Jesus. Right before one of our ‘defining’ games for the season.
Obviously, Smith should have just called the refs a bunch of GD MutherF’ers right on the court during the game so that he could be afforded the same flexibility that Coach K and Gary Williams receive on a nightly basis.
RALEIGH, N.C. – NC State men’s basketball coach Sidney Lowe has announced that junior Tracy Smith has been suspended for the Wolfpack’s game at Arizona for violating the ACC policy regarding commenting on officials.
Smith, who made the comments last night following the loss at Wake Forest, will continue to practice and travel with the team to Arizona, but will not compete.
“I was caught up in the heat of the moment, but should not of made the comments I did,” said Smith. “I want to apologize to my coaches, my teammates, and last night’s officials for this situation.”
To listen to Smith’s post game comments, click on the link.
NC State was called for 25 fouls last night compared to 17 for Wake Forest.
Link to the N&O, which clarifies that this decision was made by Coach Lowe, not the ACC.
The ACC confirmed Monday that it was N.C. State’s decision to suspend Smith, not a league-imposed penalty. Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe declined to comment on Monday.
Folks, that is all semantics. The ACC should have also taken the time to confirm that they would have imposed the penalty if NC State had not imposed it. The N&O has also linked the audio of Smith’s comment in their entry.
“Foul trouble limited Smith, State’s leading scorer and rebounder, to 9 minutes in the first half. He picked up his second foul with 8:27 left and sat the remainder of the half. He then fouled out with 5:28 left in the game, which State lost 67-59. Smith finished with 11 points and a team-best 10 rebounds but wasn’t happy with the way the game was called.”
You will note that many of the educated members of our community made comments about those ‘bad feelings’ that happened upon noticing Karl Hess’ presence at the beginning the game. They weren’t alone as things weren’t so rosy in my living room either when I saw Hess.
FWIW, you will find this recent entry at Rush the Court fantastically timely and details Sean McDonough (and Jay Bilas’) recent ripping of Hess.
Karl Hess, he was involved in the 54-foul game the other night, and he’s one of these officials, unfortunately, who always finds a way, it seems, to be at the center of the action. You don’t come here to watch him officiate, but more often than not, he finds himself at the center of attention.
There is A LOT more there that you should check out. What McDonough fails to recognize is that he just described almost every ‘lead’ official in the Atlantic Coast Conference while also crystallizing why our league’s institutions have fared so (relatively) poorly in the NCAA Tournament over the last few years.
This is also being discussed on the SFN forums by clicking here.
