Why do we walk so much?

[ubasketball]

I have watched men's and women's basketball for decades and frankly I have never seen a team commit so many traveling violations. It mostly happens when we catch a pass and initiate action. Did anyone one keep track of how many times we turned the ball over because of traveling last night versus how many times Marquette did it? Why can't we stop doing that?

 

[hoopsfan22]

The question is how come we traveled so many times last night but not other nights?

 

[vtcwbuff]

Look to the refs for the answer.

 

[oldhusky]

I believe it is a new point of emphasis this year by officials, that we have been slow to adjust to. Players have over the years taken advantage of officials loose interpretation of a walk. This year officials have made it a priority to have a more strict interpretation. For many players that means making a minor adjustment to what they have been instinctively doing for years. A hard habit to break so to speak, but it applies to all players and it seems like it happens to us more than it should. Just need to be more disciplined.

 

[Happydad745]

I was wondering why too....players practice dribbling and movement from the starting point in their careers. Most at a very early age. Maybe they should put a step monitor on...

 

[Mdoggie]

Most ball players travel “walk” a few times per game. Officials haven’t called it so tight until recently. It’s basketball wide. There’s holding on almost every football play and numerous travels in every basketball game. It ain’t just UConn.

 

[meyers7]

It's a stupid call. You can't travel while you're dribbling the ball. You're dribbling. So what if you shuffle your feet while you're "starting" to dribble, it's part of dribbling. Stupid to call it incorrectly at all, let alone be a point of emphasis.

 

[JellyBean]

I believe it is a new point of emphasis this year by officials, that we have been slow to adjust to. Players have over the years taken advantage of officials loose interpretation of a walk. This year officials have made it a priority to have a more strict interpretation. For many players that means making a minor adjustment to what they have been instinctively doing for years. A hard habit to break so to speak, but it applies to all players and it seems like it happens to us more than it should. Just need to be more disciplined.

Yeah. The men's side the announcers mentioned the "point of emphasis" on traveling as well. Players have been traveling for decades and got away with it. Now, the officials are calling it a lot more. Still missing some calls though.

 

[Husky fanatic]

It is recommended to get in 10,000 steps per day. Some of our players try to get more than that anyway they can.

 

[Carnac]

UConn can not turn the the ball over as many times as they did yesterday against the better teams. In close games, a high number of turnovers that may have been converted into points may be the difference in the game such as the 3 point loss to Villanova. Perhaps 5-6 less turnovers would have resulted in 2-3 more baskets, and a 3 point win.

These players have been playing organized basketball for 8-10 years. They all should have their fundamental footwork down by now. They’ve been practicing 5-6 days a week since mid-October. Putting the ball on the floor without shuffling your feet should be something they do instinctively.

The deeper they get into the tournament, the more turnovers may become critical and may be the difference between a win and a loss. It was difficult to watch our team continuously turn the ball over In the first quarter because of simple walking violations. Every possession in tournament games is critical.

 

[bantamlaker]

And now for a little musical accompaniment:

 

[JoePgh]

A lot of traveling calls (not just for UConn but in general) occur when a player "changes her mind" just before dribbling. She starts a shooting motion, then a defender appears, so she decides to drive past her -- or she starts a pass and her teammate isn't cutting like she expected, so she starts to dribble. Many times in those cases, the pivot foot has already moved before the player makes the decision to dribble.

Those are valid traveling calls. The only real solution is less indecisiveness -- not changing one's mind in the middle of the action about whether one is going to shoot, pass, or drive.

On defense, the team needs to remember that a defender can force a travel (as Evina has done a couple of times recently) by being in position before the ball handler expects it, so she has to change her plan and, in doing so, moves her feet.

 

[stamfordhusky]

It's a stupid call. You can't travel while you're dribbling the ball. You're dribbling. So what if you shuffle your feet while you're "starting" to dribble, it's part of dribbling. Stupid to call it incorrectly at all, let alone be a point of emphasis.

But according to the rules, it IS a travel and has always been a travel. Specifically, what a player initiates the dribble, the ball must be out of their hands before their pivot foot moves or leaves the ground. Many times, that doesn’t happen.

 

[sun]

If UConn can clean up their footwork, then we'll appreciate those calls against the other teams in the big games.

 

[CocoHusky]

It's a stupid call. You can't travel while you're dribbling the ball. You're dribbling. So what if you shuffle your feet while you're "starting" to dribble, it's part of dribbling. Stupid to call it incorrectly at all, let alone be a point of emphasis.

I agree that this is a stupid ( unnecessary?) call but I don't understand why this team has been so slow to adjust to this particular point of emphasis.

 

[Monte]

It's a stupid call. You can't travel while you're dribbling the ball. You're dribbling. So what if you shuffle your feet while you're "starting" to dribble, it's part of dribbling. Stupid to call it incorrectly at all, let alone be a point of emphasis.

You cannot move your pivot foot UNTIL you start to dribble.

 

[Blakeon18]

I think it was John Wooden who said "be quick but don't hurry". Sometimes I think players are "hurrying" to do what they want to do. Pause a half-a beat and then do your thing.

Aside: I think this applies to Caroline and her trey shot. She sure has a quick release but her percentage from deep has not been good all year. Perhaps pause a beat and square up/get feet set after she gets the ball and then fire away. If that pause allows the defender to get in a better defensive position....no panic...,just pass to a teammate and keep moving.

Azzi's trey release is also very quick but it doesn't seem to impact her shot in a bad way.

About the only good thing about walking turnovers is that they are much less costly than lazy cross-court passes leading to a bucket break-away. That seemed to be an issue for a while but of late not so much

 

[CL82]

Why do we walk so much?​

I can’t speak for others, but for me at least, it’s because I don’t want my dog to pee and poop in the house.

 

[cferraro04]

Maybe the refs should also emphasize the rules of palming the basketball as well.

 

[CL82]

You cannot move your pivot foot UNTIL you start to dribble.

Yep, pound ball before you take that first step.

 

[gold2323]

Yeah. The men's side the announcers mentioned the "point of emphasis" on traveling as well. Players have been traveling for decades and got away with it. Now, the officials are calling it a lot more. Still missing some calls though.

The NCAA decided that they were going to emphasize traveling ….never mind the Eurostep or allowing the pivot foot to move….as a former coach I always worked with my teams on that facet of the game….I am sure Geno being such a detailed coach will start working on drills to help address this new rules adjustment.

 

[Monte]

 

[hoopsfan22]

Maybe the refs should also emphasize the rules of palming the basketball as well.

I'd be happy with emphasizing karate chops to the neck and mouth against the defender.

 

[BostonCanuck]

The way it's being applied this year makes it one of the dumbest points of emphasis ever. All it achieves is to give the officials open season to blow the whistle basically any time they want to. And for every time that they have, there are probably two more that they could have, and it's just become arbitrary and capricious. I don't see how it's helping the game at all.

Having said that, we do have players on the team like Liv, who often do legitimately travel when initiating their moves. And Geno has been very slow to address this. What he should have done is to set someone up in the stands at every practice to watch and blow a whistle every time a travel occurs. It seems clear that something like that was not done, or at least not until recently.

 

[Charliebball]

I have watched men's and women's basketball for decades and frankly I have never seen a team commit so many traveling violations. It mostly happens when we catch a pass and initiate action. Did anyone one keep track of how many times we turned the ball over because of traveling last night versus how many times Marquette did it? Why can't we stop doing that?

UConn is just a team in a hurry..........