Louisville, Pittsburgh set for quarterfinal clash in Big East Tournament

Thursday, March 13, 2008
7 PM - Madison Square Garden

#2 Louisville vs. #7 Pittsburgh

At the end of February, Louisville pulled out a 75-73 at Pittsburgh. Now Louisville will attempt to beat Pitt on their “other” home floor, in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament on Thursday night. Pittsburgh held on to beat Cincinnati in the opening round 70-64 to set up a rematch with the No.2 seeded Louisville Cardinals.

The Panthers are 20-8 at MSG since 2000-01, and head coach Rick Pitino and company know this quarterfinal showdown will be just like a home game for the Panthers. Louisville handed Pitt their third straight loss in late February, but the Panthers, behind the return of Levance Fields and emergence of Sam Young, have won four of their last five. In their narrow loss to the Cardinals, Young and DeJuan Blair each had 20 points, but David Padgett connected on three of four free throws in the final 30 seconds to seal the deal for Louisville. Padgett led all scorers with 21, and Edgar Sosa had 18 points off the bench, 15 in the second half. Louisville shot 57.7 percent against Pitt’s defense and never trailed in the second half.

In the first meeting, Levance Fields made his first start since his breaking his foot on Dec.30 th. Fields is beginning to regain his early season form before he suffered the injury, and while he wasn’t a difference maker in the first meeting, he’ll certainly be the X-factor this time around. Pitt’s offense runs best when Fields has the ball in his hands, and he’s able to be a facilitator and distributor to his teammates.

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Although Louisville lost to Georgetown in the regular season finale in Washington, DC and missed out on becoming the Big East regular season champions, the Cardinals enter the tournament as one of the teams to beat. The Cardinals have won 11 of their last 13, holding opponents to just under 61 ppg (60.9), second in the Big East in defense behind Georgetown. Louisville is extremely stingy on defense, often using Pitino’s trademark press style defense to smother opponents and generate defense and turnovers in offense. The Cardinals rank 3 rd in the Big East in field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to 38.2 percent shooting per contest.

by Frank Minniti
BigEast-fans.com Director of Content

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