Here is a quote I read last week about someone talking about a team who played not "stall ball" but just a very patient, efficient, motion-style offense. I totally agree with this quote.
It was a beautiful display of basketball and I enjoyed it very much. It was also a splendid example of why there should never, ever be a shot clock in high school basketball (or why shot clocks have ruined all other basketball). The game allowed for the better team, not the team with the better athletes to win. It was a wonderful sight and a joy to watch. I will use this game as an example to my friends and associates as to why I do not watch college basketball or the NBA. This was the game being played at its finest.
Here was the original post:
I went to the St. Xavier-Dayton Meadowdale game last night at Springboro and saw one of the most incredible things. Meadowdale had the more athletic team and was pressing and playing tight man-to-man all game and St. X would either break the press for easy baskets or get into their offense and just run it and run it and run it until they got an easy bucket.
Meadowdale was 4-1 coming into the game and X was 3-2 and is not anywhere as good as previous X teams. So what does X do, the proceed to make a total of 23 field goals in the game, and here is the AMAZING PART, 22 of those baskets were LAYUPS. I don't mean short shots in the lane, etc., I mean literal layups. The one basket they made that wasn't was a deperation bucket at the end of the half that went in from 18 feet out. 22 of 23 baskets were LAYUPS. I have never seen anything remotely close to that before in my life. It was crazy.
Meadowdale got so tired of getting beat on cuts or drives to the basket that their pressure on the ball in the half court defense started to ease up and X ran their offense for over two minutes to start the fourth quarter. Then got the ball back and ran the offense for over another minute. It was pretty unreal to watch.
I don't understand how people say "that's not basketball." It's not basketball when you give someone 30 seconds and force them to chuck up the ball. Let the offense look for the best shot possible, and let the defense try to take the ball away. Part of the game is seeing which team can impose their will (and their preferred tempo) on the other. Let the best team and best-executed game plan win. That is just my opinion.
