Senior’s return gives Cardinals sweet look

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Terrence Williams stepped out in the hallway and cried.

David Padgett had just pulled aside the Louisville junior and told him that he had broken his knee cap and wouldn’t be able to play for a while.

Williams knew there were dark days ahead for the Cardinals.

The third-seeded Cardinals suffered through their toughest times of the season when Padgett missed seven weeks with the injury, but since his return in January, they’ve been one of the top teams in the country. They are playing their best basketball heading into tonight’s Sweet 16 matchup against second-seeded Tennessee at about 9 p.m. at Bobcats Arena.

“With him, it’s a lot easier because he’s our coach David,” Williams said. “He’s like our coach on the court. Good leaders are hard to come by, but aggressive leaders are really hard to come by. He’s an aggressive leader.”

Padgett, a 6-foot-11 senior, has played in 24 games this season and scored a team-high 11.4 points a game, connecting on a Big East record 68.3 percent of his shots in conference.

But those statistics alone don’t quantify his importance.

The Cardinals like to work the ball inside out in their half-court game through Padgett, and he draws a lot of attention from the defense. When he gets double-teamed inside, Padgett has a knack for finding the open man.

“The offense does run through him,” Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said. “He’s sort of the glue there to a lot of what they do offensively.”

The Cardinals were already missing 6-8 forward Juan Palacios when Padgett injured his knee in the second game of the season. At the time, the speculation was the senior had played his last game for the Cardinals, leading to Williams’ emotional response.

“You can drive some cars without a key,” Williams said. “But [Padgett is] the key to everything on our team. I knew it wasn’t going to work.”

The Cardinals lost three of their next six games, including a home loss to Dayton, causing some people to wonder if the Cardinals would make the NCAA Tournament.

With Padgett sidelined, the Cardinals were forced to give additional minutes to forwards Earl Clark and Derrick Caracter, who helped the Cardinals win their final four nonconference games, the last three of which Palacios played in.

And then, contrary to the early predictions, Padgett returned after missing only 10 games, coming back in time for the start of the Big East season.

It took some time for the Cardinals to find their rhythm, but a month after Padgett returned, they hit their stride, winning nine straight games.

“I think we all learned lessons about each other from having those injuries, and it probably made us a tougher team because of it,” Padgett said.

While the winning streak was snapped with back-to-back losses to Georgetown and Pittsburgh, the Cardinals head into the Sweet 16 on a roll, winning their first two NCAA Tournament games by an average of 24 points, including a 30-point dismantling of Oklahoma on Sunday.

“You never know how it’s going to turn out,” Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. “We were banged up, we didn’t know if David would be coming back. Then we came together in February and played well and came together at the right time.

“It’s never as bleak as people think.”