Adam Himmelsbach | Russ Smith relying on Gorgui, Siva

Former Louisville center Gorgui Dieng was winding down after the Minnesota Timberwolves' road loss to the Houston Rockets on Thursday when his cellphone buzzed. It was just after 1 a.m. on the East Coast, and Dieng knew that meant it was probably Russ Smith.

Smith was calling his close friend to congratulate him on his 22-point, 21-rebound game, but he was also calling for guidance.

No. 4-seeded Louisville had just escaped its NCAA tournament opener against pesky Manhattan, and the late-night scare had Russ a bit rattled. The senior guard had made just 3 of his 9 field-goal attempts and coughed up six turnovers.

Russ knew Dieng would understand his plight, and he also knew he could call at any hour.

"I just told Russ that he has to be tough, that he is a big target everybody is going to come at," Dieng said by telephone from Minnesota. "I told him not to force anything and not to get caught up in getting drafted. Just live in the day, and what is meant to be, will be."

This year Russ Smith has made the difficult transition from lovable jokester to calming veteran leader. But he has not done it alone.

Throughout the season he has received quiet guidance from the two players who grasp his challenge better than anyone: Dieng and former Cardinals point guard Peyton Siva, now a Detroit Pistons rookie.

Through weekly phone calls and near-daily text messages, they've served as sounding boards and they've provided shoulders to lean on from hundreds of miles away. Smith doesn't think he could have thrived this year without them.

"It's been really tough not to have them on the court with me," Smith said. "They helped me so much last year."

Their obvious bond is the national championship they won together, but it goes deeper than that. Siva remembers meeting Russ for the first time on campus. He was always laughing and smiling even though Siva wasn't always sure what he was laughing and smiling about.

"He had something funny to say, no matter what," Siva said in a phone interview. "He was just my guy from the first day. We had a connection."

Dieng remembers their long talks about basketball and family and everything else college students discuss. Dieng preferred to go to sleep by 10 p.m., but he knew that when Russ was around, that was rarely an option.

"Russ never sleeps," he said with a chuckle. "When he was my roommate, he would be up until 3 or 4 in the morning."

And then this year Russ looked up and realized two of his closest friends were gone. He realized it was his team now, and at first he wasn't quite sure how to handle that.

So he would call Dieng. He would call Siva. He would ask them how they made sure last season's team stayed so united for so long.

In November, Siva noticed Russ was pressing. Siva knows he used to put too much pressure on himself, and he was seeing a mirror image of that as he watched his friend.

"I told him to just go out there and play ball," Siva said. "He knows what he's good at. He knows what he can do. Don't stress what other people are saying; just play your game."

Dieng told Russ to forget that he was a celebrity on campus, because that would be a distraction. He told him to focus on guiding his teammates. When there were issues last year, Dieng restored order and confidence. He reminded Russ of that, and told him it was now his turn.

"Russ is a nice person and he is funny, but sometimes it takes more than that to be a leader," Dieng said. "If something is going bad, you need to stand up and say something about it. Russ stands up now. He understands."

Midway through the season, Russ called Dieng about a player who was being left out of team activities. He hated seeing someone left out.

"So he asked me, 'What can I do to make this guy feel like a part of the team?' " Dieng said. "I just said, 'Russ, go talk to him on your own. Just make him feel comfortable.' "

So that's what Russ did. They are mostly simple things like that, but sometimes even simplicity needs a guide. And just because Siva and Dieng are no longer in Louisville does not mean they are no longer by Russ Smith's side.

"I tell them what I'm going through, and they talk me through it," Russ said. "They're very wise people."

Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at 502-582-4372 by email ahimmelsbach@courier-journal.com and on Twitter @adamhimmelsbach