Will Coach Cal be ripped?

[Xman95]

Coach Miller was ripped in the media (not just by XU fans) for the decision to not foul Ron Lewis prior to taking the game-tying three at the end of regulation against tOSU. Will the media treat John Calipari the same way?

I actually thought they would foul, but it's really not a decision that is as black-and-white as people think. The odds are against a kid hitting a three to begin with, let alone hitting it with the clock winding down and all the pressure of his team's season on his shoulders.

There's also the chance that if you foul too early, a made free throw, then a miss and follow ties the game. (Not to mention a follow that the player is fouled on, now setting up a possible winning FT.)

Of course, hitting the three means only one thing has to happen. After a foul, the make, miss, follow requires three things happening.

Ultimately, it's just a "pick your poison" situation. I have seen many games end when a team misses a three to tie at the buzzer and I have seen my share of shots that fall.

Anyway, I remember Miller's decision being a big topic in the X community and nationally. Will it be the same way for Calipari?


FYI -- On the postgame, Clark Kellogg did mention this and said he's in favor of fouling. Also, Calipari said they were trying to foul but it wasn't called (said he understood why too, because it wasn't obvious).

[Billy]

Should've fouled there.

But Kansas pulling this allowed me to win almost every single bracket pool that I entered. So, thanks Coach Cal!

[LA Muskie]

Coach Cal actually said postgame that they were trying to foul, and that he thought they did, but that because it looked like a broken play it wasn't called.

PS: I just realized the post-game recap was added to the initial post. So this might be old news now.

[xudash]

He said that was what they were trying to do when the one player slipped and they didn't call it - touch foul at that point I guess, even though it would have benefited Memphis.

Clark Kellogg mentioned that is what he should have done with 5 seconds left then they went to the interview with Cal who brought it up on his own. When they went back to the CBS desk Clark supported Cal in terms of acknowledging that he had already thought about it.

[Snipe]

I thought the same question would be raised.

I defer all comments to Bruce Pearl, resident expert. Bruce Pearl is a basketball genius. He has never made the Elite 8 and neither has his program. I wait for his comments because he is the bible.

[Xman95]

I defer all comments to Bruce Pearl, resident expert. Bruce Pearl is a basketball genius. He has never made the Elite 8 and neither has his program. I wait for his comments because he is the bible.


Quality post! (Although they did beat us on our floor this year.)

I'm still not sold on the concept of always having to foul. Hindsight is always 20/20, so it's not really fair to judge after the fact. Looking back to our OSU loss, it turns out we should have fouled. But, the three that Lewis hit was a great shot and I'm sure most people would be thrilled to see a player regularly pull up to take that shot against their team. That's because it's not a high-percentage look. If Lewis misses that shot, the story is how X played good defense and forced OSU into a tough shot. Like Miller said last year, there's always the chance of fouling too early (which is why I was surprised KU took so long to get the ball up the floor, even though it ultimately worked out for them.)

[Billy]

Quality post! (Although they did beat us on our floor this year.)

I'm still not sold on the concept of always having to foul. Hindsight is always 20/20, so it's not really fair to judge after the fact. Looking back to our OSU loss, it turns out we should have fouled. But, the three that Lewis hit was a great shot and I'm sure most people would be thrilled to see a player regularly pull up to take that shot against their team. That's because it's not a high-percentage look. If Lewis misses that shot, the story is how X played good defense and forced OSU into a tough shot. Like Miller said last year, there's always the chance of fouling too early (which is why I was surprised KU took so long to get the ball up the floor, even though it ultimately worked out for them.)

The "odds" say that you should foul there. You're even better off fouling "too early" than not at all.

Basketball isn't broken down quite like baseball in a SABRmetric sense...but if it were, this wouldn't even be a close call. The chance that a guy makes a 3-pointer there is probably about 25-30%. The odds that there's a tie stemming from a different series of events following a foul in the last ten seconds is far, far less.