NCSU-Nova in a tight one

[pfrduke]

The finals of the WWOS championship in Orlando is an excellent game. State and 'Nova keep trading leads, and Cory Fisher (a Wildcat freshman) is really exploding onto the scene in this game. Hickson and Grant have played very well for State, but Costner has struggled, and the Pack is turning the ball over too much.

1-point State lead at the under 4 in the second half... tune in to catch the end of a good one.

[Bluedog]

wow!....ncsu pulls out a tough one on a controversial foul call on a 3 pointer with 0.4 sec left....some 'nova fans are not going to be too happy. nova almost made the shot with just 0.4 sec with a quick tip;

[M B Walker]

wow!....ncsu pulls out a tough one on a controversial foul call on a 3 pointer with 0.4 sec left....some 'nova fans are not going to be too happy. nova almost made the shot with just 0.4 sec with a quick tip;

To be fair, there were two controversial calls against State, just before the final one that went their way. The officiating during the last few minutes left a lot to be desired, but if Villanova had been capable of hitting a free throw (they were 8/18 for the game), it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Still, it was good to see the Pack pull one out. Hickson's going to be a tough match-up for Duke when we play them in January.

[ACCBBallFan]

wow!....ncsu pulls out a tough one on a controversial foul call on a 3 pointer with 0.4 sec left....some 'nova fans are not going to be too happy. nova almost made the shot with just 0.4 sec with a quick tip;
Yep, glad to see the ACC team beat the Big East team but I too question the call. Of course if the Nova guy had been more disciplined he would not have put himself close enough to Gavin Grant for the ref to make the questionable call.

Gavin Grant got the shot off a long out of bounds pass from lefty Costner, similar to Laettner but not a turn-around, just an open jumper when down by one. So did not matter whether his foot was on the 3 point line or not.

Very surprised how close the Nova tip was on another even further length of the court out of bounds pass with only 0.4 seconds left. Almost had to be thrown above the rim and flushed but in this case was a little short of the basket but inadvertently tipped close by a Nova player then next tip was after time expired..

[Olympic Fan]

This end-game is a classic example of why Terping is so wrong.

I agree that on the Grant shot, the call was wrong. Watching it real time, it looked like the 'Nova defender came down on his arm, then raised his hands straight up. Grant's air ball reinforced the idea that he got hacked.

But a closeup, slow motion replayed appeared (to me, at least) that there was no contact on the initial swipe. It LOOKED like he hit Grant's arm as he shot, but the replay made it pretty clear he didn't.

So Villanova got screwed by the refs, right?

Well, they got screwed on that call. But just a few seconds before that, State's J.J. Hickson hit a shot in the lane and was fouled. He missed the free throw, but State's Grant got the rebound -- which would have given State the ball and a one-point lead with about 25 seconds left.

However, just as Grant came down with the ball, he was mugged by Corey Fisher. This one was obvious in real time -- he was knocked off balance by Fisher and should have gone to the FT line. Instead, Grant was called for traveling -- both announcers were aghast and went on and on about what a bad call it was. It was a terrible call that could have cost State the game when 'Nova came down and hit the go-ahead shot (on a tipin with a guy over Grant's back ... although that was a much more debatable call).

It's just a good illustration of how we tend to focus on one controversial call at the end of the game and run it into the ground (ESPN showed the finish at least a dozen times -- always showing the foul on Grant's shot; never showing the foul on Grant's travel) ... without totalling up the dozens of bad or questionable or close calls that lead up to it. In this case, if the refs don't make a terrible call on the Grant travel, maybe we never have the terrible call on the Grant shot.

That's why Terping is such a bogus reaction.

[sandinmyshoes]

This end-game is a classic example of why Terping is so wrong.

I agree that on the Grant shot, the call was wrong. Watching it real time, it looked like the 'Nova defender came down on his arm, then raised his hands straight up. Grant's air ball reinforced the idea that he got hacked.

But a closeup, slow motion replayed appeared (to me, at least) that there was no contact on the initial swipe. It LOOKED like he hit Grant's arm as he shot, but the replay made it pretty clear he didn't.

So Villanova got screwed by the refs, right?

Well, they got screwed on that call. But just a few seconds before that, State's J.J. Hickson hit a shot in the lane and was fouled. He missed the free throw, but State's Grant got the rebound -- which would have given State the ball and a one-point lead with about 25 seconds left.

However, just as Grant came down with the ball, he was mugged by Corey Fisher. This one was obvious in real time -- he was knocked off balance by Fisher and should have gone to the FT line. Instead, Grant was called for traveling -- both announcers were aghast and went on and on about what a bad call it was. It was a terrible call that could have cost State the game when 'Nova came down and hit the go-ahead shot (on a tipin with a guy over Grant's back ... although that was a much more debatable call).

It's just a good illustration of how we tend to focus on one controversial call at the end of the game and run it into the ground (ESPN showed the finish at least a dozen times -- always showing the foul on Grant's shot; never showing the foul on Grant's travel) ... without totalling up the dozens of bad or questionable or close calls that lead up to it. In this case, if the refs don't make a terrible call on the Grant travel, maybe we never have the terrible call on the Grant shot.

That's why Terping is such a bogus reaction.


Wow. I cannot agree with your assessment of the Grant travel at all. Not at all. It's as if we were watching games in alternate universes. But I am glad State won. It is good for the ACC, and all the sweeter because it came at the expense of the Big East.

[Cary]

I am in Olympic Fan's court on this one. We thought it was an obvious bad call in real time and TIVO made it look even worse. One c***** call deserves another.

[sandinmyshoes]

I do agree with the comments on terping, however. That last bad call is tougher emotionally and for the team psyche, maybe, but if you just go back through a game there are going to be other bad calls that went the other way and impacted the game. And there will be calls that weren't made that could have impacted the game. Usually it balances out over the course of a game.

[Slackerb]

All else aside, this was a horribly officiated game. It seemed like State got the shaft most of the times, but Nova got some bad calls also. It'd be a touch foul one second and then allowing a player to get mugged in the other (Hickson's shot at the end).

Grant's travel call was definitely shady...he came down with the rebound and for some reason took 3 "falling" steps to the side without dribbling? He was clearly bumped by two Nova guys (one on his back and another coming in for the steal).

Anyways, a great, great game with some awful officiating.

Oh, and I was surprised that in the ACC recap that the DBR only had a brief one paragraph blurb about this game. This was a great game against a ranked and tough opponent for the Old Spice championship...