I didn't see the play (or replays) and I have no idea whether or not a mistake was made. But - and I hope I am reading this wrong - I write to say that I hope the "mistake" was not related to the fact that "they didn't realize that Johnson now has 5 fouls." Either the kid deserved the T or he didn't. Whether it was his second, fourth or fifth ought not to matter....

Having seen the play, I'm really shocked that the officials were suspended. The FSU player may have been backing away, but that doesn't mean that he didn't instigate the altercation. Based on that, I don't have a problem with the technical. This guy already had one intentional foul in the first half (which I didn't see). On the second one he clearly didn't make a basketball play. He put Williams on his back. I thought it was a flagrant act. Last season, the officials didn't take care of that Temple player and his hard fouls before he maimed another player. Is that what the ACC super wanted to see?

Would the officials have been suspended if this was the player's 3rd foul? Or 4th foul?

What replay are you looking at?
we have a hard foul at the basket on the FSU Player Immediately and rightly so called an intentional foul.

The Duke player gets up from the floor and steps up to the FSU player and chucks him an elbow and shoulder push - The FSU player backs down.
Here is the technical foul on the Duke player right there.

after about 5 - 10 seconds there are 6 players in the middle and there is a scrum where you cannot tell who did what.
At this point an official comes in from the right hand part of the screen and Whacks two people.
If at this point you have technicals then there should be one on the FSU player and a second one on the Duke player.

No action would have been taken by the league without an investigation and apparently the answers that they got didn't jibe with what was on the tape.
I think the officials blew the situation from the point after the intentional foul - do they deserve a suspension - maybe - There may be more to it than just what the media has let out.

Tap into your sources and find out everything you can and share it - because only the whole truth shall set you free!

This is because the original acts resulted in the skirmish, right?

The only reason the officials were suspended in my opinion is the fact that there must have been something in the explanation that did not add up to the ACC. Whether the player was backing up should not be an issue. He could have said something that provoked a response from the Duke Player. There must have been some information that was not clear to the ACC and that is the reason there was action taken by the ACC. Either way the media story is not giving all the information for any of us to really know what happen.

Peace

Exactly.....

I think it is a bunch of crap that the ACC will publicly ridicule these 3 without revealing the entire story. It lays all of the blame on these 3 and the ACC looks like a savior. We have all been in this situation and to take away a game and a game check from these 3 is crap..........

You sort of wonder whether Clougherty was more reacting to the crew's officiating of the game as a whole, and the possibility that other mistakes were made, but decided rather than calling his officials out for numerous mistakes, he would give them the face saving out of basing it on one particular act.

Pure conjecture, of course. There was a lot of serious discussion about the officiating of that game from corners that I generally take seriously, and apparently, according to one report, Clougherty had a post game review with the officials. Would it be completely out of bounds, if he said, in private, that he saw some deficiencies that justified a one game suspension, but was willing to blame it on a single event to help the crew save a little face?

Seems the only rationale explanation, because the t call itself, while perhaps questionable, really seems like an awful thin pillar on which to support a suspension.

Sounds like saving face to me. With no explaination I think FSU complaining (in the media) was giving them grief and they figured we can suspend officials and it will all go away.

Thansk
David