[jmox]

Here's my response to the Indiana fans, stop your crying please:

By SEAN KEELER
REGISTER SPORTS COLUMNIST
March 6, 2005

St. Louis, Mo. - A little nugget for the Hoosier conspiracy theorists out there: Rick Hartzell worked the Indiana-Michigan State game, too. And the Indiana-Purdue game before that.

Hoosiers 78, Spartans 74.

Hoosiers 79, Boilermakers 62.

Hmm. So much for ESPN analyst Doug Gottlieb's latest hunch from out in left field, that Hartzell, Northern Iowa's athletic director by day and Big Ten basketball official by night, was somehow trying to yank Indiana off the NCAA Tournament bubble.

Hmm. A major Hoosier upset. A major Hoosier rout. Hartzell must have fallen asleep at the wheel.

Or maybe he was just doing his job.

"I guess I got it right on those days," he sighed. Hartzell was in Memphis Saturday afternoon, on his way to officiate the Tigers' basketball game against Cincinnati, which tipped off 25 minutes after his Panthers met Southwest Missouri State in the quarterfinals of the Missouri Valley Tournament.

"There's an old saying: 'The trouble with officials is they don't care which side wins.' That's the way it is with me. I'm just calling plays. That's it. Honest to God , that's it."

Hartzell has been a college basketball official in the Midwest for more than 20 years, working 17 NCAA Tournaments and at least 10 regional championships. He's extremely careful not to let his worlds overlap. One winter, when assigned a game between Creighton and Hawaii, he called Bluejays coach Dana Altman in advance to make sure it was OK. (Altman said yes.)

While he avoids the Valley, Hartzell is in the regular officials' rotation for the Big Ten, Big 12 and Conference USA, meaning he might have to make a call somewhere that might indirectly affect Iowa, Iowa State, Drake - or Northern Iowa.

Last Tuesday was one of those nights. Hartzell was working the Indiana-Wisconsin game in Madison, a game televised by ESPN. Late in the second half, the Hoosiers trailed by one when Badgers forward Mike Wilkinson appeared to foul an Indiana player. Hartzell was in position to make a call. He didn't. The Hoosiers wound up losing, 62-60, in a game that would have sweetened their NCAA Tournament dossier.

Two nights later, Hartzell was called out on national television. During halftime of ESPN2's Illinois-Purdue game, Gottlieb blasted Hartzell and the Big Ten for putting him in position to influence the fate of one of the Panthers' bubble brethren.

"I'm not saying there is a clear conflict of interest," Gottlieb said in transcripts released by the Big Ten, "but there is at least that appearance."

Gottlieb makes a fair point. I get at least three letters every year asking why Hartzell is on the floor for games that might affect his school or others in the state.

Some question, and rightly, how Hartzell can properly assess his winter sports programs when he's on the road all week. (He scheduled the Memphis-Cincinnati game a few weeks ago, figuring that the Panthers would be the third seed and play in the last night game Saturday.)

Badgers coach Bo Ryan was wrong to chide Gottlieb, the one-time Oklahoma State point guard, for ripping Wisconsin center Brian Butch earlier this year. It's Gottlieb's job. Observe. Adjudicate.

But the guy's clutching at straws here.

For one, it's more than a little two-faced to see a man who stole credit cards as a freshman at Notre Dame - a scandal that forced Gottlieb's transfer to Oklahoma State - pointing a finger at another individual's moral integrity.

For another, Hartzell says he was assigned to the Indiana-Wisconsin game during the first week in February, when the Hoosiers (and Panthers, for that matter) were a far cry from the NCAA's slippery fence.

League officials have quickly rallied to Hartzell's defense. The Big Ten released a statement late Friday afternoon condemning Gottlieb.

"It's absurd," Valley commissioner Doug Elgin sniffed. "Just because his basketball program (at Northern Iowa) has turned around, I don't think it's fair to draw that kind of conclusion."

Given a night or two of reflection, Gottlieb agreed. The analyst called Hartzell Friday to apologize.

"I think he wishes it didn't come out like it did," Hartzell said. "I think it takes a pretty stand-up guy to call you and that's what he did. We parted with no problems. I think it's old news."

So are the Panthers. Apparently, someone forgot to let Deke Thompson in on the conspiracy: The Southwest Missouri guard nailed a trey with 49 seconds left, a rainbow with one tick left on the shot clock, to key a 70-62 Bears victory.

"If we win a couple, we're in," Hartzell had said before the tip. "Win one, we'll be on the bubble. If we don't win any, we're out."

They're out. And here's another nugget: From 244 miles away, there wasn't a darn thing Hartzell could do about it.