The Rutgers Scarlet Knights play the Louisville Cardinals on Thursday in the 2014 American (AAC) Championship quarterfinals. Tipoff is at 3:00 p.m. ET. Listen to the live radio broadcast or watch the live stream via the links provided below.
No. 5 Louisville won 13 of their last 15 games, including two straight. Their final two wins of the regular season came against No. 25 Southern Methodist and No. 21 Connecticut. A key to the Cardinals' success, according to coach Rick Pitino, has been their defensive pressure picking up.
"We always had the potential to be a good defensive team, but we didn't get it from a focus standpoint," Pitino told reporters, according to the Associated Press. "We had two highly focused guys in (center Gorgui Dieng and guard Peyton Siva who left after season) and this was a very immature team emotionally.
"Sometimes, they were more concerned about whether you called a foul or didn't call a foul. In the last two, three weeks they've just grown emotionally and that's been a big key for us."
Rutgers (12-20), meanwhile, lost seven of their last ten games. The unranked Scarlett Knights finished their regular season with two straight losses, but they earned a spot in Thursday's quarterfinal with a 72-68 win against South Florida.
Despite sweeping Rutgers in the regular season, Pitino wants his team wary of an upset.
"A lot of people think you can't beat a team three times," said Pitino. "It is true that the other team has an emotional edge, but if your team is emotionally ready and you understand that the other team lost twice and could make some changes because (they've been beaten) twice, if you understand that chess match, you'll be ready and the better team will win. ...
"You've got to anticipate the change and can't say, 'we're better than them, we beat them twice.' As long as you do those two things, you'll be fine. If you don't, you can get beat."
Listen to the live radio broadcast HERE (RUTG) and HERE (LOU), or watch the live stream HERE.
