More on the intricacies of basketball strategy, or, eff convention

In the past, using my experience as an impartial scorer and scoreboard operator for some local basketball contests, I've advocated a "feed the best player no matter what" strategy. Quite frankly, bizarre basketball strategies intrigue the heck out of me, since I believe the game is based far too much on a rigid sort of "play the right way" philosophy that minimizes most teams' chances to win.

Therefore, I eagerly devoured a story from Malcolm Gladwell in The New Yorker that I just stumbled upon tonight. Basically, if a bad basketball team wants to win, it should press constantly, and especially the inbounds pass. (Note: This is a long read, but if you have an interest in basketball, military strategy or just good writing, then it is worth it.)

Gladwell's interviews backup a hunch I've had for a while - The press is the best defensive basketball strategy. Like Rick Pitino's story in the article, I've also seen David almost upset Goliath, although on a much, much smaller scale. When I was 10 or 11, the best player on my rec team fouled out, and we were down by 15 points with about six minutes to play. We were one of the better teams in the league, strictly because of him, so the chances of us winning were really bad. (How good was he? I was probably the second-best player, and I averaged something like six points a game. Yeah, I was a stat nerd even back then. On the plus side, I had more than 10 boards a game, I'd guess.)

Because the best player had fouled out, our coach basically decided to just let us play the rest of the game, so it was me and four bench players doing a full-court press. Lo and behold, we rapidly got back in the game, and probably could have won if not for the clock running out on us. I ended up with 18 points, pretty much all on putbacks and lay-ups after he had fouled out. (It remains a high for me in any game where score was kept. So ends Steve Greenwell Recreational Basketball Glory Days Storytime.)

So yes - Pressing for the entire game instinctively makes sense to me as a winning basketball strategy. On the college level, Division III school Grinnell uses a variation of what is described in the article. This eHow article provides a pretty good rundown of it, and Grinnell has used that to compile 73-46 record the past five years, even though 1) they don't recruit great basketball players and 2) everyone knows what they're going to run.

However, even Grinnell's methods leave something to be desired. First, they don't really play conventional defense - If someone beats their press, they've content to let them get a layup. Grinnell doesn't really try to create the Rush, as Pitino's teams try to do; Grinnell is playing its own game altogether and doesn't give a shit if you score, because frankly, you're just getting in the way.

Second, Grinnell teams work in shifts regardless of player quality. Pitino doesn't play all of his guys equally - He worked the hell out of his better players like Sosa and Antoine Walker. Yeah, because you play a certain style, it means that you won't get the elite basketball players looking to showcase their skills. (I was shocked that only one Pitino player, the aforementioned Walker, had made an all-star team, but that made sense.) However, this doesn't mean that you should be happy with inferior players taking shots away from more efficient options.

How would this translate to the high school level? I imagine that a coach in a weaker league, such as Rhode Island, could dominate the competition by just pressing all the time. Except in rare instances, most of the state does not have Division I basketball prospects, so pretty much all the teams have guards that would be rattled and worn down by a constant press. Personally, I'd love to try it out at some point, but I don't really have the means or ability to be a basketball coach at any level right now. Something to shoot for when I'm older, perhaps.

For an exhaustive description of Pitino's press, and a lot of other basketball strategy, check out this site. The rec basketball photo is from here, and before anyone asks, sorry, it isn't me. It is just a random Google Images thing.

Plugging along with the NCAA tournament...

After the opening weekend of the tournament, my bracket is still in reasonable shape, with three of my Final Four teams still intact. Like everyone else on the planet, I did have Kansas advancing to the Final Four, but “luckily” for me, I did have them losing to Syracuse. The entire Midwest region is now done for me, since I was prophesying a Kansas vs. Georgetown match-up in the Elite Eight. Whoops!

I finish that region with a 7-8 record, with six of the wins coming on the tournament's opening day. That 1-7 mark to finish up on the third and fourth days of play? Positively URI-like down the stretch. (Sorry, still bitter, even if they have won a pair of Not Invited Tournament games.)

Luckily though, my overall record remains decent at 32-16. I finished the opening round at 23-9, and the second round at 9-7. The Midwest is my sole “bad” bracket, as my six other Elite Eight teams remain alive. For the record, they are Syracuse, Xavier, Baylor, Duke, West Virginia and Kentucky. Mostly chalk, I know – Sue me.

In other news, I'd note that the two teams that beat Atlantic 10 teams – St. Mary's and Cornell – are both still alive in the tournament. Meanwhile, Villanova was thankfully karma-bounced from the tournament, and Pittsburgh lost to Xavier. In the NIT, UConn once again ducked URI, as they managed to lose a lead in the final minute, and thus, will not travel to the Ryan Center. Cincinnati also lost to Dayton. I love Syracuse, which is why I picked them to win the national championship, but otherwise, I still think the rest of the league works as a cartel that mostly exists to protect its own members' interests.

Steve's Bracket: C'mon Atlantic 10!

[Right] John Chaney wouldn't have allowed this shit, Temple. What happened to the dominant team I saw beat URI three times, and twice quite convincingly?

Going into the tournament, I basically kept two things in mind when picking teams - The Atlantic 10 was underrated and the Big East was way overrated.

While I still believe the first statement is correct, you wouldn't necessarily know it from the first round 1-2 record of the Atlantic 10. Unfortunately though, Richmond and Temple, both teams that were ranked for portions of the year, drew really bad, non-BCS draws, like Cornell and Saint Mary's. Both are quality teams, and I'm still annoyed that both A-10 teams only managed to get a 5 and 7 seed respectively from the committee, setting them up for those two tough teams.

At least the Big East has been exposed. Every year, I hear some variation of, "The Big East is so tough and they beat up on each other, so that's why they can't play a tough out of conference schedule!" I think the real reason they can't play a tough out of conference schedule is that it would expose their teams. You know, like when Temple throttled Villanova earlier in the year. After first round games, with the miracle win by Nova with the help of the three officials, the Big East is 4-4, with the four wins coming from its No. 1 to No. 3 seeds - Syracuse, Villanova, Pittsburgh and West Virginia. Big East teams have also done shabby in the Not Invited Tournament, I've heard, but I refuse to follow that.

Anyway, as far as my own bracket goes, I'm 23-9 after the first round, with four loses coming from the failures of Temple, Richmond and Georgetown. While I think the Big East is overrated, I thought Georgetown had a great draw, being in Providence - an arena they play in frequently - and as a No. 3 seed, with a beatable Ohio State team lurking. Whoops!

The Chaney photo is from this old MSNBC story about Temple suspending him the rest of the season for sending one of his players on to the court to "send a message" to a player with some hard fouls. Ah, Chaney!

Steve has a bracket!

I did actually fill out a bracket this year, albeit at the last minute. Unlike past years, this year I did not create a bracket group for my old buddies at The Good Five Cent Cigar, mostly because I had a fever the past two days. (Unfortunately, cowbell was no cure for it - sigh!)

You can see my full bracket by clicking above. As of right now, I'm 4-3, with Butler on the verge of winning to make me 5-3 for the first eight games. Unfortunately, Richmond couldn't prevail over a tough Saint Mary's team. I had the Spiders beating Villanova, who looks ripe for an upset after getting taken to overtime by Robert Morris, a 15-seed.

Who else does everyone like? My Final Four is Syracuse, Kansas, West Virgina and Duke, with Syracuse beating Duke in the finals. Boring, I know, but I've never been a huge upset guy. My one claim to fame was picking Hampton over Georgetown that one year.

Hey, Tuesday night TV doesn't suck (for once)!

Tonight, there is a slew of interesting content on television. And of course, I can't watch or follow any of it, because I'm covering a town council meeting. Bollocks. I'll be S out of luck for most of it, unless I get REALLY lucky and get the shortest town council meeting in recorded history. (I doubt this, because I had a 27 minute meeting earlier this year, so if anything, I'm due for an impossibly long one soon. And yeah that's what she said.)

Ranking what's on, from most to least interesting...

- LOST returns for its final season! Ahhhh! I know several of my blogging friends are obsessed with the show, and I am too now, after resisting it for a couple years. The first episode is tonight, and stretches from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.

I've kind of offered specific predictions in the past on this season; new readers of my blog can find them here. I will generally predict right now that it wouldn't surprise me if one of the more popular characters like Jack, Kate, Sawyer or Hurley were killed off early in the season. Of course, of those the biggest surprise would be Jack, and I don't see them pulling off quite THAT big of a swerve. And besides, I love Jack. So my money is on Sawyer, Kate, Hurley or Sun dieing in the first half of the season.

I am hoping that I manage to make it home before 9, because otherwise, I will have to wait until after I can catch the episode by whatever means possible to check Facebook, Blogger and any other site actually used by human beings. Already, a lot of my friends are commenting and hypothesizing, so I must be diligent and disciplined to avoid spoilers. I've resisted looking at any of the trailers, although I'm of the opinion that they wouldn't help anyway; I think they just create more doubt in people's minds. You know, it's like trying to determine whether your best friend is getting a cold after listening to a single one of their sneezes.

Actual quote from seven-foot Rhode Island center Will Martell: "Kevin McHale is one of my favorite old players ... I love his moves, and we're both similar in that we have no athleticism." By the way, while he was saying this, he pulled a big bag of cookies out from the pocket of his sweatshirt and started eating them. By far the best athlete press conference I have seen in person.

- The Rhode Island Rams will attempt to avoid another late season swoon with a game at La Salle University in Philadelphia. On paper, this game that the Rams should dominate. After all, they are 17-3 with some decent non-conference wins, and a good conference win at Dayton University.

However, the last few years have seen collapsed by Rhody teams down the stretch, as Atlantic 10 coaches that know their tendencies have contained them in conference play. There is a bit of a different "feel" to the team this year, as they're winning close games they would have lost in the past, but I don't think Rhode Island fans will rest easy until they get to 24 wins. I mean, in 2007-08, the team sprinted out to a 19-3 record and then lost 9 of their last 11.

Regarding tonight's game against La Salle specifically, I've actually watched a game from La Salle's gym. I took a road trip there a couple years ago with some friends, during the Rams' big slide, and the Rams got the victory by a couple points. I'm worried about tonight because La Salle is a sort of tough place to play; it feels like a high school gym. It reminds me a bit of the old Keaney Gymnasium on URI's campus, which is now used mostly for medium-sized events and volleyball matches. I feel like La Salle's gym deflates offense a bit, which would hurt a good team like the Rams more than an iffy team like La Salle.

It's not really a good game, but I still have fond memories of NCAA Basketball for the Super Nintendo, which featured Providence College. Note their star player, Metos (a.k.a. Eric Murdock).

- In the second most interesting basketball game affecting the state of Rhode Island, the Providence Friars play at nationally-ranked Syracuse tonight. I'm actually surprised at how well Syracuse has played this year, after their preseason loss to Division II "power" Le Moyne.

This game is interesting because, despite their record, the Friars have a puncher's chance against the Orange tonight. When the Friars are "on", they can play with any team in the Big East. "Greedy" Peterson is a horrible defender, but as the name implies he can score, and there are some solid players for the Friars in freshman point guard Vincent Council, freshman center Bilal Dixon and junior forward Marshon Brooks.

However, the team is streaky as heck, which is evidenced by just looking at their results. Their longest win streak is three, even in the non-conference portion. The Friars lost to Alabama, who are a pedestrian 13-8, and the aforementioned Rhody Rams, who came back from a double-digit deficit in the second half. Providence has also lost to Iona, and weren't competitive for 40 minutes in Big East games against Notre Dame, Louisville and Marquette, losing all three by double-digits.

A two-game stretch last week illustrates the yin and yang of the Friars. On Jan. 23, they had a 9-point lead with a minute left against South Florida, and led by six with 30 seconds... and lost in overtime after missing some free throws and a late turnover in regulation. Four days later, against a Connecticut team coming off its biggest win of the season, the Friars posted an impressive 15-point win. Providence can play mind-bogglingly great or bad, and as a result, Syracuse should be on guard.

Will Martell's photo is from this Providence Journal story from before his sophomore year. The Lost photo at the top is from E! Online, here.