"My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house.
That's not my world. My world was a cracked sidewalk." —Al McGuire

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Using a timeout

Remember when Mike Deane would burn 1, 2 or even 3 timeouts in the first 10 minutes of the game to absolutely lay the lumber into Richard Shaw, Chris Crawford or someone else that obviously was not executing the game plan? Those were crazy days and I don't think anyone is harking back to them, but for crying out loud...USE A TIMEOUT when it's right.

Why is it that everyone in the arena can sense a timeout is warranted but our coach? Now, move 65 feet down the sideline and Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun gets it. At the 18:43 mark of the second half, he calls a timeout sensing a MU run. At the 12:35 mark, he calls another timeout when MU ties the game.

It's always one bucket too late. In the first half, MU is 19-14, the crowd is into it, but we let them go on an 11-2 run before finally calling a timeout trailing 21-25. Why are we waiting so long?

In the second half, after MU built up a 56-51 lead, a 9-4 UCONN run forced a timeout with the game tied 60-60. OK, we can live with that one. Then UCONN goes on another 6-0 run before we call the next timeout. We then manage to go another 3 minutes scoring a total of 3 points while UCONN extends their lead even greater before the next timeout.

Isn't a timeout used to stop the other team's momentum and to reorganize one's own team?

4 comments:

theKAYman said...

well put. the only thing i can think of is that buzz is trying to teach the players a lesson in crisis management; however, what is looks like is that buzz is being out-coached every single game. i hope he's learning through these losses but, yes, for the love of pete call some timeouts.

Anonymous said...

Buzz has not demonstrated himself to be a great game coach (defending on opponents' inbound plays, use of timeouts, etc.).

But what about the rest of the coaching staff? Surely they have a role in teaching defense during practice and serving as consigliere during the game.

Unknown said...

I have been writing on this blog for months saying Buzz has been out-coached time and time again. Finally, I get some damn support. He should be on the hot seat.

mbedics said...

Bring back Mike Deane!!!