I was at the Hofstra - UNC Wilmington basketball game yesterday. It was definitely an exciting game as Hofstra won in triple overtime 92-87. The game was also televised on FSNY. The game was one of the most poorly officiated games that I have ever seen, and was typical of the officiating in the CAA. Most of the fans around my friends and I thought the same way, with one fan commenting "This is the worst officiated game I have ever seen".
Well there was one play in overtime that, well, apparently put me on TV and not in such a good light. :-) During a crucial point of the game, Hofstra and UNC Wilmington were fighting for a loose ball and the ball clearly went out of bounds off the Wilmington player, thus it should have been Hofstra ball. However the referee signalled Wilmington ball. The referee was basically standing directly in front of where I was sitting, albeit I was about 7 rows up from the floor. Well I had had enough. I stormed down to the first row screaming at the ref "ASK FOR HELP! ASK FOR HELP!". Well, sure enough, one of the other referees who had a better look came over, told him that it was clearly off the Wilmington player and it was Hofstra ball. The ref changed the call and it was Hofstra possession.
Well, I had to have been 20 feet from the ref and the cameras had to be focusing on that play at that time. I had a feeling later that this might have been caught on TV. My friend, Jeremy Kniffin, the Senior Assistant Director of Communications for the Hofstra Athletic Department, emailed me later with the subject line "HA!", and I knew what it was. Jeremy simply stated "Someone was caught on TV yelling at the refs and it wasn't me."
LOL.
It wasn't one of my shining moments, but you have to understand a) the officiating was horrible...I mean really horrible. b) The call was reversed, so I felt somewhat vindicated, though embarrassed later on when finding out. I had told Chelle and joked with Matt when I came home last night that daddy might have been on TV for that...
I am very passionate about basketball and yes I am a fan of Hofstra basketball. However, I don't curse, nor do I really yell anything negative at Hofstra when they are playing bad. I have learned to try to be supportive of my team and yes occasionally I will yell out something supportive, and once in a while I will yell if there is a really bad call. There was only one other game I remember being so upset about officiating. My friend Mal and I during the game yesterday discussed the game we saw against Drexel a couple of years back, where the officials were allowing so much rough play, it resulted in the season ending injury of Hofstra's Wendell Gibson because a Drexel player fouled him as he came down with a rebound and he tore his ACL. I actually emailed the CAA on that game due to it.
I just have to learn its just a game...I better because in a few years my son will be coming with me to the games. The bright side is that they got the right call. I will post something more about the game on the CAA blog later. It was a crucial win for Hofstra.
Now about these weathermen and the "coating of snow that we might get"...looks a lot more like 2-5 inches out there with blowing snow...ugh.
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