Anwil scared vs. Avellino. The refs – a shame
I never saw such a scared team like Anwil yesterday in the home game against Avellino. The vistors came in a very short rotation, after Norris Cole left the team and both centers Matt Costello and Hamady N’Diaye were injured.
At the end of the game, the stats reflected as well the problem of Avellino’s rotation: all their bench players scored just 6 points. So, in this situation how can you be dominated at home by a team that has actually just 5 starters?
The biggest mistake of Anwill was a strategical one: they didn’t try to fight strong in the paint, to penetrate more and like this to force Avellino to commit more fouls. Avellino had any fouls problems because the Polish team just shot from the long range, too scared to enter in the paint to fight physically in order to score, rebound and receive a lot of fouls. This stupid strategy of Anwill only helped Avellino who continued to play almost the whole game in 5 starters with a couple of minutes for the young bench players.
This is embarassing for the basketball in modern era: to get beaten by a team with very short rotation. You have to force them to make a lot of fouls! That’s the main strategy!!!
Another huge help for Avellino were the referees, very hostile to the host team. As always when they influence the result of the game, there were 2 types of whistles: one totally against Anwil and another one totally pro Avellino. Normally the host team is helped a bit but this time the visitors looked like the host. I think the refs created at least a 20 points gap between the two teams by many decisions against Anwil. They secured by any means the victory for Avellino!!!
Gratian Cormos, info@brainbasketball.net
