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WSU loses on a technical fall

Posted by Vince

Dec. 31, 2009 8:32 p.m. • 17 comments

COUGARS

I hope you had a chance to see this game. The Cougars were like Sisyphus, rolling the rock up the hill for 45 minutes, never getting the lead until the first overtime. But the rock rolled back over them in the form of a technical at the end of regulation (we explain it in the ensuing story) and Tajuan Porter’s long-range shooting in the extra periods. Anyhow, here’s our unedited story, though I wonder how many people are out there reading this. Have a safe New Year’s Eve.

••••••••••

• Here’s the story …

PULLMAN – Oregon’s Malcolm Armstead grabbed Klay Thompson’s miss with 6 seconds left in the second overtime, raced the length of the court, scored and was fouled with a half second on the clock, lifting the Ducks a wild 91-89 Pacific-10 Conference win Thursday.

As the 5,810 who made it to Beasley Coliseum on New Year’s Eve sat stunned, their thoughts may have immediately turned to a similar play at the end of the first overtime, when it looked like Washington State had grabbed the win.

It went like this.

After Tajuan Porter hit a 3-pointer with 6.1 seconds left in the first extra period to tie the score at 78, Thompson received an inbounds pass, raced up court and found a sprinting DeAngelo Casto near the basket.

Casto, bruised and battered from battling Oregon’s Michael Dunigan for 45 minutes, gathered himself, spun and laid the ball over the rim for his 15th point.

As the ball fell through, Casto ran up court, sure the Cougars had rallied from a 13-point second-half deficit to win 80-78. But his elation, and that of some of the WSU reserves who ran onto the court, was premature.

There was still .3 seconds remaining. A whistle blew. The officials huddled, called the coaches over, then went to the scorer’s table. An indirect bench technical was called, for WSU’s reserves being on the court.

Porter, Oregon’s lone senior in uniform, had a chance to tie. The lifetime 86 percent free-throw shooter did just that, hitting both and sending the game to another overtime.

“We (called) a technical foul for bench personnel running onto the court during a live ball, without being beckoned onto the court,” Mike Littlewood, the lead official, said afterward, going on to cite Rule 6, Section 1, article 4B, which states “The ball shall become live when… B. on a throw-in the ball is at the disposal of the thrower in and the official begins the throw-in count.”

Littlewood said that’s what happened.

“As soon as he grabs the ball, the ball is live,” Littlewood added, and WSU had too many players on the court.

“It’s a tough way to lose a game,” said WSU coach Ken Bone, picking his words carefully. “There’s not a whole lot we can do about it now.”

But Bone tried to do a lot when it occurred, arguing with Littlewood and his crew. And he argued voraciously after Armstead’s game-winning bucket 5 minutes later, when Oregon players entered the court.

The difference, Littlewood explained, was the foul made it a dead-ball situation.

“It’s one of those things that kind of take you heart out,” Casto said of the technical. “We just battled and battled for 40 minutes, then battled for another 5. … We were so excited. Point-3 left, there is really no way you can get a shot off. Then when that technical came, you kind of looked at your self and we had to go to the next (overtime).”

Despite the deflation, the Cougars (10-3 overall, 0-1 in Pac-10 play) had a chance to win, leading the second overtime 88-85 after Thompson’s 22-footer with 2:56 remaining.

But they had no answer for the 5-foot-7 Porter, who scored 18 of his 31 points after regulation, going 6 of 12 from the floor and 4 of 7 from beyond the arc in the 10 extra minutes alone.

He finished with 31 points, though the final four Oregon points came on Dunigan’s layup – the last of his 22 points – to tie it at 89 and on Armstead’s game-winner.

“For all of his basketball career he’s had to be a guy who gets after you and puts you on your heels because of the size,” Kent said of Porter. “He has to get you moving and freeze you.”

Porter did that much of the game with Reggie Moore trying to guard him, putting Moore in early foul trouble – he finally fouled out on Armstead’s game-winning play – helping to limit WSU’s second-leading scorer to 10 points.

In fact, the Ducks had all the Cougars on their heels early, breaking out to a 12-2 lead, extending the margin to 15 late in the first half, and still leading 52-39 with 11:30 left in regulation.

“We had nine days off and haven’t been in a rhythm of playing a game and I think it took us a while to pick it up,” Casto said. “We definitely didn’t come out with the fire we had in the second half.”

Then Thompson began to find the range. At that 11:30 mark, the nation’s third-leading scorer was 2 of 11 from the field and had yet to hit a 3-pointer. He still had 10 points, though, as he was 6 of 7 from the line. He finished with 33 points, hitting 19 of 21 free throws and 6 of 19 shots.

Thompson fed James Watson for a dunk, then scored six consecutive points after Xavier Thames’ 15-footer. The came on three free throws – Thompson was fouled three times on 3-point attempts – and his first long-range shot.

The 10-0 run put the Cougars in it, and they finally caught Oregon (9-4, 1-0) at 62 on a Moore drive with 2:52 remaining.

Porter answered with a long 3 at the 1:21 mark and Thompson re-tied it with three more free throws with just less than a minute left. When Dunigan, the 6-10 sophomore who finished with 22 points, 12 rebounds and five blocked shots, missed two free throws with 36.9 left, WSU had one more shot.

Moore took it as the clock was running down, but his 17-footer was short and overtime beckoned.

“We put ourselves in a position to win it, and that’s not easy when you’re down 15 playing the way we did early on,” said Bone, whose Cougars’ welcome Oregon State to Friel Court on Saturday. “We’ve got to keep our heads up and move on to the next game.”

•••

• That’s it for now. We’ll be back in the morning with some aspirin for your headache … I mean our next-day post. Until then …

17 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Jobu on December 31 at 8:42 p.m.
Then please ask the lead official why wasn’t Jamil Wilson given a T for coming on the floor? Also, why wasn’t Oregon given a techinical for calling timeout when they didn’t have any?

Bull Sh*t reasoning from the official… I hope he loses his job over this. It’s a double standards and it’s a joke. Would he make the call in BOA, Pauley, Mac court?

No
HDCoug on December 31 at 9:13 p.m.
Pac-10 officials. The conference has needed to upgrade for both football and basketball for decades. The only way to get this done is to start tossing these goofballs whenever and wherever they demonstrate their incompetence. I’m not holding my breath, but I’m hopeful the new commissioner will take responsibility for the quality of the officials.

Keep the faith, Vince, there’s always a Coug fan out here reading your posts. The quality of your work is never in question.
OlyCoug on December 31 at 9:18 p.m.
Un-blanking-believable.

I thought I’ve seen some arbitrary game-changing B.S. calls before, but this was a real doozy.

We likely won’t see that call made for the rest of the season, surely not in a game where it literally reverses the outcome.

If the play stopped after Casto’s basket, or appeared to because UO called a non-existent timeout, then the Cougs did nothing out of the ordinary. There were at least three UO bench players fully on the court after the stoppage at the other end of the court. I considered making a screen shot, tracking down these refs and sending them a “personalized” letter but, you know, would it really change anything?

There are only two positive things about this game:

1) The Cougs will face Tajuan Porter only one more time and then that little pain-in-the-arse will be gone forever, and

2) The Cougs can use this game to plant a huge, defiant chip on their shoulders and go on a tear to the point where they beat people and don’t need OT to do it.

Time to crush OSU and forget about this ridiculously painful episode.

P.S. I was begging for Bone to get that second ‘T’. At that point, it really was a lost cause. I’m amazed he resisted the temptation.
Cougzz on December 31 at 9:24 p.m.
I was in the stands right in line with the Coug bench after Casto made the bucket and Oregon grabbed the ball. The first thing I thought (after “Oh good, we won!”) was “Why is the Cougar bench on the floor?” Baloney call, maybe, but allowing this to come down to an official’s decision on your home court is on the Cougs and not the refs. That, and the thought that it might be a good idea to get someone in front of Porter as long as he can hit 35 footers blind-folded.
BoboHunter on December 31 at 9:28 p.m.
So Mike, what do rules say about a coach stepping outside the coaches box (not that Ernie ever does that)? Or how many steps does a player get before it’s considered traveling? Or is hand-checking allowed? Or how about enforcing 3-in-the-key?

I love when refs refer to enforcing the rules when it’s convenient for them. But other times it’s “a judgement call” or it’s best to “let the players decide.”

One more reason to add to the Pac-10 officiating being considered as a joke to the rest of the nation. I’m sure that call and explanation would fly in Duke, UNC, Texas, etc. Of course, we’re just WSU, so who cares.

Instead of showing who WSU’s opponents are for ticket sales, they should show the names of the refs. After all, that is who everyone is going to watch, right?

Tim Donaghy says hi.
spokanecougar on December 31 at 9:37 p.m.
Worst officiated game I have ever watched. The Pac-10 should be embarrassed by this. Thank god ESPN does not give a crap about the Pac-10 and the west coast otherwise these highlights would get 15 minutes of coverage on there.
OlyCoug on December 31 at 9:42 p.m.
I deleted my DVR’d game in disgust, but I wish I had kept it to see exactly what happened after Casto’s “game winning” shot.

Did the Ducks try to call time out? Did the refs signal a stoppage? Or was the stoppage because of the technical? Did Oregon come on the floor at all? At what point?

Regardless of whether this was a by-the-book call, it was arbitrary and had a direct impact on the outcome. There are dozens of by-the-book calls that never happen on any given Pac-10 basketball weekend. The refs need to do their best to be invisible, as it’s impossible to always be by-the-book.

I understand the need to make split-second calls like block vs. charge, when the players initiate contact. Nobody expects those calls to be right all the time, especially when even TV replays aren’t definitive.

But to throw out a “T” like that which merely penalizes kids’ emotions is BOGUS. The ref could easily have motioned the players back and held the ball up before it was put back into play. Even Ernie Kent wouldn’t have been outrageous enough to insist on that technical foul as the way to get his team a miracle win.

I’m sure he’ll take it, however.
EllensburgCoug on December 31 at 9:45 p.m.
First of all. The Cougs should never have been down by 15 points.
Second. The call was correct under the rules. The sad part is that is a a judgement call under the rules. Referees have to make these calls when they don’t wan’t to because they have nothing to do with the action on the court.
Don’t blame the officiating, Blame the stupid rules.
The rule is “be happy but not too happy”.
Go Cougs
BoboHunter on December 31 at 10:02 p.m.
One simple reason why “blame it on the rules” or “the Cougs should have known better” doesn’t work; refs let things slide all the time. Why did they have to enforce this? Are they going to start calling technicals on teams for not coming out of a time-out on time - which happens just about every time? I mean, by the above logic, they would have to - wouldn’t they?

By the way, I saw the end on TV, and it was worse that I thought. The explanation the ref gave was bogus. I figured the Oregon kid must have been on the baseline trying to inbounds the ball and the WSU bench was in the way, but it wasn’t even close. Watch it for yourself and you be the judge. Oh wait, I forgot - we are strictly enforcing the rules now; every player who drags his pivot foot will be called for a travel 100% of the time.
mstm on December 31 at 10:17 p.m.
It could be one of the worst calls in the history of college basketball. Just when I did not think the Pac 10 officiating could get worse, it did. You do not make a call like that at the end of a game. Officials are required to give teams a warning for bench decorum before a T is called. This officiating crew single handedly changed the outcome of the game. If it was another conferernce, they would be suspended for multiple games if not the entire season. Unfortunately the Pac 10 conference is such a joke that they probably won’t do anything. At a minimum, Sterk needs to protest to send a message.
Ned on December 31 at 10:21 p.m.
I wasn’t able to watch the game, so I can’t directly comment on the ref’s decision, but it seems like a bad one. Regardless, the Cougs are still the ones to blame. Anytime you allow the refs to be in a position to decide the game, there is something you could have done better. Maybe start by remembering how to play defense. 40% from beyond the arc for Oregon? That’s there MO, you know it’s coming, you should be able to control it. I know Bone’s teams won’t be like the Bennets’, but I’m beginning to think that his claim that their keeping those defensive principles is B.S.
EllensburgCoug on December 31 at 10:22 p.m.
Bobohunter- You make my point perfectly. Why do we have rules where “refs let things slide all the time”? A violation is violation or it isn’t a violation. Why do we have rules where a judgement has to be made?
Don’t get me wrong. I sat four rows up from the court when the call was made and was enraged as you were. I couldn’t believe it! But it was one of those stupid rules where a judgement call had to be made.
Blame the rules, not the officiating.
Go Cougs!
Ridgetop on December 31 at 10:58 p.m.
Cops have similar job. They can cite you for not signalling for a turn or not, they can cite you for Jay walking or not, There are a million rules they can cite you for and they normally only cite for the more flagrant violations although according to the law they can cite for all these other things. So why did the officials decide to enforce this seldom enforced rule. Its BS. Something screwy here especially when the game is on the line.. To all of you that said “hey its the rule”, get real.
OlyCoug on December 31 at 11:09 p.m.
EllensburgCoug…I call B.S.! The Cougs were up by 15 at Gonzaga! Does that mean Gonzaga shouldn’t have won? Does that mean Gonzaga deserved to lose the game because of a “judgment call” that is rarely, if ever, made?

The referees have the discretion to enforce rules with or without warnings. Coaches wander out of the box at some point virtually every game. They dissent virtually every game. IMO, the goal of a referee is to make sure players don’t get hurt and to otherwise be invisible. They shouldn’t allow judgment calls that are not directly involved in the play to affect the outcome.

If the situation was reversed, I seriously doubt this board would be littered with calls for a “T” because UO players were celebrating on the court. That’s a bogus way to tie (and, ultimately, win) a game. Even the obviously biased commentators on the Oregon Sports Network repeatedly brought up the inherent bogosity of the last second call.

I am recording a replay of the game so I can see the end again. Torture? Perhaps. But I can’t seem to find an answer to whether the game had a stoppage due to an Oregon timeout call or because of the technical. In that kind of chaos, it makes more sense for referees to direct, rather than AFFECT, the game. A simple warning would have been sufficient and fair to both teams, and it would have kept the officials virtually invisible, as they should be. Instead, they needed to make their mark. Too bad.

By the way, anyone who insists that referees seek to officiate by-the-book instead of in an invisible way designed to keep their judgment calls from directly affecting the game should take a look at a recent study by a couple of college profs.

Here’s a link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/sports/ncaabasketball/01refs.html

The study showed quite definitively that officials routinely try to “even it up” by the end of the game. They mentally (consciously or not—most of them would deny it) take note of the foul counts and try to avoid looking biased by calling more fouls on the team that’s behind in the foul count. In other words, they use judgment calls to render themselves less apparent in the game.

The call tonight violated all sorts of unwritten rules along these lines. This was a no-call opportunity that went unheeded. Not calling it would have had no impact on the game, and it’s likely no one would have viewed it as unfair to not call a ‘T’ in the last 0.3 seconds. The flip side, however, is going to rightfully cause a firestorm of criticism.

Virtually any other kind of loss would be easier to take than a ref deciding to enforce a rarely enforced rule with almost no time left on the clock. That should tell us something about how miserably the officiating crew failed this evening.
wazzuwyatt on January 01 at 7:59 a.m.
I have a feeling the refs might even be Duck fans. That last call was ridiculous! I remember two games when UCLA played in Pullman and made calls that made no sense to just end the game for a UCLA victory.

PAC10 refs in basketball and football often make bad calls.
DeerLakeRon on January 01 at 9:28 a.m.
All I can say a Obvious “NO Call” was the right call. A lot of officials at all levels are walking power trips. With a chance to use the power and no one can do anything about it. Over now, nothing can be done. GO COUGS put it behind you and go out and show your youthful can play with anyone.
Football: New offensive line coach. Is Yarno available? Is Toeback interested in coaching. Or Maybe someone proven. I always heard Yarno was a go getter, Maybe a head coach from a lower level that has proven success. Lots of coaches from Montana may be available. I think its a good move by Wulf, hopefully he is telling the truth about the questionable offensive Cordinator calls being restricted by personel. Ths the big change I was pulling for is a new OC or play caller. But our OL needs some work and coaching. So with the new players comming it might be a good time for the change.
I think our Coach Bone has proven he can coach to this point. I do always have trouble figuring out why Abe Lodwick is good enough to start but not good enough to be in at the end. Crunch time?
BoboHunter on January 01 at 10:12 a.m.
EllensburgCoug, I understand your point but respectfully disagree. To Coug Forever’s point, I agree. Almost everyone drives over the speed limit on the freeway, but you don’t see cops pulling everyone over for going a couple miles over the speed limit, then blaming it on the rules. It doesn’t matter what the rules are, they’ll be bent and refs will let it slide. If they change the rules to allow for 3-and-a-half steps before a travel is called, then refs would start allowing four. This is why they have “points of emphasis” every year - because refs constantly let things slide until a committee decides enough is enough. Coaches will tell you the main thing is consistency. If strictly enforcing a rule at the end of the game, what about the rest of the rules during the game. When Ernie was walking on the court, out of the coaches box, but nothing was ever done about it - what about those rules? Or can we agree that the refs felt like it didn’t affect the game so why bother enforcing it. Even worse, at the end, if you watch the Oregon player with the ball, he’s just walking toward the sideline as if the game was over. I don’t even know that the refs explanation is legitimate.

I’ve seen end-of-game situations like this countless times, and I’ve never seen a technical called. I’ve seen refs huddle and go to the sideline and direct teams back to the bench and even give warnings, but never seen a T. I’m sure within their circles, refs will call this call “courageous,” but how about having the courage to not make a petty call so that the kids can decide the game.