Lexington, Ky. – From 0-16 to Sweet 16.
In three years, Texas A&M completed a U-turn so fast it would be illegal on any road in rural Texas. The Aggies made it official Saturday as they weathered a huge Louisville crowd behind All-American Acie Law IV’s 26 points to beat the Cardinals, 72-69, in the second round of the South Regional.
It isn’t a coincidence Billy Gillispie is in his third year at College Station. He has taken a team that went 0-16 in the Big 12 Conference the season before he arrived and lifted them to the regional semifinals for the first time since 1980, when Gillispie was 20.
“It means a lot to me,” said Law, a freshman on that zip- for-16 2004 team. “It’s an amazing feeling. I really don’t have any words to describe it. But it’s huge, huge for this program.”
Besides Gillispie, Law also has been huge, huge for the program. Here was the difference: Texas A&M’s star was a senior, and Louisville’s was a freshman. Despite scoring a game-high 31 points, Louisville freshman Edgar Sosa had one of those nightmarish finishes that may haunt him until he has Law’s kind of success.
In the last three minutes, Sosa threw a pass out of bounds down by one, missed his first two free throws down one and then inexplicably took a 25-foot jumper in the closing seconds down one.
New York City’s player of the year from Rice High School in the Bronx last year, Sosa scored a career high, but even Law’s words of praise and encouragement afterward couldn’t ease the pain.
“We had three or four options,” Louisville coach Rick Pitino said of the last shot. “The first was Jerry Smith coming off the double (team), and if he wasn’t open to curl. Then we wanted to get (Juan) Palacios on the wing, which was wide open. And the third option was drive to the basket and try to get the foul.”
Not one option included Sosa pulling up from 25 feet and letting fly. He can’t burden all blame, however. Sixth-seeded Louisville (24-10) was only 5-of-18 from 3-point range while No. 3-seed Texas A&M (27-6) was 5-for-8.
“I’m not disappointed with Sosa that he did that,” Pitino said. “Freshmen can make mistakes, and he had an unbelievable game. I was disappointed down the stretch we left some shooters (open).”
Dominique Kirk and Law stepped up. Down 63-57 with six minutes left, Kirk quieted the deafening crowd with a 3-pointer. Then Law took control and began driving inside with Louisville missing center David Padgett and forward Derrick Caracter because of foul trouble.
Law hit six of his 15 free throws in the last 3:45, two of which gave A&M a 70-69 lead with 57.6 seconds left. While Sosa bricked his two foul shots, so did A&M’s Joseph Jones, an 81 percent foul shooter, with 29.8 seconds left, setting up the dramatic finish.
“I thought they’d run a ball screen and get in the paint to draw a foul,” Gillispie said. “It’s ironic. It was the same play LSU ran last year (in A&M’s 58-57 second-round loss). One went in; one didn’t. I guess it evened out.”
The Aggies meet today’s Nevada-Memphis winner Thursday in San Antonio.
