WAS THAT A FOUL OR DEFEND?

No matter who you talk to or listen to, everyone has an opinion on the late game situation; up three points, on defense, and less than :07 to play.

Last night in the MSU-Indiana game the Hoosiers were up three, on defense with less than seven seconds to play in the game. Spartans guard Gary Harris pulled up for a possible game tying three-point shot from the left-wing.

Will Sheehey, the Hoosier defender put his hands straight up. The refs thought he fouled the shooter; a foul was called with 3.7 seconds left on the clock. Three shots for Harris.

Now, where do I chart that?

Under the “foul” category?

Defend category?

Or leave it alone?

Harris missed the first, made the second then had to miss the third on purpose.

Victor Oladipo of the Hoosiers secured the rebound, was fouled and made two free-throws at the other end, game over.

Last night we had four foul or defend situations in college and the NBA.

The Milwaukee Bucks led the Brooklyn Nets and had a decision to make. They elected to defend, Joe Johnson banged a three and the Nets went on to win in OT.

College:

-Longwood fouled Liberty and came away with the win.

-Missouri, who I thought was a foul team defended Florida. The Gators got a clean look from the corner but missed.

-Neveda up three on Fresno State decided to defend but gave up a three-point shot to Kevin Foster with 6 seconds left. In the extra session the Bulldogs won.

Overall stats: (As of 2/19/13

Division One Games: 

363 situations

25 fouled – 23 won

338 defended

56 made three’s

16%

NBA:

79 situations

10 fouled – 10 won

69 defended

16 made three’s

23%

Hoops135@hotmail.com

Twitter: @CoachFinamore

FRIDAY’S FREE-THROWS

Joe Rexrode of the Lansing State Journal on Louisville beating Michigan State.

Associated Press on Ohio State’s win over Cincinnati.

Eddie Pells of the Huffington Post on Florida’s win over Marquette.

CBS Sports.com on Syracuse over Wisconsin.

Quote of the Day: ”We’ve got two types of basketball teams: We’ve got the cool guys and then the blue-collar guys. I thought to start the second half we got into the cool-guy mode and we kind of let our guard down. … I mean, we just came out and decided to be cool guys, and they came out and they stung us, and then we got ourselves back into another basketball game.” -Jared Sullinger

Hoops135@hotmail.com

Follow me on Twitter: @CoachFinamore

SURVIVE AND ADVANCE

16 games in the books; 16 more today.

Filling out brackets is one of the most popular things to do at the start of the NCAA tournament. I have been doing it for many years.  On Tuesday a guy came up to me in Starbucks and asked me who I thought was going to win the Florida-UCSB game? I’ll be honest, I have never seen UCSB play this year so it was hard for me to pick. I’m like dude, your guess is as good as mine.

“Take UCSB, they played Ohio State pretty good last year in the first half.” I answered.

Florida crushed them last night 79-51. Sorry dude.

Biggest upset of the day was Morehead State beating Louisville 62-61. Demonte Harper dribbled the ball at the top of the key  as the clock was winding down. Then he stepped up behind the 3-point line and swished the jumper with 4.2 seconds left Thursday for the victory over No. 4 Louisville and the first big upset of the NCAA tournament.

“The coach said, ‘Hey, I dreamed about this last night, this exact situation,”‘ Harper said. “He said, ‘I know exactly who I’m going to. I’m going to put it right in your hands, Demonte.’ He said, ‘At 6 seconds, I want you to attack and pull up and hit the shot.’ I hit the shot. It feels unreal right now.”

Great game by Morehead’s Kenneth Faried, Newark New Jersey native. Faried played 37 relentless minutes grabbing 17 rebounds. His best play of the game was his closeout on the Louisville shooter at the end of the game. High hands…Earlier in the season he scored 20 points and pulled down 18 rebounds against Florida.

Charles Barkley said the Big East is overrated.

I thought Tom Crean, Steve Smith and Seth Davis did a good job in the studio for CBS. I like the idea of having current head coaches in studio going over the games. These guys have a much better perspective than someone like Barkley and Kenny Smith.  I like Charles and The Jet but they follow the NBA, not college basketball.

Seth Davis called Ben Howland an East Coast guy. Dude was born out West, Seth! He coached at Pitt for 4 years.

Why was Vern Lundquist and Bill Raftery so surprised at Jimmer’s ability to pass the ball? He’s led them in assists all season.

Speaking of sharing the ball, Butler’s Matt Howard, who scored the game winning basket at the buzzer against Old Dominion made 2 Larry Bird-like passes during the game.

Tim Brando may be a good football play-by-play guy but he’s a terrible basketball announcer. When a team gets an offensive rebound and a new 35 second shot clock, he calls it a ‘recycle’. Huh?

I did my best bracket work in the Southeast regional going 7 out of 8. Michigan State was my only loss.  The Spartans found themselves down 23 late in the game but put on an incredible comeback. Tom Izzo‘s troops came up short though despite the Bruins struggling at the line late in the game enabling MSU to get back in it. Overall UCLA shot 30-47 from the line, missing 9 in the last 4 minutes. By the way, MSU attempted 21 free-throws.

Enjoy the games!

hoops135@hotmail.com