Sullivan | Gill grows, Cards advance

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – When the coast was clearing, and the lead was growing and Wayne Blackshear's foul trouble was subsiding, the Louisville senior was asked if he were prepared to return to the fray Friday night.

He answered his cue by taking a stand while sitting down. He thought his team might be better off with Anton Gill on the floor.

"One of the assistant coaches was like, 'Are you ready to go in?'" Blackshear recalled. "I think I told him, 'Just try to keep him in. He's making plays right now, making big shots. We've just got to roll with him right now.'

"I was fortunate to just sit on the bench for that little period of time."

Facing elimination from the NCAA Tournament and a North Carolina State team that had dominated them on Valentine's Day, the Cardinals followed a surprise hero into the Elite Eight Friday night. The seldom-used Gill, who had played only two minutes in Louisville's two previous tournament games, came off the bench upon Blackshear's fourth foul and poured in seven quick points to help carry U of L to a 75-65 victory.

His paint-penetrating short jumper with 5:55 remaining erased Louisville's last deficit and gave the Cardinals a 55-54 lead. Then, in the space of a little more than two minutes, he added a three-point basket and another short-range jumper – sinking all three of the shots he would attempt on a memorable evening at the Carrier Dome.

"I just saw I had an opportunity," Gill said. "We had worked hard all season, and I didn't want to go home. By whatever means I've got, I just want to try to make something happen."

Close observers of Louisville basketball had seen this sort of burst from Gill before. Less than a week after Chris Jones was dismissed from the team last month, Gill came off the bench to sink all five of his shots – four of them from three-point range – in a sparkling cameo appearance at Florida State.

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But though the kid's got game, fans have seen it mainly in small glimpses. Gill has averaged less than 10 minutes in the 30 games he has played, and has spent five games without leaving the bench. He was averaging 2.4 points per game before Friday night, and the limited role was starting to weigh on his 20-year-old shoulders.

"Anton and I had an interesting conversation the other day," U of L coach Rick Pitino said. "I called him up, and I was working out, and I said, 'Son, you're mentally in a funk. It's nothing you're doing wrong because you're playing behind Terry Rozier, who's an unbelievable player. But in '87 we had to beat Georgetown and Alabama, Alabama in the Sweet 16, Georgetown in the Elite Eight, and a young man named Darryl Wright was like the seventh (or) eighth man on the team, wasn't playing particularly well, and he was in a little bit of a mental funk. He went out and give gave us an unbelievable lift ..."

"... I said, "You're going to get your opportunity, son." Tonight I was going to put Shaqquan (Aaron) in, and I just thought about that, and (Gill) went in and basically won the game for us with his two big plays. I'm really happy for him when a guy doesn't get his minutes and doesn't get his playing time and still shows a great attitude."

As pleased as the Cardinals were to extend their season, their second-most widely shared emotion was joy at Gill's glorious night.

Rozier, who played with Gill at Hargrave Military Academy, said, "Every time he gets an opportunity, he seizes that opportunity."

"He stepped up big," said Quentin Snider. "He's the one that won the game for us."

Gill was, in Blackshear's estimation, "the MVP for us."

That the victim was N.C. State must have made the night that much more memorable for a kid from Raleigh, but the opponent had nearly slipped Gill's mind.

"It's kind of weird," he said. "I didn't really realize we were playing NC State, my hometown team, until somebody asked me about it yesterday, because we've been so focused on what we need to do as a team. It's funny how things work, and I'm just blessed to be in this opportunity."

His teammates, too, were counting their blessings. Also the hours until their shot at the Final Four.

Tim Sullivan can be reached at (502) 582-4650, tsullivan@courier-journal.com and @TimSullivan714 on Twitter.