Never a Dull Moment in College Hoops This Year
The Eagles travel to Georgia State in the Sun Belt Tourney quarterfinals Wednesday.
Marc Gignac
3/10/2020
STATESBORO – It’s the year of the comeback in sports.
Look no further than your Superbowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs. Down 24-0 to Houston in the division round - easy. A 10-point deficit in the second quarter to Tennessee in the AFC Championship - please. Trailing by 10 to the 49ers halfway through the fourth quarter of the Superbowl – no problem.
College basketball has seen its fair share too. Duke overcame a 10-point deficit with 2:18 left in regulation and a five-point deficit with 20 seconds left in overtime at North Carolina. Three weeks ago, Murray State led Eastern Illinois by 27 points with 11:30 left and lost in what is being called the greatest comeback in college basketball history. Kentucky led Tennessee by 17 in the second half and lost last Tuesday and then trailed by 18 with 11:55 left at Florida and won on Saturday.
Sun Belt hoops is not immune. A whopping 30 Sun Belt games have seen a team trailing by 10-plus points during the game come back and win, including three of the four tournament games. Georgia State trailed Louisiana by double digits, came back to lead by double digits and then lost in the Cajundome in February. Georgia Southern has come back to win six games when trailing by double digits and lost five when leading by 10-plus.
So, what's the reason for all the college hoops comebacks this year?
"It's a combination of things, but I think the biggest reason why we're seeing so many this year is the shot clock," said Georgia Southern coach Mark Byington.
It's a very subtle rule change the NCAA enacted prior to the season. When a team on offense gets the rebound after the ball hits the rim, the shot clock is reset to 20 seconds instead of the full 30. Also, when the shot clock is below 20 seconds, it will reset to 20 seconds when the defensive team commits a personal foul or when the ball is intentionally kicked in the offensive team’s frontcourt.
"It’s allowing for more offensive possessions and more opportunities for a trailing team to come back,” said Byington.
A rule change prior to the 2015-16 season also gave the coaches one less timeout, and they can only carry over three into the second half. Wanting to make sure they have a timeout for end-of-half and end-of-game situations, coaches save them instead of maybe using one as a momentum stopper. That likely allows for a team to get ahead by double digits easier as well as a team to come back from double digits easier.
“You really want to hang onto at least one so you can use it to draw up a play for a late-game situation," said Byington. “With all the monitor reviews late in games, a lot of times you don't end up needing it because the stoppages allow you to communicate with your team, but you can't count on that. You'd hate to not have one when you need it.”
The year of the comeback is in full swing and will only be magnified this time of year as teams face the pressure of win-or-go-home games. The recipe to avoid the comeback?
“A team can't come back on you if you get defensive stops," said Byington. “Basketball is a game of runs and huge shifts in momentum. A missed open 3-pointer on one end that leads to a long rebound and turns into a transition 3 on the other is a 6-point swing, and that can really change the momentum. You have to have blinders on and maintain your focus on each play no matter what happened the last play. If you get taken out of rhythm on offense, you have to maintain or even increase your defensive intensity, and that can be the hardest thing to do.”
Georgia Southern tied for fourth with Georgia State in the Sun Belt standings, and the Eagles have finished in the top-5 in each of their six seasons in the league. State earned the fourth seed by virtue of a tiebreaking home win over Little Rock last Tuesday, while Southern lost at Little Rock in January. So, the fifth-seeded Eagles have to travel to Atlanta to take on fourth-seeded Georgia State in the Sun Belt Tournament quarterfinals. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 11, in the GSU Sports Arena.
