LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — One more basket.
A jump shot. A tip in. A bank shot. A fadeaway.
Pull anything you like out of the offensive basketball catalogue. Anything. A made field goal of any variety or degree of difficulty. Luck could be involved.
One more basket. One.
That is all The Ville needed to defeat the Gutter Cats Saturday at Freedom Hall to advance past the halfway point of their journey of claiming the $1 million winner-take-all prize in The Basketball Tournament, the 64-team single elimination event that took over the sports conversation in the area all week.
A Russ Smith jumper. A Chinanu Onuaku post-up. A Chane Behanan follow. A Peyton Siva drive. A Kyle Kuric three.
Anything.
Ahead 62-56 with an Elam Ending target score of 64, The Ville had six possessions to win the game Saturday afternoon in Freedom Hall.
They missed five shots and threw the basketball away twice. It was the Gutter Cats that scored the game’s final eight points, including the decisive final three on a contested, banked three-pointer that Jarell Eddie made over Smith for the stunning 64-62 game winner.
The Ville never got the basket.
They’ll have to run it back next season. At least, they’d better.
“I missed some shots and we had some turnovers,” Smith said. “But we win together and we lose together. I could have made some better decisions, but it is what it is. It’s the good with the bad and the bad with the ugly …
“… we know what it means to lose. All of our guys are winners. For me, I’m extremely hard on myself as a scorer and a playmaker.
“I could have gotten some better shots and better looks but I live with every decision I make. I stand on it. If I make the shot, people are happy. But I missed it today.”
Smith missed three of the final five shots that The Ville took while trying to get to the target score of 64, which was set after the first whistle in the final four minutes. Chinanu Onuaku missed one. So did Chane Behanan. The Ville also lost the ball twice.
Chane Behanan reacts after a put-back and foul late in The Ville’s TBT loss to the Gutter Cats in Freedom Hall.
On a day Behanan had 18 points and 5 steals and Onuaku contributed 10 points and a dozen boards, The Ville lost because they missed 12 of 25 free throws and 15 of 18 shots from distance. Smith went 4 for 21, 1 for 6 from distance.
“Was (Smith) trying to do it too much?” Ville coach Mark Lieberman said. “Yes. Was it out of selfishness? No.
“It was out of trying to help the team. And again, defensively, he was a menace. When I see guys defend that well, I don’t really have a problem when they’re attacking and trying to maybe force some of the action.”
The Ville lost to a veteran TBT team that has now won 11 games over at least five runs in this event. This was the first push by a team with nine former University of Louisville players.
Lieberman said the locker room had the same stinging emotions of a losing locker room after an NCAA Tournament game. Credit that to how much this group of mostly former Cardinals enjoyed getting after it again.
“The most disappointing part of everything is how much fun it was to be around this group,” Lieberman said.
“I wanted at least two more days and then two more days after that. I mean that locker room was like an NCAA Tournament loss. These guys were really devastated.”
It was too soon for anybody to commit to making a push in the TBT again next season. Players scatter. They make commitments to play overseas. Contracts can get in the way. Injuries can alter plans.
But back-to-back-to-back rousing crowds, that included Rajon Rondo, Darrell Griffith, Jeff Brohm, Montrezl Harrell, Milt Wagner, Jordan Nwora, the C-A-R-D-S guy and other local legends, provided ample evidence that the games resonated with a fan base that had never experienced the TBT during the event’s first nine seasons.
There was an audience for the games on streaming devices as well as local radio broadcast. There was even a radio post-game show Saturday that featured more than a half-dozen callers. Those people were just as interested in whether The Ville planned to try this again next season as they were in how they blew that 62-56 lead.
Will The Ville be back next summer?
“Depends on the situation,” Smith said. “Nobody knows what the future holds. It’s a blessing to be able to play right now.
“I was injured the last three years. It’s my first summer playing basketball so we’ll see what happens next year.”
For Smith, this was more than an opportunity to play in front of fans who adored him at the University of Louisville for the first time since 2014. In addition to being a player, Smith was also a sponsor of the event with his Mr.andMrs. bourbon.
Friday was the 62nd consecutive day Smith appeared at a signing to push his brand. His schedule has been unrelenting.
“I think it definitely put eyes on the brand and was really good for the brand,” he said. “I want to thank the TBT and thank Freedom Hall for the partnership. It was really positive. Very positive.”
The reaction by the basketball community was equally positive. Although the crowds officially were smaller in each session (5,463 on Tuesday, followed by 4,788 Thursday and 4,482 Saturday), the energy in the building clearly suggested an appetite to bring this show back next summer.
”We certainly didn't know it was going to be like this, beyond expectations for what the product was in the games. I mean,” Lieberman said.
“That was ridiculous how intense that game was against a really, really good team. So for me, I'm just so impressed by every component. Our team, you know, the staff, the city, the fans …
“… again, when we started this, we just didn't know what to expect. And this place was like Freedom Hall in the 2000s, the early 2000s before the (KFC) Yum! Center opened.
“Right? I mean, you guys saw it. It was incredible. It was amazing.”
And it was something that needs to be brought back to the Louisville sports calendar next summer.
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