I tried to point out the blogs that several of the smaller papers in the area have started in my last post.

But as usual, my compliments are ignored.

So I'll try again.

Folks, major league kudos to Wes Holsclaw down at the Star, for the simple reason he actually POSTED THE VIDEO of the technical foul on Swader!

Holsclaw follows this with some commentary that might be a bit longwinded (watched the game with your girlfriend is a bit too much info) but still pretty good, finally coming to the conclusion that as both a writer and fan he felt the call was bogus.

http://estarsports.wordpress.com/

Now, second thought. Sonny Smith was obviously hired as a color commentator because he is something of a name coach and lives nearby.

And that's usually how color men are hired- Matt Wiljelm, for instance.

But Smith's commentary to the technical foul spoke of shilling for his employers and nothing else.

First of all, Smith makes no comment after the initial call. He only begins commenting after the replay.

So he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary initially.

Now, after viewing the replay Smith immediately comes to his conclusion the call was justified. Here's what he says-

"Oh, he swung the elbow and also was jawing. You would think why would anyone call a technical foul in a situation like this but that was a justified call right there because of the swing of the elbow and also the jawing. Otherwise I would think that would be a very difficult call."

Matt Stewart- "Murry Bartow incredulous with that call. That's a- that's a hard hard call to make!'

Smith- "Well, very difficult call to make."

Smith then goes to try and add "very difficult call" while Stewart is calling Justin Hare's free throws.

Forget the fact Smith is trying to talk while the PBP man is, which is bad enough.

What is apparent is that Smith is riding the fence. The officials could have taken out a gun and shot the players and it would have been okay- heaven forbid I criticize the beloved A-Sun!

To make a "it's a justified call" comment after that so quickly is an attempt to steer away controversy when controversy simply CAN'T be steered away!

Stewart- to his credit- keeps his objectivity and doesn't make a judgement on the call.

After the game, here's what Stewart says when Bartow is arguing with officials-

"Quite frankly, I don't blame [Bartow]. It was a tough call."

SMITH THEN INTERRUPTS HIM AGAIN- "Oh, it was a tough call to make!"

Stewart- "I'm not in a position to argue the validity of the call because I don't know what was said, but I know Murry Bartow is upset about it and I certainly understand his position."

So Smith continually talks over his PBP man and makes excuses rather than comments in the moment of the year on the CSS broadcasts.

Furthermore, does he really have any ties at all with the A-Sun? Okay, he was ETSU's old head coach.

Back in the OVC! For two years! Only one winning season! And he not only played the Bucs for fools against Auburn (a former player of his told me he said to his team he wasn't going to leave them), but he played the Bucs for fools again in the mid-80s when he flirted with a return before bailing out. Then, and only then, was Les Robinson was hired.

Smith is not a guy who will call something out a la Billy Packer. He is not a personality a la Dick Vitale. He is not something of a hybrid of those two like Al McGuire or Jim Valvano were.

He adds nothing and he might as well have been Sgt. Schultz during the broadcast.

"I see nothing (wrong with the technical)! I see nothing (wrong with the technical)!"

Can we PLEASE get a quality color man for the CSS broadcasts next year?

For those that don't get the Press or didn't see this on-line.

By the way, kudos to Bartow for bring the team back to the scene of the crime for Saturday's women's final. And also a great job defending Belmont's 3s. We've been so critical of the defense in the past, we might as well congratulate them on that part of the game Friday.

I think Kelly sums it up well.



Bucs’ loss adds sting to rivalry with Belmont


Kelly Hodge is managing sports editor of the Johnson City Press. He can be contacted at khodge@johnsoncitypress.com.




NASHVILLE — For a basketball rivalry still in its infancy, Belmont has inflicted plenty of pain on East Tennessee State over the last three seasons.
There were the three overtime wins by the Bruins and the humbling 27-point rout of the Bucs on their home floor in the Atlantic Sun Conference final a year ago. Six wins in seven games.
Then along came Friday night’s semifinal matchup at Lipscomb.
The 10-point lead with just over six minutes to go, the defense that knocked the sharpshooting Bruins off their game, it all went by the wayside in a 69-65 stunner that won’t soon be forgotten. The Bucs couldn’t buy a basket at the end, managing just a pair of free throws in the last six minutes, and then couldn’t buy a break. Their fortunes turned on an official’s call, an over-reaction to an over-reaction.
Referee Doug Sirmons stepped in and hit Kenyona Swader with a technical foul for swinging an elbow toward Andy Wicke as Wicke reached in to foul him beyond the 3-point arc with 19 seconds left. ETSU was nursing a 65-64 lead at the time. Swader, a 78 percent foul shooter, could have made it three and sent his team toward a title matchup Saturday night against Jacksonville.
Instead, Belmont’s star guard Justin Hare went to the other end and hit two free throws to give the two-time defending champs the lead, their first since six minutes remained in the first half.
Swader, sufficiently rattled, rimmed out the front end of a one-and-one, and Hare went back to the line and put Belmont on top 68-65. Courtney Pigram’s 3-pointer that could have tied it didn’t even draw iron. A Shane Dansby free throw later and the Bucs’ season was over.
Losses come in all shapes and sizes, but this one was especially hard to stomach for those in blue and gold. You play for four months and it comes down to this?
Maybe the adrenaline was flowing a little too fast for Sirmons. His technical call concluded a chaotic end-toend sequence in which the Bruins were desperately trying for a steal and the Bucs were desperately trying to maintain control. Lots of contact with no whistles. Swader had just missed a shot in the lane but got the ball back after an offensive rebound and pass by Kevin Tiggs as Wicke closed in for the foul.
There was no altercation, only Swader making a short swing of his left elbow as Sirmon’s whistle blew. It was, at best, poor judgment by the official.
ETSU coach Murry Bartow called the loss the most difficult one he’s experienced in 11 years as a head coach. He tried to contain himself after the game, and it wasn’t easy. Bartow congratulated Belmont and credited the defense of both teams, but he declined to comment on the technical. He did have a few choice words for Jake Bell, the A-Sun coordinator of officials, as he ducked into his team’s lockerroom.
An uneasy air hung in the building as the clock ticked toward midnight.
On Saturday, Bartow and his players were back in Allen Arena to support the ETSU women’s team in its championship bid against Jacksonville. (The Lady Bucs earned their first-ever NCAA tournament berth with a 75-72 victory). The coach looked like a man working on very short sleep.
“The tough thing is this is a one-bid league,” said Bartow.
“You have to win the tournament to get to the NCAAs; that’s the only way it happens. Some years you won’t be good enough to have a chance, and other years you will. I thought we had a chance this year.
“This would have been tough if it happened the 10th game of the year. But when it’s so final and ends your season, and is your seniors’ last game, it’s really disappointing.”
And what about the technical? Bartow chose his words carefully.
“I haven’t seen it before — and never will again with 19 seconds left in a game,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ll be talking about that when I’m 70 years old.”
You can bet Swader will, too. What a strange way for his career to end.
The native of nearby Smyrna, a junior-college transfer who had overcome knee problems after he arrived at ETSU, had never been better as he piled up 17 points and 15 rebounds in front of family and friends. Pumped up by the atmosphere, he posted a double-double (11 points and 14 boards) a night earlier to help knock out the homestanding Bisons. The spindly 6-9 forward was going to be a hero, maybe the MVP of the whole thing.
Then he wasn’t.
“He’s absolutely inconsolable,” said Bartow. “He feels like he cost us the game. In reality he had 17 points and 15 rebounds, and that was a big reason we were in a position to win. I hate the whole thing for him.”
Friday’s game won’t be quite as memorable for Travis Strong and Andrew Reed, ETSU’s two other seniors. Strong scored two points on 1-of-8 shooting, while Reed had four before fouling out with 1:22 left.
The points grew increasingly hard to come by for everybody as the game wore on and the intensity picked up.
Belmont, which lives by the 3-pointer, could have died the same way. The Bruins made just 1 of 15 from long range in the second half and 9 of 39 overall. And still, they scratched out their fourth straight win in the series.
The Bucs led 63-53 after Pigram’s free throw with 6:22 left, but got only two free throws by Mike Smith the rest of the way. They scored a season-low 21 points in the half on 27 percent shooting, and Swader and Pigram accounted for 16 of those.
“Our offense went south in the second half, and it cost us,” said Bartow.
Belmont finished the game on a 16-2 run fueled by foul shooting. Hare alone was 7 of 7, including the one he took for Henry Harris with 1:57 left and ETSU leading by five. Harris had been fouled as he scored inside but reportedly needed to tend to a cut over his eye, which allowed coach Rick Byrd to send Hare, a 90 percent foul shooter, to the line.
Harris, a 60 percent foul shooter, was back to convert another three-point play — this one by himself — just moments later.
“I want people to understand we would never take advantage of that situation,” said Byrd.
In the end, it was only something else to think about in a game the Bucs basically let get away.
They forced the action, rushed shots and threw the ball away when they could have padded their lead. But things can get frantic when you have your nemesis on the ropes, with the season on the line.
They’ll have quite awhile to think about it.

Pitt - I was thinking the same thing about what Sonny initially said. When he says it's a justified call because of the jawing. We all said "how in the world can you possibly make that judgement without hearing what was said!?" ... it's a ridiculous comment. We still don't know what was said and probably never will. It couldn't have been much and the bottom line is it was just words and a missed elbow on a guy who did foul Swader. The elbow looked like a 'give me my space back' elbow too. I doubt he wanted to connect with it.

Quote: Belmont finished the game on a 16-2 run fueled by foul shooting. Hare alone was 7 of 7, including the one he took for Henry Harris with 1:57 left and ETSU leading by five. Harris had been fouled as he scored inside but reportedly needed to tend to a cut over his eye, which allowed coach Rick Byrd to send Hare, a 90 percent foul shooter, to the line.
Harris, a 60 percent foul shooter, was back to convert another three-point play — this one by himself — just moments later.
“I want people to understand we would never take advantage of that situation,” said Byrd.

As I said in another thread, I think we are owed an apology on this one. I am skeptical of coach Byrds statement. A "cut" would take longer to fix then it took the Belmont staff. If they did try to fix a real cut, then they sent him back into the game prematurely, putting other players at risk if he rebleeds. That is not acceptable.

Pitt, I agree. I have lost ALL respect for Sonny Smith. He can avoid coming back to the MiniDome forever for all I care. He deserves a long chorus of boos as well.

Thanks to the person that posted the video. Being at the game I only saw it from a distance and without the benefit of replay. It hurts to watch it though.

Let's give "the person who posted the video" proper credit. It was Wes Holtsclaw at the Elizabethton Star, who tries to succeed with far less resources than the other newspapers around here do.

But I think with his blog he has made the Star a much more relevant player in the local sports media.

In fact, the Star is probably more relevant than the Kingsport Times-News, which does not put its local sports online. I know of no other newspaper that does not put its local sports online and this goes hand in hand with the area's lack of interest in sports.