Granville Falls Into Trap of Tears

Brandon Granville could have hid in the showers or hunkered in the corner of the USC locker room, shooting a glare to any reporter who ventured near.

But there he sat, on a folding chair smack dab in the middle of it all, wiping his eyes and patiently answering questions about the most disappointing game of his life. He and Duke point guard Jason Williams were on equal ground in one category--each had five turnovers--but Granville was outscored, 28-1.

“I’ve been to a couple Final Fours [as a spectator],” he said. “And knowing what’s out there, how much exposure and the opportunity . . . and being one game away, so close. You may never get the chance again. And for me to play so poorly is kind of hard to swallow right now.”

He said it was the first time he can remember crying after a game since grade school. Back then, the tears flowed all the time, so much so that his mother stopped coming to the games. She couldn’t bear seeing her son so devastated.

As much as anything, Granville felt frustrated Saturday. The Blue Devils clearly intended to take him out of the game, make things as difficult as possible for him to bring the ball up the court, then swarm him with bigger defenders. He had two early turnovers, and that only made things worse.

When he didn’t have the ball, it was deny, deny, deny.

“They came out and just trapped him every time,” forward Sam Clancy said. “They wanted to keep the ball out of his hands. That was a good game plan because he runs our team. If the ball’s not in his hands, we have problems.

“Same thing we tried to do to them, but it didn’t quite work . . .”

It rarely does with Williams, whose 28 points gave him 115 for the tournament. He became the first player to score 100 or more points before the Final Four since Georgetown’s Allen Iverson in 1996. Williams, Iverson and Indiana’s Calbert Cheaney (105 in 1993) are the only players to break the century mark in the past decade.

Williams, who was named the most outstanding player of the East Regional, held up four fingers then one as he stood on a stepladder after the game and snipped away at the net.

“I put up four fingers because we’re going to the Final Four,” he said. “And I put up the one finger because that’s my dream--to be No. 1 when the team comes to an end.”

Things have come to an end for USC, which lasted far longer in the tournament than a lot of people expected. Granville wasn’t in the mood to savor that right away.

“It’s kind of hard to see all that right now,” he said. “It’s different being here than watching it on TV. It’s more dramatic on TV, you see the whole effect of it. I don’t think I’ll really realize what we accomplished by getting to the Elite Eight until we go back home and see what everybody’s saying in L.A. and kind of watch the tapes all over.”

The tapes might reveal a lot, but they didn’t capture all the thoughts flooding Granville’s head during the game.

“I was trying to get everybody in the offense, call the plays, worrying about somebody trying to pick you every play,” he said. “They’re denying everybody the ball, so you’ve got the five-second count. It’s like you’re just out there pounding the ball, trying to get to the basket. It’s like that’s the only option you’re left with some times.”

In his mind, he only had one honorable option after the game.

“I’ve been out here every other time when we’ve been winning,” he said, waiting until the last reporter asked the last question. “Don’t duck and hide now.”