My gawd! I sure as hell hope they don't say that when they huddle up.

Money Quote:
Dominique Reed said he had endured enough verbal abuse by Graham prior to the fight.

"I've got to work on my temper," Dominique said, "but I've never been one to put up with people calling me out by my name. It was in front of all my teammates, and I can't let nobody think that I'm soft.

"So when we get to the locker room, Coach (Baker) was like, 'Go ahead, bang it out.'

OK - here's the definitive criteria. Apparently, according to this schmuck, having an official call a foul when a player gets fouled is against district protocol. I guess this state's association is not an NF member and does not use NF rules. Why didn't they just say so in the first place?

This guy is indicative of what's wrong with public education these days. I think the official in question should offer to trade places with this guy. He should tell him, "You come out on the court and call the game and I'll talk to the media like an a$$hole."

I know the official who made this call. We belong to same local association here. I have seen him work enough to know that he would have made that call whether it happened as it did here in the last second of the game or the first second of the game, which is really all you can ask of an official. Isn't consistency what most "fans" scream for? They want it called the "same at both ends" and they want the 4th quarter called the same way as the first.

Ironically, that is exactly what seems to be the issue here. There is a message board devoted to discussion of high school sports here in southwest Ohio. You can imagine the type of discussion going on over there on this matter. It seems that the consensus there is that there was contact on the arm, it may or may not have altered the shot, but by rule it was a foul. Their issue is however, that it should not have been called with less than a second remaining in a tied game and should not have decided the game. Where in the rule book does it define the list of exceptions to the rules when the game is on the line in the last minute? A foul is a foul! How moronic!

Also, someone mentioned earlier the fact that the newspaper published the official's name. Absolutely nothing was accomplished by doing this, and in my opinion that is the epitome of irresponsible journalism. I realize it's not likely to happen, but I would like nothing more than to see the OHSAA pull this paper's credentials for the remainder of the tournament!

Ahhh..........the old reflexive pronoun, just remove the other two names and see if it sounds correct.

Where did you ever get these ideas? Fans want the game called with bias favoring their team and they want the 4th quarter called to favor their team, just like the 1st, 2nd and 3rd quarters. When a coach or spectator yells, "Call it both ways" they mean "Call it our way". The only "consistency" they want is a constant favoring of their team.

That is what they say, but when it comes to actual practice, those cries fall short when you are dealing with actual situations. And this very situation proves that theory. Because if the foul was not called, I bet if the winning team lost in overtime, they would have spend time trying to suggest the officials "swallowed their whistle" at the wrong time.

Peace

At least protest rallies give your students something to do when you are done playing basketball for the year and waiting for Track to start.

I hope you let him know that we all support him, and I thought it was a great call.

Dear Mr. Cox....

Confuscious once say...

Better to let people think you are an idiot, rather than to open your mouth and prove them right.

I suppose at the end of baseball season they will want to organize another protest rally because their last batter in the bottom of the 9th of the district final got caught looking at strike 3 and they thought the pitch was 1/2" off the plate.

Yeh, but you don't call that, it has to be right down Broadway.

Seriously, that's a great analogy. Does it have to be MORE of a strike? Why should it be MORE of a foul.

There was definitely a foul on that play. As other have stated through out this discussion that the jumper came out funny because of the contact on the shooting arm. I think it was the proper call.

I also saw that a few people saying that the lead passed on it. I think the lead passed on it because there was no clear cut angle or postioning to see the contact if anything the "C" or "T" had the call in which I feel it was the proper call.

It is just a shame another school complaining because the officials did something wrong in the game. When in reality it is the school blowing the whole thing up in proportion about it. I didn't see anything in the article about the coach wanting to do anything about it, all I saw was the principal making a statement. I do understand that the principal acts as a spokesperson for the school but what ever happen to leaving everything on the floor. It seems like both teams had done that, but the fans, students, parents, and administration wants to go a step further. I commend the players on a hard though game, but I commed the Ohio Athletic Assocation for sticking true about everything and sticking to their by-laws.

JB

Watch the clip again. The call was made from the lead. The center and trail, both being behind the play had a similar look as we have in this video clip. I would argue that the lead was the only one that could have made the call, because he was the only one with the angle to see the contact and make a determination on the affect the contact had on the shot.

In real speed from the other end of the court this looked like a foul to me. What kid in a state championship game misses a 12-foot jumper that badly to the right?

The zoom in shows that the defender clearly did NOT hit the ball and makes contact with the shooter's arm.

Protect the shooter. This is a foul. End of story. Tough cookies.

Amazing the lengths that some parents, administrators, and fans will go to to try to make sure that their kids always win. I wish thy would instead take it as an opportunity to tell the kids, "Well, maybe you got screwed, maybe you didn't. Life isn't fair. Pick yourself up and go back out there and do your best."

In this case I don't think it's even close -- it's a foul. Some fans interpret, "The officials shouldn't decide the game" as "The officials should put away their whistles"