By now, if you didn’t watch the game last night, you’ve all
seen the highlights of the epic five-overtime thriller between Notre Dame and
Louisville. We all know that Jerian
Grant scored 12 points in the final 45 seconds, that Garrick Sherman scored 17
points without getting a minute of playing time in regulation, and that
Louisville just couldn’t close. But let’s
take a look at the final moments of regulation and each of the overtimes,
because Russ Smith may have broken a record for most game-winners missed in a
single game. Seriously. If such a record existed, it was surely
broken last night.
End of Regulation:
Peyton Siva dribbles to the top of the key, looks to have a wide
open jumper if he wants to take it, but decides to dump it down to Gorgui Dieng in the
low-post with three guys around him, and can’t handle it. No shot is attempted.
End of 1st
Overtime:
Russ Smith slowly dribbles the ball up the court, comes to a
complete stop at half court with roughly five seconds remaining, and Russ,
seemingly unaware that the clock is running, is forced to jack a 3 from about 10
feet beyond the 3-point line, and it clanks off the glass and rims out.
End of 2nd
Overtime:
This time Russ Smith slowly dribbles past half court, but
has enough time so that he can attempt a drive.
He opts to go left and his erratic, running extended layup from high off
the glass doesn’t even hit the rim. Chane
Behanan gets a chance with the put back, but it was highly contested and
rushed, and also didn’t get any rim.
End of 3rd
Overtime:
Louisville is forced to go the length of the court after inbounding
it from under their own basket in less than four seconds. Obviously they inbound to Russ, he runs and
dribbles as fast as he can, and he attempts a running jumper from approximately
the 3-point line. The attempt didn’t go
and it wouldn’t have mattered because the ball was still in his hand when the
buzzer sounded.
End of 4th
Overtime:
The Cardinals once again have to go the length of the court
upon inbounding it from the opposite end, but this time they have just over six
seconds to work with. Again they inbound
the ball to Smith, he scampers down the floor only to have it knocked away at
the 3-point line, but he is able to regain control just in time to jack a
fade-away five feet beyond the arc that ends up being an airball.
End of 5th
Overtime:
This time the circumstances are different. Instead of the game being tied like the
previous instances, Louisville is now down three with under 10 seconds to
play. But like the four previous
overtime periods the ball was in Russ Smith’s hands last. On this occasion he dribbles to the top left
of the arc, sets himself right in front of Coach Pitino (hoping for him to will
it in I presume), but the deep three clanks off the iron. The Irish win.
Summary:
The Louisville Cardinals had the final shot at the end of
regulation and every overtime period, opted to not use an available timeout in
every instance, didn’t get a shot off once, and Russ Smith had the ball in his
hands for the final possession in all five overtimes and didn’t make a single
shot. I have a feeling that not only
will the Cards use a timeout in these situations in the future, but they will
be dedicating large portions of their practice sessions to these situations
over the next month. And maybe next time
they will actually have some sort of set play to run rather than it just being
a chaotic Russdiculous situation.
Twitter: @soupTOOnuts
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