US NCAA: Great escape for Cardinals

A VALUABLE lesson from the current US NCAA basketball tournament is that you shouldn’t panic when things aren’t going according to plan.

What you do is adjust: Go to your bench and see if someone is hungry enough to get things started. Find other options when your two stars are being bottled up by the defense.

Coach Rick Pitino and the Louisville Cardinals marched into the finals of the tournament by finding other options in a game that wasn’t going their way.

They entered the Final Four by outrunning the Duke Blue Devils in the Elite 8 with an emphatic 85-63 triumph. Guards Peyton Siva and Russ Smith ran rings around the slow defense of Duke and scored at will.

However, in the semifinals against the Wichita State Shockers, the Cardinals could not run and shoot as brilliantly as they did against Duke. They fell behind by as much as 12 points early in the second half when the Shockers began to hit their three pointers.

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And then in the last 12 minutes, superb coaching kicked in.

Coaches earn their keep not only in practice or in strategy preparation but more so when they make the necessary adjustments in a game.

Pitino asked others from the bench to score like Luke Hancock, who attacked and hit from the outside for 20 points when Siva and Smith couldn’t get going.

The high-octane full-court press that Pitino always institutes in his teams became more unforgiving. In a matter of minutes, Wichita’s double-digit lead disappeared in a searing 10-3 run, and Louisville marched slowly in front.

Pitino shuffled his lineup and got 28 points from his reserves. This is where bench players should understand that they must be ready at all times because anything can happen in a game.

When the stars can’t shine, it’s a chance for the lesser lights to gain the spotlight.

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Wichita lost the lead by playing not to lose and stopped attacking when the Cardinals got hot in the second half.  When Louisville grabbed the lead at 62-60 and never looked back, the Shockers became tentative and lost their edge.

The Cardinals, led by Smith, hit all the crucial free throws when the Shockers were fouling to stretch the game in the end.

Louisville won, 72-68, and will face the Michigan Wolverines for the title.

Michigan State won over Syracuse, 61-56, by dominating the first half of the game. As expected, Syracuse waged a comeback with its zone defense but was held off in the endgame.

Louisville against Michigan is going to be quite a game with some very athletic players running and soaring in the air. Want a prediction we can talk about after the finals?

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I think Louisville has the energy to win it all and the emotional reason in its injured player Kevin Ware who came to the Wichita game with his hurting leg and crutches.

March Madness is always a learning experience and great sports. Unlike the NBA, you may not exactly know who the players are, except for the teams and the coaches who have been around for some time.

The coaching is a course in game management and adjustment, especially when you consider that a loss means going home.