/hindsight
With that little time remaining, it's pretty much common sense.
If Tennessee was out of timeouts, it would have made a lot of sense. But they had one left, and it only took .2 off the clock. I think I would take a point over two tenths, regardless of circumstances.
Couple things. First, MSU was a little unlucky that it only took off 0.2; usually a whole second is lost. Second, after a made basket your opponent can run the baseline on the inbounds, whereas after a called timeout on a rebound he can't - a big difference.
Great point. I forgot about running the baseline. Still though, I think a good argument can be made for both sides.
(stroking beard)
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x234/ctbob/douche.jpg
, but he is one hell of a coach. Just douchey most of the time.
Is he really "douchey?" I hate the fact that his teams constantly kick ass, but I don't recall ever thinking he personally was anything but class. This isn't coach-berating Coach K we're talking about.
He's every bit as weird/deranged as Dantonio, but is better at hiding it from the public. He used to have a reputation as one of the biggest negative recruiters in the league. He was a total shark in the recruiting waters when we had the NCAA over our heads. He may have mellowed some since his program has become established.
(EDIT: It's the truth. Ask anyone who was close to the scene a decade ago. Danny Hope would have blushed at the crap Izzo said about us.)
I'll stick with my call out of Izzo as douchey. The best example is when he looks like he's going to cry on the sidelines after a call against MSU. I wish I could get a video of it, but he did it again in the game. The guy just annoys me, but he is a great coach. That's my e-pinion, neg away if you like.
I think so. They pretty much had to shoot a 3, unless they wanted to just chuck it the whole court and hope someone can grab it and shoot over a bunch of defenders in just over a second. MSU might be one of the worst Final 4 teams of all time. I doubt a 5 seed has ever had to only beat a 12, 9, 6, and 4.
MSU always seems to be an average regular season team that is extremely inconsistent. Then the tourney comes and they pull out these lucky buzzer wins. Why doesn't Izzo just make his team play like this all season?
What's especially odd is that they always seem to play like crap in the Big Ten Tournament, only to suddenly flip the switch a week later.
The teams that you're playing.
That's more than any #1 seed outside of Duke has done so far this tournament. They're not a bad team, and they're playing good basketball at the moment.
I wouldn't be surprised. We'll have to wait for one of the ESPN dorks to get the answer.
March 28th, 2010 at 11:33 PM ^
As a 5 seed Indiana beat a 12, a 13, a 1, and a 10 to get there.
Not in the least. I just don't get it. It wasted essentially no time. If Tennessee chucks it down and gets a two, you lose. I mean, they won, but it had nothing to do with that call. It would have been Tenn. ball out of bounds either way, take the extra point.
The only real advantage I can see coming from it is that UT couldn't run the baseline on the inbounds. So they could set up their D better. Assuming they called a TO. If UT didn't call a TO, definitely a good move missing the FT
Tennessee had to shoot a three (there's no way they could throw the ball all the way down the court inside the arc) so the extra point wouldn't have mattered. Even though it only took .2 off, it was still the right call.
Because if you assume any shot by TN will be a long 3 the second free throw is meaningless. You hope it will bounce around before TN can get the timeout but it didn't - still the right call.
You have to load the defense deep so there is no long pass for a 2 - which they did.
This post for the win. Obviously a good idea to miss that FT. 2 pt lead is no good and even if a few tenths come off the clock, it's still time missing.
Either way, tennesse only had time to hoist up a half court shot. so whether he made the free throw or not the chances for tennesse to win it were slim. Missing the free throw would have ended the game immediately if state got the rebound or if tennessee couldnt call a time out quickly enough.
Except no MSU player even moved to get the rebound... I understand they don't want to foul, but don't you have the same advantage if you make the shot?
Yes - ball came down funny - typical play under the basket might have ended it right there.
How can only .2 seconds come off the clock from the time the ball is caught until time out is called?
Especially when you can't catch and shoot with under .3sec.
The clock doesn't start until the ball is touched so it can roll around the rim all day and it doesn't matter.By missing the free throw you subject yourself to a two pointer beating you all for .2 seconds to run off the clock.
As much as I hate State I have to give credit where credit is due. Tom Izzo is one fantastic coach. Making the final four without his best player? That is incredible.
Also helpful... every team they play missing 2-3x as many free throws as they have all season against them.
Izzo is incredible, but this team is ridiculously lucky as well.
I wouldn't necessarily call it luck because luck always runs out. This team is good and is well coached. If they make the final two years in a row then that will speak volumes about Izzo as an all time great.
The 2002 OSU football team disagrees about luck always running out.
It's possible to lucky and good at the same time. State was fortunate that Kansas got knocked out, and that its opponents haven't shot FTs well. They had no control over those things. That said, they've done well with what they did have control over.
They were aided by a very generous call by that ref. JP Prince rejected Raymar Morgan and they called a foul? Whatever, Butler will take care of them in the semis.
were we watching the same play? That was a foul that gets called 99/100 times. He had 2 defenders beat and they jumped all over him. Maybe hand got ball, but there was a whole lot of other body on body going on.
It takes time off the clock and they are shooting a 3 98% of the time.
I somewhat called the play in the open thread. It made some sense. You hope UT might brain lapse and not call the TO immediately. You hope the ball goes off at a good angle that they don't control the ball right to them. They didn't get that bounce. Oh well. Still cut off a sixth of the time left on the clock. UT was going to have to go 3 or nothing with that time left. One point on a free throw wasn't going to make a difference as long as MSU didn't foul.
I was thinking the same thing before the FT. Tennessee handled the miss the best way possible. The ball could have bounced off the rim funny and caused a Vols player to tip the ball around and the game would have ended at that time. Plus a long three was the only realistic shot Tennessee had with the time left.
didn't matter much. It was a safe play to try and get a few ticks off the clock. That didn't work since it was a clean rebound. Either way they had to go the length of the court in 1.8
I've often wondered why teams don't do that more often--except hving the free throw shooter drill the ball off the front of the rim and you have more chance of it hitting players without them being able to catch it--then time goes off the clock.
The ballsy thing about that is the free throw shooter can get too careful and miss the rim altogether.
Great win and to do it without Lucas is pretty unbelievable. But one thing Izzo does is he imposes his will on just about every game he coaches. That's the mark of a great coach and a team that listens--MSU almost never seems to get out of their game.
I honestly thought Tenessee would drill them.
...was going to be about how to defend an inbound play at the buzzer. I'm pleasantly surprised.
I think there's a difference when you have 1.8 vs about four seconds? With more time, a guy can catch and dribble and you have five defending four--percentages. PLUS, how many times is a guy gonna hit a 40 foot jumper?
Interesting that Tennessee didn't get the ball deep on the throw in and call their last time out to set up a higher percentage shot off an ibound play (at least I'm pretty sure they had one time out left).
Yes, they had one left.
I don't see how it's "ballsy."
It's ballsy if you decide to leave the inbounder ungaurded. If you guard the inbounder the only real chance they have is a mid court heave.
I think "ballsy" is referring to missing the free throw intentionally.
I know. The point was the "ballsy"-ness of the call has nothing to do with missing the FT on purpose because it all depends on what you do on the inbounds. Like someone said, it's just common sense to miss it in purpose and try and burn some time.
great call but not ballsy, the miss prevents the inbounder from running down the baseline making it easier to guard the inbound, and TENN was going to take a 3 regardless of the free throw result.
The biggest travesty of that game was the no-call on a travel by Morgan?/Green? with about 30 seconds left. Dude took like four steps and not a peep out of the refs. That would've been a game-changer.
WE HAVE A HOCKEY GAME TONIGHT
KNOCK KNOCK HELLO?
A tacky free throw violation...a buzzer beater after an epic collapse....the #1 overall seed being upset by a mid major....every possible late game break going your way (UNI) and winning a final four trip at the free throw line.....I'd say things couldn't have fallen any better for them. What's next? A team they match up almost perfectly against in Butler.
I think it was a good call. Even if it only killed .2 seconds, chances were that Tenn was going to have to shoot a three, so the two point lead wouldn't have been a difference maker.