JoePgh
Cranky pants and wise acre
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2011
- Messages
- 4,056
- Reaction Score
- 24,945
I haven’t looked at a reply other than the one shown immediately after the play during the game. I thought it was borderline, and could have been justifiably either called or not called.You can’t hip check a player ever. And she levels her to the ground
But in terms of how officials should call the game (which doesn’t always exactly correspond to the black-and-white rules in the book), if the contact occurred after the MSU player had already lost control of the ball (as opposed to the contact causing her to lose possession), then considering how late in the game it was, an official could justifiably make a no-call on the grounds that the contact did not affect the outcome of the play — which is true. An official could justly be accused of deciding the game herself rather than letting the players decide the game if she calls a foul at that point that did not affect the play, specifically the loss of possession by MSU.
The call on McCowan a few moments later had to be made because it was clearly intentional. It definitely benefited MSU to make that call, since otherwise Notre Dame would have had an uncontested layup that probably would have won the game. I was impressed that McCowan was quick-thinking enough to commit that foul at that moment. I don’t think it would have occurred to very many players to do that.
I suppose it is obvious, but let me say for the record that I think all of the complaints on this forum about the officiating being biased (let alone rigged), either for Friday’s games or for this game, are completely without merit. Any of the three teams that lost this weekend could have won if they had made a few plays better than they did. When games are that close and you lose, you need to look in the mirror and not at the zebras.


