Daily Madden: Louisville's Emotional Final Four Victory
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - Louisville rallied from a 12-point deficit to beat Michigan in the NCAA championship game Monday night for the Cardinals' third national title and their coach's second at two schools. "They do play hard," John Madden told the KCBS Radio morning crew. "Those were two physical teams that play both ends of the court and go after each other."
Madden's favorite player was Louisville's Peyton Siva. "I'd like to coach him. I wish that he would have been a football player around the time I was coaching.
"Even there at the end when he got fouled at the other end of the court (and) he ran down to the foul line, you knew that he just couldn't wait to get up to the foul line and make those free throws to ice the game," said Madden.
"And then when he said that he even babysits (Louisville coach Rick) Pitino's grand kids, I thought man that guy is the real deal."
Pitino joined former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian and five others elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame Monday. "(Tarkanian) was one of those guys that could coach anything and was interested in all sports," Madden said. "He was everyone's friend.
"He's one of those guys who'd go into a room and light up the room, and it just seemed like everyone in the room knew him."
Also elected to the Hall of Fame was former Skyline High guard Gary Payton, who Madden said "made it cool to be a defensive player."
Daily Madden
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