One last thought on the Duke-UVA controversy: Duke, you’re out … end of story

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Many have asked for my take on the controversial end of regulation to last Saturday’s Virginia win over Duke. Under the weather for a couple of days, I have looked at replays from various angles at least a hundred times and I’m still not 100-percent sure if there was a foul on the play with time on the clock.

At some angles it appears that Reece Beekman cleanly blocked Duke’s Kyle Filipowski’s shot before Ryan Dunn collided into Beekman. Another angle makes it look like Beekman cleanly blocked the shot, but got him with the body a split second after the buzzer sounded.

Part of the controversy — and the ACC’s response didn’t clear up the situation — is the rule book, and its own interpretation of the play.

The ACC press release said the foul was called on Dunn, which couldn’t have been the case, at least not while there was any time on the clock.

According to the ACC, “it was determined that the foul committed occurred after the clock reached 0.0. However, the play should have resulted in two free throws for Duke because while the foul occurred after expiration of play, the ball was still in flight, thus Filipowski should have been granted two free-throw attempts.”

However, the ACC’s statement cited a section of the NCAA’s rulebook that doesn’t apply to this specific situation. The ACC’s interpretation only covered a game without a courtside monitor being available.

Clearly the ACC officiating crew of Tim Clougherty, Lee Cassell and Jeffrey Anderson spent a lengthy period of time at the courtside monitors studying the situation and essentially said that the shot was blocked in regulation, but the foul was committed after time expired, so there was no foul.

#clean pic.twitter.com/5Y9PEEMMTA

— brooklynnhoops (@brooklynnnhoops) February 12, 2023

Battled all night. Tough finish at UVA. pic.twitter.com/uIpkS3fF4m

— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) February 11, 2023

In any case, it appears that the officials did the best they could under the circumstances and ruled the game should be decided on the court in overtime, which is the way most of us would prefer (unless you’re a Duke fan). The sophisticated TV equipment can break down video into microseconds, so the game officials could get as clear a look at things as possible.

I’ve always believed officials should swallow their whistle in such an instance and allow the players to determine the outcome.

In addition, if you want to get real nit-picky about things, replays also revealed that Duke shouldn’t have had an opportunity for the last play to Filipowski to begin with, because the Blue Devils should have been called for a turnover after not inbounding the ball within the five seconds allowed on the play. Duke took six seconds (replays revealed) to inbounds the ball.

Sure, the ACC now states that the refs got the call wrong at the end of regulation of Duke-Virginia. But here is video proof that they also missed a 5-second violation on Duke before the foul call which therefore renders the ACC statement moot. pic.twitter.com/Ek4VLPw5eu

— PoksterHoo (@PoksterHoo) February 12, 2023

Virginia fans have been on the other end of some controversial calls that went Duke’s way in the waning moments of games, including the Grayson “Gimme Three Steps” Allen non-travel call on Valentine’s Day in 2016. Then there was the clock controversy at University Hall in 1997 that gave Duke a second chance to come back and win a game that the Blue Devils had no business winning.

That controversy wrongly caused UVA’s longtime clock operator to lose his job and rewarded Duke with an undeserved victory, as documented in a John Feinstein book. Duke managed to pull out a 62-61 win against a Jeff Jones team that was fighting for its postseason life.

I remember asking Mike Krzyzewski in the postgame press conference if he felt any empathy for Jones and the Cavaliers, because the loss could have been a death blow for UVA’s NCAA chances. Coach K said yes, he did feel empathy, but certainly that didn’t change the outcome.

Tony Bennett shouldn’t feel any differently for Duke losing no matter how “pissed” new Duke coach Jon Scheyer is about the loss.

Most Wahoo fans, if not other ACC fans, are well aware that nobody other than the late Dean Smith worked ACC officials more than Krzyzewski, and as far as most of those fans are concerned, turnabout is fair play. 

Duke fans might argue that they should have gotten the foul shots and the potential win.

To that theory, I recall a famous baseball incident from a game I read about back in the 1960s where a player argued that he was safe sliding into second. The base umpire called him out and there was a big rhubarb about the call. Player screamed, “I’m not out, I’m not out.”

The player kept insisting he was safe until finally the umpire asked the player, “Hey, do you read the box scores in the morning papers?”

The player replied that yes, he did, religiously.

The ump ended the whole thing with this comeback:

“Well, read the box score in the paper tomorrow and tell me you’re not out.”

Duke, you’re out. End of story.