11/05/24
April 07, 2015
SportsFilter: The Tuesday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Interesting NCAA Final last night. Wisconsin and Bo Ryan did a great job of limiting Duke's strengths, specifically Okafor and Winslow, and was dictating exactly the game they wanted midway through the second half. The Badgers defense also was forcing the ball away from Tyus Jones and to what would be considered the 4th or 5th option on the floor for Duke. Grayson Allen won that game for Duke. He carried them back into contention and forced the Badgers out of their defensive game plan resulting in better opportunities for Jones and Okafor at the end.
Amazing - 16 points in 21 minutes in the championship for a guy who averaged slightly over 1 basket and 9 minutes during the season.
Proves there is still some value in having "4 and done" players like Allen around.
posted by cixelsyd at 11:13 AM on April 07, 2015
Never seems wrong to back Duke if you're reasonably confident that the refs will oblige and help the cause. The refs were crafty last night. They waited until the second half to start working their special brand of Blue Devil magic.
For Duke to be in the double bonus roughly halfway through the second half against a seasoned, veteran team that doesn't foul is rather eye opening.
Also, I'm tired of hearing how tough the charge or blocking call is to make, especially if the concern isn't one individual call but rather the appearance of trends and patterns developing.
Well, that was in reference to the calls that were made. Then there were the non-calls...
Grant Hill is a stronger man than me. If I were a Duke grad calling that game, I would have recused myself at some point.
posted by beaverboard at 11:28 AM on April 07, 2015
The refs were crafty last night. They waited until the second half to start working their special brand of Blue Devil magic.
Is the assumption that Duke will always get support from refs?
If so, what is the explanation for them losing in the first round in 2012 and 2014?
Sometimes it's hard to keep track of which teams the refs are supposed to be favouring, since it always seems to be the team that wins.
...
I tried to watch the game, but it was tough.
Here in Canada, we had a different broadcast team than what you got in the US.
I LOVE listening to Dan Shulman broadcast any sport. Silky smooth voice, smart, and gets excited when required (but not Gus Johnson-esque*).
I HATE listening to the late-career Dick Vitale, who is simply just shouting catch phrases and bizarre praises at this point (with a voice that sounds like he's on the edge of death).
*Side note: I typed "announcer who shouts a lot during football games" and Google gave me the "Gus Johnson" wikipedia article as the first result.
For fun, I typed the exact same thing into Bing. It gave me some mish-mash of unrelated stuff.
Google still rules the roost.
posted by grum@work at 11:57 AM on April 07, 2015
For Duke to be in the double bonus roughly halfway through the second half against a seasoned, veteran team that doesn't foul is rather eye opening
The calls Duke received during their comeback were huge. But Duke always gets more calls than their opponents. From my vantage point there were a few that could/should have gone the other way, but this game wasn't your typical contest where Duke benefits by 20 more free throw attempts than their opponent (I submit the win over Michigan State as a clear example of that).
Here in Canada, we had a different broadcast team than what you got in the US
Oh yeah. There was a time 15 years ago when Vitale added the slightest bit of wisdom about what was going on for the seasoned fan but that tank is empty. Throw in the TSN resident basketball/golf/soccer/curling/lawn bowling experts' take during commercial breaks and halftime and it makes the entire event painful to watch.
posted by cixelsyd at 12:43 PM on April 07, 2015
Very fun game to watch last night. Maybe it was Duke's defense clamping down, but after a very solid performance, Wisconsin seemed gassed for the final few minutes. I had hope after Kaminsky hit the gotta-have-it 3 to cut the lead to 5 followed by the bucket after the timeout to get it down to 3, but from that point on they just looked spent.
posted by bender at 01:51 PM on April 07, 2015
I hope this NCAA championship is remembered for the officiating travesty that it was. I don't have much invested in college basketball and I only casually root for Wisconsin but I found that second half infuriating. Ticky-tack calls, no calls, blatantly wrong calls, anything that could be considered controversial went Duke's way. Nothing in sports bothers me more than officials ruining contests.
posted by tron7 at 01:54 PM on April 07, 2015
The out-of-bounds call at the end of the game baffled me. The Duke player's finger clearly moved because the ball hit it and yet they awarded Duke possession. Duke subsequently hit the 3 pointer that pretty much ended Wisconsin. Very unfortunate way for the game to end.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 04:51 PM on April 07, 2015
NCAA Men's Basketball Officiating Constitution clearly states:
Duke until proven otherwise
Duke games are normally painful to watch because of the preferential calls they receive. Trust me, last night's game was not as bad as most are, probably because Wisconsin is an experienced squad who doesn't place themselves in many situations that give officials opportunities to blow the old Blue whistle.
If you don't believe me watch a Duke home game next year against a decent opponent. Standard fare to need to score 20 more points than Duke from the field to be close at the end of the game.
posted by cixelsyd at 05:11 PM on April 07, 2015
Admittedly it's not for home games only, but you'd think this preferential treatment would show up in the stats. Duke was 41st this year in free throws attempted. They were 164th last year and 57th in 2012. The last time they won the title they were 102nd.
Please don't make me defend Duke.
posted by yerfatma at 09:45 AM on April 08, 2015
Please don't make me defend Duke.
I assume you've already taken 2 or 3 Silkwood showers to try to wash the first line of that post off of you.
posted by tahoemoj at 11:13 AM on April 08, 2015
You guys!
posted by billsaysthis at 12:04 PM on April 08, 2015
Not sure I read this correctly but somehow I seem to have won the SpoFi NCAA Tourney bracket. Like IBM, never seems to be wrong to buy Duke.