Louisville NCAA Rewind: March 17th
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 March 15th NCAA Tournament Record: 5-7
1961: Ohio State defeats Louisville 56-55
The unranked Louisville Cardinals nearly pulled off the biggest upset of the 1961 NCAA Tournament, falling just short of the AP No. 1 and defending national champion Ohio State Buckeyes 56-55 at Freedom Hall.
John Turner went to the line with one second remaining in the game and his Cardinals trailing by two with one second left. He sank the first, but missed the second to tie the game. He would finish with the game's only double double on 25 points and 15 rebounds.
In the moments leading up this point, Louisville had themselves in front 54-49 with 2:52 to go and the potential upset looming large. However, future Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer John Havlicek took over, scoring two of Ohio State's next three buckets to take the lead in the closing seconds.
Havlicek would lead the Buckeyes in scoring with 17, but the real story came on the boards. Ohio State out-rebounded Louisville 41-37, and despite the Cards triple teaming All-American OSU center Jerry Lucas for much of the game, he would finish with 18 boards and 1 point shy of his own double double.
1967: SMU defeats Louisville 83-81
Louisville had high hopes entering the 1967 NCAA Tournament, as they were the AP No. 2 ranked team in the land behind only John Wooden's UCLA Bruins. However their title aspirations were dead on arrival, as the unranked Southern Methodist Mustangs used a last second shot to sink the Cardinals 83-81 at The Phog.
SMU's Denny Holman, who had torched Louisville all night, sunk the game winning basket with just 4 seconds remaining. He would finish with a game high 30 points on 13-21 shooting and a perfect 4-4 at the foul line.
"Our boys didn't know what SMU planned to do on that last jump," said Louisville head coach Peck Hickman. "But we should have been more alert."
Louisville had led by 8 points with 5:37 left in the game before the Broncos mounted a comeback to tie the game and later hit the game winner. Despite out-shooting and out-rebounding their opposition by slim margins, Louisville committed 10 more turnovers than SMU in which would ultimately be the difference maker.
Four Cardinals finished in double figures, led by Fred Holden's team high 23 points and an 18 point/12 rebound double double from Wes Unseld.
1968: Louisville defeats Kansas State 93-63
Just one day removed from getting blown out by Elvin Hayes and the AP No. 1 Houston Cougars, the Louisville Cardinals took out their frustrations on Kansas State, defeating the Wildcats 93-63 in the Midwest region consolation game.
The Cards were led by a pair of 20 point performances form Wes Unseld (25 points) and Butch Beard (21 points), with Unseld also hauling in a game high 19 rebounds for a double double. Fred Holden and Jerry King also scored in double figures with 16 and 12 respectively.
Louisville outshot Kansas State on every part of the floor, shooting 55.1% from the field as opposed to KSU's 32.5%, and went 17-24 from the charity stripe while the Wildcats sank 6 less on the same number of attempts. They also out-rebounded them 46-42 and dished out 5 more assists.
1978: DePaul defeats Louisville 90-89 (2OT)
A top ten matchup according to the Associated Press, the No. 9 Louisville Cardinals could not get the job done against the No. 3 DePaul Blue Demons, faling 90-89 in double overtime.
Unlike against Ohio State back in 1961, Louisville found themselves trailing by 11 points with 7:49 left in the game. But thanks to the combined efforts of Bobby Turner, Rick Wilson and Darrell Griffith, the Cards clawed their way back into the game to force overtime. The trio combined for 62 of Louisville's 89 points.
"I honestly didn't expect them to come back," DePaul senior center Dave Corzine said.
But while they did come back, Corzine proved to be the difference in the game to put away the Cards. He would finish with 46 points on 18-28 shooting and a perfect 10-10 at the free throw line, including the game winning hook shot with seven seconds left in the second overtime period.
"We had it," Darrell Griffith said after the Sweet 16 loss. "But no one person lost it, we lost it together."
1988: Louisville defeats Oregon State 70-61
After a year away from the NCAA Tournament, the No. 5 seeded Louisville Cardinals got back on the right foot, overtaking the No. 12 seeded Oregon State Beavers in the opening round.
Both teams had a sluggish second half, with Louisville only shooting 11-28 from the field and the Beavers even worse at 10-27. Tied at halftime at 28 a piece, the Cardinals would prevail in try second half.
Scoring just 5 points int he first half, junior center Pervis Ellison would find his groove in the latter half of play, scoring 18 second half for a game high 23. Herbert Crook would be just one point shy of him, with both hauling 11 rebound double doubles.
Louisville held future Naismith Hall of Famer Gary Payton to just 12 points on 5-11 shooting, with Oregon State as a whole only going 40.4% from the field and 3-12 from beyond the arc.
1990: Ball State defeats Louisville 62-60
In a game that head coach Denny Crum called the weirdest game he could remember, the No. 4 seeded and AP No. 16 Louisville Cardinals feel to the No. 12 seeded and unranked Ball State Cardinals 62-60 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Ball State was in complete control from start to finish, taking a 36-23 lead into halftime and leading by as much as 17 in the second half before a Louisville comeback rally inevitably fell short. It comes just two days after Ball State upset No. 22 Oregon State in their tournament opener.
"We came in here with the frame of mind to win and not just happy to be here," Ball State head coach Dick Hunsaker said.
Louisville shot just 37.9% from the field compared to Ball State's 45.8%, and were out-rebounded by 9. Felton Spencer led the way for the Cards with a 14 point and 12 rebound double double, with Jerome Harmon coming off the bench to score 14 as well.
1995: Memphis defeats Louisville 77-56
An overwhelming Memphis defensive effort handed Louisville their worst NCAA Tournament loss up to that point, as the No. 6 seeded Tigers thwarted the No. 11 seeded Cardinals 77-56 in the opening round of the 1995 NCAA Tournament.
Memphis held Louisville to just 34.5% from the field, and forced 19 Cardinals turnovers. The only offensive performance of note came from DeJuan Wheat, who went 10-19 and 6-10 from beyond the arc for a game high 28 points.
"They were running and jumping all over the place and making us alter and rush our shots," said Louisville forward Jason Osbourne.
Louisville began the game tied at 11 a piece with Memphis, before the Tigers finished the half on a 27-18 run and outscored the Cards 39-27 in the second half.
1996: Louisville defeats Villanova 68-64
Heading into the game as a six and half point underdog, the No. 6 seeded Louisville Cardinals defied the odds to stun the No. 3 seeded Villanova Wildcats and advance to the Sweet 16.
Louisville opened up the game trailing 19-12 in the first 12 minutes, but by the time the 13:32 mark in the second half came they had taken a 49-36 advantage with Villanova fans starting to head for the door.
Despite being out-rebounded 32-23 and a pair of 20 point performances from Nova, including 20 from All-American Kerry Kittles, Louisville held the Wildcats to roughly 12 points below their season average.
"I thought the game could go either way," Kittles said. "We knew they were tough, so I'm not shocked."
Another heroic performance from DeJuan Wheat paved the way for Louisville, as the guard led the Cards with 19 points 5-10 shooting and 6-6 at the line. Starters Alvin Sims and Tick Rogers chipped in with double digit games as well, with Samaki Walker also doing so from the off the bench.
2007: Texas A&M defeats Louisville 72-69
A career game from Edgar Sosa had a nightmare finish, as the No. 6 seeded Louisville Cardinals came up just short against the No. 3 seeded and AP No. 9 ranked Texas A&M Aggies in Rupp Arena.
Stepping up to the line with 29.8 seconds to go and Louisville training just by one, the freshman point guard had been seemingly unstoppable up to this point in the game. He was 7-9 from the field and an astounding 15-15 from the free throw lime for a game high 31 points.
However as fate would have it, Sosa missed both free throws, and then later missed a three point shot with 7 seconds left in the game to seals the game for A&M.
"It's as sad as I have ever been," Sosa said after the loss.
Other than the missed free throws, fouls were the main storyline in the game. The Aggies & Cardinals were called for a combined 51 fouls, with it directly impacting Louisville's inside game. Derrick Caracter fouled out in just 7 minutes and David Padgett only saw the floor for 18 minutes due to early foul trouble.
Terrence Williams also scored in double figures for Louisville with 17 points, albeit coming on 6-16 shooting.
2011: Morehead State defeats Louisville 62-61
Louisville's 2011 season came to a stunning end, as the No. 4 seeded Cardinals found themselves not the wrong end of March Madness, failing to the No. 13 seeded Morehead State Eagles in dramatic fashion.
Demonte Harper, who had been 0-5 on three-point attempts prior to his final shot, nailed a three pointer to put Morehead State up by 1 with 4.2 seconds to go. Mike Marra had a chance to save the game for Louisville, but Kenneth Faried blocked the shot, his only of the game, as time expired.
Louisville had overcome a 13 point first half deficit to tie it up at 33 a piece by halftime and take a 47-39 lead with 11:21 remaining. But the final nine minutes of the game were without Preston Knowles as he had suffered a sprained ankle, leaving the door open for an Eagles comeback.
While the Cards outshot the Eagles from the field, free throws and rebounding also did Louisville in. They shot just 7-16 from the charity stripe and allowed Faried to haul in a game high 17 rebounds for a 12 point double double.
2012: Louisville defeats New Mexico 59-56
A second half run by New Mexico came a little bit too late, as the No. 4 seeded Louisville Cardinals held off the No. 5 seeded Lobos just long enough to advance to their 18th Sweet 16 appearance on their 2012 Final Four run.
Possessing a 1 point lead at halftime, the Cardinals kicked off the second half with an 18-4 run to take a 44-29 lead with 13:02 left in the game. The Lobos chipped into the lead to pull within two points in the final two minutes, but Louisville had a response every time.
Coming off the bench, Russ Smith scored a game high 17 points on just 5-12 shooting, but was a perfect 3-3 on threes and 4-5 at the line, including a pair of free throws to help ice the game down the stretch.
New Mexico's Drew Gordon led all scorers with 21 points and 14 rebounds, but the Lobos as a whole shot just 39.7%, making 1 more shot than the Cardinals but attempting 10 more.
2017: Louisville defeats Jacksonville State 78-63
It was not a pretty game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, but it was still a victory. In what would be Rick Pitino's final NCAA Tournament victory as the Louisville head coach, his No. 2 seeded Cardinals got the job done against the No. 15 seeded Jacksonville State Gamecocks.
The Gamecocks showed no fear of the Cards early on, coming out aggressive to start and taking a quick 10-2 advantage. Then Louisville broke out the full court pressure defense, helping them coast to the 15 point victory.
"They came out with a chip on their shoulder," UofL's Jaylen Johnson said. "Underdogs always come out hard."
A 30 point performance from Jacksonville State forward Norbertas Giga was erased by a trio of Cardinals. Quentin Snider, Mangok Mathiang and Dang Adel combined for 50 points on 20-34 shooting, with Donovan Mitchell coming just one point shy of a 10 rebound double double despite going 3-15 from the field.
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