New York, NY (Sports Network) - The second-seed Louisville Cardinals' being
their quest for a second straight tournament title when they battle the
seventh-seed Villanova Wildcats in the quarterfinals of the Big East
Tournament at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night.
The winner of this game will move into the semifinals against either Notre
Dame or Marquette.
Villanova helped its NCAA Tournament hopes and advanced to the second round
with a convincing 66-53 win over 10th-seed St. John's on Wednesday. The win
was the second straight for the Wildcats who took down top-seed Georgetown in
their regular-season finale. Although Villanova has been in the league since
1980, the Wildcats have only won a Big East Tournament title once (1995) while
having a seven-year streak in the NCAA Tournament end last season.
A year ago Louisville was the seventh-seed but led by Peyton Siva, who went
onto be Tournament MVP, the Cardinals took home the crown. The Cardinals have
an even better shot this time around after positing a 26-5 record overall and
a 14-4 mark in league action which had them tied for the regular season title
with Georgetown in Marquette.
Villanova topped Louisville, 73-64, for one of its signature wins of the
regular season in the only matchup between the two teams. The victory allowed
the Wildcats to pull ahead, 9-8, in the all-time series.
Mouphtaou Yarou scored 18 points and had seven rebounds to lead the Wildcats
over the Red Storm in the first round. The Wildcats hounded St. John's on
defense all night holding the 10th-seed to just 35.6 percent shooting and
scored 16 points off of 17 Red Storm turnovers.
Yarou (9.6 ppg, 7.7 rpg) has not normally been called upon to carry the
offense for the Wildcats but can be a decent scorer when called upon as he
connects on 47 percent of his shots from the field. Third-team All-Big East
forward JayVaughn Pinkston (12.9 ppg) and All-Big East Freshman guard Ryan
Arcidiacono (12.2 ppg) are usually primary contributors for Jay Wright's squad
on the scoreboard. The pair combined for 27 points against St. John's but
Arcidiacono had a rough night shooting just 3-of-11 from the field while
turning the ball over eight times.
In its regular-season finale, Louisville got some revenge from a five-overtime
loss earlier in the season with a 73-57 win at home over Notre Dame. Gorgui
Dieng was dominant inside in the win as he posted a 20-point, 11-rebound
double-double, while blocking five shots and collecting three steals.
Siva (9.5 ppg, 6.0 apg) has had a more inconsistent season than last year but
still earned an All-Big East Third Team selection. Meanwhile the fearless Russ
Smith (17.9 ppg) and double-double machine Dieng (10.3 ppg, 10.1 rpg, 2.6 bpg)
each made it onto the first team. Louisville is one of the more balanced teams
in the conference on both ends of the floor. The Cardinals score more points
per game than any team in the Big East (73.5) while ranking in the top five in
both assists (14.9 pg) and field goal percentage (.446). On defense the
Cardinals rank among the top 25 teams nationally in points allowed (59.4 pg)
and field goal percentage (.388).
The Sports Network