By
Steve Kallas (posted by Rick Morris)
So,
there it was. Houston up by two points,
3.6 seconds left in the game, ball out of bounds to Michigan, the length of the
court away from tying or winning the second- round NCAA tournament game on
Saturday. The first thing you noticed
was that Houston coach Kelvin Sampson failed to put anybody on the ball as
Michigan was taking it out of bounds.
Certainly,
one would think, Sampson was very familiar with one of the greatest plays in
NCAA history, the historic Christian Laettner shot after a three-quarter court
pass from Grant Hill, to allow Duke to beat Kentucky, 104-103, in the East
Regional Final in the 1992 NCAA tournament.
Kentucky
coach Rick Pitino was rightly skewered for failing to put someone on the ball
as Duke took it out of bounds with only 2.1 seconds left in the game. So, Grant Hill got a clean look for a long
pass, nobody bothered to front Laettner and he caught the ball at the opposite
foul line or so, dribbled once, turned, shot and scored to win the game.
Did
Kelvin Sampson forget about that play?
SO,
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT IN THE HOUSTON-MICHIGAN GAME?
Well,
what happened next was also damaging.
The ball was easily inbounded by Isaiah Livers just before half court to
Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman, who proceeded to dribble twice (across the
half-court line) and then, when double-teamed, was able to get the ball to an,
at the time, uncovered Jordan Poole.
Poole proceeded to bury a long (and, yes, contested) three to give
Michigan an improbable, almost impossible, win.
But,
wait, what happened defensively to Houston on this play? Well, for some reason, Corey Davis, who did
contest Poole’s winning shot, began the play standing about three feet INSIDE
the three-point line. This would prove
to be a fatal mistake as there was nobody behind Davis and nobody next to Davis
when the ball was inbounded. That means
that, with Houston up two, once the ball is thrown in and Abdur-Rahkman starts
to dribble, there is no chance, with nobody from Michigan within twenty (or
more) feet from the basket, that Michigan can score a game-tying two.
So
Davis could have (and it says here, should have) been closer to (or even on)
the three-point line before Poole even got the ball to make an incredible shot
to win the game. If Davis is three feet
closer to the play, he may have stolen the pass, broken up the pass or put even
more pressure on Poole than he actually did (again, Davis did contest it well,
but too late to save the day).
One
other point on the play. There was
another Michigan player standing a few feet away from Davis (Ibi Watson, #23). But he had his back to the basket (as opposed
to Poole who was smart enough to be squaring up to the basket). So Watson, who was well beyond the
three-point line, would have been unable to get off a shot. If one believes he could have received a pass
and shot the ball, it would have been a turnaround-in-the-air-and-fling-it shot
with virtually no chance of making it and virtually no chance to even shoot it
before the buzzer.
SO,
WAS THIS GOOD DEFENSE BY HOUSTON?
Well,
the short answer is no. Not putting
pressure on the ball out of bounds is a big mistake. Why didn’t Kelvin Sampson, an excellent
college coach, do this?
After
the game, Sampson was asked by a reporter, can you “share what your defensive
maneuvering and intent was” when Michigan inbounded the ball with 3.6 seconds
left? Sampson, perhaps on purpose (is “defensive
maneuvering” reporter code for why didn’t you put somebody on the ball?),
simply said that with 3.6 seconds left “they’re going to get a shot” and “you
just hope that you can contest it.”
Well,
not exactly. If you put someone on the
ball and if your defense pinches up towards the potential shooters (since
nobody was behind you), you have plenty of opportunities NOT to allow a shot.
But
that’s not what happened.
On
the telecast, former coach Steve Lavin said that the final shot was “defended
well by Corey Davis.” Well, again, yes
and no. It was defended and contested as
well as Davis could from where he was playing.
But if he had moved up to the three-point line BEFORE the pass was made
(again, nobody behind him or next to him to possibly score a game-tying two –
which would be better than a game-winning three), he could have stolen the pass
or stopped the shot from getting off cleanly.
Is
that too much to ask on such a bang-bang play?
Maybe.
SO,
WHY DIDN’T KELVIN SAMPSON PUT SOMEBODY ON THE BALL OUT OF BOUNDS?
This
might be the reason. In Houston’s first
tournament win, a 67-65 barn-burner win over San Diego State, San Diego State
had the ball with 1.1 second left, down 2 and they had to go the length of the
court. In that game, Kelvin Sampson DID
put somebody on the ball out of bounds.
Despite
that, San Diego State was able to throw the ball (almost like the Grant Hill to
Laettner play) to the top of the three-point line where they got a fairly good
look at a three (by Trey Kell) to win the game – but missed.
Maybe
that convinced Sampson to not try it again two days later.
But
that cost him big-time.
ONE
FINAL THOUGHT ON THAT FINAL PLAY IN HOUSTON’S LOSS TO MICHIGAN
There’s
a big difference between taking the ball out from under your own basket after a
made basket and a time-out as opposed to after a play on the court and a
time-out. As you are probably aware, you
can run the baseline from side to side if you are taking the ball out after a
made basket. This was the case both in
Duke-Kentucky and Houston-San Diego State.
But
in the Houston-Michigan game, Devin Davis missed the second of two foul shots
(and don’t blame Davis – he played really well and is a 68% foul shooter who
made 9 of 12 (75%) foul shots in the game against Michigan). Michigan got the rebound and immediately
called time-out with 3.6 seconds left.
So
that means when Isaiah Livers takes the ball out of bounds, he CAN’T run the
baseline. If an athletic 6’7” or taller
Houston defender is on the ball and just jumps up and down, it could have caused
the inbounder to make a mistake and move left or right which leads to a
turnover right there. Or, at a minimum, it would be MUCH harder to throw a
35-40 foot pass than it was since the inbounds was uncontested at the base
line.
ONE
MORE EXPERT INTO THE FRAY
The
next day, none other than Kenny Smith had an interesting take on that final
play. He said, “It’s not always bad
plays that lose games. It’s great plays
that win games.” He also said, “the
defense was perfect in that instance.”
Well,
again, not exactly. There’s no chance
the defense was perfect. To not put a
guy on the ball at the baseline was a huge mistake. To not realize that the guy taking the ball
out couldn’t move along the baseline (i.e., different and much harder to make a
long pass than if he could move along the baseline after a made basket) is a
huge mistake. While Corey Davis did a
good job of contesting the shot from where he had been playing, it could have
been better had he been closer to the play.
So,
a great play was made by Michigan. But
it was by no means perfect defense by Houston.
Sometimes,
bad plays on defense allow great plays to be made on offense.
And
that’s precisely what happened as Michigan stole one from Houston in the 2018
NCAA Tournament.
© COPYRIGHT 2018 BY STEVE KALLAS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
