With Marquette bowing out late on Thursday night and Michigan State having done so earlier in the evening, the West Region is all about Louisville’s Rick Pitino and Florida’s Billy Donovan — if it wasn’t already. The storytelling about the potential mentor/mentee, player/coach matchup in the Elite Eight began on Wednesday, in the first press conferences when the teams arrived in Phoenix. Pitino told the tale of when the two met: Just after he’d taken the Providence job in 1985, Donovan "waddled" into his office, a fat (by basketball standards) guard looking for permission to transfer, hopefully to Northeastern or Fairfield. "He left the meeting," Pitino said, "and I said a Hail Mary and thanked God he was leaving. Because he averaged four minutes a game as a freshman and sophomore."

There was a problem: Northeastern and Fairfield didn’t think Donovan was good enough for them, either. Pitino didn’t want to hurt the kid’s feelings, so he made him an offer. If he could lose 30 pounds and get into all-out pressing shape by the fall, he’d have a shot at the back end of Providence’s rotation. Donovan did it, was the Friars’ third guard in 1985-86, then blossomed into an All-America in ’86-87, making what Pitino called the greatest improvement he’d ever seen out of a player in 35 years of coaching. Pitino went to the extent of putting Donovan on the cover of a Providence program in a cowboy hat, spurs and boots, and despite his protests, the Billy The Kid nickname was born. "That," Pitino said, "was the start of his college legend."