Cincinnati Rallies to Beat Louisville, Ignores Bubble Talk For Now

FanHouse Big East senior writer Brett McMurphy is in New York breaking down every game of the Big East tournament.

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NEW YORK -- Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin isn't concerned about the NCAA tournament bubble talk. He said his club has more immediate concerns.

"I'm sure that the [NCAA tournament] bubble talk will begin again," Cronin said after Cincinnati rallied past Louisville 69-66 Wednesday night in the second round of the Big East tournament. "We've been through all that so much. Our guys really -- it's funny they'll tell you -- they're not even interested in that. They want to win the Big East championship."

The No. 11 seed Bearcats (18-14) are the lowest remaining seed alive entering Thursday's quarterfinals. They edged Rutgers 69-68 and held on against Louisville. Before Tuesday, the Bearcats were 0-fer in the Big East tournament. Two wins later, they're three victories from an improbable Big East title.



Share "The guys are really excited to be here," Cronin said. "Their attitudes have been great. Their effort has been tremendous. They are making adjustments amongst themselves out there on the court and sharing the ball.

"They just want to win this. They want the Big East ring."

Cincinnati trailed by as many as 12 early in the second half. However, the bruising Bearcats began asserting their dominance inside, sparking their comeback. UC went on a 24-7 run for a 60-53 lead with 6:22 remaining.

Louisville (20-12) cut the deficit to one point on two occasions and still trailed 69-66 after UC's Deonta Vaughn made two free throws with five seconds remaining.

"They just want to win this. They want the Big East ring."
-- Cincinnati head coach Mick Cronin Cronin then used his final timeout. This was his strategy.

"If you can believe it, we called timeout to foul him [UL's Edgar Sosa] at half-court," Cronin said. "Deonta claims he was fouling him the whole time. I was scared he was going to finally foul him when the shot attempt went up. I was going to be the laughingstock nationally. So we were all kidding about it in the locker room. We were all wondering what he was going to do."

Sosa was not fouled and advanced all the way to half-court before Vaughan stripped the ball from him as he attempted the game-tying 3-pointer.

A former New York high school player of the year, Sosa had 28 points, setting a school record for most points in the Big East tournament. As much as Sosa's outside shooting -- 5 for 6 from 3-point range -- kept the Cardinals in the game, his free-throw shooting killed the Cards down the stretch. He missed his final four free throws and finished 3 for 8 from the line.

Louisville was manhandled inside, getting outrebounded 54-33.

"I thought we lost the game in the first five minutes of the second half," Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. "We know we're in the [NCAA] Tournament. We won 11 Big East games and we beat the No. 1 ranked team in the country [Syracuse]. That has nothing to do with not rebounding the basketball.

"We were playing for a good seed. Now we're not going to get one. So you can't expect to win giving up 28 offensive rebounds."

The victory for Cincinnati sets up a second consecutive game for Cronin against one of his former coaches he was an assistant with. Cronin was an assistant under Pitino at Louisville for two seasons in 2001-03 and an assistant under West Virginia coach Bobby Huggins for five seasons when they were at Cincinnati from 1997-2001.

"I have a great deal of love and affection for both of them," Cronin said. "I need to win more. I'm younger. Hopefully they take that into account. They are winning. Hopefully, Coach Huggins will feel my pain and help me out."



BIG DANCE PLANS

Louisville locked up an NCAA Tournament berth by closing the regular season by winning seven of its last 10 games. This will be the 27th NCAA appearance for the Cards in the past 34 years. Cronin said he wasn't worried about the Bearcats' NCAA hopes. That's a good thing because unless they win three more games they won't be headed to the Big Dance.

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK

Although Louisville became the second consecutive Big East tournament champion to lose in the opening round, it's probably not the worst thing to happen to the Cardinals. They would have played the rest of the tournament without senior guard Jerry Smith, who has a right hand injury. Smith, who is averaging 8.4 points, is expected to be ready for UL's NCAA Tournament opener next week.

STAT OF THE GAME

54-33: Cincinnati's rebounding advantage, which included the Bearcats getting 28 offensive rebounds.

SOUNDBITE

"They just really took us to the woodshed on the backboard," Louisville coach Rick Pitino said about the Bearcats' rebounding dominance.

NEXT UP

Cincinnati plays No. 3 West Virginia (24-6) in Thursday's quarterfinals at 9:30 p.m. (ESPN). West Virginia won the first meeting this season at West Virginia, 74-68, on Feb. 27.

Contact FanHouse senior writer Brett McMurphy at brettmcmurphy@gmail.com