Phantom Call Gives Duke Final Two Points

As both replays in this entry indicate, there was the slightest bit of contact during the first part of Nelson’s drive that was obviously initiated by Nelson’s hook. No whistle blew at the time of the contact. The whistle didn’t blow (and a foul wasn’t called) until a part of the play where there was no contact and until Nelson jumped out of bounds with the ball still in his hands. At that point the whistle HAD to blow. But, as we all know in the ACC, the call also HAD to go against Duke’s opponent.

Since the guys at 850 The Buzz have so much time on their hands and love YouTube so much…I’m looking forward to the song that they write to coordinate with Duke’s winning points today.

Rob Roberts of the N&O was gracious enough to post a link to his video of the call, in the comments, review that and form your opinion.

You knew it was going to happen. We really had little chance. With the Devils down a point and with the ball…DeMarcus Nelson was close to traveling, then blatantly hooked Ben McCauley with his free arm as he drove to the basket (how many times does Brandon Costner get called for this?), then traveled again while simultaneously landing out of bounds with the ball in his hands.

The ACC officials call?

Foul on Ben McCauley. Two shots for DeMarcus Nelson.

Duke hits two free throws. Nobody else scores. Game over. Thanks for playing. The ACC’s darlings are protected and their seed in the NCAA Tournament doesn’t drop any further.

Shew. Disaster averted.

Coach K Wins #800 Duke 87, NC State 86

You can view the CBS video here.


As both replays in this entry indicate, there was the slightest bit of contact during the first part of Nelson’s drive that was obviously initiated by Nelson’s hook. No whistle blew at the time of the contact. The whistle didn’t blow (and a foul wasn’t called) until a part of the play where there was no contact and until Nelson jumped out of bounds with the ball still in his hands. At that point the whistle HAD to blow. But, as we all know in the ACC, the call also HAD to go against Duke’s opponent.

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231 Responses to Phantom Call Gives Duke Final Two Points

  1. MrPlywood 03/03/2008 at 2:37 AM #

    to the Dook transvestite: puhleeeze. I don’t need rules quoted by any self-righteous cheer-sheet reading pogo-jumping trust-fund baby. Paulus stuck his face in where it didn’t belong, and he got clocked. Looked to me like he took a dive – after all, the kid is famous for flopping…

  2. RabidWolf 03/03/2008 at 4:14 PM #

    Rick
    Mar 1st, 2008 at 2:17 pm
    “We are a stupid team. We have upper classmen that might as well not be playing. I have had it with this team.”

    beowolf
    Mar 1st, 2008 at 2:18 pm
    “Amazing how one wrong call spelled the difference.

    For all of you saying now that Lowe should go, now, please curl up and die. That is all.”

    Beo—-I couldn’t agree more…and from where I was sitting, it looked like Ben could have gotten a call on his last second shot as well.

    Rick—-Go curl up and die.

  3. RabidWolf 03/03/2008 at 4:18 PM #

    Addendum: WAY TO GO JAVI!! GREAT GAME!

  4. legacyman 03/03/2008 at 9:45 PM #

    Coach Lowe explained on his radio show that they wanted to foul a dook player but not Sheyer or Paulus and we couldn’t get the ball out of their hands. If either of those go to the line then we are down three and have to score a three just to tie. Sid’s strategy was to play D and get the ball back, move it to half court and call one of the remaining two TOs, set up a final play and use the second TO if the dook D was something that was bad for the play called. The problem was that the ref wouldn’t call the TO that Sidney was asking for. That wasn’t the only time that we got worked by the refs but it certainly was critical. The strategy worked great until the ref did his thing.

  5. wufpup76 03/03/2008 at 11:42 PM #

    ^Yes, I heard Sidney’s show and thought process about the last 40 seconds and I believe his explanation was reasonable … I didn’t necessarily agree with his line of thinking, but he had reason / logic behind his actions …

    Of course he’s played / coached for a long time and I’m a stupid bloggie so I’ll defer to his judgement 🙂

    Go state

  6. Rick 03/04/2008 at 9:54 AM #

    “Rick—-Go curl up and die.”

    Quite sad that you would take a forum post so personally. And all that is because someone has a different opinion than you. What are you in the forth grade?

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