PHOENIX — Rick Pitino nearly came unhinged and his point guard watched the end of the game from the bench. When it was over, though, it was Pitino and Louisville making plans for the Final Four and his protege, Billy Donovan, and the Florida Gators wondering what had happened.
Freshman forward Chane Behanan made the go-ahead basket with 1:06 left Saturday and the fourth-seeded Cardinals finished the game on a 23-8 run for a 72-68 victory over Donovan’s stunned Florida team in the West Regional final.
Russ Smith, who finished with 19 points, followed Behanan’s basket with two free throws and then Florida freshman Bradley Beal and teammate Kenny Boynton each missed chances to tie in the final seconds.
Louisville made one more free throw to seal the game and reach its ninth Final Four, the second under Pitino, despite playing the final 3:58 without point guard Peyton Siva, who fouled out.
“What happens is, you can’t lose confidence,” Pitino said. “I kept telling the guys, ‘We’re going to the Final Four. Win the Big East Tournament, you’re going to the Final Four,’ and they did.”
The Big East Tournament champions are on an eightgame winning streak, with a trip to New Orleans on the itinerary and a possible matchup with Pitino’s old school, Kentucky, which will have to get by Baylor today to set up a grudge match.
There were no grudges in this game for Pitino, who as a young coach saw something special in Donovan, an undersized guard, and developed a partnership that took Providence on an unexpected trip to the 1987 Final Four. Pitino also gave Donovan his first coaching job and both men conceded theirs was more of a father-son relationship than anything else.
“I’m so proud of Billy Donovan, the way he coached this team,” Pitino said. “He was brilliant. He took us out of the zone. But only one team could play aggressive and come back like this.”
Seventh-seeded Florida (26-11) went out in the regional final for the second consecutive year, with Donovan falling to 0-7 lifetime against Pitino.
Despite the relationship between the coaches, Donovan got under Pitino’s skin early in the second half during a timeout when he worked over the officials, who promptly called a foul against the Cardinals (30-9) when play resumed.
“He called that,” Pitino shouted. “Why don’t you just give him a whistle?”
Pitino couldn’t get a break for a while after that and when Siva picked up his fourth foul, the coach stomped onto the court and got hit with a technical foul. Erving Walker made four consecutive free throws and the Gators led by 11, setting the stage for what could’ve been Donovan’s fourth trip to the Final Four.
But the team that went 8 for 11 from three-point range in the first half went cold — really cold — not hitting any of nine attempts from beyond the arc in the second.
The Gators missed seven shots and committed one turnover over the last 2:30. They didn’t score after Boynton’s layup gave them a 68-66 lead with 2:39 left.
The game’s best freshman? That was Behanan, who was far less heralded than Beal coming out of high school, but outplayed him down the stretch when the trip to New Orleans was on the line.
The freshman from Cincinnati scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half, including nine over the last 8:02 and Louisville’s last two field goals — both after Siva had fouled out with nine points and eight assists.
Beal, meanwhile, matched Erik Murphy with a team-high 14 points and controlled this game for the first 37 minutes.
But over the last three, he tried twice to take the ball to the basket, only to get denied by 6-10 center Gorgui Dieng. Beal missed the desperation three in the waning seconds and also got called for traveling after stealing a wild pass from Smith while Louisville was protecting a one-point lead with 18 seconds left.
At a glance
TODAY’S GAMES All times Central
SOUTH REGIONAL At The Georgia Dome, Atlanta
Baylor (30-7) vs. Kentucky (35-2), 1:20 p.m.
MIDWEST REGIONAL At Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis
North Carolina (32-5) vs. Kansas (30-6), 4:05 p.m.
FINAL FOUR
At The Superdome, New Orleans NATIONAL SEMIFINALS Saturday, March 31
Ohio State vs. Midwest champion, 5 or 7:30 p.m. South champion vs. Louisville, 5 or 7:30 p.m.
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP Monday, April 2
Semifinal winners, 8 p.m.
Sports, Pages 24 on 03/25/2012