Mailbag: People write the bad guy who criticized the coach over the last 5.3 seconds

Well, you’re getting at least one email that agrees 100 percent with your sentiment on the last 5.3 seconds. Inexcusable and I hate to say it, but it may be time for TB to move on.

How can a Power 5 men’s team shoot free throws worse than high school teams? The fact that they did not improve in that area throughout the year shows that there was no coaching in practice on that simple fundamental.

Love reading your articles.

Greg

That was a tough one to take last night.

The guys we wanted on the free throw line couldn’t get it done.

The coach that won us a national championship had a brain cramp.

I’m always of the opinion that sports should be fun no matter what, but man …

 

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One hundred percent with you on this.  People don’t realize that the coach’s job is to pick up the players when they inevitably make mistakes or bad plays.

Having three fouls to give at the end of regulation is an off situation, and I think Tony and his staff apparently didn’t understand the implications.

I am just a rec league dad coach, but I know in that situation, it is on me to tell the kids to foul four times, and win the game.

Tony has too many of these strange papers. He needs to realize that God is not gonna win these games for UVA. He is an unconventional coach who creates extra stress with his tactics almost every game.

This situation called for conventional, no-nonsense behavior in order to save his team to fight another day.

Tony seems to be inordinately stubborn, and over the years, it has cost him big-time!

DM

I totally agree about Tony being inordinately stubborn, as much as it pains to say that.

Even if State misses that three at the end, there should have been criticism of letting them get a shot off in the first place.

There wouldn’t have been. But there should have been.

I hope they can learn from this. I’m not sure they will.

 

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Only comment is that it’s easy to second-guess after watching the replay over and over, which you obviously did to get all the info you had on each player’s position on the floor. Hindsight is always 20-20.

KT

Hindsight is 20-20, indeed.

The coaches who get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars (the five assistants) or millions (the head coach) get paid that money because they’re supposed to think through every possible angle before a play happens.

That, thinking things through before they happen, you would call that foresight.

All I’m doing is pointing that out.

Send Tony an email about the lack of foresight, maybe.

 

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Your breakdown and analysis of the game’s final regulation seconds is spot on, Chris. First, it’s on the kids for missing those free throws. Your two best free throw shooters simply have to be better there.

Having said that, Tony could have helped his kids a little more. Now, I don’t know the substitution rules prior to a one-and-one but if I could I swap Blake Buchanan for Jordan Minor. Tell him and Ryan Dunn to go after any free throw miss as hard as possible. If you foul, so what. That still leaves you two to give. And if you don’t foul on the rebound, get in the face of the rebounder. He could panic and throw a bad pass or pull a Chris Webber. And foul on the first pass in the backcourt.

I am not a fan of allowing the other team to advance the ball to midcourt without any pressure with the clock winding down. You win if the other team doesn’t get a shot off.

Alan

The very least I would have done is had a single guy on the blocks for the rebound.

If that is done, the endgame doesn’t happen.