Butler-Louisville Preview
March 22, 2003 | Men's Basketball
March 22, 2003
From the Associated Press
GAME: No. 12 Butler (26-5) vs. No. 4 Louisville (25-6).
REGIONAL: East, second round.
TIME: Sunday, 2:20 p.m. EST.
SITE: Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center; Birmingham, Ala.
Rick Pitino looks to prolong his return to the NCAA tournament when No. 4 seed Louisville faces 12th-seeded Butler in the second round of the East Regional.
Pitino is making his first appearance in the tournament since 1997, when he guided Kentucky to the Final Four before losing to Arizona in the national title game. The Louisville coach returned to college coaching last season, after spending four years with the Boston Celtics in the NBA.
"I love March Madness," Pitino said. "So many good memories go through your mind. I just the love the whole atmosphere. It's so much fun to watch all of it."
Pitino, one of only four coaches to take four different schools to the tournament, clearly enjoyed the Cardinals' performance in the first round.
Louisville used Pitino's trademark full-court pressure to overwhelm Austin Peay 86-64 as forward Luke Whitehead led the way with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
All-America candidate Reece Gaines added 18 points for the Cardinals.
"We just turned up the pressure defensively," Gaines said. "We knew they weren't good at handling pressure. We just got them winded and played hard during that stretch."
Louisville seems to have fully regained the momentum it lost when leading rebounder Ellis Myles went down with a season-ending knee injury on Feb. 27. The Cardinals lost four of six games to end the regular season, before winning the Conference USA tournament last week.
"Everyone just played hard and we tried to make sure we didn't get upset," Whitehead said. "That's what makes this tournament so exciting - upsets. We just didn't want to make it more exciting than it already was."
The Bulldogs know something about upsets after their 47-46 win over Mississippi State in the first round. Brandon Miller hit a runner in the lane with 6.2 seconds remaining to give Butler the win.
"To hit a shot like that in the NCAA tournament, nothing compares to it," Miller said. "It's something you dream about when you're a kid. It's something you dream about when you're 23. Definitely the biggest shot of my career."
The win was the latest in a history of tournament upsets for Butler, which defeated Wake Forest as a No. 10 seed in the first round in 2001, and took Florida to overtime as a No. 12 seed in 2000 - the year the Gators advanced to the title game.
Despite their recent success in the NCAAs, the Bulldogs were passed over by the tournament committee last season, after finishing the campaign with a 25-5 record.
"We just felt like we were making up for lost time," Butler's Duane Lightfoot said, "because we felt like we got snubbed last year."
Miller had 14 points and Lightfoot added 13 for Butler, which received an at-large berth for the first time since 1962.
PROBABLE STARTERS: Butler - F Lewis Curry, F Joel Cornette, G Mike Monserez, G Miller, G Darnell Archey. Louisville - F Whitehead, F Erik Brown, C Marvin Stone, G Taquan Dean, G Gaines.
TEAM LEADERS: Butler - Miller, 12.3 ppg and 3.3 apg; Cornette, 6.3 rpg. Louisville - Gaines, 17.7 ppg, 5 apg; Myles, 7.9 rpg.
HOW THEY GOT HERE: Butler - At-large bid, Horizon League; beat Mississippi State 47-46, first round. Louisville - Automatic bid, Conference USA tournament champion; beat Austin Peay 86-64, first round.
ALL-TIME TOURNAMENT RECORD: Butler - 4-5, 5 years. Louisville - 49-31, 29 years.
