Big East Tournament 2012: Louisville Needs Dominant Performance vs. Cincinnati

We have been waiting for Louisville to show what it can do when it plays up to its potential. Leave it to the Cardinals to save their best basketball for the Big East tournament, but their journey is far from over. 

It all comes to a head on Saturday night, when the Cardinals take on the Cincinnati Bearcats to determine who will earn the Big East's automatic bid for the NCAA tournament. 

Louisville ended the regular season on a down note. Not only did this team lose two straight to close out the year, but it went just 2-4 with the worst one being a devastating loss to the bubble-sitting South Florida team. 

One of the losses in that stretch came to Cincinnati. It was a four-point defeat on the road, so it's not like the Cardinals failed to show up. 

That game was a microcosm of the season for Louisville. This team is loaded with talent, well coached by Rick Pitino and has all the ingredients you are looking for when compiling a potential Elite 8 or Final Four team. 

Kyle Kuric was an emerging star after his junior season, and he did lead the team in scoring this year, but he couldn't find his shot on a consistent basis. His struggles led to everyone else on the team failing to make shots with regularity. They finished 215th in shooting percentage this season, which is unacceptable for a team as talented as this one. 

Yet here they are, with a chance to walk out of Madison Square Garden with a Big East championship. They have started to gel on offense, particularly their last game against Notre Dame when they shot 56 percent from the field. 

More impressive than that has been the defense, which has allowed just 59 points per game in its first three Big East tournament games. 

But we know that they are capable of putting together performances like this, we just need to see them keep it up for long stretches at a time. Three games is great, but the fourth one will tell us what we need to know. 

Louisville can't afford a letdown heading into this championship game. This is the moment the Cardinals have been waiting for all season, they just have to take advantage of it. 

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