March 25th, 2007
I want to get this in before Matus starts his campaign of disinformation:
For the record: I had Georgetown last night. I have them all the way into the championship game. So I had a vested interest in them beating Vanderbilt. Further, I like Georgetown. I grew up loving the team and school. They produced The Answer. As Marv Wolfman used to say, ’nuff said.
But last night’s win was a travesty. With 2.5 seconds on the clock and Georgetown down a penny, Jeff Green walked. This isn’t a judgment call. It’s not calling a foul, where the ref uses discretion. Green planted his pivot foot, he did a number of jab steps with this other foot. Then he planted the free foot, and started jabbing with the foot that was the initial pivot. Referees not calling that walk is like giving a football team a fifth down. It’s an affront to the very foundation of the game.
But what’s really, really disgusting is the coverage in today’s Washington Post. The paper ran three stories on the G’Town/Vandy game and only one of them hinted at the call which handed the game to Georgetown. Here, then, is the Post‘s full account:
There were cries that Green had not reestablished his pivot foot, and therefore traveled. But basketball minds much wiser than us surmised you can’t make a call like that to end a taut thriller.
What an embarrassment. I’m not saying the Hoyas should resign from the tournament or play UNC wearing hairshirts, but they should be ashamed of themselves for carrying after the game like they’d won the Super Bowl, instead of having it handed to them unfairly. And the Post should be ashamed of whitewashing the worst call of the tournament. A black-and-white, no judgment required rule call, which changed the outcome of a game.
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