State survives Virginia Tech, ACC officiating blunders

12-13 Basketball ACC Headscratchers SFN A/V131

NC State had to go to overtime because the Atlantic Coast Conference officials couldn’t monitor the free throw lane one of the most simple and basic rules of basketball.

In the end, the Wolfpack defeated Virginia Tech 90-86 to continue to fight to be positioned for an important #4 or #3 seed in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament. State continues to be ranked in the Top 20 of most computer systems, including the RPI where the Wolfpack also has played one of the ten toughest schedules in the country at this point of the season.

The following two videos were a couple of the more fun calls (or no calls) from the ACC officials today that have already hit the internet — the second of which is everyone’s favorite and a perfect example of how/why Richard Howell has been so foul plagued throughout his career.

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12-13 Basketball ACC Headscratchers SFN A/V

131 Responses to State survives Virginia Tech, ACC officiating blunders

  1. Wulfpack 02/16/2013 at 4:54 PM #

    Hairston, Bullock and Paige are really starting to shoot the three well. MUST get out in the UNC shooters next week, and then pound it inside and crash the boards hard. UNC is playing like a different team than the team that came to Raleigh. Played Dook very well and scorched the Cavs today. Winner likely takes third place into the ACC tourney.

  2. JohnGalt78 02/16/2013 at 4:58 PM #

    Don’t know if they showed it on TV, but on the monitor/scoreboard, after a no-call while Howell was getting mugged trying to grap a rebound, at the dead ball he was tapping his head, shoulder, arm, face, etc…..essentially “signing” to the refs that he was getting assaulted under the basket while they looked the other way. Don’t know which one it was, but one of the refs just laughed at him.

  3. WolfTrack 02/16/2013 at 5:02 PM #

    As ugly as that game was, lets look at some good: we were down 7 with about 7 minutes left and didn’t quit, we went to overtime and didn’t hit a brick wall. TJ remembered how to play ball, the scoring was nicely distributed (and we did score 90 today). We iced a game at the line (granted it was the second chance to do so) and we won the game…it’s not all doom and gloom.

  4. Rochester 02/16/2013 at 5:04 PM #

    That call on Howell was KH tape on the shoes bad. I was cheering because it was such a blatant over the back I was already picturing Howell at the line.

    Still, it shouldn’t have mattered. You don’t lose 7 (now 8) in a row by accident. VaTech has deficiencies we did not exploit.

  5. Thinkpack17 02/16/2013 at 5:12 PM #

    We have a coach that isn’t great defensively taking over a bunch of kids who had 0 discipline before he arrived. We lose our 2 best on the ball defenders.

    It’s the perfect storm.

  6. xphoenix87 02/16/2013 at 5:13 PM #

    For all the whining people do on here about how we always give up SO MANY wide-open three-pointers, opponents are only shooting 29.5% from three against us this year (not including this game). That’s 18th best in the nation. Games like this will happen, where opponents hit a high percentage of their 3s. That’s the nature of the three-point shot. On the whole, however, we’ve actually been good (or lucky) defending 3s.

    The real problem we have on defense is that we don’t force turnovers and we give up a ton of offensive rebounds. That’s the issue. Va Tech today rebounded nearly 40% of their misses, which is just unacceptable. For a team that has as much size as we do, there’s no reason we should get abused on the boards game after game.

  7. Pack Mentality 02/16/2013 at 5:13 PM #

    I also have to wonder when it is that y’all are going to quit expecting blowout ACC victories! You’re not just satisfied with a win?

  8. Thinkpack17 02/16/2013 at 5:16 PM #

    Those last 3’s were a result of Lo Brown being dog tired.

  9. BureauOfMines 02/16/2013 at 5:18 PM #

    “The FT violation occurred with about 5 seconds left in regulation. Allowed them to tie the game with just over 3 seconds left.”

    Yeah, FunPack. Funny how the last 2 home games have come down to something like that in the final seconds. One’s a fluke. Two’s a trend.

  10. STLPack01 02/16/2013 at 5:21 PM #

    Finally, XPhoenix, somebody says something sensible. They were close in the game because they shot the lights out from three. They normally shoot 30% from three. We normally give up 30% from three. I didn’t see any worse effort today than any other game. Shots were contested. Some were open. That’s normal.

    They shot 47% from three. That difference resulted in 12 more points than they normally would have had. Three point defense is just luck. Y’all need to read some KenPom.

  11. bill.onthebeach 02/16/2013 at 5:25 PM #

    I will not ‘legitimatize” any tweets by former players…
    who wouldn’t do the “work” necessary to earn playing time.

    You guys shouldn’t either….

    Our “defensive” issues are a combination of several factors… not in any order….

    1. Every team we play has one or two guys that could play for anybody, including us. Expecting consistent blowouts is not realistic….

    2. Everybody we are playing is a ‘tweener’…

    — Richard is too little to be a legitimate center…
    — CALVIN is too skinny to be a power forward….
    — Lo is just a shade too low to play ‘stopper’ defense on smaller, quicker guards ….
    — Scott’s last name is WOO…
    — Tyler is too short to play D inside the paint…
    — Vandy is too slow and foulprone…

    — and Nervous and Cuz are freshman who have NEVER played team defense before this season .

    3. Trying to match up against specific opponents is a Coach’s nightmare because they all have at least one guy who is legitimate at his position… and they all know our lineup as good as we do….

    So we average almost 80pts a game and give up on average about the same…

    4. Other than Dook and UNx at home, I don’t remember another game against a D1 team where we had five guys playing at their peak performance this season…for the whole game….

    That said…. I really believe we are improving each game…

    In recent games…we are playing a more consistent 40 minutes each game. … we have not seen the high highs and low lows that we saw early in the season…. except for the first 10 minutes in Durham….

    5. I think our Coach’s philosophy is to use the regular season as the learning lab to build the best team for Tournament time…. and to bring it all big time in March…..not to finish the regular season 25-2 and lose in the opening round …..

    The mid-season addition of the Tyler-Brown backcourt solves a lot of problems on the offensive… but is a small setback on defense …. Lo is learning a different position on D and the rest of team is doing a better job of protecting Tyler …

    This will *not be a factor by Tournament time…

    Take out the ‘Canes amazing season… which nobody predicted and add back a couple of those…”that’s just the way the ball bounces “…. and we are record-wise right we are pretty much right where most thought we would be….

    That’s the razor’s edge….

    We shall see how this turns out soon enough….

    I believe we will all be proud of the Pack in March !!!

  12. ADVENTUROO 02/16/2013 at 5:26 PM #

    Some observations by the fans in my area. Section 214.

    Officiating was UGLY…..really UGLY. However, anyway you cut it, if the stats are right, when you go to the FT line 43 times and get 31 points and VT goes 7 and gets only 5, complaining about the officiating seems a little less than dignified. NOW, admittedly, there were some really BS calls. But when you have a 40 foul game and the team you support WINS and only has 12 of the fouls….in most ACC games, regardless of the crew, the home court advantage is about 3 – 5 fouls….We had a 16 FOUL advantage. Again, there were a LOT of no calls…..and there were some “OPPS, I should not have whistled….but, wait….I’ll ball a BS foul to compensate…” And USUALLY the Make-Up calls were in our favor.

    Next, the crowd was NOT into the game. I really had a bad feeling when we were down 7 points in the second half. Then we went on a 12 – 0 run and were up by 5. Seemed like we woke up and old Mo was in the building. My LBSTI knew we were in trouble when Rob and Jeff came out in their “blue” mood shirts. Coach G got the message. Did not know, until the post game, that Howell was doubtful. Wondered WHY he was in a Red T during the shootaround rather than the usual.

    Positives were Tyler Lewis. He looked like he was our “spark” tonight. He came in and was, I think, the leading scorer in the first half.

    Purvis was sort of AWOL. When you look at the and TJ’s Avg PPG, that is 24 points or so…..something that we woefully needed and are NOT getting. Tyler looks like shoe in for the “White Kids Can’t Jump” award…..he is showing as much poise and maturity as the fab four…..OK….not quite as much as ZO. Zo, in the waning minutes of regulation and in the OT, would slow down when he got to the line. He was stand at the top of the key….catch his breath and do the “Cornbread Maxwell” dry run. He was really Mr. Cool down the line.

    I mentally went over the strategy for the last possession and based on the fouls, was not surprised to see a VT player on the line…..did it HAVE to be GREEN? I also did the probabilites of a three point play off a 1 in 1 FT attempt. Pretty low, but hey, that is why you try them.

    Hope they get all the cobwebs OUT and pounce on FSU….as it is going to get harder. A WIN against FSU would move them down. It would give us another W. RIght now, we are tied with UNC for 4th and UVA is a game ahead with 4 losses and we have 5, just like UNC. UVA’s next game is Miami at MIAMI….then GT and Duke at HOME…..they stand a good chance of having TWO more losses….and we need to keep winning….

  13. MARinRVA 02/16/2013 at 5:45 PM #

    TDT Tweet? Sorry, but I’m late to this. Would someone fill me in? Thx

  14. Thinkpack17 02/16/2013 at 5:55 PM #

    ^A guy that was given every opportunity to get minutes on our team but never stepped up had bad things to say about our coach.

  15. PoppaJohn 02/16/2013 at 6:00 PM #

    Back from the game – totally discouraged,
    We are just terrible at defense. Over and over we’d double team Green, and he’d pass to the guy we ignored for a wide open 3.
    Full court pressure results in no turnovers.

    I think we are either getting worse, or standing still while everyone else in the league improves.

    What’s the good of a high tourney see if the worst team in the league takes us to OT at home?

    I’ve been buying into the “we’ll get there” theory, but not seeing it.

    We’re an upset waiting to happen.

  16. BJD95 02/16/2013 at 6:10 PM #

    I still like this team a lot. For some reason, I’m just not as panicked as perhaps I objectively should be. When we are right…it’s just so beautiful to watch.

    Props to WBS for contributing very well in more limited minutes – as made necessary by the matchup. It’s so huge to have a third FT shooting option for holding a lead.

    Buckets did a few dumb things (again), but also made some big plays in the last 4 minutes plus OT. And after Woo stupidly passed to him with time running out…he did make 1 of 2 to ensure the win.

  17. Thinkpack17 02/16/2013 at 6:12 PM #

    “Full court pressure results in no turnovers.”

    Green coughed it up twice…once to Scott Wood and once to Lo Brown.

    The Scott Wood steal came when we had just fallen behind by 7.

    “What’s the good of a high tourney see if the worst team in the league takes us to OT at home?”

    I don’t think a high seed matters but Va Tech beat Ok State and lost to UNC in OT.

  18. MrPlywood 02/16/2013 at 6:24 PM #

    Maybe the guys got a sneak-sneak preview of “Survive and Advance” and they’re just trying to make things interesting for the fans. Cardiac Pack Part Deux.

  19. WTNY 02/16/2013 at 6:24 PM #

    What a disappointment this team is.

    Most of the time:
    * Leslie is a black hole
    * No desire for rebounds
    * When decide to rebound, block out worse than middle school teams
    * Only play defense periodically

  20. doug 02/16/2013 at 6:31 PM #

    WE won . Move on.

  21. JeremyH 02/16/2013 at 6:40 PM #

    We beat Clemson, we beat VT, and still in the running for a #3 or #4 seed. Good job. Practice free throws and defense. Bye.

  22. Alpha Wolf 02/16/2013 at 6:45 PM #

    “What a disappointment this team is.”

    I can’t go there with you. This team has its problems, but it has somehow figured out how to beat the #1 team in the country, to stop UNC’s streak, to have solid tourney credentials and to likely place itself in a bye position for the ACC tournament…

    Could they be better? Yes. But I saw a team that didn’t quit today, didn’t collapse when it got unlucky and had to go to overtime, didn’t let bad calls beat it and didn’t lose. Sure, it’s only VT, but those were good lessons to remember for the games yet to come.

  23. Pack1998 02/16/2013 at 6:51 PM #

    Can NOT complain about the officiating. Wasn’t great, but no issues.

    Erick Green is terrific.

    We didn’t push it enough on offense – we need speed, speed, speed.

    On defense, we’ll never be great, do not worry. The game is about runs, you have to score to stop a run. Some of you remember the dark times.

    Re: defense -I don’t like how teams screen us though. They tend to get more advantage off screens than I’ve seen in the past. Yes, a random thought, but I notice every game.

    Howell not being 100% was a big difference.

  24. tractor57 02/16/2013 at 6:54 PM #

    Ok I have read all the comments and now here are mine.
    I watched on TV rather than being present but I did not see terrible defense all the time in fact most of the time I was happy with what I saw. Much better than the early season matador defense. Still some areas to work on but improving greatly.

    No turnovers from the press? Really I saw at least two and from a press that was not set up to provide max pressure rather to take time away from the offensive possession – I thought that addition was a masterful move.

    Lewis actually look reasonably good on defense. Yes there will always be challenges when he is matched up with a taller and skilled offensive weapon but overall I give him good marks.

    We saw both CJ and Calvin today. Most of the CJ moments were early.

    Some issues with free throw shooting at the end of regulation. Had Zo and Woo hit both of their shots the missed call on the putback would not have mattered. That said that was a missed call that was material to the game. The proper call and game over without OT.

    In summation this is the type of game I expect during the NCAAT so better the team get experience with down to the wire games. Having watched ACC roundball since the 60’s these type games have been common – the really good teams first win at home then steal some on the road. Miami has proven to be an excellent team, Duke pretty darn good (as usual). UNX better than some hoped and the Pack not quite as good as the preseason hype (about 7 points short there).

    Many here expect 20+ point blow outs in every conference game – that just will not happen.

    As V said “survive and advance”

    Like BJD I do like this team. I also get frustrated when I know they are capable of better play but I really like this team.

  25. sjmac11 02/16/2013 at 7:00 PM #

    Listen, at the end of the sec on half we were ahead at the free throw line 34 attempts to 7. Now I know the officiating is horrible, disgusting and down right shitty BUT again it did not cost us nor keep this game close. Don’t know the exact percentage but I’m sure we shot around 65% from the line….horrible. And I’m running out of excuses or reasons for this teams struggles. I’ve beat up CJ, TJ and any of the kids…not them, at some point we may have to wonder just how good of a coach we have. I know, I know….not jumping on the Gott father but something aint clicking. I wonder why we ever take time outs because it looks like m two year old daughter drew up the play we come out with.

    Shit it’s a win

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