Mailbag: Why doesn’t Tony Bennett call more momentum-stopping timeouts?

One thing I have thought about at times this year (and in the past) is how Tony Bennett seems to dislike calling timeouts when the other team goes on a run. I suppose he does it to save timeouts and build resilience. By and large in the past he has had tough, experienced teams, so it made sense. Since this team is so much less experienced (except for Reece Beekman), I would think he should be quicker on the TO trigger to slow down the opponent’s momentum, especially since, when UVA gets down, say, eight or more points in the second half, things are in danger of spinning out of control. I am curious as to your thoughts on this?

– Eric

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This question comes up after what we saw Tuesday night, when Bennett waited until the 6:27 mark, after a Pitt basket pushed the Panthers’ lead in what had been a one-point game what felt like moments earlier all the way to 10, to finally use one of his second-half timeouts to try to get a reset for his side.

Pitt had held Virginia to one basket over a five-minute stretch to that point, turning what had been a one-point lead into a 64-54 advantage.

Bennett would try another timeout at the 2:53 mark after another long stretch of not much offensively.

Point of fact: Virginia didn’t make a shot from the field in the intervening three and a half minutes, getting just a pair of free throws from Beekman, as Pitt built the lead to 14.

By that point, the final outcome had been decided.

The preservation of timeouts is more an issue for football coaches, who get three per half, and having all three in the pocket in the second half is essential in a close game, in the event that you need to use them to give yourself a chance to get the ball back late, if needed.

Possession of the ball isn’t an issue in basketball, where the coaches get a total of four timeouts to use in a game – one the so-called “use it or lose it” timeout that doesn’t carry over to the second half, so, you use it in the first half, because why not, the other three that you can use in either half, but would prefer to preserve for the second half.

Most coaches use their “use it or lose it” timeout late in the first half, to get a reset, and try to set up a play on their final possession.

Bennett actually used his much earlier in the first half of the Pitt game, after a Jake Groves three at the 10:41 mark that cut the Pitt lead at the time from seven to four.

The reason for that one: Pitt had knocked down threes on four of its most recent five possessions, and Bennett wanted to scheme up a defensive fix.

That, we can all agree, is a good use of that first-half-exclusive timeout.

I think it’s a fair question to ask about the preservation-for-the-sake-of-preservation approach to the second-half timeouts.

Pitt coach Jeff Capel used one of his three remaining timeouts early in the second half – at the 16:29 mark – after a 9-0 Virginia run put the ‘Hoos on top by two, and had the thousands in attendance howling at the top of their lungs.

If there was ever an occasion for a momentum-stopping timeout, this was it.

The effect wasn’t immediate. It was still a one-point game five minutes later when Taine Murray connected on an athletic reverse layup that made it 52-51 Pitt with 11:28 to go.

At this stage, Bennett was trying to account for foul trouble for Beekman, who went to the bench for a three-minute stretch with his third foul at the 13:39 mark, and also trying to get something right on the defensive end with Pitt slicing and dicing the Pack Line for open looks with its ball-screen separates sets.

Virginia would get the D part of things figured out – Pitt was 6-of-19 from the floor in the final 11:09 – but in the process of trying to find the right mix on defense, the offense got bogged down.

Virginia scored just one point in the next 4:02 after the Murray layup, and then after a Beekman jumper with 7:26 to go, had just a pair of Beekman free throws over the next 5:20, when an Isaac McKneely three at the 2:06 mark cut the Pitt lead to 70-59.

Bennett would get to the final buzzer with one timeout still in his pocket.

I’ll say here, using that one somewhere else in that final 11 minutes wouldn’t have necessarily been momentum-stopping, because Pitt didn’t take control of the game down the stretch with a flurry, per se, as much as it was because Virginia just couldn’t get anything going on the offensive end.

The final tally for Virginia in the final 11:28: 12 points on 3-of-12 shooting, two turnovers.

There were two media timeouts for Bennett and his staff to use to try to come up with something schematically to get things moving.

Would using the other UVA timeout made that much of a difference?

It couldn’t have hurt.