February 28, 2011

Cheerleader Nearly Costs Louisville Game: Louisville cheerleader Jordan Alcazar threw the basketball in the air during the final second of the Cardinals' 62-59 win over the No. 4 Pitt Panthers, drawing a technical foul that could have cost them the game. Free throws cut the lead to 3 but a half-court heave by Ashton Gibbs failed to go in. "All good things come to an end and the male cheerleader has come to an end," Rick Pitino joked after the game.

posted by rcade to basketball at 09:22 AM - 6 comments

Glad it didn't cost them the game. Would have been a rotten way to lose a hard-fought contest. That being said, a cheerleader? Seriously? Don't touch the freakin' ball!

posted by dyams at 10:02 AM on February 28, 2011

"All good things come to an end"

Also one of Pitino's restaurant reviews.

posted by yerfatma at 10:21 AM on February 28, 2011

Pretty dumb on the kid's part--if they'd lost, he'd have been wise to consider transferring to another school...

Still, the idea of Pitino, off all people, lecturing college kids about making good choices in the heat of the moment is laughable.

Off-topic: I sort of agree with people like Gregg Easterbrook who are annoyed at the pseudo-accuracy of these 00:00:50 situations. A half-second is a lot in a hundred-meter sprint, and there are sensor-controlled electronic timers at the business end of the run. But in basketball? C'mon, now. A half-second really doesn't seem like enough time to catch, turn, and shoot. I wonder if the NCAA has done studies to determine the "smallest significant interval" or something like that--running high-speed cameras on guys who try to get a shot off as fast as they can.

posted by Uncle Toby at 11:39 AM on February 28, 2011

A half-second is a lot in a hundred-meter sprint, and there are sensor-controlled electronic timers at the business end of the run. But in basketball?

Especially when you consider the myriad half-seconds that have been lost or added over the course of the dozens of prior clock stoppages in the game. If your not going to enforce microsecond accuracy on every whistle, why insist on it for the last one?

posted by Rock Steady at 03:52 PM on February 28, 2011

Couldn't they get the technical just for coming on the floor regardless of whether anyone actually touched the ball?

posted by bperk at 05:33 PM on February 28, 2011

I thought that as well, just being on the court was enough to call the T on.

From the NBA rule book: :00.3 is needed on the clock to catch the ball and shoot it into the basket whether the shot is made or not. So, I guess they feel that .3 is enough time to complete the shot.

posted by dviking at 08:32 PM on February 28, 2011

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