Visably upbeat? Visably upbeat?!!?

[mu_hilltopper]

Rosiak's blog has a lot on the game today ..  But the strangest comment was this:

Looking back: Crean, who was visibly upbeat following the game, not surprisingly tired of answering questions about Smith.

WTF?  I felt sick all night.  (no, not because of beer.)

The last word I said when I went to bed was "(deep breath)craaaaaaaaaap."  The first word I said when I woke up this morning was "(deep breath)craaaaaaaaap."

How Crean could be "visibly upbeat" is dumbfounding.


http://www.jsonline.com/blog/index.aspx?id=308&month=02&year=2007&entry=32274

Louisville wrapup

Former Madison West star Reece Gaines did it to the Marquette Golden Eagles on Feb. 15, 2003. The result? A 73-70 victory for the Louisville Cardinals.

Francisco Garcia did it exactly two years earlier on Feb. 17, 2005. The result? A 64-61 victory for Louisville.

On Saturday night it was former Wauwatosa East star Jerry Smith's turn to play the hero at the Bradley Center, as his 24-foot three-pointer at the buzzer propelled the Cardinals to a 61-59 victory over the reeling Golden Eagles.

Here's a closer look at the final play from both sides:

Smith on how he got the shot: "(Edgar) Sosa played a great game for us. He was able to dish the whole night, he drew the defender and kicked it to me, and I was wide open."

Smith on the shot itself: "I just had to look at the clock and make sure I had time to release it. There was about 1.5 left on the clock, I just let it go and it went in."

Smith on whether that was his first game-winner: "Ever in my life. I missed a couple, but that was the first one."

Smith on whether he knew the shot was good: "It felt good. As soon as he gave it to me and it left my hands, I said, 'That's going to go.'"

Smith on the ensuing celebration, which included him ripping his jersey off while running off Al McGuire Court and into a female spectator sitting courtside: "That was just excitement. I apologized already - I ran into a lady, I guess. Momentum was going. Sorry about that."

Louisville coach Rick Pitino: "We were going to roll Earl Clark to the basket and bring Will Scott high for a three. On the road, I play for a win. I always believe that because overtime you've got the crowd, you've got foul trouble. I'd much rather play for the win. That was a deep shot. What I've found throughout the years is you have to make one pass with five seconds. I know UCLA, Tyus Edney went all the way to the rim. What I've found is everybody runs after the ball and then what happens, when you make the one pass everybody's afraid to foul so generally you get a good look. The last thing you want to do is foul. But you have to make one pass. That's all I said to our guys - 'Go, penetrate, dish, but you have to make one pass.' Sosa took it all the way to the rim the time before, which was an excellent play."

MU coach Tom Crean: "They had no time outs, we assumed one of two things were going to happen: a dribble handoff off the wing or a high pick and roll, and we didn't switch it. And that's something we work on all the time. So that was a mistake. They made a tough shot. They made a bomb. The credit goes to them."

MU sophomore guard Dominic James: "They got the ball in. They didn't have a time out so we knew they were going to be trying to look for a quick shot. I tried to turn Sosa as many times as I could to waste as much time on the clock, and they ended up getting an open look. They were in the bonus so we didn't want to get a cheap foul with him bringing the ball up the court. It was a deep shot and he ended up knocking it down, and it was unfortunate for us."

MU sophomore guard Jerel McNeal on whether the Golden Eagles expected Smith to take the shot: "Coming into the game all of those guys had been playing well. It's the team concept; there wasn't really one guy coming into the game that we were focused on. They've got a group of good players so we knew whoever got the open look that they were going to try to put the shot up. He just happened to be the one that got the ball as time was running out."

Uphill battle: Just as it was three nights earlier at DePaul, MU spent much of the game Saturday playing from behind.

The Golden Eagles actually grabbed the lead with 7:05 left and held it until the waning seconds, but in the final analysis it was again a lack of defense that did them in.

They allowed the Blue Demons to shoot 53.3% in the first half on Wednesday; they allowed the Cardinals to shoot 54.5% in the first half on Saturday, and 53.3% for the game - a season high for an opponent.

"It's frustrating but it all came down to defensive stops," said McNeal. "We started opening up the zone, getting the looks that we wanted down the stretch and I think guys did a great job knocking down shots. But we were giving up too many easy baskets inside, too many open looks down the stretch. That's what the game came down to. If we were able to lock up a little longer, get a few more stops we'd be in here celebrating a win right now."

Final breakdowns: The play that set up Smith's game-winner was Sosa's driving layup, a play during which MU offered nothing but token resistance on the way to the basket.

It knotted the score at 58-58 with 11.5 seconds left and involved junior forward Dan Fitzgerald, who didn't switch over quickly enough to be able to stop Sosa's drive. Fitzgerald was also the defender on Smith during the game's final play.

"The play where Sosa got to the rim, we were supposed to switch on high pick-and-roll," Crean said.

He was later asked if Fitzgerald - who knocked down two big three-pointers in the second half - needs to continue to shoot for MU to have a chance to win.

We always want him to take shots. We want him to get the looks. He's got a lot of confidence and we'll be pushing him to shoot now because he's one devastated young man in there, like so many of the rest of them are right now. We've just got to turn right back around and get ready to go."

Looking back: Crean, who was visibly upbeat following the game, not surprisingly tired of answering questions about Smith.

One media member asked him if he could talk about Smith's poise, which drew this response:

"Not really. He's a good player, I guess," he said. "We've watched him a long time. We decided not to recruit him a long time ago, they recruited him, he's a good player for them, he's one of many good players. Good luck to him, and that's the way it is. I'm not into describing anybody else's poise, I'm not really concerned about it. He made a tough shot. A couple of the shots he hit. They're a good shooting team. They hit a lot of threes. When you have a player like David Padgett or Derrick Caracter that you can't come down and you can't play 1-on-1 with them, so he went off the dribble and made a couple of tough ones. But I'm not interested in anybody's poise. I'm interested in my own team's poise."

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

That has to be a misprint/typo. I'm think it should say "visibly upset."

Crean's comments suggest he probably should have let one of the assistants address the media. He didn't exactly represent himself well, particularly on the radio. But oh well, nobody can hear our radio station anyway.

[spartan3186]

Did anyone else notice that crean just stormed off the court after the game rather than congratulating/shanking hands with Pitino and the rest of the louisville team... that kinda was upsetting to me, he prides himself on being classy and that was classless

[MU NY]

Very un-Crean like to walk off the floor without so much as a handshake...kinda bush league...be upset, I love that...you should be upset with your team's somewhat miserable performance down the stretch...but never not shake the hand of your opponent...c'mon TC WE ARE MARQUETTE!  Show a little more poise.  What next, the team walks away from the handshakes at the end of a game.

[marquette09]

Didn't he shake Pitino's hand after the shot went in but before the officials reviewed the play? thought i saw that

[chapman]

The only Marquette fan in attendance that should have been visibly upbeat after the game was Travis Diener.  If you saw his girlfriend at the game you'd see why.

[mu_hilltopper]

My wife was so pissed with that.  She's lusted after Travis all these years, then he brings some hussy to the game.   

[MarquetteFan94]

Didn't he shake Pitino's hand after the shot went in but before the officials reviewed the play? thought i saw that

Yes, Crean did shake Pitino's hand immediately after the shot went in before the officials reviewed the play....Smith taking his jersey off was ridiculous....hate that crap....and, yes, I'd feel the same way had any other MU player done the same thing.

[Harrison]

Not only that but Smith totally leveled a female MU fan standing near the baseline.

  And to answer the question yes, that is the difference between a fan and the job of a coach.  I barely slept Saturday night and woke up about 5 times and said "F#&K!!!".   But TC needs to be upbeat, he has a young team that is low on confidence that had to be absolutely crushed.  Never let them see you sweat!!.  If he is anything but upbeat and focused on Monday night and getting better we get crushed by NOva.  That is his job, getting a young group of devestated kids turned around to play less that 48 hours later.

[MU gimp ONE]

My wife was so pissed with that.  She's lusted after Travis all these years, then he brings some hussy to the game.  

if you have been attending games for the past couple years, you would recognize her as one of the former cheerleaders.  she has been dating Travis since before he graduated.  so i guess your wife was out of luck a couple years ago.  really nice girl and not a hussy in the least, Ive known her since she was a freshman. no, I'm not a pedo, i graduated with Travis.  Man i wish i played in the NBA. 

on the another girlfriend note.  i love how big of a height difference there is between Steve and his girlfriend.  granted anyone would look short next to him, but i don't think she is over 5'3".  it was always a little amusing to see them walking around campus.

i also must agree with everyone else here that i too had sudden outburst of obscenities throughout the night due to the outcome of the game.