Reaching a New Low

[cbertsch]

It continues to astonish me, all the ways that Cal games can break my heart even after I think I'm past the point of caring. Props to today's officiating crew, who surpassed the highly questionable foul called on Stanford's Lawrence Hill Thursday by not calling a foul on UCLA in the closing seconds today even though the Bruins were trying to foul.

Comments

[amackey84.livejournal.com]

You got to love how even the guys calling the game were for UCLA's manhandling of Anderson in the final seconds sans foul call.
One remarked how amazed he was that there was no call, but quickly found his UCLA compass and said something to the effect of "Well, Anderson should've done a better job of keeping possession of the ball." Yeah. Maybe if he had arms built out of steel.
I was amazed and briefly wondered whether I was watching a Duke game. In the name of John Wooden, where were the real refs?!?
While it in no way comes close to making things better, I really enjoyed watching Cal play down the close of the second half.

[cbertsch.livejournal.com]

I can live with Shipp's amazing, but probably illegal shot. I can live with Kevin Love's astonishing double-clutch three. But that play on Anderson still enrages me. As far as I could tell from many, many viewings of all the angles on the replay -- I recorded the game -- not only was it an obvious foul, but a UCLA player touched the ball last. Yes, Duke did indeed come to mind. Remember when Jayson Williams was "fouled" shooting a three at the end of that tournament game against Indiana? He could have tied the game, but bricked a free throw. Still, he had no business shooting free throws in the first place, I thought.

[(Anonymous)]

Please, please do not raise the specter of Christian Laettner stomping on Aminu Timberlake's head and the Coach K rationalizing that "he had to put his foot down somewhere" and "it's like the kid (Timberlake) laughed at him (Laettner) and he had to give him a little slap." WTF?

Or maybe you didn't, and I'm overly sensitive about these things. There are times of the year when being a UK fan at Duke is a little difficult. --jm

[cbertsch.livejournal.com]

I remember that! Of course, as a neutral party, I can also remember a number of occasions when the Wildcats also got the benefit of home cooking and/or the respect accorded a Serious Program, both when Joe B. Hall was there -- I'm dating myself -- and when Rick Pitino was ensconced. Still, nothing tops the adulation of Coach K and the benefits he gets for his team just by "being himself."

Good to hear from you, John.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, Big Blue Nation (tm) has been known to, well, whine a bit from time to time. But thanks for the Joe B. reference -- that's not one I've heard for a while.

Hope you're doing well, --jm

[cbertsch.livejournal.com]

Joe B. made an impression. I caught him at the tail end of his career. Still, the continuity to Rupp was always on the announcers' brains.

BTW, you might want to check YouTube out for some Joe B. action. There are lots of good games on there, as I've been discovering, if only in snippets.