Louisville's Russ Smith escorts freshman high school player to homecoming

 Louisville senior captain and leading scorer Russ Smith agreed to escort a Manual girls basketball player during homecoming festivities Friday night, after that girl's date didn't show up.

Smith was there to support a friend who is an assistant coach on the Eastern High School boys' basketball team. Eastern played at Manual Friday night.

Tonysha Curry, a freshman on the Manual girls basketball team, waited and waited for her date to arrive. He never did. Curry and her friends noticed the Louisville star sitting court-side, and Curry got up the nerve to go and ask Smith to step in as her homecoming escort.

"I had an escort, and he had won the homecoming for king. But he hadn't been coming to the practices. So, he didn't come to the game apparently," Curry said. "I was like, ‘There's Russ Smith. Oh my God. What if he escorted me?' Everybody was like, ‘Go do it! Go do it!'"

So Curry did. Russ Smith's response?

"Can I do that?"

"I was like, ‘Yeah, you can! You can,'" urged Curry to Smith.

"I didn't know," said Smith, when recalling being asked to take part in the homecoming festivities. "It just all happened too fast. She said, ‘Please, it would really make my day, make my night.' It actually made my day probably more than hers. I'm kind of really happy about it."

Let's recap: Freshman girl in high school gets ditched by the homecoming king. The leading scorer on the NCAA college basketball national championship team takes his place. Yet it made Russ Smith's day more than Tonysha Curry's? Russdiculous, please explain.

"It just never happens. It's something that's one in a million," replied Smith. "You just have to live in the moment. It may not ever happen to me again. That made my day."

"I could not breathe," said Curry recalling the moment, when she took Smith's arm and walked to half-court. "I was almost in tears crying. We even had conversations. We were talking to each other."

Smith was a finalist for Louisville's 2013 Homecoming King, but he was beaten out by teammate and Final Four Most Outstanding Player Luke Hancock. No matter. Curry got her man.

"Oh my God. Best day of my life."

Kudos to Smith for giving Curry a memory that will last a lifetime.

Louisville's Russ Smith returning to school

After Louisville won the national championship, Cardinals guard Russ Smith had announced his intentions to go pro. Well it was more his dad than Smith, as he seemed to be on the fence about leaving for the NBA.

After a few weeks of "sleepless nights", Smith had a change of heart and will be returning to Louisville for his senior season.

At a press conference Smith admitted to not being a surefire firs round pick and his love for Louisville.

"Obviously I wasn't a clear-cut first-round pick, so coming back for me was because of coach, my teammates, the Louisville campus and community and graduating," Smith said. "I never really got an official goodbye, so that stuck with me. I want to do senior night. There were just a lot of things as a person that I want to do."

Smith's return makes the Cardinals a threat to repeat as national champions. Louisville will be loaded on the perimeter with Smith, Luke Hancock, Wayne Blackshear and perhaps Kevin Ware on the wings and newcomers Chris Jones and Terry Rozier combining to run the point. Gorgui Dieng's departure leaves a void in the middle, but Chane Behanan will be back at power forward and Montrezl Harrell showed enough flashes of promise as a shot blocker and rebounder to suggest he may be ready for an increased role.

With Jones and Rozier coming in it's doubtful that Smith will get to show that he's an NBA ready point guard to scouts, but Smith likes winning so that probably doesn't matter too much to him.

"I love to win," Smith said. "With the group we have coming back, I want to go out as a winner, as well as to get my degree."

Look for Louisville along with Kentucky and Michigan State to be at the top of the polls once the college basketball season starts.

Russ Smith's father says he's going pro

The father of Louisville guard Russ Smith has said that his son will be entering the NBA draft. Even though Smith was the Cardinals leading scorer, he did not have an impressive showing in the national championship game. But Russ Sr. says that his son has "done it all".

By that he's saying that he's won a national title, back to back Big East tournament titles, and back to back Final Fours. So according to dad, he's accomplished all he can in the college and should ply his trade in the NBA.

I beg to differ with him. I'm no scout but neither is Senior so that makes none of us an authority as to whether he should go pro or stay in school. Smith is a good perimeter defender but smallish (6-0, 160 lbs.). He would have to play point guard, but he puts up too many shots. I don't think that style would do well in the NBA. According to DraftExpress.com Smith is considered a second round pick (34th overall). Not guaranteed to make a roster but would still have a chance.

On the flip side I understand what his father is saying. In my opinion Smith's game has plateaued and his stock probably won't be higher than what it is now. Why come back to have scouts find every flaw in your game for another year. Also, it's a pretty weak draft so there could be a chance that Smith has some impressive workouts and moves into the first round.

I just think Smith's game just isn't suited for the NBA since I see him as an undersized two guard. I could be wrong and maybe he carves out a nice career for himself which i would like to see. But there have been plenty of good college players that just couldn't cut it in the NBA.