In Scarface, Tony Montana bellows “you wanna play rough?!” among a slew of more profane language at his adversaries as they storm into his mansion to make him pay for a previous transgression. That’s more or less the mindset that the 4th ranked Louisville Cardinals 26-5(14-4), co-regular season Big East Champions, and winners of 7 straight will be taking with them into tonight’s quarterfinal game against the Villanova Wildcats 20-12(11-8). We were reminded this time last year in the Big East Tournament that a regular season defeat is best avenged in post season play, as last year’s Cards vanquished Marquette, Notre Dame, and Cincinnati en-route to the conference championship. How fitting then that the 7pm tipoff from Madison Square Garden, broadcasted on ESPN, and first postseason game for this year’s Cards, be yet another revenge game.
The Wildcats have earned the right to face the Cards following their 66-53 defeat over a St. John’s team that limped into the postseason, but yet was playing on their home court. The late January loss to the Wildcats aside, ‘Nova is a team that is overlooked at great peril, and their 7th place finish in the Big East is not indicative of how dangerous this team can truly be. Though lacking consistency on a nightly basis as evidenced by horrendous home losses to Alabama and Columbia, and at La Salle, this is a team with an impressive resume, chalked full of quality wins. Other than their 73-64 defeat of the then 5th ranked Cards, the Wildcats hold wins over 3rd ranked Syracuse, and the two other regular season conference champions in number 17 Marquette and number 5 Georgetown.
These aren’t the same Wildcats as when Scottie Reynolds captained a squad that utilized four guards and lived and died by the three-point shot. Though Jay Wright remains their coach, this group can, and is willing to mix it up in the paint. Paced by sophomore forward JayVaughn Pinkston who scores nearly 13 points per game, and senior big man Mouphtaou Yarou who is good for better than 7 rebounds each contest, Nova is extremely formidable in the frontcourt. That’s certainly not to say their guard play isn’t something to worry about though. Freshman point guard Ryan Arcidiacono, say that ten times fast, and second year shooting guard Darrun Hilliard each average nearly 12 points and shoot better than 32.5% from behind the arc.
Interestingly enough in their win tonight over St. John’s, as well as in their January 22 defeat of the Cards, the Wildcats had multiple double digit point efforts from their starters; not all that surprising as 3 starters average double digit points. In both contests Arcidiacono had 15 points, while Yarou and Pinkston each topped the 10 point threshold. What’s more, when analyzing the season statistics of both the Cards and Wildcats, most of the numbers are comparable. The exception is in turnovers per game, and points off of turnovers. The Cards lead the nation at 22.6 points per game off of turnovers and force takeaways on more than ¼ of their opponent’s possessions; while Villanova is prone to giving up the ball, doing so 15 times a game. However, in the previous meeting this advantage was negated as the Cards, while turning over Villanova 19 times, also had 17 of their own, a significant increase from their average of just 13. Though I expect the red hot Cards to advance to the semifinals they must take better care of the basketball, while also playing much more disciplined defense this time around. Look for a close game throughout, but one which the Cards open it up late and win by about 10 and advance to face the winner of 3rd seeded Marquette and Notre Dame.
Side Notes
- Uniform check – The Cards will be breaking out the white-sleeved camo for the first time:
Go on with your bad self, Luke.
- Since joining the Big East the Cards are 4-6 vs. Villanova.
- The only conference team the Cards have experienced greater futility against is Georgetown (2-6).
- For the record I hate Georgetown and all Wildcats – except the Waggener ones, but their colors are red and black, so it’s okay.
- In the Big East Tournament the Cards are 4-3 all time in their first round games and 10-5 overall.
- Villanova Head Coach Jay Wright is Dr. Doug Ross from the hit TV show ER:
Total photobomb by the patient on the table…
- The only time the Cards and Wildcats have met in the tournament was the semifinals of 2009. The Cards prevailed 69-55 and would go on to beat Syracuse in the championship game.
- Since 2009 the Big East has awarded a double-bye into the quarterfinals for teams finishing in the top 4 of the conference standings. Since that time, the Cards are 2-0 when receiving the double-bye, while overall teams are just 9-7 with it.
- This:
- The suit Papa Siva was wearing on Senior Day, plus him kissing the Cardinal logo at midcourt was legendary…like me being defeated in tennis this past weekend epic.
- And finally, the 2012 Big East Tournament Championship defense begins now.
Go Cards, Beat Villanova!
Louisville Cardinals Season Statistics:
| Player | |||||||||||
| Russ Smith |
31 |
29.8 |
17.9 |
3.7 |
3.0 |
2.1 |
0.0 |
2.5 |
.400 |
.826 |
.317 |
| Chane Behanan |
30 |
27.0 |
10.4 |
7.0 |
1.2 |
1.5 |
0.5 |
1.7 |
.500 |
.525 |
.091 |
| Gorgui Dieng |
24 |
31.5 |
10.3 |
10.1 |
1.9 |
1.4 |
2.6 |
1.8 |
.520 |
.681 |
.000 |
| Peyton Siva |
31 |
31.1 |
9.9 |
2.3 |
5.9 |
2.0 |
0.1 |
2.7 |
.416 |
.887 |
.311 |
| Wayne Blackshear |
30 |
20.9 |
8.3 |
3.3 |
0.7 |
0.8 |
0.2 |
0.6 |
.425 |
.686 |
.327 |
| Luke Hancock |
31 |
21.9 |
7.2 |
2.7 |
1.4 |
1.0 |
0.0 |
1.0 |
.394 |
.733 |
.370 |
| Montrezl Harrell |
31 |
16.6 |
5.4 |
3.7 |
0.2 |
0.6 |
0.7 |
0.7 |
.566 |
.468 |
.000 |
| Kevin Ware |
30 |
17.1 |
4.4 |
1.9 |
0.8 |
1.1 |
0.1 |
1.2 |
.427 |
.684 |
.355 |
| Stephan Van Treese |
28 |
11.3 |
1.9 |
3.0 |
0.3 |
0.4 |
0.3 |
0.4 |
.677 |
.667 |
.000 |
| Zach Price |
15 |
7.7 |
1.3 |
1.3 |
0.0 |
0.1 |
0.3 |
0.3 |
.533 |
.667 |
.000 |
| Tim Henderson |
19 |
3.6 |
0.7 |
0.4 |
0.2 |
0.3 |
0.1 |
0.2 |
.294 |
.000 |
.214 |
| Michael Baffour |
4 |
2.5 |
0.5 |
0.3 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
.000 |
1.000 |
.000 |
| Logan Baumann |
4 |
2.8 |
0.5 |
0.8 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.3 |
.000 |
1.000 |
.000 |
| Jordan Bond |
5 |
3.4 |
0.0 |
0.6 |
0.2 |
0.2 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
.000 |
.000 |
.000 |
| Totals |
31 |
— |
74 |
38 |
15 |
11 |
4 |
13 |
.446 |
.709 |
.323 |
Villanova Wildcats Season Statistics:
| Player | |||||||||||
| JayVaughn Pinkston |
31 |
25.6 |
12.9 |
4.8 |
1.7 |
1.0 |
0.5 |
2.5 |
.466 |
.705 |
.286 |
| Ryan Arcidiacono |
31 |
33.9 |
12.2 |
2.0 |
3.5 |
1.1 |
0.0 |
2.6 |
.358 |
.821 |
.342 |
| Darrun Hilliard |
31 |
29.8 |
11.5 |
2.8 |
1.5 |
1.6 |
0.3 |
1.8 |
.399 |
.738 |
.325 |
| Mouphtaou Yarou |
31 |
27.6 |
9.4 |
7.7 |
1.0 |
0.5 |
0.6 |
1.6 |
.450 |
.796 |
.000 |
| James Bell |
31 |
28.3 |
8.8 |
4.3 |
1.4 |
1.1 |
0.5 |
1.9 |
.408 |
.750 |
.381 |
| Daniel Ochefu |
31 |
17.8 |
3.7 |
4.3 |
0.6 |
0.8 |
0.7 |
1.3 |
.468 |
.466 |
.000 |
| Maurice Sutton |
28 |
10.4 |
3.5 |
3.0 |
0.4 |
0.4 |
1.0 |
0.9 |
.500 |
.623 |
.000 |
| Tony Chennault |
31 |
18.3 |
3.5 |
1.7 |
1.6 |
0.8 |
0.0 |
1.4 |
.354 |
.611 |
.292 |
| Achraf Yacoubou |
30 |
12.1 |
3.0 |
2.7 |
0.6 |
0.3 |
0.0 |
0.8 |
.429 |
.500 |
.404 |
| Patrick Farrell |
3 |
1.3 |
0.3 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
.000 |
.500 |
.000 |
| Mislav Brzoja |
16 |
2.6 |
0.1 |
0.4 |
0.3 |
0.1 |
0.0 |
0.3 |
.000 |
1.000 |
.000 |
| Nick McMahon |
3 |
1.3 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
.000 |
.000 |
.000 |
| Henry Lowe |
3 |
0.7 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.7 |
.000 |
.000 |
.000 |
| Totals |
31 |
— |
68 |
36 |
12 |
8 |
4 |
15 |
.416 |
.717 |
.344 |
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