I'm back to that play, the one beginning at 15:05...
True perfection is a thing of such beauty as to be rare indeed. Approximately .01% of all major league games have been perfect. Basketball, of course, has no perfect game. But what about the perfect play? Again, no such thing. But what if we defined one? What would it look like, what are the characteristics? Efficient? OK, that sounds good/important. What's that first rule of design? Form follows function? (OK, full disclosure, I don't know that it's the first rule.) What's the function of offensive basketball? Score the ball. So, inbound the ball, 93 foot heave, swish. Perfect play, right? Well, no, not many of those are going in. A game full game of full-court shots wouldn't be efficient at all. Not to mention dull as hell.
Got to get the ball closer to the basket. How about some dribbles? Inbound the ball, player dribbles the ball the length of the court and scoops in a lay-up. I've just described Ketia Swanier at the end of the DePaul game. Perfect play? Maybe not. What are the other 4 players for? One to inbound but the others might as well be in the locker room.
More players? How many? Well, all of them would be best.
Multiple players means passes. Unless you want a situation where one player loses possession and another regains it.
Geno: OK, here's what we're going to do. Bria, you dribble around for a while then lose possession. Mo, you swoop in and grab the ball, but then you lose it. Kaleena, somehow you get it back. I'm not sure how, but, heh-heh, I don't actually have to do it, just tell you to, heh-heh. Then the ball get's knocked out of your hands and...
CD: Correct me if I'm wrong coach but that doesn't sound all that efficient. Even the explanation isn't efficient...
Geno: CD if I want any crap out of you I'll unscrew your head and dip it out. Now where was I...
Let's stick with passes. How many passes? To get 5 players involved requires at least four passes. Efficiency demands the minimum so each player can touch the ball only once and the last player to touch it must finish the play.
What else? Gotta score, right? Sure, but what kind of shot? 3-pointer? Maybe, but even Kaleena behind the arc wasn't as automatic as a lay-up. Still, it's 2 points versus 3 points. What about resulting fouls? Lay-ups are more likely to generate +1's than 3 pointers. If we count +1's along with the odds of making the shot, what generates more scoring, the 3-point shot or the lay-up? I sure don't know. Also, what about the fact the the 3 point shot is more difficult than the lay-up? Shouldn't difficulty county for something? I suppose, but which way? Shouldn't the perfect play be designed to produce the least difficult shot, not the most difficult one? Don't make me go back to the merits and demerits of launching full-court missiles... I imagine the debate about the shot resulting from the perfect play will remain moot. The 3-point shot because of it's higher value versus the lay-up because of it's ease of execution and greater +1 potential. Perhaps there are two perfect plays. One that ends in a 3-point shot and one that ends in a lay-up.
Anything else? How about dribbles? Not essential, right? So no dribbles. Player movement, steps? Again, not essential. No steps. That it? Pretty much, just something crisp, quick: no player holding the ball, no clock stoppage, no time out in the middle of the play or ball swatted out of bounds then the play continued with the in-bound pass.
Let's re-cap. The perfect play has all 5 players touch the ball, once each, four passes, no player movement beyond what's needed to complete the passes and shot, resulting is either a successful 3-point shot or a lay-up. Look at our play again, beginning at the 15:05 point when Bria passes to Moriah. Five Players, four passes, one lay-up. Four seconds from beginning to end. The only place you'll ever see that play again is in the pre-game lay-up line.
Completing the circle, there have been 23 perfect games in 135 years of professional baseball. Does any one stand out? A case can be made for Don Larsen's because it was done on baseball's most difficult stage: The World Series. UConn executed that play not in some exhibition game against Schlub U. but in the National Championship Game against a to-that-point undefeated foe. The most perfect basketball play ever.
