In case you missed it this week:
Cincinnati’s Mick Cronin — who, himself, is nothing if not pompous — was visibly upset over an out of bounds call the other night, but TV Teddy clearly escalated Cronin’s outrage by lunging into his face. You be the judge.
“I don’t appreciate people getting in my face,” Cronin said of Valentine. “Where I come from, you don’t jump in somebody’s face. He apologized. He thought I was coming at him. I wasn’t. I’ve got nothing but respect for Ted. He’s a great official. I’m glad that he’s in our league because he wasn’t in in the Big East. So we have no excuse. But I don’t see people doing that to Rick Pitino.”
Zac Jackson (Fox Sports Ohio):
I’ve seen enough of Ted Valentine.
To clarify, I’ve seen way too much of Ted Valentine.
And that’s a problem.
…
Valentine doesn’t walk into an arena. He struts. What happens from tip to the final whistle is often done on his own terms, too.
The “look at me” stuff is simply a bad look. Even when it’s not totally over the top it, by now, is simply overdone.
Apparently, Valentine is a top official. He clearly thinks he is, but he’s not the only one. He has been getting big games on big stages for years. He has been doing big NCAA tournament and Final Four games longer than this year’s college basketball players have been alive. He has been doing the big TV games in some of the nation’s best conferences because he’s earned his way.
My issue is that the name “TV Teddy” doesn’t come from his initials. He loves being part of the show, often too big a part.
Enough’s enough. This isn’t about one incident, his long history of highly-viewed arguments — many coaches are hotheads and not exactly camera shy in their own right — or even the way he jumped at Cronin. It’s about too much strutting, too much posturing, too much of making himself a part of the broadcast or the storyline.
It might make for good TV, but it’s way past time for TV Teddy to tone it way, way down.
And then there’s St. Joe’s head coach Phil Martelli, who called out Jamie Luckie by name after the loss to George Washington this week (NBCSports.com):
Phil Martelli, the St. Joseph’s head coach, was not thrilled with the officiating. He was so upset he even called out one referee by name in the postgame press conference.
“We are the third-fewest fouling team in America and they shot 24 fouls shots in the second half,” Martelli said. “He will want his name in the paper. His name is Jamie Luckie: He was the referee.
“Shame on us, we fouled. We gave up 24 foul shots in the second half and I am not sure why we would change in our 29th game, but we did.”
Maybe #NCState fans are right on this one …
— Star-News ACC (@starnewsacc) March 6, 2014
Martelli is right on. Luckie is a bad official who seems to think people come to see him blow his whistle.
— Star-News ACC (@starnewsacc) March 6, 2014
