May 18, 2017
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High
“Huh? What? Can you explain that again?” These were my thoughts as I watched the NBA Draft Lottery order being unveiled on ESPN. As a general rule of thumb, I think the NBA would be well advised to make sure their draft order is easier to understand than the U. S. tax code.
After almost every team was unveiled, Mark Jones followed up with, “That means… ” and an explanation. How about this NBA? Find a process so when the announcer says, “The team with the 5th pick is the Sacramento Kings,” the next sentence is simply, “And with the 4th pick,… ” No explanation necessary.
Though, my chief complaint is that the NBA draft lottery exists. If a team decides to tank and try to get the first pick, then that is their choice. Tanking for the first pick is not quick fix, and getting the first pick guarantees little. Look at the Pelicans. They lucked up, got Anthony Davis, and have one playoff appearance to show for it.
The whole concept is bush league in my mind. That’s my problem. What’s worse is it is no longer entertaining. That’s the NBA’s problem.
Meanwhile, the LSU baseball team is playing its best baseball since the first month of the year. Can they sustain this level of play? I certainly hope so.
As I was trying to point out last week, a lot was going wrong at the same time for LSU to struggle in the middle of the year. Now, the pitching staff is finding the strike zone more frequently. As a result, LSU isn’t playing defense in the field for long stretches. The offense found ways to produce runs against Auburn without necessarily producing double digit hits. Defensively, this team makes the routine plays and great plays.
Will this new found stride lead to postseason success? Will it lead to success this weekend in Starkvegas? I have a good feeling.
HEY REF
I just got my June edition of “Referee” magazine (Yes, Johnny there really is such a magazine being published) and finally after all these years a rule change for the 2017 season will be in effect. It comes some 20 years late but it’s finally going to be a part of high school football.
Let me give you a quick lesson on why I’m finally gonna see MY RULE become part of the game. I’m taking you back to the 1997 Championship game in the Dome between John Curtis and Eunice. I’m working my sideline position and one play in the first quarter got me a little upset. Upset that nobody had the balls to call the action a foul and to top things off the entire block of fans on the Curtis side jumped up and went crazy on what just happened on the field.
Curtis was on defense and had just intercepted a pass down field and on the runback I could see a defender sizing up one of the Eunice receivers. Without regard for anything resemblance of good sportsmanship this kid just unloaded one of the hardest hits I’d ever seen. My crewmate said it was a legal block and since it was out of my direct line of sight I just agreed with him but kept it on the back burner so to speak.
We fast forward now to the second quarter and where once again in what felt like a Twilight Zone episode right in my area of coverage Curtis once again took the ball away. I saw this kid loading up and getting ready to nail a Eunice player with his back to both of us. I yelled and yelled “DON’T DO IT, DON’T DO IT” and before I could warn him again he just laid this kid out. The initial contact was from behind yet about shoulder blade high. I threw my flag at his feet and before I could get to my white hat the Curtis fans and coaches were jumping up and down, screaming that my call was the usual “worst I’ve ever seen, etc., etc.”!
As the doctors came onto the field to see if this kid was alive I reported the foul as a “CLIP”. In hindsight I should’ve called it a personal foul but I went with my call because it was a CLIP since at that time a CLIP was defined as a hit from the side or behind where the player couldn’t defend himself or something close to that. After my Ref gave the signal for the foul the boo-birds just got loader and loader. I’d never heard such a roar coming from the stands like that and to this day I hear ‘em in my sleep.
I didn’t care though because it was one of the dirtiest hits I’ve ever witnessed to this day. As my ref walked off the foul I could see and hear J. T. yelling some pretty nasty things at me. So for the first time in my officiating life I ripped off a few choice words his way. He wanted to know what I’d just slung at him and I let him know exactly what his kid had done which he let me know his coaches in the press box said it was a cheap call and he didn’t stop there but I had a job to do. The game was held up for a while but I don’t remember how long. I just remember looking over and the kid was still on the turf and I hadn’t seen him move.
Team doctors and the coaching staff were able to get the injured player to the bench and we pretty much played the rest of the first half under a continued thunder coming from the Curtis side. And what happened next as the gun went off to end the first half is one of those things we as officials dread; A father comes running through the stands to get where he can yell at us as we went to the dressing room. I don’t think he said more than four words that I can print here but you can imagine it wasn’t wishing me a happy birthday. He did say we were terrible; the worst crew ever to work a title game and that he’d be waiting for me after the game!!!
At half I explained to the crew that my call was the correct one and that if they had shown they had a pair of “testies” and called that first dirty hit that we wouldn’t be where we are. As we head out for the second half I came out on the Curtis side to talk to J. T. and he allowed me a chance to explain. He didn’t like it but I did have the last word when I looked him square in the eyes and asked “Coach if that was your son laid out from that kind of a hit, a hit that could’ve ended his days being able to walk, would you still have the opinion it was a cheap call”? He just turned away, accepted my reason for the flag and never raised his voice.
So fast forward to 2017, the NFHS has come out with a new rule for “BLINDSIDE BLOCKS” (2-3-10, 9-4) it states “a BLINDSIDE block is a block outside the free blocking zone against an opponent other than the runner who does not see the blocker”… It took a long time coming but I feel vindicated that although at the time of my call in the biggest game of the year I made a call that was one for the safety of the player even though it didn’t make me any friends with the coaching staff at Curtis.
But what I’m afraid of is these new-day, need the check guys wearing stripes will go either very hard one way or the other. In that they’ll be so strict that we’ll see ten, fifteen or twenty BLINDSIDE fouls called every game. On the other hand they’ll be too timid to make the call. My only advice to each one of them is to call the foul as if your son was on the receiving end of the hit. That’s the only way to make sure we know that player safety is once again at the forefront of an official’s mind as he steps up for his next assignment!
Till next week…
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