HOMETOWN COOKING BY A CRAPPY CHEF

This weeks Cal-UCLA mens basketball game was one of the worst examples of refereeing I have ever seen. There were two calls that were rather obvious to most viewers at home yet seem to have slipped the minds of the refs at the game. The first was the out of bounds call when Cal's Ryan Anderson had the ball hacked out of his hands. How do two players swing with a downward motion and cleanly get all ball? In my mind, it isn't possible. But some how, the referees didn't see this and they ruled no foul and furthermore gave the ball to UCLA (replays seem to show that UCLA's Josh Shipp touched the ball last).

As bad as this play was, it probably wasn't the worst call of the game. For that, we have to fast forward a few seconds to UCLA's final shot. There are 6 seconds left and Cal is up 80-79. UCLA gets the ball underneath Cal's basket, and are looking for an inbound pass. The ball goes to Josh Shipp, he is defended out on the wing. He drives baseline and is forced underneath the hoop by some surprisingly decent defense by Cal. With time winding down, Shipp throws up a horse-like prayer and somehow it goes in. It was an amazing shot, hit nothing but net and was absolutely clutch...but there is one problem. According to Rule 7, Section 1, Article 3 of the 2008 NCAA basketball rules, "The ball shall be out of bounds when it passes the backboard from any direction." Notice the final line..."any direction." This means that if the ball goes over the side of the backboard, or hits the top of the backboard or anything of that nature, it is OUT OF BOUNDS. The replay clearly shows the ball went over the side corner of the backboard and it might have even gone over the back. I don't know if it was the pressure of being in the house that Wooden built, or not wanting to face thousands of upset college students, or maybe hating hippies, but somehow the referees blew this call and they have yet to admit it. It turns out bad Pac-10 officiating isn't just in football...it has infiltrated the basketball game also.