Clemson basketball coach Brad Brownell could hardly hide his anger and contempt as he sat in front of the media following the Tigers’ 72-71 loss to Duke at Cameron Indoor Arena.
Brownell steeled himself against his emotions and gave answers that were as measured and politically correct as he could muster, but the bluntness of his responses still relayed a message that all Clemson fans could resonate with during the immediate aftermath.
Clemson fifth-year senior guard Joe Girard III was far less tactful when he had to be physically restrained from reaching the officials as they hastily retreated from the court directly in front of the Tigers’ bench.
Both coach and player were right. Their anger was completely and unequivocally justified.
The officiating crew for Saturday’s game has been admonished and criticized by the masses across college basketball in the 24 hours that have followed what was an utter atrocity of athletic adjudication. Clemson was victimized, time and again, by calls which simply defied belief. Tigers big man P.J. Hall was constantly hounded, harassed, hit, bumped, clawed, and mauled with very few whistles going against the Blue Devils. Meanwhile, Duke big man Kyle Filipowski was guarded well, and vertically, by Hall and Ian Schieffelin which resulted in a litany of infractions, real or not.
It was a double standard that those opposing teams who play Duke, a literal blueblood of college basketball, have come to expect. Only Saturday afternoon was far more egregious than even the normal home cooking that is perceived to take place at Cameron Indoor. And Brownell made his opinions known as best he could.
“It’s hard to win at Cameron…for a lot of reasons. Tonight is an example,” opined Brownell.
Brad Brownell
But his next statement was not nearly as veiled.
“We’ve had some history with that official,” he said of the referee who called the final, unbelievably bad foul of Clemson’s Josh Beadle.
“The game was taken from us.”
Brad Brownell
Literally. Clemson had rallied from a 32-20 first-half deficit and trailed only 32-26 at the half. The Tigers continued their climb over the final 20 minutes before pulling even at 59-59 with 5:54 left in the game. From there, things went off the rails. Duke paved a literal highway to the foul line while Clemson repeatedly tried getting to the rim, absorbing a physical beating to get there, and were rewarded more often with bruises rather than points from the charity stripe.
It all started with an incredulous first-half technical foul called against Jack Clark, who merely handed the ball to the Duke player to inbound following a basket. It was a call Brownell termed “ridiculous” during his postgame media session. It only got worse as the game progressed.
And then the final 7.4 seconds happened. After Filipowski converted a three-point play aided by another phantom foul on Schieffelin (see video) to give the Blue Devils a 71-70 lead, Hall finally received a call and sank his final two shots from the line to regain the upper hand for the Tigers.
Duke inbounded the ball to Tyrese Proctor who immediately dribbled for the rim. Cut off by Beadle, Proctor shuffled his feet in a blatant traveling violation before twice extending his off arm to illegally clear space between himself and the defender. Beadle recovered to block Proctor’s shot and for his efforts was punished with the final foul of the game with a single second on the clock.
Proctor swished both of his subsequent free throws. Game over. It was the final degradation in a game littered with embarrassing examples of how not to officiate a basketball game. And the numbers do not lie.
Clemson was statistically the better team and it was not particularly close. The Tigers outrebounded Duke 42-33, had more second-chance points (15-0), made two more shots from the field (23-21), and made only two fewer three-point shots than their opponent. But Duke led in one other category. Free throw attempts.
The Blue Devils attempted 33 free throws to the Tigers’ 22. All of the advantages Clemson had created for themselves through hustle and great play were negated by the extra scoring opportunities afforded Duke from “fouls” that simply never occurred.
It was so egregious that even Jay Williams, a Duke basketball legend, acquiesced that the final call was inexcusable. Imagine how bad it has to be for a man who is one of the most revered players to ever wear a Duke uniform to say Clemson got the shaft?
Matt Connolly, formerly of The State newspaper and who has worked extensively in his career covering Clemson, posted the following, alarming stat.
Simply put, if there is already an impression of recurring impropriety in favor of a team, either real or imagined, calling a game in the manner that was witnessed on Saturday is only going to further and greatly perpetuate that notion.
In the interest of fairness, Clemson had their chances, too. The Tigers led 69-65 with 2:15 to play before committing four turnovers in the final two minutes. That is on the team. Hold onto the ball and you win anyway. That is a fact that must be acknowledged by Clemson fans, myself included.
Regardless, it works both ways. If the officials correctly apply the rules and call the game in a sense of fairness and with respect to the integrity of their office, those giveaways would have been rendered a moot point. It was a travesty to see a game Clemson earned and deserved to win ripped away in a literal blink.
Said Brownell,” I’m not gonna to lie to you. I’m angry, trying to watch what I say. I’ve been here (at Cameron Indoor Arena) in this situation about four times and I haven’t won one yet. We got to one second.”
Brad Brownell
Agreed, Coach Brownell. The game was taken from Clemson and you have every right to be angry. We all are.
