[LOOKAYANNER]

What a big and smart coaching decision when Cordia fouled with the game tied. Putting the game in their hands and not allowing Hazard to have the final shot, which they had anyway but things were greatly different with that final shot. Both teams played hard and it made for a great game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I look at that foul as just the opposite! Cordia had just tied the game with 27 seconds remaining, after trailing for nearly all the game (and also rarely getting any judgement 50/50 calls from the officials, epsecially the one they call Spud), and then with a little over 20 seconds remaining they FOUL Hazard and put them on the line. Let's assume Hazard hits both free throws (and for most the night they had been very good at the free throw line), well, that puts all the pressure back on Cordia. Now they're trailing by 2. What's smart about that decision??? Anyway, imo Cordia didn't mean to foul Hazard, they were only going after the ball, trying to force a turnover. It wasn't really a Rhodes "decision".
I don't understand why Rhodes didn't turn up the defensive pressure much more often and earlier in the game. Hazard was having trouble with their quickness for most of the game. Instead, they stayed in a halfcourt zone and allowed Hazard to work the ball around the perimeter until they got an open 3, and the Bulldogs are a very good 3 point shooting team. The trey is what mostly kept them in the game. Late in the game when they turned up the heat on defense is when they forced Hazard into turnovers and mistakes. Cordia outscored Hazard in the last minute of the game by 8-2. I would have liked to have seen that kind of defensive pressure for some parts of the other 3 quarters and see what would have happened.