The most normal part of the strange ending to Saturday night's Duke-Syracuse game might have been the charge call, which Jim Boeheim later referred to as "the worst of the season" even as other sources weren't so sure it wasn't the right play. Stranger was the way Boeheim reacted (a full on tantrum) and Jay Bilas' surprisingly appropriate in-game assessment even as Dick Vitale disagreed ("the refs rightly gave the technical," said Bilas, or something to that effect).
Jay Bilas backhanded compliments aside ("You don't have to go for the three here!"), was it the right call?
"Honest to God, I'm not sure," an anonymous official told ESPN.com. "I think if you talked to five people, you'd get three or four different interpretations."
Later in the ESPN story, however, the official made the case for the charge, calling it a player-control foul.
According to the official, the trying player (C.J. Fair) hadn't yet begun his upward motion before the defensive player (Rodney Hood) had established position. As first to the spot, Hood, under the rule, was allowed to lean his body as he did to put it fully in the path of Fair's.
"By the strict interpretation of the rule, it was a player control foul in my opinion," the official said. "The defender was in position with his feet facing his opponent before Fair raised his hand. I think if you watch it, at least frame-by-frame, it was a player-control foul."
Boeheim won't be further penalized for his actions, ESPN reported. According to his postgame conference, it was the first time he'd ever been ejected from a game.
What spurred Boeheim's eruption? Likely, a large part goes back to their last game, a loss to Boston College (7-20, 3-11) at home. Two in a row, the first to a lowly team and the second to his rival, Mike Kryzewski, was one too many.
