Category Archives: Huskies Basketball

The Huskies lost today to North Carolina, ending their season.  The referees were not the reason the Huskies lost the game, late game turnovers were the cause, but the reasoning the officials are giving for not putting more time back on the clock are ridiculous.  Via Percy Allen’s blog, we have these lovely quotes:

From the head official, Tracy Wolfson:

“I had a chance to speak with Doug Shows, who was the official during that last game between UNC and Washington, and he blew the whistle on the final shot,” she said. “He said that Lorenzo Romar did ask for verification, he then went to the table and the official of the clock who handled it said ‘he does not need to go to the monitor.’ They said that the call was right because it’s not when the ball hit the ground, but it’s when the whistle blows, and because of technology there is going to be an obvious lag.”

Then we have this follow up quote from the National Coordinator of men’s Basketball Officiating, John Adams:

ADAMS: “Officials may go to the monitor in that situation, by rule they are not forced to go to the monitor. Tracy had it right, the clock operator is supposed to stop the clock when the official signals the violation, which would have been watching the ball hit the floor, blowing your whistle, in other words recognize the play and have some human reaction time…We have all sorts of resources here in Atlanta and have reviewed this play a number of times, probably come down on the side of the fact that the referee blew the whistle right around the .8, .7 tenth of a second mark.

“We’ve reviewed this with the alternate. They felt that the officials got it exactly right on the court at the time they blew the whistle. I guess in retrospect I would feel like given the resources we had available and checking everybody and everything we had to check, I am not sure that even if we had gone to the monitor, which they certainly could have done, that the technology is good enough to try to figure out one tenth or two tenths of a second and trying to place when that whistle blew and when the clock should have stopped.”

Again, let me say that this didn’t really matter.  The Huskies had lost the game by this point and it would have taken a miracle.  But, I have a problem with these quotes.  Everything they say is technically correct but it is also inconsistent with hundreds of basketball games that I’ve watched over the past couple years.

First of all, the ball landed out-of-bounds between 1.1 and 1.2 seconds on the clock.  I believe if they had gone to the monitor they would have seen this clearly.  Yes, you aren’t supposed to go by that, you’re supposed to go by when the officials arm comes up, but I’ve watched too many games where this has happened when it’s judged on when the ball comes down.  Also, shouldn’t we go by what we know is exactly correct instead of a human delayed reaction?  If they went by this rule, the official technically could have let the clock run out without putting his arm up and said that they got the call correct because his arm was never raised.

Secondly, don’t they think this game is important enough to go to the monitors.  I understand that one guy was looking at it, but it’s not worth another look?  This game sent someone to the sweet 16 and ended another teams season.  I would have at least felt a little better if they stopped the game and took a look, even if they didn’t change anything.

Lastly, John Adams said that the technology might not be good enough to try to figure out a couple of tenths of a second.  I couldn’t disagree more.  I could tell by sitting on a couch, watching from 20 feet away on a 30-inch TV.  The CBS guys had no trouble figuring it out after one look.

I don’t know what I’m looking for with this post.  I know that it wouldn’t have changed much.  The Huskies season is over and it’s not the officials fault.  I just would have liked to hear the referees say they got it a little bit wrong, because everyone, excluding them, saw that they did.

More on the Huskies later, thanks for reading!

Andrew

It looked bleak.  The Huskies were down by as much as 13 in the first half, and ended the half being down by 8.  If it weren’t for surprise starter, Terrance Ross, and his 13 first-half points, the game very well could have been over by halftime.

While sitting on the couch, waiting for the second half, I couldn’t help but think about what could have been.  This was the team who was supposed to finish Pac-10 play at 16-2 and earn a 3 or 4 seed in the NCAA tournament.  At halftime, they were a team who was going to be one-and-done in the Pac-10 tournament and then would be one-and-done in the NCAA Tournament, assuming they’d make it that far.

Then, the Dawgs got their bite back.  They played the best 2 minutes of Husky basketball that we’ve seen in at least a month, and possibly all season.  The Huskies brought a blitz to open up the second half, and when the blitz was finally stopped by a Ken Bone timeout, our Dawgs were up by 2 instead of down by 8.  Welcome back, Huskies.

But, then it wasn’t over.  There was still 17:40 left in the game and the Huskies were playing an inspired Wazzu team that had brought their very best against the Huskies all season long.  Still, even if the Huskies had lost the game, we knew that the team that had looked so strong at points was still there.  The Dawgs proved that in the first 2 minutes of the second half.

The Cougars settled down and held a lead for the next 10 minutes or so.  Klay Thompson was unstoppable.  Every time he touched the ball, it felt like the Huskies had suffered a defeat.  He played an incredible game.  Not to mention, Faisal Aden hitting some incredible shots too.  I don’t know how he made some of those fade-away jumpers.  I’d never seen him shoot like that before.  The last person to go for over 40 points against the Huskies (Thompson finished with 43), was Adam Morrison.  It’s quite interesting that the Huskies have won both of those games.

With Klay going off, the Huskies needed offense and they got it from their leader.  Isaiah Thomas had been questioned over the last 2 weeks, and he’d be the first to admit his game was off.  His double-doubles of a couple months ago were lost memories and he hadn’t made a jump shot in what seemed like 3 weeks.  This week, he vowed to play better and he sure did.  Tonight he finished with 21 points, 11 assists and 3 steals.

I’ve heard many people say that this team doesn’t have the leadership that prior UW teams have had.  I disagree with this thought because of I.T.  In my mind, Thomas was the heart and soul of last years team and he is on this year’s team also.  Tonight he put his best foot forward and was a vocal leader for the Huskies throughout the entire night.  Not to mention, he played the entire game.  He had more passion than I’ve seen and was as focused as I’ve ever seen.  What an amazing effort and performance.

So, are the Huskies back?  We don’t know, and it would be completely foolish to say they were at this point.  But, in the second half tonight, the Dawgs were back.  This was the frantic team we had grown accustomed to .  The team with so many offensive weapons.  The team with suffocating, turnover-forcing defense.  The team that ran the pick-and-roll to perfection down the stretch.  I don’t know if it’ll last through tomorrow but, if nothing else, at least we got to see it one more time.  At halftime, I didn’t think that would happen.

(A few more thoughts after the jump)

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Part of me wonders where this Husky basketball team would be today had goaltending been called on Gant’s last second shot down in Tucson. Would that win have propelled the Dawgs to a 3-0 finish at home, rather than a disappointing 1-2 finish? At 14-4 in conference, the Huskies would be looking at a 3 or 4 seed, not to mention winning another pac-10 championship. Of course there is no way to know what would have happened, and I’m not suggesting the Derrick Williams swat was the only turning point in this season, because there have been many ups and downs–the Gaddy injury, the Venoy speculation, the Northwest road trip, heck, even back to when Terrence Jones de-committed. Adversity is a part of every sports season, the good team overcome it, the not so good ones fold. Had the Huskies won that game in Arizona, a lot of the adversity may have been overcome, and again, who knows what the confidence boost could have done for the team down the stretch.

I don’t know what it is about playing USC at home, but just like last year, it seems the season has hit rock bottom following a home loss to SC. Never would I have thought this team, which lost only senior, albeit a dang good one, would finish the conference regular season with the same 11-7 record. A lot of teams would be happy with that record, but the Romar era has spoiled us fans into taking a lot for granted, especially winning at home. Not to mention expectations were quite high 3 months ago, and the way this team played on certain nights only heightened the bar.

Few things are as gratifying in sports than watching your team, with low expectations, come out of nowhere to exceed anyone’s wildest imagination (i.e. ’10-’11 Seahawks). Of course the flip side is there’s nothing more frustrating than seeing your team not meet it’s potential. That’s the road this Husky team is on, and time is running out to put this thing back together. If a new team does not emerge on Thursday, rallying around the newest adversity (yes, I know about the Venoy suspension), this season will be remembered for high expectations and glimpses of greatness, but crippling inconsistency (i.e. Brandon Morrow).

-Dan