Louisville clamps down for Big East title

It clearly was going to be a different Big East Tournament final, given that it was the first one ever without one of the original seven teams. It turned out to be historic in another way, too, as the lowest-scoring championship game the conference ever has seen.

"The Big East is taking on a whole new thing," winning coach Rick Pitino said. "Everybody wants change today."

Louisville held on Saturday night to win an unkempt, defense-first title game over neighborhood rival Cincinnati, 50-44, at Madison Square Garden. If this is how the league will look when Syracuse leaves, the Big East can at least look forward to a run of bruising competition, even if it could use an extra injection of juice.

Cincinnati's coach and players admitted that they weren't at their best. "We have a tendency to go on cruise control," said Bearcats coach Mick Cronin, who nonetheless congratulated Pitino, who used to be his boss. "I wouldn't be here without him," Cronin said.

Chris Smith scored 15 points to lead the Cardinals, who won their second Big East title in four years, and Kyle Kuric had 13. Point guard Peyton Siva had 10 points and five assists and was named tournament MVP.

Louisville (26-9) limited Cincinnati big man Yancy Gates to nine points. Cashmere Wright had 16 points for the Bearcats (24-10).

"This game was very difficult, as we knew it would be. They know us as well as we know ourselves," Pitino said. "We knew it was going to take defense to win this game."

Cincinnati came back to within four and had a chance to cut it further with 28.7 seconds left, but JaQuon Parker missed two free throws for the Bearcats, who were a stunning 1-for-7 from the line for the night. Russ Smith sank two free throws a second later to put Louisville up by six.

The previous mark for a low-wattage championship game was in 2007, Georgetown's 65-42 victory over Pittsburgh. It didn't matter to Louisville. "It's special because I love coaching these guys," Pitino said.

Cincinnati saw it differently. "We came out and gave it to them," Gates said. "We weren't prepared to play."

The way things began last night, Cincinnati seemed perplexed and frustrated by the Cardinals' defense. Cincinnati's offense, which had looked unstoppable in knocking off top-seeded Syracuse on Friday, shot only 24 percent and scored only 14 points in the first half, the lowest total in Big East title game history. Gates, the big man who was so powerful against the Orange, was held to four.

Louisville wasn't terrific on offense, either, but it did have a strong burst from senior guard Smith, a Manhattan transfer and brother of new Knick J.R. Smith. Chris made a pair of three-point shots and a pair of two-pointers for 10 first-half points.

It all was another challenge for Cincinnati, which did awaken at the start of the second half and cut the lead to 29-22.

Considering this was the first Big East final without one of the conference's original seven teams, it represented something of a new world -- and an omen, perhaps, for a conference that is taking on a wider geographical sweep. But Louisville and Cincinnati are hardly new to each other.

The campuses are about 100 miles apart, near the Ohio River. And this is the third different conference in which they have been fellow members. The two teams played for the Metro Conference title in 1981 (Louisville won) and later were in Conference USA together. Thus, when it became clear Friday night that the two would meet in an improbable final at Madison Square Garden, Pitino said, "I think Conference USA has come to the Big Apple."

Cronin used to be Pitino's assistant at Louisville before he went on to become a head coach at Murray State and then, in 2006, moved to his hometown and alma mater.

"Mick is a tremendous teacher, great worker. He has tough kids that play their tails off," the Louisville coach and former Long Island high school star said.