First-year Cavs head coach John Beilein is frustrated with the amount of travelling calls that were levied against his team in Wednesday night’s 116-104 loss to the Orlando Magic, according to a report from Chris Fedor of cleveland.com.
The Cavs dug themselves into a hole early in Wednesday night’s matchup, committing seven turnovers in the first quarter. Things got worse from there, as Cleveland went on to rack up a season-high 25 turnovers by the end of the game. Darius Garland had eight on his own, which were a season-high for him.
Several of these turnovers were related to travelling calls, with most focusing on players not initiating their pivot foot properly after receiving a pass. While some of the calls were just, others were a bit questionable.
“It’s like holding in the NFL, they could call it every time,” Beilein said following Wednesday’s loss, via cleveland.com. “But should they? Would that be good for the game?”
Beilein is one of the most successful coaches in NCAA history. He’s an advocate for ball security and smart offense. The amount of traveling calls rubbed him the wrong way.
“The walk is the most frustrating thing,” Beilein said. “It’s not even a judgment thing, it’s a thing you’ve been doing for years and now you can’t do it anymore and that’s what really gets me frustrated.”
Beilein says he’s going to take a closer look at each of the traveling calls from Wednesday night’s game:
“I am going to look at every one, I am going to slow it down because sometimes the guy moves his foot ‘that much’ and they’re calling it a walk. And that’s really not fair. It’s like every time a guy touches him it’s got to be a foul. It’s not fair. So we have to continue to work at it and get aligned with the officials and get on the same page there. I’m sure they will do a great job with it.”
The season is still young, and Beilein is hoping to nip this issue in the bud:
“I have already told our development guys, that’s priority number one,” Beilein said, via cleveland.com. “Every day before practice, catching it on two and using one primary pivot foot, slowing down and cleaning that stuff up. With the opportunities that we have in practice, get back to training camp mode on fundamentals again.”
The Cavs will be back in action on Friday night, when they’ll serve as hosts to the Milwaukee Bucks. Tip-off inside Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse is set for 7:30 p.m. ET.
