First let me say that it was nice meeting Frank Ezelle yesterday before our game at Millsaps. I think he does a wonderful job of covering Millsaps and is a good ambassador for Division III athletics. He does a great job with media coverage and posts on these young student-athletes that sometimes are overlooked in the sporting world.
Anyway, it is typically not my style to get on message boards and comment on teams, players, or anything of that nature. However, I think a few things do have to be addressed when looking at the Sewanee vs Millsaps game on Sunday.
First, I would like to say that I feel like our kids at Sewanee deserve a lot more credit than Frank is giving them for their hard work and effort versus Millsaps yesterday. At the same time, you have to give credit to Millsaps (in particular, Lorenzo Bailey) for making big-time plays and hitting huge shots down the stretch. However, I do feel like some of the reason for Millsaps struggles can be directly attributed to how hard Sewanee played on the defensive end. Our guys did a great job of trying to take away some of their strengths as a team and did a good job of contesting all of their shooters. Millsaps did shoot the ball poorly, but I think some of it was as a result of forcing tough shots, so give our guys some credit.
Anyway, the main reason I am posting is because in all my years as a player or coach the 3 seconds call late in the game was by far THE WORST CALL I HAVE EVER SEEN in a game that I was a part of in some realm. I know Frank said he had still photo shots and felt that it could have been the right call or whatever, but the film of the game shows otherwise. After watching the play about 9-10 times, it is clear that it was AN ABSOLUTELUY PUTRID call. Here is what really happened...Pursell misses a lay-up and gets his own rebound, after he secures the rebound there is a less than 2 second (when watching I timed it with a stop watch several times and came up with 1.9-1.95 range every time I timed it in real time which doesn't even account for human error) time span that goes by and the referee blows his whistle and calls 3 seconds. Not too mention that Pursell is getting absolutely mauled in the process of the imaginary 3 seconds call. Millsaps is flat out trying to foul because they are down 1 with about :12 seconds left and need to get the ball back. Rogan actually has his arms wrapped around Pursell bear hugging him as two other players hack away at the ball. It is quite a sight when rehashing it in the film room. Once again I give all the credit in the world to Millsaps and Lorenzo Bailey for making the plays they had to make down the stretch to win the game. At the same time, I feel like it is quite a travesty for an official to make that kind of a call to determine the outcome of a game. It was a bad call, there isn't any room for discussion after watching it on film, sorry Frank.
Anyway, it is typically not my style to get on message boards and comment on teams, players, or anything of that nature. However, I think a few things do have to be addressed when looking at the Sewanee vs Millsaps game on Sunday.
First, I would like to say that I feel like our kids at Sewanee deserve a lot more credit than Frank is giving them for their hard work and effort versus Millsaps yesterday. At the same time, you have to give credit to Millsaps (in particular, Lorenzo Bailey) for making big-time plays and hitting huge shots down the stretch. However, I do feel like some of the reason for Millsaps struggles can be directly attributed to how hard Sewanee played on the defensive end. Our guys did a great job of trying to take away some of their strengths as a team and did a good job of contesting all of their shooters. Millsaps did shoot the ball poorly, but I think some of it was as a result of forcing tough shots, so give our guys some credit.
Anyway, the main reason I am posting is because in all my years as a player or coach the 3 seconds call late in the game was by far THE WORST CALL I HAVE EVER SEEN in a game that I was a part of in some realm. I know Frank said he had still photo shots and felt that it could have been the right call or whatever, but the film of the game shows otherwise. After watching the play about 9-10 times, it is clear that it was AN ABSOLUTELUY PUTRID call. Here is what really happened...Pursell misses a lay-up and gets his own rebound, after he secures the rebound there is a less than 2 second (when watching I timed it with a stop watch several times and came up with 1.9-1.95 range every time I timed it in real time which doesn't even account for human error) time span that goes by and the referee blows his whistle and calls 3 seconds. Not too mention that Pursell is getting absolutely mauled in the process of the imaginary 3 seconds call. Millsaps is flat out trying to foul because they are down 1 with about :12 seconds left and need to get the ball back. Rogan actually has his arms wrapped around Pursell bear hugging him as two other players hack away at the ball. It is quite a sight when rehashing it in the film room. Once again I give all the credit in the world to Millsaps and Lorenzo Bailey for making the plays they had to make down the stretch to win the game. At the same time, I feel like it is quite a travesty for an official to make that kind of a call to determine the outcome of a game. It was a bad call, there isn't any room for discussion after watching it on film, sorry Frank.