Travelling

Not vacationing, but travelling as in basketball.

I still don't know what to make of the final play in Vanderbilt's loss to Georgetown. ESPN along with every news story, including the Washington Post, raised the issue of travelling before the winning shot, which suggests he travelled before shooting (wisdom of crowds). But in reading definitions of travelling including on the NCAA's site, and watching the replay, I just don't see it.



Certainly Jeff Green lifted his pivot foot, but my understanding is it's OK to lift the pivot foot to shoot or pass. As I mentioned to a friend if you couldn't ever lift your pivot foot, every layup or dunk would be a walk. You clearly can't put it down (that's two steps) and you can't lift it to dribble.

The more I watch the more I think he may have hopped when he first caught the ball. His right foot certainly moves, it's unclear if his left slides or comes up before the dribble. And I'm not clear if since he picked the foot up and then spun, if he pivotted off his non-pivot foot, and when the ball came loose that may have been a double dribble. In football we'd have the reverse angle camera but I guess CBS doesn't use that. Legal or not, it certainly was an ugly setup before a great shot.

Regardless, Vanderbilt's execution in the last 2.5 seconds was horrible. That's a lot of time especially if you can pass the ball the first 30 or 40 feet upcourt. Call a timeout, set up a play and get the ball to Byars or Foster. Heck when I was an assistant manager at Vanderbilt, we had a play where we'd fire the ball up the sidelines to mid court and get a quick time out. That would have given then 2 seconds, enough time to get the ball in to Foster or Byars with time to make a move and get a good look. Or even dump in underneath if the defense all ran to the perimeter.