The Ol’ Switcheroo…Or Just Plain Cheating?

This week’s Dumbass of the Week post has a slight twist. It comes to us from the December 29th matchup of the Kentucky Wildcats and the Louisville Cardinals men’s basketball teams. In a two-week stretch utterly dominated by the winding down of the NFL regular season, the gauntlet of “the Saints need to win; the Vikings, Seahawks, and Patriots need to lose; and the Raiders and Packers need to tie (but can’t tie each other) in order for the Los Angeles Clippers to make the playoffs and the Boston Bruins to get a first round bye,” the always-hyped NBA Christmas schedule, and the starting up of the BCS bowl game season (Belk Bowl or Beef ‘O’Brady Bowl anyone?), I figured a college basketball game might allow us a bit of a respite from the storylines dominating the airwaves lately.

And oh what a weird moment this is…

Did you catch that? It happens pretty fast, so here’s a rundown:

Right at the start of the clip, you can see Kentucky’s Alex Poythress on the low block looking for an open man while Louisville’s Russ Smith is all over Nerlens Noel (#3) in the middle of the lane. Literally one or two seconds into the action, you see play stop as a ref on the near side of the court whistles a foul ultimately called on Russ Smith. It stands to reason that Smith, who was still mostly behind Noel when the foul was called, is guilty of committing that foul on Noel, likely for reaching in and swatting at Noel’s hand or arm rather than successfully making contact with the ball to deflect the pass.

Noel moves to the shooting position at the free throw line while players congratulate him on being the lucky guy on whom the rules were broken. Then, as Rick Pitino utilizes the stoppage in action as he always does by yelling at his players (first at Smith for fouling, then at another player for not being where he should’ve been), there appears to be a bit of communicating coming from the Kentucky bench at the far end of the floor. First Poythress is listening to them from his spot next to Noel before he moves into his rebounding spot. Then, Noel takes a few steps away from the free throw line to the arc to listen to Calipari on the bench. As soon as he does this, Poythress slides over to the free throw line, Noel moves to the rebounding position, and Poythress takes the foul shots.

Watch the video one more time.

It appears that Poythress tosses the ball toward Noel in order to avoid the defenders trying to get between them, and his left hand is near his left hip (the one closest to Noel and Smith–this will be important in a few minutes). The moment the ball is in Noel’s hands, the ref whistles the foul and indicates that the one at fault is Russ Smith. At about the fifteen second mark, you see a brief glimpse of the Kentucky bench talking to the referee on the far side of the court (not the same one who made the initial call). The apparent result of this conversation is the successful convincing of said ref that Poythress should be the one taking the free throws. If you look at the pieces, this whole situation seems justifiable.

1. Smith tries to deflect a pass from Poythress to Noel to create a turnover and makes contact with an opposing player’s arm.
2. Referee A calls a foul on Smith, and Noel, having been the player guarded by Smith, goes to the line.
3. The Kentucky bench successfully argues that Poythress should be the one taking the free throws.
4. Referee B agrees with Coach Cal’s bench and Poythress sinks 1 of 2 attempts.

Of course, nothing about this game happens in pieces, so we also have to take the following into consideration:

1. Smith’s left hand is on Noel’s left hip when the play unfolds, leaving his reach very limited since he had to go around Noel (at a formidable 6’11” compared to Smith’s 6’0″) in order to get to the ball. With Poythress seemingly not making contact with Noel himself, it seems difficult to believe (read: close to physically unfeasible) that Smith would be able to get around Noel to reach Poythress. Despite the change in free throw shooters, though, the official boxscore still lists Smith as the guilty party.
2. Referee A calls the foul from behind the play, an angle from which he wouldn’t be able to see much of the play. In all honesty, this is probably the least hinky part of the whole situation. Refs calling fouls from bad angles is kind of the norm in basketball. What’s key in this portion of the play is the fact that, in regards to fouls and free throws, basketball players tend to “police” themselves to a certain degree. If you’re being closely guarded by an opponent, and that opponent is called for a foul just after making contact with you, the safe and logical assumption is that you should be the one taking the shots. Considering the fact that taking the free throws for a foul not committed against you is illegal within the rules of basketball, players aren’t going to go out of their way to attempt to do just that. It seems fair to conclude that Noel going to the line means that Noel felt Smith make contact with him. The other important point? The fact that Poythress goes to the rebounding position without argument or complaint seems to indicate he knew the foul hadn’t been committed against him.
3. The Kentucky bench is at the far end of the floor. How would they have had a better view of the play from all the way down there? Referee B was on the far side of the court, but he was closer to the play than Cal’s staff, and he wasn’t even the one to indicate that a foul occurred. Calipari either has a way with words or a really intimidating presence to have that ref believing that someone other than Noel should be taking those shots.
4. Now, when Referee B agrees with the Kentucky bench, he seems to make the executive decision to change the player at the free throw line. I’ll be the first to admit that, while a lifelong fan of basketball, I’m not intimately familiar with every nook and cranny of the NCAA rule book for basketball. That being said, though, I find it odd that in making that decision, he consulted no one. Referee A makes the call and doesn’t correct Noel when he initially steps up to the line. Referee B changes the player at the line and doesn’t at all appear to confer with the rest of the officiating crew. Hell, from the limited views you get in the clip, he doesn’t even seem to talk to the players themselves.

Let me say this: I’m not saying they got it right or wrong. Simply put, I can’t say for certain who exactly was fouled because we have about the same angle as Referee A: behind the play with no clear line of sight to the ball. What I am saying is that this whole situation seems 50 shades of sketchy (yeah…that just happened). Let’s be honest: it involves John Calipari, however peripherally. He is the only coach who has been successful in technically not taking two separate college programs to the Final Four. That takes an impressive level of commitment. This moment didn’t get much coverage, presumably because of the aforementioned hype in other sports, but it’s weird enough that it warranted a discussion. Speaking of, let’s hear what our Poor Sports readers have to say. What’s your take on how this all played out?

**I know the bulk of this post is dedicated to this odd moment in an otherwise forgotten Kentucky-Louisville game, but I’ve not forgotten the other oddities that happened this week. Here’s a quick rundown of those who have definitely earned a Dumbass mention**

• Rex Ryan: It just came out today that Ryan, the oft-mocked head coach of the NY Jets, has a tattoo. Not strange. That tattoo is of his wife. Also, not strange. His wife appears to be Tebowing (to some degree) while wearing a Mark Sanchez jersey (and nothing else), in said tattoo. Strange? Unbelievably. Skeevy? Undeniably. Could we have gone the rest of our lives without this knowledge? Let’s just say I’ll never be able to un-see the image of the tattoo featured in ESPN’s “Breaking News” coverage of the story (no lie: this was actually listed as breaking news on ESPN’s Bottom Line today). If I were Mark Sanchez, I think I’d be asking to be anywhere other than NY at this point.
• The Outback Bowl took a turn for the “what are you blind?!” on New Year’s Day when an official clearly blew the easiest call he probably made all day. Michigan was going for a first down against South Carolina when the head ref brought the chains out. Despite there being a clear gap between the football and the marker, he ruled the play a first down for Michigan. Let’s just say that Steve Spurrier almost lost his visor over the call. The upside? Jadeveon Clowney, a defensive end for South Carolina, responded with this in the play immediately after that call. It’s clean; it’s hard; and it reminds us all just why we love the sport of football. Enjoy:

• Then there was the fight between fans of the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers on Sunday during their teams’ completely irrelevant, totally unimportant game that resulted in an entire section of the Coliseum being kicked out of the stadium. Deadspin has a couple of stories about it, but really, you just need to see the one that has the pictures and video. I’m not sure whether I should be in awe of or saddened by these fans’ total commitment to two teams that are…well, just awful.

And that, my friends, is entry number one in the race for Dumbass of the Year 2013. We can only hope that every entry from here on out is just as entertaining.