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Even Greg Doyel is hating on Puke
Jan 26, 2007, 9:36 PM
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http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/9956543/1
Everybody but Duke fans will understand this column
By Gregg Doyel
CBS SportsLine.com National Columnist
This is why people hate Duke.
Maybe people are irrational or dumb or mean. That's an argument Duke and Duke fans can make, if they choose. Me, I'm stating this not as argument, but as fact:
This is why people hate Duke.
A time-keeping blunder gave Duke's David McClure more time to get the game winner off against Clemson. (AP)
For the second time in less than a year, the ACC has publicly admitted that Duke won a close game at Cameron Indoor Stadium with help from an egregious officiating mistake.
This is where conspiracy theorists will jump in with the idea that ACC officials intentionally favor Duke. That's an argument for someone else. Me, I'm holding to my previously stated belief:
This is why people hate Duke.
Friday, the ACC announced that a time-keeping error gave Duke too much time in the final seconds of the Blue Devils' 68-66 victory against Clemson. Duke won on David McClure's shot roughly one-20th of a second before the buzzer, and while that's not tantamount to saying the clock mistake gave Duke a win -- we'll never know what Duke would have done had it known it had less time -- it's certain that the mistake gave Duke a better chance than the Blue Devils deserved.
To recap, with five seconds left and Duke leading 66-63, Clemson's Vernon Hamilton stole Duke's inbounds pass and drilled a 3-pointer to tie the game at 66. The clock, which got a late start but then was allowed to run well after play was stopped, showed 1.8 seconds to play. Officials reviewed the sequence -- briefly -- and then determined that 4.4 seconds remained.
In other words, Hamilton fielded Duke's errant pass, set his feet and launched a 20-foot shot. All in 0.6 seconds.
This is why people hate Duke.
Given 4.4 seconds to avoid overtime, Duke drew up a play that required roughly 4.35 of those seconds. Jon Scheyer took the inbounds pass, dribbled near midcourt and passed ahead to McClure, whose game-winning layup beat the end of regulation by a fraction of a second.
This comes roughly one year after a similarly awful officiating mistake in Duke's favor -- also at home -- helped the Blue Devils escape another upset loss. Last year officials botched a physical confrontation between Duke's Shelden Williams and Florida State's Alexander Johnson, calling a double-technical when it seemed clear that only Williams deserved one.
The technical doubled as a personal foul, and was Johnson's fifth. He had been having a career game -- 13 points and 11 rebounds in just 14 minutes -- but was fouled out with almost 9½ minutes left. The game went to overtime, with Duke winning 97-96. Duke fans would argue that Duke might have won even with Johnson still in the game.
Me, I'm just telling you that this is why people hate Duke
The officiating crew from that Florida State debacle was suspended one game for "the incorrect assessment and handling of the dead-ball technical foul situation," which did Florida State exactly zero good. The Seminoles ended up being one of the last teams left out of the 2006 NCAA Tournament.
No word on whether the clock manager at Duke will be reprimanded or worse, but it's worth nothing that there is a pattern here. On Jan. 6, Virginia Tech led 64-61 when Duke's DeMarcus Nelson tied the game with a 3-pointer with roughly 17 seconds left. Virginia Tech inbounded the ball, there was confusion, and officials stopped the game to adjust the clock. When play resumed, officials took off more than four seconds. The Hokies couldn't get off a quality shot and the game went to overtime.
Virginia Tech won 69-67, but this is why people hate Duke.
When the officials from the Duke-Florida State game of a year ago were suspended, it marked the ACC's first public suspension of an officiating crew since 1997. In that game, Virginia was essentially robbed of a win by an official's substitution mistake. The ACC team that benefited from that mistake?
Surely you can guess.
It's why people hate Duke.
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