Q: Worse choke job: Memphis Cal vs. KU, or UK Cal vs. Wisc?

[massofcatfan]

Q: Worse choke job: Memphis Cal vs. KU, or UK Cal vs. Wisc? I did not watch the kentucky/badger game so maybe badgers were just better?

[Cartierfor3]

Kentucky didn't choke at all.

[michigancat]

Ryan is not far superior x's and o's coach to Cal. No way. It's really insulting to Ryan's players to insinuate they aren't responsible for the great plays they made all night.

Now, Ryan has done an absolutely incredible job recruiting and developing players, but they won because his players made plays, not because of x's and o's wizardry.

[TownieCat]

Ryan is not far superior x's and o's coach to Cal. No way. It's really insulting to Ryan's players to insinuate they aren't responsible for the great plays they made all night.

Now, Ryan has done an absolutely incredible job recruiting and developing players, but they won because his players made plays, not because of x's and o's wizardry.

Wisconsin may end up with as many lottery picks as UK this year and Kaminsky has won every national POY award so far.

[Brock Landers]

Just to clarify, Kentucky didn't choke, nip tuck games against good teams.

Memphis was up by like what?  11 or something and missed a bunch of FT's?

Yeah Memphis was a total choke job.  They were up by 9 with about 2 minutes left IIRC.

[sys]

uk didn't watch film?  that's really stupid.  they had all week.

[SleepFighter]

Cal slowing the pace late was a bad move that likely lowered UK's chance to win, so I would go with this one.

[Sandstone Outcropping]

Cal slowing the pace late was a bad move that likely lowered UK's chance to win, so I would go with this one.

This was baffling. Even Bill Raftery (worst in the biz) commented on this, iirc

 

[MakeItRain]

Cal slowing the pace late was a bad move that likely lowered UK's chance to win, so I would go with this one.

Why do you think this? Wisconsin has been comfortable playing with pace.

[SleepFighter]

Why wouldn't anybody think this? They ran the shot clock too far too consistently. Wisconsin didn't have to work to defend as hard as they should have. 

I mean, 3 (THREE!) shot clock violations after Cal slowed them down late in the game.

[MakeItRain]

Why wouldn't anybody think this? They ran the shot clock too far too consistently. Wisconsin didn't have to work to defend as hard as they should have. 

I mean, 3 (THREE!) shot clock violations after Cal slowed them down late in the game.

Okay I gotcha. I thought you were inferring that Wisconsin wouldn't be comfortable playing a quicker pace because they're white and unathletic, that lazy craps most people spew about Wisconsin. I agree with you.

[sys]

if you listened to the press conference where the media asked questions everyone thinks were stupid, you'd have heard someone ask calipari about slowing the tempo.

you can choose to believe he's lying if you want, but he responded that they weren't trying to slow the pace.  they wanted to work the ball inside, and just weren't able to.

[SleepFighter]

Seems like Izzo level truthfulness.

[Powercat Posse]

Memphis was up 9 with just over 2:00 left.  It's bad enough that Douglas-Roberts missed front end of 1-1, then missed 2FTs, then Rose only hit 1-2 FT.  But Cal not fouling just solidified the biggest choke in title game history.

UK biggest lead late was 4 over Wisc.  And the game was tied at 60 with 2:00 left.  Sorry, I just don't see a choke job here.

[mhkpasa]

Cal slowing the pace late was a bad move that likely lowered UK's chance to win, so I would go with this one.

Nate Silver analysis on the topic

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/coach-cal-blew-it/