Dan Dakich Explains How College Basketball Teams Often Mismanage End Of Game Situations

College basketball is awesome and I love the NCAA Tournament. But, there is one extremely frustrating aspect to watching and betting on the sport. Teams make so many mistakes, particularly at the end of games. I joined former college basketball coach and OutKick host, Dan Dakich, to talk about those mistakes. 

For me, one of the most mismanaged end-of-game scenarios comes when a team is trailing with less than one minute to go, and they don't have possession. In this situation, teams are almost always content to play defense and let the leading team run out the entire shot clock. That, of course, takes 30 seconds off the game clock. 

I would argue that a team trailing without possession – by at least three points – should foul in this situation every time. If that team has between 6-8 team fouls, it's even more egregious to not foul. Thanks to college basketball rules, that forces the opposing team to shoot a one-and-one. Make these college kids hit clutch free throws and extend the game. I really cannot understand choosing to let the clock bleed out. 

OutKick's Dan Dakich and Dan Zaksheske discussed the frustrations of betting on college basketball due to poorly managed end-of-game situations.

(Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports)

Dakich brought up another situation, one that I hadn't considered. He noted that teams often use timeouts after made-baskets in the final minute. However, this is a poor application of time management. 

After a made-bucket in college hoops, the clock continues to run. Except, it stops when there's less than one minute to go in the game. Dakich noted that teams that are leading often take their time inbounding the ball after the trailing team makes a shot. Of course they do; the clock is their friend. 

Dakich argues that this is when trailing teams need to utilize timeouts to save time. 

"[Hypothetically speaking,] you're down seven with 1:20 to go. You get a bucket … [to] cut it to five. The team that is winning stands there, ball bouncing, six seconds [come] off the clock," he said. 

"Coaches call timeout under a minute. No, you call timeout over a minute, and you organize under a minute. And those two things, including what you just said, are so mismanaged. It's ridiculous." 

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Expect a lot more mistakes as we get deeper into March Madness. That's why we love it so much!