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March 26, 2005
Bloody Friday
Last night was a ghastly one for the ACC. Duke and the Pack went down, and UNC barely survived. There are really two questions to ask. First, what happened with that UNC game? Second, why has the ACC done so poorly?
Lets start with the UNC game. So, what happened? Structurally, the answer is pretty simple, and the close game can be attributed to a number of factors:
1. Villanova's great game plan, and our coaching staff's failure to adjust quickly. Nova came out all guards, and were thus able to get back on defense quick, denying us our sugar move: the fast break. And our coaching staff just sat there and watched it happen for the whole 1st half.
2. Villanova's outstanding shooting. They were simply on fire. Think about Foye's (SP?) performance. Do you think he could repeat that on any given day?
3. UNC's poor shooting. We simply were not.
4. UNC's terrible ball handling. Even without the first two factors, the biggest thing that sticks out in my mind was UNC's appalling ball handling. Simply put, we were sloppy.
5. We played with no heart. How can you possibly explain our failure to utterly out-rebound Villanova in any other way?
6. We went to sleep once we were up 10. You can't do that with a team playing as hard as they were.
7. Questionable refereeing. Villanova played a very aggressive defensive game and deserve all of the credit in the world for maintaining that intensity. However, that reaching, grabbing, slashing, etc. approach involves fouling all over the place. And to be sure their players did accumulate calls. And the refs called them fairly loose. That would be OK as long as they did this consistently. But the one place they decided to be tight was Raymond Felton. I felt that at least 2 of the calls against him were simply wrong, and 2 were awfully touchy (you could just as easily have not called it). Had the refs called Nova's defense the way they did Felton's....half their team would have fouled out.
And now for that last travelling call. Well, the opinion of empty suits at ESPN notwithstanding, he travelled. Watch the film and then consider the follwing various definitions that I dug up:
"Travelling is progressing with the ball while moving one or both feet in one direction while holding the ball."
"TRAVELING-Essentially, only a single step can be taken while holding the ball. Anything else is traveling, also called "walking" or "steps." "
(From Basketball for Dummies): "Travel-A violation that occurs when the player with the basketball moves his feet illegally. Common examples include running without dribbling (taking more than two steps)"
So why does it seem so unfair? (Even I was surprised they actually called it.) The answer to that is simple too: because the refs have allowed travelling to become an epidemic in college basketball.
That call should have been made thousands more times this season, even against the Heels. But something was obviously in the air Friday night. Did anyone see the NC State game? The refs called travelling early and often in that game as well.
I remember back in the daze when Jason Williams was Duke's floor general he would run one dribble penetration after another, and the massess, including the chattering classes in sports, celebrated. But did anyone bother to notice, during the instant replays, that Williams was taking 3,4,5 and, in one stunning case, 6 steps?
I submit that Williams should have been called for travelling on half of his dribble penetrations. (Actually, that never would have happened: once he realized how the refs were calling it, he would have stopped travelling. He was a great ball handler, no question about that.)
And now for the rest of the ACC: once again, it's simple. The ACC is brutal and, by the end of the season, most ACC teams have nothing left to give emotionally. The Pack also has structural problems. They have a great coach and an offense that they execute patiently and with great discipline. But they only really have one bona fide offensive power (Hodge) and in the end some teams are able to call their bluff, regardless of how tough and disciplined their play.
Posted by dag at March 26, 2005 09:32 AM