Two things in the UCLA-WKU game last night amazed us…

(1) The NCAA did not heed our advice and allowed Curtis Shaw to referee again.  That’s right, he called that game.

(2) That a game called by Curtis Shaw had 0 technical fouls called.  None!  What the hell?

We watched Stanford beat Marquette in overtime on Saturday. It was one of the best, if not the best, games of the tournament. The game even featured one of our favorite aspects of college basketball - one of the stars of the game reminding us of just how important he is.

We are talking, of course, about Curtis Shaw — the referee who thought it was a reasonable thing to do to eject a coach for arguing during a timeout in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

As best we could see, Stanford coach Trent Johnson was not in any ref’s face, was not out of control, did not throw anything, did not make any hand gestures. Was he on the court when he should not have been? Sure. Did his actions warrant one technical foul? Perhaps. But certainly not an ejection.

We read this article yesterday from ESPN’s Gene Wojciechowski. The quote that stands out to us from his writing was this:

“Was it a ticky-tack ejection in such a huge game? Sure. But if everyone at courtside knows Shaw has a trigger whistle, wouldn’t you think Johnson would know it too?”

This line should have ended after the question and answer involving a ticky-tack call. End of story. This is the NCAA Tournament - you lose, your season is over. (And Shaw knows that he is just as important to the outcome as any of the players or coaches involved.  And he wanted to make sure that the rest of the world knew, too.)

But here’s the question: if this guy Shaw truly has a “trigger whistle” that everyone knows about, then WHY IS HE REFEREEING THE NCAA TOURNAMENT?  Anyone?  A guess?  Bueller?

We would hope the NCAA will keep him out of the rest of the tourney. Of course, they will defend what he did, just like the Big East defended that ref for calling a foul on Villanova against Georgetown. But that does not make it right.

There comes a time when a ref has to understand the situation. And Curtis Shaw does not have a clue.

Last season in the NBA, ref Joey Crawford ejected the Spurs’ Tim Duncan because he was laughing on the sidelines. Some might say Crawford has a trigger whistle. What did the NBA do? Suspended Crawford for the rest of the season and the playoffs. Why couldn’t the NCAA do the same?

It’s not like Shaw missed a block/charge call or failed to call traveling. He had time to consider what he was doing and chose to eject Trent Johnson anyway. He could have walked away, the timeout would end, and the game would go on. But no, he thought it would be better to eject the coach.

In fact, some quick research at this excellent website shows that Shaw has officiated 100 games this season, and his crew has been responsible for 48 technical fouls and 5 ejections. Ridiculous. And not the resume for a guy reffing a win-or-go-home game in the NCAA Tournament.

And he nearly cost Stanford the game. Assistant coach Doug Oliver did a decent job, but his team was lucky to pull that game out. When Stanford took a 55-49 lead with around 10 minutes to play, Oliver decided to take out his 7-foot twins, Brook and Robin Lopez. He left them out far too long, and by the time the the Lopez twins were re-inserted, the Cardinal was down 58-57. He took them out for too long, waited for a TV timeout instead of just calling one, and nearly cost Stanford the win. While this might seem like a small point, we feel certain that Johnson - the actual head coach - would have managed that situation better. Perhaps they don’t even reach overtime.

But no, Curtis Shaw and his quick temper made sure Stanford got the early disadvantage. We beg the NCAA to do exactly what David Stern did last season - remove Shaw from the action.

A question to ponder: would you rather have Shaw ref your game, or Karl Hess? And seeing as we can’t immediately answer Shaw without thinking, this means Shaw does not need to have a whistle.

(As a side note, we did not even take the time here to get into how questionable the call was that Trent Johnson was actually arguing. Most replays showed traveling would have been the best call, but a foul was called instead.)

It’s quite simple…

– 18 parts offensive rebounds for the 7-seed

– 19 parts total rebounds for the 2-seed

– 5/22 parts shooting from 3-point range for the 2-seed

– ratio of 6:13 parts assists to turnovers for the 2-seed

Mix all of these together, then do your best to give up a triple-double to the 7-seed’s back-up point guard.  That should set you up quite nicely for the upset.  Perhaps even one that’s out of hand in the final 2 minutes.

One sure-fire way to know that there is an important sporting event taking place on another channel…

ESPN is showing figure skating.

For the last four years, there has only been one moment of its kind. It had no rival, no other awkward, uncomfortable celebratory moment that was even in the same ball park. That is, until Saturday.

From April 11, 2004, up until March 15, 2008, you knew how to compare every awkward celebration you saw. When a pitcher threw the final out of a no-hitter but then missed his high five with the catcher, you could say: “Well, at least that wasn’t as bad as Phil Mickelson’s celebration after winning The Masters.” Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re are into high quality basketball, then make sure you tune into as much of the Big 10 hoops tournament as possible.  You like seeing 85 total points scored in a 40-minute game?  You like watching the ball clang off the rim or the backboard?  You like empty possessions?

Well… Only in the Big 10 can you see a team shoot 10-50 from the field, including a 4-26 effort inside the three-point line.

Big 10 Basketball - It’s FAN-tastic!

We know it’s like taking candy from a baby, but we would like to offer one particular criticism of Mike Freeman’s most recent horrendous column. This was put out on Tuesday on CBS Sportsline, and you can still find it there if you look (we will not link to it).

Basically, Freeman claimed Tyler Hansbrough was only hyped because he was white. And that there are plenty of guys who play as hard or harder than Hansbrough.

Freeman posed this exact question when comparing the work ethic of Hansbrough: “Is Georgetown’s Roy Hibbert a coaster?” Read the rest of this entry »