Charles Barkley on Sunday added insult to injury against a Grand Canyon team that had just had its NCAA Tournament dreams dashed.
No. 12 Grand Canyon lost their second-round matchup 72-61 against No. 4 Alabama at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena in Spokane, Wash.
Alabama held on to a 62-61 lead with 4:05 left in the contest. Grand Canyon went completely scoreless the rest of the way. The Lopes went 0 of 4 with two turnovers and resorted to hero ball down the stretch. The Crimson Tide outscored them 10-0 to close out the contest.
Barkley slammed Grand Canyon during the March Madness postgame show for their team’s befuddling offensive strategy.
“Grand Canyon, that was the dumbest game of basketball I may have ever seen,” said Barkley. “Everybody went 1-on-1. … I’m not sure what they were doing offensively. I don’t think they ran a play the entire second half. … That was some of the dumbest basketball I’ve ever seen from grown college men.”
"Grand Canyon, that was the dumbest game of basketball I think I may have ever seen… I don't think they ran a play the entire 2nd half…. They just went 1-on-1 every single time… 5 whole assists? We've got a crack staff if they found 5 passes." – Charles Barkley pic.twitter.com/G35tPIaxeD
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 25, 2024
Grand Canyon finished with just five assists on 18 made field goals. The lack of ball movement couldn’t have helped the Lopes’ three-point shooting. The team made just two triples out of its 20 tries.
Tyon Grant-Foster was the team’s leading scorer with 29 points on 9-of-22 shooting. Despite the decent scoring output from Grant-Foster, his goose egg in the assist department with five turnovers department behooves Barkley’s point.
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