The Van Buren Boys


The Blogosphere's best source for the latest analysis and
commentary from the world of Georgetown Hoyas basketball.


Monday, January 28, 2008

You Make The Call: The Block Heard Round The World

Here are the ESPN highlights from the Georgetown - West Virginia game. They have some good slow-motion shots of Patrick Ewing Jr.'s block as time expired. I don't care which team you were cheering for, that's just a good atheletic play. Was the ball at it's apex? Had it made a slight dip down toward's the basket? I think it's impossible to tell. I don't see how an official could call goal tending in that instance. It's literally too close to call.

5 comments:

Italian Stallion said...

Thanks for posting that Jester. Jonah & I listened in from SC and we didn't see it live. So, from the radio it was tough to understand the complaints. I agree with you, goal-tending or not, a huge play by Ewing Jr. I must admit that after watching the play about 2 dozen times, it may have been coming down. But I stress "may"; I do think it was too close to tell and the right call was made. To use the NFL replay standards, I didn't see clear evidence that the ball was coming down. It honestly depends on the angle you have and even after spending time reviewing it over & over, I'm not sure that it was coming down. No way to tell using real speed. Sure, the call could have gone WVU's way, but I think it was a good no call aside from the obvious preference for a pro G'town call. Ending a game on points earned via a questionnable goal-tending call isn't right. I'll have to get Jonah's opinion tonight.

One thing that concerns me though is that the defense looked a little off at the end. WVU got too good a look.

Glad I didn't see Sapp's 3 on TV; I likely would have cringed. But, I agree w/ Diamond's comment in an earlier posting. Taking that shot required a big pair. I earned a lot of respect for Sapp by him taking and making that 3. I know that I personally haven't given him due credit for some of the games he's had.

Anonymous said...

An unbiased, huge Louisville fan says it wasn't goaltending: "I say clean." http://www.cardchronicle.com/ (in the "Big East Power Poll" section under West Virginia)

To call goaltending, you have to see "downward flight". When someone shoots, there's an assumption of upward flight until proven otherwise. Also, the apex isn't downward flight. No one seeing that replay can say the ball was on a downward flight (let alone anyone watching just once in real time). Not goaltending.

Also, I tried engaging in discussion on a WV website and wouldn't even let me post. So I'm going to vent here. Don't be like Syracuse and blame the refs for non-foul-calls and people supposedly stepping on the line but not being called. Hey Cuse fans, are the WV refs conspiring for Georgetown to win too?

Jester of Magellan said...

Ian, I can't believe that the WVU fans would't let you post. I understand that the 'Neers are upset because they think the refs stole the game from them, but they have no room to complain. If their team had just hit their free throws down the stretch we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

Unknown said...

I'm a wvu fan and watched the game. I thought/think it was goaltending. But I don't fault the refs at all for making the call that they did. It would have seemed wrong either way--winning on a goaltending call sucks and losing on a quetionable blocked shot sucks. I thought what made it so bad was that the refs decided the game on the last play. I know you cna't just have a do over, but there was no call that would have left me satisfied--I just want to see the players decide the game and not the refs. Too bad it ended that way b.c it was a great game all around.

Truth About It said...

It was definitely goal tending....and I'm an unbiased fan.

That being said, you cannot blame the refs. It was such a bang-bang play and to quote my man Jesus, "It bes like that sometimes."

Boy was Huggie Bear P.O.'d after - do you think he rode around drunk in his Cadillac that night?