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Basketball Pet Peeves

dukedevilz

dukedevilz

Well-Known Member
Apr 3, 2002
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What is it with guys wanting to take step-back threes in the final seconds of a game when the game is tied (or they're down by 1)? I mean, at least get some separation. Use a screen or two. I just don't get why you would take such a low percentage shot? It's bush league. You need one point for the win (sometimes two). So why take a three? And especially a step-back three. It would be one thing if this happened just every now and then. But, I swear I see this every week.

Taking a step-back three in the final seconds of game is the equivalent of throwing a 40 yard pass down field on 3rd and 2. You need two yards, fellas. Not 40. Go with the 60% option, and not the sub-20% option. If you drive the basketball, there's a good chance you can 1. Find an open teammate or 2. Draw a foul or 3. Get a good look at a relatively high-percentage shot. Dumb shots drive me batty. The circumstances were a little different the other day with ND-UNC, but I even got mad when Cole Anthony took a contested 3-pointer late in the shot clock. If you take dumb shots, you deserve to lose.

Okay, mini-rant over. What are your pet peeves?
 
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dukedevilz said:
What is it with guys wanting to take step-back threes in the final seconds of a game when the game is tied (or they're down by 1)? I mean, at least get some separation. Use a screen or two. I just don't get why you would take such a low percentage shot? It's bush league. You need one point for the win (sometimes two). So why take a three? And especially a step-back three. It would be one thing if this happened just every now and then. But, I swear I see this every week.

Taking a step-back three in the final seconds of game is the equivalent of throwing a 40 yard pass down field on 3rd and 2. You need two yards, fellas. Not 40. Go with the 60% option, and not the sub-20% option. If you drive the basketball, there's a good chance you can 1. Find an open teammate or 2. Draw a foul or 3. Get a good look at a relatively high-percentage shot. Dumb shots drive me batty. The circumstances were a little different the other day with ND-UNC, but I even got mad when Cole Anthony took a contested 3-pointer late in the shot clock. If you take dumb shots, you deserve to lose.

Okay, mini-rant over. What are your pet peeves?
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You go to the hole...get fouled or make it. One of the oldest, soundest rules in bball. And like you said---it has turned into hero ball threes for no reason. Defenses have to love it.

I bitched about this last night, but a solid peeve of mine is refs refusing to use the "no call" on blocks and charges. Sometimes its neither...hell, a lot of times its both or neither. Let it play out. Call actual charges, don't reward offensive players for jumping into the defender---just don't call anything.
 
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dukedevilz said:
What is it with guys wanting to take step-back threes in the final seconds of a game when the game is tied (or they're down by 1)? I mean, at least get some separation. Use a screen or two. I just don't get why you would take such a low percentage shot? It's bush league. You need one point for the win (sometimes two). So why take a three? And especially a step-back three. It would be one thing if this happened just every now and then. But, I swear I see this every week.

Taking a step-back three in the final seconds of game is the equivalent of throwing a 40 yard pass down field on 3rd and 2. You need two yards, fellas. Not 40. Go with the 60% option, and not the sub-20% option. If you drive the basketball, there's a good chance you can 1. Find an open teammate or 2. Draw a foul or 3. Get a good look at a relatively high-percentage shot. Dumb shots drive me batty. The circumstances were a little different the other day with ND-UNC, but I even got mad when Cole Anthony took a contested 3-pointer late in the shot clock. If you take dumb shots, you deserve to lose.

Okay, mini-rant over. What are your pet peeves?
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Its the Jordan/Kobe affect IMO. You didn't see players take those type of shots until these guys came along. Kids watched these two growing up, and think these are the "cool" shots that you take when you want to win the game. Michael and Kobe made them look so easy and fluid, everyone else thinks they can do the same thing. At least that's my opinion on your take. I know exactly what you're talking about.

Mine is an opinion I'm sure many will share. Flopping. Absolutely killing the game in some ways. Makes basketball hard to watch sometimes honestly.

Another one is help defense down low. If I had a dollar for every time someone drove to the basket, missed a shot, and had their teammate have a wide open put back due to help, I would be rich. I mean how hard is it to stay down and box out? There is no need at all to try and jump up to block a shot if your teammate is already there covering the guy. Drives me insane.
 
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When people say "They just need to play harder!" when instead it has nothing to do with that, but said people don't know the game well enough to understand that.
 
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toonces11 said:
You go to the hole...get fouled or make it. One of the oldest, soundest rules in bball. And like you said---it has turned into hero ball threes for no reason. Defenses have to love it.

I bitched about this last night, but a solid peeve of mine is refs refusing to use the "no call" on blocks and charges. Sometimes its neither...hell, a lot of times its both or neither. Let it play out. Call actual charges, don't reward offensive players for jumping into the defender---just don't call anything.
Click to expand...

Yep. Hero ball is definitely an element of this nonsensical trend. Wish coaches didn't tolerate that.

JimboBBN said:
Its the Jordan/Kobe affect IMO. You didn't see players take those type of shots until these guys came along. Kids watched these two growing up, and think these are the "cool" shots that you take when you want to win the game. Michael and Kobe made them look so easy and fluid, everyone else thinks they can do the same thing. At least that's my opinion on your take. I know exactly what you're talking about.

Mine is an opinion I'm sure many will share. Flopping. Absolutely killing the game in some ways. Makes basketball hard to watch sometimes honestly.

Another one is help defense down low. If I had a dollar for every time someone drove to the basket, missed a shot, and had their teammate have a wide open put back due to help, I would be rich. I mean how hard is it to stay down and box out? There is no need at all to try and jump up to block a shot if your teammate is already there covering the guy. Drives me insane.
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Spot on. I agree with all of your statements. I don't remember shots like these in the 90's or early 2000's. But, this trend has been very prevalent in the last 5-10 years. Would love to see it end.

I agree with your take on flopping. I know the Duke guys have a bad rap for the head snap, where the head goes back before the body. I know Tyus Jones and Grayson Allen both did that a lot. Not a fan of that (or trying to draw charges from flopping). But, it's not just them. I saw multiple guys on San Francisco the other day doing that head whiplash thing.

And yes, the help defense is bothersome, too. Duke doesn't beat UNC if UNC doesn't have their whole team collapsing on Tre Jones. Wendell Moore had a gift-wrapped present waiting for him. And Xavier Tillman had an easy put-back dunk against Illinois last week. Illinois had two help defenders try to block Winston's drive to the basket in the final seconds. Some shot-blockers are actually poor defenders because it nets in more points given up than shots deflected.
 
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1) Refs waiting to see if the basket is made before they call a foul or not. It's either a foul or it's not a foul.

2) Offensive players initiating contact on players in good defensive position. I don't mind this is in isolated instances but this is the primary offense of some teams.

3) Missing the front end of a 1 and 1 FT attempt. Drives me insane. We need to change the name of the free throw to the "unguarded throw"

4) Ugly cheerleaders. Like what the ****?
 
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dukedevilz said:
Yep. Hero ball is definitely an element of this nonsensical trend. Wish coaches didn't tolerate that.



Spot on. I agree with all of your statements. I don't remember shots like these in the 90's or early 2000's. But, this trend has been very prevalent in the last 5-10 years. Would love to see it end.

I agree with your take on flopping. I know the Duke guys have a bad rap for the head snap, where the head goes back before the body. I know Tyus Jones and Grayson Allen both did that a lot. Not a fan of that (or trying to draw charges from flopping). But, it's not just them. I saw multiple guys on San Francisco the other day doing that head whiplash thing.

And yes, the help defense is bothersome, too. Duke doesn't beat UNC if UNC doesn't have their whole team collapsing on Tre Jones. Wendell Moore had a gift-wrapped present waiting for him. And Xavier Tillman had an easy put-back dunk against Illinois last week. Illinois had two help defenders try to block Winston's drive to the basket in the final seconds. Some shot-blockers are actually poor defenders because it nets in more points given up than shots deflected.
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The flopping is so easy to spot now, too. It used to be that it was so rare, I couldn't see it unless it was on replay. I can watch pretty much any game now, and notice flopping all over the place. Just sickening. These are athletes of the highest caliber and they're flopping like someone just shot them. I want to be mad at the players but I'm more mad at the refs. Players only do it because they get away with it. If you started getting T's for flopping, that shit would end really quick.

One of the few things I will never really understand with Cal is having his center play help defense regardless of the play. Doesn't matter if our opponent is already being hounded by a guard as he's driving, you can bet KAT, Richards, Cousins, WCS, whoever has been down there, will be leaving his man and trying to get a highlight block. The other team just scored another layup. Sigh.
 
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Step-back 3’s aren’t that low percentage. If you’re a 3 point shooter accustomed to shooting off the dribble, rather than just a catch-and-shoot type, a stepback jumper is a good way to get a little space. The caveat is that you have to be able to keep your balance. If you practice it, staying balanced isn’t that hard to do. If you’re stepping back and also fading away, forget about it.

And yes, it’s a much less than ideal shot if you’re tied or down just 1.
 
1) Flopping
2) Undercuts in attempts to take a charge
3) Defensive player trying to take a charge on a 2 on 1 fast break
4) Emphatic motioning of offensive fouls - amplified 100x if it’s done against the away team to a roaring crowd
5) Inconsistency in officials swallowing whistles during press attempts on calls they would make 99 times out of 100 if they happened in the halfcourt
6) Technicals for hanging on the rim - if a shot attempt is unaffected
7) Official reviews to add ~2 seconds of shot clock time when not under 2 minutes
8) Hearing Jimmy Dykes voice during a basketball game
 
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I am stupid said:
Even worse, a player not wearing matching shoes.
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Arizona State's Mickey Mitchell loves not wearing matching shoes. There's a few others that do this, can't recall them off the top of my head. But yeah, I don't get it. I think they just want the attention.

usc_arizona_st_basketball_25348628-1.jpg

mickey-mitchell.jpg
 
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brooky03 said:
Step-back 3’s aren’t that low percentage. If you’re a 3 point shooter accustomed to shooting off the dribble, rather than just a catch-and-shoot type, a stepback jumper is a good way to get a little space. The caveat is that you have to be able to keep your balance. If you practice it, staying balanced isn’t that hard to do. If you’re stepping back and also fading away, forget about it.

And yes, it’s a much less than ideal shot if you’re tied or down just 1.
Click to expand...

Yeah, just not sure a lot of college kids excel at keeping that balance. Especially when they're often double-teamed at the close of a game. In theory, it sort of makes sense. The defender has to be prepared to guard someone going towards the basket. Mentally, the defender is preparing to impede the dribble-drive, and then all of a sudden the dribbler stops his forward progression and takes a step back - and creates a little space. But what I generally see is a shooter that is off-balance. Should he take some time to regain balance and get squared, the defender has caught up.

Mike D'Antoni called it low 20-percent kind of a shot. Don't know what the actual figure is, but a 2 point field goal is obviously much preferable in a situation where you don't need a three.
 
This might’ve been mentioned in an earlier post but I didn’t read through the posts. One of my biggest pet peeves is when players focus more on trying to draw contact than trying to make the shot and they miss the shot and some cases a foul doesn’t get called so it turns into an empty possession of the defense gets the rebound.
 
my pet peeve is point guards who dribble the air out of the ball and then fail to move it to a teammate or get a good look. Even worse is the poor shooting PG who brings the ball into the front court and immediately launches a contested step back 3 pointer.

Both of these pet peeves are aimed at Javonte Smart and Charlie Moore.
 
Hearing a commentator referring to a team as, "playing the right way..."

Exactly what IS the "right way"?
 
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IUfanBorden said:
Hearing a commentator referring to a team as, "playing the right way..."

Exactly what IS the "right way"?
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Going to the basket to take a high percentage shot or get fouled tied, down 1-2---instead of a hero ball low percentage 3. Thats, playing the right way.
 
jhmossy said:
1) Refs waiting to see if the basket is made before they call a foul or not. It's either a foul or it's not a foul.

2) Offensive players initiating contact on players in good defensive position. I don't mind this is in isolated instances but this is the primary offense of some teams.

3) Missing the front end of a 1 and 1 FT attempt. Drives me insane. We need to change the name of the free throw to the "unguarded throw"

4) Ugly cheerleaders. Like what the ****?
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Hahahaha, all good answers, especially the first one. I have noticed this a lot lately, way too many late whistles for this exact reason and it's total bullshit. I bet @IUfanBorden does that all the time. Laughing On the flip side, how many times do we also see a premature whistle from an official simply anticipating contact that never happens, yet the whistle was already blown?
 
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Coaches getting a free timeout when the officials are checking the clock near the end of the game. The players should be forced to go to the opposite side of the court. If the coaches don’t call a timeout, the players should figure it out on their own.
 
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After a made basket and the other team is inbounding the ball quickly, I always see a foot on the line or even completely in bounds already before the inbound pass, refs never blow the whistle.
 
jhmossy said:
1) Refs waiting to see if the basket is made before they call a foul or not. It's either a foul or it's not a foul.

2) Offensive players initiating contact on players in good defensive position. I don't mind this is in isolated instances but this is the primary offense of some teams.

3) Missing the front end of a 1 and 1 FT attempt. Drives me insane. We need to change the name of the free throw to the "unguarded throw"

4) Ugly cheerleaders. Like what the ****?
Click to expand...

Number 1 is incredibly frustrating to me and I’ve seen it happen a dozen times in FSU/ACC games this year.

Another one for me is just the general trend toward bailing out defenses with too many charge calls. It’s as if refs want to make that a 50/50 call. It’s not. Charges should be called only in the most egregious instances, like someone out of control flying into the lane, or lowering a shoulder to bull over a defender.

When a defender is out of position and falls down while sliding into an offensive player who is making a standard move, we shouldn’t reward him with a charge.

On a related note, I can’t stand the “you’re big” foul. Guy with a large rump gets called for charges because he turns around in the lane. He’s entitled to his space, even if that space is large.
 
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Mine isn’t really a pet peeve but if I had to pick one it would be when one of the dumbasses on this board or just someone out in public (never have heard it any other place than on here) spews that bullshit about how you can’t be a real fan if you didn’t attend that school. Dumbest shit ever!
 
Just thought of one! When players get called for a foul and they lift their arms and open their mouth in disbelief. Also (sorry Duke guys) when your whole team starts smacking the floor. Gayest shit ever!!!
 
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Kevin Bryan said:
After a made basket and the other team is inbounding the ball quickly, I always see a foot on the line or even completely in bounds already before the inbound pass, refs never blow the whistle.
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-Or, on a set throw in, guys traveling before they throw the ball in
-Or letting the defender step/reach over the out of bounds line while defending the inbounder
 
toonces11 said:
-Or, on a set throw in, guys traveling before they throw the ball in
-Or letting the defender step/reach over the out of bounds line while defending the inbounder
Click to expand...
Yes and yes. They miss obvious shit like that all the time because they are so concentrated on calling a hand check. Laughing
 
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toonces11 said:
-Or, on a set throw in, guys traveling before they throw the ball in
-Or letting the defender step/reach over the out of bounds line while defending the inbounder
Click to expand...
There is no pivot foot during a throw-in. Its not a travel. Just a throw-in violation. Also, on a spot throw, you have 6 feet laterally that you can move---3 feet to each side. With no limitation on depth. So just b/c a player moves, doesn't mean its a violation.
 
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