Forget all these excuses you’ve heard the last couple of days about “Clockgate,” the fiasco which happened at the end of Monday night’s women’s basketball game between Rutgers and Tennessee in Knoxville.
Rutgers wasn’t robbed of its well-earned win by a clock malfunction. Nor was it human error by the timekeeper.
And while you’re assigning blame, don’t give any to the Lady Vols. In fact, give a whole lot of praise to Nicky Anosike for waiting out about a five-minute delay and then cooly draining the game-winning free throws.
Blame officials Bob Trammell, Tina Napier and Bonita Spence, who completely blew it by failing to use the replay system for what it’s supposed to do—right obvious wrongs.
For those of you who haven’t seen what happened, here’s a quick review: Down one point in the last 10 seconds, UT hunted a game-winning shot.
Shannon Bobbitt missed a jumper. Candace Parker rebounded and missed in the lane. The clock then freezes on 0.2 seconds while Anosike grabs an offensive rebound, tries to go up for a shot and is pulled down from behind.
If there was ever a classic replay situation, this is it. And if there’s a more clearcut call made for replay reversal than this one, I’ve yet to see it.
Yet the officiating crew—led by Trammell, a Final Four veteran—somehow botched the ruling completely, saying that Anosike’s rebound, attempted putback and foul all occurred in 0.2 seconds or less.
If you believe that, you’re either wearing orange-colored glasses or you’re related to one of the officials. ESPN replays later Monday night showed the sequence from Anosike’s rebound to the whistle blowing for the foul took 1.3 seconds.
Now I wasn’t a math major in college (I was more like a playground hoops major, but I digress), but I know 1.3 seconds is longer than 0.2 seconds. And the officials should have had either the competence or the guts to get the call right.
You know what happened after Trammell and Co. turned the endgame into the 1972 Munich Olympics. Anosike, a 64 percent free throw shooter, hit both to give the Lady Vols a tainted 59-58 win.
That sequence highlighted the biggest problem with the women’s game as opposed to the men’s game—weak officiating. As much as men’s basketball insiders criticize Ted Valentine for his showboating ways on the court (and he does love to call attention to himself), do you think he would have upheld the ruling on the court after looking at that replay? Heck no.
Rutgers coach Vivian Stringer said if it had happened to decide a national championship, she would have been out of a job, such was the fuss she would have raised.
A lot of other people should have been raising it, too. But incredibly, the SEC and Big East Conferences, which supplied the refs Monday night, signed off on the endgame.
Apparently, it’s more important to believe every excuse you hear instead of just looking at the facts. And the facts are the officials robbed Rutgers. Period.