March Madness

I been waiting myself. The SEC tournament ran way over..... ;)

This is wicked so if you can not handle it, do not watch it...

That is worse than the Joe Theismann broken leg!

Louisville beats Michigan 82-76 to win NCAA men's basketball championship






Published April 08, 2013
Associated Press

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  April 8, 2013: Louisville guard Peyton Siva (3) and
  Michigan guard Trey Burke (3) work during the second half of the NCAA
  Final Four tournament college basketball championship game. (AP)
  
  
  

ATLANTA – Rick Pitino capped the greatest week of his life with the prize he wanted most of all.


Luke Hancock produced another huge game off the bench, scoring 22
points, and Pitino became the first coach to win national titles at two
schools when relentless Louisville rallied from another 12-point deficit
to beat Michigan 82-76 in the NCAA championship game Monday night.


This title came on the same day Pitino was announced as a member of
the latest Hall of Fame class, a couple of days after his horse won a
big race on the way to the Kentucky Derby, and a few more days after his
son got the head coaching job at Minnesota.


This was the best feeling of all. The Cardinals (35-5) lived up to
their billing as the top overall seed in the tournament, though they
sure had to work for it.


Louisville trailed Wichita State by a dozen in the second half before
rallying for a 72-68 victory. This time, they fell behind by 12 in the
first half, though a stunning spurt at the end of the period wiped out
the entire deficit.


"I had the 13 toughest guys I've ever coached," said Pitino, who
plans to follow through on a promise he made to his players if they won
the title -- by getting a tattoo.


No one was tougher than Hancock, who matched his season high and was
named the most outstanding player -- the first sub ever to win the
award. Coming off a 20-point effort in the semifinal victory over
Wichita State, he came off the bench to hit four straight 3-pointers
after Michigan got a boost from an even more unlikely player.


Freshman Spike Albrecht made four straight from beyond the arc, too,
blowing by his career high before the break with 17 points. Coming in,
Albrecht was averaging 1.8 points a game and had not scored more than
seven all season.


Albrecht didn't do much in the second half, but Hancock finished what
he started for Louisville. He buried another 3 from the corner with
3:20 remaining to give the Cardinals their biggest lead, 76-66. Michigan
wouldn't go away, but Hancock wrapped it up by making two free throws
with 29 seconds left.


While Pitino shrugged off any attempt to make this about him, but
there was no doubt the Cardinals wanted to win a national title for
someone else -- injured guard Kevin Ware.


Watching again from his seat at the end of the Louisville bench, his
injured right leg propped up on a chair, Ware smiled and slapped hands
with his teammates as they celebrated in the closing seconds, the
victory coming just 30 miles from where he played his high school ball.


Any pain he was feeling from that gruesome injury in the regional
final, when he landed awkwardly, snapped his leg and was left writhing
on the floor with the bone sticking through the skin, was long gone as
he hobbled gingerly onto the court with the aid of crutches, basking in a
sea of confetti and streamers.


Louisville again came out wearing Ware's No. 5 on the back of their
warmup jerseys, which said "Ri5e to the Occasion" on the front. When the
title belonged to the Cardinals, Ware put on a championship cap and got
a big hug from Pitino. Then, they lowered the basket so the injured
player could cut a strand out of the net.


This one belonged to him as much as anyone on the court.


"These are my brothers," Ware said. "They got the job done. I'm so proud of them, so proud of them."


Peyton Siva added 18 points for the Cardinals, who closed the season
on a 16-game winning streak, and Chane Behanan chipped in with 15 points
and 12 rebounds as Louisville slowly but surely closed out the
Wolverines (31-8).


Michigan was in the title game for the first time since the Fab Five
lost the second of two straight championship games in 1993. Players from
that team, including Chris Webber, cheered on the latest group of young
stars.


But, like the Fab Five, national player of the year Trey Burke and a
squad with three freshman starters came up short in the last game of the
season.


"A lot of people didn't expect us to get this far," said Burke, who
led the Wolverines with 24 points. "A lot of people didn't expect us to
get past the second round. We fought. We fought up to this point, but
Louisville was the better team today, and they're deserving of the win."


The first half might've been the most entertaining 20 minutes of the entire tournament.


Burke started out on fire for Michigan, hitting his first three shots
and scoring seven points to match his output from the semifinal victory
over Syracuse, when he made only 1-of-8 shots.


Then, when Burke picked up his second foul and had to go to the bench
for the rest of the half, Albrecht took control. The kid whose nickname
comes from his first pair of baseball spikes showed he's a pretty good
hoops player, knocking down one 3-pointer after another to send the
Wolverines to a double-digit lead.


When Albrecht blew by Tim Henderson with a brilliant hesitation move,
Michigan led 33-21 and Louisville was forced to call timeout. The
freshman was mobbed on the Michigan bench, like the Wolverines had
already won the national title, with one teammate waving a towel in
tribute.


"That was honestly, probably back to high school days," Albrecht
said, remembering when he's had a stretch like that. "Coach Beilein
doesn't play guys with two fouls in the first half, so I knew I was in
the rest of the half, and I was fortunately hitting shots. Teammates
were finding me. That's about it."


It didn't last. Not against Louisville.


The Cardinals came back one more time.


"We just went into war right there with a great Michigan team,"
Hancock said. "We needed a rally and we've been doing it for a couple of
games straight, being down. We just had to wait and make our run."


Burke, who played only six minutes in the first half because of foul
trouble, finished with 24 points and did his best to give Michigan its
first championship since 1989. But he couldn't do it alone. Albrecht was
held scoreless after the break, and no one else posted more than 12
points for the Wolverines.


Still, it was quite a run for a fourth-seeded team that knocked off
No. 1-seeded Kansas with the greatest comeback of the tournament,
rallying from 14 points down in the second half to beat the Jayhawks in
the round of the 16.


But they came up against the ultimate comeback team in the final.


"I've had a lot of really good teams over the years, and some
emotional locker rooms, and that was the most emotional we've ever had,"
Michigan coach John Beilein said. "The team unity we had, the sacrifice
we had from five seniors who did not get to play very much, to these
young guys buying into the team concept.


"We feel bad about it. There are some things we could have done
better and get a win, but at the same time, Louisville is a terrific
basketball team. We have not seen that quickness anywhere."


Louisville had already pulling off a stunning rally in the Big East
championship game -- down by 16 in the second half, they won by 17 --
and another against Wichita State. They surged back again behind their
own ace off the bench.


Hancock matched Albrecht from the 3-point stripe. Then, trapping the
youngster and knocking the ball away, he set up a fast break that ended
with Siva flipping up a lob that Montrezl Harrell slammed through for a
dunk, capping a stunning 16-3 run in less than 4 minutes that gave the
Cardinals their first lead of the night, 37-36.


Glenn Robinson III made two free throws with two seconds left to give Michigan a 38-37 lead at halftime.


But everyone knew this game was just getting started.


And when it was done, Pitino, Ware and the Cardinals were celebrating
in the middle of the mammoth Georgia Dome, assuring the national title
will stay in the bluegrass another year.


Last season, it was Kentucky winning it all, the same team that gave Pitino his first title in 1996.


Now, he's got another one -- right down the road in Louisville.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2013/04/08/louisville-michigan-tip-off-in-ncaa-men-basketball-championship-game/#ixzz2PyW8v4fk