I love just about everything about the first week of March Madness. I love the wall-to-wall games. I love the upsets. I love the blowouts. I love the great individual performances. I love the close final minutes. I love the enthusiasm of the players, the fans, Kevin Harlan. The regular college basketball season doesn't do much for me, but March makes it all worthwhile.
Except for one thing ... I am SO sick of the studio hosts talking again and again and again about the officiating.
This hit home today after the North Carolina-Washington game when they spent a good 20 minutes arguing whether or not Washington (after heaving a half-court shot that a North Carolina player lost out of bounds) deserved to have a few tenths of a second more than then 0.5 seconds they actually got to take a last three-point shot. Yikes. I mean they brought in the head of officials, they they replayed it 20 times, they showed an angry Washington coach several times, they talked about it like this was one of the most important questions of our time. And even after showing it all those times:
1. I'm pretty convinced the officials got it right.
2. If they had added two- or three-tenths of a second, that almost certainly wouldn't have meant ANYTHING.
But that was NOTHING compared to the endless and pointless talk about officiating at the end of the Texas-Arizona game. Here's what happened. Arizona led most of the game, but Texas took the lead 69-67 with about a minute left. Arizona then had several chances to tie the game, but kept missing. With 14 seconds left, Arizona had a shot blocked, and Texas' Jordan Hamilton got the ball. And then, inexplicably, he called timeout.
No, really, it was inexplicable. It was as bad a timeout as I can ever remember in a college basketball game. You are up two points with 14 seconds left and and the clock is running -- you are breaking about 500 rules by calling timeout there. You don't want to stop the clock. You don't want to have to inbound the ball against a set defense (especially because you cannot move after a timeout). You don't want to give the other team any chance at all to regroup. YOU DO NOT WANT TO STOP THE CLOCK!
I sat there with my jaw dropped open.
And neither Marv Albert -- my favorite ever basketball announcer -- or Steve Kerr said one word about it. I don't think I know a lot about basketball, so I figured maybe I was somehow wrong. I didn't really see how I could be wrong, i could not see how that timeout could possibly do ANYTHING but hurt Texas. But hey ...
Of course, what followed is that Texas could not get the ball inbounds. The Longhorns did try to call timeout before the five-second call, but the official didn't give it to them. So that was a turnover, a terrible turnover, a turnover directly caused by Texas calling a timeout they absolutely should not have called. And STILL the announcers did not talk about it. Then, Arizona did not just score but got fouled for a three-point play to take the lead -- so apparently that scenario was not covered by Rick Barnes in the timeout. And then Texas went down the court, missed a shot, got a rebound and time ran out.
There are not too many cases, in my mind, where a dreadful strategic move actually costs a team a game. But I think this one was pretty close. If Texas does not call timeout, Arizona HAS to foul him. If he makes both free throws, Texas wins. If he makes one, Texas can't lose in regulation. There were only a couple of ways Texas could lose the game in regulation with the ball in its hand, up two with 14 seconds left. Calling timeout there made one of those insane scenarios come true.
Anyway, after the game, there was not one word about the terrible timeout. Not one word. Instead, there was just minutes of tedious talk about the officials and whether they should have called a foul at the very end (it looked like time had run out). Look, basketball is a hard game to call. I have no doubt there are some bad calls being made, some mistakes being made, but frankly I'm really sick of hearing about it. If the officiating plays a major role -- as it did at the end of that crazy Pittsburgh-Butler game -- then, sure, talk about it.
But arguing (and I mean ARGUING) about whether the officials should have bailed out Texas with 0.1 seconds left like THAT was what the game was about?
It's crazy. As much as college basketball coaches are lionized this time of year, as much as studio hosts talk about the coaches' genius non-stop -- so much so that in the studio the players often seem to be like extras -- it would have been nice to point out that the officials didn't cost Texas the game. The Longhorns cost themselves.
Circle me Chris Webber.
ReplyDeleteThis post reminds me of those games where the losing team left 15 runners on base, twice the pitcher couldn't get a bunt down, the manager kept the starter in too long ... and yet the guys in the booth are still yammering on about how maybe the umpire blew that call on the stolen base seven innings ago. And clearly the game turned on that call, of course.
I think Hamilton just had a braincramp or fell into the reflex of calling a timeout in every single damn late-game situation. He took the protocol of calling a timeout when you're losing and did it while they were winning. Heh, it happens, I guess. In the spur of the moment, with everything sped up, he sought composure in the timeout. At least the coach didn't call it. I hate overcoaching that chokes the life out of games and this would have been an shining example, but alas or fortunately, it wasn't.
ReplyDelete4 stations and 17 studio analysts need something to talk about.
ReplyDeleteyou call a timeout there to try to get the ball to a guy who was 13-13 from the line...think about it...if hamilton goes 1/2 at the line its still one possession...if brown makes 2/2 its over...if you cant get the ball in you call a time out, which is what they did...and they did it before 5 seconds was up
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgzRqDzbAQY&feature=player_embedded
You don't call a timeout just to get the ball to a hot free throw shooter. That's ridiculous. It's too much risk for a marginal upgrade of reward since Hamilton is a good free throw shooter in his own right. If the player who had grabbed the board was a horrible free throw shooter, the timeout would have been justified but there can be no justification for a good free throw shooter to call a timeout while ahead. Also, just because Brown was 13-13 doesn't mean he wouldn't have missed a free throw. Playing the odds, he was actually due to miss one.
ReplyDeletethank you - I agree fully.
ReplyDeleteI'm always astounded at how poorly trained basketball players are at end-game situations. To some extent I can understand it in college but even the pros completely screw up end-game situations.
ReplyDeleteWell, as Joe mentioned in a previous post, NFL coaches are abysmal at managing the clock at the end of games. I guess we cannot expect too much from a 19 year old in a college game.
ReplyDeletelove the sport but the endless fouling and timeouts makes the end of games brutal.
ReplyDeletesame in the NBA.
Still an egregious 5-second call by the ref. Can't believe this isn't getting more play.
ReplyDeleteyup ur right, lets give it to the guy who was 4/6 from the line in the last two games and not the guy who carried you down the stretch and was 25/25 from the line in the last 2 games...
ReplyDeletewhen u have 2 timeouts that is not a bad timeout call...in hindsight it obviously would have been better if he didnt but at the time it wasnt a bad call...ur playin monday morning quarterback my friend
theres little risk if u have that extra timeout, which they did, and the refs blew it not giving it to them
plain and simple
It's not playing Monday morning quarterback -- have you EVER seen a team do that before? Because I haven't. When you have the lead and the ball near the end of the game, you NEVER want to stop the clock. NEVER. You only call a timeout if you are trapped and are going to turn it over; you don't call a timeout just because.
ReplyDeleteNice post Joe but you forget to mention the second worst timeout that happened before the last Texas play.
ReplyDeleteAfter the Arizona basket by Williams that tied the game and gave Williams the free throw shot that would put them up by 1, Barnes called his last time in order to (I presume) draw up the last play. However, in college, you don't get to advance the ball to half court after a time out and if you want the ball at half court, you need to inbound it, cross half court, and then call time out.
By calling it right away, he couldn't save the TO to use after the free throw was taken where Barnes could have seen what the situation was before planning that final play.
And the final play itself was abysmal, if it was in fact carried out per Barnes' instructions. Brown waited too long to start his move and didn't get up the shot until there were a couple seconds left which basically didn't give anyone on his team a chance to put back a miss. Had Barnes told the team to get up a shot as quickly as possible and not hold the ball a few extra seconds, perhaps the Texas guy who got Brown's miss and appeared to be fouled, would have had a chance to draw that foul before time expired.
Thanks for pointing out how awful the announcers are for not holdings these coaches accountable for their ineptness and trying to assign all the blame to the officials. Keep up the great work, Joe. And thanks for the Carlos Ruiz Zafon book recommendation. Looking forward to starting it when this tournament is finally over and I get my life back.
Alex
Rick Barnes: worst coach in America or worstest coach in America?
ReplyDeleteI think having the guys who normally do NBA doing the NCAA tournament has been a huge bust. With a couple exceptions, (Greg Anthony has been pretty good, I think), they have all but admitted they don't know who any of these guys are. Charles Barkley has been horrible. He hasn't done the research to have anything to add besides what he had seen in that game because he doesn't study college basketball at all. It has been brutal, and I hope they take a long look at just letting college guys do the college stuff from now on.
ReplyDeleteI love just about everything about the first week of March Madness.
ReplyDelete... everything except those ridiculous Tues/Wed "play-in" games. And I'm sure that there's more of that coming as teams/fanbases that don't belong in the tourney continue to whine about not being invited and the NCAA tournament committee realizes that there's still more money to be made. Wasn't it Vin Scully that said "Don't fix it if it ain't broke."?
"By calling it right away, he couldn't save the TO to use after the free throw was taken where Barnes could have seen what the situation was before planning that final play."
ReplyDeletehe took it then because if he misses the free throw he wanted to be able to set up a break out without the defense being able to get back...you call it there and you tell them two things in the huddle ...a play if they make the FT and a breakout if they miss
i dont know how to make it any more clear that its not "just because"...you have to be confident that you can run a simple inbound play...if you are, it does not hurt to take a timeout to 1) try to get the ball to ur best shooter and 2) keep everyone on the floor from getting flustered...you have to assume that they can get the ball in or call a timeout and they did one of those things
hamiltons mistake was not the timeout...it was being a pussy on that and 1 by williams...he could have taken it straight up and got a charge or mauled williams so he couldnt get the shot off
"Playing the odds, he was actually due to miss one."
ReplyDeleteHow is he actually due to miss one? He's already made X free throws, and those are IN THE PAST. The best estimation of him making his next free throw is likely his career free throw percentage. Maybe his career free throw percentage for the last 10 minutes of the game. Whatever.
But I do not believe the odds are worse for the next free throw because he made his last 10 in a row.
Being "due" is bunk.
I'm glad I found your article. I couldn't sleep tonight until I found someone else that saw the dumb time out the way I did. In fact, I'm against time outs when you're down because usually the defense relaxes because they expect your going to call it. Just run the ball down and score it rather than taking a time out to allow the defense to set up and furthermore, allow them to deny the entry pass. The game has become to over coached at the end. But this kid that called timeout needs his head rewired.
ReplyDeleteIt was a horrible timeout. When he got the ball, overtime was assured and a win was very likely. Sometimes good players make bad decisions at crunch time. It is amazing that the announcers did not immediately call attention to it. It is not "monday morning quarterbacking," as I was yelling "What is he doing!?" at the time. The announcers should have been doing the same thing.
ReplyDeleteSomeone above mentioned the studio team, which is the worst I have ever seen. Ever. Seen. That is saying ALOT when it comes to studio teams. They had a great idea putting the games on different stations, but what they put together to be the face of their coverage is abysmal.
I'm really, really having a hard time understanding the argument that a timeout in that situation is good because you can get the ball to a better shooter. It's nonsensical.
ReplyDelete1. The upside of having the ball in the hands of a better free throw shooter is not worth the cost of stopping the clock, allowing the opponents to regroup for "free", and then having to inbound the ball against a prepared defense.
2. The upside of getting the better shooter is limited in the first place. Hamilton is certainly capable of making one or both free throws. By the same token, while Brown is the ideal guy be shooting, he's certainly capable of missing.
3. When you inbound the ball after the time out, there is no guarantee that you'll be able to get the ball to the good shooter anyway. Presumably the other team would put their best defender(s) on the good shooter precisely to deny him the ball. Who's to say that the ball wouldn't wind up in the hands of the worst free-throw shooter on the floor?
Referees are not part of the College Basketball Coaching Fraternity/Cabal/Clique and fair game to be criticized.
ReplyDeleteIt looked to me like he might've called timeout because he was afraid of falling out of bounds--he was kind of moving awkwardly forward right next to the baseline when he caught the ball.
ReplyDeleteIt still doesn't make it a good play, because by the time he actually called timeout he was in control of his body enough to figure out something better to do. But it would provide a semi-plausible rationale for the thought "I should call timeout" popping into his head.
why are you "pretty convinced the officials got it right" re: N.C. v. Wash. ? The video shows the ball was out at 1.1 or 1.2, and the
ReplyDeleteofficials let the clock stay at 0.5. The Wash coach said his staff asked to have it reviewed, and the referee supervisor said if asked, the officials are supposed to review it. It's a great leap to say Wash would have won the game, but it's also easy to say the chances were far greater with 1.1 on the clock.
I was driving and therefore listening to this game on the radio and the national radio crew were all over it when it happened. They were as shocked as anyone else. Interesting that the T.V. guys had no comment on it. Oh and Harwood, the ref supervisor also said that it is not when the ball touches the floor out of bounds but when the whistle blows. At best 2/10 of a second should have been put back on, which virtually would have made no difference. Still no time to step back and shoot.
ReplyDeleteSomething similar happened to FSU in the VT game in the ACC tournament. FSU up 1 with the ball and a 5 second differential on the clock, brought the ball up court, and it appeared that VT was going to let them run the clock down, hope for a TO or rebound, and go for the win. Dude was dribbling the clock away with no defensive pressure. Clock got to about 20 seconds, and Hamilton took a TO. FSU had been having problems with inbounds plays all game. What happened? TO on the inbounds, VT scores, FSU loses. Ridiculous. They were letting you run the clock down, don't take a TO to set up a shot when you're up 1!
ReplyDeleteSomeone mentioned in an earlier comment that he didn't like end-game timeouts even when the team's behind. That reminded me of one of my favorite college basketball moments. I grew up in Springfield in the 80's, and SMSU was just emerging as a good team in the late 80's.
ReplyDeleteIn one of the first games of the 1989 season, newcomer point guard Arnold Bernard was bringing the ball upcourt with probably 15 seconds left, down by one. He slowed up at halfcourt and looked at the bench, where Charlie Spoonhour was madly waving his arms, imploring him to get up court. SMS scored to win the game. After the game, a reporter asked Spoonhour about the no-call on the timeout, and he basically replied by asking "What was I going to tell them?" He went on to say that he thinks that a timeout benefits the defense more than the offense.
Over the years, I've seen very few coaches like Spoonhour who do not overcoach, but simply trust their players to make plays.
Network need player co-operation. Networks need coach co-operation, and arguably need it more to produce a college game than a pro game.
ReplyDeleteNetworks don't need co-operation from the officials and even when they ask for it they don't get it. So guess who ends up taking more of a beating from analysts each year.
I hate this argument. Loathe it.
ReplyDeleteAny time a team loses on a bad call, people come out of the woodwork to point out the millions of things they could have done differently to avoid being in that situation in the first place.
That's stupid.
Every team makes 5 dozen mistakes in every game. Making a mistake does not mean you're not entitled to getting the correct call at the end of the game. Arizona made just as many baffoon mistakes as Texas did in that game, so which of those mistakes entitled them to getting the good end of a bad call while entitling Texas to get the bad end? So it was stupid to call a timeout after that rebound. Big deal. That doesn't mean you only get 4 seconds to inbound the ball on the ensuing play.
Same thing with the Syracuse game. Everyone keeps saying "if Syracuse hadn't turned the ball over 18 times, they wouldn't have been in that situation". Well guess what, Marquette turned the ball over 16 times themselves. Had they lost people would have been saying the same thing about them.
The point is, no one ever plays a perfect game, and falling back on the "well if they had done this differently, that call wouldn't have mattered" excuse is beyond weak. Plenty of teams make plenty of boneheaded mistakes and still win games, and making those mistakes does not mean you shouldn't get a fair shot of winning after them, nor does it mean that for most teams.
Robby: You can't call timeout after he reaches "four" on the count, which is what the Texas player tried to do.
ReplyDeleteOther than the "very best" ones, do commentators really add anything to any sport?
ReplyDeleteIt's mostly gibberish or them talking for the sake of talking.
I remember Gabe Kaplan routine where he was talking of Howard Cosell. Said that the quarterback could throw an 85 yard bomb for the winning touchdown with the seconds ticking off the clock and Howard would probably say "... and did you know that man does not like strawberry ice cream?"
That sums up almost all commentary for me.
One of the best results of the changes to the broadcast format this year has been very limited time with the studio people. There's nearly always a game going on so I switch to that rather than listening to the guys at the desk.
ReplyDeleteThe UNC/UW game reminded me of the 2009 Big 12 Football Title Game. The ball hit something out of bounds with time on the clock but the whistle didn't blow until after the game was over. Same thing here except they didn't apply that rule, which is basically the same in football as in basketball.
ReplyDeleteI agree, coaches need to be held more accountable for the end of game scenarios that are playing out. UT fans have no to point fingers but at themselves. I said the same thing Joe, but not radio show in Austin today has brought up what a dumb timeout that was.
People are complaining about the Pitt/Butler game. I think the officials made teh right calls on both accounts. Question--why were the Pitt players on the lane anyway? Best case scenario a tip in --chances of a tip in are highly improbable--probably the same as Butler hitting an 86 ft shot at the buzzer. Worst case scenario--what you saw play out. Yet, no is saying anything about Jamie Dixon having his guys on the lane.
@danjohnston: If I understand it correctly, what you say about the "after 4 seconds on an inbounds" was once the rule but it is now the rule to give a full 5 seconds. Maybe the official forgot the rule change but I doubt that...I think he got caught up in all the excitement and wanted to get some recognition for his efforts all game long. How best to get recognition? - Make a very questionable, game-changing call at the end of the game.
ReplyDeleteExperienced Div 1 head coaches make HUGE money now. Winning programs make even HUGER money. It's almost like the coaches think they need to talk to their players at every turn in the game and if they don't they are criticized for leaving the team out on the floor to hang; can't have that, I might lose that HUGE next contract!
ReplyDeleteToo many players fall into the same trap and depend upon their coaches to dictate nearly every strategy. What happened to the leader of the team and/or point guard getting a signal or brief discussion with the coach during a foul shot? Are these players just too damn dumb for the game to be put in their hands? I don't think so, if they were coached well in practice and have any ounce of sense the best players will make a play if they are allowed to play.
As a Texas fan sometimes I couldn't believe how that game ended. You're absolutely right Joe, they shot themselves in the food in the end. The timeout was stupid. Incredibly stupid. On the inbound, Joseph definitely got the timeout called in time, but that he waited until it was even close was a mental error; refs are gonna make mistakes like this sometimes. When the game is on the line, don't depend on the ref getting a call right!
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of the refs though - Jim Joyce had the balls to admit his mistake when he blew a big call. Richard Cartmell blew it, video replay shows he blew it, and he goes out and stand by his call.
There's no reason to even wait. As we saw at the end of the first UCLA game, you can foul a bad free throw shooter before the ball is inbounded and it's only two shots. So calling the time out is to replace ALL the bad free throw shooters and not give the team an option of a fouling a bad shooter.
ReplyDeleteThe NCAA *needs* an NBA like rule: foul a player while the ball is out of bounds leads to a technical free throw and retention of the ball out of bounds.
Re: the UNC/UW game, why should the referees have basically granted Washington a timeout they didn't have in order to put 0.3 extra seconds back on the clock? The additional time being put on the clock was going to make ZERO difference - the chance for the Huskies to huddle up and draw up a set play MIGHT have made the difference.
ReplyDeleteBut they were out of timeouts - if it's not fair to UW to lose 0.3 seconds on the out of bounds play, it CERTAINLY isn't fair to Carolina to allow Washington an extra timeout. I don't know why they made a big deal out of that silly play yesterday, I don't know why nobody brought up the fact that UW was out of timeouts, and I still don't know why that kid threw up a 45 footer with 3 second left.
I live in Austin (not a Longhorns fan) and the consensus seems to be that Barnes had told the team to call timeout. I don't know if anybody has said this or not, but that seems to be the thinking. If you look at the replay, at the same time Jordan Hamilton calls the timeout, Gary Johnson is also signalling for a TO. So it isn't like just one player had a braincramp.
ReplyDeleteThe reason they did it is because they were playing offense-defense with Doge Balbay (the stopper) and J'Covan Brown (who carried UT in the second half). I guess Barnes must've ordered a timeout to get Brown back on the court for the last possession. Of course, once Hamilton got the rebound there wasn't going to BE a last possession because you knew he was going to get fouled.
I think what probably happened is he'd told the team to get a timeout IF ARIZONA SCORED so they could get Brown back on the court for a final shot. The players must've been thinking they needed to call timeout no matter what. Either that or Barnes just inexplicably lost his mind. Regardless of how or why it happened, it was a collosal screwup by Texas.
I can't believe this jumping on a kid for calling time out when a professional referee makes one of the worst calls I have ever seen. The video proves that the referee's own hand count of the five seconds shows that he blew the call. And it is nauseating to watch the referre show off with a dramatic call humuliating the kid after the referee has blown the call.
ReplyDeleteIf the ref does not blow the call, then the kid calling the time out is probably meaningless.
Oh my gosh, Joe, thank you! I've been searching the internet for someone to rip that timeout call but all anyone will write about is the quick 5-second call. I was screaming at my TV when he called that timeout. Ridiculous!
ReplyDeleteHere's an idea. It's basketball, there is limited strategy involved (unlike football with its 22 moving parts on every play). Get rid of timeouts. They are a crutch for players that they don't need. Basketball is a much enjoyable game to watch when it is just played, rather than watching it being "coached".
ReplyDeleteBrent