Quick hitters for Friday:
• Ole Miss is filing a formal complaint with the SEC over a controversial no-call in the final seconds of its two-point loss at Tennessee on Wednesday night.
Coach Andy Kennedy spent the past two days looking at the tape and says the officials (Patrick Adams, Ted Valentine and Karl Hess) missed the call on
Dwayne Curtis.
David Huertas took a running shot with 39 seconds left. On the video, Curtis, a 77 percent free-throw shooter, gets the rebound, misses two offensive putbacks (he gets his own rebound) but appears to be fouled by
Jordan Howell and
Wayne Chism.
There was no call.
Kenny Williams then gets the rebound and is fouled with 33.6 seconds left. Williams, a 51 percent shooter, missed the front end of a one-and-one. Tennessee's
Tyler Smith then went down and made a jumper to win the game with five seconds remaining. If Curtis had gone to the line, he probably would have been shooting two shots.
Kennedy said he doesn't expect a reversal but wants to see accountability the officials after the no-call.
Meanwhile, the Rebels are hosting LSU on Saturday and their conference opener is sold out, just the second time their conference home opener has sold out. The only other time was Jan. 7, 2004, against Mississippi State.
"Fans here are really excited about basketball,'' said Kennedy, who is now a bit more peeved that the Rebels aren't 14-0 after the 85-83 loss in Knoxville.
Random notes
• As of Friday morning, the UCLA staff wasn't sure about the availability of
Darren Collison for Saturday's showdown against Washington State. Collison suffered a bruised hip during the win over Washington. The Bruins probably won't know for certain until Saturday morning, but the early start (11:30 a.m. PT) probably doesn't help. The Bruins have a tremendous alternative in
Russell Westbrook, although his bench scoring has been a huge lift for UCLA. Regardless, the Bruins need Collison to go against the deceptively quick (albeit not as quick as Collison)
Taylor Rochestie.
• USC is expected to play Davon Jefferson against Washington after Tim Floyd had a coach's-decision moment to sit Jefferson against Washington State. The staff isn't budging on what Jefferson did to irk Floyd enough to sit him against the Cougars, but maturity, or a lack thereof, apparently contributed to the benching. Clearly Jefferson's versatility could have helped, but it may not have given the way WSU defends. At least one member of USC said he could see the Cougars winning the national title. And he's not alone with that opinion. WSU's second-half defense and fluidity offensively was impressive Thursday night. Oh, USC is looking at the Washington game as a must-win since the chances of going 0-4 in the Pac-10 are staring the Trojans in the face. And guess who USC plays next week? It's UCLA on the road on Jan. 19. Yikes. The reality is that if the Trojans don't beat Washington, they could be 0-5 to start the league.
• UCLA-Washington State on Saturday is the best game, outside of Georgetown-Memphis, to date this season. Period. Just thought I would hype this game more.
• Arizona is hoping that
Jerryd Bayless can go against Houston on Saturday night on the road. He missed losses to Oregon and Arizona State. Still, it may end up being a game-time decision, depending on how his knee responds at the shootaround.
• So, I was checking box scores from Connecticut at Notre Dame and Pitt at Villanova, and I notice that official Ed Corbett worked both games. Hmm. The Notre Dame game ended after 11 p.m. Saturday in South Bend, Ind., and the Villanova game started at noon Sunday in Philadelphia. Doesn't it seem a bit odd to ask an official to get from South Bend on little sleep to Villanova within 12 hours of the tip?
"When I made the assignments, I didn't know the game times,'' said Art Hyland, the Big East's coordinator of officials. "If the Notre Dame game had been at 2 p.m., then it wouldn't have mattered, but ESPN made it the late game Saturday."
Hyland said Corbett caught a 6 a.m. flight out of Chicago and made the game in time. But he said he was more concerned about Corbett making the game instead of being fatigued.
"[Corbett] is not out of shape, so it wasn't a fatigue factor, it was just getting there," Hyland said. But Hyland said he would prefer not to have an official race from one game to the next with such a short time window. He said that Corbett, who lives in the New York area, didn't work a game Monday, so he had time to rest. He said he wouldn't want an official to do this once, let alone a few nights in a row.
• According to the game broadcast, the real time between buckets for Saint Louis on Thursday night was quite something. Still hard to fathom that the Billikens went 54 minutes in between scoring. Just think about that for a minute or an hour. SLU went nearly an hour between scoring. Amazing.
• Saint Louis coach Rick Majerus' assistant is Porter Moser. He was abruptly tossed out by Illinois State, and as I've said before Moser was dead on about the Redbirds. As he sits watching the offensive futility, the team he left behind is leading the Missouri Valley Conference.
• The post-Kentucky hangover continues for Gardner-Webb. G-Webb lost to USC Upstate on Thursday night.
• Louisville doesn't look like a Final Four team, but at least the Cardinals are beginning to resemble a team that can get itself together enough to make the field with a win over West Virginia on Thursday night.
Andy Katz
