Spellman literally just climbed through the back of the WVU player for the put back dunk, and nobody seemed to notice. Is over the back not a foul anymore?
It’s horseshit, really. Nova is good enough without a blatant advantage.Never seen a non-Duke game where one team is in the double bonus and one has been called for 2 team fouls.
Yeah the upsets are gonna come from late slateDisappointing early slate - 30 min ago was a 50/50 shot of one 1 seed going down
Seems like he could be a solid backupI’d take Jalen Brunson on the Celtics.
you could have stopped at the bolded.Syracuse not having any clue how to run offense against the 2-3 zone is so bizarre. They all stand around five feet behind the perimeter, nobody flashes or sets up shop in the hole at the free throw line, nothing.
Villanova and Michigan could learn something from him.Allen shoots a very reboundable 3.
Great post HRB. It’s rare I read the long ones, but that’s a nice read.Thoughts from a frustrating Friday night without quoting half dozen previous posts:
* Refs in WVU game had to have a halftime conversation on how to keep Huggins from advancing. Miles 3rd and 4th fouls were laughable (may have been 2nd and 3rd), Carter's 3rd early in the 2nd there was literally zero contact so figure that one out then come back and see me, the double T on Konate was the final straw in giving the zebras any sort of benefit of the doubt. They all know a double T counts as a personal and would drastically affect the game.....nope, didn't matter cuz they exchanged harmless words while not involved in the play with zero physical confrontation. Even late a Nova defender didn't allow a WVU 3-point shooter to land as the shooter fell to the floor about 3 feet in front of the ref and Huggins. NOBODY gives officials the benefit of the doubt on missed calls more than I do as I recognize the difficulty officiating games at a higher level.......but these whistles when there is no contact, the double T, a zero-interpretation rule of allowing the shooter space to land don't fall into the category of speed and athleticism being much more difficult to officiate. I wouldn't be surprised if we found out years from now that something was up in this game. #donaghy
* WVU's style was its own worst enemy as I feared it would be against a great shooting team like Villanova. Nobody in the country gives up more open 3's than Huggins team "due to their style" and Nova made them pay by knocking down 13-24. This wasn't random as WVU ranked 317 out of 351 D-1 schools in Opponents 3-point shooting. Credit to Brunson and Nova for taking care of the ball committing 16 TO against WVU who were 5th in country at creating TO's at 16.5 per game. Aside from the officiating, this right here was the difference in the game.
* With the NBA expanded rosters and Brunson's dads NBA contacts (10-yr player, current assistant) he's surely going to stick around in the league or at least have multiple chances (see: Rivers, Pressey, Lucas III, Karl, etc). While he doesn't possess the handle/quickness of say a VanVleet what he can do is shoot the ball so he'll have plenty of opportunity to find a niche on someones second unit. Solid solid player.
* If I'm looking for a guy to play on the Celtics 2nd unit though give me some Konate and then give me some MORE Konate!! This physical beast from Mali began playing basketball 4-5 years ago and went from being unplayable last season to a guy who had to be on the floor at all times for WVU. I always speak about players landing on the right team, in the right system for their skillset but man.....is there a coach and system for a 260 lb athletic freak with zero background in the game to learn from than Bob Huggins? This is the very definition of landing in the right spot. The kid only knows one way to play the game now.
* I said this years ago and received push back for it......but you simply CANNOT combine a 30-second shot clock while allowing zone defense and expect to see a fluid basketball game. 10-15 years ago this would have been a complete disaster but even today with so many players on the floor having 3-point range to mask some of this ugliness that you'll see nearly everyone have with the Syracuse, Duke, Cincinnati, Virginia, etc variation of a zone. The offensive team doesn't begin their halfcourt set after a made basket until the clock is down to around 20-21 seconds and even less against zone pressure. Once the clock gets into single digits you enter panic-time where it becomes helter skeleter to get ANY shot off.......so due to the NCAA rules you have a fluid halfcourt offense able to run for roughly 9-12 seconds. Good luck with this being watchable OR effective. Frankly, I'm surprised college coaches even play man at all under these rules. Are these guys living in the past or what?
* College coaching is nothing like NBA coaching as these guys truly make a difference in their teams preparation and in-game adjustments. For years, I've had Bill Self, Rick Barnes, and Roy Williams among the worst in-game coaches I watch and last night nothing changed for me with Self. If not for some sketchy calls they may have blown a 15-point lead in the final minutes. Successful college coaches typically excel at either recruiting or in-game coaching......very few ever master both.
Excellent post.Thoughts from a frustrating Friday night without quoting half dozen previous posts:
* Refs in WVU game had to have a halftime conversation on how to keep Huggins from advancing. Miles 3rd and 4th fouls were laughable (may have been 2nd and 3rd), Carter's 3rd early in the 2nd there was literally zero contact so figure that one out then come back and see me, the double T on Konate was the final straw in giving the zebras any sort of benefit of the doubt. They all know a double T counts as a personal and would drastically affect the game.....nope, didn't matter cuz they exchanged harmless words while not involved in the play with zero physical confrontation. Even late a Nova defender didn't allow a WVU 3-point shooter to land as the shooter fell to the floor about 3 feet in front of the ref and Huggins. NOBODY gives officials the benefit of the doubt on missed calls more than I do as I recognize the difficulty officiating games at a higher level.......but these whistles when there is no contact, the double T, a zero-interpretation rule of allowing the shooter space to land don't fall into the category of speed and athleticism being much more difficult to officiate. I wouldn't be surprised if we found out years from now that something was up in this game. #donaghy
* WVU's style was its own worst enemy as I feared it would be against a great shooting team like Villanova. Nobody in the country gives up more open 3's than Huggins team "due to their style" and Nova made them pay by knocking down 13-24. This wasn't random as WVU ranked 317 out of 351 D-1 schools in Opponents 3-point shooting. Credit to Brunson and Nova for taking care of the ball committing 16 TO against WVU who were 5th in country at creating TO's at 16.5 per game. Aside from the officiating, this right here was the difference in the game.
* With the NBA expanded rosters and Brunson's dads NBA contacts (10-yr player, current assistant) he's surely going to stick around in the league or at least have multiple chances (see: Rivers, Pressey, Lucas III, Karl, etc). While he doesn't possess the handle/quickness of say a VanVleet what he can do is shoot the ball so he'll have plenty of opportunity to find a niche on someones second unit. Solid solid player.
* If I'm looking for a guy to play on the Celtics 2nd unit though give me some Konate and then give me some MORE Konate!! This physical beast from Mali began playing basketball 4-5 years ago and went from being unplayable last season to a guy who had to be on the floor at all times for WVU. I always speak about players landing on the right team, in the right system for their skillset but man.....is there a coach and system for a 260 lb athletic freak with zero background in the game to learn from than Bob Huggins? This is the very definition of landing in the right spot. The kid only knows one way to play the game now.
* I said this years ago and received push back for it......but you simply CANNOT combine a 30-second shot clock while allowing zone defense and expect to see a fluid basketball game. 10-15 years ago this would have been a complete disaster but even today with so many players on the floor having 3-point range to mask some of this ugliness that you'll see nearly everyone have with the Syracuse, Duke, Cincinnati, Virginia, etc variation of a zone. The offensive team doesn't begin their halfcourt set after a made basket until the clock is down to around 20-21 seconds and even less against zone pressure. Once the clock gets into single digits you enter panic-time where it becomes helter skeleter to get ANY shot off.......so due to the NCAA rules you have a fluid halfcourt offense able to run for roughly 9-12 seconds. Good luck with this being watchable OR effective. Frankly, I'm surprised college coaches even play man at all under these rules. Are these guys living in the past or what?
* College coaching is nothing like NBA coaching as these guys truly make a difference in their teams preparation and in-game adjustments. For years, I've had Bill Self, Rick Barnes, and Roy Williams among the worst in-game coaches I watch and last night nothing changed for me with Self. If not for some sketchy calls they may have blown a 15-point lead in the final minutes. Successful college coaches typically excel at either recruiting or in-game coaching......very few ever master both.
I'm sorry, but there is absolutely no way to argue after winning three titles and going to two other national title games in 15 years that Roy Williams is among the worst in-game coaches you or anybody has seen.* College coaching is nothing like NBA coaching as these guys truly make a difference in their teams preparation and in-game adjustments. For years, I've had Bill Self, Rick Barnes, and Roy Williams among the worst in-game coaches I watch and last night nothing changed for me with Self. If not for some sketchy calls they may have blown a 15-point lead in the final minutes. Successful college coaches typically excel at either recruiting or in-game coaching......very few ever master both.
This is the opinion I've formed of Roy over the years and it is one that is shared by several who I know close to the program. When smart people openly mock a coach you begin paying attention.......this has been going on with Roy for many years now. You cannot deny the recruitment of great college players and the winning of games......however poor in-game decision making can be masked by talent and leadership by the players. He has two Top-20 wings coming in next year so his deficiencies will be masked again. As I said in my post, few master both recruiting along with the x's and o's.I'm sorry, but there is absolutely no way to argue after winning three titles and going to two other national title games in 15 years that Roy Williams is among the worst in-game coaches you or anybody has seen.
Yes, he plays man defense 99.9% of the time and yes he lets the kids play through bad stretches rather than call timeouts most times, but I find it a complete non-starter that Roy or any coach could have that much tournament success and be deficient in-game. Just the fact that in the one-game scenario he's 28-0 in the round of 64 game is proof enough for me because that's tripped up Coach K, Tom Izzo, and many other top coaches more than once.
Thank you. I really need to focus on avoiding the chat-like responses and put out more of a meaningful post from my heart like I used to do.Great post HRB. It’s rare I read the long ones, but that’s a nice read.