UNF women's basketball team robbed of its shining moment
Watching the momentary lapse in judgment live on television, then again on replay - a split-second travesty that unjustly ended the University of North Florida women's basketball season - it's still hard to believe that anybody being paid to officiate college basketball could miss such an easy call.
What happened to coach Mary Tappmeyer and her UNF Ospreys on Saturday afternoon in the Atlantic Sun Conference championship game should never happen to any team at any time. And especially not with an automatic NCAA tournament berth on the line.
There's no way to sugarcoat this: The Ospreys were flat-out robbed.
What should have been one of the greatest moments in UNF's athletic history (not just women's basketball, but the entire sports program) was taken away because three game officials failed to blow their whistle on a blatantly obvious traveling violation.
The wild, game-winning basket by East Tennessee State's TaRonda Wiles, an 8-foot bank shot with two seconds left to defeat UNF 63-62 at Mercer University in Macon, Ga., should have never counted.
Wiles had the ball at the top of the key, then took one too many steps as she was driving by UNF's Brittany Kirkland toward the basket. Officials Mary Day and Ken Drayton were further away, but their striped colleague, Charlie Hust, was in ideal position to see the play.
It was as simple to call as, "One, two, three!" That's exactly how many steps Wiles took before releasing the off-balance shot that shellshocked the Ospreys.
In the blink of an eye, UNF lost the privilege of going to the NCAA tournament and a possible first-round matchup against Connecticut, the greatest dynasty in women's college basketball. All because somebody was too scared to make a routine judgment.
UNF athletic director Lee Moon, who was in attendance, said he walked up to A-Sun commissioner Ted Gumpert afterward and said: "I hope you evaluate this."
In a return call to the Times-Union, Gumpert said: "We have a conference policy that we don't make any public comment on any officiating in any contest, regardless of sport or situation."
That's an easy out, but shouldn't paid officials be held accountable, or be allowed to comment publicly just like coaches, players and athletic administrators?
The traveling violation was so obvious that CSS television play-by-play announcer Matt Stewart and analyst Dee Romine were almost speechless after watching the replay. Twice, they mentioned how "fortunate" ETSU was to be awarded the basket, but didn't elaborate much on the miscarriage of justice.
During the subsequent timeout, Tappmeyer poked her head briefly out of the huddle to say, "she traveled," while also making the hand signal for traveling to the official. She was amazingly calm under the circumstances, given that the non-call cost UNF a chance to go to the NCAAs in its first year of postseason eligibility.
"It's tough to take," Tappmeyer said in a phone interview. "[The official] is human; he made a mistake. Me losing my cool is not going to help my team or change the call. I can't spend my whole timeout challenging the call. We constantly preach to our girls to get on to the next play. If I don't demonstrate what I demand, then I'm not a very good coach."
Tappmeyer's restraint and diplomacy were as commendable as her team's inspired play throughout the A-Sun tournament. The seventh-seeded Ospreys were a long shot, but they knocked off Lipscomb and Jacksonville University to reach the finals. UNF trailed 30-14 late in the first half, but rallied to the brink of an upset over the heavily favored Buccaneers.
A pair of free throws by Juliemay Syquio put UNF ahead for the last time with 18.8 seconds left. The Ospreys failed to secure a rebound off a Siarre Evans miss, giving ETSU one last chance. That's when Wiles took three steps, and put up the desperation shot that went in off the backboard.
No matter how many times the Ospreys look at the replay, the same question will hang over them like a dark cloud: Why did the referee not blow his whistle?