Plenty at stake for Cards, 49ers
Seniors, Garcia eye title, grand farewell
Just how significant is tonight's basketball game in Freedom Hall between Charlotte and the University of Louisville? Consider that:
It's Senior Night for Ellis Myles, Larry O'Bannon and Otis George, a group coach Rick Pitino said is responsible for rebuilding the program into top-10 status.
The winner will take home at least a share of the Conference USA regular season championship and earn the No. 1 seed in next week's league tournament.
The No. 9 Cardinals (24-4, 12-2) could secure a high seed in the NCAA Tournament with another victory over a ranked team (Charlotte is No. 18).
And the C-USA Player of the Year race might be decided.
No wonder Pitino has described tonight as "the biggest game we've had here" in his four years at Louisville.
"They're an outstanding team, and we're an outstanding team," he said. "It should be a heck of a game. And with something this big at stake, it should be."
The game features two of the hottest teams in the nation. The Cards have won 13 of their last 14, and the 49ers (21-4, 12-2) went 7-0 in February.
Charlotte began that streak after losing to lowly East Carolina, and coach Bobby Lutz said the key was getting Mitchell Baldwin healthy.
Baldwin, a junior point guard, missed more than two weeks of practice after suffering a dislocated shoulder in mid-January. He leads the conference with a 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
"Everybody else gets a lot of attention, but he's a huge part of our team," Lutz said. "With him in there, everybody goes back to what they do well, and we've been really comfortable with our roles since February."
Charlotte also boasts the frontcourt tandem of Curtis Withers and Eddie Basden.
Withers, a 6-foot-8 junior, has averaged more than 23 points and nearly nine rebounds in his last eight games and is the top scorer in league play.
The 6-5 Basden, meanwhile, has been a stat-line stuffer. He's the only player ranked in the league's top 10 in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals.
Basden, who ranks fourth in the country with 3.4 steals per game, has been named C-USA Player of the Week three of the past four weeks, and Withers was the winner the other week of February.
"They really have been spectacular in so many ways," Lutz said.
Basden has better all-around numbers than Francisco Garcia, Louisville's NBA-bound junior who also will be honored before tonight's game. But if Garcia can lead the Cards to victory and the league title, he might snag the Player of the Year award.
"Eddie Basden is probably the Player of the Year," Myles said. "(But) Francisco knows what's on the line, and I'm pretty sure he'll show up for the challenge."
The tribute to Garcia and the seniors will begin at 6:45 p.m. with a video presentation. Pitino said he expects it to be an emotional night, given what the class has meant to the program.
Each of the seniors, he said, has far exceeded his expectations.
He signed George without ever seeing him play, took O'Bannon despite watching him go through a terrible workout during a recruiting visit, and inherited Myles, who he said needed a major attitude adjustment.
"If you were a warm body that said hello and could dance, I would have taken you," Pitino said. "We were in desperate need of quality people who were willing to work hard."
Now, he said, "we're fighting for a championship because of those kids."
And add this bit of significance to tonight's contest: Louisville has not won a C-USA regular season title during its 10 years in the league -- a league it's departing for the Big East.
"It's important for us," George said. "We've come a long way and worked so hard. To have this conference championship would be a payoff. We just want it so bad."
