It is no secret that neither the Louisville Cardinals (4) nor the Manhattan Jaspers (13) are happy about their first round matchup, but it was Rick Pitino who spoke loudest.

Pitino said in pre-game comments that he could not wrap his head around why the NCAA Selection Committee put his team against the team led by his former assistant. Manhattan coach Steve Masiello was not thrilled with the pairing either.

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"I think the pairings sometimes lack common sense," Pitino said, according to the Associated Press. "I don't think they would put somewhere down the road Duke-North Carolina so... the matchups don't make sense to me. I'm OK with the seedings. I'm not OK with the matchups.

"But the selection committee is very fair, very honorable, very honest people, so I can't protest too much because they're doing the best job that they can do. Maybe they're a bunch of soccer ADs, I don't know."

Masiello was the ballboy for the New York Knicks when Pitino coach there, played for Pitino at Kentucky and spent 2005 to 2011 as Pitino's assistant at Louisville.

"To see them come up and then see us come up against them, it takes a little fun out of it," Masiello said, according to the AP. "It's just, that's not fun for me going against someone that I have to now try to beat, and almost in my mind, think negatively about. It's hard for me to do that."

As Pitino pointed out, Masiello structured his team with Pitino's Cardinals in mind. Both coaches know each other extremely well and the game could very well boil down to a battle of wits in the final minutes.

Pitino was almost definitely among many who though a four-seed was too low for Louisville, a team several experts predicted would make the National Championship game. However, this matchup could be setting them up for an early exit. Still Louisville is favored in the game, even over the confident Jaspers.