If the ACC really wants to claim the “Best college basketball in the country†title, they have to fix their officiating. I won’t even go into some of the calls during the game (it’s a bad sign when both coaches are pissed off at the referees). The calls were bad enough, but they had to go to the monitor five times??? FIVE TIMES??? WTF! The referees in the ACC have the remote timing equipment, so I’m pretty sure the clock issues are their fault… This has to be fixed, because it’s a huge black eye to our conference that the officiating is always suspect.
— Comment from an ACC Basketball fan watching the NC State @ Virginia Tech game on Sunday
It took everything that Virginia Tech had…and even MORE than they had for them to find a way to halt NC State’s six game winning streak over the Hokies and hand NC State’s Sidney Lowe his first coaching loss in six overtime games.
When an officiating crew is so incompetent that the game has to be stopped a half dozen times to watch replays you know that you have been given the junior varsity officiating team.
NC State controlled the entire game, never trailing until overtime after taking the lead to break and 8-8 tie. But, that kind of control isn’t enough when horrible officiating can cause a mentally fragile team to crumble.
NC State led by 18 points in the second half. But even that wasn’t enough when bad officiating can create points out of thin air. Literally.
Take for example the EIGHT POINTS that Virginia Tech scored in just 35 seconds that were owed exclusively to amazing incompetent officiating.
From 12:40 to 12:05 – in just 35 seconds – Virginia Tech scored EIGHT POINTS that were ALL the direct result of HORRIBLE officiating that was so bad that even the television announcers were discussing it. (We hope to have video for you later).
First, Courtney Fells was incorrectly called for an intentional foul on a fantastic defensive play (that in the cases of different uniforms may not have been called for a foul at all).
At the time of the foul the television announcers said the following:
Capel: “Give Courtney Fells credit. He blocked the shot. Hank just happened to fall awkwardly and his face hit the baskstop under the basket. That has nothing to do with that Courtney Fells did. That’s just the laws of gravity. You’re up, you must come back down and he just ran into the backstop.
Brant: “There is no question about the face – Fells was going after the ball.”
Capel: “He blocked the shot”
Brant: “There is no question about the foul. But it is not intentional.”
On the following inbounds play that gave Tech the ball because of the intentional foul, the receiver of the inbounds pass took — get ready for this — at least SIX STEPS without dribbing the ball and without being called for a traveling violation. I am not using hyperbole. I am not kidding. If you count the shuffling of feet as twp steps instead of one then you get to seven or eight steps.
Again, this is not a joke. How in the hell can a college official MISS SIX-SEVEN-EIGHT steps with NO dribble?! (Again, we hope to have video later).
Of course, the lack of the travling call benefited the Hokies who proceeded to hit a three point basket just seconds later.
THEN…on NC State’s next possession, the Virginia Tech defender reached through the body of Dennis to Horner to get a ‘steal’ that was followed by an immediate three point basket. This play was critiqued twice by the announcers both live and during an instant replay as an obvious foul. One quote was as follows:
“He better be careful because that right there was more than a foul than anything else he has done today.â€
A few other quick questions for you:
How does Seth Greenberg get T’d up…then call the ref a ‘fucking asshole’ twice (that we can see)…then call the ref that about three or four more times in the 2nd half…get thrown out of the game?
Why do they bother painting a coaching box on Seth Greenberg’s sideline?
How fitting that Jeff Allen hit the crucial shot when everyone watching the game thought he should have fouled out 15 minutes earlier?
How ironic that former Wolfpack recruit Dorenzo Hudson was granted key charging calls by throwing himself to the floor in wild jirations?
A case can be made that it is unfair to blame these kids and this team for “choking” when their play did not merit being in that position and when a competently officiated game would not have put them in that position. Their good play created the 18 point lead; why is it their fault/responsibility to have to deal with an abnormal number of points for their opponent over which their play had no input?
But, make no mistake about it — NC State had bountiful opportunities to still win this game and failed to capitalize (including Dennis Horner and Javi Gonzalez’s four missed free throws in the final seconds of the game). And, there were definitely a lot of things that could have been done differently from the Wolfpack sideline. The following are a smattering of comments from across the internet that have some value to share here.
Seth knew what he was doing, and it worked to his benefit the entire second half.
Fells goes into a shell after the bullshit intentional call. Naturally, Sid can’t get him out of it.
None of this excuses the fact that Lowe mismanaged the hell out of the end of the game, sticking with Javi after he was obviously tired (and thus extremely loose with the ball) and deciding not to play Tracy Smith after an unstoppable first half offensively.
The season is now over. I’m sure the offseason will be even worse, so get ready
Another one…
This is by far the WORST coaching i have ever seen by a NC State in 25 years……
1. Where was Johnny Thomas after his best game last week????? We would have loved to have his hustle, athleticisim, and rebounding.
2. WHY IN THE WORLD does Sid ALWAYS call a time out at then end of the game on the opposite side of the floor so we have to inbounds the ball into full court pressure.
3. After a great begining for Tracey Smith why was re relegated to the bench the last 10 min of the game ESPECIALLY after Costner fouled out.
4. There is no way a player can feel comfortable when he is snatched out of a game all the time ex. javier player about the entire game and mays played few mins. why???
5. Seth Greenburg shows he wants to win, shows his team how important posessions are, and clearly draws up plays to utilize his teams strenghts. Sid should have taken a feather out of seths hat and blown up when fells was called for a intentional foul (7 point swing because of that call alone)
