Basketball season is in full swing. It would appear that the annual malady known as March Madness will most likely infect February as the quest for a spot in the Big Dance no doubt will be a wild and wacky ride from here on out.
In the ACC Miami has emerged as a force currently sitting atop the standings with a perfect 6-0 record. Virginia, another surprise sits in second with a 5-2 record coming off their upset of the shorthanded N.C. State Wolfpack Tuesday night. Duke is right behind Virginia at 4-2 with the preseason favorite Wolfpack sitting at 4th with a 5-3 record losing three road games.
Which brings me to a very sore subject particularly with me right now. My annual disgust with the ACC Basketball officiating is perhaps at an all-time high. Most folks tend to focus on the fouls that get called and the disparity in free throws in favor of the ACC royalty Duke and UNC. This, in fact, is documented quite thoroughly in Mark Packer's "Infamous ACC Index Card" which is a data "The Packman" compiles on a yearly basis. Check it out here: http://www.packsmack.com/InfamousACCIndexCard/ . My big beef is not so much what gets called but the gross omissions made by the ACC finest either intended or unintentional the fouls that are obvious fouls but for whatever reason don;t get whistled. In addition, the ACC officials that want to be the show and do everything to upstage the basketball game they are sent to officiate is particularly infuriating to me as an ACC basketball fan.
To refresh every one's memory and for those who are new to my blog last year the ACC's officiating ineptitude hit a crescendo when Mr. Karl Hess, in the midst of one of many of his abysmal performances as an official, stopped a game in the RBC/PNC Arena in Raleigh and demanded former Wolfpack greats Chris Corchiani and Tom Gugliotta be removed from the arena after they expressed their personal opinion that Mr. Hess was having an off night. A couple of things were grossly wrong with this, not the least of which was that Mr. Hess grossly overstepped his bounds and became an arena security guard instead of what he was paid to do and have a fan sent out of the arena. Secondly, had Mr. Hess been as concerned with his appointed responsibility of officiating a basketball game impartially, no one would have had reason to voice any displeasure. Instead Mr. Hess and his henchmen set about on a nightly basis ruining perfectly good contests between ACC rivals. They impose their own rulebook and seek to become the show instead of doing their job and adjudicate the rules of basketball.
I have always heard that if an official does his job correctly that he goes largely unnoticed in the game. Apparently the basketball officials employed by the ACC do not subscribe to this notion as for the most part they seek to become the center of attention instead of officiating the game in the background as is their job. In a recent game at Wake Forest between the Demon Deacons and the N.C. State Wolfpack, official Teddy Valentine seemed to take great satisfaction ruling a turnover in favor of Wake Forest gleefully dancing down the side of the court as if he were auditioning for dancing with the stars, as he waved his arms and pointed toward the Wake Forest end of the court. Enough already! Mr Valentine has cost the Wolfpack in two of their 5 losses. Earlier this season he seemingly took great pleasure whistling a very, very questionable charging call on the Pack's C.J. Leslie during a key point in the Pack's loss to then #1 ranked Michigan. The phantom charging call took the momentum away from the Wolfpack and they were never able to recover. Then last week in Winston Salem Mr. Valentine got to impose his will again on a game involving the Wolfpack. His disdain for the Wolfpack was never more evident than on this night as he single-handedly took out the Pack's C.J. Leslie whistling 3 quick fouls on the Pack star effectively taking him out of the game. Then with the game on the line in the final seconds C.J. Leslie attacked the basket with the go-ahead score and was shoved into the third row of seats a Lawrence Joel Coliseum and the official on the baseline was none other than Teddy Valentine and for some strange reason in his mind the criminal assault on Leslie by the Deacons did not constitute a foul so he swallowed his whistle and the Wolfpack went on to lose.
Then last night (Tuesday, January 29) the Wolfpack was victimized yet again by three more of the ACC finest. It was bad enough for the Pack to lose the ACC's top point guard Lorenzo Brown to injury 10 minutes into the game but then the trio of goons sent to officiate the game took two points away from the Wolfpack on a travelling call that even Bruce Pearl, ESPN's game analyst said was a bad call. Strike One! Then during the second half on no less than 4 occasions C.J. Leslie tried to make a move to the basket and was ridden out of bounds by a defender only to be called for stepping on the end line. This amounts to 4 Wolfpack turnovers that should have been Virginia fouls, stopping the Pack's momentum and gift wrapping a scoring chance for Virginia.
The ESPN announce crew babbled on and on about the Virginia scoring defense having no allowed anyone to score 60 points. But the real story was the lack of rules enforcement on the Virginia team. The Cavalier defenders pushed, hammered and grabbed at the N.C. State players with impunity. Not only was C.J. Leslie abused on every attempted drive to the basket, but when he or Richard Howell or any other Pack player went to the rim they we mercilessly hammered without the benefit of a call. Strike Two! I truly believe that I could go to my local YMCA and grab four other players and go out and hold the #1 team in the land to under 60 points if I was given the advantage of not being held to the rulebook the way the officials allowed Virginia to go about mauling the Wolfpack. There were many glaring examples of the one sided enforcement of the rules but there were two examples that stood out. At the end of the first half Richard Howell was call for a foul on the Cavalier Point guard when he clearly blocked the shot, got all ball as the Cavalier point guard made a desperation shot. Then finally, the Pack's T.J. Warren was call for fouling Virginia's Joe Harris on a three point shot. Harris made a shot fake and Warren went flying past without touching him only to have Harris fire the ball into his face. Warren was called for the foul not Harris who fired the ball into Warren's face. STEEEERIKEEEE THREE!
The crux of the problem is that the ACC does not hold their officials accountable for their performance on the court. Following an ACC basketball game the coaches and players face the media and answer questions about the game while down the hall the game officials are in their own little world, they shower dress and slip quietly out the door. They don't have to face the media and explain why the same charging foul that was called in the first minute of the game was not called in the last 20 seconds of the game. Why apparently a foul is not a foul at particular times during the game. There is absolutely no accountability for game officials. It is grossly unfair to the coaches who livelihood is directly effected by their performance. It is unfair to the media and fans who struggle to understand why officials make calls or interpret rules as they do.
Will the ACC ever hold the officials accountable? I doubt it. The Commissioner, John Swofford a UNC man won't do anything. Why would he do anything to alter the advantage his beloved Tar Heels get annually. Then there's the ACC Coordinator of Basketball Officials John Clougherty. Mr. Clougherty a longtime official himself isn't going to do anything to his former on-court cronies. He already showed us his true stripes by giving his buddy Karl Hess little more than a slap on the wrist with a "Public Reprimand" for his ejections of Gugliotta and Corchiani. So no the ACC officials aren't accountable for their bush league officiating. They never have and never will be, at least until there is a Commissioner that has no ties to the conference and has a backbone.
