The Tortoise and the Hare: Basketball Style Around 600 B.C. Aesop described a competition that compared creatures of vastly differing speeds in “The Tortoise and the Hare”. Similarly in men’s college basketball every contemporary game highlights the contrasting aspects of this tempo battle. Teams that employ a strategy of tempo control to one extreme or another do so in an attempt to compensate for weaknesses such as size, speed and experience. Extreme up-tempo and slowdown styles in men’s college basketball look to gain victory by controlling the speed with which the game is played, using some similar and differing techniques. This past season’s game between UVA and Duke, along with classic contests featuring Princeton and Loyola Marymount, …show more content…
In 1990, after leading the nation in scoring for the third straight year at 124 points per game (Sports Reference), the eleventh seeded small college with no basketball pedigree took on perennial powerhouse and defending national champion Michigan in the NCAA tournament. Plodding Michigan, averaging 51 points per game and allowing 44 points on average (Sports Reference), lost 149 to 115. To compensate for being undersized and short-handed, Westhead’s team pressed full court incessantly all game with the New York Times reporting of the Marymount defensive effort, “Every time a white-jerseyed Michigan player got his hands on the ball anywhere on the court, it seemed that two or three people in Loyola crimson flew at him. The Michigan players could hardly take a dribble without a Loyola hand swiping at the ball.” (Berkow n. …show more content…
Demonstrating the similarities and differences in both styles throughout the game, each team showed a commonality of goals, forcing tempo on the opposing team in the quest for victory and the disparities of means; speeding up versus slowing down. Slow down specialist UVA ranked 223rd out of 351 colleges scoring 65 points per game and ranked 1st allowing 51 per contest (Sports Reference), but lost 69 - 63 to up-tempo Duke, who ranked 6th nationally in scoring at 80 points per game and 110th allowing 64 points (Sports Reference). Watching the game you could see both teams engage in a herculean struggle that tilted throughout as each team tried to establish their preferred tempo. Duke lead by one, 26-25, at the half, but UVA established their tempo for the next sixteen minutes taking an eight point advantage, 58-50. Unlike in Aesop’s tale, the hare won as speedy Duke surged in the final four minutes for a 69 to 63