Wash/Stanford game

[ShadowStripes]

Originally posted by Nevadaref



I did not care for the position on the final play of regulation with 2.1 seconds remaining. Verne was of course C opposite the table. He started near the top of the key and moved down to the division line while the pass was thrown to midcourt. Bill Kennedy chose to be Trail OPPOSITE the table for the throw-in in the backcourt on the end line! WHY? He knows that he has Verne over there on that side of the court. He should have stayed tableside as Stanford had running privileges anyway. I don't understand this choice after 2 time-outs. It's not like the crew didn't have time to talk about where they would start on the play. Chris Rastatter was the new Lead and he was all the way down on the opposite end line. He did have a double whistle on the foul with Verne. This positioning made it difficult for the crew to cover the court, but they did and got the obvious foul on the 3pt shot at the buzzer. (Actually .2 was put back up after consulting the monitor.) I believe that the crew did get this play right with some difficulty.

Good analysis Nevadaref. I watched the game and thought they should've moved Verne to lead by switching him with Rastatter underneath the Stanford basket for those final 2.1 seconds. You knew Stanford needed a 3 point basket and you knew that most of the action would take place from the division line to around the 3 point arc. They could've minimized Verne's lack of mobility at that point by placing him in the spot least likely to see any meaningful action. Fortunately, the call was so obvious Verne could see it from the division line and Rastatter had a double whistle from lead, obviously reaching because of the injury.

[Edited by ShadowStripes on Jan 30th, 2006 at 03:23 PM]