Did refs steal the game?

My March 11 SlapShots column printed in the Woodford Sun.

The players and coaches all saw it.

The fans packing McBrayer Arena on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University saw it.

And the 10,000 plus people logging onto ckysports.com to watch the game live or view the replay saw it.

The only ones who didn’t see it were the ones who count – the referees.

Trailing Henry Clay by one point, Franklin County High School senior Lyndon McKee collected the rebound off a missed trey and shoveled the ball back into the basket at the buzzer, giving the Flyers an apparent 1-point victory in the quarterfinals of the 11th Region Tournament.

The Franklin County celebration was short lived.

The three-man referee crew ruled the shot was taken after the buzzer. They waved the basket off. Henry Clay waved bye-bye.

A big red light comes on in the backboard when the clock strikes zero. It clearly illuminated after the shot hit the glass. The bucket should have counted.

Flyer fans, players and coaches went from stunned to livid in a matter of seconds.

“The referees blew the call. Franklin County won the game,” one Flyer supporter emphatically stated on Facebook.

He’s right on one count. The refs blew the call. They blew it bad. And the crew made it worse by refusing to utilize the available video replay to get the call right.

But the Flyers did not win the game.

Really, I checked.

And as egregious as the missed call was, I refuse to blame the refs for the Flyer loss. Franklin County must ultimately take responsibility for the outcome of its game.

Yes, the refs blew it. Yes, if the refs get that call right, the record would look a whole lot different. And yes, in a sense, the call yanked a win from the Flyers’ grasp.

But as my dad always used to say, “If a frog had wings, he wouldn’t bump his butt every time he hopped.”

Here’s my point. Refs mess up. We all know this. Kentucky high school officiating ranks somewhere between dismal and pathetic. But ultimately, a team must accept responsibility for its performance on the court or field. So, if you don’t want the refs to determine the outcome of a game, don’t put yourself in a position to allow the refs to determine the outcome of the game.

Franklin County put itself in that position and it got burned.

Consider this: Michael Samples missed both of his free throw attempts. He hits one, the game’s tied.

Or this: Brandon Jennels shot 0-for-9 from the field. He hits just one basket, the Flyers win.

Or even this: Henry Clay’s Wes Kimball stole the ball and hit a layup with 25 seconds to go in the game. Hold on to the ball, Flyers, and it’s you advancing to the semi-finals.

I could go on. Literally hundreds of factors work together throughout the course of a game to determine the outcome. That final call looms large because it was the final call, and it stands out in the minds of players and fans. But the officials didn’t singularly determine the game’s outcome, any more than any of the factors I just mentioned, or the hundreds that I didn’t.

And I believe another thing makes us quick to pin the loss on the backs of the refs. We live in a society that seeks first to place blame and hesitates to take responsibility. It’s a whole lot easier to play the blame game than it is to look into the mirror and admit that we didn’t quite play well enough to win.

Franklin County lost the game. Did the Flyers play well enough to win? Not quite. Did they deserve to win? No.

Franklin County put itself in a position to allow the refs to determine its destiny. Next time, don’t do that. Hit those free throws. Protect that ball. Drain those shots. Play better defense.

Because excuses don’t show up on the stat sheets.

Quick Shots
Lady Jacket Alyssa Lucas finished the season ranked fourth in the state in 3-point shooting. The Woodford County junior hit 78 threes off 203 attempts. She averaged 2.8 made treys per game. Lucas actually hit one more than Kasey Young of Danville, who holds the number three spot. But Young played two fewer games. Lucas has made 152 career threes, placing her fourth on the all time list at Woodford County High School. Brittany Henderlight holds the school record for career made threes with 216.

Lucas was Woodford County’s representative on the 11th Region All Tournament Team.

Boy, NASCAR sure did back itself into the corner. As the 2010 season kicked off, NASCAR announced that it was loosening rules on bumping and aggressive racing, hoping to inject more excitement into the sport. The rule was also widely interpreted to mean drivers had a little more leeway to police themselves on the track. Well, it sure worked. During the Kobalt Tools 500, Carl Edwards took matters into his own hands and intentionally wrecked Brad Keselowski, continuing a long running feud between the two drivers. And Keselowski deserved it. The No. 12 has left a trail of wreckage in his wake since moving up to the Sprint Cup Series. He wrecked Edwards last year at Talladega and caused a wreck that knocked the No. 99 out of most of last week’s race. But not even Edwards expected the nasty crash that occurred, with Keselowski's car flipping into the air and crashing into the fence upside down. Keselowski took exception.

“To come back and intentionally wreck someone, that's not cool -- you could have killed someone in the grandstands," Keselowski said. "It will be interesting to see how NASCAR reacts to it. They have the ball. If they're going to allow people to intentionally wreck each other at tracks this fast, we will hurt someone either in the cars or in the grandstands.”

Well, NASCAR reacted harshly. On March 9, it handed down a three-race probation. So apparently NASCAR wants to put the genie back in the bottle. In the meantime, I’ll be watching next week to see who Keselowski wrecks.

Quote of the Week
“We have so much growing up to do. I’m really worried on that front. If we’re not changing, we’re going into that big tournament where we are. And that’s worrisome to me.” – University of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari.

Puck to the Head
This week’s puck flies at the head of Ben Roethlisberger. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback is being investigated for sexual assault. Again. This time the alleged assault took place at a Georgia night club. Roethlisberger has also been sued by a woman who claims he raped her at a Lake Tahoe hotel back in 2008. Really, Ben? I wouldn’t think it would be that hard for you to get a date.