Loss to Louisville Puts Seton Hall on the Bubble Louisville dialed up its defensive intensity in the second half Wednesday night and earned a gritty 61-55 win over Seton Hall in the second round of the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden. Now, Seton Hall will spend the next few days sweating out its N.C.A.A. tournament fate. The seventh-seeded Cardinals withstood a late Pirates run and showed why they are among the nation's toughest defensive teams. Louisville - ranked fifth in the nation in field-goal defense (37.9) and seventh in steals per game (9.2) - held the Pirates to 32.7 percent shooting. Cardinals guard Peyton Siva had 14 points and 6 steals, and center Gorgui Dieng had 6 points, 10 rebounds and 6 blocks. Louisville (23-9) will play second-seeded Marquette at 7 p.m. Thursday. Seton Hall (20-12) did not score a fast-break point all game. The first half featured eight lead changes, and similar statistical lines. Both teams shot poorly, rebounded well and played excellent transition defense. Louisville created some separation with a 16-4 run to start the second half. Against Seton Hall's 2-3 zone, the Cardinals" guards found success getting into the lane and flipping in teardrop shots. It would have been fitting for Seton Hall Coach Kevin Willard to secure his first N.C.A.A. tournament appearance by beating the man who gave him his coaching start. Willard worked for 10 years as Louisville Coach Rick Pitino's assistant, first with the Boston Celtics and then Louisville until 2007. Willard has faced Pitino twice before, but more was on the line Wednesday night. A victory would have most likely ensured an N.C.A.A. tournament berth for the Pirates. Before the game, Jerry Palm, a bracket analyst for CBSSports.com, said: "They're in trouble if they lose tonight. They might get in, they might not, and it's going to depend on what some other teams do. Willard knows that coaching under Pitino can be trying. Threats of dismissal were frequent. Manhattan Coach Steve Masiello, who worked as a Louisville assistant with Willard for two seasons, joked that he spent many nights in Willard's office browsing help-wanted ads in anticipation of an imminent firing. "Kevin got it the worst," Masiello said in a telephone interview. He had the most pressure on him. But it made him a great basketball coach. I think the reason for his success today is because of what he went through with Coach at Louisville. Neither Willard nor Masiello was ever fired. The warnings were just Pitino's means of motivating, spawning a tree of hardened coaches that includes Florida's Billy Donovan, Cincinnati's Mick Cronin and Arizona State's Herb Sendek. Willard might have to wait to add the N.C.A.A. tournament to his résumé. Pitino was not going to give him anything too easily. TEMPLE TO ARRIVE For the past six months, conference expansion has turned the Big East into a rush-hour highway, with programs entering and exiting quickly and maddeningly. On Wednesday, the Big East announced that it would add Temple, which it hopes will put a temporary end to the league's seemingly relentless turnover. Temple will play football in the conference next season and in all other sports beginning in 2013. "This is a landmark day for Temple," said the Owls" football coach, Steve Addazio. Counting all the additions and subtractions, the Big East will be a 13-team league in football and an 18-team league in basketball. Perhaps most important for the Big East is where it has landed in the big picture in football. For months, the conference heard doomsday speculation that it would be left behind in the Bowl Championship Series after the departure of Pittsburgh, Syracuse and West Virginia. With the new format for a college football playoff unlikely to have a so-called automatic qualification element, the Big East appears in reasonable position for the future. "We feel very confident with what we've assembled that it will be very hard to exclude us from whatever system is in place," said Nick Carparelli Jr., the Big East's associate commissioner for football. Commissioner John Marinatto said that the Big East planned to "pause on the expansion front" and that he hoped to sit down with Syracuse and Pittsburgh officials in the near future about negotiating to let them out of the Big East after next season.