NCAA Championship Game - Calling Shabi

[Reel Deal]

As someone that played competitive basketball up through high school (and have also coached junior teams), I can say with a high degree of certainty that inbounding a ball (at any level) is not automatic.

Come to think of it, if you want to stay away from results oriented thinking then playing tough D and letting them take a very low percentage shot (last second, fade-away 3 pointer with a ton of pressure on you), is the right play. The foul the guy strategy brings in many more variables (which Shab did a nice job of listing above).

[omahilo]

I have no problem with the way the game played out... fouling isnt a good decision because so much more stuff is going to have to happen (kansas free throws, memphis inbound, memphis shoots foul shots or inbound gets stolen, kansas another possession) as oppose to letting a kid shoot a tough shot for all the marbles to tie the game and send it into OT.

I would take my chances of just letting him shoot for the tie. Also with the way memphis was shooting free throws and playing in general down the stretch chances are if they get the inbound pass in they would of missed one or both free throws and kansas would of been playing for the win.

[PShabi]

I wrote my last post before I left for work, and in the car, I was immediately thinking I fucked up, by leaving something out.

There is no "right" or "wrong" here. In basketball, the saying goes, "it's not WHAT you teach, it's how you teach it." Boobie is not wrong here, but the OP asked what I thought about Calipari's decisions (or lack thereof) and I personally didn't find fault in them.

I asked a coaching forum for their thoughts and I'll post it here when I get enough responses. I'm guessing it's going to be 50/50.

Last thought:

I've watched a lot of basketball. That's an understatement. I can't remember one instance where a team used the "foul when up by 3 strategy." I've NEVER seen it done. I hear announcers ponder as the team goes to timeout, but I can't remember one time where it was actually used.

[Reel Deal]

I've also watched a ton of hoops as well and couldn't remember it either, which made it strange to hear it coming out of Bobby Knight's mouth.