Frustration With End of Game Strategy

[cowboysooner]

Smartly, when Miller decided to start fouling, he fouled on the inbounds and gave us 1 second offensive possessions. People mess this up all the time trying to steal before fouling. Most of the time, they just end up not elongating the game.

Then after they fouled and we shot our free throws, Lon let them roll the ball to half court before picking it up and defending. It is 47 feet to half and if we softly defend and make them dribble it to half, they need at least 10 seconds for an offensive possession. By letting them advance it to half court without the clock running, they needed only about 5 seconds.

Miller ran his late offense, like Kelvin used to do (and most old grey haired coaches), he anticipated that we would not foul and he had his guys just go hard to the basket and either shoot a layup or get fouled. Either event stops the clock.

We let Dayton have twice the possessions they should have had -- and unnecessarily.

And yes I know, you don't want to play tight in the backcourt or hard press, because this allows teams to perhaps get a good look from the 3 in transition. I agree with this, as the team behind can't win enough possessions normally if given only "2" at a time. Just have to win too many possessions. But, you just play them close enough to make them pick up the ball and then run back.

Not trying to be negative nancy, just frustrated with our late game strategy. Overall, I love lon and the team and congratulate them on the win. Good job guys.

And finally, Buddy's late block was unbelievable. Play of the year in my book.

 

[kingssc]

Cousins did pressure the ball the first couple of times, and they came down and scored within 6-7 seconds as they drove by us for layups.

 

[pnkranger]

Miller is an incredible coach, and their late game play was perfect. Aside from the turnover that led to Buddy's block, ours was exceptional as well.

My only complaint was when we let them roll the ball down ... needed to make them work for it a bit more.

 

[CoachTalk]

lol

 

[Section31]

I'm not a coach, so for you guys that know this answer please chime in. I notice when teams go to a half court trapping defense, it usually takes the other team a minimum of 5-10 seconds to advance the ball. Why don't teams employ that defense at the end of games to make the trailing team exhaust energy and time?

 

[soonernutt]

Smartly, when Miller decided to start fouling, he fouled on the inbounds and gave us 1 second offensive possessions. People mess this up all the time trying to steal before fouling. Most of the time, they just end up not elongating the game.

Then after they fouled and we shot our free throws, Lon let them roll the ball to half court before picking it up and defending. It is 47 feet to half and if we softly defend and make them dribble it to half, they need at least 10 seconds for an offensive possession. By letting them advance it to half court without the clock running, they needed only about 5 seconds.

Miller ran his late offense, like Kelvin used to do (and most old grey haired coaches), he anticipated that we would not foul and he had his guys just go hard to the basket and either shoot a layup or get fouled. Either event stops the clock.

We let Dayton have twice the possessions they should have had -- and unnecessarily.

And yes I know, you don't want to play tight in the backcourt or hard press, because this allows teams to perhaps get a good look from the 3 in transition. I agree with this, as the team behind can't win enough possessions normally if given only "2" at a time. Just have to win too many possessions. But, you just play them close enough to make them pick up the ball and then run back.

Not trying to be negative nancy, just frustrated with our late game strategy. Overall, I love lon and the team and congratulate them on the win. Good job guys.

And finally, Buddy's late block was unbelievable. Play of the year in my book.

I'm with you on this one. You don't have to do anything stupid and get a foul. Just take a step forward and get close enough to make the guy think about it. This isn't Kruger or OU thing. You see it all the time. that's 3 or 4 seconds minimum you are letting them save each possession.

The other thing to me, when we are inbounding and knowing they are going to foul, don't just stand there and wait for them to foul you. Buddy had open court in front of him and should have made the fouler chase him down. Cousins did make a great play getting the ball up-court to Spangler before the fouler could get him. I say make them work to foul you. Every second is precious.

Had we missed a few free throws, these things would have been critical errors, IMO.

 

[usedtobe1]

I heard one post-game analyst point out the free throw difference of 19-11 made and we only won by 6. He was implying we got the benefit of the calls and won the game at the line. In reality we probably shot 10 free throws in the last minute or so when they were fouling on purpose because they were behind.

 

[skyvue]

I heard one post-game analyst point out the free throw difference of 19-11 made and we only won by 6. He was implying we got the benefit of the calls and won the game at the line. In reality we probably shot 10 free throws in the last minute or so when they were fouling on purpose because they were behind.

I heard that, too, and it got my back up. Did he even watch the game?

The fouls and free throws were very even until the last couple of minutes in the game.

 

[chuckb]

I heard that, too, and it got my back up. Did he even watch the game?

The fouls and free throws were very even until the last couple of minutes in the game.

My guess is, quite clearly, he did not...oor maybe he just misstated whatever his point was.

There were other games going on at the time, though, so he probably wasn't watching the game.

 

[KCRuf/Nek]

I'm not a coach, so for you guys that know this answer please chime in. I notice when teams go to a half court trapping defense, it usually takes the other team a minimum of 5-10 seconds to advance the ball. Why don't teams employ that defense at the end of games to make the trailing team exhaust energy and time?

Not everyone can do that.

 

[Laxtothemax12]

after woodards only miss in that last minute, their big man got the rebound and took about 6 steps and got to the lane in what seemed like 5 seconds. They were really athletic and fast and I don't know if that would've really helped a whole lot. I believe that was when he air-balled the free throw after a block on spangler lol

edit: yes, Jordan missed 2nd FT at 57 seconds, they got the foul on Ryan at 51, then he air-balled the free throw haha. I heard him right after he released it yell "Oh S.hit!" Did anyone else pick up on that haha?

 

[BruinSooner]

I'm not a coach, so for you guys that know this answer please chime in. I notice when teams go to a half court trapping defense, it usually takes the other team a minimum of 5-10 seconds to advance the ball. Why don't teams employ that defense at the end of games to make the trailing team exhaust energy and time?

Increases the probability of an easy bucket. Make a couple of passes and get a lay up. Holding a lead in a tight game, it's best to play tight D in the half court. Make them use clock trying to get a good look. And, be in good position to block out and rebound a missed shot.