Good Things Happen When A Coach Gets Out Of The Way

HOUSTON — The shot that sent San Diego State to NCAA Championship Game looked good from the moment it left hands. None of Lamont Butler’s San Diego State teammates would admit otherwise, at least.

“I knew it was in,” Micah Parrish said. Jaedon LeDee thought “it looked good—great rotation and everything,” 

“It looked amazing,” Darrion Trammell said. “I knew it was going in. I feel like every time he shoots that shot, it’s pretty. I’ve seen him rep that shot out a million times—he deserves this. He put in the work to take that shot. That was legendary.”

Keshad Johnson had a great look from under the rim. “I’ve seen Lamont make that shot plenty of times,” he said. “When it went up, everything was going in slow motion. Then, bottom of the net.”

Matt Bradley wasn’t even concerned that seconds were ticking off. “When he got caught up in that corner, we knew time was on our side for him to get to his spot and pull up,” he said. “He’s so fast and strong that he got space. Dude thought he was going to drive and he just shot right over him. We had full faith in that shot. It looked really good.”

It was. Butler’s buzzer-beater gave San Diego State a 72-71 win over Florida Atlantic in their Final Four game on Saturday, to put the Aztecs in Monday’s national title game. Butler, for what it’s worth, echoed his teammates on the biggest shot of his life so far. “It felt good once it left my hand,” he said.

Butler got the chance to make that shot because of how SDSU coach Brian Dutcher handled the final plays. He didn’t call a timeout as Butler took the ball up court with seconds to go. He didn’t have his team foul after a jumper by LeDee cut it to a point with 37 seconds left. And, with SDSU about to inbound the ball down three on that penultimate possession, Dutcher did not insist his team shoot a three.

Here I’ll admit that we at Defector Media can get a little obsessed with that last bit. Last year during the tournament Lauren Theisen examined how often the people calling NCAA Tournament games think teams need a three late in a game, which is never. Lauren might have moved on, but I cannot. I wrote about a game on the first night of the NCAA tournament when Mississippi State, down just a point, missed a three in the closing seconds. The Defector Store even sells a Need A Three Here t-shirt. (Guess who runs the Defector Store.)

I suppose I look like a dummy tonight, but I think the three was the better play, here on the Aztecs’ next-to-last possession. Hoops analytics guy Seth Partnow says that’s what the numbers show. Sometimes the two-point shot that the team that Doesn’t Need A Three gets is an awful look. Sometimes the opposing team answers with a three at the other end. Sometimes the team gets a two, but the other team hits both free throws afterward, leaving the trailing team in the same position it was before, except with less…