Wizards of Louisville Stop Auburn, 84-76, and Gain Final Four

Louisville Coach Denny Crum knew he had to make a move, try a new strategy, do something to change the pace that was keeping Auburn in the basketball game. Eventually he was going to leave his tried-and-true man-to-man defense and go to that crazy zone.

The question was, when. Timing is everything.

Crum said: “I was remembering what Coach (John) Wooden always used to say. ‘Be quick, but don’t hurry.’ I didn’t want to hurry and do something too soon out of anxiety. I wanted to stay under control and not do it so soon that they would have time to adjust.”

So he shushed his assistants a couple of times and, finally, picked his spot with about 9 1/2 minutes left and his team ahead by one point.

Louisville slowed the pace and threw off Auburn long enough to take a five-point lead. By then, time was running out and Auburn had to foul to stop the clock. Louisville, true to form, sank the free throws and won, 84-76, in the West Regional final of the NCAA tournament.

Louisville will be making its seventh trip to the Final Four when it journeys to Dallas this week. It will be Crum’s sixth trip as the Cardinals’ coach.

Crum made several other trips to the Final Four as an assistant to Wooden from 1967-1971.

That’s why his mind replays Wooden lines when a game is hanging in the balance. That’s why he believes in the man-to-man game.

But with his star forward, Billy Thompson, having just reentered the game with four fouls and with Auburn having so much success with its running game, Crum had to make a change.

“We don’t even practice a zone, because I don’t really like it,” he said. “But sometimes it’s the change itself that messes up the other team.

“I didn’t do it so much to protect Billy--because I knew he would play smart--as much as to take Auburn out of what they were doing.”

Auburn was playing a very efficient transition game, one in which they’d shot 66.5% in the first half. Auburn also was getting some great outside shooting from its 6-foot 8-inch forward, Chuck Person. A zone wouldn’t stop that, but it would disrupt the rhythm and spare Thompson the task of playing Person man-to-man with four fouls.

Thompson had picked up two quick fouls early in the second half. Auburn’s Chris Morris stole the ball from him, and, in trying to swipe it back, Thompson was called for a foul with 15:48 to play. At the other end, he fouled Person as Person turned to put up a shot with 15:37 to play.

Thompson sat down for about five minutes, but Crum brought him back with 10:27 left.

Crum said: “I gambled putting him back in that early, but we needed the lead going down the stretch. If you’re behind them coming down the stretch, there’s no way you beat them. Not with the way they shoot free throws. If we had to foul them, we wouldn’t win.”

So it worked the other way. Louisville can make free throws, too.

It came down to which team would get a bit of a lead as the clock ran down.

Freshman center Pervis Ellison came through with the key play to give it to Louisville.

Ellison had tipped in a shot to give Louisville a 73-70 lead with just more than two minutes to play. But Auburn had worked the ball inside against the zone for the first time and seemed all set to make it a one-point game again on Jeff Moore’s shot from the lane. But Ellison blocked the shot.

And in blocking it, Ellison batted the ball out to guard Jeff Hall, who was already on the move. Hall’s basket gave the Cardinals a 75-70 lead.

Hall said: “I was guessing with Pervis, and he tapped it out to me. That’s one of his greatest assets. Some guys get to block a shot and they knock it five rows up, which means you stop the clock. He has the finesse to give us a fast break, instead.”

Ellison also got a piece of the ball on a later shot, an attempt by Auburn guard Gerald White, but he didn’t have the same control on that one. The ball bounced around under the basket until Auburn’s Morris was called for a foul, and Herbert Crook, who had an outstanding game for Louisville (20 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists) made both shots on his one-and-one to stretch Louisville’s lead to seven.

Ellison added 10 rebounds for Louisville, which outrebounded Auburn, 35-25.

Auburn Coach Sonny Smith said he was not at all disappointed in his team’s showing. Auburn was outrebounded, he said, because Louisville was playing “above the square.”

“I told my team that we played about as well as we can,” Smith said. “I don’t think we made very many mental mistakes. We shot pretty well. We were just beaten by a great basketball team. Louisville is so balanced, offensively and defensively.”

Louisville, of the Metro Conference, has won 15 straight games and will go into the Final Four with a record of 30-7.

Auburn, of the Southeastern Conference, finished its season with a record of 22-11 but as the first Tiger team to come this far in the NCAA tournament.

Asked if he thought this basketball team would be remembered at Auburn, Person said: “We’ll be remembered until about the second week of spring football practice.”

West Regional Notes

Louisville center Pervis Ellison and forwards Herbert Crook and Billy Thompson made the all-tournament team, along with Brad Daugherty of North Carolina and Chuck Person of Auburn. Person was named MVP. Louisville Coach Denny Crum pointed out: “We had Pervis, Billy and Herb on the all-tournament team. That’s our whole front line.” . . . This is Crum’s third season of 30-plus victories at Louisville . . . Crum said that Ellison, who had two key blocks, has had difficulty reaching up to block shots lately because of a pulled abdominal muscle.