updated 5:47 p.m. ET March 27, 2005

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The master motivator himself, Louisville coach Rick Pitino, admitted he was lying when he told his players at halftime he was sure they were going to beat West Virginia.

That’s because Louisville’s trip to the Final Four looked like a lost cause thanks to the Mountaineers’ hotshot shooters.

Almost every road to a championship takes at least one unexpected twist, though, and none was more astonishing than the second-half rally the Cardinals staged Saturday to earn a 93-85 overtime win and a trip to college basketball’s biggest stage.

“I’ve never seen anything like it in my life,” Pitino said.

Slide show   March 27 See images from the wins by Michigan State and North Carolina on Day 8 of the NCAA Tournament.

Cramping, limping, barely able to run, Larry O’Bannon scored 24 points and Taquan Dean had 23 to lead fourth-seeded Louisville (33-4) back from a 20-point deficit to the scintillating victory in the Albuquerque Regional final.

Seventh-seeded West Virginia (24-11), trying to make the Final Four for the first time since 1959, went home despite making 10 3-pointers in the first half and sending Pitino and the Cardinals into shock.

“I’ve never abandoned a whole scouting report at halftime,” he said. “But it had to be abandoned.”

Pitino instructed his players to scrap their zone defense, start trapping and pressing, and play more aggressively on offense. They followed his directions and, in doing so, they helped him make history — becoming the first coach to take three men’s programs to the Final Four.

First it was Providence, then Kentucky three times, and now this. The Cardinals will play Illinois next Saturday in St. Louis.

“Certainly, having been to three different schools, I have nothing but respect for him because I know how difficult it is,” said Vivian Stringer, who did it on the women’s side, with Cheyney, Iowa and Rutgers.

Louisville had every reason to pack it in after the Mountaineers took a 38-18 lead.

And it wasn’t just that coach John Beilein’s team made 11 of its first 16 field-goal attempts, or that it shot 10-for-14 from 3-point range in the first half, or that it made a total of 18 from long range, second to only the 1990 Loyola Marymount team in the history of the tournament.

It was also the way some of the shots fell.

Beilein’s son, Patrick, banked one in from an awkward angle in front of the Louisville bench. He made another from the ‘B’ in the New Mexico “Lobos” logo set about 30 feet from the basket.

“They were falling out of bounds, shooting from half-court and banking them in,” Pitino said. “You’ve got to give them all the credit in the world.”

Pitino spent much of the first half in an unfamiliar pose — sitting on the bench, watching shot after shot fall and hoping that when the wave ended, his team would still have a chance.

Turns out, the Cardinals did.

“That’s the beauty of this game — expect the unexpected,” John Beilein said.

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