Final Four 2012: Louisville Must Rely on Stingy Defense to Stop Kentucky

The Louisville Cardinals must play flawless defense if they plan on beating the Kentucky Wildcats in the 2012 NCAA tournament's Final Four.

There is no room for error against this Wildcats team, so when I say flawless, I mean flawless. Kentucky may be one of the best teams we have seen come through the NCAA tournament in a very long time.

It's only experienced loss two times this season, and one of those came on a buzzer-beater against Indiana. The other was a loss to Vanderbilt in the SEC championship game.

Other than those two hiccups, this team has been as good as you can get.

The Wildcats have answered just about any flaw you could find. One big question coming into March Madness was their lack of experience, with their starting lineup consisting of all freshmen and sophomores.

So far they haven't run into any snags in the experience department, easily disposing of Western Kentucky, Iowa State, Indiana and now Baylor on their way to the Final Four.

The other big concern about the Wildcats was the depth of their three-man bench, but senior Darius Miller has come off the bench to produce mammoth performances enough to make up for 10 guys on the bench. They have the best big man in the tourney in freshman Anthony Davis and an excellent coach in John Calipari.

How will the modest No. 4-seeded Louisville Cardinals even be able to compete with this team, let alone win?

Head coach Rick Pitino needs to take the phrase "Defense wins championships" and tattoo it onto his forehead, just so his team doesn't forget.

Louisville isn't going to be able to match scoring with the Wildcats—the Cardinals score 68.8 points per game compared to Kentucky's 77.1—and they probably won't be able to outshoot them.

They're going to have to play incredible defense. It's as simple as that.

The one thing you have to love about Pitino's squad is that they take after him, naturally. They are scrappy, they never give up and they've got great heart.

They need to put it all on the line against this Kentucky team.

Every shot needs to be contested, and every rebound needs to be blocked out. Every loose ball needs to be pounced on, and every passing lane needs to have a hand in it.

The Cardinals can beat the Wildcats, but they have to take them out of their game to do so.

It's going to be tough, but if there's a team in this tournament that I wouldn't count out against Kentucky, it's the Louisville Cardinals.