Louisville NCAA Rewind: April 8th
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 8th NCAA Tournament Record: 1-0
2013: Louisville defeats Michigan 82-76
Thanks to a number of heroic performances, the No. 1 overall Louisville Cardinals were able to overcome an early deficit to defeat the fourth-seeded Michigan Wolverines for the 2013 national championship and their third title in school history.
This was a Michigan team that produced six NBA players, including the 2013 Naismith and Wooden Player of the Year in Trey Burke. While Burke wound up leading all scorers with 24, the biggest storyline from the Wolverines sideline was freshman Spike Albrecht.
Averaging just 1.8 point per game up to that point, Albrecht lit up Louisville in the first half. He came off the bench to score 17 of Michigan's first 33 points, going 6-9 from the field and 4-5 from beyond the arc. His efforts helped put the Wolverines up 12 with 3:21 to go in the first half.
Louisville wasn't going quietly though, as they also had another sharpshooter coming off the bench. It was at this point that Luke Hancock rained four consecutive three pointers. A single free throw from Glenn Robinson III kept the Wolverines up by one, until a thunderous alley-oop from Peyton Siva to Montrezl Harrell gave the Cards the lead.
Free throws from the Wolverines as the first half ended gave Michigan the lead at intermission, but by then the momentum had clearly shifted to Louisville. In the end, nearly every stepped up for Louisville. Gorgui Dieng held UM's Mitch McGray to a tournament low six points and six rebounds. Chane Behanan hauled in a game high 12 rebounds included seven offensive boards. Wayne Blackshear's defense and hustle kept the Cardinals alive in critical moments, including the loose ball that led to the Harrell dunk.
"Coach was telling us different guys had to step up; that's what we had to do," Blackshear said after the win. "It can be anybody's moment. Everybody got on tonight."
Luke Hancock led the team with 22 points, and was named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player.
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