Saturday, February 9, 2008

Duke vs. NC State

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Clemson vs UNC

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Maryland vs. Clemson

Friday, October 5, 2007

Boston College vs Georgia Tech

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Boston College vs Georgia Tech

Saturday, September 15, 2007

UVA vs UNC

Friday, February 23, 2007

Duke vs Clemson

Thursday, February 1, 2007

Duke vs Maryland

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

UNC vs MIAMI




Miami coach Frank Haith got tossed with 7:48 left in the Canes' 105-64 loss. After the game, Haith said he didn't want to talk about why.

This YouTube clip shows why. In the span of 28 seconds, this is what Karl Hess, Michael Kitts and Bob Donato missed:

• A goaltending on Brandan Wright
• A push on Tyler Hansbrough
• A dead ball call
• An insult-to-injury three-point play after the missed dead ball call
• A no-call on Hansbrough and defending Brian Asbury

Saturday, January 27, 2007

ACC admits 'timing error' in Duke victory

No. 10 Blue Devils beat No. 19 Tigers on buzzer-beating layup
-Associated Press

GREENSBORO, N.C. - The Atlantic Coast Conference admitted Friday that a timing error was made in the closing seconds of No. 10 Duke’s 68-66 win over 19th-ranked Clemson.

Coordinator of basketball officials John Clougherty said the league reviewed the game film and discussed the clock controversy with the officials, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and Clemson coach Oliver Purnell.

“The league acknowledges that a timing error was made in not starting the game clock at the correct time,” said Clougherty, adding the situation was resolved internally but did not elaborate.

The confusion started shortly after Clemson’s Vernon Hamilton made a layup to pull the Tigers to 66-63 with 5 seconds left.

Josh McRoberts’ inbounds pass for Greg Paulus went right to Hamilton just outside the 3-point arc. Hamilton hit a 3 to tie it with 1.8 seconds left, which seemed to have the game headed for overtime.

But officials stopped play to review the time remaining and restored the clock to 4.4seconds. The clock, which stopped on Hamilton’s layup, did not restart on the steal until the ball was almost in the basket — a pause of more than a second.

McRoberts then inbounded the ball to Jon Scheyer. He pushed the ball near midcourt and passed to David McClure, who made a layup as time expired to give the Blue Devils the win.

“I am satisfied with their review in this matter,” Purnell said Friday. “We now need to put 100 percent of our focus on our game with Virginia on Sunday, and that is what we will do, starting with today’s practice.”

A Duke spokesman said school officials would have no comment.

ACC officials need lesson in time management

Error in Duke-Clemson game just another example of clock woes
By Mike DeCourcy, Sporting News

Is there anybody in the Atlantic Coast Conference who can tell time?

Anyone?

Twice in the space of a week, we've had game clock malfunctions that impacted the outcome of ACC contests. In one case, the impact was significant. In one case, the impact was minor. In both instances, the result of the glitch favored the home team. That is not good. Particularly when one of the teams involved is Duke, which leads to ridiculous conspiracy theories of the sort that now are jetting around the internet.

The conspiracies are flat wrong.

But the problems are very real.

Duke got a win Thursday night over Clemson that the Blue Devils tried very hard to give away. They were inadvertently saved from having to do the job in overtime by a clock malfunction that gave them nearly two extra seconds to complete a game-winning play -- a mistake that apparently never caught the officials' attention because they were busy fixing a second clock mistake.

Four days earlier, Virginia Tech benefited from three seconds that ceased to exist in its overtime victory over Maryland.

In the case of Duke, it would have taken that blonde from Medium to recognize it eventually would help the Blue Devils for the clock not to start as Clemson's Vernon Hamilton intercepted an inbounds pass launched by Duke center Josh McRoberts. When the pass was released, the Devils had a 3-point lead and were looking to kill off the final five seconds. But the first fractions did not start ticking until Hamilton's shot was nearly 85 percent of the way to the goal. And, instead of stopping when the ball went through the goal at 4.8 seconds, the clock didn't quit running until 1.8.

How the officials did not notice the timing error on the first end is unclear, but it appears they concentrated on the amount of time that lapsed after the ball went through the goal -- none of them recognizing that the whole play had started with 5.0seconds on the clock, and it would have taken some sort of miracle for Hamilton to catch, raise, launch and land his shot in less than a second.

With the 4.4 seconds restored to the game clock by officials, Duke executed a brilliant, coast-to-coast game-ending play that led to forward David McClure scoring a game-winning layup.

The Virginia Tech deal caught less attention because it did not lead to a spectacular play, and because it didn't involve Duke. But it did create some questions about the way these kinds of situations should be handled.

With 16 seconds left in overtime and Maryland trailing by three, the Terps inbounded the ball. But the clock did not start as they began to work through the backcourt to establish a play. Soon afterward, an official noticed and blew his whistle to stop the players. After checking the game tape to see how much time had lapsed, the officials reset the clock to 13 seconds and had Maryland inbound again.

Whether or not the officials were within the rules to do what they did, this represented a significant detriment to Maryland's effort to win the game. Because the Terps had just begun their play call, those three seconds simply vanished. They were stopped before their action could lead to anything productive. And when they started again, they had three fewer seconds to run that play or to try an alternative if their initial effort failed.

It seems no one made a fuss about this at the time, but this is an issue the rules committee should consider addressing in the future. Logically, those three seconds should have been restored and Maryland should have been given a do-over -- a chance to inbound from the initial spot and take a fair shot at tying the game.

Every clock operator has the power to make time stop or start, but none should have the power to make it disappear.

© 2007 The Sporting News

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Clemson vs UNC

Tuesday, August 1, 2006

Maryland vs NC State

Monday, February 20, 2006

Duke vs Georgia Tech

Wednesday, February 1, 2006

ACC suspends refs for bad call in FSU-Duke game

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The referees who worked the Florida State-Duke game were suspended for one game Monday for what the league said was an unnecessary technical foul on a Seminoles player.

The crew of Mike Eades, Ray Natili and Ed Corbett shouldn't have assessed a technical on Florida State's Alexander Johnson in the second half of Duke's 97-96 overtime win Saturday, said John Clougherty, coordinator of men's basketball officials for the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The technical was Johnson's fifth foul, and he left with 9:23 remaining. Johnson had 13 points and 11 rebounds before going to the bench.

"It came as a surprise to me," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said Monday.

Johnson drew his fourth foul for an intentional foul on Duke center Shelden Williams, who quickly got to his feet and bumped Johnson. Television replays showed Johnson attempting to back away. The confrontation had resulted in technicals for both players.

Referees also whistled Johnson for an intentional foul against Williams in the first half.

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Instant replay: ACC officials are worst on the field

When you take a look at the instant replay results year-to-date, one alarming note stands out: 50% of all ACC replays have been calls that were overturned.

Through the first 37 games, league replay officials have overturned 15 of 30 plays reviewed -- or 50 percent. That's 20 percent higher than all of the Division I conferences using replay this season, and 14 percent higher than combined calls overturned in college football's six major conferences.
Fifty percent? Are you kidding me? Maybe Whittingham was on to something.

"Fifty percent overturned is shocking," said one bowl executive. "It should never be 50 percent. It sounds like a weather man."
Here's the rundown of BCS conference replay statistics for 2005 (numbers through last week):

ACC: 37 games - 30 replays - 15 overturned - 50.0%
Pac10: 30 games - 38 replays - 14 overturned - 36.8%
Big10: 37 games - 38 replays - 13 overturned - 34.2%
Big 12: 38 games - 39 replays - 13 overturned - 33.3%
Big East: 26 games - 27 replays - 9 overturned - 33.3%
SEC: 39 games - 27 replays - 8 overturned - 29.6%

Sunday, August 1, 2004

Virginia Tech vs Georgia Tech

Monday, March 22, 2004

A bad call comes at the worst of times

Ned Barnett, Staff Writer
ORLANDO, FLA.--Marcus Melvin stood in the N.C. State locker room explaining what it was like for his college career to end on a miracle comeback by Vanderbilt when coach Herb Sendek came in and sat down on a bench. He stared at the play-by-play recap in his hands.

It was the official record of what happened, but it read like fiction, science fiction. It was something from "The X-Files" with the "X" being the crossed arms of a referee signaling an intentional foul on Melvin.

Here was what it said: An entire basketball team on a flight to Phoenix suddenly was zapped back to Orlando. The Wolfpack was all but in the NCAA Tournament's third round when it was transported back in time and knocked out of the tournament.

Unbelievable, but true. In the space of about three minutes, the Wolfpack and its fans were transformed from exhilarated to X-ed out.

"As you guys know, I am not at liberty to comment on officiating," Sendek said.

That didn't stop others. On television, CBS analyst Len Elmore declared the intentional foul "bad call, bad call." Pack fans said it was wrong, wrong, wrong. The critics were right, but nothing can make it right.

It's over. Gutty Vanderbilt goes on. Hard-luck State is out.

This excruciating turn of events was made worse because it wasn't a first. State was still mentally recovering from a miracle comeback by Maryland in the ACC Tournament semifinals. That, too, was triggered by an odd call, a technical foul called on State when a manager took too long to wipe up moisture in front of the State bench. The official, Larry Rose, later apologized, saying he wouldn't make that call in that situation again.

There were no immediate apologies Sunday, but it was a bad call at the worst time based on a fuzzy rule.

Defenders routinely break up sure layups with deliberate contact when the situation dictates. Under the rule, it's a regular foul so long as the defender makes an effort to reach for the ball.

Official David Libbey didn't see that effort from Melvin. He called Melvin's break-up of Corey Smith's layup an intentional foul. That gave Vandy two foul shots and possession of the ball when the sinking Commodores seemingly had sent up their last flare.

Vanderbilt made the most of it. Smith hit both free throws and Mario Moore followed with a clutch 3-pointer. Suddenly Vanderbilt was within one point with 1:43 to go.

A season expired in the next 90 seconds as State made its ghastly slide out of the round of 16. Lion-hearted Ilian Evtimov clawed State back into a one-point lead by hitting two free throws with 33.6 seconds left. But Vanderbilt followed with an old-fashioned three-point play that sent State to a 75-73 defeat.

It happened very quickly, but it will be remembered a long, long time.

No one wants to complain about officials' calls as the cause of a team's downfall. As long as humans call the game, there will be mistakes, and usually they even out. Officials perform a hard job before thousands of critics. They should be supported. But the problem here was both the call and the rule.

Even if technically correct, it's a judgment call, and good judgment says you don't award a possession in the closing minutes of a tight tournament game unless the foul is committed with an ax.

The call shouldn't turn on whether a defender's hand gets close enough to the ball. And, obviously, officials routinely disregard that standard as defenders grab players to stop the clock.

The call didn't decide the game, but it made a miracle possible. Vandy deserves credit for seizing the opportunity.

Vanderbilt won because it didn't quit. And because the Commodores have a senior forward named Matt Freije who picked up his team and refused to lose. His 31 points put Vanderbilt ahead in the first half and brought it back in the second.

State had grit, too. All that Freije was on Sunday, Evtimov was, too. It seemed like his 28 points were going to be enough. They should have advanced State's excellent season, continued a college career for Melvin and bought time for injured senior Scooter Sherrill to come back.

Instead, Evtimov was sitting glumly in the losing locker room, and Sherrill was beside him with his head in his hands.

"We did have a good season. Nothing is going to change that," Evtimov said, "but people are going to remember how you finish."

Sendek said, "You've got to credit Vanderbilt. They made some terrific offensive plays down the home stretch."

He added, "Our men are anything but losers. Our tremendous win is our great season."

Sunday, November 30, 2003

Florida State vs Florida (ACC CREW)

The tale of the tape:

Bad calls (upon review):



#1-Opening kickoff. Cromartie was popped, the ball clearly came loose before his knee hit the ground. Should have been UF ball @ the FSU 30. Instead, it's 1 and 10 FSU at their own 32. Drive ends in a punt, should have been at least 3 points for UF.

#2-Same drive. Guss Scott forces the ball out, then Matt Farrior dives in and it pops out in our favor to Guss before the officials blew the play dead. Scott would have had a return for a TD. Instead they say he was down, again, the drive ended in a punt.

#3-The kickoff after the UF FG. Leon Washington has a case of the Butterfingers and can't hold on to the ball, Billy Latsko makes the play of his career and runs the ball into the endzone for an apparent UF TD. Officials call UF offsides on the kick, results in rekick and FSU 1st down. You've all seen the pics, there was no offsides.

#4-Same drive. FSU WR clearly has firm possession of the ball and 2 feet down right before getting completely leveled and losing the ball which UF recovered. However, refs rule it an incompletion. FSU keeps the ball.

#5-Very next play. Booker loses the ball before the officials rule the play dead again, which once again would have resulted in a UF TD, this time Darryl Dixon. However, Booker was ruled down, and FSU scores on the very next play.

That was just the 1st half. Here's the 2nd.

#6-The no call on Keiwan's catch in the end zone. After watching it in super slow mo, I waited til he had the ball in his hands, then once he did I looked at his feet, his left foot was clearly in bounds. I remember seeing it live and seeing him throw the ball down in frustration, now I know why. That was an INT taken away. However, it worked out cuz he returned the Rix fumble for a TD. That one actually stood. But would be made up for a few plays later...

#7-Fason was tackled by Dockett, on his way down, Fason ran into to Show's big ole ass and the ball came out of his hands a little, however he clearly regained possession before hitting the ground because he was on the ground for a good half second to a second before you even see the ball squirt out. A missed call by the officials, leads to an FSU TD and a make up for Keiwan's TD.

#8-The goal line stand. Leon Washington clearly fumbles the ball, that's not in question. The officials acknowledged that, however they said the "fumbler re-established possession." I would love to know how. After watching the replay, Washington lands on the ball with his knee while Channing Crowder is simultaneously falling to the ground. While down there, Crowder beats Washington to the ball, and takes it from him, perfectly legal and should have been awarded to Crowder. However, the refs bitch about him not getting the ball and then taking his frustration out on the ball. Result, FSU TD.

Florida A.D. wants changes in deal

Gators’ Foley upset with officiating after loss to Florida State

GAINESVILLE, Fla., Nov. 30 - When he renews the contract with Florida State, Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley will look into changing a long-standing agreement that calls for officiating crews from the conference of the road team to work the game.

FOLEY SAID HE CALLED Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive shortly after Florida’s 38-34 loss to Florida State to vent about several calls that went against the Gators. Slive told Foley there was nothing he could do because the crew was from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“I have no recourse,” Foley told The Associated Press on Sunday. “I will be interested to see their evaluation.”

The end of the game was marred by a melee at midfield that started when Florida players took offense at Florida State players who came to midfield to jump on their logo. Foley and coach Ron Zook said they would look at the tape and take appropriate action later in the week.

“I saw what was happening,” said Foley, who was in the middle trying to break it up. “I have no idea how it began. Obviously, emotions run high. But it’s not what our program wants to be about.”

Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said Sunday he was still trying to sort through what happened.

“You got 160 guys dressed out there and it didn’t get any worse than it did. I guess there was some good to it, too,” he said.

Bowden said he’d take disciplinary action if he determined any of his players were out of line in the fracas.

Bowden said neutral officials could be an option, and he understood why the home crowd was in such an uproar over so many controversial calls.

Meanwhile, Tommy Hunt, the director of ACC officials, told the AP he hadn’t watched the tape as of Sunday morning, so he couldn’t comment specifically on the game.

“When I see the game, if our officials make mistakes, they’re held accountable for them,” Hunt said. “We’ve got the best officials in the country, or some of the best, and I stand by that.”

Normally, tough calls even out over the course of a game. In this case, however, there were no fewer than six key calls, ranging from questionable to downright awful, all of which went against the Gators (8-4).

“I can’t say a thing,” Zook said. “The only thing I’m going to say is there were enough plays in the game that if we’d have made them, we still would have been all right.”

Among the worst of the calls came on the opening kickoff, when Florida State’s Antonio Cromartie fumbled and the Gators recovered. Officials ruled the play over before the fumble, even though Cromartie’s knee clearly hadn’t touched the ground.

In the third quarter, Florida State’s Pat Watkins scooped up a fumble and returned it for a score, even though Florida tailback Ciatrick Fason appeared to be flat on the ground before the ball popped out.

In the fourth quarter, Chris Rix ran for a touchdown and a 31-27 lead four plays after officials awarded the ball to the Seminoles, even though Gators linebacker Channing Crowder came out of the pile with the ball. Leon Washington, who fumbled, appeared to be sitting on the ball when officials made the call.

Hunt defended the crew, led by referee Jack Childress.

“People sit in the stands, they watch the replay four or five times, in slow motion, backward, forward, then they make the call,” Hunt said. “We’re not in that business. We’re in the instantaneous-decision business.”

It is common for crews from the visiting team’s conference to work interconference games, but there’s no steadfast rule calling for it, Foley said.

InsertArt(2082121)The Florida-Florida State contract is up for renewal after next year, and Foley said he will look into bringing in a crew from a neutral conference.

But this game is over, and both Foley and Zook know there’s nothing they can do.

“It hurts really, really, really bad,” Zook said. “It was a heck of football game.”

Foley said Peach Bowl officials told him they would like to invite the Gators if they lost. Those invitations, however, won’t go out until after Georgia and LSU play next Saturday in the Southeastern Conference title game.

Wednesday, October 1, 2003

NC State vs Georgia Tech

Thursday, January 29, 1998

Maryland Falls to No. 1 Duke

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - Gary Williams heard that things did not go well for his team.

The excitable Maryland coach spent exactly 5 minutes and 51 seconds pacing the sideline as No. 1 Duke beat the No. 23 Terrapins 86-59 Thursday night.

Williams spent the rest of the evening listening to the loss on the radio in the locker room after being thrown out of the game.

Maryland has lost its share of games in a variety of ways to the Blue Devils (19-1, 8-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) in Cameron Indoor Stadium, but none quite like this one as officials played a major factor in an ACC game for the second straight night.

One day after Clemson was called for an ACC-record 41 fouls in a nine-point loss at No. 2 North Carolina, Maryland was whistled for four technicals in the game's opening stages, including a pair that led to Williams' early ejection.

"I feel that you are responsible to be with your team during the game and I didn't do that. It's a shame things happened like they did," Williams said. "It probably wouldn't have made a difference if I was there or not."

The technicals led to 13 points and helped the Blue Devils win their 10th straight. Duke is also off to the second-best start in school history, just off the pace of the 1991-92 national championship team that began 21-1.

Trajan Langdon scored 12 of his 16 points in the first 6 1/2 minutes to pace the surging Blue Devils.

Meanwhile, the Terrapins (12-7, 5-4) had won five of six ACC games since losing to the Blue Devils by 32 points in College Park, Md., on Jan. 3. But Maryland was blown out again after losing its head coach and its composure.

"It's really a bad feeling because you ask your players to work really hard and do a lot of things for the good of the team and obviously what I did wasn't for the good of the team," Williams said. "I feel bad but I also feel frustrated because of the situation."

Rodney Elliott paced Maryland with 13 points.

The ACC office in Greensboro had sent a letter to schools this week warning teams about recent unacceptable bench and court behavior. Officials Larry Rose, Sam Croft and Zelton Steed took it seriously. Croft was the only one of the three to work Wednesday night's game in Chapel Hill.

"(The officials) are definitely trying to clean it up," said Duke's Ricky Price. "There were no warnings, they were just throwing T's. Fortunately, the coaches and the captains told us to keep our mouths shut and just play and if there was a bad call, just suck it up and run down the court.

"I saw that Clemson-Carolina game and all those fouls called, but I have never seen anything like this in my life, I'm just glad I'm on the team that capitalized on all the points."

The first Maryland technicals were called by Rose against Sarunas Jasikevicius for arguing a non-foul call on a screen and against Williams for taking up for his guard.

Langdon sank the four free throws and less than a minute later Williams was taking a walk to the locker room after Croft threw him out for arguing again. Williams, one of the game's more demonstrative coaches, was also thrown out last January at Florida State.

Williams said there was no cursing used by himself or any of his players during arguments with the officials. Rose said otherwise.

"I warned Gary three times about cursing and he continued," Rose said. "(The first technical) was the result of excessive language and being out of the coaching box."

Rose said the officiating crew received no special instructions from ACC supervisor of officials Fred Barakat following the Clemson-North Carolina game.

"Absolutely not," Rose said. "I have not talked to Fred since Monday."

Assistant Billy Hahn, who won here in 1995 when Williams had pneumonia, took over for his boss 5:51 into the game but didn't fare as well as three seasons ago as Duke went on a 19-2 run to take control of the game.

During that four-minute span, Langdon, William Avery and Steve Wojciechowski each sank 3-pointers and Maryland's Laron Profit was called for his team's fourth technical.

The Blue Devils led 37-12 before the Terrapins made a small run, but Duke took a 57-30 halftime lead and cruised to its 17th straight home victory.

Duke has led all 20 games at halftime by an average of 20.5 points

Tuesday, February 18, 1997

Errors Cast a Cloud Over A.C.C. Referees

By BARRY JACOBS
New York Times

The fierce competition in Atlantic Coast Conference basketball has been compromised by a pair of officiating gaffes that have given Duke an edge in the battle for first place and top seeding in next month's conference tournament.

The most recent error occurred on Sunday at Wake Forest, when Referee Mike Wood ruled that a shot by North Carolina State's C. C. Harrison was a 3-pointer, giving the last-place Wolfpack a 60-59 overtime victory. Replays clearly showed that Harrison's foot was on the 3-point line when he launched his leaning jump shot, which banked in at the buzzer.

''What can you do?'' Wake Forest Coach Dave Odom asked. ''What do you say? I'm not happy about it. You have a tendency when it happens to somebody else to say it's too bad. When it happens to you, it's really too bad.''

The loss dropped the Demon Deacons, who were then ranked second nationally, to 20-3 over all, 9-3 in the A.C.C., and out of first place in the conference for the first time this season. Surprising Duke, 21-5 and 10-3, can solidify its lead Tuesday night when it plays host to third-place Clemson (20-5, 8-4).

''If I allow my team to hang on that or hide behind that, then they have no chance to get better,'' Odom said, referring to the 3-point ruling.

But that does not lessen the impact of a mistake that was so obvious on replays, said Fred Barakat, the A.C.C.'s associate commissioner and for 16 years its supervisor of men's basketball officials.

''It's a judgment call,'' Barakat said. ''It happens a lot during the course of every game. It's unfortunate and I feel terrible for the Wake Forest fans because I know they feel it was unjust. It was unjust, in retrospect.''

The missed call came on the heels of another incident, at Virginia last Tuesday, in which Duke was also the beneficiary and which led to an unprecedented public censure of an A.C.C. officiating crew.

Barakat, who holds monthly telephone conferences with his top referees, had one scheduled right after the Wake Forest-North Carolina State game. He devoted the entire 45-minute session to reassurance.

''I put aside all my notes on traveling, palming, verticality, hand-checking and post play, and I just strictly talked about life, adversity and teamwork, and coming together when everybody's going to be out there criticizing and pointing fingers and knocking us,'' Barakat said. ''Now is the time for us to not bow our heads because we have a season to finish.''

The incidents have cast a cloud over the conference's referees, who earn from $550 to $650 per game plus expenses and whose full-time occupations range from school official to salesman to psychologist. Most of them apprenticed in smaller leagues before landing jobs with the A.C.C. This season, no fewer than three questionable last-second calls have affected outcomes of A.C.C. games.

Two cost Wake Forest dearly, the first a game-winning 3-pointer actually launched one-thirtieth of a second after the final buzzer in a 54-51 Maryland victory. ''That last shot in the Maryland game, God may have had trouble calling it,'' said Barakat, who analyzed videotape to determine that the shot came late. ''I think the danger here is to put everything into the same pot.''

The most disturbing error took place a week ago when Duke was playing at Charlottesville, Va. This time, no judgment call was involved as the referees failed to allow a simple but crucial substitution.

With the score 60-60, forward Norman Nolan went to the foul line for Virginia with five seconds left. Before Nolan released his shot, Virginia Coach Jeff Jones sent Willie Dersch to the scorer's table to check in. Dersch, a 6-foot-5-inch freshman from Floral Park, L.I., was being sent in to replace Nolan after the second free throw, a substitution the officials signaled among themselves.

Nolan missed the first free throw. His second almost popped out, then settled into the basket. But Referee Rick Hartzell, the athletic director at Bucknell University and a 14-year A.C.C. official, forgot about the substitution and raced upcourt in anticipation of a rush by Duke.

The scorekeeper, expecting the substitution, kept sounding the horn as the Blue Devils inbounded the ball to guard Steve Wojciechowski, who hurried toward the offensive end. But it was not until Wojciechowski had nearly reached the 3-point line that the game clock resumed ticking.

Meanwhile, several Virginia players had paused in confusion, letting Wojciechowski penetrate almost to the basket, where Nolan fouled him.

The foul call stood. After consulting a television monitor, the three officials, Hartzell, Tim Higgins and Zelton Steed, decided to put seven-tenths of a second on the game clock. Wojciechowski sank both free throws to give Duke a 62-61 victory.

Henry Nichols, the National Collegiate Athletic Association's national coordinator for men's basketball officiating, said he had ''never, ever'' seen anything like it.

Two days later Gene Corrigan, the A.C.C. commissioner, released a statement acknowledging ''that a serious officiating mechanics mistake was made by not allowing the Virginia substitute into the game.'' Corrigan announced that the crew would lose a league assignment and be subject to other internal action.

''This is as fundamental as it gets; basic game management procedures for our officials,'' Corrigan said.

Conferences have not wanted to use replays to rectify officiating errors because of the delays involved, uneven TV coverage and difficulty in defining the circumstances meriting such consultation.

As for the notion that the game is too fast for three officials to keep track of, Nichols said: ''That's a no-brainer. The game is too fast to be officiated by Moses, so we do the best we can.''

Thursday, February 1, 1996

Georgia Tech vs Duke