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For the last time, I am dealing not in what if, but what was. You want to gainsay the team’s performance? Have at it. There are 10 turnovers. There are God knows how many missed shots. Every Syracuse offensive rebound is one that we should have grabbed. Jesus Christ, you’re arguing a theoretical perfect trajectory of a pass to TJ Warren when the one he received was legitimately good enough to salt away the victory. If that’s the standard, then nothing will be good enough.
North Carolina State objectively won this game.
North Carolina State earned the victory in this game.
The circumstances leading to its defeat were wholly engineered by an officiating group that decided, for whatever reasons, to make the absolute worst call at the most critical hour. This is not some voice in the wilderness opinion. Impartial observers who were present cringed at Mike Young’s call and knew its consequences.
North Carolina State was forced into a repeating series of circumstances in which it would have to re-prove the victory it had earned. This is the hallmark of the atrocious officiating of the Atlantic Coast Conference. No, you goddamn moron, it’s not some Watergate conspiracy complete with bank transfers and Oval Office recordings. It does not have to be. It’s a culture in which rulings in favor of powerful teams on their home court (and Greensboro counts as a home court for North Carolina) are honored and the norm.
Today Nebraska, an absolute nothing in the Big Ten, went into East Lansing and emerged with a win against the highest ranked team in that league. Ask yourself the last time that was allowed to happen in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Again, nothing you describe justifies the selectively enforced conclusion of the game. Yes, if State attacked the zone more and shot brilliantly from the free-throw line, and could somehow blend those two threads of the space-time continuum with the one in which State led 55-54 and had possession, then we’d be talking about 6 or an 8 point victory. The fact remains N.C. State led 55 to 54. TJ Warren took a lob pass and broke unmolested to the goal. TJ Warren was fouled, deliberately, to be prevented from scoring. TJ Warren scored instead but the basket was waved off because Mike Stuart decided to call that foul on the floor and not in the act of shooting. That forced N.C. State to make numerous extra plays to re-certify the victory it had already earned—inbound the ball, maintain possession, hit two additional free throws for a three point lead in lieu of one for a four-point advantage, and then defend a game-tying try from Syracuse. The fair officiating of the foul on TJ Warren would have nullified every disadvantage handed to the Wolfpack in the final possession.
”All that a side I have to say one FACT that could have been the game changer long before the screw jobs. Even with the ref bias and lack of fouls we did NOT hit our Free throws.”
This is completely irrelevant. N.C. State was in a position to win this game despite every missed shot—-free throw or otherwise—-before Mike Stuart destroyed the game by choosing the strictest and most subjective call on the foul of TJ Warren at the time he did. That forced N.C. State to put the ball back in play, forced the potential for a turnover with a single basket capable of taking the lead, denied the Wolfpack a three or potentially four point advantage going into Syracuse’s final possession with the clock turned off.
The sins, shortcomings or failures of the team up to the point Cooney fouled Warren are utterly and 100 percent meaningless. State was in a position to win, passively, despite all of that. This game was determined by the play following it and the play following it was dictated by the circumstances set in motion by Mike Stuart’s absolutely horrible ruling.
We can woulda-shoulda the whole god damn season preceding this. Maybe not losing to NC Central would have had some effect on it, like Saturn’s mass has a still measurable effect on Earth’s orbit. I deal in the most direct and proximate cause for the outcome: The officiating and the officiating alone cost North Carolina State University this game, a victory against an undefeated number one ranked team on its home court.
What makes it worse is the current supervisor is the father of our career leader in home runs. I suppose we’re just getting coach’s-kid style tough love from Greensboro.
I can only hope that Debbie and the university administration is waiting to see how the litigation with Maryland plays out before making a move.
Plainly, exit fees and penalties are meaningless. They could be a dollar and there still would be a lawsuit and a negotiated result. Whatever it costs to leave the Atlantic Coast Conference, I am in favor of paying it. I am certain the Wolfpack Club would help to defray it.
Love coming in here and reading the Vichy Pack going out of its way to nobly exonerate the officiating. Like anyone else in the league is going to give us credit for that.
Basketball is an inherently subjectively officiated sport, on the level of international soccer. The game is undeniably influenced by the calls the officials choose to make, when they choose to make them. Teams respond to the discrete situations they create. It is absolute garbage to talk about the preceding free throws N.C. State did not make when it was in a position to legitimately win despite them. It is completely dishonest to expect the Wolfpack to shoulder the entire blame for the turnover leading to Fair’s basket when they never should have been in a situation requiring that kind of an inbounds play.
This is a league unwilling to address an obvious lack of faith in or respect for its officiating; the status quo preserves an environment where the valuable television inventory—ranked teams, with very forceful, headstrong coaches and athletics departments willing to harangue the league offices on their behalf—are favored by a subjective process. It is not sour grapes for an NC State fan, after seeing his team’s tremendous accomplishment destroyed, to call that by its proper name: Unfair.
