Louisville NCAA Rewind: Louisville Upsets Michigan State To Claim 1st Final Four

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.

Mar. 14, 1959: Louisville defeats Michigan State 88-81

Thanks to a set of halftime adjustments made by head coach Bernard "Peck" Hickman, the unranked Louisville Cardinals used a second half rally to complete their comeback against the No. 7 Michigan State Spartans, defeating them 88-81 from Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Illinois.

"We went into a weave attack in the second half, trying to set up John Turner particularly, and it worked out well for us," Hickman said.

Turner was just one of Hickman's "invincible incredibles" to come away with 20 or more points against the Spartans, scoring 22 points on 10-19 shooting. Don Goldstein also came away with 21, doing so on 7-15 shooting and a perfect 7-7 from the free throw line.

A second half comeback was not easy, as Goldstein amassed four fouls in the first half alone. On the other side of the bench, Michigan State's John Green had the best individual performance of the night, going for 29 points and hauling in 23 of the Spartans' 42 rebounds.

But Hickman accounted for him too, switching to a 2-3 zone to in an attempt deny Green from crashing the boards. Thanks to the defensive switch, the Spartans were out-rebounded for only the second time all season, being edged out 52-50 on the glass by Louisville.

"Our guards played out front and our inside men collapsed on that Green," Hickman said. "We were willing to let Michigan State shoot from out, for our scout reports showed they couldn't hit too well from there."

The scouting report proved to be accurate, as Michigan State finished the game shooting just 31-84 from the field. As a result of the upset victory, Louisville advanced to their first NCAA Final Four in school history.

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