Frustrated Loyola coach Patsos takes a seat in the stands

[dahoopref]

His team held S. Curry scoreless by double-teaming him the ENTIRE game. Therefore Davidson played 4 on 3 and blewout Loyola.

ESPN - Loyola (MD) vs. Davidson - Recap - November 25, 2008

Curry held scoreless on just three shots, but Davidson still blows out Loyola

DAVIDSON, N.C. -- By the third possession, Davidson's Stephen Curry had figured it out. Loyola (Md.) was double-teaming him. Everywhere, on each possession, no matter what the scenario.

So Curry decided to test the triangle-and-2 defense taken to the ultimate extreme. He went into the corner and two defenders followed him, setting up a 4-on-3 for his teammates.

Curry decided to keep standing there, and his teammates kept scoring -- for 40 minutes -- in a 78-48 head-scratching win for the Wildcats (No. 25 on ESPN/USA Today, No. 24 AP) that will be remembered for some time.

The nation's leading scorer was held without a point and took only three shots. But the game was never in doubt because Davidson played the entire game on a virtual power play.

All this was courtesy of a bizarre coaching move by Loyola's Jimmy Patsos.

"We had to play against an NBA player tonight," Patsos explained. "Anybody else ever hold him scoreless? I'm a history major. They're going to remember that we held him scoreless or we lost by 30?"

Some will remember the catcalls Patsos received from the fans when he stuck with the defense well after the game was decided. Davidson coach Bob McKillop was so annoyed he kept Curry in the game until the final minute.

"It seemed to me they were willing to risk the game at the expense of locking Steph up," McKillop said. "When you put two people on somebody and you do it for 30 minutes and at the end of the game, you have to wonder what the reasons for that are."

Curry, the darling of last season's NCAA tournament, had scored a career-high 44 points in a loss at Oklahoma this month. He followed that up with games of 30 and 39 points.

"If Oklahoma can't stop him, how is Loyola College going to stop him?" Patsos asked.

And Curry, coming in averaging 35 points a game, joked that he had the best seat in the house.

"Every dead ball I asked them how long they were going to do this," Curry said he asked his shadowing defenders. "They really didn't say anything. They weren't very conversational about it."

"I know the fans are mad at me, but I had to roll the dice as far as a coach goes. I'm not some rookie coach," said Patsos, a former longtime assistant at Maryland. "I won a national title as a top assistant coach to Gary Williams. For 13 years I spent on Tobacco Road. I coached a couple of No. 1 picks in the draft. And we scored 48 points. That's the problem that Loyola basketball had today."

"I don't think irritate is the word. Just confused," Curry said. "When they're down by that much and still allowing us to get open shots. It kind of surprised me."

It turned out pretty good for his teammates.

"Their coach obviously wanted guys other than Steph to beat him," Barr said. "If you're playing 4-on-3 against us, somebody is going to hurt you."

[Chess Ref]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

Two points which are pertinent to this discussion, which I posted earlier, and for some reason Bob deleted are: calling coaches and players by their names when officiating and physically touching the players during the game.

There are vast differences of opinions on these two points. There are some officials who believe that both of these are fine and help establish a good rapport with the participants and can prevent a great deal of trouble. There are others, mostly the newer breed, who seem overly concerned with political correctness and lawsuits and seem to believe that engaging in either is a criminal act.

I don't see why Bob deleted that part of my previous post, especially since other posters have continued the thread by discussing my first point.

I would fall into the newer breed. I'm starting my 5th year of officiating.

I don't have much of an opinion on the names deal. We have have 112 HS with between 4-6 coaches per team. You would have to ref a awful long time to develop a rapport with all of them..I keep it polite and professional. I call them coach. No one has ever had a problem with that.

I'm also not a toucher. Not because of wanting to look PC but I feel its not appropriate for someone my age to be touching high school boys and girls. I know there are exceptions to every rule and if some kids life was in danger I would break my own rule . But generally speaking I have a pretty strict hands off policy, which I comfortable with...To each his own...

Lawsuits are something to be concerned about. Does it happen that much, apparently not, but it does happen. I have assets. I want to keep my assets. We all know there are people out there willing to sue over anything. I try to limit my exposure to those people and circumstances.

That helps and also I have my own personal liability insurance that covers my assets and then some.So I'm good.