JP Pelzman
Trove correspondent
NEW YORK – Markus Howard had attempted 14 free throws in a span of 1:20 late in Friday night’s Big East tournament semifinal against Seton Hall. So if he had driven to the basket on the final possession and induced even the slightest bit of contact, it’s safe to assume he would’ve drawn a foul.
But maybe the Marquette star was as disgusted with the game as was the college basketball community, so he didn’t want it to go into overtime. Instead, he tried to win it right then and there.
Howard took a step back from the tight defense of Shavar Reynolds, and let fly with a three-pointer. But it came up--what’s that, referee Breeding? A technical foul? On me? For “unsportsmanlike typing.” What? Sorry, it wasn’t intentional, honest.
Anyway, Howard, who was nursing a wrist injury suffered earlier in the game, front-rimmed the shot and Seton Hall survived, 81-79 and reached Saturday night’s championship game against Villanova at Madison Square Garden. It will be the second meeting in the final in four years for the longtime rivals. Seton Hall beat the Wildcats in 2016 for its first Big East tournament title in 23 years.
On Friday night, Seton Hall (20-12) overcame Howard, some skirmishes and a barrage of technical fouls to post 20 victories for the fourth consecutive year. It is the first time in program history the Pirates have done that.
But even a noteworthy accomplishment like that took a back seat on this night. It indeed was March Madness as referee James Breeding and officials Jeff Clark and Tim Clougherty assessed nine technical fouls (six to Seton Hall) and three player ejections, two for Marquette. Four players fouled out, including three Pirates.
Also consider that both Myles Powell (22 points) and Myles Cale had collected four fouls. Had the game gone to OT, the Pirates could’ve been in trouble, considering Howard had only two fouls and teammate Sam Hauser (22 points) had three.
In fact, Powell was somewhat surprised he was in the game at all at the finish, considering he and the Seton Hall bench mistakenly thought he had been ejected with 12:48 left.
Powell said, “It was crazy. Just to be able to get called back to the game. I was happy. I felt like I let my teammates down. Them giving me a second chance, I really appreciate it. It's all a blessing.”
“I'm proud of the way my guys continue to fight even though there's times we're not playing overly well,” coach Kevin Willard said in the post-game interview room, wearing a Seton Hall Pirates T-shirt. “I thought both teams played really, really hard. Both teams fought.”
In more ways than one. Powell reacted to some grabbing and hard pushing by Marquette’s Sacar Anim with an elbow, picking up a flagrant 1 foul in the first half. Anim was assessed a personal and then a technical for taunting Powell.
But things were just getting started.
"I think one reason this game was so chippy is the fact we just played Marquette (on March 6). So everybody kind of knew everybody", Willard noted after the game.
With 12:48 to go, Powell drove to the basket and was fouled hard by both Anim and Theo John, sending Powell into the Seton Hall cheerleader section on the baseline. An angry Powell got up and confronted Anim, and the scrum (in which no punches were thrown) also involved John and Seton Hall’s Sandro Mamukelashvili.
According to what Breeding told a pool reporter afterward, the officials deemed the contact of John to Powell as “severe” and John was assessed a flagrant 2 technical, disqualifying him automatically. Then Powell and Anim got in each other’s grilles, and both were assessed technicals. It was Anim’s second T, so he automatically was ejected.
Mamukelashvili was tossed for a second T during the scrum. He had picked up one less than a minute earlier for chirping at a Marquette player after a made basket by teammate Anthony Nelson.
But Powell only had one technical and one flagrant. As Breeding indicated, those two categories are separate. While the T gave Powell his fourth personal, he still was eligible to play.
“The confusion was (Powell’s) first foul was a flagrant 1,” Willard said. “It wasn't a technical foul. When they came over and said that's obviously his second, I thought James Breeding did a good job of going to the book and correcting it. So I know he was a little upset after he got tossed, but I think it was more of a score-book error than it was anything else.”
Breeding admitted, “it probably wasn't communicated clearly to them that his personal foul in the first half is a live ball flagrant personal foul which carries a different penalty than the technical foul, and those two together don't result in ejection.”
So Willard sent assistant coach Duane Woodward to the locker room to bring Powell back out.
“He just said, ‘Coach (Willard) said come back out.’ Once I heard that, I'm wiping my tears. ‘Come back out?’ So I ran back out. Yeah, I was just happy they gave me a second chance.”
And he took advantage. With Marquette’s two best defenders out of the game, Powell later hit two clutch treys, including one that put the Pirates ahead to stay. Holding onto the lead wasn’t easy, though, as Mike Nzei, Quincy McKnight and Romaro all eventually fouled out for The Hall. McKnight’s departure was hastened because he picked up an extra personal when Breeding gave him a technical after whistling him for a touch foul.
McKnight ran away from Breeding in disbelief after the original call in an attempt NOT to be T’d up, but Breeding told the pool reporter “he reacted in an unsporting manner” by his actions. Never mind that Gill leaped in the air and almost did a triple axle after getting his fifth foul, but wasn’t assessed a T.
Breeding, who had a busy night, also gave Willard a technical, for protesting what the Seton Hall coach thought should have been a traveling violation on Marquette rather than a Hall foul. Clougherty gave Jared Rhoden a technical for hanging on the rim. Well, Rhoden wasn’t exactly styling, he simply was trying to follow up his own botched dunk attempt.
Still, Willard said he was OK with the officiating after the one major skirmish. Noting. “I thought after the scrum underneath our basket, I actually thought the refs did a great job of kind of getting everything back where the kids were playing and focused on playing, and I'm not just saying that. I thought they did.”
Marquette coach Steve Wojciechowski, who wasn’t T’d despite a seemingly steady barrage of expletives, according to ear-witnesses, wasn’t as happy with the men in stripes.
“I've never had anything like that happen in a basketball game before. It's unexplainable. Unexplainable,” he said. “I don't know if I want to get into specifics. It was the most unusual basketball game I've ever been a part of, and I feel bad for my kids. They're in there, and they're sobbing. I wish our kids would have had a chance to decide the game and their kids, too.
“It was really tough for us not having our two best defenders in the game, Sacar and Theo,” he added. On his way out of the interview room, the coach said to nobody in particular, “I bit my tongue.”
As for the Pirates, they extended their stay in Manhattan.
“Like I've been saying to the media all year,” Powell said, “the best thing about this team is we're fighters. Our backs were to the wall the whole time. We came together as brothers and had each other's back. Sandro did a great job for me, and I love my teammates.”
Comments?
https://setonhall.rivals.com/
Trove correspondent
NEW YORK – Markus Howard had attempted 14 free throws in a span of 1:20 late in Friday night’s Big East tournament semifinal against Seton Hall. So if he had driven to the basket on the final possession and induced even the slightest bit of contact, it’s safe to assume he would’ve drawn a foul.
But maybe the Marquette star was as disgusted with the game as was the college basketball community, so he didn’t want it to go into overtime. Instead, he tried to win it right then and there.
Howard took a step back from the tight defense of Shavar Reynolds, and let fly with a three-pointer. But it came up--what’s that, referee Breeding? A technical foul? On me? For “unsportsmanlike typing.” What? Sorry, it wasn’t intentional, honest.
Anyway, Howard, who was nursing a wrist injury suffered earlier in the game, front-rimmed the shot and Seton Hall survived, 81-79 and reached Saturday night’s championship game against Villanova at Madison Square Garden. It will be the second meeting in the final in four years for the longtime rivals. Seton Hall beat the Wildcats in 2016 for its first Big East tournament title in 23 years.
On Friday night, Seton Hall (20-12) overcame Howard, some skirmishes and a barrage of technical fouls to post 20 victories for the fourth consecutive year. It is the first time in program history the Pirates have done that.
But even a noteworthy accomplishment like that took a back seat on this night. It indeed was March Madness as referee James Breeding and officials Jeff Clark and Tim Clougherty assessed nine technical fouls (six to Seton Hall) and three player ejections, two for Marquette. Four players fouled out, including three Pirates.
Also consider that both Myles Powell (22 points) and Myles Cale had collected four fouls. Had the game gone to OT, the Pirates could’ve been in trouble, considering Howard had only two fouls and teammate Sam Hauser (22 points) had three.
In fact, Powell was somewhat surprised he was in the game at all at the finish, considering he and the Seton Hall bench mistakenly thought he had been ejected with 12:48 left.
Powell said, “It was crazy. Just to be able to get called back to the game. I was happy. I felt like I let my teammates down. Them giving me a second chance, I really appreciate it. It's all a blessing.”
“I'm proud of the way my guys continue to fight even though there's times we're not playing overly well,” coach Kevin Willard said in the post-game interview room, wearing a Seton Hall Pirates T-shirt. “I thought both teams played really, really hard. Both teams fought.”
In more ways than one. Powell reacted to some grabbing and hard pushing by Marquette’s Sacar Anim with an elbow, picking up a flagrant 1 foul in the first half. Anim was assessed a personal and then a technical for taunting Powell.
But things were just getting started.
"I think one reason this game was so chippy is the fact we just played Marquette (on March 6). So everybody kind of knew everybody", Willard noted after the game.
With 12:48 to go, Powell drove to the basket and was fouled hard by both Anim and Theo John, sending Powell into the Seton Hall cheerleader section on the baseline. An angry Powell got up and confronted Anim, and the scrum (in which no punches were thrown) also involved John and Seton Hall’s Sandro Mamukelashvili.
According to what Breeding told a pool reporter afterward, the officials deemed the contact of John to Powell as “severe” and John was assessed a flagrant 2 technical, disqualifying him automatically. Then Powell and Anim got in each other’s grilles, and both were assessed technicals. It was Anim’s second T, so he automatically was ejected.
Mamukelashvili was tossed for a second T during the scrum. He had picked up one less than a minute earlier for chirping at a Marquette player after a made basket by teammate Anthony Nelson.
But Powell only had one technical and one flagrant. As Breeding indicated, those two categories are separate. While the T gave Powell his fourth personal, he still was eligible to play.
“The confusion was (Powell’s) first foul was a flagrant 1,” Willard said. “It wasn't a technical foul. When they came over and said that's obviously his second, I thought James Breeding did a good job of going to the book and correcting it. So I know he was a little upset after he got tossed, but I think it was more of a score-book error than it was anything else.”
Breeding admitted, “it probably wasn't communicated clearly to them that his personal foul in the first half is a live ball flagrant personal foul which carries a different penalty than the technical foul, and those two together don't result in ejection.”
So Willard sent assistant coach Duane Woodward to the locker room to bring Powell back out.
“He just said, ‘Coach (Willard) said come back out.’ Once I heard that, I'm wiping my tears. ‘Come back out?’ So I ran back out. Yeah, I was just happy they gave me a second chance.”
And he took advantage. With Marquette’s two best defenders out of the game, Powell later hit two clutch treys, including one that put the Pirates ahead to stay. Holding onto the lead wasn’t easy, though, as Mike Nzei, Quincy McKnight and Romaro all eventually fouled out for The Hall. McKnight’s departure was hastened because he picked up an extra personal when Breeding gave him a technical after whistling him for a touch foul.
McKnight ran away from Breeding in disbelief after the original call in an attempt NOT to be T’d up, but Breeding told the pool reporter “he reacted in an unsporting manner” by his actions. Never mind that Gill leaped in the air and almost did a triple axle after getting his fifth foul, but wasn’t assessed a T.
Breeding, who had a busy night, also gave Willard a technical, for protesting what the Seton Hall coach thought should have been a traveling violation on Marquette rather than a Hall foul. Clougherty gave Jared Rhoden a technical for hanging on the rim. Well, Rhoden wasn’t exactly styling, he simply was trying to follow up his own botched dunk attempt.
Still, Willard said he was OK with the officiating after the one major skirmish. Noting. “I thought after the scrum underneath our basket, I actually thought the refs did a great job of kind of getting everything back where the kids were playing and focused on playing, and I'm not just saying that. I thought they did.”
Marquette coach Steve Wojciechowski, who wasn’t T’d despite a seemingly steady barrage of expletives, according to ear-witnesses, wasn’t as happy with the men in stripes.
“I've never had anything like that happen in a basketball game before. It's unexplainable. Unexplainable,” he said. “I don't know if I want to get into specifics. It was the most unusual basketball game I've ever been a part of, and I feel bad for my kids. They're in there, and they're sobbing. I wish our kids would have had a chance to decide the game and their kids, too.
“It was really tough for us not having our two best defenders in the game, Sacar and Theo,” he added. On his way out of the interview room, the coach said to nobody in particular, “I bit my tongue.”
As for the Pirates, they extended their stay in Manhattan.
“Like I've been saying to the media all year,” Powell said, “the best thing about this team is we're fighters. Our backs were to the wall the whole time. We came together as brothers and had each other's back. Sandro did a great job for me, and I love my teammates.”
Comments?
https://setonhall.rivals.com/
