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Sunday, December 02, 2007
Some calls went against the Bison, but what happened before that is what cost them the game.
BY CHRIS A. COUROGEN
Of Hoop Time
If you were among the announced crowd of 3,348 in Sojka Pavilion Saturday night, chances are you left Bucknell's 57-54 loss at the hands of St. Francis (Pa.) wondering just what the heck the refs were thinking at three crucial junctures in the game.
You probably have questions about why they called a foul on Bucknell's Daryl Shazier when Saint Francis' Marquis Ford tripped over his own two feet, 40 feet from the basket, with 32.8 seconds to go in a two-point game. If you know the rule book a little better than the casual fan, you probably are still trying to figure out why no technical was called on the Red Flash's Marquis Ford when he tried to take Chris Berry's place on the foul line with 26 seconds left after St. Francis had gotten an offensive rebound when Ford missed the back end of the two shots he was rewarded for his graceful maneuver. You might also be curious about how, much earlier in the half, St. Francis guard Devin Sweetney ended up with a three-point play after the officials had called him for a charge and waved off the bucket.
Good questions all. Questions that will go unanswered. And questions that ultimately miss the real question, which is how was it that Bucknell (2-4), playing at home against a winless team, happened to be in such a situation, a situation where having a few key calls go against you could cost you the game.
You need to rewind the tape to long before the manic rally in the final 2:12 that brought Bucknell to a point where those two calls involving Ford even mattered. The answers to what cost Bucknell this one lie in how a team that seemed in control at the half came to be down 16 before those frantic final minutes.
Two versions of that story emerged in the postgame. The St. Francis version, told by Red Flash coach Bobby Jones, went like this: "Our defensive pressure and our focus got us an opportunity to get jump-started in the second half."
It wouldn't be fair to not give the Flash a little credit for defense. Teams don't go over 10 minutes without a field goal without the opposition having something to do with it. And that is what happened to Bucknell after freshman center Todd O'Brien, who posted a 14-point, 13-rebound double-double in his first collegiate start, put Bucknell up 32-24 with a putback to open the second half.
O'Brien, whose four blocks made it his sixth straight game with multiple rejections, stretched the lead to 9 when he hit one of two from the foul line 26 seconds later. But between O'Brien's foul shot, and his next bucket, a layup with 8:55 left, the Bison went scoreless, missing 10 straight shots during that crucial 10:22 stretch.
Pat Flannery's version was a little difference. taking nothing away from the Red Flash's defensive effort, Flannery pointed out the Bison were certainly guilty of being accomplices in their own demise. The euphoria of a first half where 50 percent of their shots dropped led to some out of character play in the second half.
"We came out the second half and took some ill-advised shots, some quick shots," Flannery said.
It snowballed when St. Francis hit four straight treys, three by Cale Nelson, to seemingly take control of the game.
"That stretch there in the second half was the ballgame, when they found some guys," Flannery said.
"It seemed like they hit a couple shots and we went into panic mode. We stopped looking inside-out," said Bucknell forward Stephen Tyree.
In reality, the story was a combination of both the St. Francis and Bucknell versions. Certainly the Red Flash defense had something to do with some of those missed shots, and St. Francis also deserves some credit for the six Bucknell turnovers during that stretch. The Bison also jacked up some seemingly ill-advised three-pointers early in the shot clock while squandering the lead.
It is also true the Bison had more than a few good, open looks that just wouldn't drop. By the time the St. Francis lead reached its pinnacle, Bucknell had missed at least four layups and a number of other shots from close range.
"It seems like we are rushing a little bit," said Flannery. "I am trying to get them to relax."
Maybe the opposite approach would work better. Bucknell was at its best when it went into panic mode during the final two minutes of the game. Down by 16, the game seemingly out of reach, the Bison pressed their to within a halfway down, rimmed-out John Griffin three-pointer of sending it to overtime.
After Griffin hit a three with 1:56 to go, cutting the deficit to 56-43, Bucknell applied desperate trapping pressure that resulted in five steals and 11 straight Bucknell points before St. Francis managed to even get the ball across the midcourt stripe again.
When Justin Castleberry hit a pair of free throws to pull Bucknell within two at 56-54 with 1:94 to play, what has seemed impossible less than a minute earlier, now seemed to be about to happen. Especially when Bucknell's pressure on the ensuing inbounds play forced St. Francis to call a timeout to avoid a five-second violation.
After the timeout, St. Francis managed to get the ball in, and after failing to trap the Red Flash right away in the backcourt, Bucknell dropped back to look for a stop in its halfcourt defense. It was a sound strategy for a team that had held the Red Flash to 39.7 percent shooting from the floor on the night, and struggling with Nelson, whose hot hand had gotten St. Francis the lead, having fouled out.
What might have happened had Shazier picked up the loose ball and gone the other way when Ford's right shoelace grabbed his left ankle/ We'll never know. All we know is is Ford made 1 of 2, leaving a three-to-tie as Bucknell's only offensive option. It didn;t help St. Francis got the offensive rebound -- its 19th of the game -- when Ford missed the second shot. Even though Berry eventually found his way to the foul line and missed the front end, keeping the Bison's hopes alive. But it cost six valuable ticks off the clock.
Would the outcome have been different if Ford would have been called for the technical when he tried to take Berry's place at the line? All we know is Griffin, who has been clutch in similar situations so many times for the Bison, had two open looks from the right side of the arc in the final 12 seconds and couldn't connect, allowing the Red Flash to become the first opposing team to win two games in Sojka Pavilion.
The loss is Bucknell's second in a row in Sojka, something that has only happened one other time, last season when the Bison lost to Wake Forest and Northern Iowa in back-to-back home games while starting the season 2-4.
For those hurrying to predict pestilence and doom for the Bison in the wake this one, a little historical perspective. The last time Bucknell lost to St. Francis at home, they went on to a 24-win season that included the upset of Kansas in the NCAA Tournament. Last season's 2-4 start ended in 22 wins and a spot in the Patriot League final.
Flannery is not predicting that sort of success for this year's team. Not yet. But he is not pushing any panic buttons either. The way he figures it, his guys shoot the ball too well for the offensive woes that plagued it in the first half of the Marist loss and much of the second half of this one to continue.
Freshman point guard Daryl Shazier, 2 for 11 against St. Francis in his first BU start, is going to bounce back from what is now a 9 for 32 start to his college career. Shazier shoots the ball to well for his current 0-fer (0-10 on the season) from the three-point arc to continue indefinitely.
"When he makes a couple, they're going to pour in. He is a good shooter," said Flannery.
Ditto for the rest of his squad.
"Some shots go down and it's going to be contagious. It all has to do with confidence," Flannery said.
First he has to find a way to get them to stop aiming at their own feet.
Box score | Gameblog | Daily Item
BY CHRIS A. COUROGEN
Of Hoop Time
If you were among the announced crowd of 3,348 in Sojka Pavilion Saturday night, chances are you left Bucknell's 57-54 loss at the hands of St. Francis (Pa.) wondering just what the heck the refs were thinking at three crucial junctures in the game.
You probably have questions about why they called a foul on Bucknell's Daryl Shazier when Saint Francis' Marquis Ford tripped over his own two feet, 40 feet from the basket, with 32.8 seconds to go in a two-point game. If you know the rule book a little better than the casual fan, you probably are still trying to figure out why no technical was called on the Red Flash's Marquis Ford when he tried to take Chris Berry's place on the foul line with 26 seconds left after St. Francis had gotten an offensive rebound when Ford missed the back end of the two shots he was rewarded for his graceful maneuver. You might also be curious about how, much earlier in the half, St. Francis guard Devin Sweetney ended up with a three-point play after the officials had called him for a charge and waved off the bucket.
Good questions all. Questions that will go unanswered. And questions that ultimately miss the real question, which is how was it that Bucknell (2-4), playing at home against a winless team, happened to be in such a situation, a situation where having a few key calls go against you could cost you the game.
You need to rewind the tape to long before the manic rally in the final 2:12 that brought Bucknell to a point where those two calls involving Ford even mattered. The answers to what cost Bucknell this one lie in how a team that seemed in control at the half came to be down 16 before those frantic final minutes.
Two versions of that story emerged in the postgame. The St. Francis version, told by Red Flash coach Bobby Jones, went like this: "Our defensive pressure and our focus got us an opportunity to get jump-started in the second half."
It wouldn't be fair to not give the Flash a little credit for defense. Teams don't go over 10 minutes without a field goal without the opposition having something to do with it. And that is what happened to Bucknell after freshman center Todd O'Brien, who posted a 14-point, 13-rebound double-double in his first collegiate start, put Bucknell up 32-24 with a putback to open the second half.
O'Brien, whose four blocks made it his sixth straight game with multiple rejections, stretched the lead to 9 when he hit one of two from the foul line 26 seconds later. But between O'Brien's foul shot, and his next bucket, a layup with 8:55 left, the Bison went scoreless, missing 10 straight shots during that crucial 10:22 stretch.
Pat Flannery's version was a little difference. taking nothing away from the Red Flash's defensive effort, Flannery pointed out the Bison were certainly guilty of being accomplices in their own demise. The euphoria of a first half where 50 percent of their shots dropped led to some out of character play in the second half.
"We came out the second half and took some ill-advised shots, some quick shots," Flannery said.
It snowballed when St. Francis hit four straight treys, three by Cale Nelson, to seemingly take control of the game.
"That stretch there in the second half was the ballgame, when they found some guys," Flannery said.
"It seemed like they hit a couple shots and we went into panic mode. We stopped looking inside-out," said Bucknell forward Stephen Tyree.
In reality, the story was a combination of both the St. Francis and Bucknell versions. Certainly the Red Flash defense had something to do with some of those missed shots, and St. Francis also deserves some credit for the six Bucknell turnovers during that stretch. The Bison also jacked up some seemingly ill-advised three-pointers early in the shot clock while squandering the lead.
It is also true the Bison had more than a few good, open looks that just wouldn't drop. By the time the St. Francis lead reached its pinnacle, Bucknell had missed at least four layups and a number of other shots from close range.
"It seems like we are rushing a little bit," said Flannery. "I am trying to get them to relax."
Maybe the opposite approach would work better. Bucknell was at its best when it went into panic mode during the final two minutes of the game. Down by 16, the game seemingly out of reach, the Bison pressed their to within a halfway down, rimmed-out John Griffin three-pointer of sending it to overtime.
After Griffin hit a three with 1:56 to go, cutting the deficit to 56-43, Bucknell applied desperate trapping pressure that resulted in five steals and 11 straight Bucknell points before St. Francis managed to even get the ball across the midcourt stripe again.
When Justin Castleberry hit a pair of free throws to pull Bucknell within two at 56-54 with 1:94 to play, what has seemed impossible less than a minute earlier, now seemed to be about to happen. Especially when Bucknell's pressure on the ensuing inbounds play forced St. Francis to call a timeout to avoid a five-second violation.
After the timeout, St. Francis managed to get the ball in, and after failing to trap the Red Flash right away in the backcourt, Bucknell dropped back to look for a stop in its halfcourt defense. It was a sound strategy for a team that had held the Red Flash to 39.7 percent shooting from the floor on the night, and struggling with Nelson, whose hot hand had gotten St. Francis the lead, having fouled out.
What might have happened had Shazier picked up the loose ball and gone the other way when Ford's right shoelace grabbed his left ankle/ We'll never know. All we know is is Ford made 1 of 2, leaving a three-to-tie as Bucknell's only offensive option. It didn;t help St. Francis got the offensive rebound -- its 19th of the game -- when Ford missed the second shot. Even though Berry eventually found his way to the foul line and missed the front end, keeping the Bison's hopes alive. But it cost six valuable ticks off the clock.
Would the outcome have been different if Ford would have been called for the technical when he tried to take Berry's place at the line? All we know is Griffin, who has been clutch in similar situations so many times for the Bison, had two open looks from the right side of the arc in the final 12 seconds and couldn't connect, allowing the Red Flash to become the first opposing team to win two games in Sojka Pavilion.
The loss is Bucknell's second in a row in Sojka, something that has only happened one other time, last season when the Bison lost to Wake Forest and Northern Iowa in back-to-back home games while starting the season 2-4.
For those hurrying to predict pestilence and doom for the Bison in the wake this one, a little historical perspective. The last time Bucknell lost to St. Francis at home, they went on to a 24-win season that included the upset of Kansas in the NCAA Tournament. Last season's 2-4 start ended in 22 wins and a spot in the Patriot League final.
Flannery is not predicting that sort of success for this year's team. Not yet. But he is not pushing any panic buttons either. The way he figures it, his guys shoot the ball too well for the offensive woes that plagued it in the first half of the Marist loss and much of the second half of this one to continue.
Freshman point guard Daryl Shazier, 2 for 11 against St. Francis in his first BU start, is going to bounce back from what is now a 9 for 32 start to his college career. Shazier shoots the ball to well for his current 0-fer (0-10 on the season) from the three-point arc to continue indefinitely.
"When he makes a couple, they're going to pour in. He is a good shooter," said Flannery.
Ditto for the rest of his squad.
"Some shots go down and it's going to be contagious. It all has to do with confidence," Flannery said.
First he has to find a way to get them to stop aiming at their own feet.
Box score | Gameblog | Daily Item
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