The way Carlino smoked open threes it was a good call to foul him, risking two points to prevent a three that could have tied the game. Good call.
I don't have a problem with the foul but how about putting Stewart or someone else in to give it? Pointer getting his 4th on that play was ridiculous. Also double Carlino off the in-bounds and make someone else shoot the fouls; basic strategy that escapes our staff even after calling two time outs.
Just think of the risk of putting in a bench player to do something like that in the waning seconds (remember how brilliant it seemed to put in Hooper to make FTs to seal a win last season). Anything could happen, like fouling in the act of shooting, or just plain missing the assignment. I understand the concerns about foul 4, but we were down to the last possession or two, and to me it made sense. If Carlino didn't have the ball, someone else would have gotten fouled, and they did it in the frontcourt to burn off a couple of ticks.
To answer those who say Lavin should have put Pointer on Carlino sooner, a couple of things. First, Carlino had a relatively quiet first half, and then lit up very quickly and (very annoyingly) was animated like he just snorted coke, hitting 3 or 4 shots in rapid succession. Putting Pointer on Carlino was calculated , because to risk fouls and create other height mismatches could have backfired, especially if Marquette began to pound the ball inside. In fact Marquette should have adjusted, but didn't - and there is a shelf life to making a move like that. I thought the move was made at the right time because it worked and we won.
