Kentucky (36-2) vs. Louisville (30-9)
Time: 6:09 p.m.
Seeds: Kentucky, No. 1 in South; Louisville, No. 4 in West
Coaches: John Calipari (100-14 in three seasons at Kentucky; 503-152 overall) vs. Rick Pitino (275-105 in 11 seasons at Louisville; 627-229 overall)
History: Kentucky's 15th Final Four (NCAA titles in 1948, 1949, 1951, 1958, 1978, 1996, 1998); Louisville's ninth Final Four (NCAA titles in 1980, 1986).
Past meeting: Kentucky 69, Louisville 62 in Lexington, Ky., on Dec. 11
How they got here: Kentucky — defeated No. 16-seed Western Kentucky 81-66, No. 8-seed Iowa State 87-71, No. 4-seed Indiana 102-90, and No. 3-seed Baylor 82-70; Louisville — defeated No. 13-seed Davidson 69-62, No. 5-seed New Mexico 59-56, No. 1-seed Michigan State 57-44, and No. 7-seed Florida 72-68.
Who's hot: Kentucky — forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist averaged 21.5 points and 7.5 rebounds in wins over Indiana and Baylor. Louisville — forward Chane Behanan averaged 16 points and eight rebounds in wins over Michigan State and Florida,
Players to watch: (backcourt) Kentucky guard Marquis Teague (averaging 5.3 assists in tourney), Louisville guard Peyton Siva (17 assists past two games); (frontcourt) Kentucky center Anthony Davis (only freshman besides Kevin Durant to win AP player of the year), Louisville forward Behanan (double-digit points in each of four tournament games); (X-factor) Kentucky forward Terrence Jones (12 points, six assists, three blocks vs. Baylor), Louisville guard Russ Smith (19 points in 22 minutes off bench vs. Florida).
Storylines: This is the first meeting for these in-state rivals in a Final Four. They've played four times in the NCAA tournament, each winning two, but not since the 1984 regional semifinals and never with former Kentucky coach Pitino coaching the Cardinals. This is the first time in-state rivals will meet in the Final Four since Cincinnati beat Ohio State in the 1962 national final.
CBS analyst Clark Kellogg’s breakdown
On Kentucky: "It's not very complicated. They are talented and they are versatile and they are unselfish and they play hard and they don't have a glaring weakness. ... I just don't see a team that can outdo them, in transition points or in shot-making, or in making plays at the rim defensively. It's going to take a high-level performance, very few mistakes, shot-making at a high level and then being able to defend without fouling and rebounding your defensive glass. Now that's a lot to do."
On Louisville: "In the first meeting which I called back in late December, Louisville was able to turn Kentucky over, but Marquis Teague has improved dramatically since then, as has the Kentucky team. So I don't know if they can really speed Kentucky up and turn them over, but that would be one tack to take because of how Louisville can pressure you, maybe to try to get Kentucky going too fast."
By the numbers
3 Number of Final Fours Kentucky played in with Pitino as its head coach (1993, 1996, 1997)
8 Consecutive games won by Louisville, including four in four days in the Big East tournament
