everything that's on my mind
(as if there's not already enough people doing this)Thursday, February 02, 2006
Welcome to the ACC
I watched the Duke - Boston College game last night. There were several games I recognized as potential losses for Duke when I first saw the schedule. One of those was the game at Boston College last night. BC was ranked #11 preseason and expected to finish second in the ACC behind Duke. So the expectation was that it would be hard to beat them at home.
There was some hope a few weeks ago when BC was playing it's way to 0-3 in the ACC, including a home loss to NC State by 18 points. However, they'd picked it up the last few weeks and started looking like the team they were supposed to be this year. So once again it began to look like a tough game to win for the Blue Devils.
Duke won 83-81. After being up by 18 with 12 and a half minutes to go, BC hit some threes and got a few turnovers and jumped back in it. In the closing seconds they cut it to one, but Duke shot free throws to go up three, and with under 10 seconds Shelden Williams managed his 7th blocked shot of the night to end the comeback.
Al Skinner complained about the difference in fouls called and free throws taken. Duke had 19 fouls, BC had 27. Duke shot 37 free throws, and BC shot 13. However, at least four, maybe six, of those fouls on BC were in the last minute and a half when they were sending Duke to the line during their attempted comeback. That's an additional 8 to 12 more free throws right there. So, I'm not sure you can count "intentional" fouls and free throws - which makes the difference a little smaller.
As for the rest of the difference, Duke was taking it to the rim more often than BC, and that creates more foul opportunities (and usually shooting fouls, too). You're going to shoot more free throws if you take it inside more. Shelden alone shot 16 free throws - he didn't do that by shooting three's. He got the ball a lot. So, I don't put much stock in his comments about fouls and free throws. Maybe if they'd prevented Shelden from getting the ball here and there, Duke would've shot less free throws, and Al would be a little happier right now.
Update: I watched the last 10 seconds again. There's been so much talk about Shelden's block being a foul, I wanted to look at it again - and I did about 8 or 9 times. Last night, I thought there was contact. Looking at it again, there was clearly a foul. However, that's looking at if from the camera shot behind the basket. If you watch the replay from the sideline, it's hard to see how much contact was really there. The referee under the basket didn't have a good angle on it, and the guy out on the side was nearly in front of the camera, so he basically saw the same thing, and it's hard to see much contact there was from that angle. Yes, it was a foul, but I'm not sure any of the officials had the right angle to make the call on a play like that. Yes, I'm probably biased, but that's the way it looks on the replay.
There was some hope a few weeks ago when BC was playing it's way to 0-3 in the ACC, including a home loss to NC State by 18 points. However, they'd picked it up the last few weeks and started looking like the team they were supposed to be this year. So once again it began to look like a tough game to win for the Blue Devils.
Duke won 83-81. After being up by 18 with 12 and a half minutes to go, BC hit some threes and got a few turnovers and jumped back in it. In the closing seconds they cut it to one, but Duke shot free throws to go up three, and with under 10 seconds Shelden Williams managed his 7th blocked shot of the night to end the comeback.
Al Skinner complained about the difference in fouls called and free throws taken. Duke had 19 fouls, BC had 27. Duke shot 37 free throws, and BC shot 13. However, at least four, maybe six, of those fouls on BC were in the last minute and a half when they were sending Duke to the line during their attempted comeback. That's an additional 8 to 12 more free throws right there. So, I'm not sure you can count "intentional" fouls and free throws - which makes the difference a little smaller.
As for the rest of the difference, Duke was taking it to the rim more often than BC, and that creates more foul opportunities (and usually shooting fouls, too). You're going to shoot more free throws if you take it inside more. Shelden alone shot 16 free throws - he didn't do that by shooting three's. He got the ball a lot. So, I don't put much stock in his comments about fouls and free throws. Maybe if they'd prevented Shelden from getting the ball here and there, Duke would've shot less free throws, and Al would be a little happier right now.
Update: I watched the last 10 seconds again. There's been so much talk about Shelden's block being a foul, I wanted to look at it again - and I did about 8 or 9 times. Last night, I thought there was contact. Looking at it again, there was clearly a foul. However, that's looking at if from the camera shot behind the basket. If you watch the replay from the sideline, it's hard to see how much contact was really there. The referee under the basket didn't have a good angle on it, and the guy out on the side was nearly in front of the camera, so he basically saw the same thing, and it's hard to see much contact there was from that angle. Yes, it was a foul, but I'm not sure any of the officials had the right angle to make the call on a play like that. Yes, I'm probably biased, but that's the way it looks on the replay.
Here we go again...
I've seen this posted on at least a couple of blogs now. I guess Chad Allen is old news already. Next up - Will, Grace and Britney. I find it interesting that the AFA is so worked up about this. Apparently they've never been inside of a Christian bookstore. Testamints, anyone? I suppose it's okay for us Christians to commercialize Jesus all we want, but if someone dares to ridicule us for doing so, well...they'd better watch out for the AFA.
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