Blackshear delivers in tournament opener

SEATTLE – The question has been asked before. In fact, it has been asked a few times this season.

And every time someone asks University of Louisville wing Wayne Blackshear if having a big game against (insert team here) is a relief considering all the criticism of him, the 6-foot-5 senior and former McDonald's All-American says some variation of what he said Friday.

"I don't pay attention to anything like that," said Blackshear, who led all scorers with 19 points in Louisville's nerve-fraying 57-55 win over UC Irvine in the opening round of the NCAA tournament at KeyArena.

"As long as my teammates and the coaching staff believe in me, I don't care what other people say. So, I take it as it is, and I just let my game do the talking."

On Friday, Blackshear's game spoke loud and clear. Of his 19 points, five of them came in critical moments.

His basket plus a foul with 3:33 left to play yanked Louisville's lead back from a scrappy Irvine team that took U of L's leading scorers Terry Rozier and Montrezl Harrell out of the picture in the second half.

His driving layup with 43 seconds to go tied the game at 55 and eased a fidgety Louisville fan base 18 seconds after Luke Nelson's runner over Harrell gave Irvine (21-13) the lead.

"Blackshear's three-point play in the stretch — I mean, that's a kid who played in the national championship game," UC Irvine coach Russ Turner said.

"He's a national champion. He made a national champion play right there, and that's probably the difference in the game."

That was the kind of effort it took to beat Irvine here in Seattle on the second day of what has been an unpredictable NCAA tournament so far.

Louisville (25-8) got 20 combined points from Rozier and Harrell, nearly 13 below their season average. UC Irvine switched to a box-and-one zone defense to take Rozier out of the game, U of L coach Rick Pitino said.

The mere presence of 7-foot-6 center Mamadou Ndiaye made scoring around the basket a giant task — literally. And even Harrell, who spent all week telling his teammates how badly he wanted to dunk on Ndiaye, never found much of a rhythm in the second half. He only attempted one shot.

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In other words, Louisville needed someone else to fill in the gaps. Freshman point guard Quentin Snider tallied a season-high 16 points, including the two game-winning free throws with 8.9 seconds remaining.

Redshirt sophomore Mangok Mathiang added two steals and a handful of other important defensive plays that kept Irvine from feeding Ndiaye as much as it wanted.

Blackshear covered the rest. He needed a career-high 20 shots to do it, but he made eight of them and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. He played all 40 minutes.

It was the type of game that so many thought the Chicago native could have throughout his career, with a mix of scoring inside and out. It was the type of game that tends to make people wonder what could have been over Blackshear's career.

But to coach Rick Pitino and Louisville's 12 other players, Blackshear on Friday looked like the Blackshear they have seen behind the scenes all season. Pitino said several times this winter that Blackshear would have a big NCAA tournament.

He started with a bang, and for at least one game, he quieted those who have so ardently criticized him throughout his career. One game can't and won't change all the inconsistency, but this one did save Louisville's season.

"It's very easy to criticize," Pitino said. "It takes no talent at all to criticize. But the coaching staff, every coach who has coached Wayne Blackshear, thinks he's the greatest kid in the world, thinks he's one of the hardest workers.

"We all think we have been tremendously blessed by his presence at the University of Louisville."

Reach U of L beat writer Jeff Greer at (502) 582-4044 and follow him on Twitter (@jeffgreer_cj).