For Louisville, the world revolves around Russ Smith. He is the point guard, sure, that is part of the job description, and on a pressing team that makes things all the more important as the main defender on the opponent’s primary ballhandler.
Rick Pitino clearly puts a lot and expects a lot from his senior point guard and leader. There was that tinge of disappointment with his play in the second and third rounds in Orlando despite the Cardinals’ wins.
Smith scored 29 points in the two games (14.5 points per game) and dished out 10 total assists, including seven against Saint Louis. He shot just 6 for 19 with three made shots in each game. It was not a pretty offensive weekend. But Smith made the shots when they mattered. His 3-pointer with 3:23 left in the game against Manhattan in the second round tied things up. He assisted on Luke Hancock’s game-clinching 3-pointer that gave the Cardinals a six-point lead.
The same happened against Saint Louis with Smith struggling to find efficiency before he stepped in at the end of the game and made the plays his team needed. He had nine points an three assists in the final 14 minutes of the Cardinals’ third round win over the Billikens.
That has been a common theme for this Louisville team in their seemingly surprise hunt for a repeat.
“Russ Smith has grown so much as a basketball player, but he still has one thing left, and I tried to explain this to him at halftime [against Saint Louis], but he has a very difficult time — he’s a distracted young man — understanding this,” Rick Pitino said. “All the great ones from Michael Jordan to Kobe, they don’t try to score 20 points in the first quarter. They get everybody else the ball and they let the game come to me and the other team fatigues and things open up. So his last lesson is to play like he did in the second half and not come out.”
Yes, Smith still tends to force things for Louisville and that gets him in trouble. He had a solid year overall, averaging 18.1 points per game and 4.7 assists per game in his first year without Peyton Siva next to him. Smith had the full point guard duties this year and the Cardinals had their struggles before they rounded into form this year.
The pressure on Smith to perform seems to be the greatest of about any player remaining in this Tournament.
He is undeniably a fine player. As he did in the first weekend, Smith rose up even in situations where he had been struggling. Despite being the focus of every game plan, even if he does not realize it, Smith has performed. Louisville goes as far as Smith takes them.
“He’s one of the more special young men I’ve had a chance to know in my life,” said Manhattan coach Steve Masiello, who recruited Smith to Louisville and was nearly a landing spot for Smith after he considered transferring in 2011. “To see Russ, forget basketball, to see him grow and mature the way he has in the last 10 years is remarkable, and he’s made himself from a kid who was just kind of this funny comedian New York City kid to someone who really understands what life is about and really is one of the more selfless people I’ve ever been around, and he cares so much about other people and making them happy and pleasing them and bringing positivity to people’s life, he has such an impact on so many people, he doesn’t even know it.”
Maybe that is the big criticism of Smith. He is a bit too loose on the floor and off the floor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRFZoH_DEuM
He admitted that he still had to learn to watch film and learn how to make his teammates successful. Like so many New York point guards, he had to learn how to get his teammates involved as a point guard rather than hunting for his own stats. He also had to work on his 3-point shooting. In his career, he shot 32.4 percent from beyond the arc. This year, he was at 39.7 percent.
Smith really put things together this year.
Now that the pressure has ramped up, and everyone is focusing on him. The ball is in his hands time and time again and his team is relying on him to deliver.
“What Russ has to understand, and it’s what makes him great but it also makes him have some bad night, and he found out in the last few minutes [of the second round], Russ is most dangerous as a passer than he is a scorer, even though he’s a great scorer because everybody keys so much on him,” Pitino said. “They know they’ve got to stop him, and he’s going to draw two or three people, so what does that mean. People are going to be open. And that’s where h’s at his best, when he finds people when he draws double teams.”
That is not easy for any young player to learn. Smith might be a senior but he is still learning the finer points of running a team. That is something that might have to come at the next level.
At this level, in the here and now, Smith is the center of attention and the key to Louisville making a return trip to the Final Four.
