Acc Champs!

luxlibertas
Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:06:23 +0000

Idmom, to answer your question about my opinion of the Georgetown travel:

It definitely was a travel. Although, it wasn’t as simple as him just lifting his pivot foot, as some people keep saying, because you ARE, of course, allowed to do that–how else would you take a jump shot? The issue is that he took an extra step/shuffled his other foot.

To address your question specifically, I don’t necessarily think it was a matter of the refs deciding beforehand that they were just going to “let 'em play.” In fact, I’m not sure if the refs even realized it was a travel at all, they honestly might just have missed it. Let’s remember that we have the advantage sitting on our couches of 20 different replays, in slow motion, of different angles, overhead views, no huge guys standing in front of us, etc. The fact is that refs make mistakes. It will and does happen every game, that’s just part of sports. It’s unfortunate that in this case it came on the last play, although some other call from the beginning of the game might have resulted in two extra points for one of the teams as well–it’s just not as blatant.

There was a column I read the day after the game, I can’t remember whose? Basically the point of it was that it doesn’t matter if it was or wasn’t a travel, what matters is that it wasn’t CALLED a travel. In Basketball, facts are irrelevant, it’s the calls that count…and while this is frustrating, that’s the reality that every player and coach accepts when they step on the floor. Bad calls happen–they’re part of the game, just as much as jump shots, dunks, and behind the back passes. I tend to agree with him.