When you're up 3 at the end of the game, chances of winning are always strongly in your favor, regardless of which strategy you use. The question is which strategy maximizes those chances. I would argue that allowing a pretty decent look is not the best strategy.
Fair. And I neither argued any differently nor gave any opinion at all, just said what happened. Had Altman fouled up 3, or had Juzang made the shot, I would have reported either of those outcomes as well.
Opinion: Altman would have been criticized, and rightly so, had Juzang made that shot. It actually was a better look than O'Connell got in the MU-Creighton game -- Juzang had nobody on him -- and Juzang is not only 10x the player O'Connell is, but also a better 3-point shooter.
Also, kudos to Cronin for drawing up a play to get such a good shot for such a good player. I was quite surprised Oregon didn't foul Juzang in the backcourt. Seemed like a good spot to do so.
As I said earlier in the thread ... it seems more coaches are rolling the dice and not fouling this season. I don't know why. I don't even know if it's true because I don't have the data. Just from what I've noticed.
I wish The Athletic or some other sports outlet would do a study on this. I find it to be an extremely interesting topic, one that's often debated, and it's a little surprising that nobody has done a thorough study of it for years.
