NCAA Tournament Playalong Thread

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by Crown@club

I know UNC has more talent. I'm just saying that as well as they've been playing the last 2 games, that they should had been able to execute their game plan against UNC. If last night was the game plan, then that was horrible. Should had been more patient with the basketball. MSU 21 turnovers. Most were from their own accord.

What you aren't getting is that you can have a game plan but that doesn't mean that your opponent is going to let you play it. Just like in football. You may be a running team but if you fall behind early, say a fumble returned or a kickoff returned for a touchdown, you have to change your game plan a little bit. They surely wanted to be more patient. But they have no inside game against UNC so that means their entire offense was on the perimeter. UNC was all over the passing lanes and forcing the Spartan offense out further than they wanted. By overplaying the passing lanes, two things happen. They get a lot of steals and opportunities to run out. But they also get out of position often and leave you with open shots. Coaches may preach that they want you to slow things down but they'll also tell you not to pass up wide open shots. The State players got a lot of open looks but while they were open, they were also rushed. Long jumpers often lead to long rebounds and once again, the Heels were out and running. The simple fact is that they didn't have the players to impose their game plan over UNC's and once they fell behind, they had to adjust. They weren't going to crawl back from 10-15 back by working the shot clock down on each possession.