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Mike Miller

Mike Miller has been msnbc.com's college basketball editor since 2003. It's a position he relishes; no wonder considering he transferred to Kansas to watch Paul Pierce play. Most of his favorite sports memories involve college hoops, usually during March, when every waking moment is spent thinking about March Madness.



Bad calls=bogus endings for everyone

Posted: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 11:06 AM
Filed Under: ,

Call it a gift for Georgetown, call it a horrendous call for Villanova or just call it part of the game, all three would be correct.

A “nudge” from Villanova’s Corey Stokes sent Georgetown’s Jonathan Wallace – who was 70 feet from the basket – to the free-throw with less than a second to play and effectively gave the Hoyas a 55-53 win on Monday.

Make the call? Don’t make the call? Watch for yourself and judge.

Dan Steinberg (who thinks the ref should’ve swallowed his whistle) made the morning rounds on this one the DC Sports Bog. Click here for more.

(Though I will point out two links Steinberg finds: King Kaufman says it was a foul that’s never called at any point in the game, which is overstates it. Stokes clearly blocks Wallace and it would normally be a foul. The issue is that it gave Wallace a real chance to make a shot by sending him to the free-throw line whereas the odds of making a 70-foot heave are remote. Just give the teams a chance to settle it all in overtime. That’s why this post from Soft Pretzel Logic makes sense – the game was poorly officiated throughout, which gives that ending nice symmetry.)

Oddly enough, it ended right when another key matchup was decided by a little more than the players when No. 1 Tennessee beat No. 5 Rutgers.

From the AP: Trailing 58-57, [Nicky] Anosike grabbed an offensive rebound and was grabbed by Kia Vaughn from behind. Unclear whether the foul had come before time expired, the Rutgers bench began to celebrate, but officials reviewed the play and determined that the foul had been committed just before the buzzer.

Television replays showed the game clock seemed to pause as Anosike came down with the ball and two-tenths remained on the clock, leading to the controversial finish.

The game, which was a rematch of last year’s national title matchup, left Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer baffled.

"This should not be tolerated," she told ESPN.com. "We have a question mark behind this game."

It was the second time this season Rutgers has lost a game on a controversial call. Stanford’s Candace Wiggins made two-free throws with .1 second remaining after a foul 80 feet from the basket.

Part of the game? Sure. But it doesn’t have to be a part we like. (For that matter, it’s one of the parts Bob Knight won’t miss. Can’t say I blame him.)

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Comments

Maybe coaches should instruct their players not to lunge toward offensive players when there's only a second on the game clock.  The refs are in an impossible situation here.  If they don't call any foul that comes with a few seconds left on the clock, it's only a matter of time before coaches are telling their players to mug the other team to ensure they don't score.

As for Bobby Knight, it's remarkable how everyone around him manages not to be as perfect as he is.  Maybe he should volunteer his services as a referee now that he has some free time.

kj (spartans weblog) (Sent Tuesday, February 12, 2008 2:30 PM)

There seems to be more contact on the drive to the basket and they swallowed their whistles on that. That was the biggest homer I've ever seen. This guy should go back to CYO

Joe, New Hampshire (Sent Tuesday, February 12, 2008 6:12 PM)

On a touch foul like that the official should have swallowed his whistle. If he got mugged then youy make the call. An experienced official at that level would know that. This guy either just blew it or is a G/town homer that should not be allowed to do Big East games again.  Let the players decide the game, not the officials. Tha BS call decided the game.

Pete, NH (Sent Tuesday, February 12, 2008 6:56 PM)

If the ref did not call the foul against Villanova, he would have had to call the player with the ball out of bounds. That would have been an even worse call than the one he made. It then would have given Villanova a chance to make the last-second shot. In the Rutgers game, I believe it was also the right call and anyone who says otherwise has never been an official.

Richard Jones, Bethlehem, PA (Sent Wednesday, February 13, 2008 11:04 AM)

The Hoyas are a bunch of cry babies.

BR, DC (Sent Wednesday, February 13, 2008 1:53 PM)

Rutgers; She shouldn't have fouled her
Georgetown:  The Ref had to make a call because the player was being forced out of bounds.

When I was playing ball I specifically remeber my coach in situations like above telling (screaming) don't foul

Greg P. Dayton, OH (Sent Wednesday, February 13, 2008 2:13 PM)

Rich is absolutely correct.  If the Goergetown guy doesn't step out of bounds (clearly visible on replay), the call never gets made.  When he goes out, now the official HAS to make some kind of a call...either Georgetown out of bounds or foul on Vill.  Because the Vill guy did bump him, he had to call the foul.

Ed, OP, KS (Sent Wednesday, February 13, 2008 3:22 PM)

Dick Jones wrote:
"If the ref did not call the foul against Villanova, he would have had to call the player with the ball out of bounds."

Actually, no, he wouldn't have had to.  He could have let time run completely out.  It's not even clear that the player did step out of bounds, so that would have been a good no-call, too.

It's really this simple:  Swallow the whistle and all you have done is maybe allowed some maybe contact that could have hindered the chance to throw up an 80 foot shot -- in other words, swallowing the whistle would have had absolutely no impact on the outcome of hte game.  Blow the whistle and what you have done is allowed a team two free throws with absolutely no opportunity for the other team to do anything -- in other words, blowing the whistle had a very real impact on the coutcome of the game.

As an official, the last thing you want to do is be a specific and direct factor in the outcome of the game, especially on a questionable and discretionary call.  That's one of the first rules that officials are taught at official school, for crying out loud.

Kierkegaard, Omaha, Nebraska (Sent Wednesday, February 13, 2008 3:45 PM)

Problem w/ the video:
 If they didn't call the blocking foul, it was going to be a turnover, and then an easy shot for Villanova.
Answer:
 They should institute a new rule, something like....
 If a player with possession of the ball is fouled in the back half of the court with less than 10 seconds remaining, the "1and1, or double bonus is suspended, and the team with the ball gets to inbound from any new location they want in the frontcourt.  
 This would deter a team from committing a random foul to stop a fast break, but would also not QUITE as harshly penalize a team for making a careless foul in a tied or really close ballgame.  
 Still, if you want to win, you should NOT FOUL at all.  

Owen (Sent Wednesday, February 13, 2008 4:00 PM)

Rutgers-Tennessee:  don't get caught up in the foul, since someone who won't admit it paused the clock for 1.3 seconds before that happened.  Referees failed to even look at it during their review.  Since time was out, there could be no foul.  Rutgers got hosed.

Steve, Tulsa (Sent Wednesday, February 13, 2008 10:25 PM)

The criticism should be on the Villanova player for committing such a boneheaded foul, not on the referree for blowing the whistle on an obvious foul.  It was a boneheaded player mistake - pure and simple.

Bob, Madison, AL (Sent Thursday, February 14, 2008 12:36 PM)

I've been an official and it has never been my policy not to call a clear foul or violation regardless of the score or the time in the game.  If it was a foul at 2 minutes in, it's a foul with less than 2 seconds to play.  Swallowing the whistle in the face of a foul or violation is not the proper thing to do because you still end up penalizing one side or the other, and that also can impact the outcome of a game.

If you don't do it that way, then you get play that is too rough and you lose the spirit of the game.  Call the contact and the violations consistently and the kids will adjust to it or foul out.  

The G'town kid either stepped out of bounds on his own or got pushed out by the Nova kid.  The ref has to call one or the other and he chose the foul.  That's rough for Nova, but it would have been just as rough for G'town if the call went the other way.


Travis (Sent Thursday, February 14, 2008 11:54 PM)



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