The stall and why we fail at it

[MUHoopsfan6]

I was wondering if anyone else at the game last night or on TV/internet whatever, saw the same thing I did.  When we were up by 5 or 7 points in the second half with about 7 minutes to go the coach put the team into the stall.  At that moment we were playing pretty darn good, getting turnovers, penetrating to the basket, setting up some nice assists, really taking it to Ucon.

I then saw Coach Buzz on the bench signal to the team and yell something about stretch it out or something like that.  When I say "the stall" I mean stretch out the possession to take as much time off the game clock as possible, slow it down.  I noticed this from the Loserville game and again from this one.  When we go into the stall we seem to lose all our aggressiveness on offense and defense.  It seems like that signal means we already won or something to the players.  My only other thought is that this team may only play well at one speed (full) or one mindset (tenacious).   

When other teams go into their own version of the stall they typically try to pound the ball in down low and get a high percentage shot, because we do not have an effective post player capable of playing at the end of games this tactic is somewhat flawed for MU.  I like JB and Crowder both can create their own shots at times but they aren't really inside post guys.  If we are going to run the slow down game we have to play a real 5 to clog up the lane and take up space and maybe just maybe get a rebound. 

What do you guys think?

[PE8983]

We really can't play at that speed since we haven't developed the bench at all.  Playing Butler and Crowder 38-39 minutes at that pace is another recipe for disaster.

[Nukem2]

As I've posted before, this team needs to play in attack mode all the time.  Playing out the shot clock does not work this year as there is no one who has a quick release in a catch-and-shoot situation as the clock runs down.  Nor is the passing as good this year.  Need to stay within the regular offense, otherwise too many empty possessions upon which the opponent can capitalize.  Becomes a vicious cycle late in the game when Buzz decides to take the air out of the ball.

[Pakuni]

I'm not sure what game you were watching.
From the time MU went up five points at the 11:01 mark to the first shot after Conn tied it, at the 6:21 mark, here's the time used on the shot clock when MU shot the ball:

5 seconds (Crowder missed 3-point shot)
12 seconds (Butler missed two-point shot)
30 seconds (Butler missed shot, but fouled)
20 seconds (Crowder missed layup ... this was three seconds out of an MU timeout)

That's not exactly a slow down offense.

[MUfan12]

Too many people here confuse good defense with a stall. There was no stall last night. UConn's length took away a lot of driving and passing lanes.

Once they started to front Jimmy on the secondary break, the game was won for them. MU was killing them when Jimmy beat his man to the block and they ran offense through him in the post.

[Golden Avalanche]

Too many people here confuse good defense with a stall. There was no stall last night. UConn's length took away a lot of driving and passing lanes.

Once they started to front Jimmy on the secondary break, the game was won for them. MU was killing them when Jimmy beat his man to the block and they ran offense through him in the post.

Very good points.

I was happy to see that MU didn't pull the stall out after Jimmy's "and-1" going into the media timeout. You have to take that as a lesson learned from the previous games in which it didn't work for them. Can't fault them with trying to suck life out of the game.

UConn capitalized on seemingly every second chance last night. It was only a matter of time until MU couldn't bail out those mistakes.

[tower912]

It didn't look like a stall to me.   It looked like a reluctance to seize control on the part of the players.   They looked like they weren't sure they wanted to shoot or attack.   Sudden loss of confidence.  

[robmufan]

I believe there was even one play where it might have taken longer to develop, but Jimmy Butler was wide open on the block, it was either vander or JC that didn't get the right passing lane and it was tipped basically as it left their hand.  There was no stall last night.

[MUHoopsfan6]

So it sounds like I may be wrong, which is no big deal, I like to learn things.  It does however sound like others noticed a change in the team later in the second half.  Do you think that change in the team was caused by Ucon altering its defense to front JB or ramping up their defensive intensity or both?  My problem with that explanation is that our defense went to hell right along with our offense.  They started getting quite a few very easy baskets, and it just seemed like we had no answer late in the game when the previously we had made a ton of plays.  Is it fatigue?  Lack of a post presence?  My other problem with that explanation is JB was not the only guy to drive the lane or make a play the first 3/4 of the game.  What happened to the rest of the team?  I know Blue missed 3 or more layups, and DJO had some very untimely turnovers.  Is this just a problem with players not letting the game come to them more and being impatient and trying to make things happen?