Was flipping back and forth between our girls' state tourney and the Maryland-NCState game on TV this afternoon.

NCState was up 19 at the half and Maryland came roaring back. Middle of the run, as Maryland was putting the ball in play, someone on NCState's bench came out to wipe the floor in front of the bench. An official promptly whistled a technical foul. Apparently, the bech was warned about this earlier in the game and the next time they got whacked.

Herb Sendek was seen mouthing some not-so-nice words at the officials and Maryland ended up coming all the way back and winning by 3.

Here's the quote from the USA Today article:

The Terrapins benefited from a bizarre technical foul against
North Carolina State early in the second half. The Wolfpack were
called for a technical after one of their managers wiped sweat
off the court with a towel. Maryland was trailing, 53-43, at the
time.

"We had a manager wiping water off the floor when they
(Maryland) either already had inbounded or prepared to inbound,"
N.C. State coach Herb Sendek said. "We had been warned to get
that done earlier in the game. I can't say with any certainty
that the technical caused (a disruption)."

Strange.

--Rich

[Edited by Rich Fronheiser on Mar 14th, 2004 at 01:10 AM]

Many teams use the water on the floor as a ploy to get more time after time-outs. They will slop some water around and then after the TO ends, let the official know that they need to clean it up.
Sounds like a delay of game T was given to me.

Or perhaps the officials should have just put the ball down on the floor for the inbounds! :D