[CompSci87]

Why is this coaching staff incapable of teaching and/or motivating the team to finish a game strong? It isn’t that they’re making frosh mistakes. Many of the miscues are being made by our experienced players. We had at least 2, maybe 3, straight shot clock violations in the last few minutes. That’s inexcusable, and a well-coached team wouldn’t make those mistakes. And this wasn’t the first time we have tanked the end of a game that we should have won going away. It’s become a routine.

Any team we face from here on out will likely be good enough to take advantage of this extremely  frustrating tendency.

Cut and paste -- for not only this year but for as long as I've been following the program. Tara is a tremendous coach in so many ways, but her dislike of "running up the score" may be the root cause of this. She rather play very conservatively and run off clock, even at the expense of allowing the opponent to catch up, stopping all of our momentum and derailing our offense, than to play normally and take the acceptable risk, especially being up double digits of missing a thoughtful shot if it means taking another few seconds off the clock.

I don't think using time wisely and continuing to run our offense should be mutually exclusive. We can still work off time off the game clock but still run our offense. One of the problems is that we only have Kiana as a player who can create her own shot when time runs out right now. DiJonai and Haley would have been other options to create spacing on their own or take it to the basket. If I was the opposing coach, I would focus on Kiana and make any other player take the shot in these situations, which they have learned to do.

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Actually, leading by double digits, a shot clock violation is an acceptable outcome.  You would rather score, of course, but if you don’t score, it is better to turn it over after using 30 second of clock than to chuck a ball early in the shit clock oR turn the ball over.

BC

Sorry, not buying it. I agree you don’t want to throw up a bad shot early in the clock, but if you have been playing well all game running your offense to set up good shots, you should keep doing it. That actually reduces the likelihood of a turnover, because players have less of a tendency to be sloppy or tentative. Going several minutes without scoring — as we have a disturbing tendency to do at the end of games — isn’t a good thing.

I am totally with 76lsjumb on this one. Why are a shot clock violation or taking a wild shot/turning the ball over early in the shot clock the only options? Do our players just lose all ability to run a competent, well-run offense later on in a game? If we are in a winning situation, one could assume that meant our offense was clicking earlier in the game. Why not focus on maintaining our rhythm and focus rather than disrupting it?

Plus if you allow the opposing team to cut it down to single digits, then a couple of more missed shots/turnovers by us plus a missed call or a lucky break by them could tie the game. Why risk it? Why let opponents think they can get back in the game?

It would be one thing if there was 2 minutes left to play in the fourth quarter, but we go into this turtle mode as early as midway through a third quarter sometimes, when there's just too much time left in the game.

Not to pile on but let’s remember the obvious — even if you get caught chucking up a prayer before the clock expires, you still have some chance of a rebound and starting the sequence all over again.

On the other hand, if you chuck up a prayer and the opponent rebounds it, they have a chance at a fast break. If you give up a shot clock violation, at least the opponent has to inbound and you get a chance to set your defense. Best is perhaps to take a decent shot with teammates in good position to rebound or get back on defense.

[CompSci87]

Why is this coaching staff incapable of teaching and/or motivating the team to finish a game strong? It isn’t that they’re making frosh mistakes. Many of the miscues are being made by our experienced players. We had at least 2, maybe 3, straight shot clock violations in the last few minutes. That’s inexcusable, and a well-coached team wouldn’t make those mistakes. And this wasn’t the first time we have tanked the end of a game that we should have won going away. It’s become a routine.

Any team we face from here on out will likely be good enough to take advantage of this extremely  frustrating tendency.

Cut and paste -- for not only this year but for as long as I've been following the program. Tara is a tremendous coach in so many ways, but her dislike of "running up the score" may be the root cause of this. She rather play very conservatively and run off clock, even at the expense of allowing the opponent to catch up, stopping all of our momentum and derailing our offense, than to play normally and take the acceptable risk, especially being up double digits of missing a thoughtful shot if it means taking another few seconds off the clock.

I don't think using time wisely and continuing to run our offense should be mutually exclusive. We can still work off time off the game clock but still run our offense. One of the problems is that we only have Kiana as a player who can create her own shot when time runs out right now. DiJonai and Haley would have been other options to create spacing on their own or take it to the basket. If I was the opposing coach, I would focus on Kiana and make any other player take the shot in these situations, which they have learned to do.

---

Actually, leading by double digits, a shot clock violation is an acceptable outcome.  You would rather score, of course, but if you don’t score, it is better to turn it over after using 30 second of clock than to chuck a ball early in the shit clock oR turn the ball over.

BC

Sorry, not buying it. I agree you don’t want to throw up a bad shot early in the clock, but if you have been playing well all game running your offense to set up good shots, you should keep doing it. That actually reduces the likelihood of a turnover, because players have less of a tendency to be sloppy or tentative. Going several minutes without scoring — as we have a disturbing tendency to do at the end of games — isn’t a good thing.

I am totally with 76lsjumb on this one. Why are a shot clock violation or taking a wild shot/turning the ball over early in the shot clock the only options? Do our players just lose all ability to run a competent, well-run offense later on in a game? If we are in a winning situation, one could assume that meant our offense was clicking earlier in the game. Why not focus on maintaining our rhythm and focus rather than disrupting it?

Plus if you allow the opposing team to cut it down to single digits, then a couple of more missed shots/turnovers by us plus a missed call or a lucky break by them could tie the game. Why risk it? Why let opponents think they can get back in the game?

It would be one thing if there was 2 minutes left to play in the fourth quarter, but we go into this turtle mode as early as midway through a third quarter sometimes, when there's just too much time left in the game.

Not to pile on but let’s remember the obvious — even if you get caught chucking up a prayer before the clock expires, you still have some chance of a rebound and starting the sequence all over again.

On the other hand, if you chuck up a prayer and the opponent rebounds it, they have a chance at a fast break. If you give up a shot clock violation, at least the opponent has to inbound and you get a chance to set your defense. Best is perhaps to take a decent shot with teammates in good position to rebound or get back on defense.