OK, OK ... I know we said no more. But even though we've more than said our piece, not every other outlet has, so I felt like I had to pass this along.
This was in Bud Withers' column this morning at The Seattle Times:
The controversial end to the first overtime has already reached the highest echelon of oversight in NCAA basketball officiating. Pac-10 coordinator of officials Bill McCabe has discussed it with NCAA officials coordinator John Adams, who has taken it up with Ed Bilik, veteran secretary-editor of the rules committee.
"In my four years on the job," McCabe said Tuesday, "this is the most unpleasant one."
McCabe said Adams told him, in reference to the debate, "We don't want our games to end this way. It's not good for college basketball."
Gee, isn't that what we've been saying all along?
I guess if there's anything good to come out of this debacle, it's this:
McCabe says a likely outcome is a tightened interpretation of the rule, mandating that an official would have to start the inbounds count or the player would have to begin his throwing motion.
Of course, the funny-but-not-humorous part of this is that this "interpretation" of this rule is that it's not really an interpretation at all -- it's what's already in the rulebook. But I am happy that they're apparently going to make sure the referees understand the rule, exercise the proper amount of discretion and hope that this never happens again.
As for the referees? No word on whether they're being censured (it sure doesn't sound like it), however ...
"The officials are very, very depressed," McCabe says. "Nobody likes the ending to this thing."
And, again, the funny-but-not-humorous thing about it is that it didn't have to end this way. They had plenty of time to make the right decision. They still chose the wrong one. Oddly enough, they didn't look depressed in the second overtime. They didn't look depressed at the end of the game. One can only assume they're depressed because of the barrage of justified criticism they've received.
Here's to hoping they become better officials because of it.
On to other miscellaneous news ...
- The start time for Sunday's game at ASU has been moved up an hour to accommodate fans in the Phoenix area who want to watch the Cardinals host the Packers later in the day. The new tip time is 11:30 a.m. PST. It's still on FSN. Nothing else has changed.
- The football team had its banquet and handed out its team awards, and in no surprise to anyone, Kenny Alfred needed a wheelbarrow to cart all of his home. We love Kenny around here and think that's great.