The Associated Pest

As I walked out of the Comcast Center the other night after watching my Terrapins drop their conference opener to Boston College, I thought to myself, “Those referees really fucked us.” And as always, I was right. One of Maryland’s best guards, Greivis Vasquez fouled out with 10:30 left in the second half. He collected three fouls in a span on sixteen seconds; two reach-in fouls and technical for slapping the basket’s padding after his fourth. BC finished with a 41-16 advantage in free throws, albeit 16 of the BC’s free throws came off intentional fouls at the end of the game. That means BC shot 9 more legitimate free throws in a game that was ultimately decided by 3 points. BC also benefited from numerous no-calls on blocks and blatant traveling violations.

You are probably thinking, “So what? Teams get fucked all the time in the ACC.” That’s true, but this year you can’t talk about it. While I didn’t expect the Washington Post headline to read “Refs Fuck Terps,” I did expect to read some comments from our head coach on how we got screwed. Nothing was printed. All Gary Williams said was, “I can’t comment on the officiating. I would be suspended for the next game.”

What is this, a college basketball dictatorship? Since when is it wrong to report the facts of a situation, or even voice an opinion? Oh yeah, I almost forgot that it has been wrong to question federal policy decisions for years. It’s called being un-American. If you disagree with anything, just sit back in silence and take it like a man. So if questioning refs (who may have been paid off) is unsportsmanlike and questioning politicians (who may have been paid off) is un-American, what can I question these days? I miss the days when if someone sucked at their job they would be publicly humiliated. Even better, they would be publicly humiliated and then fired. Man, those were the days…