I agree totally. Heck, under pressure, I've played that 8 ball shot with left hand stun and come 2 rails out of the other corner. You REALLY have to pound that one, but it's easier to pocket the ball, and it lets your stroke all the way out. It's easier to dog it playing the high inside english shot
Observations on Van Boening vs Shaw Match 14 Mosconi Cup
- Thread starter ChrisinNC
- Start date
I agree totally. Heck, under pressure, I've played that 8 ball shot with left hand stun and come 2 rails out of the other corner. You REALLY have to pound that one, but it's easier to pocket the ball, and it lets your stroke all the way out. It's easier to dog it playing the high inside english shot
We're talking about a player who has 5 US Open 9-ball titles. Hard to fathom that these 4-1/4" pockets, and/or the Mosconi Cup pressure (and the fact that we were already trailing 9-4) would get to him mentally the way it apparently did. Many top pro players practice on tables with pockets even tighter than these.
There is a better way to play shots like these (the five ball draw and the eight ball follow). A player like Shaw (or Efren) would get position just by stroking through the ball with extreme English and not hitting the cue ball nearly as hard. Efren never had to hit the ball hard to get around the table. He let his stroke do the work for him. Jayson has that same ability to move the cue ball without pounding it. I think you all understand what I'm saying here.
Shane has the stroke to do this too and why he chose to pound both balls so hard is beyond me. I was and still am mystified how he lost that match. I sat right there and watched him blow up in front of my eyes. You can almost sense it in his body language that he is not comfortable in this setting. For whatever reason the MC does not agree with him.
Why this event affects some players the way it does makes it unique for me as an observer and commentator. I've been seeing strange things happen at the MC for over ten years now. You would think that with such an easy (?) game like 9-Ball with no break rules and the one on the spot most games would be over quickly and the racks would look routine. But that has not been the case in the MC.
All kinds of crazy things happen here, both on the table and in the player's heads. Look at what happened to the previously red hot Skylar Woodward. He went brain dead set after set and looked like a total amateur. He will probably revert to form and play well in this week's U.S. Bar Table Championships. I suspect he will have trouble in the MC for years to come. Once bitten by the MC jinx, players tend to not perform well in future appearances. Mike Dechaine improved as a player every year, but in the MC he could never get untracked.
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No he didn't. I looked at it again. If he hits the other side of the pocket he scratches. Center to a little Right he misses the pocket. He avoided the pocket because of the pace and extra angle (he lands 1.5 Diamonds from the side). A couple more inches and he could comfortably float up the table for shape and we have no drama.
Like you said, if he center pockets the 5 ball he would have drawn the CB back past the side pocket, so there was no reason for him to cheat the pocket on the right side. I'm guessing his "cheating the pocket" that caused the miss was more of a subconscious thing as opposed to something he planned to do, likely caused by the pressure of the situation. Shane knows you can't risk cheating the pocket with 4-1/4" corners when the OB is near the spot, 2-1/2 feet from the corner pocket.
Well golly...........
Shane missed, oh well, every one misses and it is not the first time Shaw got lucky and won a big game when his opponent missed an easy shot.
Shane is a world class top tier pool player both on and off of the table and has been his whole professional career. He has accomplished amazing things in pool and that will probably continue as he has all of the "right stuff" to give him a long and very successful career.
Shaw has made AZ head lines for less then exemplary behavior on more then one occasion and time will tell if he will have a long and successful career. One thing for sure is he is not in the same class as Shane or Soquet and many other Europeans when it comes to professional sportsmanship and behavior on and off of the table.
If Shaw had a problem with Hatch he could have talked to Hatch about the issue in private. But, we all know why he would not want to do that. He could have walked over and shook Shane's hand and then celebrated.
I am old school and admire successful professionals that act humble in victory and gracious to their opponents. The good ones act the same way, win or loose. That is what separates Shane and Shaw. It is a character thing and some will never have good character. Shane has good character.
Shane missed, oh well, every one misses and it is not the first time Shaw got lucky and won a big game when his opponent missed an easy shot.
Shane is a world class top tier pool player both on and off of the table and has been his whole professional career. He has accomplished amazing things in pool and that will probably continue as he has all of the "right stuff" to give him a long and very successful career.
Shaw has made AZ head lines for less then exemplary behavior on more then one occasion and time will tell if he will have a long and successful career. One thing for sure is he is not in the same class as Shane or Soquet and many other Europeans when it comes to professional sportsmanship and behavior on and off of the table.
If Shaw had a problem with Hatch he could have talked to Hatch about the issue in private. But, we all know why he would not want to do that. He could have walked over and shook Shane's hand and then celebrated.
I am old school and admire successful professionals that act humble in victory and gracious to their opponents. The good ones act the same way, win or loose. That is what separates Shane and Shaw. It is a character thing and some will never have good character. Shane has good character.
You nailed it right on the head - You either have class or you don't, and it's not related to your pool skills.
Shaw completely deserved to win.
Shane couldn't close. That's his problem, not Shaw's.
Saw that... not sure what that was about.
Sorry to say,but it appeared to me SVB dumped the match.
Missing that 5-ball was bad enough, but to miss a straight in 8- ball that an APA-3 can make is inexcusable for a PRO.
Bet in the back of his mind was world 9-ball in a few days and I am here L O S I N G again with "The Team" He loses ; Euros go 10-4 and it will end in a few hours.
Coincidentally, I felt Hatch did the same thing in his match with Filler. Hatch shot strong, then had a blatant miss. Filler missed twice and Hatch should have buried him. I have seen him play personally, and he's a steamroller when he gets gear. Hatch had that,.... then (suddenly) lost it ??
I felt sorry for the fans who attended and had to see that. Team USA needs a little heart to dig in and grind it out. I know I will get flak for this but its my opinion how it felt (to me)