Michigan State Advances to Final
I actually don't want to talk much about the game - I may post a bit about it in some sort of a championship preview between now and Monday night - but I do want to briefly talk about what I thought was a coaching error on the part of Connecticut's Jim Calhoun down the stretch in Saturday's first national semifinal.
Trailing by 11 points with less than 1:54 to go, the Huskies put on a furious full-court press. Several Spartan mistakes and 46 seconds later, Connecticut small forward Stanley Robinson found himself hanging from the rim, his thunderous jam following an A.J. Price miss having brought his team to within 74-71.
The momentum of the game had certainly shifted. More importantly, the circumstances of the game had shifted. Down just a possession, Connecticut no longer needed a steal or a quick foul. They needed a stop. And that need would best be filled not by the scrambling, high-risk, full-court pressure that had brought them back in the game, but by a solid possession of half-court defense.
But college kids are college kids, and this is the game's biggest stage, and after all, just seconds ago, it appeared that their national championship dreams were over. They can be forgiven for getting caught up in the moment and not recognizing this right away.
It's harder to excuse Calhoun. Perhaps he expected his counterpart at Michigan State, Tom Izzo, to call one, and didn't want to burn his final timeout unnecessarily. Perhaps he thought the Spartans were sufficiently rattled and didn't want to give them a chance to calm down. Or perhaps he, too, got caught up in the moment.
Whatever the reason, Calhoun didn't call timeout, and neither did Izzo, and the results were disastrous for Connecticut. MSU's Durrell Summers broke free from the frantic Connecticut press, and freshman Kemba Walker, desperate to stop an easy layup, got to Summers a moment too late. Summers got the basket and the foul, made the free throw, and it was pretty much over at that point.
Calhoun may have been nervous about entering the final 60 seconds of a one-possession game without a timeout, but it's hard to see what he was saving his final stoppage for; by the time he called it, Michigan State led 80-73 and there were 30 seconds left. That one possession was the most important of the game and required a substantial strategy shift, and Calhoun needed to call his final timeout there, whatever the consequences.
Trailing by 11 points with less than 1:54 to go, the Huskies put on a furious full-court press. Several Spartan mistakes and 46 seconds later, Connecticut small forward Stanley Robinson found himself hanging from the rim, his thunderous jam following an A.J. Price miss having brought his team to within 74-71.
The momentum of the game had certainly shifted. More importantly, the circumstances of the game had shifted. Down just a possession, Connecticut no longer needed a steal or a quick foul. They needed a stop. And that need would best be filled not by the scrambling, high-risk, full-court pressure that had brought them back in the game, but by a solid possession of half-court defense.
But college kids are college kids, and this is the game's biggest stage, and after all, just seconds ago, it appeared that their national championship dreams were over. They can be forgiven for getting caught up in the moment and not recognizing this right away.
It's harder to excuse Calhoun. Perhaps he expected his counterpart at Michigan State, Tom Izzo, to call one, and didn't want to burn his final timeout unnecessarily. Perhaps he thought the Spartans were sufficiently rattled and didn't want to give them a chance to calm down. Or perhaps he, too, got caught up in the moment.
Whatever the reason, Calhoun didn't call timeout, and neither did Izzo, and the results were disastrous for Connecticut. MSU's Durrell Summers broke free from the frantic Connecticut press, and freshman Kemba Walker, desperate to stop an easy layup, got to Summers a moment too late. Summers got the basket and the foul, made the free throw, and it was pretty much over at that point.
Calhoun may have been nervous about entering the final 60 seconds of a one-possession game without a timeout, but it's hard to see what he was saving his final stoppage for; by the time he called it, Michigan State led 80-73 and there were 30 seconds left. That one possession was the most important of the game and required a substantial strategy shift, and Calhoun needed to call his final timeout there, whatever the consequences.
Labels: Connecticut, Jim Calhoun, Michigan State
posted by H.S. Slam, Ph.D at 5:47 PM
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