Oh, NOW I understand.....

You may have seen that Loyola (MD) held my man Stephen Curry to 0 points in a game where he started, and played almost the whole time.

But you may not have seen WHY it happened.

Turns out the Loyola coach, Jimmy Patsos, decided that "Curry is NOT going to beat us tonight!" and played a triangle and two, with the two playing solely on Curry.

It does seem there is a problem with this strategy, however. While Curry did not beat Loyola, Davidson DID....by 30.

Why not box and 1, with the zone sagging to defend Curry? Or, better still, try to play basketball?

Two quotes from Patsos:

“We had to play against an NBA player tonight,” Patsos explained. “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?”

“I know the fans are mad at me, but I had to roll the dice as far as a coach goes. I’m not some rookie coach,” said Patsos, a former longtime assistant at Maryland. “I won a national title as a top assistant coach to Gary Williams. For 13 years I spent on Tobacco Road. I coached a couple of No. 1 picks in the draft. And we scored 48 points. That’s the problem that Loyola basketball had today.”

So, Patsos IS a history major, but NOT a rookie coach. Here's my thought: the "problem that Loyola basketball had today" was that the kids were embarrassed, and angry, at playing a humiliating gimmick defense for the entire game, even after they were down by more than 25. If you go in thinking, "we can't beat this guy, he's too good," then you just shut down.

(Nod to Anonyman)