Coach Billy Gillispie was hugging Crawford and whispering encouraging words to him. Assistant coach Glynn Cyprien was telling player after player he "loved them" and many players were openly sobbing.
Crawford seldom showed emotion during his Kentucky career. It was Bradley who did the talking, screaming and smiling. Crawford just played.
But it was Crawford crying almost uncontrollably as the tears flowed quicker than his points.
"We have been through a lot. I don't think anybody on the outside can understand the pain, sweat and tears that we put in and how hard we work," Crawford said. "We had no breaks this year. Every time something was going good, something else would drop from the team.
"We put in so much work just to get here. Now we are not going to get the credit we deserve for making it this far. It just hurts."
It might hurt, but don't worry about the credit. If anything, this game pointed out just how remarkable it was that Kentucky won 18 games and went 12-4 in Southeastern Conference play. Even before freshman Patrick Patterson went down, UK was limited offensively. Without Patterson, it's still hard to fathom that the Cats almost won at Tennessee and then did beat South Carolina and Florida.
Georgia exposed the Cats' weaknesses in the SEC Tournament. Marquette did the same by forcing Crawford and Bradley to take 37 of UK's 48 shots.
But for anyone who had questions about whether Gillispie's demanding style had alienated players, put those doubts away. There was too much genuine emotion in the UK dressing room to think this was anything but a close-knit team from the head coach to the manager.
"When you pay a price and you hurt and you work hard for something and it is taken away from you, then you hurt," Kentucky assistant coach Jeremy Cox said. "But when you don't have ownership in something and it is taken away, I am not quite sure it hurts as much. These guys have total ownership in Kentucky basketball."
That became obvious from the scene after the game and that's why even with the loss of Crawford and Bradley, there were signs Kentucky might get back to a Final Four -- a place the Cats have not been since 1998 -- under Gillispie.
"I would rather see them totally happy after winning a national championship, but if it had to end before that time, they showed it hurt," Gillispie said. "We have learned a lot together. We have laughed a lot. We have cried some. We have loved a lot. Most importantly, there was a lot of love in that room. We love our players. They love us back.
"I will just say it again. The hardest to work are always the last to surrender. Unfortunately, we had to end our season today."
However, the emotional end to one season could well be the start of bigger, better things ahead for Gillispie and his team in the upcoming years.
