But having not seen the entire game I don't know if that level of contact had been called throughout the contest. Was it?
Yes... Both teams had numerous ticky-tack fouls, the overwhelming majority of which were an offensive charge. It really did take away heavily from Pitt, especially during the first half of the game.
I think that everyone will agree that the bonehead play of the century (for this past century) in the NCAA playoffs belonged to Chris Weber of Michigan, when in the waning seconds and trailing by a point or two, he called timeout, a timeout that Michigan did not have, and therefore lost possession of the ball, which ultimately led to Michigan's loss in that game.
Now today, we have not one player that wanted to duplicate that honor belonging to Mr. Weber, we had two morons. The Butler player should never have been close enough to the Pitt player to commit the foul, but he was and he did. It was a clear foul, nothing ticky-tack about it. Pitt had a chance to win, or at least tie and send the game into overtime. The shooter made the front end of a pair of free throws, and we should be going to overtime, no? No! The Pitt player learned absolutely nothing from the Butler player's mistake and he fouled on the rebound from the missed free throw. Butler then sinks the free throws with less than a second remaining, and Pitt goes down the tubes.
The arrogance of these young players to ignore the common sense strategy and wisdom of the game is absolutely astonishing. Maybe the coaches (both teams) forgot to warn their young men about fouling? I doubt it. These guys have only one mode and that's to attack aggressively whenever possible. Absolutely no thinking whatsoever. I nominate the Pitt player for this century's NCAA bonehead play... Like Smith Barney, he earned it...
EK!!! |
