Bob Knight Tweaks OU Over Oregon Complaining

[northzax]

oh, the irony...it killeth me.

Knight tweaks OU over Oregon complaints
Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Texas Tech basketball coach Bob Knight, whose Red Raiders lost to Oklahoma on a controversial call three years ago, said he knows how fans feel about wanting a forfeit after OU's loss to Oregon on Saturday.

Knight called for Oklahoma to forfeit its basketball game with Tech on Jan. 20, 2003, when the Sooners won 69-64 in overtime at Norman after two clock controversies in the final seconds of regulation. Video replay later showed the game clock started late after OU in-bounded the ball on the game-tying drive.

"Maybe now those people at Oklahoma understand what I was talking about," Knight told The Oklahoman.

read more from the good people at http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2597046">ESPN

[fishwax]

1. Bob Knight is classless

but he had a legitimate gripe about the clock in that game, and I figured he'd weigh in on this. I don't remember whether he weighed in on the fiasco in Lubbock last year, when the Tech football team beat OU on a controversial TD call on the very last play of the game, but I'm sure he did.

The clock operator was (iirc) relieved of his duties after that game.

[northzax]

2. well sure, but he makes a good point

I certainly don't recall the Sooners asking for the game they won to be thrown out of the books. Here's the thing, bad calls happen, and, over time, they even out, so you deal, not sit around and whine like OU has been doing.

I'm Sure Oregon would drop the game in Eugene if the Sooners would drop their Final Four run (yes, pay the money back, strike the record, drop the banner from the arena) but I don't think that's going to happen is it?

ok, Oregon probably wouldn't do that. :)

[fishwax]

4. Why would OU give up their final four run for

something that happened the year after they went to the final four? :shrug:

I think OU has handled the situation pretty well. They asked for what were (other than striking the game from the record books) reasonable terms: that the officials be suspended (which happened, though not for as long as OU requested), that the Pac 10 apologize (which they did), and that the Big 12 encourage the Pac 10 to change their rule requiring Pac 10 officials for non-conference games at home. The request to have the game stricken from the records was, I think, meant to draw some attention to the situation, which it did, and which is important because it may weigh in poll voter's minds about OU, which may effect what bowl OU winds up in. There are lotsa dollars at stake, after all.

Yeah, bad calls happen, and you deal with them. But not all bad calls are created equal. If you watch any college basketball game closely, you will notice times when the clock doesn't start the exact split second that it should. In the OU-Tech game it happened several times, as TV news reports showed at the time.

When watching a football game, though, you will very rarely see referees rule that an onside kick was recovered by the kicking team, even though no member of the kicking team had posession and a member of the receiving team was standing five yards away from the pile with the ball in his hands when the refs signalled posession. With instant replay, you will rarely see a call as clear-cut as the one the official of that game was asked to make. And it's even more rare that, in spite of all that evidence, the official will actually get it wrong.

[LisaM]

3. Good for him! I was hoping someone would find an Oklahoma game

they'd won on a bad call. If they're going to start giving back games, I want the 1990 Michigan/Michigan State game awarded to Michigan and I also want the 1979 Rose Bowl back.

[BOSSHOG]

5. And Indiana State did not beat Arkansas in the 79 NCAA Basketball tourney

They just had to have a Bird-Magic final, when legitimately it should have been Sidney Moncrief-Magic. The officiating sucked in that game. But I got over it, except for the therapy, which has been ongoing since the Phillies blew the 64 pennant race. Sports Insanity!

[rocktivity]

6. What I remember about the Bird-Magic final was the camera locking on Bird

with his head bowed in defeat before grudgingly cutting to Magic leaping about in victory.

:bounce:
rocknation

[central scrutinizer]

7. another take on the controversy

received this by email. By the way, I am a University of Oregon grad and currently work there.

> > Here is a piece that sums The Game up nicely
> >
> >
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Chuck Carlson, Sports Editor, Reno Gazette
> >
> > On those occasions when you fully expect your head to explode from
> frustration
> > and rage, repeat this and repeat it often.
> >
> > "Officials/referees/umpires do not alter the course of a game. They have
not
> > in the past, they do not now and they will not in the future."
> >
> > Clear? Any questions?
> >
> > The Seattle Seahawks can still whine about being robbed of a Super Bowl
> title
> > last year. The Oakland Raiders can remain convinced that Tom Brady fumbled
in
> > the AFC title game four years ago. The St. Louis Cardinals will cu rse umpire
> Don
> > Denkinger to his grave. The U.S. Olympic basketball team still won't pick up
> its
> > silver medals from the 1972 Games.
> >
> > Fine. Mistakes are made. Decisions are botched. Humans act like fragile,
> > flawed humans even if they wear funny stripped shirts.
> >
> > But the people who officiate the games don't give up ninth-inning home
runs.
> > They don't throw interceptions at the goal line. They don't miss the 12-foot
> > jumper at the buzzer.
> >
> > They are controversial, easy targets and, all too often, the decisions
they
> > make are wrong.
> >
> > And? It's called life and, sometimes dear reader, life isn't fair.
> >
> > The latest controversy -- and it's a beauty -- involved the Pac-10
> officiating
> > crew from Saturday's remarkable Oklahoma-Oregon game played in Eugene, Ore.
> >
> > The Sooners held a 13-point lead in the final three minutes and seemed
> poised
> > to claim an important road win.
> >
> > Then Oregon scores a touchdown and on the kickoff that followed, the Ducks
> > recovered the onside kick. Replays clearly showed that an Oregon played
> touched
> > the ball before it went the required 10 yards. It should have been the
Sooners
> > ball, but it wasn't.
> >
> > Then Oklahoma was flagged for pass interference despite a replay that
showed
> > the pass was tipped at the line of scrimmage, negating any interference.
> >
> > Two crushing calls went against the Sooners and that's unfortunate.
> >
> > But here's the thing. Any player at that level, any coach at that level,
> knows
> > what to say and do next.
> >
> > Make a play. Forget the refs. Forget the crowd. Forget the utter injustice
> of
> > it all.
> >
> > Make a difference. Turn the tide. Step up. Win it for all the right
reasons.
> >
> > It's the very essence of competition.
> >
> > Instead, the Sooners gave up a touchdown pass and then with a chance to
win
> it
> > on the final play, they had a field goal blocked.
> >
> > Should it have come to that? Who knows? But it doesn't matter. Make the
play
> > and make everything else inconsequential.
> >
> > Oklahoma had its chances just as every other team has a chance when a call
> > goes against it,
> >
> > Cardinals fans are convinced their beloved team would have won the 1985
> World
> > Series over Kansas City were it not for Denkinger's erroneous call at first
> > base. Sure, it was wrong and Denkinger admitted it.
> >
> > But the Cardinals still had a Game 7 to win it all and failed.
> >
> > The Seahawks were robbed on several plays in the Super Bowl. But Willie
> > Parker's long touchdown run had nothing to do with the refs.
> >
> > That's what offended teams and their fans want to ignore. What about the
> calls
> > that benefit your team that shouldn't? What about the dozens of calls that
are
> > made, or not made, in the course of a game?
> >
> > The travel that isn't whistled. The fumble that isn't called. The check
> swing
> > that really was strike three.
> >
> &

gt; There are too many situations in too many games for anyone to focus on one
> or
> > two mistakes.
> >
> > That Pac-10 crew in the Oklahoma-Oregon game has been suspended for a game
> by
> > the conference and rightfully so. Their mistakes were egregious enough that
> they
> > should be punished. Mistakes of that level can't be condoned.
> >
> > But don't for a minute think that those calls cost Oklahoma the game.
> >
> > The Sooners cost the Sooners and somewhere deep inside they know it.
> >
> > To blame the officials is the worst kind of excuse-making. And it's the
> truly
> > good teams that know there's only one reason for a loss and they don't have
> far
> > to look to find it.
> >

[northzax]

8. exactly

I figure you have the length of the drive home, as a fan, to complain about the refs. then get the hell over it.

I remember what my travel team soccer coach once said when we were complaining about not getting calls in a game at halftime "Funny, I don't remember any of you complaining about how unfair it was last week when we got every call. Shit happens. Deal."