It was a foul. It should have been called.

[dikembe]

I don't get all the hullabaloo from the media about "the call" last night. What was J dub trying to do pull a TO and go out of bounds before he got the first down? ofcourse not. he was bumped. hello. he was BUMPED. Last time I checked bumping someone is a FOUL. you can argue the severity of the bump all you want, but the call was 100 percent in line with how that entire game was called last night. How many tick tack fouls were called on us all night. It was the right call.

[FrazierFanatic]

Yes it was. The key was that he went out of bounds after contact. What would our reaction have been if there was no call, and they gave the ball to 'nova with .1 on their end, with a possible lob pass and tip for the win? We would have gone ballisitic whether or not they scored. And they could not, as someone suggested, just let the clock run out - they have to check the monitor, which would have required them to put a tick back on the clock. David Aldridge got it right in the Philly Inquirer. It was a foul. Move on.

[Churchwell]

While I hate to win a game like that almost as much as I hate to lose it, I completely agree.

Imagine if there had been 3 seconds left. The ref has no choice but to either call the foul or whistle Wallace for a turnover for going out of bounds - giving Nova plenty of time to get a shot off to win the game. If that had happened Hoya fans would be going nuts because it's clear from the replays that the contact led to Wallace going out of bounds. If there were a couple seconds left we'd all fell very differently about a no call there (as would, I suspect, Jay Bilas).

[HeartAttackHoya]

as much as I agree with this analysis, had the call been made against Georgetown awarding Nova free throws with .1 left to win the game, I would have been irrationaly irate and I would find it hard to believe Hoyas fan who think the call was fair would stay consistent in their opinion.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

If the call had been in the reverse I would've been a lot more Editeded at our defender for being anywhere near the nova player in that situation.

[prhoya]

Feb 12, 2008 10:52:27 GMT -5 Churchwell said:

While I hate to win a game like that almost as much as I hate to lose it, I completely agree.

Imagine if there had been 3 seconds left. The ref has no choice but to either call the foul or whistle Wallace for a turnover for going out of bounds - giving Nova plenty of time to get a shot off to win the game. If that had happened Hoya fans would be going nuts because it's clear from the replays that the contact led to Wallace going out of bounds. If there were a couple seconds left we'd all fell very differently about a no call there (as would, I suspect, Jay Bilas).

Good point, Churchwell. Wallace's path down the line was cut by the Nova player and his bump forced him out of bounds.

[FrazierFanatic]

Feb 12, 2008 10:58:05 GMT -5 HoyaSinceBirth said:

If the call had been in the reverse I would've been a lot more Editeded at our defender for being anywhere near the nova player in that situation.

Absolutely - surprised this hasn't been raised more. My immediate comment was "what an idiot" - referring to the defender, not the ref.

[HoyaDestroya02]

if i am mistaken this has happened to us in the past... i cried at a game in pittsburgh once on a last second call that decided the game.

Update: Found the game...

www.hoyasaxa.com/sports/archives/archive0103.htm#21

Pittsburgh 65, Georgetown 64 1/26/03

All that stood between the Georgetown Hoyas and overtime against the #2 ranked Pittsburgh Panthers was 3.5 seconds...and referee Tim Higgins.

Higgins' phantom whistle on a driving Julius Page shot with only four-tenths of a second left allowed Pitt a 65-64 escape from the Hoyas before a sold-out crowd of 12,508 at the Petersen Events Center. The sour finish spoiled a inspired Georgetown effort from start to finish.

[RBHoya]

Totally agree with the premise of this thread. It sucks that the game had to be decided that way, I would have much preferred to make a shot to win it in regulation or even to have gone to OT and beat them straight up. But, if you bump a guy out of bounds, even if it wasn't a ton of contact, it has to be called. Either you call him out of bounds if he stepped out on his own, or you call a foul if he was bumped. And while he wasn't bumped all that hard, he WAS bumped, and so it has to be a foul. It's completely silly when people say that Donato should be suspended, and he definitely won't be, because conference higher-ups understand that you have to make a call there and that you can't be watching the clock.

I wasn't a fan of the officiating all game, just too many fouls called, both ways. It was like watching an ACC game where the slightest touch of somebody sends them to the line. I don't like that style of play at all and I don't think that's big east hoops. Nova does a ton of slapping on defense and I've never liked that, but I'd much rather see them get away with some of that then whistles galore. But, at least they were consistent and blew the whistle down the stretch.

And anyway, I've always thought that "The refs screwed us out of this game with a bad call at the end" was a fool's refrain. There are tons of bad calls throughout the game. How many times did Scottie get sent to the line after the tiniest of bumps? Several. Boiling down the entire game to the last play is what simple-minded folks do. IMO.

[Elvado]

If it makes all the whiners happier, Pena clearly set a moving pick to free Reynolds for the tying hoop.

Bad for Nova equals good for the world.

[RBHoya]

Feb 12, 2008 12:04:06 GMT -5 Elvado said:

If it makes all the whiners happier, Pena clearly set a moving pick to free Reynolds for the tying hoop.

And pretty much the rest of the night too. OMG we got so screwed Donato should be bant 4E!!!!

[ZagHoya04]

Didn't look like a foul from where I was sitting, and I'm sure I would be furious if I were a Nova fan, but I'm no longer as disgusted as I was last night. Whether or not the timing/circumstances should be taken into consideration, it was technically the right call.

[TBird41]

Feb 12, 2008 11:49:53 GMT -5 RBHoya said:

T Boiling down the entire game to the last play is what simple-minded folks do. IMO.

Which is why the Nova fans are doing it.
;D

[Coast2CoastHoya]

Yes, it was the right call.

In a way I have to give props to the ref for having the panache to make the call, despite the unseemly game-changing result. However, with hindsight, the way they were calling that second half makes the final call all the more consistent, and the defender should have known that, especially given that Jon had a very, very small chance of getting a shot off before the clock expired.

Nova fans will say they got screwed, but in the totality of circumstances they did not.

[RDF]

Feb 12, 2008 10:58:05 GMT -5 HoyaSinceBirth said:

If the call had been in the reverse I would've been a lot more Editeded at our defender for being anywhere near the nova player in that situation.

Great point--this was Stokes "Bowman" moment against ND. Or Sam Jefferson for you older fans. It's a poor call in my opinion-but why even give an official an opportunity to make the call? Excellent point.

[DanMcQ]

Post moved:

Feb 12, 2008 15:13:45 GMT -5 ncaaball2 said:

"There was more contact as Reynolds went to the basket and handfighting by the defense of Rivers...."

Just want some of you to see what you are actually calling a correct call this morning.

Your team won. Admitting the refs screwed up won't change that result.

[hoyasexy]

A similar situation arose a few days ago in the Indiana-Illinois game. As the first OT was coming to a close, the game was tied. I don't recall the specifics, including which team was on which end of the call, but a defensive player grabbed a rebound and turned for a full court heave at the buzzer. He couldn't get the shot off, mostly because an opposing player ran into him before he could get it off and time expired. The refs did not blow the whistle, thus putting the game into a second OT.

The announcers at that game were very quick to point out that, despite the fact that the play happened a full court away from the basket, the player really got away with something because the refs should have called the foul.

In our game, the foul was called. Tough call to make - but probably the right one. It sucks that it took a boneheaded play by the other team for us to win a game that should not have been that close, but it is what it is.

[GIGAFAN99]

What's annoying me now about this call is people saying Reynolds got "mugged" or there was more contact "handfighting" with Rivers.

The handfighting actually occurs between Reynolds' forearm and Rivers' chest as Scottie does his classic push off. No way was that a foul on Rivers. The last call was lousy but 'Nova can't complain about the defense on that last play on top of the lousy call.

[fsohoya]

What I love is how Raf, Bilas, and McCuse were all talking about how wonderful Rivers's defense was on the final 'Nova possession and not until after the foul call and several replays did McCuse suddenly make the idiotic "handfighting" accusation. And if you use the only camera angle where you could actually see the contact--the one on the right of ZagHoya's post--it was clearly a foul, but ESPN failed to show that one as McCuse was doing his most hyperbolic editorializing.

In the end, should a foul have been called? Maybe not, but it WAS a foul no matter what any biased jerk says, and it was certainly consistent with the officiating up to that point (which I've noticed never gets mentioned in the "professional" analyses of this game).

[idhoya]

It was a foul. I probably would have swallowed the whistle at that point in the game, but it was a foul. No phantom, just time of game and situation.