Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 7, 1991 TAG: 9104180625
SECTION: THE METRO TOURNAMENT PAGE: 17 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk / Sportswriter
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
So, what's LaBradford Smith doing in the Metro Conference basketball celler with longtime lead actor Louisville playing an extra's role?
"It's terrible, terrible," Smith said of his senior-season end to a stellar career. "It hurts. You lose sleep at night. No, I don't have nightmares. I wake up trying to figure out what's going wrong.
"I lay there and I think, `What can I do to make us better? What can I do to make us win?' "
A year ago in biloxi, Miss., the 6-foot-3 guard was voted the outstanding player in the Metro tournament as he led the top-seeded Cardinals to another title. This week at the Roanoke Civic Center, Smith, who already was Louisville's career assists leader before the end of his junior season, is the leader of a young team that bases its hopes on a late-season three-game winning streak.
"I think it's been a tougher year on him than everyone else," said coach Denny Crum." "When you're a senior, you know, you want to go with glory.
"He's been handicapped this year, too, in what we've asked - to play in two or three different roles. The way we've played, I'm sure, has hurt his assists. He'll throw the ball to someone for what should be an easy basket and the guy will fumble it away or kick it out of bounds.
"He's our top assist man in history, he's the leading free-throw shooter in the history of the school and he's close to the top in steals [seven behind 1980 All-American Darrell Griffith]. Those three, I would say, definitely are winning categories."
Smith also is the Metro's career free-throw accuracy leader, and he could join the top five among all-time Louisville scorers. Since he arrived at U of L from Bay City, Texas, his game has evolved while he has spent a career in the starting lineup.
"It's to the point now where impatience hurts us, too," Smith said when the Cardinals played at Virginia Tech recently. "Maybe we go through our offense once and if it doesn't work, we go one-on-one. We have mental lapses. We have stretches when we can't shoot.
"If there was anything I thought I could have done to change this season, I'd have done it. The happiest times for me are when we've won. Until this year, my experience at Louisville has been what I expected. Our fans are terrific. We've had a down year, but they still show up. And nobody can say we haven't kept trying. We haven't quit.
When Smith started as a freshman, he was like a driver on a Los Angeles freeway.
"I played at one speed, and that was fast," Smith said.
"That's true," Crum said. "But I'd rather have a guy you have to tone down that pep up. LaBradford is the kind of player who's fun to coach. He's not real vocal, not a rah-rah guy, but he's aggressive. Sometimes you have to pull the reins in on him a bit. He's one of those people who, when things go bad, he tries to take all of the negative and pile it on his shoulders.
"Competitively, his playing hard is a very desirable trait."
Smith has been an unquestioned star for the Cardinals, but he is unusual in that he also is a versatile one.
"When he was a freshman, the only other player we had who could handle the ball was Keith Williams [then a sophomore starting at point guard], and you need more than that," Crum said. "LaBradford was a scorer then, but, in developing as a complete player, he's progressed as much as anyone we've had.
"He learned to handle the ball. He was a freshman, and against the competition we played, we were throwing him to the wolves. By the end of his junior year, he was our career assist leader. Now, this year, we've asked him to do different things."
Smith, a definite NBA prospect, said he does not enjoy dwelling on the fact that, barring a last-to-first run in the Roanoke Civic Center, his college career will end along with Louisville's 46-year streak of winning seasons. It's sort of like being a captain for Eastern Airlines.
"Sometimes you have to face facts," Smith said. "We're a young team. For years, Louisville has beaten these teams, and they come out and kill us. They remember what we were in the past."
Fortunately for Smith, he has the same memories.
FOR TEAM ROSTER AND OTHER TEAM INFORMATION, SEE MICROFILM
by CNB