My only complaint aside from the 8 minute drought in the first half was the numerous lay ups allowed to Bama as the game ended. This happened before the reserves came in. Also, giving up three point plays on lay ups is not good. If you are going to foul every time, at least make sure they pay for it and not give them the bucket. Perhaps Anderson should show films of the Bill Laimbeer Pistons to illustrate how to make your fouls count. Way too many fouls again, but shooting overcame them this time. Why has Bailey not been given more playing time? He looked smooth tonight.
Clearly the hogs were avoiding fouling (except for Dustin Thomas) in the closing minutes. It was no big deal.
I don’t worry about garbage time. And it was pretty much garbage time for the last 12 minutes.
In this day and age, however, keeping your foot on the pedal can move the needle on the computer rankings in a non-negligible way. This team has tended to let up more than most with a big lead all season. It’s not really relevant to their quality, but most efficiency stats only look at the final numbers, not how in control of the game you were.
Even with that, though, the overall efficiency tonight was really good on both ends of the court. It’s not like Bama cut it from 30 to 10 in the final 10 minutes and outrebounded us by 15.
With a 24-point lead in the last 6 minutes, it’s better to give up a layup than two free throws and a chance at an and-1. That’s just smart basketball. Make them score with the clock running.
There are plenty of other things about this team to worry about than the last 5 minutes against Alabama …