LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- I expected the University of Louisville to gather its video evidence of brow-furrowing, scream-inducing officiating calls made at winning time in the Cardinals’ game with North Carolina on Tuesday night.
I expected the basketball program to make its case to the Atlantic Coast Conference on Wednesday morning.
I was wrong.
The first phone call actually went to Greensboro, North Carolina, on Tuesday night after the Cardinals were forced to accept several absurd whistles and ultimately a 90-83 loss to the Tar Heels at the KFC Yum! Center.
“I am not going to sit here and blame the officials," U of L interim coach Mike Pegues said after the game. "That is something that is being taken care of by our administration.
Armando Bacot (UNC) trips Jarrod West (Louisville). No call pic.twitter.com/T7D3G0rkEH
— Main Team (@MainTeamSports2) February 2, 2022
“They are looking into those calls, because those are two tough calls.”
Important note: Absurd is my description of the calls, not Louisville’s.
I’m not certain how Pegues or Interim Athletic Director Josh Heird characterized them. I only know that U of L Senior Associate Athletic Director Kenny Klein said that the first telephone call to the ACC was made Tuesday night and that the school “also voiced our concerns with the league office,” Wednesday.
That, folks, is likely the last we will hear about the controversial ending.
About the debatable technical foul assessed to Louisville forward Jae’Lyn Withers for pushing UNC’s Armando Bacot following a loose ball scrum near the Cardinal basket in the final 1:10.
That resulted in two UNC points and a lost U of L possession.
About the more outrageous whistle against Louisville’s Sydney Curry after Curry took a punishing arm to the neck from Bacot with 17 seconds to play.
Sydney Curry is a glimmer of hope for Louisville and Armando Bacot is the college basketball universe. pic.twitter.com/tclfx1Y9B1
— Annie Moore (@AnyMoreSports) February 2, 2022
That decision essentially assured a happy flight back to Chapel Hill for the Tar Heels.
The End.
Game over.
Discussion over.
Play the next play.
Except ... players, coaches and fans deserve better. They deserve word from the ACC office if the league administrators concur that the calls were correct or if the officials missed something.
A public acknowledgement that the officials got it right (which they usually do) or that Louisville had legitimate reasons to be outraged.
I doubt we’ll ever hear a word. I called the ACC office Wednesday afternoon to ask about the process of examining plays like the two I mentioned. I wondered if the league ever takes a game or two off an official’s schedule if somebody determines the official got a critical play wrong.
We know officials make bad call, just like writers write bad columns and chefs make bad meals. Why pretend it doesn’t happen? Is an official ever dropped from the league’s conference tournament if his work is not as good as it needs to be?
I know they’re evaluated. A representative of the NCAA office in Indianapolis sat five seats from me Tuesday night. I talked to him before the game. He told me that he was assisting in the selection of the 100 or so officials who will work the NCAA Tournament in March.
I’m awaiting a return phone call from the ACC.
Here is another important public service announcement:
I’m not mentioning the names of the three officials. There have been too many examples of officials being hassled at work or on social media. That’s not my intention.
Officiating has become a ridiculously difficult job. Calls are replayed from every angle off cameras that can record relentless movement and collisions in super duper slow motion.
I officiated one season of intramural basketball and one season of intramural softball. I stopped the basketball gig after I was followed back to my dormitory room by players from a team that was convinced I had cost them a tournament victory.
I listen to the things that people scream at college basketball officials and often cringe. It’s profane. It’s nasty. And it’s personal.
Great hard physical game ! Was a lot of fun
— Armando Bacot Jr. (@iget_buckets35) February 2, 2022
Coaches on both benches shake hands with all three officials before the game, and then the coaches bark outrageous criticism after every call.
No, thanks.
I’d rather pick up hot bricks while tearing down a furnace at the No. 3 open hearth at Inland Steel.
But this is the life they have chosen and this is the scrutiny they learn to accept.
Spectators and television viewers had plenty of looks at the calls made against Withers and Curry.
They saw North Carolina’s Bacot earn his fourth foul with 5 minutes and 47 seconds to play. Bacot went to the bench for 1 minute and 50 seconds.
He played the final 3:57 in regulation and the entire 5-minute overtime without earning his fifth whistle, even though somebody sitting in the U of L student section scribbled a note on a grease board crediting Bacot with “10 fouls.”
Bacot is a massive dude, generously listed at 6 feet 10 inches tall and 240 pounds. He clears his way to the rim. After the game, it appeared that he enjoyed the occasional collisions.
Some argue that it is unreasonable to expect officials to explain or justify every questionable call. I understand that. But with the current system, officials are not required to justify any questionable calls. They’re off limits to the media.
Typically, we have to wonder if the league office even reviewed a complaint and then determined that a call was correct or incorrect.
You know, an explanation.
I believe coaches, players and paying customers deserve that.
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- CRAWFORD | For Louisville, emotional engagement is there, now execution must follow
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