#25 Davidson beat unranked Loyola-Maryland in a game that would normally be forgotten 10 minutes after the final buzzer. Except Davidson's Stephen Curry was held to 0 points and 3 shots. Curry averaged 25.9 points per game last year, and was averaging 35.0 coming into their contest with Loyola. He was the country's leading scorer.
Loyola double-teamed Curry, non-stop. Every situation, every second of the game, with or without the ball. Curry, smartly, would stay in the corner, giving his 4 teammates an easy chance to score against 3 defenders.
Davidson was up 21 points by half-time, but Loyola Coach Jimmy Patsos' double-teaming strategy didn't change. After the game, Patsos remarked:
"Anybody else ever hold him scoreless? I’m a history major. They’re going to remember that we held him scoreless or we lost by 30?"
Apparently all Patsos cared about was what Curry did in his game. Had Curry somehow scored in the 1st half, the double-team may have been lifted. No more history, no reason to double team the guy down by 30 with 4 minutes left.
Last week at Boston College, I saw Mr. Patsos lose what little composure he had to begin with. During a 90-57 loss, he aggressively jawed with the lightly populated BC student section. This only incited more taunting and pointing to the lopsided scoreboard. Which incited more jawing. And so on.
The next day, Loyola faced Cornell at BC. Patsos was called for a technical in the 1st half, then moved down his own bench, handing control of the team to an assistant. Later Patsos - angered by the officials and paranoid of another technical - went up into the seats and watched a few minutes of the game 4 rows from the floor. Luckily for him, attendance at the consolation game was 865, so plenty of good seats were available.
This sounds like your stereotypical movie coach. He yells a lot, he's a hard drinker, he hates losing more than anything, and he has "antics." He's Coach Pete Bell from Blue Chips.
-The Commodore
No comments:
Post a Comment