FanPost

two telltale TV omens in first two minutes

Right off the bat, two omens, TV refused to show the opening tip and the refs refused to call foul on Edey's first shot

First, they always show the opening jump ball, it only happens once a game, they talk through it, but they show it. In this game, when I was actually interested to see how a 7'4 person looks versus their tallest player of 6'6, tv showed for no reason the FD coach for close up on the sideline for half a minute. It was guaranteed that at that moment he could do nothing to affect the contest, yet that is all they showed,. He had been big-talking about how boilers could be beat, something coaches never do before a game, so just odd. After the jump ball, tv cut into live action camera and boilers had the ball, but no record ever made or offered as to how that happened. Never seen that before in tv basketball

Second, maybe also connected to FD coach, Purdue works ball into Zach and he goes into patented jump hook and I am expecting the score will soon be two points to nothing, that will be the way of this game. When the perimeter defender lunges back and, in direct line of sight of the referee who had the whistle in his mouth, the FD pushed up onto Edey's elbow, dislodging the ball forward out of his hand (try it yourself) so that his "shot" became a half slap and the ball only went halfway to the basket. I have seen every Edey shot this year I have never seen that. The announcer even commented, when his partner said "good defense", he said "they hit his elbow". No foul was called That was the strategy. Foul every second of the game so that if they call them all, it would be a forfeit in a tourney game, so refs let things go until basketball is no longer basketball, winning no longer a measure of accomplishment.

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