The defending-champion Louisville Cardinals (27-5, 15-3 AAC) absolutely shredded Rutgers yesterday to open up their path to the AAC championship game, and now will unleash their ferocious defense on the Houston Cougars (17-15, 8-10 AAC) who will need a tourney title to reach the Big Dance. Watch the game on ESPN2 or live stream it free here. Louisville fans can find the radio broadcast on WKRD 790 AM, while Houston fans can find their own broadcast at KNTH-1070 AM.
While few in their right mind would pick Houston over Louisville the way the Cardinals are playing, head coach Rick Pitino cautioned his team that anyone can be beat. "Certainly we know we're going to have a tougher game with Houston tomorrow, upsetting SMU, Houston has terrific talent," Pitino said.
"Houston can come tomorrow even though we played great and they could beat us, we know that, so I think it's a humble spirit, understanding you play the same way against everybody. Now you may change your defenses and your offensive attack from a scouting standpoint, but you don't change the way you get up and play defense and these guys have been able to do that."
If the Cougars want to survive, they must be calm in the face of Louisville's pressure and avoid feeding their transition offense with turnovers. The Cardinals harassed Rutgers by stealing the rock 19 times, and average 10 steals per game.
Houston is riding high though, upsetting Larry Brown's SMU squad yesterday and marking their second win over a Top 25 opponent in the last six games, where Houston is 5-1. Sophomore guard Jherrod Stiggers scored 19 on SMU, and described a mentality they must take into today's action.
"My mindset was (you) never know if this would be the last game," Stiggers said. "Never know (if) there would be a tomorrow, so leave everything on the floor. Take everything they give me."
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