Michigan - Minnesota basketball open thread

Submitted by ckersh74 on

4-4, 4 minutes in.

And....go. 

AlwaysBlue

January 2nd, 2014 at 9:27 PM ^

It's entertaining to see how many seem to think they know more though. I can imagine them going head to head with JB. He'd he that smirk and bury them before the shot clock sounded. Crazy as subs.

MichWolve95

January 2nd, 2014 at 10:04 PM ^

He might know everything there is to know about basketball, but you have to admit that his end of game management (usually the most important part of the game) is sloppy. Calls a timeout for Pitino and then lets them get an easy shot. Good coach, but there obviously needs to be more time devoted in practice to end of game situations. You shouldn't have to call a timeout there; your players should know how to defend in that situation because you have practiced it repeatedly.

MGoBender

January 2nd, 2014 at 9:16 PM ^

It's not a right/wrong decision.  There's two schools of thought and with that time remaining it's tough because if you get close enough to foul with a guy running towards the basket, he's going to put it up.  You CANNOT give up three FTs in that situation.

There wasn't much of a chance to foul without potentially putting yourself in that situation.  Regardless, we know that Beilein will play that situation a certain way, which means they practice it that way.  He's been coaching basketball longer than many of us have been alive and that's clearly his strategy so we might as well quit whining about it. 

WMUgoblue

January 2nd, 2014 at 9:21 PM ^

Obviously Beilein knows far more about basketball than I do, but it seems like that situation has bit him enough these past few years that he might re-think his strategy. Now I could be very wrong, but that looked like far to good of a shot for the limited time.

MGoBender

January 2nd, 2014 at 9:28 PM ^

I'm sure he has.  There's just pros and cons to that situation and I think we are being a little talk radio callerish if we act like there's one right answer and the guy who's clearly studied it more than us and has better knowledge of his players than us gets that answer wrong.

I've been in that situation as a coach and there are so many things that can go wrong, I also wouldn't foul:

Intentional foul called b/c your guys need to make sure to foul early enough and might over-do it.  (WORST scenario, because now you've put yourself in a position to lose, not just go to OT).

Foul too late and have continuation awarded.

Foul way too early and have to deal with rebounding the second FT miss.

Foul on that rebound.

You can argue (and I've done so with myself) that those are unlikely events, but they are all possible.  Is their sum probability bigger than hitting a rushed, contested, deep three?  Probably.  At least, that's my thought and why I wouldn't foul.