As I sit here with dawn breaking this morning, I am reminded of this day’s predecessor, also a Sunday, also a March 29 .
In advance of one of that day’s Elite Eight battles in 2009, also between the Louisville Cardinals and the Michigan State Spartans, I arrived early at the cavernous media room in the bowels of Lucas Oil Stadium.
While some bare bones basics are the same — Cards vs. Sparty, Izzo vs. Pitino, F4 on the line — there are some drastic differences.
That U of L team, one with high expectations all year that rarely abated, the top-ranked #1 seed in the Dance, was on a 13 game win streak, was coming off a 39 point drubbing of Arizona in the Regional Semis, and was steamrolling toward what many Cardinal fans expected to be Rick Pitino’s first title at U of L.
As I am wont to do, given my penchant to focus just on U of L and, given that I rarely blog previews to games, I hadn’t viewed Sparty through a microscope.
Which, since there was plenty of time to kill, I did that morning. Frankly, it was bracing.
What I recall thinking: This game is not a given. The Spartans are good.
Prescient thoughts, those. Continue reading Cardinals Face Sparty for Final Four Spot