By Chris Dufresne, Los Angeles Times –
PHOENIX — Rick Pitino coached Louisville past Florida and then, up the ladder, all the way through the net-cutting ceremony.
He coached Louisville back from 11 points down, in the second half, and then shouted out the post-victory assignments.
After Louisville’s 72-68 victory over Florida on Saturday to clinch the NCAA West regional, Cardinals players took turns cutting snips of net at US Airways Center.
It came down to one last strand.
“All right, Chris,” Pitino barked to senior guard Chris Smith, “take it down.”
Louisville took it down and now takes its 30-9 season to next the Final Four in New Orleans.
If Kentucky beats Baylor to win the South on Sunday, one national semifinal will pit Kentucky against Louisville on Saturday.
The state might hang up a “closed” sign.
“There will be people at Kentucky that will have a nervous breakdown if they lose to us,” Pitino, who coached Kentucky to the 1996 national title, said of the possible matchup. “You’ve got to watch. They’ve got to put the fences up on the bridges. There will be people consumed by Louisville. While I think it’s a great honor to play a great team … there’s no jealously on our part if they get there.”
Pitino’s sixth Final Four, and his first since 2005, may have been his most satisfying.
It wasn’t as surprising as Providence’s run in 1987, but it certainly is much more minted and aged.
Pitino has now taken teams to the Final Four in four different decades. This team made it after finishing seventh in the Big East Conference.
It hurt that the sweet moment came against Coach Billy Donovan, who played for Pitino at Providence and coached under him at Kentucky.
“It hurts to see Billy lose,” Pitino said. “I really wish it didn’t happen against Billy. … I’ve had six children and I really consider him the seventh.”
As much as the defeat hurt Donovan, losing to Pitino hurt a little bit less.
“If someone said to me, ‘You have to lose a game, who would it be to?’ I would say ‘him,’” Donovan said.
A Louisville win didn’t see possible for most of the game.
Louisville led, 10-7, and didn’t lead again until Chane Behanan’s basket near the one-minute mark.
Florida shot 66.7 percent in the first half and made eight of 11 three-point shots.
Louisville was nowhere near net-cutting time with 10 minutes 56 seconds left when Pitino got hit with a technical foul after guard Peyton Siva was called for his fourth foul.
Erving Walker’s four free throws put Florida up by 11 points. Florida led by 11 again, 65-54, when Louisville went on a 10-0 run.
In crunch time, Pitino had to play three starters with four fouls — what choice did he have?
Siva fouled out at the four-minute mark, forcing Russ Smith to take over the point position.
Pitino calls Smith “Russ-diculous” for his sometimes haywire play on the court, but Smith held it together when it counted most and finished with a game-high 19 points.
“I was very nervous,” Smith said about having to take over for Siva. “I had to find a way to calm myself down to get the job done.”
It helped that Florida was as cold in the second half, missing all nine three-point shots, as it was hot in the first.
Behanan’s floater with 1:06 left gave Louisville its first lead, 69-68.
Then came a crazy sequence: Florida missed a shot, which was rebounded by Russ Smith, who threw it right to Florida’s Bradley Beal, who was promptly called for traveling.
After a quick foul, Russ Smith made two free throws with 17 seconds left.
Beal and Kenny Boynton missed shots that could have tied the score and victory was secured when Louisville’s Wayne Blackshear made one of two free throws.
Seven was not Florida’s lucky number. Saturday’s victory upped Pitino’s record to 7-0 against Donovan and denied the first seventh-seeded school from reaching the Final Four since the NCAA tournament was expanded in 1985.
Florida finishes 26-11. Streaky outside shooting had been the Gators’ issue all season, and it was again Saturday.
Louisville won its ninth consecutive game after losing three of four in a late Big East stretch.
Joy sometimes comes without warning. This did not seem like one of Pitino’s best teams. The Final Four trip comes 25 years after his first at Providence, with Donovan at guard.
It’s strange that Pitino’s circle would lead back here, against him. Winning when you’re turning 60 in September is different. Life has thrown plenty at Pitino and his wife. Years ago, they lost a young son, Daniel, to a heart disorder. The brother of Pitino’s wife, Joanne, was killed in the World Trade Center attack Sept. 11, 2001.
Pitino, in 2009, was rocked when an extra-marital tryst that turned public and ugly ended in an extortion attempt.
“Unfortunately, in our lives we’ve had a lot of difficult times,” Pitino said.
Then, out of nowhere, came this career capstone moment in Phoenix.
“It eases the pain when you have your family together at times,” Pitino said. “I see them out on the court, so happy, and it gives me chills inside.”
