Louisville Basketball: Why Cardinals May Win National Tournament

Louisville has every thing this season it needs to win the national championship, irrespective of who the Cardinals play next. The Cardinals (33-5, 14-4 Big East) will enjoy underdog Wichita State in the Ultimate Four. If (or should I say, "when") they beat the Shockers, they will face the success between Michigan and Syracuse in the national title game. The Cardinals suffered a large blow after losing backup guard Kevin Ware to a leg in the Elite Eight against Duke, however they still have enough to win everything. It starts with stability. Louisville ranked 23rd in the world in bad performance headed into its game with Duke, via TeamRankings.com. It ranked third in defensive efficiency. The Cardinals also rank second in competitors' return rate. Beyond superior on-the-ball opponent Peyton Siva (2.2 steals per recreation), Russ Smith, Gorgui Dieng and Chase Behanan have all averaged 1.4 steals or even more this season. Russ Smith and Peyton Siva have light emitting diode the Cardinals all period long.Elsa/Getty Images The Cardinals could easily get out-rebounded down the stretch. They might stop striking their photos and fail to arrive at the free-throw line. But despite having the beginning of freshman forward Mitch McGary, I do not think a strong rebounding group like Michigan could out-rebound Louisville too much (whenever) anda'seriouslya'when was the final time the Cardinals did not reach the free-throw line a great deal (they shot 40 per cent against Syracuse in the Big East name game, but attempted 36 free includes )? Michigan results to be Louisville's best check if the Cardinals meet the Wolverines in the national title game. The Wolverines experienced an identical group in Florida in that the Gators were a healthy group, however the a very important factor Florida did not have that Louisville does is reliability. Their last 14 games have been won by the Cardinals, while the Gators suffered losses to Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ole Miss down the stretch in the regular season. Any way you slice it, Rick Pitino and the Cardinals have top of the hand to win it all of this year.