NEW YORK – Russ Smith played one of his best games of the season with a heavy heart. The Big East Tournament is a homecoming for a lot of players, Smith included, as New York is well-represented among the conference’s players. But a phone call the Louisville guard made earlier in the day changed a lot for the young man and also hit a lot of people in Madison Square Garden. Smith learned that Jack Curran, the legendary coach of Archbishop Molloy, had died at age 82.
With Louisville in town for the conference tournament, Smith called the school, as he so often does when in town, to touch base with people there, including athletic director Mike McCleary. That was when he learned that Curran had passed, and Smith was taken aback.
“It was really hard for me to take it all in because a guy like Coach, obviously, he’s old age, but you just wouldn’t think twice of him ever passing,” said the junior guard. “It was really, really hard for me to just focus ahead and to just put it all together.”
Curran coached a number of great players in his 55 years at the school and many more who were good but not legendary. He also coached on the baseball diamond, though he’ll be remembered much more for his work on the hardwood. He won well over 900 games in basketball and over 1,700 in baseball.
Smith was determined to play for his old coach, to the point of playing through a badly sprained ankle. You would never know it watching the game or looking at his final stat line: 28 points on 7-12 shooting, including 4-6 on three-pointers. Yes, he had five turnovers on the night, but this was quite simply a terrific game for the young man.
Louisville head coach Rick Pitino has recruited kids from New York for years and knew Curran well. He was likewise stung by news of Curran’s passing, and remembered him as being comparable to the greatest coach of them all, John Wooden.
“He had a lot of what I witnessed with Coach Wooden,” said Pitino. “They were very similar personalities. They were great teachers. Although he was a great basketball and baseball coach, he probably was even a better gym teacher. He was just a great teacher and a great person.”
Smith was slow to get going on the evening, with just seven points on 2-5 shooting in the first half. A few minutes into the second, he started to pick it up, then as Louisville blew it open and closed out Villanova, Smith was the catalyst. The Cardinals would lead by as many as 21, forcing 25 Villanova turnovers to overcome 19 of their own. They scored 27 points off the turnovers, and Smith’s big night shooting the ball led the way as the Cardinals were an uncharacteristic 10-24 on three-pointers.
While backcourt mate Peyton Siva is arguably the team’s most important player, Smith is the Cardinals’ most explosive scorer. He’s also been one who can frustrate fans and even Pitino with some of the decisions he makes with the ball at times. On Thursday night, none of that was an issue as he played a complete game.
“Tonight he was brilliant because he passed the ball, he played awesome defense, he got after them, and he shot the ball well, made great decisions,” said Pitino.
Smith remembered a quote from Curran that sounds just like a coach, and one he will surely keep with him since he recalled it for the media: “He taught me a lot of things, phrases, quotes, and one of the main ones was the road to success is always under construction, and I’ll keep that.”
Despite the heavy heart, Smith played like his coach would have wanted him to. With that, he gets at least one more chance in his backyard in the semifinals on Friday night, and he hopes for one last one on Saturday.
