GrizLA said:
well, you are a decided underdog, the other team is faster and scoring at will and has the ball with enough time to shoot a 2 or 3 or 2+1...they have missed more than half of their free throws...so, why not gamble, as a 6th seed, and put them on the line where it is 50-50 chance.....if they make them you have 10.3 seconds to either drive and get a clear shot as a foul then by PSU would be foolish, or you try another 3 or you play the game that got you that far.....when you are as bad as MSU and having a good night, why not try to win...instead of preventing a loss....sure, defense would be good, but the score shows that neither team did much of that....
Your logic is so flawed I don't know where to begin. It does not matter if you are an underdog, a visitor, a 6th seed, whatever. You never, ever ever ever foul in that situation. You call time out, set up your D, and tell your guys to nut up and get a stop. I don't know how you figure it is a 50-50 chance when it comes to free throws. Is that the combined free throw percentage of the guys on the floor for PSU? Is that the FT percentage Dominic Waters (guy who had the ball and dished for the dunk) had this season? Because on ESPN is said he is a 80.7% FT shooter. Or do you think that shooting free throws is just like flipping a coin? If anything, counting on PSU's 51.8% FG percentage last night is a 50-50 proposition, heads you get what happened last night (still have a shot to win BTW), tails you play in OT.
"Why not try to win?" By fouling you are asking to lose. You essentially give them points and tell your team "I have no confidence in you going to OT, lets try and get lucky here. We will be down by a point or two, but if you guys can hit a miracle, we win".
"Defense would be good but the score shows that neither team did much of that?" All you need is one stop, one stop in a rushed posession has nothing to do with the amount of points you have given up earlier in the game.
As it was stated earlier, I just hope you aren't a coach