Former University of Tennessee basketball great Ron Slay spent Saturday night helping Ensworth coach Ricky Bowers find a way to knock off McCallie in the Division II-AA state playoffs.
But Saturday afternoon found him watching the Volunteers’ overtime road loss to LSU. Asked if he would have fouled a Tiger 75 feet from the bucket with six-tenths of a second on the clock – as UT’s Grant Williams did, with that foul against the Tigers’ Javonte Smart leading to the two free throws that decided LSU’s 82-80 victory – Slay replied, “I hope not.”
“But I’d also hope the officials wouldn’t call a foul 75 feet from the basket with less than a second to play in a tie game,” he continued. “Let the players decide it in a second overtime.”
Mark WiedmerA lot of Big Orange fans would no doubt support Slay’s reasoning, and some officials might as well. But Williams did foul Smart, and one could also argue a foul should be a foul whether it’s six-tenths of a second after the opening tip or that amount of time before the final whistle.
That doesn’t mean the three-man crew that officiated the UT-LSU game – Anthony Jordan, Bart Lenox and Olandis Poole – shouldn’t come in for some heavy criticism for everything but that late foul, however. Thanks to that trio going to the replay monitor for everything from fouls to clock problems to block-charge reviews, a game that started at noon often seemed as if it wouldn’t end until prime time.