Is it OK now to talk about the last play of the first half?

[Big Fan]

Inbounds play you have 5 players to guard 4 - well one on the inbounder. But everyone should be on a player. How in the world did no one cover the Indiana player outside of the arc? I almost felt UConn should have called a time out to make sure they were on the right page on defense. Pretty bad missed assignment by someone. The look on Geno's face was like what happened????

 

[Biff]

Edwards was assigned to her. Edwards was guarding her near the lane. When the in-bounder got the ball, the Indiana player bolted out to the 3 point line. Edwards was looking the other way and did not see her player was not near her until it was too late. Edwards unfortunately messed up the rebound and threw what she thought was a dead ball out of bounds and then she missed her defensive assignment.

Fortunately she did a boat load of good things in the game but that was a bad few seconds for her.

 

[Glenn]

Well AE just messed up . It was her job, and she was standing in the paint instead of out near her man.

 

[JoePgh]

Typically, a shooter in the weak side corner will not be closely guarded, on the theory that if the ball is passed over there (over the heads of the defense), it will be in the air long enough for the defender to get there, and the defender doesn't want to get out of rebounding position or leave the lane open for a drive by someone else.

In this case, though, the inbounder could make a low line-drive pass straight to the shooter, so that general principle didn't apply. Aaliyah should have recognized that and gotten in that passing lane (while staying inbounds), or she should have been closer to the shooter. It was just a mistake, reflecting her inexperience in guarding that kind of play. At least that is my opinion.

However, I will bet that Indiana had a play ready where if Aaliyah had vacated the lane to cover the corner shooter, they would have hit someone else for a layup, exploiting the vacant defensive position in the lane. It was a good play, probably designed for that specific situation.

Even so, Aaliyah recovered enough to get out to the shooter and force her to make a move to her left to get a clear look, increasing the difficulty of the shot. She hit it anyway. Indiana earned those two points.

 

[Boreifs]

I thought with the thread title that you would be talking about an error by the clock operator resulting in another play for Indiana. Having manned the clock for literally hundreds of games, that is the nightmare for any of us; a mistake impacting the game. No experienced person, though, should ever have made that mistake.

 

[Centerstream]

I thought with the thread title that you would be talking about an error by the clock operator resulting in another play for Indiana. Having manned the clock for literally hundreds of games, that is the nightmare for any of us; a mistake impacting the game. No experienced person, though, should ever have made that mistake.

What mistake are you referring to? The inadvertent 30 second horn? Those happen quite often and I might say that they are common place especially when offenses are deliberately going for the last shot at the end of the half.
The horn sounded as the ball was bouncing on the rim. Aaliyah, instead of playing on like teams normally do with an inadvertent horn, probably thought that the horn was for the end of the half and was giving the ball to the ref.
I don't think that there was a error by the clock operator.
And obviously the 3 point shot did not have any real impact on the game other than making the Huskies have more focus to start the 3rd quarter and make Aaliyah play just a little harder the whole 2nd half.

 

[GoUconn7961]

 

[MSGRET]

The refs should have reviewed the clock and the time it took AE to throw the ball to the ref. It was almost a second, so they should have only had 3 tenths of a second or less. But they messed up by not reviewing it, they only reviewed the shot to see it the player released it in time. I don't know where they got these officials from, but they should not do another tournament game this year.

 

[Amashutcha]

What mistake are you referring to? The inadvertent 30 second horn? Those happen quite often and I might say that they are common place especially when offenses are deliberately going for the last shot at the end of the half.

Watch the replay again. The clock continued to run after the 30-second horn, but for some reason stopped at 1.3 seconds for more than 1.3 seconds (the half should've been over by then if the game clock continued running) and AE threw it to the ref when the clock stopped but was eventually called for a turnover

 

[Urshurak]

No

 

[Dove]

Inbounds play you have 5 players to guard 4 - well one on the inbounder. But everyone should be on a player. How in the world did no one cover the Indiana player outside of the arc? I almost felt UConn should have called a time out to make sure they were on the right page on defense. Pretty bad missed assignment by someone. The look on Geno's face was like what happened????

Deep breath. Feel better now?

 

[AgStatesman]

The refs had nothing to do with the play. They determined that there was time on the clock and awarded Indiana an inbounds. At this point everyone knew it and AE decided to not cover her player. A total bonehead play on her part. CW said they addressed it specifically at halftime.

 

[Redux]

The refs had nothing to do with the play.

There were approximately 3.2 seconds left in the period when the shot clock buzzer went off (and the ball was on the rim). Approximately 3.5 seconds later, after AE got the rebound, the ball went out of bounds as AE bounced it to the official. Probably she thought the shot buzzer was end of period but it shouldn't have mattered as the period was over by the time the ball was out. Unfortunately the clock had stopped at 1.3 seconds, with the ball still inbounds and still in play. And BTW, AE did not walk with the ball, an excuse for the officials stopping the clock that has been mentioned elsewhere.

You are correct that the officials had nothing to do with what happened during the inbounds during that subsequent 1.3 second period extension that shouldn't have been happening. AE made a mistake in coverage (not "decided not to cover her player"). She did move quickly to contest the shot, forced a dribble/move and the player still got off a contested shot, maybe: the video frames are 1/30th of a second apart and the exact release point occurred between frames; there's no way of really knowing. I am told by an expert (same one who did the time analysis above) that he looked at the video "fields" (1/60th of a second) and it looks like the shot did get off, depending on the length of the shooters fingernails.

 

[Centerstream]

Watch the replay again. The clock continued to run after the 30-second horn, but for some reason stopped at 1.3 seconds for more than 1.3 seconds (the half should've been over by then if the game clock continued running) and AE threw it to the ref when the clock stopped but was eventually called for a turnover

I had the replay on my tv as I was writing the post you replied to. I watched it multiple times and then again right now. You are correct, the clock was stopped after the 30-second horn went off for no reason. The refs reviewed the play and it should have been a jump ball due to the inadvertent horn but for some reason, they called a turnover on Aaliyah.

 

[Centerstream]

The refs reviewed the play and should have noticed that the clock stopped inadvertently at 1.3 with Aaliyah in possession of the ball. The call should have been a jump ball and IU would have gotten possession. Instead, they called it a UConn turnover thus letting IU run that play and then start the 3rd quarter with the ball.

 

[Banco]

The refs should have reviewed the clock and the time it took AE to throw the ball to the ref. It was almost a second, so they should have only had 3 tenths of a second or less. But they messed up by not reviewing it, they only reviewed the shot to see it the player released it in time. I don't know where they got these officials from, but they should not do another tournament game this year.

I thought I was the only one who noticed that.. You're absolutely correct

 

[Ardenque]

I had the replay on my tv as I was writing the post you replied to. I watched it multiple times and then again right now. You are correct, the clock was stopped after the 30-second horn went off for no reason. The refs reviewed the play and it should have been a jump ball due to the inadvertent horn but for some reason, they called a turnover on Aaliyah.

You are right about everything, except the refs never did review the play.
They never looked at the video - massive screw up.
I was also surprised that Geno just accepted this with only outstretched arms and a shrug of his shoulders.
It turned out to be irrelevant, but at the time the incompetence was upsetting to watch.

 

[Centerstream]

You are right about everything, except the refs never did review the play.
They never looked at the video - mthey assive screw up.
I was also surprised that Geno just accepted this with only outstretched arms and a shrug of his shoulders.
It turned out to be irrelevant, but at the time the incompetence was upsetting to watch.

You got me again. One of the refs went to the scorer's table, said something to them, there was no review and then IU inbounded the ball.
I am going to shut up now. (But I still have the replay queued up at the 1.3 mark of the 2nd quarter.)

 

[boontonbomber]

You don't want a mixup in assignments in all of that confusion that was going on. You'll see coaches in that situation yelling at players, and motioning to be sure that everyone knows their responsibilty. I blame the coaches, not just AE. Yes, AE should have known who to cover, but alert coaches don't take that for granted. The best Geno could do was hold his arms up afterwards- "Hey what happened there"? Too late! Maybe ,in fairness to him, you would expect one of the 3 assistants up and alerting the players. That was really a bad breakdown by everybody. Just don't lay it all on Aaliyah. Fortunately, they didn't lose by a couple of points.

 

[AgStatesman]

The refs reviewed the play and should have noticed that the clock stopped inadvertently at 1.3 with Aaliyah in possession of the ball. The call should have been a jump ball and IU would have gotten possession. Instead, they called it a UConn turnover thus letting IU run that play and then start the 3rd quarter with the ball.

Interesting observation about the held ball. A question I don't have the answer to; would a held ball scenario resulted in a different throw in spot?