In Reply to: that was debated so m any times posted by barrya on February 01, 2026 at 20:53:45
to get to the freshman cutter once the pass was entered to him on Booker's left near the baseline. The freshman had received the ball about 5 to 6 feet to Booker's left. He tried to close out quickly on the guy but the foul had already been called on Dent a fraction of a second earlier. Had Booker been off the inbounds passer (which you don't see often by any team) and guarding the lane, he might have had a chance to stop the freshman without fouling. But the defense played was one set up by Cronin, one he said the Bruins practiced numerous times to specifically be able to deal with the exact play that Indiana ran. Bruins simply didn't execute the defense adequately.
With 1.5 seconds, Indiana didn't have time to catch a throw in to one player and pass to another for a shot. Had Dent not fouled the guy, I don't believe he would have had time to put up a shot as when the ball was received and the foul was called, there was only 0.3 seconds remaining. I'm always with Wooden's concept of using a zone to defend an out of bounds play under the opponent's basket.