Coach K gets whacked

[jbduke]

Originally Posted by Victor74

It may have been a deserved technical, but it was a predictable one. Coach K did have every reason to be upset. He was more upset at the previous player control foul on Nolan Smith. The call on the Duke player afterwards was just icing on the cake.

I agree it was predictable, but not because K had every reason to be upset. The aforementioned PC call by Hess was absolute nails. And on the play leading up to the technical, Duke's Thornton was holding Tech's Shumpert. And holding, and holding. Finally he lets go for a moment, but by that time Shumpert has had enough and gives him a little push with his arm, sending the Duke player to ground. Thornton's performance was tremendous. I watched him go down on replay three or four times last night, convinced he'd taken a forearm to the chops. But when I cued up the play tonight, it's clear that Shumpert never made contact with Thornton much above chest level.

I just wish Kersey had pulled the trigger on the hold on Thornton early. He gets credit for a correct call, probably avoids a technical foul, and nobody's talking about him today.

[Judtech]

Originally Posted by jbduke

I agree it was predictable, but not because K had every reason to be upset. The aforementioned PC call by Hess was absolute nails. And on the play leading up to the technical, Duke's Thornton was holding Tech's Shumpert. And holding, and holding. Finally he lets go for a moment, but by that time Shumpert has had enough and gives him a little push with his arm, sending the Duke player to ground. Thornton's performance was tremendous. I watched him go down on replay three or four times last night, convinced he'd taken a forearm to the chops. But when I cued up the play tonight, it's clear that Shumpert never made contact with Thornton much above chest level.

I just wish Kersey had pulled the trigger on the hold on Thornton early. He gets credit for a correct call, probably avoids a technical foul, and nobody's talking about him today.

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by Judtech

This actually may have been Duke's best post ever.

I didn't see the game but I guessing he is saying that if Kersey had call a hold on Thornton early before the Schumbert's reaction that led to Thornton falling to the ground then Coach K wouldn't have reacted as such.

[jbduke]

Originally Posted by Judtech

Okay, if you want precision, the contact was around Thornton's left clavicle, but he reacted as if he'd been clocked in the jaw.

[Judtech]

Actually, my questions was were you trying to say there wasn't MUCH contact or that the contact wasn't MUCH above the shoulders?
From what I saw Thorton was not the one initiating contact and had his hands in the air. But that is just my view
Of course, this T was very predictable when looking at the previous several plays. Coach K was not happy with a couple of calls prior and VERY not happy about the previous call. The call on Thorton was just the straw that broke the camels back.

[jbduke]

Originally Posted by Judtech

Actually, my questions was were you trying to say there wasn't MUCH contact or that the contact wasn't MUCH above the shoulders?
From what I saw Thorton was not the one initiating contact and had his hands in the air. But that is just my view
Of course, this T was very predictable when looking at the previous several plays. Coach K was not happy with a couple of calls prior and VERY not happy about the previous call. The call on Thorton was just the straw that broke the camels back.

That's fair. There was enough contact to knock Thornton back a little bit, but he definitely embellished the amount of force he absorbed. Said force was delivered, as I added later, just below shoulder level, I believe.

As to what you narrate above, that is an accurate description of the second half of the play. The first half of the play saw Thornton significantly impeding GT's Shumpert as he tried to initiate a curl around a screen. My guess is that Kersey would have called the initial foul on Thornton if he'd held on to Shumpert a beat longer, but then Thornton left go. That's when the action you described began.

[LeeBallanfant]

Guess it worked for Coach K according to this report.

[URL="http://hosted.stats.com/cbk/recap.asp?g=201102200173&home=173&vis=232&final=true"]