Louisville Earns 36th NCAA Tournament Appearance
March 15, 2010 | Men's Basketball
March 14, 2010
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Louisville earned the No. 9 seed in the NCAA South Regional and will open tournament play against No. 8 seed California (23-10, 13-5 Pac-10) on Friday at Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla.
Tip-off time (apprx. 9:45 p.m. ET) will be 30 minutes following the completion of the Duke and Arkansas-Pine Bluff/Winthrop game which begins at 7:25 p.m. ET on CBS. The winners of each game will advance to the second round on Sunday where game times will be announced that evening.
The Cardinals (20-12, 11-7 in the BIG EAST Conference) is making its 36th NCAA Tournament appearance and fourth straight in the event. U of L enters the tournament having won seven of its last 11 games, including a 78-68 victory over then top-ranked Syracuse in the regular season finale. The Cardinals have reached the NCAA Elite Eight each of the past two seasons. U of L has won 20 games for the eighth straight season.
"I'm most pleased for our seniors, including our senior co-captains (Jerry Smith, Edgar Sosa) who have been to four straight NCAA Tournaments, which is a great achievement," said U of L Men's Basketball Coach Rick Pitino. "I just watched the entire California against Washington game on Saturday and I know Cal has an outstanding team with great guard play. They've been a terrific team all year, particularly when they got healthy. We know we'll have our hands full, but we're really excited to be a part of March madness."
California, the 2010 Pac-10 regular season champions, will be making their second consecutive appearance and 16th overall in the NCAA Tournament. Cal was upended 79-75 by Washington in the finals of the conference tournament on Saturday night.
"Louisville is obviously a storied program with a great history," said California head coach Mike Montgomery. "Rick [Pitino] is a great coach. It is certainly a big challenge. I haven't seen Louisville on tape yet but we have been taping games of potential NCAA opponents consistently so we have a whole bunch of their tapes to look at to see what challenges they present."
The Bears are led by senior guard Jerome Randle, Pac-10 Player of the Year, who became the school's all-time scoring leader this season and enters the game averaging 18.7 ppg to go along with 4.5 assists on 45.6 percent shooting from the field and a 40.6 percent clip from behind the arc. Joining him are three more senior starters and conference honorees in guard Patrick Christopher (16.0 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 1.64 spg), forward Theo Robertson (14.1 ppg, 4.7 rpg) and forward Jamal Boykin (12.0 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 60 pct. FG).
"I know Louisville is going to come to play," said Randle. "I know they have great players over there in Louisville, but I know we do as well, so it's just going to be a great matchup."
