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Bulldogs bite Pitino's Cards; Wake goes down By JIM
O'CONNELL
AP Basketball Writer
A year after not even being invited to the NCAA tournament,
the Butler Bulldogs are all the rage.
They beat Rick Pitino and Louisville 79-71 on Sunday to
advance to the round of 16, pulling off one of the biggest upsets of the
tournament — so far.
``It's so hard to win these games,'' Butler's Joel Cornette
said of the matchup between the 12th-seeded Bulldogs and fourth-seeded
Louisville. ``On paper, people think we're nothing. We watched TV and could
barely even tell we were going to play.''
There's no hiding now.
Butler (27-5) certainly won't sneak up on top-seeded
Oklahoma on Friday when they meet in the East Regional semifinals.
Neither will Auburn, the only other double-digit seed to
reach the third round.
The Tigers, the team many felt didn't deserve an at-large
bid, beat No. 2 Wake Forest 68-62 on Sunday and will meet third-seeded
Syracuse in the other East Regional semifinal.
Wake Forest wasn't alone as a No. 2 seed to have a tough
Sunday as Michigan State beat Florida 68-46, the Gators' fourth loss in five
games.
Teams seeded higher than 10th had been to the round of 16 21
times in the last five years. Butler may be one of the most surprising.
The Bulldogs, who won the Horizon League regular-season
title and lost to Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the conference tournament, knocked
off No. 5 Mississippi State to get to play Louisville. And Butler stunned
the Cardinals with an awesome 3-point shooting display.
``As Princeton runs an offense for layups, this team runs an
offense for 3s — and they're great at it,'' Pitino said. ``They're one of
the best shooting teams I've seen.''
Pitino should know. His Providence team used the 3-pointer
as its main weapon to reach the Final Four in 1987 as a No. 6 seed.
Butler, which was left out of last year's NCAA field despite
a 25-5 record, was 14-of-22 from 3-point range, including 9-of-13 in the
second half.
Darnell Archey, the man known for his free-throw shooting,
was 8-of-9 on 3-pointers and made all six he took in the second half. He
matched his career high with 26 points.
``I was in the zone. I felt like Michael Jordan in '92
against the Blazers,'' said Archey, who set the NCAA record this season by
making 85 consecutive free throws. ``My teammates just kept getting the ball
to me with wide-open looks.''
Butler and Auburn were two of the five double-digit seeds to
reach the second round. Their chances to move along in the tournament now
drop decidedly because only four of the 21 that reached the round of 16
during the last five years went to the regional final, including Kent State
and Missouri last year.
``It means a great deal,'' Butler coach Todd Lickliter said
of his team's accomplishment. ``There was so much on the line and it's such
a huge challenge.''
It was just a few weeks ago that people from the Bluegrass
State were dreaming about a possible Final Four matchup of Kentucky and
Louisville. That can't happen now.
``Obviously, if you don't win a championship, you're going
to end on a low note,'' said Pitino, who had won 12 of his last 13 NCAA
tournament games. ``To me, this is not a low note because of what our team
has accomplished this year. And I'm not too disappointed, because Butler is
a great team.''
In other games Sunday, Pittsburgh beat Indiana 74-52,
Syracuse defeated Oklahoma State 68-56 and Maryland beat Xavier 77-64. The
two No. 1 seeds that played Sunday both advanced as Texas downed Purdue
77-67 and Kentucky beat Utah 74-54.
Jim O'Connell has covered college basketball for The
Associated Press since 1987. He was presented the Curt Gowdy Media Award by
the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002..
Copyright 2003
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
02/23/2007 10:46:54 AM
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