I forget who was talking about it before the game but man is Villlanova lucky to have Jay Wright. He is pure class. The first comments out of his month after accepting the trophy were about Michigan and their program and then he doubles up with this. Not many coaches would say or do these things.
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He did the same thing with West Virginia and Kansas
We ended up second in the final Coaches Poll.
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I mixed a cocktail and rewatched the replay of the first 10 minutes for the first time. I would not recommend it. We looked so good. I think the refs missed no fewer than 5 calls against 'Nova on the offensive end that would have been huge boosts for us. It’s just frustrating.
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I was watching the game with non basketball fans and they didn’t understand the panic in my voice since we were up. I was trying to explain that there was no room for error and that this was our chance to pounce we needed to take a large lead while we could.
When we were only up 21-14, I knew it was trouble. Also there was some kinda rough calls that had me rolling. I knew in my heart we needed to up about 26-11 in that little run and when we missed that chance coupled with some calls/not corralling the o boards, I started to panic right away. I could feel it coming.
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I just showed a friend of mine the first 12 minutes. He said, “Wow, you guys got screwed on six terrible calls. It would have been different if you would have made a shot.” Fair play.
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To paraphrase myself on the Game Thread, I am on Team Auto-Bench, especially with the type of calls Duncan got rung up on (boxing out too aggressively?). Stinks that it had to come to that, but Michigan couldn’t afford to have Duncan or MAAR pick up their third. That said, the rest of the team needed to sack up and help keep the game closer going into halftime.
It’s interesting to think that although we were beaten soundly, and by the better team–or at least the more consistent team–it could have been a very different game.
Robinson ended the game with 2 fouls and played most of the second half (although he didn’t score). The end of the first half was critical and even Beilein said that losing Duncan and Rahk really hurt us.
Should he have trusted his seniors to play with 2 fouls in the first half? It would have been interesting to see how that would have played out. As it is, we didn’t have anything to lose.
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Hindsight is always 20/20. If Belein left them in and MAAR / Duncan picked up their 3rd fouls, and potentially didn’t start the second half, we would have been saying “why did coach go away from something that has been working all year.”
I don’t think the foul problems were the reason we lost this game. Think we still would have lost even if MAAR/Duncan didn’t sit to close the first half.
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Well a lot of people, myself included, would not argue that it’s been working all year. And we would have recommended Duncan or Rahk start the 2nd half even if they had 3 fouls. If you sit them for fouls you are essentially fouling them out yourself. I agree with your last sentence though.
Not to mention most anti auto bench folks ignore the drastically different defense that players with two fouls play.
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I thought Duncan’s box out was perfect, certainly the way I taught it. I didn’t necessarily have an “auto-bench” policy when I coached, but I almost always sat a player in the first half when he picked up his second foul and in the second half when he picked up his third. When they went back in had to do with, a. the player, b. the way the game was being officiated and my opinion of the quality of the officials, and c. the game situation. I DO trust Coach B’s judgement, though. And again, I thought Duncan’s box out was well executed. Unfortunately the official the NCAA hand picked to officiate the National Championship game didn’t see it that way. For Duncan to get TWO fouls on the same defensive possession was also ridiculous. There are several things I’d like to say about officiating in general and in the National Championship game in particular but it wouldn’t change anything.
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If a player has two fouls in the first half you attack them at the hoop.
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