UNC finished the game with 21 attempts from the free-throw line (hitting 15), while VT finished 8 of 11. It’s not like VT took a ton of 3s and the totals were skewed by shot selection. UNC and VT each took 19 3s.
And don’t confuse me here, I’m not saying UNC won because of the officials. Hansbrough was great — actually it was one of his five best games — but the selective enforcement of the contact did affect Tech.
Vassallo’s second foul, about 22 feet from the basket on a touch foul defending Bobby Frasor, was questionable at best. Vassallo had to sit out the final 8:19 of the first half after that foul. That’s a long chunk of the game to go without your best player, especially on a team that’s a three-man show.
-
Maryland is trying to make a play to lay claim to a 7th NCAA Tournament bid for the ACC tonight in a battle with Wake Forest. Joe Lunardi currently has the Terps as one of the first five teams not included in the Tournament.
-
In NC State’s game against Maryland on Friday night, ESPN’s Jimmy Dykes definitively proclaimed (multiple times) that Maryland had to advance to the ACC Tournament Finals to earn an NCAA Tournament bid. I don’t have a clue how he can make such a statement so definitively.
-
Poor Virginia Tech. I truly think that many VPI, Miami & BC fans have been brainwashed into thinking that Duke is the preferred love child of ACC Officials. Not by a long shot, Hokies.
-
The Charlotte Observer/News & Observer couldn’t be happier of themselves for taking these photos which (I think) they think indicate that Tyler Hansbrough didn’t foul Virginia Tech on the controversial jump ball at the end of today’s game?
-
Am I the only person who recognizes in picture one that Hansbrough is reaching all the way across JT Thompson’s body and his left arm clearly rests on top of Thompsons arm?
-
It sure would be nice to see a “frame by frame†from under the basket from the same angle that the television replay shows Hansbrough’s right hand was clearly planted in the back of Virginia Tech’s JT Thompson. You can see it in the replay here. In real time, it appears that a case could be made that Hansbrough grabs Thompson’s jersey to help keep Thompson near. Kind of like Bobby Frasor’’s hand and arm that is planted in Thompson’s back at the beginning of the play as evidenced in the first couple of pictures.
-
Honest to God, Carolina fans are SO accustomed to watching their team create contact defensively and hand-check that they can’t fathom how pressing your free hand against a player with the ball for five seconds could be viewed as a foul.
-
Here’s a fair question to ask yourself – is there anyone on the planet earth that thinks if Friday’s situation had been reversed and Hansbrough had been taking the shot that it would not have been called a foul instead of a jump ball? Anyone? You know…the man who holds the all-time record for free throw attempts? Of course not. That, my friend, is the ACC’s problem.
Carolina’s defense – and Tyler Hansbrough, in particular – is just ‘amazing’. They played 19 minutes of the second half while only ‘committing’ four fouls.
Want to see something AMAZING? Take a look at last month’s entry at 850TheBuzz prompted by the whining of Carolina fans that Tyler Hansbrough was being mistreated by ACC Officials. I’m not kidding. You can’t make this stuff up. If you are not from around here, perhaps you can try to understand how miserable it is to have to live with these people – Hansbrough was leading the nation in free throw attempts when the Tarheel fans were whining about him not getting to the free throw line enough.
ACC Sports Journal has a great piece about Seth Greenberg’s press conference performance that you can read here.
Here’s Greenberg on the 20 to 14 foul disparity, which you could argue was a bit wider given that UNC actually committed two deliberate fouls on the Hokies last possession because the Tar Heels still had fouls to give.
“I guess we foul and they don’t,†he said, with maximum sarcasm in his voice.
On UNC’s 19 offensive rebounds, many of which came at critical points in the game:
“We thought we were doing a good job boxing out. I guess we weren’t boxing out well enough because they just kept jumping and getting the rebounds.â€
On Hansbrough’s five offensive rebounds:
“Obviousy he’s taller, so he just jumped over us and got the rebounds.â€
Those were a thinly veiled shots at the referees for failing, in Greenberg’s eyes, to call UNC for coming over the back of the Hokies on multiple occasions.
Here’s Greenberg’s take on the key call, when Tyler Hansbrough managed to tie up J.T. Thompson, giving UNC the ball with 5.2 seconds remaining and the Tar Heels clinging to a one-point lead:
“What I saw doesn’t count, so it makes no difference. The only people that count were the guys wearing striped shirts. What they saw is what happened.â€
You really had to be there to fully appreciate Greenberg, though. Each answer was delivered in a deadpan, monotone style, with his eyes boring a hole in the podium in front of him.
You must be logged in to post a comment.