NEW YORK -- The latest buzzer-beater at the Big East tournament belongs to a Seton Hall reserve with a familiar last name.
Robert Horry Lakers Jersey . Sterling Gibbs hit a step-back jumper as time expired and Seton Hall stunned No. 3 Villanova
64-63 in a thrilling quarter-final Thursday, a loss that could cost the Wildcats
a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. "Were really confident, honestly,
especially after you beat the No. 3 team in the country," said Gibbs, a
sophomore transfer from Texas whose brother was a Pittsburgh star. "We know if
we can beat them, we can beat anyone. So were just up for the challenge." Eugene
Teague had 19 points and 12 rebounds for the eighth-seeded Pirates (17-16), who
advanced to the tournament semifinals for the first time in 13 years. They will
play Friday night against No. 4 seed Providence, which held off fifth-seeded St.
Johns 79-74. Josh Hart scored 18 to lead the top-seeded Wildcats (28-4), beaten
only twice in 18 regular-season conference games while winning their first
outright Big East title since 1982. Both losses were blowouts by Doug McDermott
and Creighton. "Youve all heard me say this before: This was not about 1 seeds,
2 seeds. This was about we wanted to come to Madison Square Garden and win the
Big East tournament. Winning the Big East tournament would mean much more to us
than a 1 seed," Villanova coach Jay Wright said. "The NCAA tournament seedings,
my belief is 1, 2, 3, it doesnt matter that much. Youre going to play great
teams." Patrik Auda scored all 13 of his points in the first half for Seton
Hall, a 10 1/2-point underdog. But the pesky Pirates, accustomed to playing
close games, built a 15-point lead and recovered after Villanova spurted past
them with a 16-0 run in the second half. It was Seton Halls first victory in
five tries against top-seeded teams at the Big East tournament. "We never really
got rattled," coach Kevin Willard said. "These guys have a lot of heart. They
have a lot of character, and they deserve to win." Villanova took a 63-62 lead
on Darrun Hilliards floater in the lane with 7.8 seconds to go. Seton Hall
pushed the ball past halfcourt, then called timeout with 3.7 seconds left. With
much of the crowd on its feet, Jaren Sina inbounded and Gibbs backed off
Hilliard with a hard step back, draining a 17-foot jumper from the top of the
key just as the horn sounded. "We usually dont like to call timeouts. We usually
like just to go. But I wanted the ball, at that time, in Sterlings hands,"
Willard said. A fired-up Gibbs, who finished with 10 points, jumped onto the
scorers table and looked up at the crowd as excited teammates ran all over the
court in a wild celebration. The shot was a near carbon copy of the one Kemba
Walker hit three years ago at the Garden during Connecticuts captivating run to
Big East and NCAA tournament championships. That buzzer-beating jumper by
Walker, also in the quarterfinals, beat a top-seeded Pittsburgh team that was
led by Gibbs brother, Ashton. "It ended up being a little bit of a scramble. The
plan kind of got switched up a little bit," Sterling Gibbs said before Teague
interrupted. "A little bit?" said the senior centre. "Yeah, a lot of bit," Gibbs
acknowledged. "In the end, it was supposed to get in my hands and I was supposed
to create a shot for my teammates or create a shot for myself, and I just
stepped back and hit the jumper." Hilliard scored all 11 of his points in the
second half. JayVaughn Pinkston also had 11 for the Wildcats, but the 77 per
cent free throw shooter was 3 of 10 at the foul line as the Wildcats went 15 for
25 (60 per cent) to Seton Halls 6-for-9 mark. The Pirates limited Villanova to
37.9 per cent shooting and 21.1 per cent from 3-point range (4 for 19), less
than 18 hours after holding Butler to a 2-for-18 mark (11.1 per cent) from long
distance in the opening round. "We got the shots we wanted to. We just werent
making them," Villanova guard Ryan Arcidiacono said. Playing in the Big East
quarterfinals for the first time since 2003, the Pirates won despite getting
only seven points from leading scorer Fuquan Edwin on 3-of-15 shooting.
Villanova won both regular-season meetings, by an average of 16.5 points, and
figured to have an advantage again after Seton Hall had to hold off Butler 51-50
Wednesday night. Early on, though, it was the Pirates who looked fresh even
though they had little time to rest. On a bitterly cold day in the Big Apple,
the Wildcats took a while to warm up. They missed 13 of their first 14 attempts
from 3-point range and trailed 44-31 with 14 minutes remaining. But they made a
flurry of steals during a 16-0 run and took their first lead at 47-44 on
Hilliards 3-pointer with 8:03 left. Edwin tied it with a 3 and Teague followed
with a three-point play to put the Pirates back in front. With the score tied at
59, Arcidiaconos steal sent Villanova on a fast break that culminated in Harts
layup with 40 seconds left. Undeterred, the Pirates worked the ball around and
Gibbs passed to Sina for a 3 from the left corner that gave them for a 62-61
edge with 17.2 seconds remaining. "That was a great college basketball game,"
Wright said. "Great to be a part of it. Great atmosphere. The Garden was
rocking. We had a lot of fun."
Swingman Michael Cooper Jersey . Jamies number grades given are out of five, with five being the best mark. Tuukka Rask,
Boston Bruins (5) – He had a brilliant game; it was a huge response for his
average games before.
Julius Randle Lakers Jersey . "That was a great lift for the staff," Padres manager Bud Black said. Yonder Alonso and
Yasmani Grandal homered, and Chase Headley drove in three runs, as the Padres
beat the Chicago Cubs 11-1 on Friday night.Last week in the CFL the penalty
flags were flying. In total between the four games played there were 110
penalties for 958 yards, which is the third-highest total in the last 20 years.
Obviously, that is way too many penalties. It disrupts the flow of the game,
extends the length of the game, and is flat out hard to watch. However, it is
one thing to simply complain about the flag-filled week. Its another to examine
the calls, look at the reasons why they were made, and work towards finding
solutions so it doesnt happen again. In conjunction with the leagues head
coaches, that is exactly what Glen Johnson, the leagues Vice-President of
Officiating, is currently working on. It is a process that will take some time
for a couple reasons, the most important being that we are all learning a new
culture in football where player safety is the focus. However, all the league
stake holders are all in to work towards limiting the amount of penalties
called, and the time it takes to call them. Johnson has accumulated the numbers
from last week and some from the first three weeks of the season, and they may
surprise football fans. First, all of the penalties from last week have been
reviewed and, of the 110 called, 93 of them were the correct call while only
seven of them were debatable or questionable calls. Essentially, 94 per cent of
the calls made last week were correct which according to Johnson is, "very close
to the overall standards from the last few years." These numbers are
significant, because it is important to understand that fixing the problem of
too many penalties does not just fall on the shoulders of the officials. The
players and coaches are ultimately responsible, and are working with Johnson on
a weekly basis to improve the situation. Johnson explained by pointing out that
there are currently teams that have asked the league to make officials available
for practices. "I talk to the coaches and we are working together to improve the
situation on a weekly basis, in fact some teams have asked that we supply them
refs at practice, which I think is an excellent idea, and can help the teams and
our officials." After three weeks this season penalties are up by 31 per cent
overall, which is a huge jump. However, when you dig a little deeper into the
numbers, we shouldnt be surprised. Of the 31 per cent increase this year,
"player safety fouls," are leading the way. Penalties like unnecessary
roughness, roughing the passer, face masking, and sportsmanship-related fouls
like taunting are driving the increase. When you consider what is happening in
North America when it comes to player safety in contact sports, we shouldnt be
surprised that calls that are designed to protect the players, sometimes from
themselves, are up dramatically. It is going to take time for players to
understand what is a legal hit, and what is not, when they have trained their
whole lives to hit a certain way, especially when we are talking about the hits
on the quarterbacks. So before we start chanting, "ref you suck," from the
stands, remember that the Players Association have negotiated player safety
items into their new collective bargaining agreements and have made it a
priority. It is the players who must change their behaviour, and better
understand what is - and isnt - a legal hit, and play with more discipline. They
voted it into their own agreements. For now, if the officials err, they will err
on the side of protecting the players because that has been mandated by the
league and the CFLPA. Penalty--filled games make for long football games, and
fans should know that the league is very aware of games extending too long and
are working on improving that area as well.
Jerry West Lakers Jersey. One concern is with regards to video review, and whether or not it is taking too long. No, this has
nothing to do with the new rule to make pass interference a reviewable penalty -
more on that in a minute. This is about being more efficient with the review
process. Glen Johnson is even looking at possibly changing the mechanics to
speed things up. "One thing that I am looking at is to possibly drop the part of
the process where the official explains to the Referee what he saw which then
gets relayed to the replay official." He went on to say, "that information is
rarely helpful as the play is getting reviewed, we could save about 20 seconds
per review." Twenty seconds would be significant when you consider that
currently the average review is taking two minutes and 15 seconds. This however,
according to Johnson, is skewed because of a few really long reviews this year
that took five minutes. He said that reviews generally take about one minute and
30 seconds, which is close to the target. "The objective is to get them under
two minutes and five minutes is not acceptable!" It should also be noted that
according to data from south of the border, NFL reviews on average take about
three minutes, so shaving over a minute off that time will add up quickly.
Johnson has reminded his refs that when replay was first introduced to the game
there was a 90-second limit placed on the referee, and that decision didnt come
from a replay office - it was made from under the hood at the park. Now on the
new rule involving the review of pass interference. After three weeks there have
been five challenges of pass interference, and all five were on plays where
there was no flag thrown. In other words coaches challenged that the call was
missed. On two of those challenges the play was reviewed and it was determined
by the command center that there was PI on the play and the no call on the field
was overturned. It is a small sample size but Johnson, and the majority of the
coaches in the league, feel the new rule change is, "going well," so far. As for
the timing of this particular challenge on average it takes about 20 seconds
longer than other challengeable plays. So if it takes about one minute and 30
seconds for most challenges, then a PI call would take one minute and 50 seconds
which is still under the target of two minutes. By the way both overturned PI
challenges occurred in the end zone which is the area on the field that changes
the outcome of games, and the calls ended up being correct. The purpose of this
change was not to make PI more difficult, but to assist the officials who may
have missed something blatant during live action, and in that regard the league
and the coaches believe it is working so far. When you break it all down, there
is a fairly simple explanation as to why player safety type penalties are up,
and that should correct itself over time. It is also important to understand
that 94 per cent of the penalties called in the game are the correct call, so it
is the coaches and players responsibility to make the necessary corrections. And
finally, all the stakeholders in the game are very aware that last week there
were way too many penalties and are working together to make changes to make
sure 110 flags in four games doesnt happen again. Now lets get back to talking
about football.
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