Louisville NCAA Rewind: March 21st

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 21th NCAA Tournament Record: 5-3

1959: Cincinnati defeats Louisville 98-85

While there was not much at stake in the National Third Place game between the regional rivals, Cincinnati's 98-85 victory over the Louisville Cardinals did feature some college basketball history.

Behind a 39 point performance from future Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson, the Big O seized the old collegiate basketball scoring record 1,962 points. He would go on to extend his record to 2,973, and it would not be broken until nearly a decade later by LSU's "Pistol" Pete Maravich. Robertson is currently 10th on the NCAA all-time scoring list.

In the 1959 finale, Robertson gave the Cardinals all sorts of fits. Along with his 39 points, he also came away with 17 assists and 10 rebounds for a triple double. While Louisville had a combined 62 points from Roger Tieman, Don Goldstein and Harold Andrews, the Cards' other starters in Fred Sawyer & John Turner only had a combined 14 points.

Another noteworthy fact about the 1959 UC/UofL game, was the inclusion of an "experimental" rule where the clock stops every time a referee's whistle is blown.

1993: Louisville defeats Oklahoma State 78-63

Getting an unlikely performance off the bench, the No. 4 seeded Louisville Cardinals used a second half run to pull away from the No. 5 seeded Oklahoma State Cowboys and advance to their 18th Sweet 16 in school history.

James "Boo" Brewer came off the bench to score a game high 26 points, although there were doubts that he would even see the court. Just 48 hours prior, he suffered a concussion in their opening round game against the Delaware Blue Hens.

Not only did he score a game high, most of his points came when it counted the most. Trailing by 1 at halftime, 20 of Brewer's 26 points came in the final 10:57 of the game.

"When I came into the game I got them together and said 'Come on fellows, it's do or die and I'm not ready to die yet. I'm a senior', " Brewer said.

The Cards also got double digit performances from Clifford Rozier and Greg Minor, while out-shooting and out-rebounding the Cowboys.

1996: Wake Forest defeats Louisville 60-59

A pair of missed last second jumpers and a controversial no-call spelled doom for the No. 6 seeded Louisville Cardinals as the No. 2 seeded Wake Forest Demon Deacons avoided an upset 60-59 in the Sweet 16.

In the final minute of play DeJuan Wheat missed two go-ahead jumpers: a three pointer with 42 seconds remaining and a 10 foot jumper with 4 ticks left. He would finish the game with just 7 points on 3-15 shooting.

Leading up to this point however was the pivotal and controversial turning point. With 1:16 remaining, All-American center Tim Duncan got a favorable continuation foul call and sunk the ensuing free throw to give his Deacs the lead. Where the controversy stems from was the fact that Duncan walked at least once in his drive to the basket, a no-call that Louisville obviously took exception to.

"Other then that one NBA continuation play, I thought the game was well-officiated," head coach Denny Crum said.

The loss guaranteed that there would not be a Kentucky-Louisville rivalry matchup in the Elite Eight.

1997: Louisville defeats Texas 78-63

Despite losing their best player in the second half due to injury, the No. 6 seeded Louisville Cardinals overcame a halftime deficit to rout the the No. 10 seeded Texas Longhorns 78-63 and advance to their first Elite Eight since 1986.

With 15:52 left in the second half, Louisville's second all-tied leading scorer DeJuan Wheat went down with a nasty left ankle sprain. Considering the Cards had just negated a 37-31 halftime deficit to cling to a 1 point lead, many thought that continuing their second half run would not be in the cards.

But Louisville had other ideas. Alvin Sims took over for a game and career high 25 points, with Alex Sanders and Damion Dantzler both putting in 17 point performances.

"They really did rally around when DeJuan went down," Louisville head coach Denny Crum said. "They they thought now they had to step up and play. They couldn't lay down. They had to play so that DeJuan could have another chance to play."

2003: Louisville defeats Austin Peay 86-64

Despite a brief injury scare, the No. 4 Louisville Cardinals advanced past the No. 13 seeded Austin Peay Governors 86-64 with very little drama for their first NCAA Tournament win since the 1997 season.

With just 1:08 left in the first half, Francisco Garcia had his left leg rolled into by an Austin Peay player and had to be helped off the court after saying that he could not feel his leg below the knee. However the scare would not last long, as he would make an appearance in the second half with 14:29 remaining.

That proved to be the only drama in the game, as Louisville led by as much as 27 in the game before calling off the dogs. The Cards were powered by Luke Whitehead's fifth straight double double as he finished with a game high 20 points and 11 rebounds. Despite shooting just 6-15, Reece Gaines also had a decent scoring night with 18.

2008: Louisville defeats Boise State 79-61

Thanks to some prolific sharpshooting from the Cardinals, No. 3 seeded Louisville breezed past the No. 14 seeded Boise State Broncos in game one of their 2008 Elite Eight run.

A storyline heading into this game was how well that Boise State shot the ball from beyond the arc, and how inept Louisville was at it. However on this night, roles were completely flipped.

The Cardinals shot a blistering 12-24 on three point attempts, led primarily by Jerry Smith's 4-8 day on three pointers. Conversely, the Broncos could only muster 4 long balls on 17 attempts and shot just 48.1% from the field compared to Louisville's 55.8%.

Earl Clark came off the bench for a team high 17 point and 7 defensive rebounds. Terrence Williams flirted with a triple double, coming away with 9 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists.

2013: Louisville defeats North Carolina A&T 79-48

An overwhelming defensive effort from Louisville removed any sort of doubt in the first game of their 2013 title run, as the No. 1 overall seeded Cardinals throttled the No. 16 seeded North Carolina A&T Aggies by 31 in Rupp Arena.

Louisville's pressure defense gave the Aggies absolutely not shot at having a chance in the game. The Cardinals forced NC A&T to turn the ball over 25 times, with 20 of them being Louisville steals, a program record for an NCAA Tournament game. The Cards also easily won the rebounding battle 28-19.

Not only were the Cardinals honed in on defense, it translated to efficient offense on the other side. Louisville shot 57.4% from the field, led by a 10-16 effort from All-American Russ Smith. He finished with a game high 23 points.

2019: Minnesota defeats Louisville 86-76

Chris Mack's first NCAA Tournament run as the Louisville Cardinals' head coach did not have the start he was hoping for, as the No. 7 seeded Louisville Cardinals fell 86-76 in the opening round to Richard Pitino's No. 10 seeded Minnesota Golden Gophers.

Minnesota came into the game with the fewest made three pointers and had the fourth lowest three point shooting percentage of any team in the 2019 NCAA Tournament field. Conversely, Louisville had a top 50 three point defense in the nation.

That didn't stop Minnesota from raining threes, as the Golden Gophers connected on 11 of their 27 three point attempts. Minnesota got 100% of their scoring from their starting five, with none of the bench players attempting a single shot.

Down low, the Cardinals struggled with their Gopher counterparts. Louisville had issues with boxing out Minnesota all night, with the rebounding battle dead even at 32 a piece. The Cards were led by grad transfer Christen Cunningham's 22 points and a 10 point/11 rebound age from Jordan Nwora.

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