On Wednesday evening, I went to Mount Carmel to watch the 4A Sectional Semi-final between St. Ignatius and Simeon.
Simeon played well opening a 30-20 half time lead. The Wolfpack changed in the second half. They can charging back out scoring the Wolverines 23-4 in the first four minutes of the Third and tied the score with 3:47 left in the game.
It was back and forth to the end. Simeon scored on a layup with 8.8 seconds left taking a 49-48 lead.
After the game, St. Ignatius coach Matt Monroe explained his thinking on what to do in that moment. Please forgive the lengthy quote but the insight given is worth the effort.
“In the coaching community there's a little bit of a debate. In a situation where maybe the opposing team hits a shot to go up, do you call time out or do you let it play?” explained St. Ignatius coach Matt Monroe.
“And even on our staff there is a debate about it. I'm a big believer that you don't call time out.
“The reason why when is the other team hit a big shot, they're celebrating, they're hyped up, they're not matched up, it's kind of frantic. So you don't want to call time out and stop everyone so they can get their defense set. So it wasn't a play [I called], but it's a strategy in the sense that we try if that happens to get the ball and go.
“Now when we get to have court and we don't have a shot, then we'll call the time out. So that's what happened is just great players made great plays they stepped up big time in the most crucial moments,” Monroe concluded.
That is indeed what happened. I am pretty sure it was Ignatius junior Duke Ross that grabbed ball after Simeon scored. He quickly surveyed the court and launched a 2/3 court pass to Chris Bolte who was streaking toward the basket with no one in front of him. He dunked the ball to give St. Ignatius team the lead and the victory.
And then yesterday, they dispatched No. 3 Curie to take one step closer to Champaign. The Wolfpack will face York at UIC’s Credit Union 1 Arena on Monday in the Super Sectional.
