FOUL OR DEFEND?

Please keep in mind in no way am I questioning anyone’s strategy or philosophy on the following study. There are way better coaches than me out there who do what they feel is best for their team. This is just a research study to see what coaches prefer to do in this late game situation.

Last night in Lawrence, Iowa State was leading by three points late in the game against Kansas. A pair of free throws by Korie Lucious put the Cyclones up three with 8.9 seconds to play.

The Jayhawks pushed the ball up the floor, ran a dribble hand-off into a screen. On the weak side Ben McLemore came off a flair screen.  And well, the freshman banged a three to send the game into overtime.  (As we know, Kansas won the game but like my guy Ray Lokar says, “it’ doesn’t matter, the decision was made in regulation.)

I have been studying this late game situation where a team is up three points, on defense and less than :07 to play.

Since the beginning of basketball season I have found 232 situations at the high school, college and NBA levels.  (I’m sure I have missed a few so if you are reading this and your team encountered this situation, please contact me ASAP).

When a team decided to foul they have won 25 of the 26 games. In the one loss thus far, Kent State fouled a Valpo player who made the first free throw, missed the second and got the offensive rebound for the put back. Upon further review, a Valpo player ran in the lane too early but was not called for a lane violation.  Valpo wound up winning the game in overtime. Now you can say well they didn’t box out very well and should grab that rebound, I understand all that. Bottom line is Valpo got the offensive rebound.

The 206 situations where the team decided to rely on their defense, well 40 of the teams on offense banged a three-point shot sending the game into overtime (that’s 19%, not very high).

Each day I will update the numbers and include the previous night’s situations.

Please feel free to contact me with any situations you know of this seasons or have been involved with.

I’m going to conduct the study until the last game of the NBA finals is complete in June.

-Coach Finamore

Hoops135@hotmail.com

Twitter: @CoachFinamore

DRIBBLE HAND-OFF

Michigan beat Memphis yesterday afternoon in Maui. Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 21 points and Trey Burke added 14 as No. 15 Michigan knocked off No. 8 Memphis 73-61. The Wolverines take on Duke today in the semi-finals. Scheduled tip is 7:00PM eastern standard time only on ESPN. The Tigers will play in-state rival, Tennessee at 2:00PM.

How about the Norfolk State Spartans? Home of former NBA player Boby Dandridge.  They lost to Marquette last night by 2 points.  The MEAC member have wins over TCU and Drexel thus far. What is so weird about this is that both teams played a week ago and Marquette won by 30. Chris McEachin, a 6’5″ swingman and Kyle O’Quinn a 6’10″ center are two guys to watch. Head coach Anthony Evans hails from Brooklyn, New York and has used his connections well. The Spartans have 8 players on their roster from the NY-NJ area.

UMass crushed Boston College last night 82-46. The Minutemen are 4-0 on the season.

Marlan Garcia of USA Today on someone calling Syracuse head coach, Jim Boeheim ‘Cowardly’.

A leader from a sexual abuse recovery group had harsh words Monday for Hall of Fame Syracuse men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim, who has strongly defended long-time assistant Bernie Fine against allegations of child molestation and condemned Fine’s accusers, calling them liars and saying they are looking for money.

“We would like Syracuse to change its mascot (color) from orange to yellow because Jim Boeheim has been cowardly,” Hoatson said. ”(He) hasn’t said a right thing yet. He just wants to protect his program, and the program isn’t worth a hill of beans if it has exposed children to pedophilia.”

The Missourian on the Tigers 87-58 victory over Notre Dame last night.

“The coaches preach every day to be selfless,” Pressey said. “We make sure everybody gets their shots off. It worked out today.”

AP story via ESPN on 8 players entering the college basketball Hall of Fame.

Go Creighton.com on their Blue Jays Keep an eye on this team. They crushed Iowa on Sunday.

After double-digit wins at UAB and versus Iowa on a neutral floor, the Creighton men’s basketball team on Monday garnered its share of recognition from the league office and national pollsters.

Sophomore forward Doug McDermott was named Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week after averaging 26.0 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. He shot 63.6 percent from the field (21-33), including 5-of-7 from downtown (71.4 percent) and also sank 5-of-6 free throws (83.3 percent).

McDermott began his week with 27 points and seven rebounds in a 70-60 road win at defending Conference USA champion UAB, snapping the Blazers 38-game non-conference regular-season home winning streak. He made 11-of-18 field goals, 3-of-4 shots from downtown, and both free throws while going against a UAB front line that included Preseason C-USA Player of the Year Cameron Moore.

The Herald Sun gives us the details of a college basketball player from NC Central University busted for selling weed.

Justin Jude Leemow, a senior at NCCU, has been suspended indefinitely from the team.

Durham police arrested Leemow, 23, at his apartment on Penrith Drive and charged him with felony possession with intent to manufacture, sell or distribute a controlled substance; maintaining a vehicle, dwelling or other place to sell a controlled substance; and possession of drug paraphernalia.

He is accused of selling marijuana out of his apartment. A warrant states that he was arrested with more than 13 ounces of marijuana and a digital scale and plastic baggies.

Leemow is a starting point guard for the team, and wears No. 5 on his jersey. He is a sociology major from Brooklyn, N.Y.

An excellent game on the schedule tonight has Cleveland State and Kent State squaring off. The Vikings are 3-0, Golden Flash 2-0. Both schools have a big win under their belt thus far with Cleveland State beating Vandy and Kent beating West Virginia.

hoops135@hotmail.com

Follow me on Twitter: @CoachFinamore

NINE OH TREE

Congratulations to Coach K at Duke.

The Blue Devils beat Michigan State last night at Madison Square Garden 74-69 for win number 903 in K’s career.

I heard a sports talk radio host complaining about ESPN’s love fest with Duke and K this morning. I got no problem with it, great accomplishment! Kudos…

Huffington Post on a high school boys basketball coach/teacher with racial comments directed at a student. Not cool.

A high school basketball coach is coming under fire for making offensive comments to his students after being caught on tape.

Marcus Williams Jr., a senior at Winnetonka High School, filed a racial harassment complaint with the North Kansas School District after coach Derek Howard called him a “future welfare recipient,”KCTV5.com reports.

Williams said when photography students asked him to pose for a picture, the coach stopped and said the words “future welfare recipient” should be printed beneath the photo.

“I just felt belittled, crushed and utterly discouraged,” Williams told the news network.

Shawn Windsor of the Detroit Free Press covered the MSU-Duke game. Duke turned up their defense in the second and shut down the Spartans to jump out to a 20 point lead. MSU tried to come back late and was able to cut the lead to 5 with 12 seconds left. I like this Spartans team. They compete and are young so look for good things from Tom Izzo’s bunch come the second part of the season.

Kyle Tucker of the Courier-Journal on the second game last night at MSG, Kentucky-Kansas.

There will be plenty for University of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari to critique from Tuesday night’s game. His second-ranked Wildcats weren’t a well-oiled machine in the first half against 12th-ranked Kansas.

Freshman point guard Marquis Teague seemed overwhelmed by the moment — a national TV audience and packed house at Madison Square Garden for the Champions Classic — and because of that, UK’s offense looked out of sync.

But then the Wildcats’ wealth of talent took over and America got a good look at just how quickly this young team can score, how suddenly it can swarm and subdue an opponent. After trailing for much of the first 20 minutes, Kentucky pulled away from the Jayhawks 75-65 in both teams’ second game and first real test of the season.

Press-Telegram on UCLA’s 20 point loss to the Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee State. The Bruins have lost their first two games of the season.

Walter Villa of the Star-Ledger on Rutgers losing to Miami of Florida. Rutgers head coach Mike Rice had some interesting comments after the game about his players.

“Austin was the only guy who had any purpose or discipline on our team,” Rice said. “Dane Miller was soft. Gilvydas (Biruta) was rushed. Austin was the only person I’d like to walk to the bus with me.”

WOW! Calling one of his players soft?

Congrats to new Hurricanes coach Jim Larranaga, Miami is 2-0.

Charleston Daily Mail on Kent State’s victory over West Virginia. Rob Senderoff head coach at KSU is doing a fine job at the helm. I watched this game and Senderoff’s team played hard and played with a ton of energy.

Hey, you know they moved the women’s three-point line back in college hoops, right?

Hoops135@hotmail.com

Follow me on Twitter: @CoachFinamore