Move On

I knew Twitter and Facebook would light up after the "no call" during Kendall Marshall's game winning drive to propel Carolina to the 69-67 win against NC State. However, hearing about the same thing for eight hours straight after the game is ridiculous (and annoying). Sure, it's quite alright to complain for some amount of time but whining about it now is neither going to change the outcome nor improve the look of Wolfpack fans on the college basketball world.

Here's how I saw everything from a non-biased, basketball point of view. The "no call" on Marshall's drive was right. If anything had been called it would have been a blocking foul because Alex Johnson of NC State didn't have his feet set and slid into position to defend Marshall at an angle. But some would argue Marshall lowered his shoulder when he came in contact with Johnson. Well, after viewing a replay, he actually didn't lower his shoulder nor pushed off. Plus, in late game situations like this, the officials are more than likely not going to call things like that. It's just the name of the game.

Then, there was the final desperation try by the Pack where the ball was up for grabs and NC State thought they were fouled. In that situation, the ball was being fought for with no clear possession either way. Once again, the officials are more than likely not going to call any fouls in that situation late game. Just like at the end of the Duke/FSU game that followed, players for both teams fought for the ball near the end of the game. There was a lot of contact but no foul was called either way.

The thing that really gets me upset about this is everyone has focused on the last few seconds of the game. Let's not forget, State had a 6 or 7 point lead on the Heels and they could have easily kept that lead and won had they not shot themselves in the foot thoughout the game. The Pack shot 3-11 (27.3%) from 3-point range, 12-18 (66.7%) from the free throw line, and turned the ball over 16 times; including one that led to Marshall's game winning shot. Those kind of stats are not going to make it easier for your team to win.

One writer for NBCSports.com seemed to be letting off a lot of steam in his article for the site. Rob Dauster, a writer for the CollegeBaksetballTalk section of the website made it ver clear that NC State got "hosed" by the officials. Now, I wouldn't have a problem with that. After all, it's his matter of opinion. But when that biased viewpoint is tweeted worldwide with the NBC Sports name on it, that's where I take issue. The tweet from read: "N.C. State gets hosed by refs in loss to UNC, and now might miss the NCAA tourney." As a national sports website, you are suppose to show impartiality. It seems as though NBC Sports failed miserably at doing this. I think it's okay for the writer to express his opinion on a blog post (like I'm doing here) but not on an article that is to be front and center on a sports website that is supposed to be impartial.

Listen, State will make it to the NCAA Tournament. If they don't I'll be shocked. I honestly thought they didn't even need a win today against UNC to make it. In fact, I thought they solidified that with the win against Virginia yesterday. Like my mom said, State should have played better throughout the regular season so there wouldn't be such an uproar over whether or not they would make it. All that said, people who are still whining about what happened need to grow up and move on. What happened happened and, obviously, there's nothing you can do about it! I could say a lot more but I'll leave it at that!