Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelvin green
Just watched the California sectional between Etiwanda and Mater Dei..
I thought some strange coaching and time management at the end but Mater Die is up by 3 and Etiwanda has a last second shot for three right in fromt of their bench.... The player who is going to shoot the three gets grabbed and no call.... The initial view and physics of the play made it look like a foul... when looked at in slow motion and replay it clearly was a foul.
Moral of the story when youve got video you gotta get it right. Video does not lie... Three shot foul down by three could have made a difference...
We always hear let the kids decide the game. in this case the officials decided the game because a clear foul happened and did not put the shooter on the line.
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Kelvin,
In Ohio all OHSAA State Finals are televised -- a number of others are as well. Pretty much every Ohio State game is televised -- as are nearly all Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, ACC, etc. Beyond that, virtually ALL high school and junior high games are taped by someone meaning an opportunity to end up on YouTube.
To expect all games to be perfectly called is unreasonable. As long as humans are officiating the game, mistakes will be made. I find it interesting that you commented that there was some strange coaching and time management, yet it was a call not made by an official that decided the game. Even though I did not see the game, I would be willing to bet that this call at the end of the game was not the only "mistake" (assuming it was a mistake) that the officials made during the game. Each team had 32 minutes to pull away from their opponent. Neither team was able to do that. While I agree that we hate to see a missed official's call near the end of a game, we cannot be perfect.
Sorry, I don't subscribe to the fact that the officials cost the team the game. By the way, even if the FT shooter was a 72% FT shooter, there was only a 37% chance that the shooter would have made all three shots -- ignoring the added pressure of shooting three FTs at the end of a game. Even if the player had made all three, there was only a 50% chance the team would have won the game.
Bottom line: Even IF the official makes the call, there was about an 18.5% chance that the shooter's team would have won the game. Hardly a sure thing as you implied with "the officials decided the game because a clear foul happened and did not put the shooter on the line."
Just my $.02 as a coach and official and statistician.