University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino says this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament is "wide open," with no dominant team in the field.Pitino says it's an honor that the Cards are the overall top seed in the tournament, but that won't make the path to the Final Four any easier.He says his players will continue the work habits that got them to this point."We had a plan from the beginning, we stuck to it, we didn't deviate from it and it's helpedus immensely. There was never any overconfidence in the fact where we were ranked early in the season, and there was never any panic when we had some bad games. There was just 'give credit to your opponent' and move on," Pitino said Monday.Louisville will play either Morehead State or Alabama State Friday in Dayton, Ohio. Tipoff is 7:10pm. The Morehead State/Alabama State play-in game begins at 7:30pm Tuesday in Dayton.Western Kentucky opens N-C-A-A Tournament play Thursday afternoon in Portland, Oregonagainst Illinois.Meanwhile, the Kentucky Wildcats take on U-N-L-V tomorrow (Tuesday) night in Lexington in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament. Tipoff is 9:30pm at Memorial Coliseum.In the women's NCAA tournament, the third-seeded University of Louisville will open play Sunday against number 14 seed Liberty in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Rick Howlett was midday host and the host of LPM's weekly talk show, "In Conversation." He was with LPM from 2001-2023 and held many different titles, including Morning Edition host, Assignment Editor and Interim News Director. He died in August 2023. Read a remembrance of Rick here.