Anyone see the "choke hold" in the Mt St Marys vs UNO game?

[ingrjc1]

Saw this on CNN and expected a major headline on ESPN. Not. Scroll way down the NCAA Men's link on http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/ to see the video clip. One Nola player gets in the face of another and it gets physical. Buy hey, it's not like he tripped him or anything.

[Skydog]

Saw this on CNN and expected a major headline on ESPN. Not. Scroll way down the NCAA Men's link on http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/ to see the video clip. One Nola player gets in the face of another and it gets physical. Buy hey, it's not like he tripped him or anything.

Yeah I saw that. Pretty amazing. I don't remember ever seeing a player choking a teammate before during a game before, except maybe on the playground. Talk about completely losing your mind - on national TV representing yourself, your team, your conference and your city, most important game of the year (or many years) for your team, you are a key player who just scored on a monstrous highlight reel type dunk --- and then you throw it all away in an instant. Really dumb move.

[MHNOLADevil]

Living in New Orleans, I've been following UNO basketball this year and have seen the team play live. It was so astonishing and disheartening to watch that moment in the game unfold. I had the same sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that I did watching Grayson lose it in the Elon game. Sadly that instant of losing it, in a nationally televised game, probably cost UNO the game and overshadowed everything they had accomplished this season. The UNO coach said the player who grabbed his teammate around the throat, Thibodeaux, is a great kid and an honor student and that the two players are best friends, yet in that high pressure moment they just got sideways with each other. I have nothing but empathy and sadness for the kids and the UNO team.

[Billy Dat]

Living in New Orleans, I've been following UNO basketball this year and have seen the team play live. It was so astonishing and disheartening to watch that moment in the game unfold. I had the same sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that I did watching Grayson lose it in the Elon game. Sadly that instant of losing it, in a nationally televised game, probably cost UNO the game and overshadowed everything they had accomplished this season. The UNO coach said the player who grabbed his teammate around the throat, Thibodeaux, is a great kid and an honor student and that the two players are best friends, yet in that high pressure moment they just got sideways with each other. I have nothing but empathy and sadness for the kids and the UNO team.

It was a rough spot, what did you think of the decision to not foul at the end? I was ok with it, they still had 3 seconds to make something happen, but maybe fouling early gives you a shot to extend the game and, if they miss the FTs, you have more time to set up a better game winning/tying shot.

[MHNOLADevil]

It was a rough spot, what did you think of the decision to not foul at the end? I was ok with it, they still had 3 seconds to make something happen, but maybe fouling early gives you a shot to extend the game and, if they miss the FTs, you have more time to set up a better game winning/tying shot.

They were between a rock and a hard place on that decision with the shot clock and game clock only seconds apart, and I don't think I would have fouled either. They had enough time to get a shot off at the end had the pass been a good one.

[rasputin]

They were between a rock and a hard place on that decision with the shot clock and game clock only seconds apart, and I don't think I would have fouled either. They had enough time to get a shot off at the end had the pass been a good one.

I thought fouling was the obvious thing to do here.

And if you're Mount St. Mary's, the thing to do (if you can do it) is wait until the shot clock is almost gone, and then shoot, trying to miss, but hitting the rim. There would be no way to pull down a rebound in time to set up the final shot.

[Skydog]

I thought fouling was the obvious thing to do here.

And if you're Mount St. Mary's, the thing to do (if you can do it) is wait until the shot clock is almost gone, and then shoot, trying to miss, but hitting the rim. There would be no way to pull down a rebound in time to set up the final shot.

That was a close call. St Mary's guard was disciplined to wait so late in the clock. And even then with 2.9 secs left Nola didn't have to try the heave - they could have inbounded to a player maybe 25 feet up court who could advance the ball another 25' or so and got the shot off (I think players can cover about 10 feet per second dribbling).

As far as the missing on purpose strategy - good in theory but doesn't always work out as planned. For example a St Mary's foul on the rebound is a disaster. Also missed shot rebounds don't always sky - if its much too short or too long it might pop straight out to a Nola guard who then has about 3 secs to dribble down and shoot. Isn't that what happened in our NC when Butler missed their heave by a few inches?

[Reilly]

I ... wait until the shot clock is almost gone, and then shoot, trying to miss, but hitting the rim ...

... and shoot it with very, very, very high arc ...