Louisville storms back to edge Florida, advances to its ninth Final Four

CBSSports.com wire reports
March 24, 2012

PHOENIX -- Hated to do that to ya, kid.

Rick Pitino nearly came unhinged and his point guard watched the end of the game from the bench. When it was over, though, it was Pitino and Louisville making plans for the Final Four and his protege, Billy Donovan, and the Florida Gators wondering what the heck happened.

Chane Behanan made the go-ahead basket with 1:04 left Saturday and the fourth-seeded Cardinals finished the game on a 23-8 run for a 72-68 victory over Donovan's stunned Florida team in the West Regional final.

Russ Smith followed Behanan's bucket with a pair of free throws and then Florida freshman Bradley Beal and teammate Kenny Boynton each missed chances to tie.

Louisville made one more free throw to seal the game and reach its ninth Final Four, and second under Pitino, despite playing the final 3:58 without point guard Peyton Siva, who fouled out.

Florida (26-11) went out in the regional final for the second straight year, with Donovan falling to 0-7 lifetime against the man who coached him at Providence, hired him as an assistant at Kentucky and felt as proud as a papa when he watched Donovan win his two national titles in 2006 and 2007.

This was no heartwarmer, though.

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Beal’s 21 lifts Fla. to 68-58 win over Marquette

PHOENIX (AP)—Exactly as his coach asked him to, Bradley Beal is bringing out his `A’ game. His latest bit of wizardry moved Florida a win away from the Final Four and set up Billy Donovan with a perfectly scripted matchup against his old coach and boss, Rick Pitino.

Beal, the freshman with NBA written all over him, scored 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting Thursday night to help the Gators to a 68-58 victory over Marquette.

Next up for No. 7 Florida (26-10) is a West Regional final Saturday against Louisville and Pitino, who taught ol’ Billy The Kid a lot of what he knows.

“Obviously, I’ve said that outside of my parents, he’s the most influential person in my life,” Donovan said.

The most influential person on Donovan’s team? On this night, it was Beal. He also had six rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocked shots, including one on Jae Crowder while the third-seeded Golden Eagles (27-8) were desperately trying to claw back after trailing by 14.

Crowder, a senior and the Big East player of the year, never found his touch. After sitting for eight minutes in the first half with foul trouble, he finished with 15 points on 5-for-15 shooting while another Marquette senior, Darius Johnson-Odom, also went 5 for 15 in a struggle to reach 14 points.

“We struggled being in rhythm most of the game,” coach Buzz Williams said. “Jae has always played more than 12 minutes in a half, but it’s dangerous for him to pick up his third, so he sat a lot the half. When you’re playing against a team as good as Florida and you’re playing without your key guys, it’s hard for that rhythm to get established.”

Erving Walker had 11 for the Gators, including a 3-pointer that came after Patric Young scrapped for an offensive rebound with 2:05 left. It snapped a 6-0 Marquette run that pulled the third-seeded Golden Eagles to within six.

But the biggest difference maker was Beal, a high school national player of the year whom Donovan has been pushing to be more assertive, especially after the Gators lost four of five heading into the tournament.

“He doesn’t want to step on toes; he’s very aware of his place on the team,” Donovan said, in explaining Beal’s slow acceptance of a leading role. “You can’t do anything but love him because of the way he handles himself.”

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Rick Pitino’s prepared Louisville Cardinals send tuckered out top-seeded Michigan State home

PHOENIX – Draymond Green was worried. All week, the energy that had suffused Michigan State’s basketball team throughout its surprising run to the Big Ten championship and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament went missing. Mediocre practices. Dead film sessions. A grim feeling that the Spartans’ Sweet 16 game against Louisville might be its last of the season.

“I think everybody just knew,” Green said. “We had a feeling.”

Fight though they did, Green’s prophesy – and the Spartans’ fatigue – proved true. Louisville overcame an ugly first half to run away from Michigan State in a 57-44 West Regional semifinal victory during which the Cardinal outrebounded, outfoxed and outclassed a team rarely beaten in any of those facets and almost never in all three.

“I definitely had a sense,” said Green, a likely first-team All-American who led a Spartans team expected to suffer through a down season. “Nobody’s crazy. We know the energy level this team has had, and … our energy level just wasn’t there.”

[ Related: Breaking down Friday’s Sweet 16 matchups ]

Green wasn’t blaming any one person. Not his teammates who shot 14-of-49. Not himself, with six of the Spartans’ 15 turnovers. Not coach Tom Izzo, who added to the misery by getting outcoached by Rick Pitino. Michigan State had no answer for Louisville’s 2-3 zone, helmed by Gorgui Dieng playing goalkeeper with seven blocks, nor did Izzo adjust accordingly when the Cardinals unleashed a press designed, in Pitino’s words, “to get to the legs.”

As with a boxer, once they went, Michigan State’s will followed.

If Green sounded like a beaten man, it’s because he was. More than perhaps any coach in college basketball, Izzo emphasizes mental fortitude over talent. Sure, because he has won a national championship and made six Final Fours at Michigan State, he can wrangle McDonald’s All-Americans. He just doesn’t need them.

To compensate, Izzo pushes his players, rides them, implores them that they have to be stronger, tougher, better. He is widely recognized as the godfather of the War Drill, a gruesome rebounding exercise that has bloodied many a face. Other coaches have stolen from him the use of a plastic bubble to cover the rim, force every shot to carom away and necessitate a rebound.

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Heslip’s 3s lift Baylor to 80-63 win over CU

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)—With his 3-point goggles on, the bucket never looked quite so big for Brady Heslip. Because of that, the future’s looking as bright as those uniforms for the Baylor Bears.

Heslip, the kid who grew up playing H-O-R-S-E with his dad in Canada, made a big splash in America on Saturday, going 9 for 12 from 3-point range and lifting the third-seeded Bears to a pullaway 80-63 victory over No. 11 Colorado in the NCAA tournament.

“When they set great screens and they make passes that are on target and on time, it just makes it easy for me,” Heslip said. “Especially if I’m in rhythm and feeling good shooting.”

He was, and because of it, Baylor (29-7) will bring the highlighter-yellow uniforms down to Atlanta for a South Regional semifinal against Xavier or Lehigh next Friday.

Heslip, in the meantime, will enjoy his status as Baylor’s newest star.

He celebrated a few of his makes by pinching together his thumb and forefinger on each hand, putting the circle over his eye and lifting the other three digits in the air. The 3-point goggles.

While all this was going on, he began trending on Twitter—and in the postgame Q&A, we learned that he chews Doublemint gum, has been a gym-and-driveway rat in his hometown of Burlington, Ontario since he was 3 and is the nephew of one-time Canadian hoops star and Toronto Raptors head coach Jay Triano.

“Ever since I was growing up, they never forced it on me,” Heslip said of his hoop-loving family. “It was just something that I fell in love with.”

The nine 3s and 27 points were his career highs—and in this game, Baylor needed every one of them.

He made six from behind the arc in the first half to keep his cold-shooting teammates close. Then, he helped break open a tight game late. His 3-pointer with 6:56 was on the front side of Baylor’s 19-3 run to close the game. And it was contagious. Shortly after that make, Pierre Jackson (15 points, 10 assists) jacked one up from three feet behind the arc. Swish. Anthony Jones also made one.

But Heslip, not to be outdone, sandwiched No. 9 in between those—leaving him only two short of the NCAA tournament record set by Jeff Fryer of Loyola Marymount in 1990. Those nine also matched the number put up by Purdue’s Courtney Moses in the women’s tournament a few hours earlier.

“When he came in, we knew how good of a shooter he was,” Baylor forward Quincy Acy said. “Every time I went to the gym at night, I would see him in there. Sometimes twice a day. He works for it. I know whenever he gets hot, he can outshoot anybody.”

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Cyclones take out defending champ UConn 77-64

By NANCY ARMOUR, AP National Writer
Mar 16, 2:19 am EDT

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP)—Jim Calhoun and Connecticut didn’t expect their season to end this way.

Their future is equally unpredictable.

“We’re talking about tonight’s game. We’re not talking about me,” Calhoun said after Iowa State stunned the defending national champions 77-64 in the NCAA tournament Thursday night. “I’m going to get on the plane tomorrow, go home and do what I usually do and meet up with the team on Monday. My own personal thing, I don’t think it has any relevance, to be honest with you.”

Chris Allen led four Cyclones in double figures with 20 points, and Iowa State scored its last 14 at the free-throw line to beat UConn, the first time since UCLA in 1996 that the defending champs have lost in the opening game. Calhoun didn’t even wait for the final buzzer, heading for halfcourt with about four seconds left to congratulate Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg.

It is only the second loss in the opening game of the NCAA tournament for UConn under Calhoun.

“I’m surprised as anybody, clearly,” Calhoun said. “I imagine our players are, too.”

For the eighth-seeded Cyclones, meanwhile, it’s their biggest victory in a season of them, having knocked off Kansas and Baylor during Big 12 play.

Royce White had a double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds, and Scott Christopherson also had 15 for the Cyclones. Iowa State shot 48 percent from the floor and had a whopping 41-24 edge in rebounds.

“I feel like just we wanted it more,” Allen said. “I felt like we was doing everything we needed to and played hard.”

Next up for Iowa State: Overall No. 1 seed Kentucky in the third round of the South Regional on Saturday. The Wildcats routed Western Kentucky earlier Thursday.

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