When Marcus Sasser was on a fast break steal all by himself with 45sec left, why on earth did he choose NOT to layup the ball? It would have extended the lead and allowed the clock to run.
Instead, he stopped at the 3pt line and allowed a defender to foul him. He went to the line and missed both free throws and the clock was stopped during this time.
ARGH
7 Likes
Nate Hinton had a similar play at a similar time in the BYU game a few years ago, remember that?
He had a break away, went down and tried to dunk it instead of holding up and missed the dunk… we ended up losing that game.
1 Like
No kidding. For all those who bet the Coogs -12 for the 2nd half, it was maddening!!!
4 Likes
I don’t remember that
I was looking for the clip to post but could not find it.
Sasser would have been a freshman on the team.
Might have been what he was thinking about and why he held up for the foul.
It was this game…
Here it is…didn’t miss the dunk. He carried the ball. At 36s
He missed it… but he actually got called for traveling.
When you are up by 8 take the easy points.
Maybe coach had something to do with Sasser pulling back since they were close on the sideline lol.
Run the clock and get fouled. Unfortunately Sass missed both free throws.
2 Likes
Getting fouled stopped the clock. Layup and the clock would have kept going
3 Likes
I think the coaches would disagree.
The thought is if you are down, go score. If you are up, hold the ball bc anything can happen.
Doesn’t matter if you are up by ten or up by two.
Well tell the coach lol
1 Like
It is also wrong. With the fast break and no one in sight, you go take the points. It’s math.
6 Likes
No my friend it isn’t math. It’s sport where anything can happen.
Math is more reliable and consistent. You know exactly what will come.
CKS applauded and shook his head approvingly when Sass pulled it back out to get fouled. It’s frustrating in hindsight because he missed both free throws. In the Rutgers game in the tournament last year he came up with a steal late game when we were up and did the same thing pulling the ball back to milk clock. Just so happens he nailed those 2 free throws.
2 Likes
Anything can happen, like you get fouled immediately so you don’t eat up any extra time and then miss the free throws playing right into the other team’s hands? Or you flat out turnover the ball?
It is always math. When you have an absolutely free path to the basket you go up and dunk the damn ball. You are making the probabilities of other possibilities a limit approaching zero at that point.
It’s always math in games where you keep score.
5 Likes
I’ll take CKS math over yours or mine everyday.
He’s the one making 4 million a year and winning the math game while we chat about it when we should be working lol.
1 Like
That is acting like CKS is infallible. He isn’t. And he has been a coach long enough to hold onto old traditions that are just wrong.
It’s like the posters on here who say we shouldn’t go for it on 4th and 1 on the opponent’s 45. They are holding onto some old notion that is complete hogwash.
I mean there is a reason he gets paid to do what he does, you get paid to do your job and I get paid to do mine.
My approach is to let the professionals do their job and trust they know what they are doing.
The experts applauded his decision. There is a reason they are the experts and we are not.
1 Like
For me the one frustrating play of the 2nd half was Edwards knocking the ball out with 0.3 seconds left on the clock in regulation.
1 Like
It’s likely a coaching decision. I remember last year Grimes had a similar opportunity in the Texas Tech game and Grimes instead tried to score the ball, and Coach Sampson was NOT happy about it.
Interesting