I think someone hit the nail on the head earlier. Sherman :0) is a great shot blocker. The officials know this. When you've established time after time that you know how to block a shot without fouling and that you understand the difference between verticality and lack thereof and the difference between contact and illegal contact, I think you're going to get the benefit of the doubt.
I remember that Emeka Okafor got the same exact treatment many times in his Junior year. Time after time after time, you'd see a very close call not called, and the same thing would happen -- you'd start watching the replay with skepticism and then by the end you'd sort of shake your head and think, "well, darn it, that was clean." Enough of those in a year, particularly with officials who by February have seen you a couple of times, and you're going to get exactly what Sherman got on that call -- officials who don't anticipate and who have in the back of their mind that they are watching a player that can make spectacular clean plays, so they have confidence that what they think the see (or didn't see) is in fact what happened (or didn't).
At that said, it was an extremely close call. I'm not as convinced as the rest of you on verticality. I'm glad the player didn't make the shot, because that would have been a tough one. As it was, I don't think it changed the outcome.
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Mon Feb 06, 2006, 01:17pm
Hybrid Mode
