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BOZICH | The perfect fix for ACC's blown $20,000 call against Walz, Louisville women

  • Updated
  • 3 min to read

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Several fresh ricks of wood are stacked in the driveway at Jeff Walz's home in eastern Jefferson County.

Walz split the wood with an axe Tuesday and stacked it after two large, diseased trees were professionally taken down earlier this week.

Jeff Walz wood

Louisville women's basketball coach Jeff Walz posed with one of his daughters with wood that he split after he had two trees taken down Tuesday.

He's proud of the way he can work an axe — and he should be. He said that his father taught him and his brothers how to handle that heavy tool because the family used wood to heat the family home in northern Kentucky.

But the wood in Walz's driveway is special blend. It is priced that way: $10,000 a rick. And I know just the person who should purchase the first two piles: Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner Jim Phillips.

Why?

Because the ACC's numbskull handling of the aftermath of Walz putting the league on blast for rightly criticizing a blown officiating call that cost his University of Louisville women's basketball team their game at Syracuse on Sunday deserves an extremely quick, extremely public and extremely imaginative apology from the buttoned-up league. 

Something fairer that the $20,000 fine Walz earned for his behavior.

Trust me, I do not expect the ACC to do anything quick, public or imaginative to right the wrong that was inflicted on Walz and his players. When it comes to common sense, the league office is stacked with dead wood.

Proof of that came Tuesday. The ACC essentially ruled there was nothing wrong about the intentional foul that was whistled on U of L forward Olivia Cochran in the final 2.3 seconds of the game the Cards lost to Syracuse, 73-72, after the Orange were awarded two free throws.

To make certain Walz understood the league believed that its officiating crew did nothing wrong, it fined Walz $20,000 for a lack of sportsmanship.

Case closed.

News flash: case opened, certainly in the court of public opinion.

On Wednesday, a dissenting voice said the ACC was full of baloney.

The voice came from Jon M. Levinson, the NCAA women's basketball secretary-rules editor. An e-mail that the NCAA titled: "RULE INTERPRETATIONS/CLARIFICATIONS," started with these three sentences:

"Fouling near the end of the game is an acceptable coaching and playing strategy. Teams also foul near the end of quarters when they have 'fouls to give' to disrupt the offensive flow of their opponents attempting a last shot of the quarter. Officials are asked to judge players' actions and determine whether illegal contact is personal, intentional or disqualifying."

You don't say.

Unless you have wood chips in your head, there's only one way to interpret that:

The pushing foul Cochran committed Sunday was intended to stop the clock. It was not committed with unsportswoman-like intent.

Syracuse guard Dyaisha Fair should not have been awarded two free throws.

With only 2.3 seconds to play, the Orange should have been inbounding the ball and then trying to throw up a shot before Louisville could commit the second foul the Cards had to give while trying to run out the clock.

The ACC cannot fine me, so I can say something that Walz cannot say:

The officials blew the call on the court — and the league office blew their review of what happened.

The ACC can't overturn the decision on the court, even though the blunder could easily result in costing Louisville a share of the ACC regular-season title and potentially an opportunity to host opening weekend games in the NCAA Tournament.

By losing, Louisville dropped to a tie with North Carolina State for third place in the league. The Cards and Wolfpack are 9-3. Syracuse is 10-3. Virginia Tech sits alone in first at 11-2.

By beating Syracuse, Louisville would have been a half-game behind the Hokies at 10-2.

But that game is officially in the scorebook. If Louisville wants another victory, the Cards will have to earn one at Boston College at 7 p.m. Thursday.

What the ACC can do is reverse course and admit that the call at Syracuse was bogus. Cochran's intent was the same intent of every player who follows the tradition of fouling in the final seconds — simply to stop the clock.

The ACC knows that. Conference commissioner Jim Phillips can say that.

And, if Phillips was a good sport, he would also have the league hand over $20,000 for the first two ricks of wood from Jeff Walz's driveway.

That would (wood?) finally be the correct call.

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