University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Music City is the Cajuns Destination For an Assignment With Louisville in the NCAA Tournament
3/13/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Music City is
the Cajuns Destination For an Assignment With Louisville in
the NCAA Tournament
Louisiana-Lafayette is
the No. 13 seed in the 2005 Albuquerque Regional
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Louisiana-Lafayette
(20-10), the 2005 Sun Belt Conference tournament champion
and automatic qualifier, will face the Louisville Cardinals
on Friday, March 18 in the first round of the NCAA Division
I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Gaylord Entertainment
Center in Nashville, Tenn., hosted by the Ohio Valley
Conference.
Louisiana-Lafayette was awarded the No. 13 seed in the Albuquerque Region of the tournament after winning the Sun Belt Conference men's basketball championship over Denver, 88-69, on March 8 in Denton, Texas. The Cajuns enter the NCAA Tournament on a three-game winning streak and have won 14 of their last 18 overall.
Louisville (29-4) is the No. 4 seed in the Albuquerque Region, and was an automatic qualifier into the tournament after claiming the championship of the Conference USA Tournament. The Cardinals, coached by Rick Pitino, won the C-USA regular season championship with a 14-2 league record and will enter the tournament on a nine-game winning streak.
The Ragin' Cajuns are making their ninth (9th) NCAA Tournament appearance in school history, first under head coach Robert Lee and fifth since the field was expanded to 64 in 1985.
This is Louisiana-Lafayette's second straight appearance in as many years – the first back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Tournament since the 1981-82/1982-83 seasons.
Louisiana-Lafayette is 4-9 all-time in seven previous appearances. The Cajuns last tournament win came during the 1992 event when the 13th-seeded Cajuns of then-USL downed fourth-seeded Oklahoma 87-83 on March 20, 1992 in Tempe, Ariz.
Louisville leads the all-time series 6-0 and owns an 88-84 win over the Ragin' Cajuns in the second round of the 1972 NCAA Tournament in Ames, Iowa. The Cardinals posted a 104-77 victory on Feb. 20, 1991 at Freedom Hall the last time these two schools met.
Louisiana-Lafayette is attempting to become the first Sun Belt school since Western Kentucky in 1995 to win an NCAA Tournament game.
The tip-off time as well as television coverage will be announced Monday.
-Ragin' Cajuns-
