For an opposite, but just as befuddled view on the game, what do they have to say in Louisville?

At the end, you were just confused.

It was the most awkward game of extremes that didn’t end with a successful comeback. The University of Louisville men’s basketball team suffered through a start so bad that the Madison Square Garden crowd mocked the Cardinals after they scored their first points. Of course, the simple feat took them eight minutes and 45 seconds. By then, the deficit was 16-2. Later, it ballooned to 33-5.

Then, down 27 points with 16:21 remaining, Louisville made a rally that had most of the lingering crowd standing during the closing minutes. Has a 61-56 game ever been stuffed with so much mayhem?

What to think? Louisville looked like the worst team in Division I and then turned into inspiring non-quitters all in the same game. It left you not knowing what to think about them.

Sadly, that will be their legacy.

I mean, really. We Pitt fans are alternatingly: inspired, hopeful, excited, nervous, dreading, bitter, angry, and so on regarding this team. But at least Pitt won. At least Pitt is going to the NCAA. Pitt raised the expectations in the season before bringing them down again. Louisville never met expectations. All they did was show brief flashes.

Consider the high point, apparently, for them was playing UConn tough. For Pitt, I can think of several and they are all wins: beating the living snot out of Auburn and PSU; New Years Eve over Wisconsin; beating Louisville in Louisville; beating WVU; and others.

In this game, Louisville did show heart, I’ll give them that.

Pitino said the comeback might have been born of humiliation.

“I think we were highly embarrassed about our play,” he said. “We had one rebound from the whole starting unit. Guys were embarrassed at halftime and tried the best we could to come back and win it. And I thought we took care of the basketball better in the second half and actually could have won the basketball game.”

A lot of other teams, not only would have folded, but you have to believe someone might have lost his cool and done something extreme. They never did anything like that, so you have to give props to Louisville and Pitino for that.

You know, the way Cinci struggled at times, now Louisville going down. Marquette’s the last C-USA team. You have to wonder if the players are a little awed by the step up in class to the Big East.

In the Big East Conference Tournament for the first time, U of L and its fans moved into prime time last night in Madison Square Garden. Every game is on ESPN or ESPN2, but that’s just the start of the differences.

Gone are the nearly empty afternoon sessions that generally featured blowout games. Yesterday’s first session here was a sellout, and the actual attendance was around 14,000.
…
Cincinnati dominated the C-USA Tournament since its inception. Despite the early exit here, coach Andy Kennedy said the Bearcats definitely got a taste of the big-time nature of the Big East tourney.

“You’re in Madison Square Garden, playing Syracuse on national TV at noon and you’ve got nearly a full house,” he said. “This is what it’s all about. It may be the best tournament in the country this year. Think about it. Villanova is seeded lower at its conference tournament than it might be in the NCAA Tournament.”

Players could tell the difference from Tuesday’s pretourney banquet. The 90-minute event featured a video of past Big East championship games during dinner, and it was topped off by a plaque presentation to every senior on every team.

“They really did a nice job on the plaques,” U of L sports information director Kenny Klein said. “They ask you for pictures, and then they do a really good job with the graphics and engraving. You can tell that a lot of work goes into it. It’s a first-class thing.”

When you are bubbly over nice engraving on plaques, well…

You know, between the sheer schizo-ness and lateness of the game, everyone seems to be struggling with an effective recap. Do you focus on the positives or negatives? How do you strike a balance?

It was, in a word, surreal.

Pitt 16, Louisville 0.

Pitt 22, Louisville 2.

Pitt 33, Louisville 5.

Finally, the Panthers went ahead by four touchdowns (35-7) before falling asleep in the second half of what eventually became a 61-56 victory Wednesday night in a Big East first-round game at Madison Square Garden.

It kind of resembled Pitt’s season: great for a while, then real shaky.

Still, it was a quality win, even if Louisville played without 6-foot-11 center David Padgett. This was the same Louisville team that beat Marquette a week ago and played to the end with UConn before losing, 84-80.

Beating Rick Pitino in a pressurized situation is always a quality win, but if the Panthers had blown a lead of such proportions — and, oh, how they tried — it would have gone down as one their worst losses.

I have to admit, I was surprised that Benjamin was given the start. Not shocked that DeGroat didn’t, but I figured Pitt would go with Sam Young. Benjamin rewarded the Pitt with strong play, and his best defensive effort. He missed his 3 shots, but played solid. I think they did miss one or two opportunities to give him some better looks — reward him for playing good defense and not chucking shots.