Officials Control The Game

The officials lost control of the NC State-UNC game early on yesterday afternoon and it degenerated from there. John Thompson's philosophy at Georgetown was the officials are not going to call everything and his teams played that way. They were very physical, got away with murder, and it greatly influenced the outcomes of games, usually in their favor. NC State only uses 6 or 7 players throughout the course of the game and I don't know if that influences how they call a game or not, but yesterdays game was very physical and I have to question the timing of some of the calls. Reggie Bullock was called for a foul in which he whacked a NC State player on the back as he drove in for a shot, but the official did not make the call until the player actually missed the shot. Even the announcer made mention of the fact. James Michael McAdoo continually got mugged all day long, including a hip check that sent him flying across the lane (no call) but the most curious had to be the double call against Scott Wood and Dexter Strickland in the second half. Scott Wood gave a forearm shiver to Strickland and I saw no real retaliation by Strickland but Wood walks away holding his head so they call the double foul. The 'Heels did not shoot their first free throw of the game until there were about 5 minutes gone in the second half. Basketball is a game of skill, precision, and finesse. If I want to watch football or hockey, I will turn to a different channel or wait until the fall.