Physical vs. Dirty

In the Associated Press write up after yesterday's Creighton vs. North Carolina game, the writer used the word "physical" to describe Creighton's style of play. My definition of physical is a team that is diving after loose balls, setting solid screens, and playing hard nose man-to-man defense.

There is a big difference between physical and dirty. What Creighton did during yesterday's game was play cheap, dirty basketball and it cost North Carolina one of its star players and arguably the best point guard in college basketball, Kendall Marshall.

The dirty play started early in the game. John Henson returned to action with a heavily wrapped left wrist and Creighton guard Grant Gibbs started hacking away at it after the whistle early on in the game. John Henson had posession of the ball under the UNC basket and a foul had already been called on another Creighton player. Gibbs took a couple of hard hacks at his wrist. The play resulted in John Henson picking up a technical foul when he got in Gibbs' face. What sealed the deal for me was Gibbs winking at his bench. Announcer Clark Kellogg, in my opinion one of the worst announcers in college basketball, said he did not know what Gibbs' "intent" was. The intent to injure was there and John Henson knew it. I wonder if Kelloggs perception would have changed if that was his son, who plays for Ohio University, getting hacked on.

Creighton's Center, Gregory Echenique, decided early on that there was no way that he could match Tyler Zeller's skill level so he was going to try to hammer him every time he made a move. Echenique's idea of an offensive move was to lower his shoulder and bang Zeller off of him. Of course Clark Kellogg applauded his efforts the entire game because why worry about skill when you can try to pound them into submission.

The key moment of that battle had to be when Echenique gave Zeller a double forearm shiver to the chest and slammed him to the floor. Echenique had been upset because on the previous offensive posession by Creighton, he had thrown up an errant shot and he immediately started motioning to the officials that he thought Zeller had pushed him on the play. Rather than play on, he decided to take matters into his own hands. UNC's shot was already in the air and Zeller was just below the free throw line, when Echenique turned and faced Zeller, and hit him with both of his forearms. Neither player was remotely close to being in rebounding position. That was by the purest of definitions, a cheap shot. The refs conveniently called nothing, Clark Kellogg remained silent, Jim Nance mentioned there was no foul called on that incident, and the UNC fans booed heartily.

The final moment came when Creighton player, Ethan Wragge, clotheslined Kendall Marshall as he drove in for a layup. Wragge was out of position on the play, his back was turned to Marshall, and he took a backhanded swipe at Marshall as he drove by. Wragge caught him across the shoulder and chest with the backhand swipe, sending Marshall airborn and onto the floor. The result was two free throws and a broken right wrist for Kendall Marshall. The refs actually called a foul on that play.

Creighton couldn't beat the Tarheels with their basketball skills so they turned it into a cheap shot contest. That contest they easily won. The refs let it continue throughout the entire game and they penalized John Henson with a technical foul as a result. All that did was motivate the North Carolina team as they easily won the basketball skills contest. It is a shame that one backhanded swipe could ultimately cost UNC a shot at the national championship.