REWARDING JOURNEY:Louisville guard Russ Smith and Syracuse forward James Southerland (above) — both New York City basketball players — have been integral in leading their respective teams to this Saturday’s Final Four.
REWARDING JOURNEY: Louisville guard Russ Smith and Syracuse forward James Southerland (right) — both New York City basketball players — have been integral in leading their respective teams to this Saturday’s Final Four. (AP; Getty Images)
New York City basketball players are known for their toughness and creativity. Resilience, at least in the case of James Southerland and Russ Smith, should be added to the list.
How else to explain the meteoric rise of Syracuse’s Southerland and Louisville’s Smith? From overlooked and unused to vital to their respective teams’ title hopes.
The two friends will arrive in Atlanta for the Final Four as key players of their respective clubs, local products hoping to follow in the footsteps of Kemba Walker and Doron Lamb and bring a championship back to the city.
Their success stories are eerily similar. Neither attended powerhouse high schools, Southerland at Cardozo and Smith at Archbishop Molloy. Both needed prep school to either improve their grades or their college opportunities, and they both got off to rocky starts in their collegiate careers, considered transferring, before exploding this March into major contributors for their respective Final Four teams.
“When the chips are down, we’re not going to give up,” the 6-foot-8 sharpshooting Southerland from Queens told The Post in a phone interview. “We’re going to push through obstacles.”
If Louisville cuts down the nets in Atlanta, Brooklyn’s Smith likely will be the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, astounding because the frenetic and dazzling 6-foot-1 guard didn’t have a single high-major scholarship offer coming out of high school and didn’t begin to get any playing time until halfway through last season. For Syracuse to win its first title since 2003, Southerland will need to continue to stroke the 3 at a torrid rate, like he did in setting a Big East Tournament record with 19 3’s.
“It’s like a dream come true,” Southerland said. “So many kids dream of going to a Final Four. It’s great we’re actually living it.”
Those familiar with Smith are hardly surprised by his breakout. He led the city’s famed Catholic league in scoring his junior and senior seasons playing for legendary coach Jack Curran, who recently died , scoring 40 points one day against juggernaut Rice, a team which included the Bobcats guard Walker, University of Miami star Durand Scott and Drexel guard Chris Fouch.
“Derrick Rose didn’t do that, Jonny Flynn didn’t do that,” recalled Rasheen Davis, a Manhattan College assistant who coached Smith with the New York Gauchos AAU team.
“That’s how Russ was since he was little,” Scott added. “Nothing’s different except him getting the opportunity to prove it on the big stage with a great team.”
Smith was a key piece on the Gauchos, a loaded club that included Scott and Magic guard Lamb. While his teammates headed off to major colleges, Scott to Miami and Lamb to Kentucky, Smith went to South Kent (Conn.) prep school, determined not to settle for anything but the highest level.
Southerland took the same route, after his junior year at Cardozo, to make sure he qualified for college and was ready to play at Syracuse when he got there. Nicknamed “Big Baby” then because he often pouted and was 6-foot-4 as a freshman, he spent two years at Notre Dame Prep in Fitchburg, Mass., and developed the maturity he would need in an up-and-down career at Syracuse.
When Southerland got to Notre Dame, coach Ryan Hurd said he was better at playing video games than he was at basketball. By the time he left, Southerland was a leader, a workout warrior who would rise on his own for 5 a.m. jogs and get up hundreds of jump shots per day, who went from depending on his parents to being able to responsibly live on his own.
“[His success] is all because of prep school,” cousin and former Cardozo teammate Sean Crawford said. “He went from a boy to a man.”
His first college game, Southerland poured in 19 points, making all seven of his shot attempts. The moment proved to be fleeting. He rode the bench much of his first two seasons. Southerland nearly left the upstate New York school, but stuck it out, and emerged in last year’s tournament.
“I’ve been saying to everybody: In a world where all these kids take the path of least resistance, he’s one of the few bright spots,” Hurd said. “He pushed through [challenges] and is now getting the reward.”
Not just Southerland, Smith too, unheralded as high school standouts, dismissed by some as having chosen the wrong colleges. Yet, on college basketball’s biggest stage, this weekend in Atlanta, the two will be front and center. and could meet for the crown Monday night.
“They’re both from New York and they both have that gritty attitude New Yorkers have,” said Cincinnati star Sean Kilpatrick, a White Plains product and close friend of the two stars. “They just won’t give up. They won’t back down. Everybody in New York is happy for them.”