Richard Pitino Beats Dad Rick's Former Team as Minnesota Upsets Louisville

The 10th-seeded Minnesota Golden Gophers defeated the No. 7 Louisville Cardinals 86-76 in the opening game of the first round of the 2019 NCAA tournament at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday. 

With the win, Minnesota will move on to face either No. 2 Michigan State or No. 15 Bradley in the second round:

In addition to a spot in the Round of 32 being on the line, Thursday's game was significant for the fact that Minnesota head coach Richard Pitino previously served as an assistant coach at Louisville under his father, Basketball Hall of Famer Rick Pitino.

Rick Pitino led Louisville to the Final Four on three occasions, as well as a national title in 2013, although one of the Final Four appearances and the championship were vacated due to a recruiting scandal. Pitino was ousted as Louisville's head coach in 2017 due to a separate recruiting scandal, and he is currently the head coach of Panathinaikos B.C. in Greece.

The Louisville link could have created distractions for Richard Pitino and his team, but the Gophers came through with a huge effort that included one of their best three-point shooting performances of the season with 11 makes on 27 attempts.

Gabe Kalscheur was the go-to guy for Minnesota with 24 points and eight rebounds, while Amir Coffey added 18 points and six rebounds and Jordan Murphy contributed 18 points and six rebounds as well.

On the CBS broadcast, it was revealed that Minnesota became the first team to win a first-round game in the NCAA tournament without the benefit of any bench points since Norfolk State in 2012.

Kalscheur was on fire from beyond the arc throughout the game with five makes from deep despite Minnesota entering the game averaging five made three-pointers per game as a team this season:

Gabe Kalscheur from DEEP

Louisville was buoyed by Christen Cunningham's 22 points and 10 points and 11 rebounds from leading scorer Jordan Nwora.

Nwora, in particular, may some highlight-reel-worthy plays, but he and Cunningham simply didn't receive enough support from the rest of the Louisville lineup:

Jordan Nwora with the Jam

Jordan Nwora Hits from Way Downtown

Louisville cut the deficit to two late in the first half, but a Coffey three-pointer with six seconds left before halftime gave the Gophers all the momentum entering the locker room.

Minnesota carried that into the second half with a 15-7 run to start that ballooned the lead to 13, which the Cardinals were never able to overcome.

The win marked Minnesota's first in the NCAA tournament since 2013 and only its second since going to the Final Four in 1997. As for the Cardinals, it was their first exit in the NCAA tournament's first round since 2011.

Tough Draw Will Prevent Sweet 16 Run for Gophers

Minnesota turned in a thoroughly impressive performance in the first round against Louisville on Thursday, but the bracket is not setting up for the Gophers to go on a deep run.

If chalk prevails in the No. 2 vs. No. 15 game in the East Region, Minnesota is in line to face Michigan State in the second round. In the only meeting between Minnesota and MSU this season, the Spartans rolled to a 79-55 win in East Lansing.

Minnesota went 9-11 in Big Ten play and only finished seventh in the conference, but the fact that the Golden Gophers were battle-tested likely helped them against Louisville, as pointed out by ESPN's Mike Greenberg:

The problem with that is Michigan State went through the same battle, and it fared much better, as the Spartans went 16-4 in league play and won both the Big Ten regular-season and conference tournament titles.

When Michigan State and Minnesota played earlier this season, the Spartans dominated in all areas. They shot 51.7 percent from the field and held Minnesota to just 36.7 percent shooting and five three-pointers made.

The five treys were in line with what the Gophers have done for much of this season, but they bucked the trend Thursday with 11 trifectas against Louisville.

Per ESPN's Jay Bilas, hitting double-digit threes has been a rare occurrence for the Golden Gophers in 2018-19:

According to ESPN Stats & Info, Minnesota had never before made that many threes in an NCAA tournament game either:

Several factors point toward the notion that Minnesota's shooting performance against Louisville is not sustainable moving forward, and a big reason for that is the defensive excellence of Tom Izzo's Spartans should they take care of Bradley as expected.

Crazy things happen in March sometimes and teams manage to play beyond their means, but the numbers show that Minnesota isn't a great outside shooting team.

The shots went down against Louisville, but if Minnesota isn't as efficient against MSU—which it likely won't be—it is tough to envision the Gophers reaching the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1997.

Louisville's Future is Bright Under Chris Mack

The Cardinals' season ended in disappointment Thursday after they struggled mightily on defense against Minnesota, but there is reason for optimism entering 2019-20.

Of Louisville's eight leading scorers, only Cunningham is guaranteed to leave as a senior. Replacing him won't be easy, but the experience the Cardinals are poised to bring back could go a long way toward helping them succeed in the ACC and the NCAA tournament next season.

The wild card is Nwora, who could potentially enter the NBA draft after a big sophomore campaign that saw him average 17.2 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. Since there is likely to be a lot of competition near the top of the 2019 draft with Duke's Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett, Murray State's Ja Morant and Gonzaga's Rui Hachimura, going back to school for one more year may be the smartest move for Nwora.

If the Cardinals take a step forward next season and Nwora spearheads an even better team, he has lottery-pick potential in 2020, which may not be the case this year.

Louisville also has a quality head coach in Chris Mack, who boasts a wealth of NCAA tournament experience. In 10 seasons as a college head coach (nine at Xavier), Mack has missed the NCAA tourney only once.

He enjoyed a great deal of success with veteran-laden teams at Xavier, and Louisville will be precisely that next season. 

Dwayne Sutton, Steven Enoch, Ryan McMahon and V.J. King will all be seniors next season if they return, while Nwora, Malik Williams and Darius Perry will be juniors. There may be no team in the ACC with more experience than that.

Losing in the first round of the NCAA tournament is always a disappointment, but now that the Cardinals have a taste of how it feels, they should be better prepared to get back to the tourney and make a run next season.

What's Next?

Minnesota will move on to face either the No. 2 Michigan State Spartans or the No. 15 Bradley Braves in the second round of the tournament. MSU would provide a major challenge, while Bradley could give Minnesota an ideal path to the Sweet 16 if it can pull off a huge upset against the Spartans.

Meanwhile, Louisville will head into the offseason and prepare for what could be a more fruitful 2019-20 campaign.