Eaves and Shabbaz score 66 v. Southern, have 9 tonight with 13 to go, down 47-46 to last place Troy. 15 turnovers is keeping Troy in the game.

We are shooting 50% from the field, 60% from 3 and winning rebound battle but can't hold on to the ball.

MBB gathering steam! Up 66 - 60 with less than 5 mins to go. Leading scorers are going to have tough nights sometimes, or be guarded well. Question is - do we have others to step up?

TURNOVERS

Pull it out ! We foul with a 3 point lead asunder 5 seconds and win by 4.

75-71 Good guys!

YesAppCan wrote:TURNOVERS

So true! We barely got out of that one victorious. Good to get a win, but the way the game went does not inspire great confidence. Turnovers are really holding us back.

Change of philosophy?

proasu89 wrote:Change of philosophy?

I like the strategy!

I just watched UR fail to foul with a 3 point lead and GW hit a 3 pointer with .8 on the clock to send it to OT.

hapapp wrote:I just watched UR fail to foul with a 3 point lead and GW hit a 3 pointer with .8 on the clock to send it to OT.

Can we just admit that the decision not to foul on Monday, while it didn't work, was the right call? How many times is someone going to hit an off-balanced 40-footer? Not to mention have a crappy ref on the wrong side buy a flop?

Yes there's still issues with the team, but they're miles better then where they were.

T-Dog wrote:

hapapp wrote:I just watched UR fail to foul with a 3 point lead and GW hit a 3 pointer with .8 on the clock to send it to OT.

Can we just admit that the decision not to foul on Monday, while it didn't work, was the right call? How many times is someone going to hit an off-balanced 40-footer? Not to mention have a crappy ref on the wrong side buy a flop?

Yes there's still issues with the team, but they're miles better then where they were.

No reason to belabor the point but no I don't agree. But I respect the fact that there are different philosophies about that. Monday is in the past.

Last night we outshot Troy in all 3 areas, out rebounded them, outscored their bench 38-6 but turned it over 22 times giving them a 15 point advantage in points off turnovers. If and when can get control of that stat, we can beat anybody in this league. Despite the setback Monday we can still be a factor in this league. However, there is that line where we need to play cleaner.

hapapp wrote:

T-Dog wrote:

hapapp wrote:I just watched UR fail to foul with a 3 point lead and GW hit a 3 pointer with .8 on the clock to send it to OT.

Can we just admit that the decision not to foul on Monday, while it didn't work, was the right call? How many times is someone going to hit an off-balanced 40-footer? Not to mention have a crappy ref on the wrong side buy a flop?

Yes there's still issues with the team, but they're miles better then where they were.

No reason to belabor the point but no I don't agree. But I respect the fact that there are different philosophies about that. Monday is in the past.

You mentioned it three times in this thread, but when challenged, it becomes in the past? Alright.

My personal preference is to always foul to prevent the game-tying three point attempt. I believe our odds are much better if we force the opponent to intentionally miss a free-throw and have to get a putback than to let them get off a three. The caveat, of course, is that the foul has to occur before anyone is in the act of shooting.

T-Dog wrote:

hapapp wrote:

T-Dog wrote:

hapapp wrote:I just watched UR fail to foul with a 3 point lead and GW hit a 3 pointer with .8 on the clock to send it to OT.

Can we just admit that the decision not to foul on Monday, while it didn't work, was the right call? How many times is someone going to hit an off-balanced 40-footer? Not to mention have a crappy ref on the wrong side buy a flop?

Yes there's still issues with the team, but they're miles better then where they were.

No reason to belabor the point but no I don't agree. But I respect the fact that there are different philosophies about that. Monday is in the past.

You mentioned it three times in this thread, but when challenged, it becomes in the past? Alright.

My point is, it is time to move on. I admit that I have mentioned this past its expiration date. However, I still personally believe you foul there. You obviously don't, so let's leave it at that. There is no reason for hostility or "challenges".

T-Dog wrote:

hapapp wrote:I just watched UR fail to foul with a 3 point lead and GW hit a 3 pointer with .8 on the clock to send it to OT.

Can we just admit that the decision not to foul on Monday, while it didn't work, was the right call? How many times is someone going to hit an off-balanced 40-footer? Not to mention have a crappy ref on the wrong side buy a flop?

Yes there's still issues with the team, but they're miles better then where they were.

I've heard and seen a decent amount of study on this, and there's not necessarily a consensus either way, but there's a decent amount of empirical evidence that fouling is the higher-percentage play.

But if you're that convinced that not fouling was "the right call," I assume you believe that the decision to foul in the same situation last night was the wrong call?

With a 3 point lead and about 5 seconds or less the best thing to do is foul. I use a pro and con philosophy.

Con- don't foul and the guy makes the basket you go to overtime.

Pro- foul the guy and he has to:

1. Make the first basket
2. Miss the second intentionally.
3. The team has to get the offensive rebound.
4. The team then has to make the tying 2 or winning 3.

Too many things have to happen if you send them to the line. I agree, what happened the other night was just an unfortunate fluke. With all of the issues this team has had at this point just get into the conference tournament and see what happens after that. They have shown that by limiting turnovers they do have the ability to compete with anybody in the league.

Approx ten days ago, I editorialized that we'd never win a road game this season during which we made 22 or more turnovers. I even added the word "guaranteed" to it. I hereby and forthwith, remove my name from the "hidden list" of basketball gurus who frequent this forum. After missing the call on a game last week I was certain we had won; and the game last night that I was convinced he couldn't win--I'm throwing in the towel.

I think "the right call" comes down to time and place. The decision to not foul on Monday felt like the right call. GaSo was forced into a low-percentage shot that miraculously went in and was unjustly rewarded with a foul.

Last night, with Monday fresh, fouling is the right choice.

You can make the right choice and have it all go horribly wrong. Even if you foul, there's other things that could go wrong on a rebound or inbound. On Monday, App had struggled late in the game on inbounds.

I agree with the point that you can't judge whether a decision was correct by the result. All you can do is give your team the best chance and then hope for the outcome you want.

I'm also a little torn on this subject because strategically, I think fouling is the better play. But as a fan, I hate seeing potentially thrilling last-second buzzer-beater attempts replaced with boring foul-fests. I wouldn't mind if there were some sort of rule change where refs could more easily call intentional fouls in the last 10 seconds to discourage strategic fouling. But I don't know if such a rule would be practical.

Is 7-4 over the last 11 thnkable? Obviously anything is possible but a glance at the remaining schedule tells me it could happen. That would put us at 11-9 in the conference and about middle of the pack with a 13-17 overall record. All things considered that would not be too bad.