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Message: [QUOTE="Fjoinkay, post: 1361235, member: 604"] deserves a lot of credit for being real and saying the right things. His body language can be awkward at times, but he always seems to say the right things even in defeat. He takes responsibility. On Friday I heard some surprising comments coming out of Indy. Some people who cover college basketball for a living were suddenly criticizing the officiating. Apparently these comments were freed up in response to Gino Auriemma's comments about men's college hoops. The fresh concept suddenly being offered up was that college basketball officiating is bad, but the officials are good. We were being told that it's the system to blame, and the officials have no responsibility. As much as I wanted to believe this I absolutely needed some evidence. On Friday (I missed the coverage before the games on Saturday) all I heard was that the system prevented the officials from officiating well, but I never heard how the system constrained the officials. To begin with, this was strange because I never expected some of these college basketball analysts to criticize the officiating. And then, as much as I wanted to agree with them, I still needed some specific examples or description. How is the officiating bad? How are the officials not responsible? On Friday, instead of a description of what constitutes poor college officiating, the explanations somehow went haywire and focused on the shot clock and other matters that have nothing to do with whether officials apply the rules in a consistent and fair manner. Some analysts even spoke about how football and even FIFA had shown the ability to adapt. Okay, first tell me how college basketball officiating is bad, then tell me how the officials lack responsibility, and then, if possible, link FIFA. The FIFA reference seemed completely unrelated and very much like pure hogwash (in some places too much hogwash and such combined with heavy rainfall has been known to pollute parts of the supply of potable water). Let's be clear on this issue. College basketball analysts hold college athletes responsible, they hold college coaches responsible, and sometimes they even hold college athletic directors responsible; so if the officiating is bad why not hold the officials responsible? On a different note, UK's 38-game winning streak is worthy of great admiration. I hate to say this here, but tonight I give a shout out to Scott May, Kent Benson, Quinn Buckner, Bobby Wilkerson, Tom Abernathy et.al. and a young coach at the time named Robert Montgomery Knight who ran the tables and won it all in 1976. They almost did the same thing in 1975, but Scott May was injured and a team from the SEC beat them in the tournament. What the '76 Hoosiers accomplished may never be repeated sort of like the Dolphins in 1972. Cheers! [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?