Larry Brown Sports

Tom Crean used Twitter Tuesday to try landing a job for one of the Indiana basketball program’s assistants.

Aaron Weaver has given IU 5 great years, including now as our Video Coord. He is as good as any we have ever had. He is ready to move.

— Tom Crean (@TomCrean) April 9, 2013

Aaron really wants a operations or Administrative job in college or pro sports. I need some leads. [email protected] to help me help him.

— Tom Crean (@TomCrean) April 9, 2013

According to his bio on Twitter, Weaver is a grad student at Indiana and a graduate assistant for the basketball team. Maybe Crean didn’t have any room to give him a job on staff, so this is his way of trying to help out the kid.

Pretty cool gesture by the coach, right? I can’t think of too many others who would openly tweet like that in an effort to get a graduate assistant a job. But Crean also is a lot different from most coaches.

Louisville looks to complete the rare sweep in winning a championship in both men’s and women’s basketball. They will have to beat UConn in order to do so, and that won’t be easy after the Huskies demolished Notre Dame in the Final Four on Sunday.

LBS spoke with Lisa Leslie, who is a board member for the Capital One Cup, on Tuesday to get her thoughts on the title game. We also asked her about the future of Skylar Diggins and more. The winner of the Louisville-UConn game will get 60 points toward winning the Capital One Cup. Right now Leslie is leaning toward picking UConn.

“If I went with my gut feeling, I’d say UConn will win it,” said Leslie. “If I went with my heart and hopes, I would want Louisville to have a big upset. I think that would be a great story. I think it’s great for women’s basketball and men’s basketball that two teams from the same school could win a championship in the same year. And you always love the underdog. But I’m not hating on on UConn; I’m really happy about Breanna Stewart and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, two up-and-coming players.”

Leslie admitted seeing Louisville knock off Baylor and Tennessee and reach the championship game has been surprising, though, she was warned about them.

“I’ve been very surprised, but I have to add my husband did tell me about Louisville early in the season. He got a chance to watch them play, told me how tall they were, how active they were, and how their defensive pressure was a strong side. I wasn’t surprised by the time I got to the tournament and got to see them.

“My brackets were completely ruined [by the Cardinals]. I don’t know how many people other than Louisville fans picked Louisville to get to the finals. I was definitely surprised that they took Baylor out, but I thought their game plan was brilliant. To be physical, to really take it at Brittney Griner, that’s what you have to do.

“I’m just hoping that they will be able to force some turnovers for UConn and be effective with their defense. But it’s going to be a tough challenge because UConn’s in great shape. They’re used to handling pressure from guards, they’re very physical in post play, so I’m interested to see how they respond tonight.”

Which player does Leslie expect to have the biggest impact in the championship game?

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Ben Howland and Tubby Smith were recognized in CBS’ traditional “One Shining Moment” montage to recap the NCAA Tournament, but it wasn’t the kind of recognition they probably would have liked.

The first line of the second verse of the song is, “But time is short.” It was at that moment that CBS showed a clip of Smith and Howland shaking hands following their first-round tournament game.

Minnesota won the game 83-63 but lost to Florida 78-64 in the next round. Both coaches were fired by their respective schools after the tournament.

Time wasn’t quite that short for each of them; Howland spent 10 seasons at UCLA, while Smith was at Minnesota for six. But their time at their schools following that game definitely was short.

One of the nicest moments of the NCAA Tournament was when Kevin Ware cut down the nets following Louisville’s 82-76 win over Michigan in the national championship game Monday.

A plan was in place for Ware to partake in the tradition of cutting down the nets if his school won the title game. With a handful of strands remaining, the basket was lowered so Ware, on crutches following his gruesome broken leg injury, could cut down the net.

Ware became an inspirational figure during Louisville’s championship run after getting hurt in the regional finals against Duke. Despite having a bone sticking out of his leg, Ware told his teammates that day, “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be OK. Go win this thing.”

They not only own that game, but they took home the entire tournament.

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Rick Pitino freaked out when he heard fireworks (aka confetti cannons) after Louisville beat Michigan 82-76 to win the national championship game.

It’s that sort of reaction time that keeps a man alive at war … or in the hood.

Below in GIF form:

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Rick Pitino was looking rather, umm, pale, during the national championship game Monday, and the Internet took notice. The Louisville coach morphed into a vampire while witnessing Michigan’s explosive first half, leading to a solid meme:

Rick Pitino looks like death. twitpic.com/ci1he4

— Farsi Montana (@ThatPersianGuy) April 9, 2013

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Montrezl Harris punctuated Louisville’s amazing comeback at the end of the first half of the national championship game Monday with a thunderous dunk. The freshman forward took a pass and hammered it down with crazy authority to give Louisville its first and only lead through the first 20 minutes. Glenn Robinson III made two free throws to give Michigan the lead back before the break, but Harrell’s jam had to be a confidence booster for the Cardinals.

GIF via @WorldofIsaac