In the evening of April 2nd in San Antonio, random was exposed.
It happened again the next evening in Indianapolis and again the evening after that back in San Antonio.
Hearts shattered and redeemed, coaches vilified or christened in just 17.6 seconds across three of the most important basketball games in the lives of these programs. And they all fell to one thing:
The last possession.
It’s that moment where coaches moonwalk on a razor blade. It’s where a player’s confidence, future and brand can be enriched or scuttled. Every coach wants it and hates to have it taken from them, like spoiled toddlers fighting over a toy. And in three days in early April, with the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Division I basketball Championships on the line, it took 17.6 seconds over the ending of three games to prove something that we all must embrace.
Random rules!
As coaches, we play to our strengths. If we have a good serving team, we want the ball in our hands serving at 24-23. At the higher levels, we want the ball served to us so we can run our offense. The last possession is the stomach churning, nail biting crescendo of sports.
And as much as we think we can control it, random wins more times than not. Arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan had 18 last shot opportunities in the playoffs over his career.
He made 9. The greatest player of his generation made 50% which is a remarkable number, but still just half.
Most of us coaching would LOVE to have MJ taking the last shot in our playoff game. We love to have our best server at the line at 24-23. We would love to have our best rotation receiving serve at 24-23.
And here is where the place card holder for Random is placed because sometimes, as the game goes, you will have your best server at the line, and sometimes not. At that point, the volley gods are in control.
Players miss serves, balls get blocked or hit out of bounds, passes get shanked or in rare cases called in when they are out or vice versa. The randomness of sport is the DNA by which we exist. We train and practice so those moments WILL work when called upon on that last possession, but even with all the training and reps and experience, sometimes random wins.
April 2nd in the Alamodome, the last 8.2 seconds of their NCAA Women’s semifinal, South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston stripped the ball from Stanford’s 6-4 Freshman Cameron Brink. Boston saw teammate Brea Beal streaking down the court and shoveled the ball to her. Beal ran the left side of the court in three dribbles and put up an 8’ falling away layup attempt that caromed off the back of the rim into the hands of Aliyah Boston who gathered and pushed up a 7’ shot at the buzzer…that was an inch too long. It bounced off the back of the rim and Stanford was heading to the National Championship game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySPdzkYSrnY
While so much is going on in this last 8.2 seconds, three players’ lives were casually altered by random. The Stanford Freshman Brink would have been devastated if one of the South Carolina shots had fallen. On the flip side, both Boston and Beal might have been heroes if their shots had connected. The road less travelled…
As it was, Boston has probably made that shot thousands of times in practice and in games, Beal’s layup is probably something she has shot and made hundreds of times in her career and Brink, at 6-4, probably doesn’t have the ball stripped from her all that much. But that night, that 8.2 seconds, random ruled and Stanford went on.
The next night in Indianapolis, the Men’s #1 seed Gonzaga saw their game v. UCLA in the semifinal tied in overtime when UCLA’s Sophomore Johnny Juzang put back his own shot with 3.3 seconds left. Gonzaga immediately inbounded the ball on the run to Jalen Suggs, a 6-4 freshman guard who raced up the court in three dribbles and pulled up 40 feet from the rim, in front of the outstretched arms of UCLA’s 6-4 David Singleton and extending his legs and arms, launched the ball which arced into the back of the glass and banked through the net. Gonzaga was moving on to the National Championship game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx3LuhZOFn8
The Monday morning quarterbacks might have wondered why Juzang didn’t take a little more time off the clock before his shot? Why didn’t UCLA pick up Suggs full court defensively and make him burn time running around defenders. And if Singleton had maybe timed his jump a little differently, maybe he gets a finger tip on the ball that changes that shot enough to force a second overtime.
The What if’s…Why didn’ts…They should’ves….I would’ves…
The moment is fraught with energy, pressure, fear, excitement, split second decision making, reading the play, past experiences. Sitting in a broadcast booth, it’s easy to criticize or lionize, but in that moment often times random is king.
In the Alamodome on April 4th, it happened once again. This time, the University of Arizona was playing Stanford for the National Championship and again, Stanford was forced to relinquish the last possession. With 6.1 seconds left and Stanford up 54-53, the Wildcats inbounded the ball to their All American guard, 5-6 Aari McDonald. The inbounds play lobbed it into McDonald’s outstretched hands at almost half court. She was the reigning PAC 12 Player of the Year and Stanford probably knew the ball was going into her hands.
She was quickly double teams as she snaked her way toward the three point line and stepped in front of it but a wall of Stanford defenders stood tall as a third Cardinal swept in to help. With 1.6 seconds left, McDonald stepped back, turned around and let the shot fly over 6 outstretched arms as the arena stopped breathing.
The ball hit the back of the iron and fell away as the buzzer sounded. Stanford survived not having the last possession once again, this time with a National Championship. Aari lowered her head and began to cry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vfiH0U9WUs
All three of these shots, so important to so many, were decided by millimeters, by the push of an arm to much or too little, by the friction of a fingertip: those micro moments deciding the fate of players, coaches and programs for years to come.
Embrace her or disregard her, be arrogant enough to think you have control of her, but random owns us at times. And while the sports world loves to blame and second guess, rarely do they speak of the randomness of the game.
It’s important to note one more thing. In South Carolina’s loss to Stanford, the first person to console Aliyah Boston was Assistant Coach Fred Chmiel. The first one to console Aari McDonald was Wildcat head coach Adia Barnes. And when Suggs hit his 3 pointer at the buzzer, Gonzaga coach Mark Few shook his head in disbelief, walked calmly to shake hands and embrace a gutted UCLA coach Mick Cronin and let his team have the spotlight for their performance.
Great Coaches and coaching staffs aren’t random. They are caring, hard working, forward thinking men and women who find the grace in the random.
It’s a lesson for us all.
