So what are two guys from the Northeast doing in Knoxville, Tenn., and Louisville, Ky.? Winning basketball games, lots of basketball games.

Tonight in the second East Regional semifinal at Charlotte Bobcats Arena, Bruce Pearl from Boston and Rick Pitino from New York will try to get Tennessee and Louisville a step from the Final Four.

Pitino has been this way and beyond, way beyond. Pearl has been here twice. And no further.

Historically, Louisville has been a regular in this spot. This is as far as Tennessee has ever gotten, at least Tennessee teams not coached by Pat Summitt.

The coaches are risk-takers in a sport where the vast majority of their brethren don't want to be second-guessed.

Pearl, for instance, did not like his team's point-guard play so he changed personnel last Sunday in the second-round game against Butler.

Out went Jordan Howell. In came J.P. Prince.

It wasn't that Howell wasn't competent. He was. Pearl just decided competence was not enough.

"I didn't think good point-guard play was going to get us to win a national championship or help us advance, so I made the adjustment to put my best players on the floor," Pearl said. "Is it difficult to do in late season? Yes. It's most difficult to do at that position because that's your quarterback. But I'm convinced if we don't make those adjustments we're not here today."

Pitino's best teams have been pressing teams. This Louisville team does not come in big waves like 1996 Kentucky, but it does come hard.

When two of his team's key players were injured early in the season, Pitino never wavered. He knew what his team could be.

"Well, [things are] never quite as bad or bleak as everybody makes it out to be," Pitino said. "We were never in a situation that Tom Coughlin was in when the New York Daily News thought he should be replaced. I'm a Giants fan, so I look back on how that turned around."

Both teams will press, but Tennessee is not really all in with it.

"Our press is more of an annoyance," Pearl said.

Louisville's is more than that, but the Vols' JaJuan Smith does not seem concerned.

"We're going to attack and break it," he said. "We're going to get the ball down the court and make shots, make them pay for trying to press us."

Louisville's halfcourt defense is even better than its pressure and Pearl knows it. Louisville has looked like the stronger team so far in the tournament. Pearl knows that, too.

"I don't want a track meet because I think we've got no chance to win a track meet," Pearl said.

But they do have a chance to win the game. Louisville probably has a better chance. *