GarageGabs

Sweet 16 of the 1989 NCAA tournament vs. powerhouse Geogetown and Alonzo Mourning.  Down 3, Corchiani drives, is bumped, and hits the basket.

Traveling is called.

This is a call that NC State fans will never forget.

Found this over at ACCNOW.

Here is the respoonse from John Clougherty, the ACC’s coordinator of basketball officials:

“The league acknowledges that a timing error was made in not starting the game clock at the correct time, when the ball was stolen by Clemson’s Vernon Hamilton off the in-bounded pass from Duke’s Josh McRoberts.

“We came to this conclusion after completing a review of the game film as well as internal conversations with the crew of officials, both head coaches and conference office staff. At this point, as with most league officiating matters, this situation has been handled and resolved internally.”

This is wonderful if handling “internally” means a suspension of officials and scorekeepers involved.  Honestly, they should pick the game back up with 2.4 seconds left and the score tied.  Hey, I remember they did that once in baseball after the George Brett pine-tar incident.

Anyway, this is the way the ACC generally responds to officiating mistakes:  “Yeah, we did it.  Sorry, we’ll take care of it”.  Reaction is not that answer, they need to start being preactive on this.

I know this is going to be hard to believe but Duke received another gift wrapped win tonight vs. Clemson. The final score is gonna say Duke 68 Clemson 66, in regulation, but this game should have gone to Overtime. Clemson managed to get within 3 points, 66-63 with exactly 5 seconds remaining. Duke attempted to inbound the ball but it was stolen by Clemson’s Vernon Hamilton, just outside the 3 point line. Hamilton fired a 3 pointer and tied the game at 66. That’s where the problems come in. The clock did not start upon Hamilton touching the ball…in fact, it didn’t start until the ball was in the basket, running down to 1.8 seconds. Somehow, officials actually looked at a replay and put 4.4 seconds on the clock.

In essence, the officials were saying that Vernon Hamilton caught, set, and shot the ball, and the ball traveled over 20 feet in….SIX TENTHS OF A SECOND. I want you to say a word for me….seriously, I want you to speak this word: Say the word “Blue Devil”…Now, say it again. That’s about 1/2 a second. Hamilton did all that stuff….and the ball flew 21+ feet, on an arc…..in the time it takes you to say “Blue Devil”

So, back to the story. With a new found 4.4 seconds on the clock, Duke was able to inbounds the ball, get it to mid-court, make a pass, and hit the winning basket at the buzzer. Good lord how many more garbage wins can these guys get away with?

It’s become a bit of a tradition for those of us here in the ACC. We always know that Duke will get beneficial treatment from ACC refs. It happened so much last year that the national media even started to recognize it.

Anyway, I’m sure some of you are going to say that the clock was set back to the appropriate time. For you, I offer video evidence complete with a built in timer.
Video Of Screwjob

After watching that, there is no way you can deny that Duke was granted a gift tonight. Yeah, Duke still might have won, but they would have had to go to overtime to do it.

Anyway, probably not much can be done about this, unless you want to sign this petition!! Clemson fans are upset enough to start a petition on the matter. Of course, signing this petition won’t matter, but it’ll be fun to see how many signatures they can get it up to.

Duke Clemson Recap (ESPN) [Jay Bilas (former dukie, go figure) wants you to know that a “legal basket” was still scored even though the officials did make a timing error. He also wants you to know that he was on the bench in 1992 when Duke overcame a similar situation.]

Video With Timer

Online “fed up with Duke” Petition

Gilbert Arenas Vows He Could Score 84 or 85 vs. Duke: Gilbert obviously isn’t taking into account referee bias.

*EDIT* Someone finally got a youtube video up-