The Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Terrence Williams saw Louisville’s season slipping away, and it was only November.

Williams and the Cardinals were in Las Vegas for a tournament when he found out senior center David Padgett had a broken kneecap and might not return this season.

Williams left Padgett’s hotel room and started crying.

Williams’ tears have dried up. The early prognosis was wrong. The Kansas transfer was back on the court in January, and he’s now pain-free for the first time in years.

The 6-foot-11 Padgett’s return to form has coincided with Louisville’s best play of the season, with 11 wins in 13 games. The third-seeded Cardinals now hope Padgett’s inside presence will be the key tonight in their East Regional semifinal against No. 2 seed Tennessee.

Louisville has weathered the loss of Padgett and another knee injury that sidelined starting forward Juan Palacios for the first nine games to become one of the most impressive NCAA tournament teams.

Entering off consecutive losses to Georgetown and Pittsburgh, the Cardinals (26-8) cruised past Boise State and Oklahoma by a combined 48 points last weekend. Louisville shot 58 percent and forced 35 turnovers.

The routs allowed Padgett to play only 40 minutes in the two games. Yet his heady play and ability to shoot with both hands gives coach Rick Pitino an inviting option inside as he eyes a sixth trip to the Final Four.

“I think what makes David so effective is his ability to pass the basketball when he gets double-teamed. He finds the open man,” said Pitino, who is 7-0 in regional semifinals. “He knows how to attack defenses. He knows how to attack slap-downs and trap-downs.”

Tennessee (31-4) is a 3-point underdog despite its higher seed due to concerns about its backcourt and shaky play last weekend. The Volunteers struggled to beat 15th-seeded American, then needed overtime to get by Butler.

With all four top seeds still alive in this region, coach Bruce Pearl knows the Volunteers have to be better.

“I don’t think we’ve played our best game yet,” Pearl said. “And I can tell you looking at Washington State and North Carolina and Louisville, for this Tennessee team to advance, we’re going to have to.”



N. Carolina, Washington St.

In a perfect world, Roy Williams never would see his North Carolina team stop running.

The Tar Heels would sprint out in transition on every possession. They’d push the ball ahead for get-you-right-back baskets to answer scores. And, by the end, their offense would leave demoralized opponents struggling to catch their breath.

His team lived up to that standard last weekend to start the NCAA tournament. Yet Williams knows that the No. 1 overall seed can’t keep scoring at that pace, especially against a Washington State team that has been just as impressive defensively to reach today’s East Regional semifinals.

The Tar Heels (34-2) rank second nationally in scoring (89.9 points) while reaching the century mark eight times this year. That includes last weekend’s routs in Raleigh—located about a half-hour drive from the Chapel Hill campus—where they beat 16th-seeded Mount St. Mary’s 113-74 then No. 9 seed Arkansas 108-77. It marked the first time a team had scored 100 points in each of its first two NCAA games since Loyola Marymount did it against New Mexico State and Michigan in 1990.

This time, the Tar Heels are about two hours from home and figure to have another home-state crowd behind them. They’re also 6-0 in Charlotte Bobcats Arena—including a season-opening win against Davidson and a three-game run through the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament two weeks ago—and are 23-1 in NCAA games played in their home state.

“It’s just a huge mental thing to have played so well in this arena and had so much success here,” junior Marcus Ginyard said. “This just feels like a second home for us. To have that confidence and that edge mentally is huge for this team.”

Now they face the fourth-seeded Cougars (26-8), a team that has been almost as dominating in the NCAAs behind a focus-on-fundamentals philosophy and a defense that held Winthrop and Notre Dame to a combined 81 points.

Washington State, appearing in the round of 16 for the first time, ranks second nationally in scoring defense (56.1 points per game). Their offense averages 67 points per game in a system that coach Tony Bennett picked up from his father, Dick, the former Wisconsin coach who preceded his son in Pullman, Wash.