Saturday, March 19, 2005

Hoops Notes

Evidently Louisville has a lot to prove against the Jackets. Both coaches are giving each other props:

"If it was a series, they'd win it against us,"Pitino said. "But it's not a series. It's one game. If you can beat a Georgia Tech, you can get to a Final Four and win a championship. If we can beat them, and that's a big if, we're good enough to continue on and beat anybody."


CBS sees this as their marquee game Sunday, which is why they moved it to the 4:40 slot. As we know F.Garcia is the key guy, but T-Mac is ready:

Priority No. 1, however, is putting the clamps on 6-foot-7 junior forward Francisco Garcia, a first-team All-Conference USA selection. Garcia, averaging a team-high 15.4 points on the season, scored 27 in the first-round victory.


"Me and him are going to be looking at each other a whole lot tomorrow," Tech forward Anthony McHenry said. "He is the heart and soul of the team. If we can contain him or limit his shot attempts that might have a trickle-down effect."


Michael Lough talks about Will Bynum:

"The goal was to get to the tournament," he recalls. "Coming from Arizona, it was expected. You expected to win. When I came here, it was like, `we're trying to win, we're trying to get better.' My whole thought process about the whole team was kinda different than theirs.


"I always thought our goal should be much higher than that. `You really are good.'"


Well well. It looks like Rick Pitino was evidently some type of "mentor" to Paul Hewitt. Small world...in coaching........... Even though the betting line is fairly even, GT is looked at as the underdog in this matchup.