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Foul Shooting, One Shining Moment & Texas' Oldest Dance Hall - Apr 08, 2008
posted by: Josh
• It turns out my prediction about Memphis' free-throw shooting rang true, as the Tigers' Achilles Heel proved crippling last night. Here's the reality - Memphis could have won the national championship, but horrible foul shooting will often burn you in close games, which is what we often see in the Final Four. Bill Self made the right move by fouling Memphis with about three minutes left on the clock - he bought his team more time, more possessions and ultimately, the national championship. • The best three minutes in sports? Try "One Shining Moment." Why does that song bring tears to our eyes every year? Why can we never look away from the screen when Luther is serenading us? • I feel awful for the Memphis fans. One of my earliest memories was in 1987, when Syracuse lost the national championship game to Indiana on a buzzer beater from Keith Smart. I remember crying my 4-year-old eyes out as the Orange bowed their heads. It was devastating. Is it worse to lose the way Memphis did last night or to get blown out from the start? • Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon, Pat Riley and Dick Vitale were among those selected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame recently. The foursome, along with fellow inductees Adrian Dantley, Cathy Rush and William Davidson were honored at halftime last night. • Have you read about the youth basketball partnership between the NCAA, NBA and other stakeholders? Listen to yesterday's Mondays With Myles to get the lowdown. • Have you checked out Kristen Jacob's blog on NCAA.com? On Sunday, Kristen was hanging out at My Coke Fest, and caught Taylor Swift, 3 Doors Down and the All-American Rejects. There were a number of outstanding concerts here in San Antonio, enabling all those who couldn't get tickets to the games to take part in the Final Four experience. • Sunday afternoon, thousands of basketballs were handed out to kids who dribbled 0.8 miles around the Alamodome. After the dribble, everyone headed over to Hoop City to listen to bands, hang with the mascots and watch the cheerleaders. • I'm had a great time in San Antonio, but Sunday I drove out of city limits to Gruene (pronounced Green), to catch some music at Gruene Hall, the oldest dance hall in the state. I watched Antsy McClain & the Trailer Park Troubadours perform, which was a true Texas experience. Although it was a bit out of the city, there were a number of Kansas and Memphis fans spending the day off immersing themselves in the Texas culture. 
CommentsFreethrows may have contributed to the loss but that was not the only factor. Like I posted in your original post it is oversimplifying the game to focus on that one aspect. The fact that Kansas shot over 50% and Memphis only shot 40%from the field and Kansas scored over 40 points in the paint had a lot to do with them winning. Memphis probably had the ball around 80 plus times so to be hard for me to say it just came down to the freethrows. Did they miss them late sure but they also had a very costly turnover that led to a 3 in the corner and then the old debate of whether to foul or not at the end. Also CDR shots over 70% on the season, he just missed under pressure his percentage is not the reason the team shoots so low. Kansas got fortunate he cracked. If they were fouling Dorsey and he was missing I would say that the hack a shaq was working. What a great game last night. You have to feel bad for those Memphis kids because they were so close to winning it in regulation. Great point, Josh, about Bill Self extending the game by fouling earlier than normal. One lasting impression that I will take from this game was the class that John Calipari displayed in his post-game news conference. Even though I disagree with his claim that free throw shooting wasn't the main reason that his team lost, I still think that he is a winner. If I was in a position to play college basketball, I would love to play for him. apart from the poor effort from the line, coach lost the game for memphis at the end of regulation.... all they had to do was foul before the 3-pointer. huge mistake. i see teams make the same mistake all the time.. they prefer to risk being tied than give up a couple of free throws and regain possesion with a one point lead at worst. you still win the game with a one point lead..... Technically GREECE, by fouling it is one way to lose the game. If you foul and they make one then on an intentional miss they get a tip in and get fouled you could actually be down one. If you do not foul the worse that could happen is that you will be tied. Now there is a lot of what ifs but it is still possible. That is why coaches don't always foul in that situation. There will always be the debate because of the different possible outcomes. Look at it this way, if they have a player who is a great 3 point shooter they may shoot 50% so their odds aren't great that they will hit it. We see only the games where someone hits the shot in highlights but there are many more where they miss. Post a Comment |
  
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