Terrible Ted Helps Ruin Saturday

General NCS Basketball27

Forty minutes of basketball later, I still have no idea if Ohio State is better than Georgetown.

I know what the scoreboard says: Ohio State 67, Georgetown 60.

But I don’t know that Ohio State is seven points better, or any better, than Georgetown. Neither do you. Nobody knows, because this game was taken from us by the people who were entrusted with controlling the action but instead reduced both teams — and therefore this national semifinal — to chaos.

The officials killed this Final Four game. Completely killed it.

Today is the day that you will see two things that you don’t normally see on SFN – praise for the Charlotte Observer AND a link to Gregg Dickhead Doyel. Both have managed to successfully call attention to a major problem with this year’s Final Four – officiating.

I was very excited to see the Greg Oden vs Roy Hibbert clash on Saturday. Unfortunately, it never developed because the officials were so keen on letting you know that they were in charge and they weren’t going to have these big men upstaging them!

Don’t you know that the game is their sand box?! Does that sound familiar?

Kudos to the Charlotte Observer – (that’s something that you don’t hear every day) – for point out the following:

Thanks for nothing, first-game referees. The overzealous crew of Ted Valentine, Richard Cartmell and Mike Kitts combined to make sure the Greg Oden-Roy Hibbert battle would barely get off the ground in the first half. They called ticky-tack fouls on both Hibbert and Oden within the first minute. Oden then got his second foul with only 2 minutes, 41 seconds gone and missed the rest of the first half. The second half by both men was very good, but it could have been so much more.

Doyel penned a full piece on the topic that can be found here. The quote that leads this blog entry is the opening to his article. The following quote is something that we ALL do quite often. Interesting that Doyel shared it.

What are the officials’ names? Find them yourself. They disgust me, and typing their names into my computer might just kill my Norton Anti-Vomit program. Although I will say this: When the officials walked onto the floor during pregame warm-ups and I spotted the lead guy, I shuddered. Literally shuddered. Noted the guy’s name on my pad, underlined it twice and next to his name wrote the words, Uh-oh. True story.

I will NEVER understand how in Christ’s name Ted Valentine got the opportunity to work the Final Four!?! If Valentine is the best available, then it is no wonder why collegiate officiating is so poor.

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General NCS Basketball

27 Responses to Terrible Ted Helps Ruin Saturday

  1. Cedarblockhead 04/02/2007 at 7:29 AM #

    That was very dissapointing.
    I love watching good big men go at it, it is such a rare treat in these days. They should have let them play.
    Valentine is truly an idiot.

  2. bigTHEW 04/02/2007 at 7:43 AM #

    I was scratching my head too, on how Valentine even got so much as a consideration to call this game. He truly knows how to ruin a game.

  3. VaWolf82 04/02/2007 at 8:20 AM #

    Is this Ted Valentine?

    http://www.statefansnation.com/images/P1040438_filtered.jpg

  4. Wxwolf 04/02/2007 at 8:45 AM #

    ^Nope

  5. GoldenChain 04/02/2007 at 8:46 AM #

    Supposedly these guys are evaluated and graded after every tourney game they call.

  6. old13 04/02/2007 at 8:54 AM #

    Officiating in NCAA basketball and football (and probably all other sports) has become a major joke in recent years. Sure bad calls have been forever. But it seems to me that more and more that game officials have become so self-important as to neglect the game itself in favor of their own “showing!” But, then, what else do you expect from the NCAA – it’s consistent with the organization’s overall performance – improper or no priorities, no training, $$$$$$$$$$$ drives the wagon! Miles Brand has reduced the organization to a loabbying outfit in his own interest.

  7. noah 04/02/2007 at 9:09 AM #

    So college basketball should be like the NBA? Afterall, that’s the NBA’s approach. People don’t want to watch a free-throw shooting contest. They want to watch stars play basketball. So don’t bother calling fouls.

    If Hibbert and Oden want to stay on the court, they ought to stop moving on screen and stop hacking people.

    The only call I thought was bad was the “Charge” on Oden in the first half. I don’t think he touched the guy.

    And the officiating in the first half of the UNC-Georgetown game was much, much worse.

  8. Wxwolf 04/02/2007 at 9:27 AM #

    I’m not so sure the officiating is any worse now than it was in the past. Its definitely more scrutinized now, and with so much more TV exposure, mistakes are noticed much more now.

  9. Jeff 04/02/2007 at 9:36 AM #

    I can understand noah’s thoughts. I think that you can find a better balance than the refs found on Saturday. Of course, I am hyper-sensitive by the fact that Valentine was the zebra on the court. But, I didn’t create my opinion of Valentine out of thin air.

  10. noah 04/02/2007 at 9:53 AM #

    I don’t like Ted Valentine, but I’m reasonably certain that anything Gregg Doyle says is wrong.

  11. tooyoungtoremember 04/02/2007 at 10:08 AM #

    Poor officiating – uniting basketball fans across the globe since 1891.

  12. VaWolf82 04/02/2007 at 10:12 AM #

    I’m reasonably certain that anything Gregg Doyle says is wrong.

    If he ever says anything that is correct, then I’m sure that he copied it from someone else.

  13. RickJ 04/02/2007 at 10:34 AM #

    VaWolf82 – I think the picture you linked is of Les Jones.

  14. wolfonthehill 04/02/2007 at 12:55 PM #

    “The second half by both men was very good, but it could have been so much more.”

    This is more of the problem than anything else. The only way ^ that happens is if the officials call the 2nd half fundamentally differently than they did the first half. This happens in FAR too many games, and it determines FAR too many outcomes, quite unfairly, I might add.

    The uncch-G’town game is yet another example of this. The first 15 minutes were truly absurd in terms of the foul differential, helping stake the holes to a comfortable lead. In the second half, when the Hoyas attacked with nary a peep from an official, uncch did not know how to respond. They were overwhelmed both by G’town’s defense and by the complete turnaround in the way the game was called. I’m obviously elated that, in that specific example, the bad guys lost, but that doesn’t make the phenomenon an more right.

  15. Cedarblockhead 04/02/2007 at 1:16 PM #

    Ted Valentine is every bit as good a ref as Herb was a coach. And that is saying something.

  16. Dan 04/02/2007 at 1:20 PM #

    First, I must say Ted Valentine sucks regardless of what follows.

    Second, as witnessed by the antics of Duke and UCLA the last couple seasons, the clutching and grabbing on and, primarily, off the ball has to stop. If that means I have to watch UCLA and Ohio State foul out then so be it. This non stop cheating defensive style that has sprouted up is killing the flow of the game.

    Guard your man with athletic ability. Not by hanging on to him and constantly pushing off.

    Its just too bad Ted cant do that on any consistent basis, but they’ve let so much clutching, grabbing, and pushing go on for so long I dont know how they determine what foul to call anymore.

  17. BoKnowsNCS71 04/02/2007 at 1:36 PM #

    It’s not beyond the possibility that a ref could be on the take — keepin the line low or affecting the outcome. Maybe not likely but always possible.

  18. SaccoV 04/02/2007 at 1:40 PM #

    I’m not sure who else remembers but about four years ago, Cliff Crawford was given an intentional foul call at the end of the game in Raleigh versus Josh Howard after someone (Downey maybe?) airballed a three at the end of the shot clock. Howard grabbed the ball, and Crawford grabbed his jersey to keep him from scoring. Crawford got an intentional and the basket counted. Wake went on to win. I’ve personally seen at least five awful instances of guys (at multiple positions on the court) grab another player’s jersey to keep him from going in one direction or in some other way impede his progress with NO CALL whatsoever. Officiating has worsened exponentially over the last three years. Whether it’s Terrible Ted or whoever. Officials are inconsistent at best, flat-out dishonest at worst. One more thing to add, if you remember, Valentine I believe was the referee that Bob Knight brushed by in Indiana when he had made some horrible calls in that game. It’s sickening that referees have become as much a part of coaching and playing the game. No other sport has ever been so damaged.

  19. Pack84 04/02/2007 at 2:20 PM #

    Some of you must see the black helicopters in your sleep. I swear. Wxwolf has it right. Calls have been missed since the beginning of time. But in the 70’s and 80’s you didn’t have super-slo-mo and high def televisions and cameras catching action from 27 different angles.

    Look – some of the zebras suck. No question. And I’d put Valentine in that category. But to say the quality of officiating has declined over the years is laughable. If anything, it’s gotten far better.

  20. sholtzma 04/02/2007 at 2:42 PM #

    I knew Lou Bello when I was a boy. Lou was a ref in the ACC way back when. After he had retired, I asked him why the refereeing was so bad in college basketball. He looked at me and said, “The game is faster now.” And to an extent that is correct. You have players who are capable of doing so much more, at so many more heights, from so many more angles, that the game is more difficult to ref now than then. Not excusing bad refeering in the least, mind you. The game is also much more sophistocated, and coaches and players continue to push the boundary of what’s acceptable. I think Lou was saying that refs now can identify a charge just as well as they did then, but now charges can be much harder to judge for the reasons I stated. Same for palming.

    Of course, adding a third ref was supposed to help matters, and I suppose it has. But I’m not convinced these guys can see what is really going on in a game, at least not consistently. So, they are inconsistent and make poor judgments. Of course, the blatant calls or non-calls are another matter entirely.

  21. highstick 04/02/2007 at 6:06 PM #

    People would go “nuts” if they saw Old Lou ref a game now! While I agree with what he was saying, Lou certainly knew how to make sure “he stayed center of attention” during the game with his acrobatic feats! LOL!

    I honestly hate was has happened to the game too, particularly the grabbling, clutching, pushing off, palming of the ball. Wonder how good some of these guys would really be if they had to play within the rules?

  22. packpigskinfan23 04/02/2007 at 6:52 PM #

    and what about the damn over-the back rule!!!!! who decided to do away with it?!?! I think I saw this called in ONE game out of ALL the games I watched this season. but in the womans game it is called regularly

    congrads to the Lady Vols for taking Carolina out last night!!!

    I think i have a crush on Candace Parker. imagine that… a 5’8″ thinning white man with a beard and a 6’4″ mixed girl that can dunk. What kind of kids would come out of that?!

  23. highstick 04/02/2007 at 7:12 PM #

    Just remember, White 5’8″ men can’t dunk! You might end up with a trash talking 6′ girl with no basketball skills! LOL!

  24. packpigskinfan23 04/02/2007 at 9:09 PM #

    she would have to be a vollyball player at 6 feet!!! maybe soccer?!

    I can always hope for a pointguard though, right?!

    nevermind that… I suck at shooting too. I could probably get a ball in the hoop better with my feet than my hands.

  25. redfred2 04/03/2007 at 10:32 AM #

    It’s the coaches and players who are continually pushing the envelope to see what they can get by with nowadays. But it’s the officiating committee who has let it get out of hand by compromising the standards of organized basketball. They are continually easing the traditional rules of the game season after season, in order to accommodate that “playground” mentality.

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