All's fair in love and hoops

posted by David Cloninger, 2/15/2009 12:07:00 PM

“Stealin', stealin',
Mama, don't ya tell on me,
I'm stealing back to the way I used to be.”
----------------------- THE YARDBIRDS

Did South Carolina steal a win at Alabama?

Probably.

So what?

I piloted the trusty Mazda 6 through the wilds of Alabama and Georgia in the wee hours last night with one purpose on my mind – get home and check the replay. The play in question occurred 15 feet in front of me, yet I still didn’t get a clear view.

Even a cloud bank that settled on the road from the Piedmont to Columbia didn’t deter me (I was spottin’ those raccoons!). Made it home at 2:30 a.m. and super-slo-mo’d the final play of the game.

It sure looks like Mike Holmes goaltended. Perhaps there was a hair’s width between the ball and the rim when he tipped it in – I honestly couldn’t tell, either in person or on the replay.

But as I checked, the thought whipped into my fertile brain. If he did or didn’t, who cares?

It wasn’t called.

Officials can’t check the replay to see if a violation should have been called and then call it after the fact. They can only check to see if the shot was off Holmes’ fingers before the buzzer, which it was.

So the Gamecocks won. And although they might have won it anyway had the game gone into overtime, they walked out of Coleman Coliseum with a theft of a win in regulation.

Nothing – repeat, absolutely nothing – wrong with that.

For two reasons.

One, they were in position to make that shot and steal a game, which they were hardly ever around to do last year. Second, they benefited from a no-call from the officials, which they hardly every got last year.

If you need more evidence that USC hoops has got a new sheriff in town, you’ve got worse eyesight than yours truly (staring at SEC cheerleaders for 10 years does take a bite).

Coach Darrin Horn wisely didn’t comment on it, saying it wasn’t his concern to make those calls. Mike Holmes said he thought he got it clean. Alabama interim coach Philip Pearson said the whole goal his team was trying to make was to make enough plays before the last so it wouldn’t get burned on the last.

The Gamecocks played awful in the first half and terrific in the second. They responded to Horn’s challenge at halftime to put on an immediate charge, which they did with a 9-0 run to make the game close.

Then they wouldn’t die after taking and then losing the lead. Evka Baniulis actually drove the lane. Sam Muldrow kept getting that lanky frame of his in the air, despite not having a great night offensively. Devan Downey kept weaving through traffic for that soar, flip and score shot of his, although this was the rare night where it didn’t fall.

And when they were in position to win it, they got a couple of lucky breaks. Of all the places where Downey’s missed game-winner could have fallen, it fell right under the basket (just like that missed free throw went right to Holmes against Florida at home). Dominique Archie put it right back up a little too hard, but instead of glancing off the rim or the glass, it rolled around, back out and right to Holmes.

I daresay Holmes didn’t think of goaltending when he jumped and he sure wasn’t thinking about it afterward, because there was no whistle. Basket good, game over, 18-5, still in first place.

“Obviously there’s luck involved with that,” Horn said, “And I’d rather be lucky than good.” Which says one helluva lot.

The Gamecocks – at long last – are a little of both.

The Eighth Commandment ain’t in the NCAA rulebook.

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