GAME #22: Gophers (15-6, 4-4) v. Northwestern (11-11, 4-5) [BTN, 2/1, 1:00PM)

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stocker08 said:
Either of those last shots could have been called. Neither looked like an obvious foul......but at another point in the game......one would have been called. Hard to blame the refs though. Walker had a layup. No excuse for missing that shot.
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Absolutely correct. Even if the foul call does get made, I am upset at Mo for not putting the layup in and getting the win with the easy bucket rather than hoping he goes 2 for 2 at the stripe.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
Absolutely correct. Even if the foul call does get made, I am upset at Mo for not putting the layup in and getting the win with the easy bucket rather than hoping he goes 2 for 2 at the stripe.
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Yep, Mo just needed to go up strong for the stuff. It's practically impossible for officials to not blow the whistle when there's enough contact to prevent a dunk.
 


Bad Gopher said:
Yep, Mo just needed to go up strong for the stuff. It's practically impossible for officials to not blow the whistle when there's enough contact to prevent a dunk.
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Just a hunch here, but I thought Mo put it back up quickly and not as strongly (and with plenty of contact) because he wasn't sure how much time is left and rushed it. Happens all of the time, really, at the end of games. It's my opinion that a strategy of allowing your team to let the other team take the game down to the ~10 second mark when you're behind isn't the best strategy - maybe with 15+ seconds left, but 10 seconds is too little time to get the ball to the other end of the court to run an offensive set with more than one look - so if that first look is defended, you're left with few options. NW did a good job of cutting off the Gophers' first and second options, then DeAndre took it in out of desperation with only ~3 seconds left, which meant either he made it (or went to the line); or any other offensive play would inherently be rushed.

Now, DM did get fouled, and I believe would have made the shot without the foul. But that's a lot of if's, and goes back to my first statement - I disagree with the strategy of waiting that long to get the ball back. They should have put Lumpkin on the line.
 

cncmin said:
Now, DM did get fouled, and I believe would have made the shot without the foul. But that's a lot of if's, and goes back to my first statement - I disagree with the strategy of waiting that long to get the ball back. They should have put Lumpkin on the line.
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Huh? There was a 12 second differential there, and we were down 1. If you put someone on the line there's a decent chance we are down 3 with our best shooter unable to hit the broad side of a barn and our second best shooter still wearing his warmup gear. I am not sure there is a coach in the entire country who fouls down 1 point with ~48 seconds left.
 

fryguy22 said:
Huh? There was a 12 second differential there, and we were down 1. If you put someone on the line there's a decent chance we are down 3 with our best shooter unable to hit the broad side of a barn and our second best shooter still wearing his warmup gear. I am not sure there is a coach in the entire country who fouls down 1 point with ~48 seconds left.
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I think it depends how bad the free throw shooter is and how good your defense is.

Let's say Lumpkin shoots 50% from the foul line (not sure what he shoots really though). So you'd guess you'll have the ball down 2 now with 48 seconds left. Instead of down 1 with 12 seconds left.

But now, let's add in pretend your defense has allowed Northwestern to shoot wide open threes and twos all game Because your defense is just plain atrocious.

If a coach didn't trust his defense to get a stop, being down 2 with 48 seconds left is much much much better than being down 3 or 4 with 12 seconds left.

In the Gophers/Northwestern case I think Pitino played it fine. But I could certainly see scenarios where you foul. Especially if there is an awful free throw shooter available.
 

scher215 said:
In the Gophers/Northwestern case I think Pitino played it fine. But I could certainly see scenarios where you foul. Especially if there is an awful free throw shooter available.
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Yeah, I don't necessarily disagree with this - maybe I made my point poorly. For example, if you are playing D and they get it into their Center who shoots 55%, you might foul there, especially if it's 1 and 1 rather than double bonus. In a vacuum, though, I think pretty much every coach trusts his defense in that scenario.
 



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