Remember that crap that I seemed to be fond of writing about how Virginia coach Tony Bennett had been getting outcoached by his counterpart at Virginia Tech, Buzz Williams?
Yeah. That was before Williams bumbled his way into almost getting his leading scorer to foul out with 15 minutes left.
Zach LeDay went to the bench with his second foul with 9:20 to go in the first half, which makes sense, because that’s what you do when a guy gets his second foul in the first half, given that you only get four before you foul out of the game on your fifth, meaning you do everything you can to avoid a third.
But then Justin Bibbs went down after a drive to the basket and needed to come out of the game with 5:20 left.
Naturally, Williams brings in anybody but LeDay.
LeDay did hit a three 10 seconds later, and after a pair of free throws with 4:08 to go, Williams subbed him out.
Only to bring him back at the 2:57 mark. On Tech’s next possession, LeDay was called for an offensive foul.
Second half, LeDay subs in with 15:44 left, and again within seconds is assessed for a foul, on Isaiah Wilkins, who had just rebounded an Anthony Gill miss.
LeDay ran toward the bench, assuming he was being lifted, but Williams directed him back to the floor.
Virginia did what you do in these kinds of situations. For whatever reason, Williams stayed in man, and had LeDay guarding Gill, so the Cavs worked the ball into Gill in the post, and AG literally walked to the rim and dunked, knowing LeDay could do nothing.
Williams immediately sent Chris Clarke to the scorer’s table, but instead of calling a timeout to get LeDay out of the game, he inexplicably let the game play on.
UVA worked the ball back to Gill in the post on its next possession, and LeDay appeared to make contact – OK, significant contact, foul-level contact – but wasn’t assessed.
There was 14:29 on the clock when Gill’s jumped knicked the front of the rim.
You had the sense that the officials didn’t foul LeDay out from pity, with Virginia already up 15.
LeDay finally got back in with 5:35 to go, and UVA up 20. The point had long since been rendered moot, and LeDay, who had been averaging 16 points per game coming in, would finish with seven, with just that single three-pointer as his make from the field on the night.
It wasn’t the Hokies’ night, and it didn’t look like LeDay was going to make a difference no matter how many fouls he had in the scorebook.
Even so, come on, Buzz, you want me to say you can outcoach Tony Bennett, you’ve got to be able to get the basics of managing foul trouble down.
– Column by Chris Graham
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Chris Graham
