GW Fans Wear Silly Hats.
By: J Felt
It will forever rank as one of the most dissappointing moments in Niner history. Up two with 5.7 seconds left on the clock in overtime, it appeared that DeAngelo Alexander was fouled while in possession of the ball, Charlotte was mere moments away from icing a victory over #6 George Washington, at George Washington, on Senior Night, against a team undefeated in conference, and a squad that held the best record in the NCAA. And then there was the confusion. Leemire Goldwire and Mike Hall were entangled at the top of the paint and Bobby Lutz was rushing onto the floor to pull Lee away. For five minutes the Niner faithful waited anxiously for what just happened to be explained.
Slowly, as ESPN replayed the event over and over again, it became evident.
As DeAngelo brought the ball down for a rebound, he was fouled by one of GW's players. ESPN states "Mike Hall fouled Alexander, and suddenly Goldwire and Hall were
face-to-face with officials intervening and coach Bobby Lutz
running onto the court." but replays show something different. Here is a screen shot of the technical foul in question from ESPNMotion:
Sorry for the lack in quality, but the evidence is still clear. With the red arrow, we see DA pulling the ball down and being fouled by one of GW's players. The yellow arrow is pointing towards the tussle between Goldwire and Hall. There is no possible way that Hall was in two places at one time.
It appeared initially that the whistle blown was the touch foul on the defender guarding Alexander, but after a lengthy video review, the call was announced as a techincal on Leemire and a foul on Mike Hall. DeAngelo would shoot two free throws and then Hall would be awarded the same opportunity along with possession following the foul shots. Per the NCAA rule change concerning technical fouls, regardless of whom the technical was whistled on, the team with possession prior to the tech would receive the ball following the free throws. Clearly, DeAngelo has the ball when the T is called, so why does George Washington get the ball back?
The video review is what really peeves most of us Niner faithful. Fran Connolly, the lead official claims to have called a technical before going to the video review. His reasoning for this is that he wanted "to make sure
there wasn't a punch thrown." and "We should go to the monitor to make sure there's not a
combative action that someone should be thrown out for." Here's the catch though, the supposed "dead ball" technical had gone completely unnoticed! Even the George Washington fans had no idea what the call was, all one has to do is watch the replay to hear the crowd, during the video review, loudly calling for a technical to be called. Since when do technicals ever go unnoticed by College Basketball fans?
And yet, we Niners still have one more legitimate complaint.
Leemire did not act like a "knucklehead" (Pat Forde), but rather was reacting to his jersey being pulled, not once, but twice, by Mike Hall. One could even see in the replays that Hall even gave Goldwire a cheap shot before receiving the second elbow. At the very least this was a double technical foul, with both Lee and Hall being allowed to shoot, in addition to the touch foul on DA, giving Charlotte two more additional free throws and possession.
What happened next will remain in our minds always. DA missed one free throw, Rice made both, and then a airball three pointer was tipped in by Carl Elliot. The George Washington fans rushed the court, the Charlotte fans watching the game elsewhere fell silent. The one big victory of the year had slipped past their fingertips at the last second.
Other than this meltdown at the end, the officiating in this game was probably the best this author has seen, but this sad excuse for refereeing should not go unnoticed. Judy Rose has a legitimate complaint about the way the game ended and should voice her concerns.
Regardless of this, Charlotte should have won the game. We missed key free throws at the end (including Alexander's second), and failed to box out and grab key rebounds. The technical would never have been called if Leemire had not missed the front end of a one and one near the end of regulation, and if DeAngelo had made his second free throw, there would have been yet another overtime. Instead, the Niner players, coaches, and fans spent all afternoon Saturday perplexed and shocked by what had happened. Nothing hurts worse than losing at the buzzer. Then again, nothing feels better than winning at the buzzer as well (see: Cincinatti at Halton, or Charlotte at Indianda last season).
Today though, the sun is still shining and the Niners will move on.
There's a few positives though, we know we can beat GW now, GW (and every other A10 team) knows we can beat GW, and our guys (especially Leemire) now have the impetus they need to take the A10 tournament.
We can go into Thursday still down about the loss, or fired up to prove how good we are.
At least our fans do not wear stupid hats.
It will forever rank as one of the most dissappointing moments in Niner history. Up two with 5.7 seconds left on the clock in overtime, it appeared that DeAngelo Alexander was fouled while in possession of the ball, Charlotte was mere moments away from icing a victory over #6 George Washington, at George Washington, on Senior Night, against a team undefeated in conference, and a squad that held the best record in the NCAA. And then there was the confusion. Leemire Goldwire and Mike Hall were entangled at the top of the paint and Bobby Lutz was rushing onto the floor to pull Lee away. For five minutes the Niner faithful waited anxiously for what just happened to be explained.
Slowly, as ESPN replayed the event over and over again, it became evident.
As DeAngelo brought the ball down for a rebound, he was fouled by one of GW's players. ESPN states "Mike Hall fouled Alexander, and suddenly Goldwire and Hall were
face-to-face with officials intervening and coach Bobby Lutz
running onto the court." but replays show something different. Here is a screen shot of the technical foul in question from ESPNMotion:
Sorry for the lack in quality, but the evidence is still clear. With the red arrow, we see DA pulling the ball down and being fouled by one of GW's players. The yellow arrow is pointing towards the tussle between Goldwire and Hall. There is no possible way that Hall was in two places at one time.
It appeared initially that the whistle blown was the touch foul on the defender guarding Alexander, but after a lengthy video review, the call was announced as a techincal on Leemire and a foul on Mike Hall. DeAngelo would shoot two free throws and then Hall would be awarded the same opportunity along with possession following the foul shots. Per the NCAA rule change concerning technical fouls, regardless of whom the technical was whistled on, the team with possession prior to the tech would receive the ball following the free throws. Clearly, DeAngelo has the ball when the T is called, so why does George Washington get the ball back?
The video review is what really peeves most of us Niner faithful. Fran Connolly, the lead official claims to have called a technical before going to the video review. His reasoning for this is that he wanted "to make sure
there wasn't a punch thrown." and "We should go to the monitor to make sure there's not a
combative action that someone should be thrown out for." Here's the catch though, the supposed "dead ball" technical had gone completely unnoticed! Even the George Washington fans had no idea what the call was, all one has to do is watch the replay to hear the crowd, during the video review, loudly calling for a technical to be called. Since when do technicals ever go unnoticed by College Basketball fans?
And yet, we Niners still have one more legitimate complaint.
Leemire did not act like a "knucklehead" (Pat Forde), but rather was reacting to his jersey being pulled, not once, but twice, by Mike Hall. One could even see in the replays that Hall even gave Goldwire a cheap shot before receiving the second elbow. At the very least this was a double technical foul, with both Lee and Hall being allowed to shoot, in addition to the touch foul on DA, giving Charlotte two more additional free throws and possession.
What happened next will remain in our minds always. DA missed one free throw, Rice made both, and then a airball three pointer was tipped in by Carl Elliot. The George Washington fans rushed the court, the Charlotte fans watching the game elsewhere fell silent. The one big victory of the year had slipped past their fingertips at the last second.
Other than this meltdown at the end, the officiating in this game was probably the best this author has seen, but this sad excuse for refereeing should not go unnoticed. Judy Rose has a legitimate complaint about the way the game ended and should voice her concerns.
Regardless of this, Charlotte should have won the game. We missed key free throws at the end (including Alexander's second), and failed to box out and grab key rebounds. The technical would never have been called if Leemire had not missed the front end of a one and one near the end of regulation, and if DeAngelo had made his second free throw, there would have been yet another overtime. Instead, the Niner players, coaches, and fans spent all afternoon Saturday perplexed and shocked by what had happened. Nothing hurts worse than losing at the buzzer. Then again, nothing feels better than winning at the buzzer as well (see: Cincinatti at Halton, or Charlotte at Indianda last season).
Today though, the sun is still shining and the Niners will move on.
There's a few positives though, we know we can beat GW now, GW (and every other A10 team) knows we can beat GW, and our guys (especially Leemire) now have the impetus they need to take the A10 tournament.
We can go into Thursday still down about the loss, or fired up to prove how good we are.
At least our fans do not wear stupid hats.
posted by 49er Update @ 12:56 PM
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