When looking through your 2011 NCAA Tournament bracket, try to find a squad that's more multiple on defense than Rick Pitino's Louisville Cardinals. They run multiple pressures with different goals in mind: full court pressures with slow and quick traps for turnovers, three quarter quart pressure to slow you down and make you run shot clock, and token pressure to lull you to sleep. The Cardinals also do a great job of keeping teams guessing in the half court. Pitino will have his team fall back into a variety of looks after pressing. Matchup zones, traditional two three and man to man to throw offenses off. Pitino has also been known to change defenses in the middle of a possession. It's confusing based tactics to be sure.
NCAA Bracket Preview, Predictions: Louisville Vs. Morehead State
The Cards will face upstart Morehead State fresh off a win in the Ohio Valley Conference. They’ll need stellar guard play to control tempo and avoid turnovers, but the way to beat Louisville is to punish the Cardinals inside given their lack of depth and size.
Check your NCAA Tournament schedule here for all of the games.
Star Watch: For Louisville, Preston Knowles is the ultimate glue guy, Kyle Kuric shoots a ridiculous 46% from beyond the arc, and while Siva stirs the drink as the point guard. Still, the key to the ‘Ville’s success is Terrence Jennings dominating the paint because the Cardinals are often undersized at other positions.
As for the 13 seed, Morehead State Kenneth Faried is a load inside who will test the Louisvilee interior whether their in zone or man. Lead guard Demonte Harper scores, dishes, and boards.
Prediction: The game will boil down to Terrence Jennings vs. Kenneth Farried and ultimately which player can stay out of foul trouble. Louisville has more ways to hide Jennings whether it’s by zoning or with in up tempo attack. Faried has to play big minutes in man to man on the Cardinal’s best interior player and that exposes him to more fould trouble. Morehead is nearly as talented as Louisville is one through five, but depth will take over in this game. Call it 74 to 67 Louisville in a white-knuckler.
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