From: gary@ccs.northeastern.edu (Gary Duhaney)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.college
Subject: Re: Necessity of a Big Man
Date: 11 Sep 92 20:33:26 GMT
Organization: Comp. Sci. @ NU

In article <1992Sep11.160412.11854@nsisrv.gsfc.nasa.gov> oday@lobster.gsfc.nasa.gov  (Orin Day) writes:
>In article <1992Sep11.145759.18898@random.ccs.northeastern.edu>  
>gary@ccs.northeastern.edu (Gary Duhaney) writes:
>> Kentucky lost because of their own stupidity.  Did Pitino actually think
>> that only Chrisy and Mr. Furley 'scuse me Laettner & Hurley could make
>> that kind of pass.
>
>I don't think that many people in the stadium thought he would make such
>a perfect pass, myself included.  Nor did anybody think Laettner would
>put it on the floor!

I did.  Heck he was wide open and is an excellent player.  I've always
credited him as the major difference that made Duke that good a team.
The guy does what the team needs.  If it's scoring, rebounding, tip-ins,
blocked shots, defense or playing the point, he seems to always come up
with it.  Too bad he's on Duke, more people would realize how good he is.

As for Laettner, I expected him to shoot, no dribble.

>> There should have been someone on the baseline making it very hard for
>> Grant Hill to deliver such a perfect pass.
>>
>> Since Grant was making the pass obviously the ball could go to only
>> Laettner (Hurley's too short to make such a long pass to).  Which is
>> why Pitino chose to have two guys on Laettner.
>
>But there were only 5 players on Kentucky.  Are you suggesting that
>you leave somebody else unguarded?  If you put a man on the baseline,
>then you have somebody only in front of Laettner, or behind him.  

No, what I meant was since Pitino chose that option, then one guy
should be fronting Laettner, not both behind him.  2 on Laettner and
one on Hill would be asking for trouble.

Laettner and Hurley needed to be guarded.  The pass couldn't be made to
Hurley unless he was open, therefore that person might be able to help
out or rotate (as I remember it there wasn't enough time on the clock
for Duke to pass).  As I see it, someone bothering Grants, someone fronting
Laettner, and someone guarding Hurley loosely.

But 2 shorter guys standing around behind Laettner was stupid.

>I don't think a zone would be appropriate given Duke's range.  But

A box and one extended might work, since it would afford extra coverage
of Laettner while keeping someone near Hurley.  I don't remember anyone
else who was going to hit that shot.

>in any case, you can't have it both ways.  I don't fault Pitino's
>coaching for the loss, either.

I do, but only for those last few seconds, the rest of the game was
excellent.

>Perfect execution will beat coaching 9 times out of 10, at least.  
No perfect execution will beat coaching 10 out of 10 times, or it aint
perfect.

>> I believe both were shorter.  What were they both doing behind him?
>> Did they actually expect to block his shot, or scare him into missing.
>> At least one, whoever had the better vertical should have been in front,
>> then maybe he could at best deflect the ball so that the clock would
>> start, and Laettner wouldn't have had the chance to get off a shot like
>> that.
>
>Think Pitino thought about Laettner's percentage from the field vs. his
>free throw shooting percentage, perhaps?  (Though both were 100% THAT day)
>Would you want to be the player who sent him to the line down 1 with no
>time left?  I don't think he'd pull another Arizona his senior year,
>quite frankly, and neither did they.

In retrospect, it wouldn't have made a difference if Laettner got fouled
unless he missed the shots.

But why do you suppose that he would have gotten fouled.  I didn't say lean
on him.  If the guy was in front of Laettner, then Laettner would have had
to go over his head/back for the ball.

>> No I dont think you can blame Kentucky's lack of a "true college center" 
>> for their 1 point loss to Duke in overtime.
>
>Think Laettner would have been 10-10 from the field if they had
>such a player?  Or sent to the line as often?  Or even still in the
>game?  Duke scored over 100 points before Laettner's shot, you know...

Depends on who the center is, are we talking about David Robinson or
are we talking about Mark Eaton.  If Mr Robinson, Laettner would have
been O-10, assuming that the coach let David go out there.  If we are
talking about Eaton then Laettner could have been 10-10.

If you don't think DR can stick with quick players, ask Isiah which
center embarassed he tried to go by him.