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In defense of Chong's layup

 
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GlennMacGrady



Joined: 03 Jan 2005
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PostPosted: 11/19/14 1:29 pm    ::: In defense of Chong's layup Reply Reply with quote

In my opinion, Chong is getting a superficial bad rap for "taking a two instead of setting up a three" with 5.9 seconds to go in the OT. In short, Chong's layup drive was the best available play under the pressure circumstances because no reasonable three-point shot was then available.

Let's review.

UConn inbounded the ball with 20.3 seconds left, down three. That's a lot of time to score. Most of it was completely wasted by players not named Chong.

Stokes inbounds to Jefferson, who moves at moderate speed up court and makes a useless pass to Stewart at 17 seconds, who is closely guarded beyond the arc and can't do anything with the ball. Stewart hands the ball right back to Jefferson at 16 seconds, who dribbles over to the far right sideline and picks up her dribble, where she gets trapped. To me, this is the big error on the play.



Jefferson remains trapped until 9 seconds remain. No one even moves toward Jefferson to help her except Chong, who is the only player who is able to free herself up from the defenders. So Jefferson passes to Chong, who gets the ball with 8.5 seconds remaining.



No one is open for a three. Everyone is guarded. No one is setting a screen except for KML, who tries ineffectively to screen for a Chong shot for 2.5 seconds. But Chong is too closely guarded to get off her own three, and no one else on the team changes position. Stewart, KML and Jefferson, the other potential three-point shooters fail to move, and their close defenders remain in their faces.

At 5.9 seconds Chong -- who is not shy about shooting three's -- reasonably concludes she has no open shot and no open teammates. She probably doesn't know exactly how much time is on the clock, because she can't watch the clock while scoping out the whole floor in this pressure circumstance.



So she decides to take her defender who is stepping toward her outside the arc. What else could Chong have done? Who could have made a better instantaneous decision under such pressure?

Once Chong was driving, it would have been a Herculean circus pass to hit Stewart or KML behind her, who then would have had to hit a circus three under pressure.

It was a better decision -- under those particular circumstances -- to be down one point with three seconds to go instead of down three points after a missed circus shot.

UConn's execution, coaching, time management, shot selection, timeout management, and pick & roll defense all looked "inexperienced" to me at the end of regulation and the OT. Chong's layup choice was one of the most benign decisions in a comedy of player and coaching errors.
ArtBest23



Joined: 02 Jul 2013
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PostPosted: 11/19/14 2:40 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Disagree. It was a useless shot at that point in the game, and reflected a lack of clock awareness.

That said, it was not primarily her fault; that lies with Jefferson who wasted most of the available time with aimless dribbling which left her bottled up 30 feet from the basket on the sideline where she then amazingly picked up her dribble. There were 18 seconds when the ball crossed midcourt, less then 9 when Chong got the ball 25 feet from the basket. No offensive advantage had been achieved by Jefferson while half the time ticked off. While I have little doubt Geno's plan was to go for a 2 and foul, that strategy died when they wasted 15 seconds geting off that shot.

But at that point, driving to the basket for 2 was not a viable option. The choice is burn all the remaining clock while scoring 2 for a sure loss, or attempting the best available 3 for the chance at tying. I thought Chong, as she turned around the screen and broke for the basket, actually had a reasonable opportinity for a 3 pt shot. In your last picture, the defender as Chong breaks towards the basket, actually falls back to defend and there is at that point an opportunity for a pull up three before she crosses the arc. It's a better chance to tie than eating up several more seconds only to score two.

Look at another way. If that had been a dead ball on the sideline where Jefferson found herself with less than 9 seconds to go, down three, I can't imagine any coach would choose to go for 2. There simply is not enough time to score, foul and then get a decent opportunity after the free throws. You have to take the best three you can get.

So I agree with you that the situation was not of Chong's creation and most of the blame for lousy clock management belongs with Jefferson, but nonetheless, when Chong got the ball, she needed to understand the clock situation and adapt. She had to take the best three she could get.


ClayK



Joined: 11 Oct 2005
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PostPosted: 11/20/14 12:20 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

I'm torn on this one ...

It's really a percentage question, open to debate, and a decision must be made by the player under extreme duress. It comes down to this:

Did UConn have a better chance to tie if

a) Chong forces up a low-percentage three; or

b) Chong makes the layup and then UConn fouls, setting up a chance that UConn could actually win with a desperation three?

I'm thinking the low-percentage three was probably the best option, but it's not like the layup was a no-win proposition, especially if two more seconds were on the clock (which is asking a lot of Chong to know precisely how much time was left).

A tough call, but the burden really falls on the veterans, and the coaches.



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GlennMacGrady



Joined: 03 Jan 2005
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PostPosted: 11/20/14 2:28 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Well, I just wanted to make the argument on behalf of Chong, because I thought Doris Burke was too quick to label Chong's performance on the play "inexperienced". I actually thought Chong was the best performer in the entire play. No one else did anything positive.

Another factor not yet discussed is that there was a small possibility that Chong could have drawn an "and 1" foul on the drive. She is very skilled at that. The defender would have to have been dopey to do it, but defenders do dopey things in the last seconds under pressure just as offensive players do. We've all seen last second fouls on a shooter, even on a three-point shooter.

Jefferson is the one who bollixed up the play by dribbling over to the side of the court where none of her teammates was and then picking up her dribble. Then, after passing to Chong, she should have moved to the left to get behind the double pick that was being formed by KML and Stokes (who did move). Instead, Jefferson and Stewart just stood like statues watching Chong trying to make champagne from a rotten grape.
ArtBest23



Joined: 02 Jul 2013
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PostPosted: 11/20/14 2:56 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

GlennMacGrady wrote:
Well, I just wanted to make the argument on behalf of Chong, because I thought Doris Burke was too quick to label Chong's performance on the play "inexperienced". I actually thought Chong was the best performer in the entire play. No one else did anything positive.

Another factor not yet discussed is that there was a small possibility that Chong could have drawn an "and 1" foul on the drive. She is very skilled at that. The defender would have to have been dopey to do it, but defenders do dopey things in the last seconds under pressure just as offensive players do. We've all seen last second fouls on a shooter, even on a three-point shooter.

Jefferson is the one who bollixed up the play by dribbling over to the side of the court where none of her teammates was and then picking up her dribble. Then, after passing to Chong, she should have moved to the left to get behind the double pick that was being formed by KML and Stokes (who did move). Instead, Jefferson and Stewart just stood like statues watching Chong trying to make champagne from a rotten grape.


I agree with all of that. Had she left it to her teammates, they evidently would have just watched as time ran out. The situation wasn't her fault and at least she made a play. But she should have taken the 3, even if it was contested. I think she lost track of the clock.

Chong was not blameless on the 5 second call though. On that one she buried herself in the corner and did nothing to make herself available for a pass. But then again, Stewart and Stokes were equally useless on that play as well.

It was not Jefferson's finest hour.


GEF34



Joined: 23 Jul 2008
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PostPosted: 11/21/14 3:02 am    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Rewatching the play, specifically about Saniya Chong, if she is capable of doing a step back 3 going to her left, I think that would have been a better option, though it would certainly have been a more difficult shot. I don't know much about her game to know if she can do a step back 3 going to her left. Also when she first goes behind the Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis screen, she is open, but I think she is at least 4 feet behind the 3 point line, so that is also a difficult shot, and I don't know if she had that type of range.

I'm not placing and blame on her, and I don't know what she is capable of, but she did have an opportunity for a 3, if she has the range and/or ability to do a step back 3.


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