UM's men's basketball team set a new standard in bad game management late in the 2nd half in another crushing ACC loss.

MISTAKE 1: With 1:37 left, down 3, while on defense, we fouled someone 35 feet from the basket. In that situation, you have to sit back and try to make a stop, not risk fouling by pressuring a point guard in no position to score.

MISTAKE 2: With a clutch catch-and-shoot 3 by Garrius Adams and a defensive stop, we cut the lead down to 2. Va Tech has the ball, the shot clock is at 30 and the game clock is at 31. Va Tech could hold the ball and virtually end the game, so we HAVE to foul here. Somehow, nobody has communicated this to our players, so we let 15 seconds tick off the clock before fouling their best free throw shooter.

MISTAKE 3: Va Tech miraculously misses one of the free throws, leaving us with a chance to tie. But instead of running any kind of set play, we pass the ball to Garrius Adams and expect him to create his own shot.

There are 2 problems with this. Firstly, Haith should have something in his bag of tricks, some kind of set play to give one of our shooters a half decent look at a game-tying 3.

But even if he thought the 1 on 1 thing was our best chance to tie, he picked the wrong guy to do it. Adams is a very good catch and shoot 3 point shooter, but he's not very good off the dribble. It's just not part of his game.

And what's even worse is that UM has 2 guys who are able to consistently get a decent shot off the dribble (Scott and Grant). And these 2 happen to be our 2 top scorers and the emotional leaders of the team.

Bad. Coaching.