Dakich has only himself to blame for loss

2/20/2007

It was nice to see the Bowling Green men's basketball team get a laugher on the road Saturday against Morehead State.

Coach Dan Dakich had been insisting his Falcons had no quit in them despite rough going over the last month or so, and they proved that with 40 solid minutes on the road.

Fact is, the Falcons should be enjoying a two-game winning streak right now in advance of tomorrow night's game against Ohio at Anderson Arena.

Losing at Buffalo in overtime last week was inexcusable.

No one - the Mid-American Conference, its game officials, the clock operator, Buffalo coach Reggie Witherspoon - looks good in the aftermath of that travesty.

Unfortunately, no one looks worse than Dakich, at least from a distance and to someone who wasn't there.

At the last stoppage in regulation play, with Buffalo in possession of the ball and trailing by two points, there were 24.4 seconds left on the game clock and 23.0 seconds left on the shot clock.

A shot clock violation was probably the last thing on anyone's mind, but that's what happened and someone on the BG bench, along with everyone on the officiating crew, should have been aware of the rule that stipulates the game clock stops when a shot clock violation occurs.

That the shot clock operator didn't get his finger on the switch fast enough, allowing the game clock to reach 0:00, is meaningless.

Even Dakich's claim that one official waved his arms and told him the game was over is essentially meaningless.

Because it could not have been over. No game is over until the officials leave the court. Instead, they huddled to discuss the situation, then went to the TV monitors to review the play and the timing. While all this was taking place, Dakich herded his team off the floor.

Why? Even if the officials put time back on the clock, it was BG's ball with a two-point lead. All the Falcons had to do was inbound the ball and the buzzer sounds and they have a much-needed victory.

Regardless, after the time was added, an official went to BG's locker room to inform Dakich the game wasn't over. His team did not return in what the refs felt was a timely fashion, a delay-of-game technical foul was assessed allowing Buffalo tie to the game, and the Falcons lost in overtime.

The MAC office timed the video and determined that more than 5 1/2 minutes passed between the point that the refs put six-tenths of a second back on the clock and the point that the technical foul was assessed.

The rule book doesn't define an acceptable delay. The technical could have been called immediately or at midnight. Granted, it would have been nice had an official asked Dakich how much time he needed, or told him precisely how much time would be allowed.

Still, regardless of how the officials handled it, the only question that really matters is this: Why were the Falcons hustled off the court when there was nothing to be gained by it, and not hustled back onto the court when there was everything to be gained by it?

Forget everything else. BG needed two kids on the court, in jockey shorts and dress shoes, if need be, to inbound the ball and secure a win. Period.

Dakich said in his expletives-not-deleted, postgame comments that the Falcons had been cheated.

He was right.