Forty minutes of basketball later, I still have no idea if Ohio State is better than Georgetown.
I know what the scoreboard says: Ohio State 67, Georgetown 60.
But I don’t know that Ohio State is seven points better, or any better, than Georgetown. Neither do you. Nobody knows, because this game was taken from us by the people who were entrusted with controlling the action but instead reduced both teams — and therefore this national semifinal — to chaos.
The officials killed this Final Four game. Completely killed it.
Today is the day that you will see two things that you don’t normally see on SFN – praise for the Charlotte Observer AND a link to Gregg Dickhead Doyel. Both have managed to successfully call attention to a major problem with this year’s Final Four – officiating.
I was very excited to see the Greg Oden vs Roy Hibbert clash on Saturday. Unfortunately, it never developed because the officials were so keen on letting you know that they were in charge and they weren’t going to have these big men upstaging them!
Don’t you know that the game is their sand box?! Does that sound familiar?
Kudos to the Charlotte Observer – (that’s something that you don’t hear every day) – for point out the following:
Thanks for nothing, first-game referees. The overzealous crew of Ted Valentine, Richard Cartmell and Mike Kitts combined to make sure the Greg Oden-Roy Hibbert battle would barely get off the ground in the first half. They called ticky-tack fouls on both Hibbert and Oden within the first minute. Oden then got his second foul with only 2 minutes, 41 seconds gone and missed the rest of the first half. The second half by both men was very good, but it could have been so much more.
Doyel penned a full piece on the topic that can be found here. The quote that leads this blog entry is the opening to his article. The following quote is something that we ALL do quite often. Interesting that Doyel shared it.
What are the officials’ names? Find them yourself. They disgust me, and typing their names into my computer might just kill my Norton Anti-Vomit program. Although I will say this: When the officials walked onto the floor during pregame warm-ups and I spotted the lead guy, I shuddered. Literally shuddered. Noted the guy’s name on my pad, underlined it twice and next to his name wrote the words, Uh-oh. True story.
I will NEVER understand how in Christ’s name Ted Valentine got the opportunity to work the Final Four!?! If Valentine is the best available, then it is no wonder why collegiate officiating is so poor.
