In Reply to: That team was a really good passing team. posted by ej on August 05, 2025 at 05:59:06
George.
There were a number of times that someone tried to pass the ball to Zidek close to the basket, (Dollar on a wrap-around and either Charles/JR), and he would fail to receive the pass. Like he was a few seconds behind in realizing that someone was passing him the ball and then figuring out where to put his hands to receive the ball. I remember one time he had his hands out, but then his eyes were looking for where the ball went.
During the game, Billy Packer also said that everyone on the UCLA team had great hands, and I would say, "except George."
Interestingly, for the Dollar-Zidek disconnection, I think it was when Dollar just came in for Tyus. When George was unable to catch the pass, Packer said (paraphrase) "(Dollar) needs to realize who he is passing to. Zidek is not fast enough to react to those kind of passes." But then later on, he says everyone for UCLA had great hands. He must have forgotten George's failure earlier.