That School Up North
We're gonna break one of the cardinal rules for the next thousand words or so
Tuesday night, Murray State hosted Illinois State in Missouri Valley Conference action, building the lead as high as 15 points before surrendering it all in an embarrassing loss that dropped the Racers to 8-14 on the season.
As the clock ticked down, the Racers seemed to come unglued. After the Redbirds went 1-of-2 at the line to make it a two-point game with about 13 seconds left, JaCobi Wood drove the lane and tried a poorly-angled jump-pass-handoff thing to Rob Perry that stood roughly no chance of succeeding; the Racers tied up the ensuing scrum and gained possession out of bounds beneath their basket with 3.7 seconds left, following a lengthy-ish review for time.
A veteran coach told me a long time ago that one way he always could tell the difference in a good coach and a great one is out of bounds, underneath, after a timeout. His argument (which I’m paraphrasing) is that any numbskull can run the same stacked action seen in various middle schools across this great nation or lob it 45 feet into the backcourt. A great coach has a play, a plan and can get players to run it with precision.