Flexing Their Muscles

There comes a time when even the seemingly indefensible must be defended. Just ask Bill Belichick.

Him and the spin machine that allows the Patriots to sign the likes Randy Moss, Brandon Meriweather and Corey Dillon, run up the score in a 16-0 season, and have stories like this come out but STILL be know as a high character team have been working overtime making fourth and two from their own 29 look like the right decision. The Boston Globe even took the time to find some mathematician that would say good ol’ Bill made the right call.

Belichick can say whatever he wants. He was wrong. Deep down even he has to know. It’s a chink in the Pats armor I’ve long been waiting to see as a Jets fan.

Sometimes though, the argument isn’t quite so cut and dry. Take Boston College basketball. For over the past decade that’s meant Al Skinner. It’s meant stoic sideline demeanor. It’s meant season opening suspensions. It’s meant suits from Eastern Clothing. And most importantly, it has meant the flex offense.

When Jared Dudley and Craig Smith were working the tight cuts, down screens and baseline motion to perfection, it was a sight to behold.

The last two seasons have been a little more barren in terms of the production. Tyrese Rice could put the ball in the hoop with the best of them, but knuckling down and grinding down 34 seconds on the shot-clock so that a big man can come from block-to-block for a wide open lay-up? That wasn’t Ty.Well not really, it still looks the same but hey, it put the ball in the basket and that’s really what matters.

It’s not a knock on Rice. He was the best player on a young team, the unquestioned leader. Skinner had to change things up for his star. With that, the flex took its lumps. Honestly, who can blame the critics? Which is more fun to watch, a succession of crisp back cuts, or Rice draining two three-pointers from roughly a quarter-mile a way before jawing at the courtside cameraman? Yeah, I thought so.

With nothing changing for BC besides Rice not having the ball, this could be the team to bring back the heyday of the flex for Skinner.

Biko Paris is no Tyrese, but that might be a good thing. Paris’ role has been the media talking point of the late offseason, so I’ll spare you that, but he’s a distributor who can handle the ball and settle the offense down.

You have Paris at the point and Josh Southern, well do what he does to the tune of 7 and 6, but that’s not where the flex is made. It’s made with the ability to create mismatches.

With the two through four spots, that’s what the Eagles have. The number of 6-foot-5, 230-pound shooting guards, even in the ACC? Minimal. But that’s what BC has in Rakim Sanders. With the ball being worked down low so much in the flex, Sander’s ability to body people down low is so important to the offense. Since most guards will need help, Sanders can look to kick and that’s where having a big man like Joe Trapani stretching the floor comes in handy. While his man goes into the post to help with Sanders, Trapani can leak and suddenly, the flex offense can look just a little pretty.

Throw in the pure rebounding instinct of Corey Raji being kept close to the hoop by the tightness of Skinner’s flex and suddenly, hey, this jut might work.

When you think about it like that, the flex doesn’t sound so bad does it? I guess all Belichick needed was two. And all Skinner needed was the right players.