My Take on Wake - What Game Was that Guy Watching?

What Game Was that Guy Watching?

Sitting courtside, you don’t always see plays as well as you would like. I’m not swapping seats mind you, but you can get blocked out by players, coaches or referees and sometimes your peripheral vision is obstructed.

I did see the intentional foul called against Ish Smith tonight at Duke, and I saw it well from my seat along the hash mark toward the basket where the play took place. I was surprised to hear a whistle, because I saw Ish Smith stuff Mason Plumlee. I was stunned when official Ray Natili ruled it an intentional foul and gave Duke the shots plus the ball. I wondered if Natili assumed that Smith, at 6-0, couldn’t possibly have gotten up to get his hand on the ball. If so, then Natili hasn’t been watching the same games I have. Regardless, it was an really, really bad call.

I asked Ish what that call was about?

“I don’t know,” Smith said. “He went up for a dunk and I felt like I blocked it clean. He went up off one foot, and he bodied me and I thought I got it clean.

“But sometimes what you think is not always, realistically, what they see.”

I asked Coach Dino Gaudio what Natili told him after the call was made.

“He said it was excessive physical play because the kid was up in the air,” Gaudio said. “I would like to see whether he blocked the shot.”

As bad as the call was—as bad as I’ve seen this season—I agree with what else Smith said. It didn’t cost Wake Forest the game.

“That was a big play (but) I’m not saying that’s what lost us the game,’’ Smith said. “No, no, no, no.

“The score was 55-55, and the final score was 90-70, so they outscored us 15 to 35.’‘

Wake lost the game because it’s defense lapsed down the stretch and Duke scored on 15 of its final 22 possessions. The Deacons held Duke to 36 percent in the first half by switching defenders on all screens, but the result was the bigger Blue Devils bullied the smaller Wake Forest guards for 16 offensive rebounds they turned into 18 second-chance points. In the second half, Wake Forest fought through the screens, but not well enough. Duke shot 56 percent in the second half and won going away.

I’ll write more about the game when I get up. I just got home at 2, and it’s time to crash. But before I do, I want to extend kudos to a member of the sharpest Peanut Gallery in the blogsphere, Johnny, who begged to differ when I said that L.D. Williams would be guarding Jon Scheyer. Johnny figured Ish Smith would take Scheyer, and he was right. Ish opened on Scheyer and played him more than anyone else. Williams did take a turn or two, and might have spent more time on Scheyer had he not been in the throes of foul trouble, but that’s only conjecture.

Johnny made the call. Good job.

Back to the main page.

By Dan Collins on 01/18/2010 (2:59 am)

Comments

Great stuff Dan. Natili made a big call in the first half with the illegal screen on one of the Plumlees and K was in his face right away. Natili is an alright ref, but he is continually intimidated by K, I’ve seen it in person and on TV. It was only a matter of time before it came around, as it always does at Cameron. There are only a few refs in the ACC that will stand up to K and Ray Natili is not one of them.

Jeremy Noel on 01/18/2010 (4:41 pm)

What game were you guys watching? Yes the ref blew it with Ish’s block but the rest of the game was as fairly called as any I can remember at Cameron since K arrived. I think that Coach G agreed with me from his comments. If the Deacs had swithced on the screens 1st half instead of giving the Plumblees points things could have been different.

Frank on 01/18/2010 (4:08 pm)

Dan,
Great 30 minutes of basketball last night, just wish we could have finished the job. Whether “The Call” was the turning point or contributed to our loss is arguable - the fact that it was a horrible, horrible call is not. Ish was clearly going for the ball and not the body. The ref even got a second chance to review it and stuck to it!

What does it take for refs to be punished for screwing up calls and if they are punished, why is it not made public? It has gotten to the point where some of these games aren’t even enjoyable to watch anymore. The discussions after a game like last night’s should revolve around the players’ performance and coaching moves - not poor calls. In any other profession, people are punished and eventually fired for poor performance. For some reason, refs - particularly in college basketball - seem to be bullet proof. Dan, please explain the thinking behind the powers that be protecting poor performance rather than having a system where these employees are held accountable for their mistakes.

John on 01/18/2010 (2:49 pm)

Dan,
First - can Wake file some sort of challenge or something regarding that call so that at least the league office looks at it. I know it won’t change the result of the game, but I’d at least like to know that the ref gets it pointed out to him that he really blew that one.
Second (and on a perhaps positive note) - when Woods missed that pass inside when we rebounded one of our missed free throws early on in the game, I was starting to lose it and give up hope on him. I just can’t understand why he never seems ready for the pass inside. But he subsequently made a lot of defensive and hustle plays. And he even seemed to make a few good offensive plays later on. Can we begin to hope that perhaps he’s starting to develop/show some offensive skills down low? I hope so - if he starts to blossom offensively, it could really change the outlook for our team going into March. He’s just got to start getting ready to get passed to at all times.

Michael on 01/18/2010 (1:38 pm)

Dan,

What was the temperature in K’s gym? The heat is always a problem there!

I, too, thought Ish made a great play on Plumlee and cursed the TV when Natili made his unbelievable call!!

But Duke’s offensive boards and put backs hurt us greatly in the first half. The last 10 minutes, I thought we just ran out of gas from being too emotionally high at the start. We couldn’t finish for being drained from the first 30 minutes. Need to settle down for Carolina.

But it was a good, very physical 30 minutes, wasn’t it? Overall, I was pleased with our play, emotion and physicality. The final score is not indicative of the game itself!

Ken Green on 01/18/2010 (1:02 pm)

that was a big play and I am one of those who believe that K has the refs a bit intimidated and they would not overturn that one no matter how compelling the evidence on replay. Ish made a great attempt and was just continuing the style of play of the game as established and practiced for years in Durham- That said, we sure lost our composure the last two minutes of the first half and again at the end of the game. And if that is AFA’s idea of defense, he had best think again about playing in the big league next year.

Paul on 01/18/2010 (12:27 pm)

Ok enough is enough what is it gonna take to put LD on the bench this was by far the worst he has played this year is not his year i think he is a good defender but by far he doesnt understand he has no offense unless he is on a fast break, Ari Stewart is dino’s best weapon at that spot his d is a little shakey but his offense can make up for it Dino put LD on the bench please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

brian on 01/18/2010 (11:25 am)

Dan, I will have to disagree with Ish. I think that play was the turning point in the game. The officials did a good job to that point but it took the wind out of our sails but what do you expect at Duke. Coach K does a great job with his players but I lost all respect for him several years ago when he started a walk on against Wake with the sole intention of roughing up Chris Paul for 2 1/2 minutes and the chest bumping him when came off the court. Last night he further showed poor of sportmanship when up by 17 with 1:21 to play and full court pressed Wake out of a timeout. Unbelievable act of bad sportmanship. If it was baseball somebody would have been plunked.

Ed on 01/18/2010 (8:34 am)