Dumping Them Out: Duke Chose To Lose
Welcome back to the last March Madness episode of Dumping Them Out of the season. Last night was the Final Four. Where Duke made a conscious decision to lose to the Houston Cougars. Not figuratively in the sense that they had a 9-point lead with 3-minutes to play and complete sold the game. I mean John Scheyer made a conscious decision on Duke's second to last possession (when they trailed by 1-point) to not score a free 2 points. In fact, any team who has ever been down 1 on their could-be final possession and failed to score, they've decided to lose. Well, I guess they haven't literally "decided to lose". But they've refused to run the guaranteed 2 points play.
Nobody ever talks about it, but there is a surefire way to score 2 easy points in a basketball game. I'm sure you've seen it happen. It kinda happens all the time. It's almost never done intentionally. But it absolutely could be. When that day inevitably comes, defenses will start to catch on, and it will no longer be automatic. But at this moment right now, it's free points. I'm obviously talking about the fake airball alley-oop.
It was right there. The perfect situation. Against Houston, no less. A university proven to be susceptible to the air-oop. But instead, Duke drew up this bullshit.
I do not say this in jest. If I took over coaching duties for the Duke Blue Devils last night with 17 seconds left in the game, Duke would be playing for a National Championship tomorrow night. I don't know any fancy basketball play lingo (aside from the acronym BLOB). But before that possession, I'd have simply told the team. "Hey guys. Coach Scheyer had a family emergency. Cooper Flag you're inbounding the ball. Give it to whoever, it doesn't matter. They're giving it right back to you. Everybody clear out. Take it one-on-one from the the top of the arch. Size up the defender. He'll think you're going to drive. But pull the trigger from deep with 6 seconds left. Miss it a foot or two to the left. Where's the tall gentleman from South Sudan? As-salam 'alaykom. You start in the corner. When he shoots, go catch it and score. Blue Devils on three."
Duke moves on. Houston suffers another heartbreaking loss on the airball alley-oops play. The two plays are shown side-by-side for the rest of eternity. It's so easy. I've thrown out a lot of dumb sports ideas in my day. But I genuinely believe in this one. It's probably the most right I've been about anything in my life. If you start watching for it, you'll see it happen all the time. Never on purpose. But every time a player shoots a three (or any jump shot at all), the defenders heads all immediately look to the basket. Their minds think rebound. The air ball is never ever considered. They even did it on the shot Cooper Flagg settled for last night.
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If Cooper Flagg airballs that to the left or right, especially if the tall Sudanese gentleman knows it's coming, that's an easy 2 points, and Duke probably gets the win.
I'd imagine Duke being eliminated is a bit of a ratings nightmare for CBS. Maybe "nightmare" is a little too far. But Duke surely brings more eyeballs that Houston. I enjoy watching Duke lose as much as the next guy, but I also wouldn't have minded seeing Cooper Flagg play one more college basketball game. However, them losing does open the door even wider for Walter Clayton Jr. to finish one of the most impressive individual performances in a National Championship run of all time. Which is probably the best storyline heading into Monday. Aside from will Joseph Tugler shave his world's worst side burns before the biggest most televised moment of his entire life.
My favorite play from the Florida-Auburn game last night came late in the second. Walter Clayton Jr. was on fire. Florida's Thomas Hough got the ball at the top of the arc. He's a 35% three-point shooter. He's completely wide open. But Walter Clayton is so hot, Hough doesn't even consider shooting. Nobody even comes to guard him. He just runs around in circles for a while. Still wide open. Still not shooting. Just waiting for Walter Clayton Jr. to pop open so he can instantly chuck.
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Worked like a charm. Great play call Todd Golden. Way to put your Gators in a position to succeed.
I'm watching the Women's National Championship right now. It's unfair what Caitlin Clark did to my perception of all other women's basketball players. I'm sitting here watching Paige Bueckers, and my mind is telling me, "Damn this girl sucks." Which I know isn't true. She's an incredible player. But she is barely playing the same sport at Caitlin Clark. For every women's college basketball player from here on out (especially the whites) my brain is going to instantly compare them to Caitlin. And I'll be especially unimpressed if they're playing for a team like UConn. For all the young aspiring girls basketball players reading this, don't go to UConn. Or South Carolina. Go somewhere different and stand out. Even Paige Bueckers right now is getting overshadowed by her teammates. What Caitlin Clark did at Iowa is 10x more impressive than what any girl who's won a National Championship has done in the past… well I don't know my NCAAWB history like that… but I'm sure it's been a while.