UNC-Virginia Tech: End-of-Game Whistle Poorly Timed

First off, no one has complained any more about the inconsistency of ACC officiating this year than your favorite scribes here at Today's ACC Headlines. Today’s UNC v. Virginia Tech was another game where blunt force fouls were ignored while ticky-tacky fouls were called. 

At least that has been consistent all season...

The one point we have made over and over again is that they do one thing very consistently—they swallow their whistles on the final play of the game.

At least, until today.

While TV analyst Dan Bonner said it was a good call, we would suggest it was technically correct (hence “good”), but perhaps poorly timed.

Now before you Hokies get all up in arms, remember Carolina was winning at the time 77-76.  Tech still needed to score to change the outcome and for all of the possession up to that point, they weren’t even close to doing that.  It is also important to note that had a foul been called, the Hokies would have only been given possession of the ball as the Tar Heels were still below the seven foul limit.

Also, at the time of the call the ball was loose and headed who knows where, so it wasn't as if Thompson was about to dunk the game winner...

If you watched UConn v. The Orange: The Game That Almost Never Ended, you would have noticed that while 66 fouls were called, none of them were called on the final possession of either half or any of the six overtimes. That is how it should be, short of a clothesline tackle.

But a jump ball tie-up is a different kind of call. Its exists in a vacuum. It’s like travelling or double dribbling, there is less interpretation than on a personal foul.  As the Mighty Blaze says, “It is what it is,” so it shouldn’t matter “when” it is.

Again, the Tar Heels were winning at the time, so there was still a shot to be made to justify Hokie Nation’s outrage.

Now moving forward, the question is, was the Hokies’ effort good enough to land an NCAA bid? Unfortunately for Virginia Tech, at the moment, the answer can only be “it depends.”

It depends on what happens to all the other bubble teams.  If a bunch of them have flamed out or flame out over the weekend, it may, as they say in basketball parlance, “create some space” for the boys from Blacksburg. 

If not, Virginia Tech looks to be a high seed in the N.I.T.

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