Obviously, there's a rebounding risk associated with running a zone, but yesterday it just got out of hand. Baylor generally extends its zone most of the time, something they felt they had to do even more so in this game, hoping to interrupt Duke's excellent perimeter passing and harrass their shooters. Duke, already a good rebounding team, capitalized by having its wings in a better position to charge the boards unimpeded when shots went up, particularly in the second half when Baylor's wings seemed more focused on preventing long jump shots.
There seemed to be so many times that one team looked like it could be running away from the other, only to see a break here or there or an oustanding defensive play reverse the trend. Duke looked a lot more confident going into the last five minutes or so, but Baylor was game. Some would offer the favorable whistles helped with their confidence (allow me at least one WFW, would ya'?).
Yeah, some of the calls were maddening, but, no, officiating wasn't the sole cause by any stretch. I was hoping for a last three minutes of the game similar to the last 3 minutes of the first half. Duke had other plans, and our guys didn't respond effectively enough. 3 or 4 minutes from a perfect weekend at Reliant.
I had two sets of tickets, one set 29 rows up midcourt, where my boys sat, and another that my insurance agent provided that was the second row of the regular football seating. When we sat down Friday night in the latter tickets, we joked, "Hey, look over there; I think they're playing basketball! Let's go watch." I understand maximizing attendance/revenues, but it truly is a tough way to watch a basketball game.
The Alamodome approach, if you will--placing the court parallel to an end zone--allows for a larger percentage of fans to be closer to the action, but that's not such a great scheme at Reliant, where the upper deck doesn't dip down as low as the one in the Alamodome does. Guess we're stuck with this, like it or not. Shame.
