Badgers Choke
- Thread starter newAD
- Start date
Nah. More like ND making huge plays down the stretch. That kid for Wisky just couldn't make that lay-up with around 10 seconds left. Great job getting to the rack but just could not get the ball to go down. Great game.
The Irish did make some clutch plays, but Hayes screwed the pooch by trying to split that trap. There's a 99% chance you will get fouled in that situation, and if you don't you still have a timeout left. No need to dribble the ball into traffic there, especially when you're not really a ball-handler.
Looking at the replay. Hayes probably took off too early for the corner. The inbounds passer took his eyes off the #1 option making the banana cut (he was open) and moved toward Hayes, threw it to him and since Hayes foolishly (or selfishly) broke too early, he caught the ball in the deep corner and the on the ball defender had a short way to go to make the trap. Then Hayes decided to take matters into his own hands with splitting two defenders and dribbling into a third defender.
Kinda sucks when players do not execute the plan. It's human nature to try to be the hero, take matters into your own hands or decide early that you're going to do to the 2nd or 3rd option-- it happens all the time. As a coach, it can make you look stupid though. Kinda reminds me of Tommy Armstrong deciding that he would pass instead of keep the ball. College kids are just that. Kids.
Yeah that was not a blunder that I would put on the coaches - looked like Hayes just got rattled and made a bad decision, as you described. But I think teams tend to forget that with :16 or :18 or whatever left on the clock, the defense is unlikely to exert enough patience to force a ten-second violation. So get the ball to a good FT shooter and then just be patient - you'll get fouled.
Anyway, it was an exciting game and Notre Dame was outstanding in the closing minutes. Nice contrast to the lopsided games on Thursday night.
Excellent point. The Northern Iowa collapse is another example of that. Up 10 with 30 seconds left, all they really needed to do was throw it in, catch the ball, and pivot with it until they got a 10 second back court violation. It's amazing the damage that can be done when you lose the ball to an opponent and all they have to do is take one dribble and lay it in.