Louisville leaves Big Blue green with envy

In Kentucky, this has to be like a Louisiana bred winning the Kentucky Derby.

Everyone knows that thoroughbred racing’s best comes from Lexington, even though the Kentucky Derby is run in Louisville.

The beautiful city is the industry leader with breeding, sales, racing and all things horse racing and basketball.

Oh sure, the larger, more urban Louisville had some decent basketball teams under Denny Crum. Until now, it was never going to threaten the Big Blue Nation, and football is just something the Big Blue do to have a place to meet and talk Wildcat basketball.

Now, just a year after all the cheers and tears of joy over being crowned the national champions, the Wildcats’ season ended with a first-round loss in the NIT and the hated Cardinals are not only in the Final Four but are favored to win it.

It was Louisville that was named the overall No. 1 seed in this NCAA Tournament, which snubbed the erratic Wildcats.

Now the Louisville women’s team has advanced to its Final Four, too. That isn’t the same type of bleeding wound as having the Cardinals men’s team steal all the basketball thunder, but it is salt in the wound.

Just as it is and always will be that the man who resurrected Kentucky basketball more than 20 years ago, Sir Richard Pitino, is now the master of disaster at Louisville. Pitino has survived a personal scandal at Louisville, but has never vacated an NCAA Tournament appearance or had every victory of a season removed from his record because of NCAA sanctions like Kentucky Coach John Calipari has.

When Pitino went to Kentucky in 1989 the program faced all kinds of problems, including NCAA sanctions. Two years later, they were making the first of six consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, which included winning the 1995 national championship and a runner-up finish the next year.

Pitino then spent four years with the Boston Celtics, received a huge buyout and - to the horror of the Big Blue Nation - went to Louisville, where blue bloods are visitors from Lexington. He has led the Cardinals to five seasons with at least 20 victories and three seasons with at least 30, including 33-5 this season.

He may have even become something of a sentimental favorite last Sunday when he was caught on national television wiping tears out of his eyes after Kevin Ware went down with a fractured leg.

Ware, who was in great pain, yelled for his teammates to go and win the game, which they did.

Understand, though, this is not a team of emotion.

The Cardinals are the most talented team in the Final Four.

They are a veteran team, which can mean a lot this time of the season. Pitino primarily has an eight-man rotation with the loss of Ware, who will be at the Final Four.

Pitino has six serious scoring threats in his rotation, led by Russ Smith, who is averaging 18.9 points per game and is followed by Gorgui Dieng at 10.2 per game. But there are four more who average more than seven points per game, meaning every guy has to be guarded on every play.

Peyton Siva is also an incredible point guard who gets the ball exactly where it should be at exactly the right time. He has 220 assists to just 102 turnovers.

Louisville has won 14 consecutive games, and its last loss was at Notre Dame and it took five overtimes.

In four NCAA Tournament victories, the Cardinals’ average margin of victory is more than 20 points and they have forced opponents to turn over the ball more than 26 percent of the time.

For now, Louisville and Sir Richard are the kings of Kentucky basketball, and that means it’s going to be a long year for the Big Blue.