Louisville NCAA Rewind: April 2nd
With the 2020 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament cancelled, Louisville Report will go back in time to recap all of the University of Louisville men's basketball's NCAA Tournament games from each date in March and early April. Special thanks to Sports-Reference.com for boxscores and the Courier-Journal for newspaper archives.
Louisville's April 2nd NCAA Tournament Record: 0-2
1983: Houston defeats Louisville 94-81
In a matchup of the two best teams in the country according to the Associated Press Top 25 Poll, the No. 1 Houston Cougars proved to be too much of a force utilizing a second half comeback against the No. 2 Cardinals to defeat Louisville and advance to the national championship game against NC State.
For a time, the Cards actually had Guy Lewis' Cougars somewhat on the ropes. Louisville took a 5 point lead and 26-15 rebounding advantage into halftime, and led 57-49 with 13:15 to go in the game.
But then Phi Slama Jama woke up. Over the next 5five minutes and 38 seconds, the Cougars exploded for a 21-1 run that put them ahead 70-58 with 7:37 to go. Part of this run was due to changes on the defensive end, as Houston switched to a man-to-man defense during this time.
However the main reason was due to the efforts of two future Naismith Hall of Famers. Clyde Drexler flirted with a triple double, coming away with 21 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists, but Hakeem Olajuwon was the true star of the show. The Dream also netted 21 points, but hauled in an astounding 22 rebounds, exactly half of Houston's total.
In the end, Louisville was out-shot, out-rebounded and forced less turnovers than Houston to secure the loss. Lancaster Gordon led all scorers with 24 points on 12-23 shooting, with three other Cardinals finishing in double digits.
2005: Illinois defeats Louisville 72-57
Concluding their unlikely 2005 Final Four run, the fourth-seeded Louisville Cardinals ultimately ran into what head coach Rick Pitino simply called "a better team", falling to the No. 1 overall seeded Illinois Fighting Illini in St. Louis.
It was a tale of two halves at the Edward Jones Dome. During the first half of play the Illini mainly relied on their 2-3 zone defense to keep Louisville off kilter. Leading scorer Francisco Garcia, who had averaged 21 points throughout the 2005 NCAA Tournament up to this point, was held to just four points on 2-10 shooting and 0-4 on three point attempts.
Possessing a three point halftime lead, the Illini got much more aggressive during the latter half. However while eventual third-overall NBA Draft pick Deron Williams did his job on the defensive end holding Garcia in check, the scoring didn't come from him as he finished with just five.
Instead, the Illini got a pair of great scoring efforts from their big men. Both Luther Head & Roger Powell finished with 20 points a piece, and combined with an 11 rebound effort from James Augustine, the Illini wound up out-rebounding the Cards by 11.
Louisville shot just 38.9% from the field, with only Ellis Myles shooting over 45% on 10 or more attempts. He finished with 17 on 8-12 shooting and a free throw.
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