From: jb118@prism.gatech.EDU (Jeffrey N. Burch)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.college
Subject: Re: Necessity of a Big Man
Date: 11 Sep 92 16:01:16 GMT
Organization: Georgia Tech Research Institute -- EOL

In article <1992Sep11.145759.18898@random.ccs.northeastern.edu> gary@ccs.northeastern.edu (Gary Duhaney) writes:
>In article <18lk2mINNh1c@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> as232@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Lerner) writes:
>>
>>Just last year, the big man, Laettner, was all the difference in making it to
>>the Final Four.  Notice, their strongest competition, Kentucky, did not have
>>what you would call a "true college center".  Could this, in fact, be the
>>real reason for Kentucky's demise?  Just a thought...
>
>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.

Or, to be more specific, Pelphrey's and Feldhaus's.  Pitino said that one
of them should be in front, the other behind Laettner.  Both were behind.

>Does anyone remember whether Hill could move along the baseline or did he
>have to pass from where the ref put him??

I'm pretty sure he could move, although with no one guarding him, there
was not much need.

>There should have been someone on the baseline making it very hard for
>Grant Hill to deliver such a perfect pass.

This may go down in the record books as one of the most second-guessed
of all Pitino's coaching decisions, but I don't think he goofed.  UK
didn't have many big people (and Mashburn was out of the game by that
time), and what few they had, they needed to have back guarding 
Laettner.  If they'd done it right, the strategy would've looked
brilliant.  Considering Laettner's performance that day, using only
single coverage to guard him would've looked pretty silly, too.

>why Pitino chose to have two guys on Laettner.
>
>I believe both were shorter.  What were they both doing behind him?

Right - Pelphrey was about 6'7" and Feldhaus about 6'6".

Not listening to the coach, although to his credit Rick refused to 
put any blame on the team and took it all on himself.  It's possible
that with the noise and excitement of the moment, the coaching staff
may not have been as coherent about what they wanted the players to do
than they normally were.

>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.

Right.

I think they expected to be in contact with him right up until his shot,
to throw him off balance.  Neither was a great enough leaper to be able
to expect to block his shot, and neither could've anticipated the 
pinpoint precision of the pass, Grant Hill's baseball experience 
notwithstanding...

Actually, Feldhaus made a half-hearted attempt to block the shot, but
when Christian turned to go up for the shot, both Deron and Pelphrey
backed off 'way too far (to avoid fouling, possibly) and the rest is
history.

>No I dont think you can blame Kentucky's lack of a "true college center" 
>for their 1 point loss to Duke in overtime.

Certainly not.  Or if you do, then Michigan's 20 point loss in the 
championship game proves they REALLY don't have a center, which is
nonsense.

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^  Dr. J(effrey Neil Burch)                 jb118@prism.gatech.edu    ^
^  Georgia Tech Research Institute                                    ^ 
^  Electro-Optics and Physical Sciences Laboratory                    ^
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Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.college