"Dumb loses more games than smart wins." -- Bob Knight
I was a young assistant coach on Mike Krzyzewski's staff in 1992 for the Duke-Kentucky NCAA regional final in Philadelphia, the site of Christian Laettner's iconic shot. On that last play, Kentucky did not put a defender on the ball and allowed Laettner to catch the ball and shoot it for fear of fouling. That play has been dissected by me and countless others as an example of how to handle a late-game situation. I learned a ton from that play.
There is no more stressful or pressure-filled time in a college player's career than at the end of an NCAA tournament game. The tournament carries with it great importance, and a palpable finality, and the players feel it. There are variables to process, most notably time and score, and quick decisions, reads and reactions must be made and executed. In some instances, we have seen smart win. In more instances, we have seen dumb lose.
Here's my take on a few late-game situations that have made headlines from this year's tournament:
To read Jay Bilas' breakdown of a few late-game situations, including Texas-Arizona, Butler-Pittsburgh and UNC-Washington, you must be an ESPN Insider.
Jay Bilas
College Basketball analyst- College basketball analyst for ESPN and ESPN Insider
- Played and coached at Duke
- Practicing attorney
ABOUT THIS BLOG
Jay Bilas
Jay Bilas provides expert color commentary from courtside on college basketball games and serves as a studio analyst and as the co-host of ESPN's popular studio shows "College GameDay" and "College Gamenight." He also writes for ESPN.com and contributes numerous reports for "SportsCenter." Since 2003, Bilas has provided in-depth player scouting and analysis for ESPN's coverage of the NBA draft.
