investigative profile in Sports Illustrated -- went so far as to assert the opposite: That Howland's teams are best when they are as low-maintenance as possible, that the way he treats talented players is anathema to his overall coaching style. At the very least, John Calipari he is not.

Even assuming that Howland has learned from the freshman-related mistakes of the past, there are still lingering questions about the returning players. Forward Joshua Smith remains a promising problem child, and forwards Travis and David Wear played at their best when on the floor together, but with Parker in the mix, how often can that happen? How will UCLA manage the minutes split between Muhammad, Anderson and Adams, the three dynamic incoming small forwards? Will the four freshmen adapt to the tough defensive style that led Howland to three straight Final Fours?

You get the idea. There's more to basketball than acquiring talent. As a program, there's no question UCLA is ascendant anew. But Howland and his staff have plenty to prove before we can rightly consider this team -- as we all seem to be automatically doing -- a national title contender. Until that happens, let's calibrate our expectations accordingly.

Dana O’Neil: Louisville

It may seem silly to question the early buzz on a team that is coming off a Final Four run (and perhaps it is), but I am still not all-in with Louisville. There are plenty of things I like about the Cardinals -- the fact the heart of the team is back, that Wayne Blackshear will be in the lineup from the opening tip, that Mike Marra returns from injury and above all else, their defensive tenacity.

Here’s the worry: the offense. Louisville struggled to score last season and with its best outside threat graduating in the form of Kyle Kuric, that doesn’t look to get any easier. I thought Luke Hancock, the George Mason transfer, might help ease that burden but the Cardinals appear to be carrying their injury bug from last season into the next.

Hancock injured his shoulder in a workout and will miss the next few months, according to Rick Pitino. He should return by the start of the season, but it’s still a significant blow for a team that already plans to be without Rakeem Buckles (still, again, pick your qualifier).

Louisville overachieved last year by miles to make it to the Final Four, and while this team certainly has reason to hope, I think it’s still a little premature to presume.

1. Louisville coach Rick Pitino said he wants to play Indiana next season. Hoosiers coach Tom Crean confirmed that the two sides are discussing the idea of a home-and-home series. “This is something we have to consider,’’ Crean said. IU is playing Butler in Indianapolis and could play UCLA or Georgetown in the Legends Classic in Brooklyn. IU could also draw North Carolina in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge in the most likely scenario. Louisville is in the Battle 4 Atlantis with a field that has all NCAA projected or bubble teams in Duke, Memphis, Stanford, Missouri, Minnesota, VCU and Northern Iowa. The Cards host Kentucky and will play a road SEC-Big East Challenge game. IU and Kentucky couldn’t agree on a series for next season, leaving the Hoosiers open to another high-profile game. “The polls have us 1 and 2,’’ Pitino said. “It would be good for us to have a game a 1-[hour], 45-[minute] bus ride away. It would be good for college basketball.’’

2. Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said he still hasn’t heard if Scott Martin will get his sixth year of eligibility back next season. Classmate Tim Abromaitis had his sixth year denied by the NCAA. Brey said Abromaitis’ name has now been listed on an addendum that the NBA has sent out indicating that Abromaitis is draft eligible. Abromaitis is in the process of picking an agent now that he has lost his amateur status.

3. Arizona will improve on the court if Mark Lyons plays to his potential. But the experiment of taking Lyons for one season will only work if he comes to Tucson knowing that he is serving a role. Lyons is in an odd situation where he is headed to play for the coach (Sean Miller) who initially recruited him at Xavier after the then-assistant coach (Chris Mack) who became his head coach at Xavier when Miller left, deemed he wasn’t listening well enough to constructive criticism. Xavier isn’t upset with his departure. This is an addition by subtraction. It can work well for Arizona if Lyons keeps quiet and simply just plays.

We are coming off a Final Four where as much was made about the rift between Rick Pitino and John Calipari as the X's and O's battle between Louisville and Kentucky. What really happened between the two is likely forever lost in a he said-he said morass, but it's probably not too hard to figure out.

Boil it down to one word: competition.

It's not so easy to be friendly anymore. There's just too much at stake.

"We're in a world right now that, if you're talking to a guy you could be recruiting the same [player] he is," Davidson's Bob McKillop said. "Or you might run into him in the tournament next year, and I really believe that's closed down the fences a little bit."

Click here for more from Dana O'Neil.

Throughout the 2012 NCAA tournament, and the Louisville Cardinals' unlikely run to the Final Four, Rick Pitino spoke openly and frequently about his feelings for his current team -- how much he loved coaching them, how hard they worked, how they maximized their ability and executed his plans despite lacking the elite talent of the other Final Four contenders. You could see the affection on the sidelines, in every press conference, and especially when Pitino and his team cut down the West Regional nets in Phoenix. It was real.

But in case we needed another reminder, here you go: Pitino named his horses after two of his players. From the Louisville Courier Journal:

“The Bellamy Road colt was a spectacular big, big colt,” Pitino said. “He was lanky, had great potential and goes the distance. I said I got the perfect name for him. I said ‘Gorgui.’ ”

The second colt, bred at Claiborne Farm, “is very, very quick — has a great first step, so to speak,” Pitino said. “I said I got the perfect name there, too. [Siva].”

“They’re two of my favorite ballplayers and young men,” Pitino said. “I told both guys. They’re super excited.”

The references, of course, are to Louisville center Gorgui Dieng and point guard Peyton Siva, and both seem like fitting noms de guerre. But can either horse run? According to the story, Gorgui "arguably has the better breeding of the two," but both horses will begin racing this summer, and Pitino is holding out hope that "Gorgui has the breeding to go long" enough that he could one day appear on the track in the first weekend in May for the Kentucky Derby.

I don't know much about horse racing, but I've been to the Derby, and I know this much: If a horse named "Gorgui" is running for the roses, it won't matter how much of a long shot he is coming into the day. He'll attract more than his fair share of bettors. Can you imagine? (Also, what if he won? Pitino making a victory lap at Churchill Downs? Hilarious.)

Give it up for the Florida International Panthers: For a program that hasn't posted a winning record in the past 12 seasons, FIU has no problem landing "name" coaches.

Of course, the Isiah Thomas experiment always felt more like a public relations-inspired sideshow than a legitimate hire. Thomas had one foot out of the door during his entire time at FIU; the rumors of his involvement with the New York Knicks from afar never truly ceased, and if anything only increased, as it became clear Thomas wasn't remotely invested in a long, arduous rebuilding process. At some point, after the bemused headlines faded away, the PR grab wasn't even worth its own headlines -- mostly because it failed to generate any. We all stopped paying attention. Ho hum.

Now, as FIU seeks to quell the popular player uprising that took root after Thomas's April 6 dismissal, FIU director of sports and entertainment Pete Garcia gone again to the public relations well. The difference, at least this time, is that their latest attention-grabbing coaching hire might actually be able to, you know, coach.

On Sunday, Louisville coach Rick Pitino told ESPN's Andy Katz that his son, Cardinals assistant Richard Pitino, would leave his father's staff to take over at FIU. The Panthers refused to confirm the deal Sunday, and no one returned correspondence, but Pitino was already eulogizing the time spent with his son, which included this season's unexpected run to the Final Four:

"You know I'm delighted, but I'm going miss (him) terribly," Rick Pitino said. "I think one of the great things in 35 years of coaching was spending three years with him. Watch him grow as a basketball coach, and you sort of don't want it to end."

[...] "It's his opportunity," Rick Pitino said. "It was his decision, not that I was against it. But I would have loved to been with him a few more years."

Richard Pitino came back to Louisville this season after two years spent as an assistant coach under Billy Donovan at Florida. He has also worked at Duquesne, Northeastern and the College of Charleston. As such, FIU may have just done about as well as it possibly could in hiring Thomas's replacement. The younger Pitino brings his name with him, so he has that public relations advantage, but he is also a legitimate college basketball coach in training, one who spent much of the past decade breaking down tape and learning under two of the nation's most successful college hoops coaches, one of which just so happens to be his father.

It's a win-win for FIU. Indeed, given the Thomas disaster, Richard Pitino -- inexperienced as a head coach though he may be -- might still be the absolute best possible scenario for a program hasn't broken the .500 mark, let alone made it to an NCAA tournament, in over a decade.

At the very least, however Richard Pitino performs, it can't possibly go worse than the past three years. It's a step in the right -- and an entirely more sane -- direction.

NEW ORLEANS – There were no tears.

The Louisville Cardinals didn’t hang towels over their heads or pause to collect themselves as they talked with reporters.

Following their 69-61 loss to archrival and national-title favorite Kentucky in the Final Four on Saturday, Louisville’s players and coaches did not sulk. They were disappointed but not devastated.

Wayne Blackshear chomped an apple and conversed with the team’s other youngsters about his classes as he sat on a stool.

Peyton Siva and Russ Smith stared at their smartphones. A few players who’d never touched the floor at Mercedes-Benz Superdome joked in a corner.

The team that had buckled the Final Four’s power grid -- Kansas, Ohio State and Kentucky were all ranked in the top 10 of both major polls at the end of the season -- offered the field a true underdog and added some intrigue to the gathering.

“Well, basically what I told the guys was that for Chris [Smith] and Kyle [Kuric], it was like preparing for the Olympics, and you just work so hard every single day, gave some extraordinary effort, then at the end you're on the podium and they're playing somebody else's national anthem, but you have a bronze medal around your neck,” said coach Rick Pitino. “When I compared them a few weeks ago to the '87 Providence team, it was in terms of effort and attitude. They made me really, really proud. They battled a great team tonight. We just needed lot of things to go right down the stretch.”

The Cardinals had no business being in New Orleans. And their postgame vibe in the Big Easy suggested that they knew as much.

Blackshear scored nine points in 14 minutes of crucial reserve duty against the Wildcats. But his October shoulder injury forced him to miss most of the season and commenced a string of personnel mishaps for the Cardinals.

Mike Marra and Rakeem Buckles suffered season-ending knee injuries. Other key players were hampered by injuries, including Siva, who dealt with an ankle injury at the start of the year.

The team used mixed martial arts helmets in recent practices to protect three players, Siva included, who’d endured multiple concussions.

“We made it to the Final Four when nobody thought we could,” said Siva, who led the Cardinals with 11 points.

That’s why Pitino smiled on the Superdome podium as he talked about this Cardinals squad, one that had clearly overachieved by even reaching New Orleans.

The 4-seed cast doubt on what seemed like a formality -- Kentucky winning the national title -- with its effort.

A pregame trade with the Hornets might not have guaranteed a victory for the Cardinals. After the game, Pitino compared Anthony Davis (18 points, 14 rebounds and 5 blocks) to Bill Russell. John Calipari’s squad shot 57.1 percent from the field to Louisville’s 34.8.

But with Kentucky leading 46-34 with 15:37 to go and threatening to enter Blowout Mode, the Cardinals clawed back with the same fight that led the Big East’s seventh-place squad to a Big East tournament title and Final Four appearance.

A Siva 3-pointer tied the affair (49-49) and capped a 15-3 run with 9:12 to play. But Kentucky surged after that moment, which ignited the school’s fans.

Louisville matched Kentucky’s toughness (outscored by only 40-38 in the paint). But the Cardinals failed to equal the Wildcats’ execution.

They mustered just 13 second-chance points on 19 offensive rebounds. Their 5-for-15 mark on second-chance opportunities was the lowest rate in this year’s NCAA tournament, per ESPN Stats & Information. The latter also reported that Louisville missed 13 dunks and layups.

But the Cardinals didn’t talk like a team that felt like it had blown a national championship opportunity.

“I don’t think there’s any disappointment here. Like, nobody believed in us, nobody believed we could make it to the Final Four,” said Gorgui Dieng, who scored 7 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked 4 shots. “Even they couldn’t believe we could make it to the Sweet 16. We wanted to make a big run to the national championship, but it is what it is. Why are we gonna hang our head?”

A “they all doubted we could get here” mantra reverberated around the locker room. And really, there were few reasons to believe the Cardinals could crack the Final Four on Selection Sunday, even though they possessed one of the top defenses in America.

“We don’t look at ourselves as the underdog because we’re a big-time university. We just feel disrespected because we’re winning,” said Russ Smith, who scored nine points. “It’s like nobody respects us.”

Their fans do.

Louisville loyalists flooded Bourbon Street as early as Thursday. Boisterous school cheers rang out from downtown streets. The blue-collar crew had crashed the country club assembly of power players in New Orleans.

The Cardinals’ supporters wanted the city to know that they were ready for the festivities.

They didn’t need a victory to party.

Pitino said he hopes his players follow that example.

“I told the guys, ‘Look, I'm going to Miami tomorrow and I'm celebrating a season where we worked around the clock, around injuries and everything else. If you guys don't celebrate and have good, clean fun, you're fools. Because I think there's only been eight teams that got to the Final Four in the history of one of the greatest traditions and they did it,” he said. “So they're going to celebrate. Kyle will celebrate a little more low-keyed than Chris will, but they're going to celebrate.”

NEW ORLEANS - A few quick bulleted thoughts on the first half of our first Final Four matchup:

• Louisville should be thrilled it trails by only seven. The Cardinals are, as expected, outclassed at every position. Nothing is coming easy on the offensive end -- every shot is challenged, every drive to the rim feels hopeless, every turnover feels like a death knell. Louisville shot 12-of-32 from the field, and scored just .77 points per possession, in the first half. Kentucky, on the other hand, shot 15-of-25. Yet the Cardinals closed the gap late in the second half, and remain very much in this game.
• How? Turnovers, mostly. The Wildcats have coughed the ball up eight times, several of which have led to Russ Smith-piloted run-outs and fast-break buckets, exactly the thing Louisville needs to stay in this tilted talent mismatch. But Kentucky has, with the exception of the turnovers, been pretty much peerless on the offensive end. A few more made 3s (they're 1-of-5) and fewer turnovers, and this thing isn't close. Louisville's defense is very good, but the Wildcats are mostly getting what they want on the offensive end.
[+] Enlarge
Bob Donnan/US PresswireKentucky's Terrence Jones (3) dunks over Louisville's Jared Swopshire during the first half.
• It also helped Louisville that Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Kentucky's do-it-all small forward, left the game with his second foul with just under 14 minutes to play. The charge call that landed him his second foul was slightly questionable (shocker, I know), but either way, Kentucky managed to maintain its hold on the game without MKG on the floor. That's good news, obviously.
• Gorgui Dieng finished the first half with a block and a huge dunk on a Louisville fast break, and his final counting numbers (5 points, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks) were solid, but he struggled for much of the half. He missed a wide-open dunk, he turned the ball over three times and he finished 2-of-7 from the field. He'll have to be more sure-handed in the paint, because Louisville's main line of attack -- rushing Peyton Siva and Smith to the rim, then dishing to a big man and hoping for the best -- requires Dieng to finish clinically on the block. He hasn't thus far.
• What John Calipari is probably telling his team at the half: Slow down, take your time on offense, but don't be casual. "Be fast, but don't hurry," is a classic John Woodenism, and it applies here. Kentucky is too much for the Cardinals to handle on both ends. As long as Kentucky controls the game, limits turnovers and gets good looks on offense, the Wildcats will win. It's really pretty simple.
• What Rick Pitino is probably telling his team at the half: Get into these guys. Louisville has to turn Marquis Teague and Doron Lamb over to stay in this thing, because Kentucky is too good defensively to allow buckets to this so-so offense in a straight half-court matchup situation. The Cardinals could use some 3s in the second half, but they also need to keep pushing for interior buckets from Chane Behanan and Dieng. Behanan, in particular, can score against Terrence Jones; he just needs the space and time to create his own look in the post. The Cardinals should be pretty happy they're not trailing by a larger deficit here, but they still have much to improve if they plan on pulling off this unlikely upset.

NEW ORLEANS -- Kyle Kuric is no Rudy Ruettiger.

The word "walk-on" typically conjures romantic images -- the undersized, unathletic, unrecruited player who outworks his more talented peers, the guy who refuses to give up on his college dream, the unglamorous bench-dweller in it for sheer love.

Kuric has some of those qualities, sure, but his story isn't quite that idyllic. In 2008, the Evansville, Ind., native made occasional appearances on recruiting rankings, received a scholarship offer from Butler and entered Louisville coach Rick Pitino's program as a preferred walk-on. He didn't play much as a freshman -- a disappointment to Kuric and Kuric alone -- but emerged as solid scorer as a sophomore. That breakout earned him a scholarship last season, when he became a key piece in an overachieving Cardinals lineup.

"I was called a walk-on, but it was really just a title," Kuric said. "It didn't make any difference to me."

Such was the case again in Kuric's final season, when he gave up his scholarship for the betterment of his team. Pitino needed openings to sign standout freshmen recruits Chane Behanan and Wayne Blackshear, among others; Kuric's father, Steve Kuric, an Evansville-based neurosurgeon, was willing to foot the bill to help build the team.

That willingness paid off. Behanan's addition was crucial for a team that battled injuries and inconsistency all season; his play in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight was a primary reason Louisville overcame Michigan State and Florida en route to the Final Four. And the walk-on, who just so happens to be a starter on a team with two McDonald's All-Americans in its lineup, is just one day away from this you-don't-need-me-to-tell-you-how-big national semifinal against Kentucky.

That Kuric, now a captain, is such an important part of this team -- that he'll be matched up across from the unmatchable trio of Kentucky off-guards Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Darius Miller and Doron Lamb -- is a sign of not only how ragtag this group really is, but how much Kuric has developed in his four years in school. He is -- and this is not a value judgment so much as a statement of fact -- the un-Kentucky. The contrast with the NBA-bound, freshmen-led Wildcats couldn't be more stark.

"The way our coach recruits us and develops us is the reason [for our success]," Kuric said. "Where I've come since my freshman year, and the way we all play together and rely on each other so much, it says a lot about us.

"A lot of people are saying we're playing with house money, that we're just happy to be here," Kuric said. "We're definitely happy. But we're not content."

Andy Katz and Myron Medcalf wrap up Thursday at the Final Four in New Orleans.

The Louisville Cardinals are making their ninth trip to the Final Four, the fewest of this year’s participants.

Here are five things to watch for with Louisville this weekend.

Pitino has been here before
Rick Pitino is the third coach to take more than one team to multiple Final Fours. The other two coaches to do so were Jack Gardner and Roy Williams.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Pitino is the second coach to face a former team in the Final Four. Roy Williams led North Carolina to the 2008 Final Four, where he lost to former school Kansas.

This is Pitino’s sixth Final Four appearance, and three of those trips have been with teams seeded fourth or lower. He is the first coach to lead three teams seeded that low to the Final Four since seeding began in 1979. Larry Brown, Tom Izzo, Lute Olson and Brad Stevens have each done it twice.

Pitino has been to Final Fours in New Orleans before but hasn't had the best of results. This is the third time that he has led a team to the national semifinals in New Orleans, with Providence in 1987 and Kentucky in 1993 both falling short of the championship game.

Defense wins championships
Louisville is holding its opponents to 35 percent shooting when it plays man-to-man defense this season, the lowest percentage in the nation.

The Cardinals’ man defense held Kentucky to 21.7 percent (5-for-23) when the teams met earlier this year. That was the lowest field goal percentage by the Wildcats against man-to-man defense this season.

Louisville has recorded 29 steals in the NCAA tournament, the second-highest total in the field. Fourteen of those steals were by players stepping into passing lanes, while 13 were strips.

Big East runs redux
Louisville’s run to the Final Four bears a close resemblance to Connecticut’s title run last season.

Last year, the Huskies went 9-9 in the Big East and finished in ninth place. The Cardinals lost one fewer game this year and received a first-round bye in the Big East tournament by finishing seventh.

Both teams entered the Big East tournament with four losses in their last six games before starting long winning streaks.

Key player
When Louisville played Kentucky on New Year’s Eve, Russ Smith scored a career-high 30 points off the bench as the Cardinals lost by seven. Unfortunately for Louisville, he was the only player to reach double figures.

After scoring only 46 points in his previous six games, Smith has scored 47 points in his past three games and led the Cardinals in scoring twice.

Second chances
Kentucky outscored Louisville 20-6 on second-chance opportunities earlier this season, and that number could be key in the rematch.

Louisville has allowed only nine second-chance points in its past two games. Kentucky has scored 26 points in the same span and leads the SEC with 13 second-chance points per game this season.

NEW ORLEANS -- Russ Smith always wanted to play for Rick Pitino. The only problem? Pitino didn't want to coach Russ Smith.

The coach had seen plenty of the diminutive, scattershot guard as a seventh- and eighth-grader at the Louisville basketball camp, where Smith was the MVP. Pitino knew Smith's father, Russ Sr., whom Pitino jokingly described as "crazy." He couldn't imagine one day putting the offspring in a Cardinals uniform.

But on the advice of assistant coach Ralph Willard, Pitino agreed to see Smith play at Molloy High School in Queens, N.Y., and eventually Willard's relentless campaign won him over.

"I never considered recruiting him," Pitino said. "Ralph kept hitting me, saying, 'That's the kid you should go after.' I said, 'Russ Smith? I knew his dad when he was Russ' age.' I said, 'He's 5-foot-8.' Ralph said, 'No, Rick, he was 5-foot-8 in the eighth grade. He's 6-foot now.'

"So I called over Russ and said, 'Come here, Russ,' and he gave me a big hug," Pitino recalled. "And I said, 'You know, Ralph, you might be right.'"

A few years later, as Louisville made its unlikely run to the 2012 Final Four, Smith's teammates would recall another hug, one he asked of his coach after a particularly vicious mid-timeout dressing-down this season. "OK, Coach," Smith said. "Now let's hug." Smith stumped Pitino with the request, but hugged him anyway. As guard Kyle Kuric would later tell it, "that's the moment when Coach just decided to accept Russ Smith."

Smith's huggable story is a fitting model for this year's Cardinals, a thoroughly random assemblage of players who differ greatly from man to man in their origins, backgrounds, high school recruiting hype and paths to the rotation of this season's most unlikely Final Four squad. Smith is the maddeningly breakneck gunner who has emerged, for better or worse, as one of Pitino's most frustrating, yet beloved players. Center Gorgui Dieng is the African prospect who learned English in six months and morphed from a shy beanpole to a philosophical shot-blocking force. Kuric is the former walk-on who earned a scholarship, then willingly gave it up. His neurosurgeon father was willing to pay tuition to allow Pitino to make 2011's big recruiting haul. Chris Smith is the oft-overlooked little brother of New York Knicks guard J.R. Smith.

Peyton Siva is the former McDonald's All-American prospect who has battled injuries and inconsistency for all four years of his career. His sudden streak of good health just before the Big East tournament has helped spur the Cardinals to their eight-game winning streak. Only freshman forward Chane Behanan -- a McDonald's All-American in his own right -- has to this point followed what might be considered a rational career trajectory. And he's just getting started.

Viewed as disparate parts, they don't look like much. For large stretches of the 2012 season, the whole wasn't all that pretty, either. But it's clear this varied group of talents and personalities is one Pitino relishes as much as any he's ever coached.

"I'm having the time of my life watching them achieve this," Pitino said. "Last year and this year have been like 1987 for me. Just a great time. Great time."

Perhaps that's why Louisville seems so loose heading into a game that would make most shiver with nerves. A Final Four matchup with overwhelming national title favorite Kentucky? A date with the nation's best team, which just so happens to be Louisville's intensely detested bête noire? There are massive stakes on the line Saturday, no less than a chance to be remembered forever in a hoops-mad state's basketball lore. Yet the Cardinals seem downright unfazed.

"We're just enjoying the opportunity to play in this thing, realizing we're even here," Siva said. "Of course we're underdogs. We're playing the No. 1 seed. It's going to be a tough game, but it's going to be a good game."

There are few rational observers who could possibly peg Louisville to upset the star-studded, juggernaut Wildcats. A guard his coach didn't want, who still drives his coach mad? A former walk-on in the starting lineup? A developing project charged with stopping Anthony Davis? Kentucky coach John Calipari has at least six NBA talents in his rotation and three likely lottery picks -- up against this Louisville team?

No, the Cardinals aren't supposed to win Saturday. But then again, they weren't supposed to be here in the first place. As they prepare to take on the latest unlikely challenge, at the very least, Pitino's team seems intent on enjoying the ride.

"We went through the Big East, we cut down nets, we're in Portland, we're in Phoenix, we get a win, we cut down nets, and suddenly we're playing Kentucky," Pitino said. "It's like, flashback -- what happened the last two weeks? How did we get here?"

By Saturday, John Calipari, Rick Pitino, Thad Matta and Bill Self will have had nearly a week to scout their opponents. As we type, they're breaking down film, analyzing their opponents' strengths and weaknesses and searching for ways to impart this knowledge to their players in simple, digestible form. They are ... pause for dramatic effect ... game-planning.

What will each come up with? We don't exactly know. That's why they're coaches in the Final Four, and we are, you know, not. But we can still venture a guess. In the latter of a two-part series, here's a look at what they may come up with.

Now: Kansas vs. Ohio State.

Kansas Jayhawks

Offense: By adjusted efficiency's lights, three of the four best defensive teams in the country are members of the Final Four. None of them, if you can believe it, is Kentucky.

They are, in order: No. 1 Louisville, No. 2 Ohio State, and No. 4 Kansas. (Kentucky is ranked No. 11; it's not like the Wildcats are slouches.) The cliche, as always: Defense wins championships.

Can the Jayhawks defend their way to a win? Would a game in which both teams hover around or below the 1.0 point-per-possession mark be in their favor? Maybe. But I tend to doubt it. Which means two things for Self as he prepares his squad for Saturday's "Clash of the Titans"-esque contest. (Or is it Wrath of the Titans?) In no particular order:

1. Kansas has to win the interior scoring battle.

2. Tyshawn Taylor has to stay in control.

The second might be the more important, but the first isn't far behind. Kansas is not a good outside-shooting team. This was true for much of the season (Kansas has shot 34.9 percent from beyond the arc), and it's true of the NCAA tournament, when the Jayhawks have made a downright blistering 16 of their 68 3-point field goal attempts. This might be a blessing in disguise: Last season, the Jayhawks were actually (and non-sarcastically) blistering from 3-point land; their reliance on that shot, and inability to adjust, ultimately ended their season in the Elite Eight against VCU. This season, the Jayhawks have no such reliance, so Taylor, the team's second-most important scorer, can somehow go 0-of-17 from 3 in four tournament games and Self's team can still make it to the Final Four. Fancy that.

No, what the Jayhawks do well -- as well as any team in the country -- is score around the rim. Kansas' 2-point field goal percentage this season is 53.3 percent, the 13th-best in the country. This comes in part thanks to Taylor's ability to get to the rim, but it is mostly to do with Kansas' two big men and the high-low motion offense -- Self's trademark -- that places them into prime, hard-to-double scoring positions.

And Thomas Robinson isn't the only threat. Jeff Withey is actually more efficient in the low block, averaging 1.045 ppp to Robinson's .902 this season, according to Synergy Sports Technologies scouting data. Robinson gets three times as many post-ups as Withey does, so his efficiency can naturally be expected to take a hit. But you get the idea. Robinson presents the high-powered NBA talent in this front line, but Withey -- with his 7-foot stature and even longer reach -- might be the biggest mismatch the Jayhawks have to offer against a team that plays the 6-9 Jared Sullinger as its putative center.

But No. 2 above is where things get really interesting -- and, for Kansas, especially dicey. Throughout his four-year career, Taylor has been known to commit his share of turnovers, wacky heat-checks and mental mistakes. The point guard's 2012 turnover rate (his percentage of possessions in which he coughs up the ball) is 22.3. That's not bad for a player charged with creating offense within a 3-point-bereft perimeter attack. But it's hardly an encouraging stat for a player facing off against the industrial-grade turnover robot we humans casually refer to as "Aaron Craft" (more on that below).

Taylor's turnover rates have fluctuated all season. This is especially true of the tournament, wherein Taylor has posted respective rates of 33.3 percent, 20 percent, 31.2 percent, and, against North Carolina, 15 percent. Is that latest mark real? Or the product of playing against Stilman White?

Taylor's importance in this game can't possibly be underestimated. If Craft cripples him on the perimeter, Kansas loses a massive portion of its attack. It could take care of the first item above -- Withey and Robinson getting buckets on the low block -- but if Taylor doesn't deliver on No. 2, the rest probably won't matter.

Defense: Grim as Taylor's prospects may seem, the Jayhawks are the nation's fourth-best defensive team, and they have a secret weapon many people still don't seem to know about.

Quick: Name the nation's best shot-blocker. Anthony Davis, right? Davis' range and impact make it difficult to argue that point. OK then: Name me the nation's most frequent shot-blocker, the one that repels opponents on a higher percentage of possessions than any other in the country? Yep. That's Withey.

Withey and Robinson are the near-ideal defensive pair. When an opponent drives the line, Withey goes after the block; he succeeds 15.1 percent of the time, the nation's highest rate. When that opponent misses -- or when any opponent misses, frankly -- Robinson, the nation's leading defensive rebounder (who grabs 30.9 percent of opponents' available bricks) is there to clamp the board and find a guard for a quick outlet.

This is a massive advantage to hold over Ohio State. At 33.2 percent from long range in 2011-12, the Buckeyes are an even worse 3-point shooting team than Kansas. More often than not, they get their points from Sullinger and Deshaun Thomas. Which is why Withey changes the game. Robinson has the size and speed to move with Thomas out to 20 feet if needed; Withey has the height to make Sullinger -- who struggles scoring over just this kind of player -- ineffective near the rim.

In the meantime, keep an eye out for Kansas' triangle-and-two junk defense. The Jayhawks have used it twice in their past two games, and each time it has halted the opponents' chief offensive threats, formed a near-impenetrable wall around the rim and, it must be said, downright befuddled UNC coach Roy Williams.

But whatever defense the Jayhawks run, their rare combination of length and athleticism in the post may be their defense's Craftian trump card. It should be fascinating.

TL;DR game plan: Dominate down low, work Robinson and Withey relentlessly, take only the best possible outside shots, hope Taylor doesn't self-destruct against Aaron Craft TurnoverBot 5000.

Ohio State Buckeyes

Offense: Now that we know all about Kansas' interior defense -- and the relative impenetrability thereof -- what hope is there for Ohio State's offense?

Let's go with a two-point plan, similar to Kansas', in that it is one part prescriptive game plan and one part "hope for the best" wishcasting:

1. Use Jared Sullinger and Deshaun Thomas to stretch the floor.

2. Hope William Buford makes some shots.

First up: Sullinger is generously listed at 6-foot-9. Thomas is listed at 6-7, which seems slightly closer to reality. But either way, the Buckeyes' starting forwards are at a major height disadvantage against the defense they'll face Saturday. With a slightly more lifty (new draft term alert; get Bilas on the horn at once!) Sullinger, that might not be as much of a problem. But Sullinger doesn't explode off the ground. Rather, he roots defenders out with his considerable posterior, achieves optimal position, and finishes with brute force. This season -- especially in the Syracuse win, when he flashed a dazzling little mid-range touch -- Sullinger has considerably expanded his game. But he remains at his best when he can clear defenders out of his way and score with his right hand over his left shoulder. Against the 7-foot Withey -- the likely matchup in any man-to-man defense -- that is going to be very difficult.

Which is why it's time for Sullinger to flash that 15-foot jumper he stayed in school to develop. Don't push Withey under the rim. Pull him out. Make him guard you at 15 feet. If you can't see over him, swing the ball and find a better look ... but don't play into the Jayhawks' strength. The Buckeyes are a good but not great offensive rebounding team, so if this means sacrificing position, so be it.

That goes double for Thomas. As Dana O'Neil noted in her excellent feature on Thomas from Wednesday, the stretch forward has morphed from an impulse bench gunner into one of the nation's most potent scorers. Thomas is leading Ohio State in scoring through its four NCAA tournament games, the mark of his continued expansion into one of the nation's most versatile threats. Thomas has no go-to scoring area, no preference for touch. Over the course of the season, per Synergy, he has spread his touches and scored almost equally on post-ups, spot-up jumpers, basket cuts and offensive rebound putbacks. In the tournament, Thomas has scored 1.643 on spot-ups (23 points on 14 possessions), by far his most efficient scoring trait.

This kind of versatile inside-out scoring from a 6-7 forward presents a major matchup problem for the Jayhawks. In the man-to-man, it could force Robinson to move further away from the hoop than he'd like. Thomas can look to shoot, or he can make Robinson move to stop his penetration; either way, Matta will like his chances. If Kansas goes to that famed triangle-and-two, Matta can use Thomas to stretch the corners all the way to the 3-point line, where the shot is (relatively) high-percentage and the defensive style is most vulnerable.

Whether the Jayhawks play man (likely) or triangle-and-two (less likely, but you never know when Self will bust it out), Thomas' and Sullinger's ability to score away from the rim will be key.

Which brings us, of course, to Buford. When Ohio State has struggled this season -- and those times, though rare, were highly publicized -- it was primarily because Buford and Craft and Thomas and even Lenzelle Smith were failing to provide the outside shooting that made the 2010-11 Buckeyes' offense so lethal. Actually, forget 2011: Ohio State was never even mediocre from long range. A large portion of that responsibility falls on Buford.

In this game, Buford presents the clearest matchup advantage for the Buckeyes. Travis Releford and Elijah Johnson aren't big enough to match up with the Buckeyes guard's size on the wing. But Buford is shooting just 13-of-44 in the NCAA tournament, the kind of offensive struggles he's dealt with all season. Ohio State has managed to progress this far without efficient wing scoring, but that may not get it done against a rim-protecting defense like this.

Can Buford come alive at just the right time? Can the Buckeyes stretch Kansas enough to get a few easy looks at the rim? The questions are intertwined and difficult to divine. But in this game, they couldn't possibly be more important.

Defense: Sports Illustrated's Luke Winn does a better job than anyone in the country processing advanced statistics and scouting data and presenting it to your eyeballs in visually attractive form, and Luke's 2012 Aaron Craft Turnometer may be his Symphony No. 9. All season, Winn tracked the turnovers Craft forced -- some for which he was credited in the scoresheet, many not -- alongside charges taken and offensive fouls forced. The end result is the picture of the nation's most dominant defensive player, one who individually forces turnovers on 7.56 percent of opponents' possessions and one who just had his best game of the season in the Sweet 16:

How many players can say their best performance of the season was in the NCAA tournament? That’s the case for Buckeyes pest/point guard Aaron Craft, who had the Turnometer" needle buried by creating 10 turnovers against Cincinnati in the Sweet 16. According to SI’s charting, it was Craft’s top turnover-creation game of the season, beating his previous best of 9.5 against Jackson State on Nov. 18.

If it has become fashionable to pick Ohio State to win this game -- for the record, I think it's a toss-up, but we'll see -- Craft, the friendly turnover-forcing robot, is why.

He pokes. He prods. He cuts penetration off with his shoulders and chest. He shows a double-team, then recovers too quickly to expose it. He is almost always in perfect defensive position, and his ability to give contact without fouling is almost unparalleled. He's a one-man antidote to the screen and roll. And if there's a player better at stripping opposing guards of the ball 25 feet from the hoop, I haven't seen him.

Craft is a nightmare matchup for the previously discussed, turnover-prone Taylor. Taylor is the second-most-important piece of Kansas' offense. Not only does he initiate that offense, but he also is relied upon to penetrate the lane, finish with a floater or drive, or find an open player with a dish. Craft makes that possibility remote.

Another major part of Taylor's game is transition; he and Johnson can be fearsome on the break. (Their connection on the closing-moments half-court alley-oop against Purdue was one of the more simultaneously questionable and amazing plays of the season.) But Craft is good at this, too: He is uniquely able to pressure defenders in the open court -- to "turn them," in coach speak -- cutting off any ball advancement (at best) and creating enough havoc to win a turnover (at worst). The Jayhawks would sure like to see Taylor and Johnson get out on the break whenever possible; it's the best way to score against Ohio State. But is it even possible?

There are other defensive matchups to watch in this game -- how Ohio State handles T-Rob and Withey, whether the Buckeyes need to worry about Releford on the wing, whether reserve Conner Teahan can provide shooting off the bench -- but by far the most important is what Craft can and will do against Taylor.

Lucky for us, it's also the most fascinating. This game is going to be awesome.

TL;DR game plan: Stretch Kansas' big men out to 15-20 feet, hope Buford makes some shots, protect the rim and stay out of foul trouble, unleash Craft on Taylor.

By Saturday, John Calipari, Rick Pitino, Thad Matta and Bill Self will have had nearly a week to scout their opponents. As we type, they're breaking down film, analyzing their opponents' strengths and weaknesses and searching for ways to impart this knowledge to their players in simple, digestible form. They are ... pause for dramatic effect ... game-planning.

What will each come up with? We don't exactly know. That's why they're coaches in the Final Four, and we are, you know, not. But we can still venture a guess. In the first of a two-part series, here's a look at what they may be coming up with.

Up first: Louisville vs. Kentucky

Kentucky Wildcats

Offense: All week Calipari has told his team -- at least, according to his public appearances -- he isn't worried about the rivalry, or winning a national championship, or any of the pressure UK fans can't help but place on a team that is expected by almost everyone to bring home the program's eighth national championship this season. Instead, Calipari says, he is worried only that UK "plays its best basketball."

This is an entirely appropriate approach. Simply put: When UK plays its best basketball, particularly on the offensive end of the floor, the Wildcats are essentially impossible to stop. We've seen as much in the tournament (UK scored an insane 1.27 points per possession in its four south region wins) and before it (when Kentucky scored 1.20 points per possession in its 16-0 SEC regular-season run).

What makes UK so good? It isn't any one thing. Stylistically, the Cats don't rely on any one trait; rather, via Ken Pomeroy, they rank in the top 20 in the nation in effective field goal percentage, turnover rate and offensive rebounding percentage. They can score in the half court and on the break; according to Synergy Sports Technologies scouting data, UK ranks in the 95th percentile in efficiency in half-court situations and the 87th percent in transition. Their most frequently used play type this season was the spot-up jumper, which they used on 22.5 percent of possessions, but Calipari's offense is diverse, utilizing ball screens, handoffs, cuts, isolations and straight post-ups throughout the season.

The only slight knock on this offense (if you can even call it that)? It was slightly worse against zone defenses than man defenses this season. Kentucky scored 0.971 points per possession against man-to-man in 2012. Its points per trip dropped slightly, to 0.956, against the zone. That's hardly a major drop-off.

When you have Marquis Teague and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Anthony Davis and Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb and Darius Miller, you can penetrate the lane, work off screens, dominate the boards, get easy buckets and knock down outside shots when needed. You don't have to change what you do for anybody, including the Louisville Cardinals.

One would imagine that is the real gist of Calipari's message this week: If we do what we do well, no one can keep us from scoring.

Defense: Kentucky's defense isn't as good as its offense. The Wildcats' real strength is scoring the rock, sure, but at No. 11 in the nation in defensive efficiency, per KenPom, UK guards well enough that it could be a merely decent offensive team and still be worthy of a trip to the Final Four.

Newsflash: Kentucky is really good.

The Wildcats' primary concern on the defensive end should be the prevention of transition buckets. That stems from the offense, of course, which means Marquis Teague and the rest of the Wildcats will have to limit their turnovers, grab offensive rebounds and recover back on defense before the Cardinals can get a head of steam. But it mostly means picking up on the secondary break.

Louisville would like nothing better than to get fast-break layups, of course, but it will be just as satisfied with pushing the pace on long rebounds and odd-man situations, finding trailing shooters and open men in the corner -- namely guard Kyle Kuric. Kentucky's primary focus, then, won't be on whether it can stop Louisville in the half court. Of course, it can. This defense is great; Louisville's half-court offense isn't. The Wildcats will have to focus almost entirely on making sure Louisville doesn't get shots off from long range.

If they do, even if Louisville's defense bogs them down, it's hard to imagine the Cardinals scoring frequently enough to keep this thing close. Can you picture it? Because I can't.

TL;DR game plan: Don't get flustered by pressure, run our stuff, do what we do. On defense, run everybody off the 3-point line. (Simple enough, right?)

Louisville Cardinals

Defense: Since the start of the Big East tournament, Louisville has won eight straight games, changed its style of play more than a few times, held opponents to a combined .88 points per trip and rocketed up Pomeroy's defensive efficiency rankings, where it currently sits at No. 1 overall.

In other words: If any defense in the country can slow Kentucky's offense right now, it's this one.

How will the Cardinals go about doing it?

According to Synergy, in the NCAA tournament, Louisville has played man on 152 possessions, or 57.6 percent of the time, and it has allowed just 0.737 points per trip to opponents. Pitino has used his zone on 112 possessions, or 42.4 percent of the time, when it has ceded 0.786 points per trip. (Those numbers are slightly skewed by that Florida first half, but they're valid all the same.) The Cardinals are at their weakest defensively in transition, where they've allowed 0.963 points per trip. But those possessions (just 27 in the tournament) have been few and far between.

So it is that Pitino has a series of choices to make. The man is rarely predictable, and his stylistic approach is never cut and dry. That's why his team is here: It can spring surprises (see Michigan State), change styles on the fly (see Florida) and execute almost anything Pitino asks. No wonder he loves this team so much.

So what does he choose? How does he seek to stop this juggernaut Kentucky attack?

The first is pressure: Louisville will almost certainly pressure full-court Teague and UK's other ball handlers after every made shot. There may not be many of those, but the pressure might apply to misses, too -- the more you can make the game difficult for Kentucky before the ball crosses half court, the better chance you have of upsetting their pristine, business-like offensive rhythm. Pitino may tell Smith and Siva to pressure the ball immediately, no matter what, to speed up the game, to create havoc in the backcourt and to wear on Teague (Kentucky's lone true point guard) as much as possible.

Once the ball crosses half court, he may have to resort to the zone. Kentucky can shoot it, no question, and it has the kinds of players capable of breaking down the zone off the dribble (and that's when the Anthony Davis and Terrence Jones lobs start flying in). But on a sheer man-to-man scale, Louisville can't match up, nor should it try. A hybrid matchup zone could turn Kentucky into a passing team, one that can't work off Calipari's screen-roll-replace and handoff action, one that helps to nullify touches in the post, one that prevents simple isolations for UK's brilliant scorers.

With a typical diet of effective slapping and digging, the turnovers may come. But if not, at least Louisville won't have to shade double-teams and work back to shooters and scramble around the court just to keep up.

Offense: Which is where the offense comes in. The game can never be approached merely as a two-sided affair; offense bleeds into defense and vice-versa for every team. But that's especially true for Louisville. And even more so for this game.

Simply put, the Cardinals are not a great offensive team. Their eight-game run to the Final Four hasn't changed that fact. Their most efficient scoring in the tournament (41 points in 30 possessions) has come in transition. In the half court, they've been merely OK, scoring 0.849 points per possession in 252 possessions.

The Cardinals' most frequently used half-court play -- a high ball screen -- has yielded just 0.739 points per trip in the tournament. They've achieved similar results with post-up plays and isolations. Indeed, Louisville's best offense has come when the game is moving. Of the 11 general play types Synergy tracks, the Cardinals are most efficient when finding cutters, battling for offensive rebounds, dishing to the screener off a pick-and-roll, on spot-ups and in "miscellaneous" plays, which usually involve some type of scramble around the rim.

Unlike its opponent, Louisville has to actively generate ways to score. And in this game, that means pace.

The Cardinals will look to run at every chance, and why not? They're better in transition, and you'd much rather try to score on Kentucky before Davis has a chance to get back to fully cordon off the middle of the lane. This strategy assumes you can turn the Wildcats over, or make them miss shots and get long rebounds. That's no easy feat. But it is the best chance Louisville has of putting up points on its opponents in any meaningful way. And hey, it worked for Indiana's offense. The Hoosiers just couldn't get a stop.

Besides, the other option -- a staid half-court game -- simply isn't going to work.

With pressure, a tricky zone, up-tempo attack and a scrambling style around the rim, the Cardinals can dictate the terms of the engagement. Against a team this good, with players this talented, that is Pitino's best chance of knocking off the rival Kentucky Wildcats. Even Malcolm Gladwell would have to agree.

TL;DR game plan: Pressure Teague whenever possible, switch into a matchup zone to make the Wildcats adjust, force the tempo at every opportunity, find open shooters on the secondary break, hope for the best.