Waiting game for Villanova

NEW YORK - Fourth-ranked Louisville lost four Big East games this season: to Syracuse, Villanova, Georgetown and Notre Dame.

Already this month, the Cardinals had won their rematches with Syracuse and Notre Dame. Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, in the semifinals of the conference tournament, they added Villanova to that list.

If they make it to Saturday's title game, they could also get another shot at Georgetown.

The second-seeded Cards (27-5) defeated the Wildcats, 74-55, to advance to Friday's semifinals, where they'll play either Marquette or Notre Dame. Last year, they made it to the Final Four. This time, they're considered one of the national-championship contenders once again.

The seventh-seeded Wildcats (20-13), who went 13-19 last season and were picked to finish 12th, are just trying to get back to the four-letter tourney for the eighth time in nine seasons.

Most folks seem to concur that Villanova has done enough to warrant a spot in the 68-team field, mostly for having three victories against top-five opponents in South Philly. But you never know for sure until your name gets called Sunday. So now the Wildcats will wait and follow bracketology like everyone else. But the wait would've been a lot more uncomfortable had they not beaten 10th-seeded St. John's in Wednesday's second round.

Conventional wisdom suggests an 11 seed in the Madness. Maybe they'll even get sent to Dayton for one of those play-in games. It's in the hands of the Selection Committee.

"I think we've got a good enough résumé," said coach Jay Wright. "I honestly haven't followed it to know it well enough. I know we have people who do. So I'll get all that information of where we are.

"We'll get a day off, then regroup on Saturday. I know we're playing someone in the postseason. We want to keep playing. But you've got to swallow this one. It's tough to take. I'm not as disappointed in the loss as I am in our performance in the first half."

The Wildcats had won the first meeting by nine at the Wells Fargo Center on Jan. 22. It was the game that got their NCAA thing going. This time it was, well, different. Not unexpectedly, given that the Cards have now won eight straight and 11 of their last dozen.

The way this stuff works, the loss actually might not hurt Villanova's RPI number. We'll find out soon enough. We do know that it still hasn't won more than once in this tourney since 2004.

The Wildcats made six of their first eight shots. That was the good news. They would, of course, miss their next seven. And there were those 10 turnovers in the opening 14 possessions. It would become a theme. A hard one to overcome. Still, they were within three after 16 1/2 minutes. By halftime the margin was nine. It would go south from there.

They finished with 25 turnovers (18 in the first 20 minutes), which tied a season-high set at Providence on Jan. 19 and was just two shy of the record for this tourney set by Georgetown in 2002.

They also gave up double-digit three-pointers (10-for-24) for the ninth time. Not a good combination, particularly since they went 2-for-12 from the arc.

Russ Smith led Louisville with 28 points, 10 more than his average. He shot 7-for-12, 4-for-6 and 10-for-11. Last time, he had eight on 2-for-13, 0-for-4. It makes a difference.

"I think we were just very intense," said UL coach Rick Pitino. "Very, very active. We keep a . . . deflection chart. We had 58, 38 [at halftime]. That's never happened in my 80 years of coaching. So it was an incredible thing to witness."

Depends on your perspective.

Villanova got 21 points from Brooklyn's JayVaughn Pinkston, and 13 from Mouphtaou Yarou, who also had a game-high 11 rebounds. So much for the big men. Ryan Arcidiacono shot 1-for-8, 1-for-5, and Darrun Hilliard had seven of the turnovers in just 25 minutes.

"That's our weakness as a team," Wright said. "We don't have that jet guard who can just break down a defense. We have to do it by passing and precision and execution. We have done that at times. Once we got behind . . . that was the key. They wouldn't allow us to get upcourt a lot and get to the foul line. We were pretty effective when we did. But we weren't getting it across halfcourt.

"They were on us. I really thought playing St. John's prepared us. But this press is another level."

Now, the Wildcats will see if they're making it back to the level that most programs measure success by. Especially when you've been to a Final Four, Elite Eight and two Sweet 16s since 2005.

"That's what we are," Wright said. "I'm very pleased where this team is."

We'll find out if the Selection Committee shares that sentiment.