AU’s Carr ‘Little Lofton’

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Garrison Carr got a new name Friday afternoon in the Tennessee men’s basketball locker room.

Volunteers sophomore forward Duke Crews renamed Carr “Little Lofton” after he scored a game-high 26 points to keep American within range of UT most of the afternoon in BJCC Arena.

“We gutted out a win against a good team with a little Lofton,” Crews said. “That’s his name, ‘Little Lofton.’”

Ironically, though, UT senior All-American Chris Lofton didn’t play like himself. he scored just five points on 1-for-7 shooting — 0-for-5 from behind the arc.

“The fact that Lofton only got seven shots is pretty remarkable,” American coach Jeff Jones said.

Carr was 9-for-21 from the floor, 6-for-15 on 3s. He hit consecutive 3s to tie the game at 40 midway through the second half, and he hit several more big shots to keep the Eagles close until the final minutes.

Lofton guarded Carr most of the day, or at least he tried to.

“I’m worn out from following all those screens,” Lofton said. “I kept getting popped with all of those staggers. I don’t even come off as many screens as him. Maybe back in high school, but not in college.”

Tennessee’s Wayne Chism said he’s “never seen one dude get so many screens.

“(Carr) goes off of like 30 screens sometimes, and they’ve only got five players out there,” Chism continued. “They have to be in good shape to go through all of those screens. Chris usually goes off of four or five screens every time down the court, but tonight it was like eight or nine screens, because he had to follow another guard who can shoot.”

Texas and other teams have used a similar strategy to wear Lofton down, but the Eagles were simply running their offense. Carr is shy of 6 feet tall and doesn’t scare people with his athleticism, but when given a crease, his jump shot “is just going to go down,” UT’s JaJuan Smith said.

“My teammates and coach did a great job of giving me opportunities to get open and shoot the ball,” Carr said. “So it really wasn’t Tennessee doing anything different, it was the team helping me get shots and the coaches drawing up great plays and that basically opened everything up.”

Smith said UT’s other guards planned on overcoming Lofton’s struggles, which he said were nearly inevitable given the circumstances.

“We thought Chris might not have a great game, because he was assigned to guard a great offensive player,” Smith said. “He gave us a great defensive effort out there. He’s wore out right now.

“You’ve got to take your hat off to (Carr). He’s a great shooter. All I can say is that’s another Chris Lofton out there.”

But Lofton was smiling in the Tennessee locker room while Carr was packing his bags for a trip home. Lofton said that’s “all I care about.”

“It was just one of those days,” Lofton said. “That’s why you have teammates, to help you. My teammates stepped up and picked up the slack.

“We’ll take it. We survived and advanced. There’s 32 teams left, and we’re one of them. That’s all we can say right now.”

Bad ball or bad excuse?

UT sophomore guard J.P. Prince said the new basketball that officials used in the first half was like “a brick.”

“They had brand-new balls this game, and they had to let some air out of them at halftime,” Prince said. “We just had to get used to it. That’s why there were so many long rebounds instead of short ones.

“It took us a little while to get settled in. ... The first game in the tournament at a new site is always the toughest.”

Vols cite Belmont

UT wasn’t the first No. 2 seed to struggle with its first-round opponent. Belmont stayed with Duke even longer than American hung with the Vols, as the Bruins had a half-court shot hit the rim as the horn sounded Thursday night on their 71-70 loss to the Blue Devils.

“We talked about Duke before the game,” Chism said. “We knew Belmont was a good Tennessee team, and they gave Duke a good run because they’re a good team.

“That just goes to show you never know what’s going to happen in this tournament. Almost every game, you’re playing against a champion from some conference, and you know those guys are going to be tough.”