Random Rumblings: April 6th

After yesterday's blurb on the national title game, the blog of varied topics returns today. It includes a note on the historic Warriors run, something I forgot to mention about that title game and we start with a trial that captured America all over again.

The People vs OJ Simpson

The series finale of The People vs OJ Simpson last night on FX wrapped up a brilliant series that deserves the critical acclaim it's getting. The 1995 trial of OJ Simpson captivated America, right down to me as a kindergartener. While most of my classmates didn't care, I distinctly remember watching the verdict in my classroom along with one of my teachers. At the time, I obviously had no clue what I was watching. A five year old can't process the crime or the context, but I remember watching and knowing it was a big deal.

Twenty-one years later, I understand as much as one can not having consciously lived through it. The show did a remarkable job retelling an incredibly complex story that took 16 months in a ten episode mini-series. What I enjoyed about the show is how it wasn't trying to tell the story of the murders, but instead how the jury arrived at the verdict and how that journey impacted in incredibly high number of people.

I had no idea what the prosecutors went through. I didn't know nearly as much about Johnny Cochran's background and mission. I certainly didn't know about the insane twists and turns Judge Ito and the jury went through during the case. It was a learning experience as much as a show for entertainment, which I consider a massive positive considering the subject matter. Two people died. That can't be forgotten or taken for granted.

After every episode, I read fact-checking articles and I was astonished to see how accurate the show was. From the sexual tension between Marcia Clark and Chris Darden to various bombs dropped in the court room, the series did a rather remarkable job of capturing the circus that the trial was at the very least in spirit, if not directly accurately.

There was really only one moment where a stray from reality bothered me and that was the glove scene. It's the most pivotal moment of the trial and the show presents Darden's request of Simpson to try on the gloves as a rogue move that shocks his boss and colleague in Clark. That's not how it happened, so I'm not sure why the writers of the show chose that moment for perhaps their furthest stretch from the truth.

All in all, the show was fantastic. It was captivating, and many who were there for the trial were stunned at how it took them back, which is perhaps the greatest compliment the show could receive. I don't want to say I enjoyed it, again because of the subject matter, but it became much watch and I'm certainly glad I learned about one of the more captivating events of the last 30 years of American history.

One More Wildcat Thing

I wrote yesterday on Monday's national championship game, and soon after hitting publish realized I had forgotten one thing I wanted to mention: Villanova's discipline in that game was as easily identifiable as I've ever seen in a basketball game.

Controlling pace is talked about a lot in basketball, especially when one team has a very distinct preference. Villanova did a masterful job of slowing the game down, not so much because they like to play that way, but because they know North Carolina doesn't.

I've never seen a team so deliberately slow the pace while still playing with urgency. Even when teams slow down, they'll still run to try and steal a basket on a live ball turnover (steal, block, etc.) or a long rebound. Villanova didn't. They walked the ball up the court every single time, but they didn't then stand there and waste clock like so many teams in college basketball do. They walked up, ran a set and got good shots. It was a way to keep the pace down, but the pressure on North Carolina. It worked to the tune of 77 points on 57% shooting. This wasn't Wisconsin playing a garbage game in the forties. This was an offensive display of master discipline and execution. Credit to the Villanova coaches for the plan and the players for executing it to perfection.

For The Record

I've admired how the Golden State Warriors have conducted themselves this season. They're not afraid to talk about pursuing the '96 Bulls record of 72 wins. After last night's loss to Minnesota, they now need to win their final four games to break that record. Surely some will say "if they'd quit talking about it and just focus on the task, maybe they wouldn't lose games at home to lottery teams," but I'm not sure how they're supposed to avoid it.

The media wouldn't be doing their job if they didn't ask about the record. It's an amazing achievement that teams don't often have a chance of touching. Refusing to answer questions about it would just stack pressure internally. Instead, the Warriors have spoken openly about wanting to break it and why wouldn't they? "We want to win a lot!" Oh the horror!

The tricky thing with a record like this and the season they've had is that it's been a question for most of the season. As we near the end of the season and the reality of achieving the feat, the fatigue has to be real. The constant scrutiny has to wear down on them, as is the reality of having played 78 NBA games where teams are gunning to be one of the few losses in the Warriors' history books.

Even though the Warriors haven't played their best ball over the last few weeks, they're still winning at a remarkable rate and still are the team to beat, despite San Antonio's nearly equally remarkable season. If anything, doubts of their demise might serve as a boost of motivation and reinvigorate them for the playoffs.

The Warriors can still win the final four games and get the record. Whether they do or not, this is still unquestionably one of the best regular seasons by a team in NBA history, and if they win a title they'll be on any short list for best team ever.

What A Game

The 2016 Men's Basketball Championship was one of the best sporting events I've ever seen. A great sporting event factors in a multitude of things. It simply can't be a great game. A great game can happen in my Thursday night pick-up game on a too-small court at an elementary school played mostly by men who can't jump over a phone book.

A great sporting event requires the stakes to be high, and they don't get higher in college basketball than they were Monday night in Houston. It requires greater context, in this case two groups of seniors who had largely felt heartbreak in March, trying to finish off their careers with two victories in April.

It requires high level play, which knocks out my Thursday night pickup game. This game had that. While the officiating wasn't great (it rarely is in college basketball), the game was undoubtedly decided by the players. The high-level shot making started early and didn't end, quite literally, until the buzzer sounded.

Which brings us to the final criterion for a great sporting event: the end. The end of this game started before the end. UNC guard Marcus Paige, one of those seniors, somehow turned this into a made three point basket to tie the game.

My favorite part of this brilliant image by Lance King of Getty is Villanova's Mikal Bridges (#25) looking like "psh, okay" as Brice Johnson (#11, UNC) behind him has the look of "oh dear, okay Marcus?" as Paige uncoils and fires the ball towards the rim. He made this shot!!

Paige, who had a miserable year shooting the ball, seemed to make up for it all at once in the tournament. He hit multiple threes in every game of the tournament, including four Monday night. However instead of being able to look back and celebrate one of the most remarkable shots in NCAA Tournament history, Paige is haunted by the 4.7 seconds that followed.

It's a moment that will live forever. We are lucky as college basketball fans to have moments in this neighborhood with an astounding level of regularity. Gordon Hayward's shot that missed in 2011, Mario Chalmers shot that didn't in 2008 and Hakim Warrick's block in 2003 are just some of the amazing moments in close games that helped decide a championship. However the true buzzer beater is rare. Hayward's would've been, but it went begging by fractions of an inch.

The last time it happened was 1983, when Lorenzo Charles put back Dereck Whittenburg's 30-foot miss at the buzzer to cap NC State's underdog run to Jim Valvano's only title. Forgetting the added context of the improbability NC State was even in that game and what we know about Valvano's life after, I'll put this shot above that one. Whittenburg missed and Charles was in the right place. This play also involved two people, but in a totally different way.

As kids, we all dream of hitting the game-winning shot to win a championship. Ryan Arcidiacono's dream undoubtedly had him in a Villanova jersey. The Wildcats senior is the son of two Nova grads and grew up living and dying with the squad he would eventually play for. The ball was in his hands as the clock wound down. While he wouldn't have had a great look, he could've taken the shot and lived with the result. If he made it, he's a hero. If he doesn't, the game goes to overtime.

He did neither. He passed. Kris Jenkins deserves credit too for more than hitting the shot. It would've been easy to trot down the floor and watch Arcidiacono take a shot at greatness. Instead, he trailed the play, ready to shoot and when he saw his teammate doubled, made sure to call for the ball. That still doesn't mean Arcidiacono had to pass it. If he had forced a shot, no one today would have said "he should've passed to Jenkins," but he did. Jenkins was able to step into the shot and he nailed it. He's a legend. Forever, he'll be the guy who hit the shot to win the title. Arcidiacono made that so, and he deserves immense credit for it.

That said, let's not pretend Arcidiacono isn't a legend in his own right. It seems like he's been at Villanova since their last title in 1985. Of course he wasn't born then, but he's now cemented his place along side Ed Pinckney in Villanova lore. He was the best player on a championship team, the unquestioned leader and his play last night was exemplary. He had a confidence about him usually reserved for Steph Curry. It seemed he knew what was going to happen and played with no doubt. That was a lot of fun to watch, unless you were wearing Carolina blue.

This game had everything. It had legendary performances. It had legendary moments. It had a legendary ending. What more could you ask for? Unless you had a rooting interesting in an alternate ending, the answer is simply nothing.

Weekend Rewind - 1/28/13

Down goes Cuse

Syracuse is 1-2 against the city of Philadelphia this season and undefeated against everyone else. The good news? No more games against teams from Philly until at least the Big East Tournament. So that's nice.

SU lost Saturday thanks to a number of factors, most of which have and will continue to be discussed. For starters, SU didn't foul up 3 in the final seconds allowing Ryan Arcidiacono to hit a miracle shot and force overtime. At this point it's not even an argument of whether that's sound strategy as the numbers scream that it is. Jim Boeheim agrees, so why didn't he?

The reason is there wasn't really a spot to. Villanova got the ball up the court, took a terrible shot, missed and then got the offensive rebound. If you're going to make the foul argument, that would've been the spot to do it - before the Cats were able to get the ball back out. You'd never coach your team to do that though, so it would have taken an individual player taking that initiative and in that spot that's an absurd thing to ask. Instead you play defense and hope for the best. Arcidiacono hit an incredibly difficult shot. It happens.

Where Boeheim is perhaps more at fault is how he handled his rotation down the stretch that resulted in Baye Moussa-Keita and Jerami Grant being unavailable in the final minutes after fouling out. There's a school of thought that says "they're going to play a certain number of minutes, so let em play" and that's basically what Boeheim did. I'm in the other camp. See how long you can go without them and then when it's crunch time, come in for the save.

The result was Brandon Triche playing the back line and a severe lack of size that killed the Orange. While Triche is smart enough and big enough in terms of bulk to play down low, he can't protect the rim like the wings in SU's zone need to. Villanova had a few baskets right over the 6'4" guard. It mattered. A "solution" I thought of at the time and eventually threw out on Twitter yesterday was putting Michael Carter-Williams on the wing. MCW's nearly 6'7" and his length would have been an upgrade over Triche. 

The downsides though are plentiful and it's why I waffle on whether it would have actually been better. Carter-Williams would have been bullied, as Triche is massively stronger despite the lack of height. He's also excellent at the top of the zone and his ball pressure is a lot to give up. Last but not least, Triche is a four-year starter who knows the zone inside and out. There's a great chance MCW would've screwed up a few rotations. Triche was at least in the right spot every time.

The other obvious solution would have been Dajuan Coleman. The frosh has gotten the authentic highly recruited freshman treatment from Jim Boeheim like Fab Melo and Rakeem Christmas before him - start, play until you screw up 30 seconds in and sit on the bench for basically the rest of the game. Literally as I'm typing this, I (and everyone else who's ever covered SU) got an email saying Coleman's having knee surgery so maybe he wasn't an option after all but the larger problem still remains. For as awesome as the zone is, it's limiting in what you can do with a lineup. 

All of the other problems people scream about with Boeheim's 2-3 only mentality don't bother me. SU plays the 2-3 so well and morphs it so many ways, that they can cover a hot shooter. In late game situations, you might not be able to "lock down" on the guy with the ball, but you've eliminated so many plays that only work against man-to-man it's at least even if not an advantage for SU. That said, the option not to play 3 guards drives me insane. Last year, a lineup with Scoop Jardine, Brandon Triche and Dion Waiters could've put up some serious numbers and caused other coaches nightmares. It barely ever happened because of the defensive implications meaning one of your best players always had to be on the bench.

This season's team breaks down differently as Trevor Cooney has been a massive disappointment. He'll have a fine career (I think), but it's been quite frankly astonishing how pathetic he's been shooting considering in warm-ups he can't miss. He can't play game speeds yet. 

James Southerland's return is, in a word, necessary. Boeheim has no problem playing 6 guys and at this point that's all he's got. Cooney's sole purpose is to give MCW and Triche a blow. Christmas, Moussa-Keita, C.J. Fair, Grant, Triche and Carter-Williams are the only guys that should see regular minutes. Winning a title with 6 guys isn't impossible but it's unlikely because if one guy gets in foul trouble you're in deep doo doo. If two are stuck, Saturday happens. With Southerland available, I'm not writing any of this.

You can't fault Boeheim for a lack of depth either. An eight man rotation is ideal and if Cooney doesn't flop and Southerland is eligible, that's what he's got thanks to Grant's stellar play. Outside of Coleman, there's not really another guy on the roster who you realistically wish got more run. The problem with Coleman is playing him moves Rak Christmas to a wing where he's dramatically worse as a defender or to the bench where he's...well...on the bench. Playing those two together slaughters your floor spacing on offense as well as both are useless outside the paint. Again, Southerland coming back solves all problems.

Down goes Rondo

The NBA world was shocked when we all found out Rajon Rondo is out for the year with a torn ACL. Immediately the "blow up the Celtics" talk began and I just don't know how realistic that is. Tomorrow I'll be doing a podcast so I'll save the bulk of my thoughts for that, but the question here to ponder is what was the goal of the Celtics this season? Did they really think they could win a title or did they want to stay relevant? Whatever that answer is frames the rest of the conversation.

Up go the Lakers

I reserve the right to change my mind by the end of the week, but I actually think this Lakers thing is going to work. I said in a previous post that if the Lakers played pickup ball they'd be better off than Mike D'Antoni's stupid system. Turns out, that's basically what they've done. The biggest question remaining is will Kobe be happy playing distributer. 

To quote Bryant: "We finally beat a team that's worth a s---" so he knows that playing that way works. J.A. Adande had a fascinating read on how every single one of the Lakers stars has changed how they've played their entire careers to make things work in the past week. To maintain that will be very difficult. When you've been successful, changing from what got you there is damn near impossible. However if the Lakers keep winning, this can work. Maybe I'm overreacting to two games, but I'll say the Lakers make the playoffs. The reason - if they keep playing, it's not a question of whether or not it will work. It will. The only question is will they continue to do it? To be determined…