Last night I was here in Italy in a little town near Roma watching the Brose Baskets Bamberg game against Panathinaikos – well I had to since we did the LIVE blog. But with one eye I was following the statistics of the Siena – CSKA game just because Siena was up by 13 at one point in the 2nd quarter.Let’s start off with the highlights, since they always start automatically:
Behind me at the desk was the assistant coach of this towns’ team doing his work – you know Italians don’t work 9 to 5 – it is more like 10 to 12 and 3 to whenever they want to go home.
Of course he was asking me every 5 minutes what the score was and when it came down to the last 5 minutes we both watched the whole game on Euroleague TV. Well I don’t have to explain the whole last 5 minutes – we all know it was a close game, although I think Siena gave the game away already at that point – Especially Stonerook’s base line jumper with 6 seconds on the shot clock was Siena’s neck breaker.
But then things happened I really did not understand – and was kind of unfair to Siena but hey, if you have experienced the things I have experienced in Italy, you also would be happy – even if CSKA Moscow wins in the end.
Just a general note – as a referee you really REALLY should not decide a game by making non obvious calls in the last minute at all. You ruin the game! This isn’t basketball anymore. They had to show the slow motion 3 times to see that Sato touched Siskauskas’ elbow while he was taking the three pointer. Moscow did not even try to get to the free throw line – they just wanted to send this into overtime.
But thanks to the referee, Siskauskas went to the line and of course made his three free thows – giving Siena 3 seconds to do something with the ball – well they didn’t.
But as I said – I don’t feel bad at all – I am just waiting for Ettore Messina’s next blog entry: “Thanks ref!”
The Italian work schedule is the best. I want to emulate it. As for calls, sometimes the non-obvious call still affects the shot, like a foul on an elbow, but yeah in general if the call doesn’t need to be made, don’t call it.
Tobias, it was just a sarcastic post or you really think it’s normal to touch the elbow everytime the player makes a deciding shot with 3 seconds left to play?
If it was a foul (touching the player’s elbow then he shoots is a 100% foul) then referee MUST make a call, no matter how many seconds left to play. It’s the RULES.
Basketball is the best game with the ball, so block/touch the ball, not an elbow!
I wonder why Kaukenas is so different during the Euroleague and the Internaional tournaments.. I guess having Saras next to you kind of shifts your game or is Kaukenas on dope when he’s playing for Siena because he was NOT like this during the Euro champs!
Saras played below his level at Eurobasket, Siskauskas played much better than him.
And yes, Kaukenas is ON FIRE when he’s playing for Siena!