Weird officiating, and Friday links
posted by LW, Friday, February 26, 2010
A few Friday links while wondering if Jerai Grant was called for a foul for breathing heavily in his sleep last night ...
You know, I've never been a big conspiracy theorist when it comes to how Clemson's games are officiated.
But there's been some weird stuff this year.
The 46 free throws Virginia Tech shot against the Tigers in Blacksburg (23 of them by Malcolm Delaney).
The eight straight games Clemson lost with Karl Hess officiating.
And then, the quick whistles against Jerai Grant the other night at Maryland.
On a few of the fouls, I was compelled to rewind the DVR to try to see exactly what the official saw. And I didn't see much, even in slow motion.
Grant's rapid-fire fouls caught the eye of astute ACC observer Rob Daniels, who's now doing work for the ACC Sports Journal.
Rob points out that, even though Grant played 10 minutes, all five of his fouls came in a little more than two minutes of playing time.
When that happens – and it’s rare – it is almost always done by a walk-on whose job is to hack away in the name of trimming a lead in the final, desperate minutes. Starters don’t get whistled five times in that sort – or short – of a span, and they certainly aren’t doing it while their team’s ahead. The Tigers led 61-57 when Grant was disqualified with 11:17 to play.
Then comes the observation that three of the fouls came off the ball.
When’s the last time you saw one guy pick up three offensive fouls without possessing the ball on any of them? That happened to Grant, spotted for (repeatedly) clearing out defenders by the officiating troika of Jim Burr, Bob Donato and Sean Hull.
Interesting stuff. Then again, Clemson was called for an astounding total of six fouls last week against Virginia. So maybe this stuff tends to even out.
*****BREAKING NEWS ALERT: THE STATE NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY HAS STAFF-WRITTEN STORY ON CLEMSON*****
Ron Morris gives his take on the Tigers' NCAA Tournament chances, and he's not optimistic Clemson gets in with an 8-8 record.
Clemson is 7-6 in the ACC and 19-8 overall. Its remaining games are at Florida State, at home against Georgia Tech and at Wake Forest. In all likelihood, Clemson will finish 8-8 in the league and 20-10 overall.
That will not get Clemson in the tournament, unless the Tigers win at least two games in the ACC tournament.
Eh, I'm not convinced of that. Ron's premise is that the ACC is down and "not considered among the elite" this season. But while the conference doesn't boast its standard complement of elite teams, it has formidable depth.
That depth is illustrated by the fact that a number of the so-called bracket experts predict that the ACC will get seven teams in the field.
I don't think the conference is slumming it as much as Ron thinks it is. It's still the No. 3 conference according to the RPI, behind the Big East and Big 12. And for what it's worth, the ACC has consistently been ranked the top conference according to the Sagarin and Kenpom ratings.
My feeling is this: If Clemson finishes 8-8 with a home win over Georgia Tech, the Tigers will be in a dicey position if they go one-and-done in the ACC Tournament. But I think they'd still have a reasonable shot to get an at-large, based on their RPI, strength of schedule and absence of ugly losses. And they wouldn't have to win two ACC Tournament games to get in.
As stated earlier this week, they really need a road win. A 1-7 ACC record, with the lone victory coming at N.C. State, would constitute some really negative baggage.
Bart Wright points out the depth of the ACC in this column, saying Oliver Purnell has stopped trying to figure out the voters.
The RPI is an instrument the NCAA uses to help select and then seed teams into the tournament, and this week, the ACC was No. 3 as a group, behind the Big 12 and Big East and several giant steps ahead of the SEC.
That seems a little odd because no ACC team is rated below No. 117, a higher number than the lowest ranked team in any other conference and let’s be honest, rankings of 27 and 28 aren’t exactly out of sight, out of mind.
The issue this year from a national perspective is probably connected to the fall from grace of North Carolina. The defending national champion has become the current national chump in the eyes of many voters.
“Maybe so,” Purnell said, “but come on, we know voters all over the country don’t see all of our games. These (polls) are a kind of generalized view, and the Big East has been getting a lot of publicity with all those (16) teams and everybody’s talking up the Big 12 this year, so we’ll see.
“If you’re asking me if I think we should have more than one (in the Top 25), I would say yes, but if you’re asking me to explain why they vote the way they do, I can’t answer that.”
Good stuff here from Stewart Mandel on the situation at Michigan.
Like me, Mandel concludes that the exceeding of the NCAA's allowable time for workouts and activities isn't all that salacious when compared to some of the other transgressions we've seen in recent years, and probably not all that uncommon among major college football programs.
The more serious issue is Rodriguez apparently thumbing his nose at any notion of compliance.
There are five allegations of major violations contained in the letter, only two of which address the actual practice-time violations. In one, graduate assistant Alex Herron is accused of providing misleading information to investigators. Ask Dez Bryant how the NCAA feels about misleading investigators.
Of more import, the NCAA says Rodriguez "failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance within the football program." That's not exactly a cap in the feather for a guy already saddled with an 8-16 record. On top of that, Michigan's athletic department allegedly "failed to adequately monitor its football program." The school avoided the dreaded "lack of institutional control" tag, but "failure to monitor" is the next step down
This is interesting, because it's representative of the tug-of-war that can take place between powerful coaches and their compliance folks.
Relevant anecdote:
In Nick Saban's first days at Alabama, the story goes, his compliance guy (or gal) visits Saban's office to make an introduction and go over some things.
Paraphrasing here, but Saban's response upon said introduction went: "Wait a minute. I don't have to deal with you. From now on, take your problems to the athletics director."
Looks like C.J. Spiller has chosen to run at the NFL Combine.
In the Independent-Mail, a story on Clemson's offensive line.
Scott still feels the sting of 2007 and 2008. A veteran group graduated, and few game-ready options remained, leading to two years of struggles which only truly abated last fall.
Four of this fall’s projected starters are either juniors or seniors (sophomore center Dalton Freeman is the only exception), making building depth as Scott’s major spring project.
“We can’t get caught in a situation where you graduate all these guys and have inexperience,” he said. “You’d like to have them get two years under their belt and by their third year, be a starter.
“I feel if a guy is, by the third year, a starter and can contribute the last two years, we’ve done a good job. We’ve got our house in order to where the line rotation should be. We’re closer to that than where we’ve been since that last crowd that graduated three, four years ago.”
In the Greenville News, a piece on Mike Freeman.
Back to some basketball stuff ... our friends at the North Carolina Rivals site assess the debacle that has been the Tar Heels this season.
Looks like Oliver Purnell took a detour to the Hampton Roads area yesterday to check on a prospect.
Norcom never looked back as the Greyhounds cruised to victory. They got another big game from Dorian Finney-Smith, who had a game-high 20 points, 10 rebounds and six assists to spark Norcom. He picked a great time to show off his skills as Alabama head coach Anthony Grant and Clemson’s Oliver Purnell were in attendance.
Georgia Tech's Paul Hewitt is one sensitive dude. He apparently spent this week posting Twitter messages that responded to criticism.
Coming two weeks after another last-second road loss at Miami, the defeat seemed to be too much for some in the fan base to bear, causing rumblings that have persisted for much of the year to resurface. That caused Hewitt to go viral.
“Clearly we are playing our best basketball of the season,” a posting Tuesday read. “Don’t believe what you read from the ‘experts.’ Believe what you see.”
He also wrote, “As we are coming to the latter part of the season, now is not the time to be judgmental. You all need to come out and support this team. … To you critics: When athletes say some of the things you say, then you condemn them as quitters. Are you quitting?”
He later wrote Wednesday, “I believe in this team!”
If a team's persona is indeed a reflection of its coach, no wonder Hewitt's teams are such perplexing roller-coaster rides.
LW
Click here for the "Eye On The Tigers" blog archive.
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
A few Friday links while wondering if Jerai Grant was called for a foul for breathing heavily in his sleep last night ...
You know, I've never been a big conspiracy theorist when it comes to how Clemson's games are officiated.
But there's been some weird stuff this year.
The 46 free throws Virginia Tech shot against the Tigers in Blacksburg (23 of them by Malcolm Delaney).
The eight straight games Clemson lost with Karl Hess officiating.
And then, the quick whistles against Jerai Grant the other night at Maryland.
On a few of the fouls, I was compelled to rewind the DVR to try to see exactly what the official saw. And I didn't see much, even in slow motion.
Grant's rapid-fire fouls caught the eye of astute ACC observer Rob Daniels, who's now doing work for the ACC Sports Journal.
Rob points out that, even though Grant played 10 minutes, all five of his fouls came in a little more than two minutes of playing time.
When that happens – and it’s rare – it is almost always done by a walk-on whose job is to hack away in the name of trimming a lead in the final, desperate minutes. Starters don’t get whistled five times in that sort – or short – of a span, and they certainly aren’t doing it while their team’s ahead. The Tigers led 61-57 when Grant was disqualified with 11:17 to play.
Then comes the observation that three of the fouls came off the ball.
When’s the last time you saw one guy pick up three offensive fouls without possessing the ball on any of them? That happened to Grant, spotted for (repeatedly) clearing out defenders by the officiating troika of Jim Burr, Bob Donato and Sean Hull.
Interesting stuff. Then again, Clemson was called for an astounding total of six fouls last week against Virginia. So maybe this stuff tends to even out.
*****BREAKING NEWS ALERT: THE STATE NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY HAS STAFF-WRITTEN STORY ON CLEMSON*****
Ron Morris gives his take on the Tigers' NCAA Tournament chances, and he's not optimistic Clemson gets in with an 8-8 record.
Clemson is 7-6 in the ACC and 19-8 overall. Its remaining games are at Florida State, at home against Georgia Tech and at Wake Forest. In all likelihood, Clemson will finish 8-8 in the league and 20-10 overall.
That will not get Clemson in the tournament, unless the Tigers win at least two games in the ACC tournament.
Eh, I'm not convinced of that. Ron's premise is that the ACC is down and "not considered among the elite" this season. But while the conference doesn't boast its standard complement of elite teams, it has formidable depth.
That depth is illustrated by the fact that a number of the so-called bracket experts predict that the ACC will get seven teams in the field.
I don't think the conference is slumming it as much as Ron thinks it is. It's still the No. 3 conference according to the RPI, behind the Big East and Big 12. And for what it's worth, the ACC has consistently been ranked the top conference according to the Sagarin and Kenpom ratings.
My feeling is this: If Clemson finishes 8-8 with a home win over Georgia Tech, the Tigers will be in a dicey position if they go one-and-done in the ACC Tournament. But I think they'd still have a reasonable shot to get an at-large, based on their RPI, strength of schedule and absence of ugly losses. And they wouldn't have to win two ACC Tournament games to get in.
As stated earlier this week, they really need a road win. A 1-7 ACC record, with the lone victory coming at N.C. State, would constitute some really negative baggage.
Bart Wright points out the depth of the ACC in this column, saying Oliver Purnell has stopped trying to figure out the voters.
The RPI is an instrument the NCAA uses to help select and then seed teams into the tournament, and this week, the ACC was No. 3 as a group, behind the Big 12 and Big East and several giant steps ahead of the SEC.
That seems a little odd because no ACC team is rated below No. 117, a higher number than the lowest ranked team in any other conference and let’s be honest, rankings of 27 and 28 aren’t exactly out of sight, out of mind.
The issue this year from a national perspective is probably connected to the fall from grace of North Carolina. The defending national champion has become the current national chump in the eyes of many voters.
“Maybe so,” Purnell said, “but come on, we know voters all over the country don’t see all of our games. These (polls) are a kind of generalized view, and the Big East has been getting a lot of publicity with all those (16) teams and everybody’s talking up the Big 12 this year, so we’ll see.
“If you’re asking me if I think we should have more than one (in the Top 25), I would say yes, but if you’re asking me to explain why they vote the way they do, I can’t answer that.”
Good stuff here from Stewart Mandel on the situation at Michigan.
Like me, Mandel concludes that the exceeding of the NCAA's allowable time for workouts and activities isn't all that salacious when compared to some of the other transgressions we've seen in recent years, and probably not all that uncommon among major college football programs.
The more serious issue is Rodriguez apparently thumbing his nose at any notion of compliance.
There are five allegations of major violations contained in the letter, only two of which address the actual practice-time violations. In one, graduate assistant Alex Herron is accused of providing misleading information to investigators. Ask Dez Bryant how the NCAA feels about misleading investigators.
Of more import, the NCAA says Rodriguez "failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance within the football program." That's not exactly a cap in the feather for a guy already saddled with an 8-16 record. On top of that, Michigan's athletic department allegedly "failed to adequately monitor its football program." The school avoided the dreaded "lack of institutional control" tag, but "failure to monitor" is the next step down
This is interesting, because it's representative of the tug-of-war that can take place between powerful coaches and their compliance folks.
Relevant anecdote:
In Nick Saban's first days at Alabama, the story goes, his compliance guy (or gal) visits Saban's office to make an introduction and go over some things.
Paraphrasing here, but Saban's response upon said introduction went: "Wait a minute. I don't have to deal with you. From now on, take your problems to the athletics director."
Looks like C.J. Spiller has chosen to run at the NFL Combine.
In the Independent-Mail, a story on Clemson's offensive line.
Scott still feels the sting of 2007 and 2008. A veteran group graduated, and few game-ready options remained, leading to two years of struggles which only truly abated last fall.
Four of this fall’s projected starters are either juniors or seniors (sophomore center Dalton Freeman is the only exception), making building depth as Scott’s major spring project.
“We can’t get caught in a situation where you graduate all these guys and have inexperience,” he said. “You’d like to have them get two years under their belt and by their third year, be a starter.
“I feel if a guy is, by the third year, a starter and can contribute the last two years, we’ve done a good job. We’ve got our house in order to where the line rotation should be. We’re closer to that than where we’ve been since that last crowd that graduated three, four years ago.”
In the Greenville News, a piece on Mike Freeman.
Back to some basketball stuff ... our friends at the North Carolina Rivals site assess the debacle that has been the Tar Heels this season.
Looks like Oliver Purnell took a detour to the Hampton Roads area yesterday to check on a prospect.
Norcom never looked back as the Greyhounds cruised to victory. They got another big game from Dorian Finney-Smith, who had a game-high 20 points, 10 rebounds and six assists to spark Norcom. He picked a great time to show off his skills as Alabama head coach Anthony Grant and Clemson’s Oliver Purnell were in attendance.
Georgia Tech's Paul Hewitt is one sensitive dude. He apparently spent this week posting Twitter messages that responded to criticism.
Coming two weeks after another last-second road loss at Miami, the defeat seemed to be too much for some in the fan base to bear, causing rumblings that have persisted for much of the year to resurface. That caused Hewitt to go viral.
“Clearly we are playing our best basketball of the season,” a posting Tuesday read. “Don’t believe what you read from the ‘experts.’ Believe what you see.”
He also wrote, “As we are coming to the latter part of the season, now is not the time to be judgmental. You all need to come out and support this team. … To you critics: When athletes say some of the things you say, then you condemn them as quitters. Are you quitting?”
He later wrote Wednesday, “I believe in this team!”
If a team's persona is indeed a reflection of its coach, no wonder Hewitt's teams are such perplexing roller-coaster rides.
LW
Click here for the "Eye On The Tigers" blog archive.
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
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