By
Steve Kallas (posted by Rick Morris)
It
certainly wasn’t a total shock that Wisconsin was able to beat Kentucky, 71-64,
in their national semi-final game on Saturday.
But, an upset? Absolutely.
What
happened? Was it the athleticism of Sam
Dekker? The offense and defense of Frank
Kaminsky? Or was it the poor play of
Kentucky’s guards in not being able to get their star (now recognized -- better late than never – by virtually
everybody), Karl-Anthony Towns, the ball in the post down the stretch?
Well,
it was all of the above. But the least
discussed and, it says here, the most important, was Kentucky’s inability to
get Towns the ball in the post.
POINT
GUARD PLAY IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Once
upon a time, at all levels of basketball, if you had a big man who had an edge
in talent and/or physical size, point guards were routinely taught to “give it
to the big man,” especially if it was a guy like Towns, that is, a guy who
plays hard, rebounds, runs the floor, can use both hands (a lost skill), etc.
In
the “old days” of the 20th Century, guards were taught to pound it
inside and, if someone on defense played good overplay defense the first time
you looked in, guards were taught to look in a second or even a third time to
get the ball to “the bigs.”
Now
more of a nuanced play, virtually all guards trying to get the ball down low to
the big guy take one look at them and, if he’s “covered,” they simply swing the
ball around the other way. The patience
in guard play has long ago left the building.
A
TALE OF TWO GAMES
Let’s
take a look at Kentucky’s final two games of the season from this perspective –
first the Notre Dame game, which they almost lost and then the Wisconsin game,
which they did lose.
The
final eight minutes of both games shows the difference – for this Kentucky team
– between winning and losing.
Against
Notre Dame, Towns was in the game for nine of the final 11 possessions (he was
in foul trouble and coach John Calipari played offense/defense a few times so Towns
wasn’t in the game for two of those 11 possessions). In those nine possessions, Towns got the ball
in the post ELEVEN times (on two possessions, they threw it down to him in the
post twice).
In
those possessions, Towns scored four baskets (including one three-point play)
and passed out of a double team to a wide-open Tyler Ulis for an open three.
Towns
was, without question, the key to Kentucky’s comeback victory.
So,
what happened against Wisconsin?
Kentucky’s guards, after feeding Towns at will in the Notre Dame game,
totally went away from him. In
Kentucky’s (almost) final 13 possessions
(not counting the final two, where they threw the ball away at midcourt and
took a long, meaningless three at the buzzer), Towns got the ball in the post a
grand total of THREE times.
While
the game analysts correctly pointed out that Frank Kaminsky, Wisconsin’s
excellent big man, was doing a good job “challenging” Towns, what they never
said was that Kentucky’s guards, after looking in once, never looked in again
in each possession, never realized that Towns was still fighting for position,
never realized that Towns did get open, literally a second or two after
Kaminsky had shut off the potential post pass.
This
was the (offensive) death knell for Kentucky. By not being patient and getting the ball into
Towns, it led to an eight-foot airball from Andrew Harrison on one possession
and a 12-foot airball from Aaron Harrison as the shot clock was ending on
another possession (and a poor shot that barely hit the front rim on still
another possession). That’s separate and
apart from the airball three from Aaron Harrison very late in the game.
On
the three touches that Towns did get, he scored on Kaminsky, he was stripped by
Kaminsky (who was helping Dekker, who was guarding Towns on that particular
possession), with Kentucky recovering the loose ball, and he was fouled by
Kaminsky, making one of two free throws.
While
it is subtle and nuanced in today’s game, the inability of Kentucky’s guards to
get Towns the ball down low towards the end of the game was the reason Kentucky
lost the game. While Notre Dame had
nobody like Kaminsky to guard Towns in the post, the “give-up” nature of the
guards whenever Kaminsky overplayed Towns took Towns pretty much out of the game
(although, to Towns’s credit, he had a number of offensive rebounds down the
stretch).
From
the time Towns scored with 6:35 left in the game until Kentucky’s next field
goal with :56.2 seconds left, Towns touched the ball in the low post exactly
once.
Game
over.
WHAT
ABOUT THE SHOT CLOCK VIOLATION THAT WASN’T?
Kentucky
fans will correctly complain about Nigel Hayes’s basket with 2:40 left. Clearly it was a shot-clock violation. But Kentucky had earlier gotten away with a
clear flagrant foul by Trey Lyles (which was reviewed and inexplicably not
assessed).
I’ve
never been one to say that these things even out (because they don’t). There should be a way that potential
shot-clock violations are reviewed throughout the game.
Would
that have made a difference? Well, we’ll
never know. But, if reviewed, Kentucky
would have been up two with the ball instead of tied. Wisconsin still had to win the game.
And
Kentucky still had to lose it.
This,
of course, goes directly to coaching. If
Calipari didn’t tell his guards to get Towns the ball, and, if he was
overplayed initially by Kaminsky, to try again (and even again with a
35-seconde shot clock), he made a huge mistake.
If he did tell them and they didn’t do it, then he should have put
someone else into the game who would do it.
During
the possession around the 1:25 mark, Kentucky inexplicably posted up Lyles (as
opposed to Towns). Wisconsin virtually
let him get the ball and, frustrated at the other end by Sam Dekker (more on
that shortly), he simply ran Dekker over for a crucial offensive foul.
WHY
WISCONSIN WON OFFENSIVELY
While,
for some reason, Frank Kaminsky seemed to have been given most of the credit
for Wisconsin’s victory (maybe because he was so much better this year than
last?), it was, without question, Sam Dekker’s athleticism and talent that
lifted Wisconsin and won the game for them.
Calipari
didn’t seem to understand that Trey Lyles couldn’t guard Dekker. Dekker took Lyles to the basket with about
4:27 left with a stunning drive to cut Kentucky’s lead to two. Then he hit a step-back three with 1:41 left
to put Wisconsin up three. Finally, he
blew right by Lyles to get to the basket and get fouled (admittedly a phantom
foul) by Aaron Harrison. Dekker made one
of two with 1:06 left to make the game a two-possession game. Dekker also took that huge charge from Lyles
down the stretch.
While
Kentucky would cut it to one with 56 seconds left, they would never get back
over the hump.
NEXT
YEAR FOR KENTUCKY
A
tough pill to swallow for Kentucky but, it says here, Wisconsin deserved to win
the game.
While
there probably won’t be a next time for Karl-Anthony Towns at Kentucky, maybe
next year Kentucky will work more on getting there guards to get the ball to
their best players down low – and, if at first they don’t succeed, try, try
again.
©
2015 BY STEVE KALLAS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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