Posted on 04/08/2024 3:25:22 PM PDT by nickcarraway
This call is so bad it feels like a fix.
Referees generally catch too much flak when they botch a call, but this one from the New Jersey high school basketball playoffs utterly defies belief.
The No. 3 ranked Camden Panthers were on the verge of winning vs. Manasquan when their opponents took the ball down the court and hit a very obvious buzzer beater. Cheering and sadness then reversed, as referees inexplicably waved off the final shot — saying it came after the buzzer.
This isn’t even a borderline call. In real time it’s incredibly clear that Manasquan got it off in time, and when you slow it down by frame it gets even worse. Look at this screenshot here where the ball is already mid-flight, with the game clock still showing 0.5 seconds remaining.
All three officials on the game conferred and agreed that the ball left the player’s hand after time expired. How three people could all be so wrong baffled the mind, and their coach Andrew Bilodeau didn’t mince his words about how disgusted he was with the call, telling NJ.com:
“They reversed the call. The referee in the C position in the middle signaled basket’s good, they huddled up and then 15 kids got screwed in front of 1,000 people,” Bilodeau said. “Print that. Print it five times. Those three guys huddled up and they screwed these kids in front of 1,000 people and that video will be on the internet for everyone to see.”
Bilodeau is absolutely correct. The players got screwed over, and that’s not up for debate. Unfortunately for Manasquan, the result of the game is also not up for debate. The team lost an appeal to the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA), on the grounds that the NJSIAA doesn’t allow video review to be part of its decision making process, for some ungodly reason.
The incident is leaving everyone feeling uneasy, especially considering the stakes of the game. Not only was this a playoff contest, but Camden is historically regarded as the best high school program in the state, so to see the rules be so blatantly bent to allow them to win and move on is leaving everyone with a bad taste in their mouth.
The video player is currently playing an ad. You can skip the ad in 5 sec with a mouse or keyboard Jason Kidd may or may not have gotten his coach fired when he was with the New Jersey Nets. We'll leave that up to your judgment. He DEFINITELY had beef with coaches, though, and carried it with him through several different stops as an NBA player.
Manasquan is now exploring legal action due to incident. According to the Asbury Park Press, part of the rejection on appeal claimed that the school isn’t able to challenge “based upon an officials’ judgement or misinterpretation of the playing rules.” The school contests that they aren’t disputing a judgement call, but rather an overt one where the ball was in the air while time expired and went in.
It’s unclear where this goes from here. The next round of the playoffs is to be held on Saturday, with Manasquan wanting an injuction to stop the games while this decision is reviewed. However, if the NJSIAA doesn’t allow video review to overturn a call, and you can’t challenge an official’s bad decision making — what exactly can you challenge?
The world needs to see this and know that Manasquan won this game. It’s overtly clear, and one of the worst ref robberies you’ll ever see.
Any mail in shots left to count?
They might have been bought.
Looking at the players on the two teams, it looks like an Affirmative Action call.
It’s not like it was for an Olympic gold medal or anything.
LOL 😅😀😂🤣🤣🤣
Someones got paid off big time.
Or maybe there were some heavy bets going on and Camden HAD to win.
In New Jersey? By who. (I know college refs have fixed games before, and even back in the 50’s)
You think they let the white team win?
It’s crazy to bet on high school ball. Sports betting is legal in NJ, but I am guessing not for high school?
Even at the high school level, stakes can be high. Only church picnic pick-up sports are probably free from corruption.
Betting is everywhere. Professional scouts are also surveying these things.
So they are Game Clock Deniers?
“Manasquan is now exploring legal action due to incident.”
Good luck with that. They’ll probably draw Judge Engoron and DA James.
My sons and I attended Manasquan HS, so I’m not a neutral commentator. The game clock clearly ran out after the final shot had been put up. But the decision was based upon racism, or rather the fear of being accused of racism.
Manasquan’s Players are mostly white; Camden all black. A Decision against the black team would have been portrayed as racist, and endangered the officials.
This event as bad as it was is a month old and has been decided in favor of Camden HS. Camden then defeated a school from Newark while Mannasquan’s team cheered them from the stands.
Life is not fair.
30 years from now when the Manasquan kids are being served by the Camden kids at McDonalds maybe they’ll get it.
I doubt that they’ll be crying racism at that point.
Imagine being taught in high school that if a call doesn’t go one’s way in a game, the proper response is to explore legal action.
smh
“They might have been bought.’
Sincerely doubt it. The officials couldn’t have known when the ball was going to be put in play after the previous basket, that the kid would go down the right side, toss up a wild shot from the sideline, have it bounce off the rim right to the rebounder who put it back up. The only one who could have known that is God.
I can’t answer for the officials as I wasn’t in on the conversation they had right after the buzzer. However, the rule coming from the federation, New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association, states once game officials leave the ‘visual confines of the playing court,’ the game is concluded, and the score is official.” The NJIAA, which does not use instant replay, went on to say that the “results could not then and cannot now be changed.”
So without the opportunity to replay the play, and the game officials leaving the court area, the game is concluded and cannot be challenged in this manner. But the outcry from the call is so blatantly aggressive, and there was a fan moving his hand violently around one of the officials while they had a difficult time leaving the court area, they may have felt they needed to leave the area for safety. Fans have attacked officials before and in a few cases have injured or even killed officials.
If they had the opportunity to see a replay, which is not allowed by the state federation, the call could have been reversed.
The only mistake they actually did was not going to the timer and asking for help as the timer can say what they saw and it might have had an effect on the call as the timer also deermines the clock or shot clock determination on a shot. But I think as the fans started closing in as they entered the floor the officials may have felt threatened and bailed.
wy60
I used to ref basketball. Your points are dead-on.
Maybe I’m not seeing it right. It looks like they made sure that the team IN white win. But the “white” team is the one that got robbed.
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