Austin Peay-Louisville Preview
March 19, 2003 | Men's Basketball
March 19, 2003
From the Associated Press
GAME: No. 13 Austin Peay (23-7) vs. No. 4 Louisville (24-6).
REGIONAL: East, first round.
TIME: Friday, 7:20 p.m. EST.
SITE: Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center; Birmingham, Ala.
Rick Pitino makes his return to the NCAA tournament as Louisville tries to continue a breakout season in its first-round game against Austin Peay.
In just his second season at Louisville, Pitino has quickly molded the Cardinals into one of his trademark trapping and uptempo teams. By winning the Conference USA tournament, Pitino became just the fourth coach in Division I history to take four different schools to the NCAA tournament, joining Eddie Sutton, Lefty Driesell and Jim Harrick.
"We are very excited, if you would have told me at the beginning of the year that we were going to be a four seed playing in the NCAA (tournament) I would have said you people are really getting carried away, drinking too much," said Pitino, who also took Boston University, Providence and Kentucky to the NCAA tournament.
"We needed to win that (conference) tournament because we were so out of whack a little bit because of the turbulence in our practice. So we needed that, it was a great confidence booster and now we just need to focus in on practice. It's all about focus in the NCAA tournament."
The Cardinals are a better team when center Marvin Stone is able to contribute. Louisville struggled without the 6-10 senior center, who had eligibility questions throughout his senior season after sitting out the 2001-02 campaign following his transfer from Kentucky.
Stone averages 10.7 points and 7.3 rebounds but also opens the floor for the perimeter-oriented attack of guards Reece Gaines, Taquan Dean and swingman Francisco Garcia. Gaines, who causes matchup problems as a 6-6 point guard, averages 17.7 points while Dean and Garcia combined to make 114 3-pointers and average 20.3 points.
"There is a lot of emotion right now, its just exciting to get back and have a chance to play in the tournament," Gaines said. "Coming off a Conference USA championship, hopefully we can carry over the intensity and the focus we had to win the championship into the tournament."
Louisville lost four of its previous six before winning three straight on its home court in the league tournament.
Austin Peay is making its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1996 after winning the Ohio Valley Conference tournament. The Governors, who also won the regular season crown, were picked for a fifth-place finish in the preseason, but came together behind center Josh Lewis and Anthony Henning.
Lewis averaged 12.7 points and 7.0 rebounds while shooting 62.9 percent from the field, Henning contributed a team-best 15.4 points per game and converted 56 percent of his attempts. The win also eased the pain for the duo, who were part of a Governors team that blew a 21-point lead in the 2001 Ohio Valley championship game.
"Through the season, I've heard people say these guys are overachievers," Austin Peay coach Dave Loos said. "That's not true on the defensive end. These guys are the best on the defensive end. They've really taken great pride in that and made their defense a priority."
The Governors last won an NCAA tournament game in 1987, upsetting Illinois as a 14th seed before losing to Pitino's Providence team in the second round.
The winner of this game will play either Mississippi State or Butler in the second round Sunday.
PROBABLE STARTERS: Austin Peay - F Henning, C Lewis, G Corey Gipson, G Anthony Davis, G Rhet Wierzba. Louisville - F Luke Whitehead, F Erik Brown, C Stone, G Dean, G Gaines.
TEAM LEADERS: Austin Peay - Henning, 15.4 ppg, 7.1 rpg; Gipson, 2.5 apg. Louisville - Gaines, 17.7 ppg, 5 apg; Ellis Myles, 7.9 rpg.
HOW THEY GOT HERE: Austin Peay - Automatic bid, Ohio Valley Conference tournament champion. Louisville - Automatic bid, Conference USA tournament champion.
ALL-TIME TOURNAMENT RECORD: Austin Peay - 2-5, 4 years. Louisville - 48-31, 29 years.
