[81alum]

Not sure re: the first question, but my biggest question is, towards the end of the game, why didn’t Kiki shoot the ball when she got the pass wide open under the basket with 3 seconds left and everyone in the gym counting down? She was looking around for someone to pass to, it seemed, but she literally could not have been more open. The shot clock expired and we almost gave the game away on that one play. I was very confused.

That one puzzled me too. My thought was that she must have lost track of where the defenders were and thought they were right behind her.

My guess is that the whole team was instructed to run clock as long as they were able--until/unless they got fouled.  They wanted to milk every second.  However, taking the chance to go up 5 seems like it was probably worth giving USC 3 extra seconds.  The difference would have been being up 3 with 7 seconds left, or being up 5 with 10 seconds.  But Iriafen must have been following directions.

The absolute worst thing we could have done was to take a shot and miss before using up all the clock.  But a point-blank layup having used up 27 seconds probably wasn't what was anticipated when a coach said "hold onto the ball" or somesuch.

[81alum]

Not sure re: the first question, but my biggest question is, towards the end of the game, why didn’t Kiki shoot the ball when she got the pass wide open under the basket with 3 seconds left and everyone in the gym counting down? She was looking around for someone to pass to, it seemed, but she literally could not have been more open. The shot clock expired and we almost gave the game away on that one play. I was very confused.

That one puzzled me too. My thought was that she must have lost track of where the defenders were and thought they were right behind her.

My guess is that the whole team was instructed to run clock as long as they were able--until/unless they got fouled.  They wanted to milk every second.  However, taking the chance to go up 5 seems like it was probably worth giving USC 3 extra seconds.  The difference would have been being up 3 with 7 seconds left, or being up 5 with 10 seconds.  But Iriafen must have been following directions.

The absolute worst thing we could have done was to take a shot and miss before using up all the clock.  But a point-blank layup having used up 27 seconds probably wasn't what was anticipated when a coach said "hold onto the ball" or somesuch.