Three Yards and a Cloud of Dust

After winning a tournament championship, a coach is normally in a good mood, discussing the aspects of the game.  However after defeating Oklahoma to win the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic Championship at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Michigan State's Tom Izzo decided to vent about the new NCAA rules in regards to defense.

"Everybody is going to think points are up. They’re up because free shots are free shots!” Izzo said. “What I’m worried about is are we going to teach [players to] just dribble in and get fouled? Is that good basketball? We had a two hour and 32 minute game tonight. Is that going to be good for basketball?”

Izzo went even further about what his new offense will be after his win over the Sooners.

“What are we going to teach? Are we going to teach the kids to just drive in there? I’m going to coach it this week. Just drive in. I’m going to put on football pads again this week. Not to rebound, but offensively. Just go in there, full back dive, three yards and a cloud of dust.” 

It's never good when a basketball coach decides that his offensive philosophy should be something out of a Woody Hayes' playbook (Google "Woody Hayes").  But is Izzo overreacting or is he on point about what the state of college basketball is with the new rules on defense, specifically the end of the hand check and more difficult to pick up a charge?

To further Izzo's point, my friend Dan Crain, author of the terrific new blog "Dragons Speak", went a little further by breaking down the NCAA rules and how it has affected teams' offenses.  In his post "The New NCAA Rules: Why Dribble Drive is Your Friend", Dan specifically points that scoring inside the arc is up ten percent from last season.  As an example, he points out William and Mary as a team that has changed it's offense from a three point driven squad to one of the better two point field goal teams in the country.   I can verify Dan's point, having watched William and Mary use the two point field goal to their advantage on Thanksgiving Eve.

However, I am going to come at this at a different angle than Dan.  I want to come at it from the angle of how it has affected teams' defensively.   Below is a list of fourteen teams with their fouls per game currently from this season and last season, along with their ranks currently from this season and last season (stats are as of 12/2 and are courtesy of Basketball State). Most of the teams listed I know for the most part play pressure or physical defense.

Team	2013-14 FPG	2012-13 FPG	FPG Diff	2013-14 FPG Rank	2012-13 FPG Rank
Niagara	27.9	19.7	+8.1	350	304
Georgetown	24.5	17.3	+7.2	332	151
North Carolina	21.2	14.6	+6.6	248	11
Stony Brook	22.1	15.6	+6.5	282	33
Wagner	25.8	20.5	+5.3	344	331
Marshall	24.6	19.3	+5.3	334	282
Manhattan	26.3	21.1	+5.2	347	340
Drexel	23.7	18.6	+5.1	321	241
Seton Hall	23.8	18.8	+5.0	322	253
Cleveland State	24.6	19.6	+5.0	334	301
Richmond	22.5	19.4	+3.1	295	287
VCU	22.7	19.7	+3.0	302	304
Ohio	22.7	19.7	+3.0	302	304
Michigan State	16.6	16.1	+0.5	28	60

Based on the above, several teams - Georgetown, North Carolina and Stony Brook have been significantly affected by the new rules based on their rankings in fouls per game from this season as compared to last season.  Others have been moderately affected, such as Seton Hall, Drexel and Niagara (who had the biggest jump in fouls on this with +8.1).  Others, such as VCU, Ohio, Richmond and Cleveland State already had a high rate of fouls per game have seen a slight uptick in fouls, though their rankings have remained relatively the same.

Even if you have a slight uptick in the number of fouls, it increases the number of foul shot opportunities. If a team such as Niagara averages 28 fouls per game now as opposed to nearly 20 last season, that averages to 14 per half.  Double bonus starts with the 10th foul, so teams could now be getting possibly at least five double bonus opportunities per half on the Purple Eagles.

Ironically, Michigan State, whose coach has most notably complained the most about the rules, has barely had any change in foul calls.  Perhaps Izzo has already adjusted his team's style of play as opposed to other teams.

But Izzo hasn't been the only head coach to comment about the rules' enforcement.  Manhattan's Steve Masiello commented on enforcement of the new rules after his team lost at Fordham in their annual Battle of the Bronx.

"Tom Izzo said it best. I believe his quote, I don't want to misquote him, but he said after the Barclays Center games that he's going to just tell his players to drive in, create contact, throw the basketball up and worry about foul shooting, because it's taking away defensive advantages for schemes and scouting purposes. I have to learn the rules better and try to do a better job, and I'll do that. If you ask me how I feel, just take Tom Izzo's article, whatever he said, I agree. Steve Masiello agrees with Coach Izzo."

Bashir Mason, "the closest thing you'll find to a wallflower" head coach of Wagner, was so frustrated by the number of fouls called in the Seahawks' loss to UIC (a combined 44 fouls were called in the game, including 5 technical fouls on Wagner), he was ejected during the game after receiving two technical fouls.  Mason commented the following after the game;

"I’ve never been thrown out of a game in my life. Not in high school, not college, not as an assistant and not as head coach...I’d never even had a technical called on me.”

Hmmm. And I saw many of Mason's games vs. Hofstra when he was at Drexel, so I can vouch for him not being the type to get a technical foul.  So if you have several coaches commenting about the enforcement of the rules and one coach so frustrated that he gets the first two technical fouls of his life, there's something wrong.  During last night's Indiana-Syracuse game, commentator and former coach Dan Dakich even noted about how taking away the charge is taking away a defensive style of play.  Dakich finished with "What, you can't even touch someone now?"

Here are some more statistics for you.  Last season, 317 out of 347 Division I NCAA teams averaged less than 20 fouls per game.  This season, only 177 out of 351 Division I NCAA teams are averaging less than 20 fouls per game.  That's a difference of ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY teams.

Think about that for a second.  More fouls means there's more stoppage of play, which means longer games.  I would love to know the average length in time for a basketball game this season as opposed to last.  You would think it has to be longer this season.  Izzo noted that his game vs. Oklahoma took two hours and thirty two minutes.

Three yards and a cloud of dust might be the new offense for college basketball.  A lot of people found that football offense pretty boring during Woody Hayes' time. One has to worry if it will make college basketball pretty boring too.

Finally, Home is Where the Gaels Are (Recap of Niagara vs. Iona)

Iona spent the entire month of December on the road.  The Gaels went 6-2 on their road trip.  They went as far west as Denver (an overtime win over the Denver Pioneers), as far north as Burlington (a win over the Vermont Catamounts) and as far south as Williamsburg (a win over the William and Mary Tribe).  And on Tuesday night, Iona had a neutral site conference game at Madison Square Garden.  Wearing the home whites, the Gaels gave the Garden crowd a 95-59 crushing of the Siena Saints.

But Iona finally played their first true home game at the Hynes Center last night since November 28 as they hosted Niagara in a MAAC conference game.  It was a later start than usual for a Gaels night home game, 9:00 PM.  This was to accommodate the folks at ESPNU who wanted Butler-Wright State for the 7:00 PM start time.   The later start time didn't affect the crowd, as the Hynes Center was filled to near capacity.  When the Gaels took the court a few minutes before tipoff, the PA announcer stated "Welcome home your Iona Gaels!"   You know you have been away a while when you get a greeting like that.

The Gaels opponent, the Purple Eagles of Niagara, came in with a 6-9 record.. But they had won their last game, a 66-61 road upset over Loyola, Maryland, who was previously undefeated in conference.  This was already the second game this season against Iona for Coach Joe Mihalich, who is coaching in his thirteenth season for Niagara.  The Purple Eagles lost handily at home to the Gaels 98-75, one of the eight games on Iona's road trip.  Considering how Iona destroyed Siena Tuesday night, it looked like it would be another long evening for Niagara.

However, the Purple Eagles showed why they knocked off the Greyhounds earlier in the week.  They came out with intensity and purpose and the scoreboard reflected that.  They held the nation's fourth highest scoring team without a field goal over a three minute span in the first half and eventually took a 22-17 lead with less than nine and a half minutes left in the half.  The home crowd starting getting restless.

But the Gaels' staple, the three point shot, would get them going.  Jermel Jenkins and Sean Armand combined for three shots from beyond the arc, and the game was tied at twenty six with seven minutes left in the half.  Armand, who had a record breaking three point shooting performance Tuesday night at the World's Most Famous Arena, was rewarded for his efforts by starting over Kyle Smyth.  Unfortunately, he did not have anywhere near the success of Tuesday night.  Armand only shot two of eight from beyond the arc and had six points on the night..

The rest of the half saw only fourteen points scored as both teams struggled from the field.  Iona would go into halftime up 35-31.  The Gaels leading scorer on the season, Michael Glover only had four points.  It would seem that Coach Tim Cluess' game plan in the second half was for Iona to get it inside to their best player.

And sure enough, that's what happened at the start of the second half.  Glover scored the first six points for the Gaels. A few minutes later, he assisted on two straight layups by Taaj Ridley.  Finally he capped a 19-10 spurt with a layup and hitting one of two free throws in a later possession to put Iona up 54-41 with a little over ten minutes remaining in the game.  It looked like the rout was on.

But Niagara, a young team with six of their seven players in their rotation being freshmen or sophomores, again showed resiliency.  An old fashioned three point play by Juan'ya Green and a three point jumper by Marvin Jordan resulted in a Purple Eagles' 6-0 spurt.  The lead was cut to seven, 54-47.  After a free throw put the Gaels up eight, 55-47, Niagara had several chances to cut the lead further but couldn't capitalize.

Then Randy Dezouvre, a reserve for Iona, gave the Gaels some huge minutes.  He hit two layups in a row, grabbed a rebound and took a charge.  As a result, Iona went back up by double digits, 63-49 with less than four minutes left.

But Niagara refused to quit and they didn't let the lead get any bigger.  In fact, they cut the deficit to single digits, 63-55 with ninety seconds left.  But the Purple Eagles would not get any closer.  The Gaels had a hard fought 73-61 win and their homecoming was a happy one for their fans.

Glover scored fifteen of his nineteen points in the second half.  Scott Machado had thirteen points and eight assists for Iona (12-3, 4-0 MAAC) while Jermel Jenkins added twelve off the bench for the Gaels.   Green, Jordan and Malcolm Lemmons each had fourteen points for Niagara (6-10, 1-3 MAAC), while Antoine Mason had twelve for the Purple Eagles.  If that last name sounds familiar to New York City hoops' fans, it should.  He is former New York Knick forward Anthony Mason's son.  His dad was there last night, and he is as big as ever.

As I left the Hynes Center with my older son Matthew, the PA system played "Back in the New York Groove". Yes, the Gaels are back in the New York groove.  But I think the Gaels were just happy to be back home.