Kentucky basketball’s career scoring leader, And Issel, was on the wrong end of arguably the most famous block-or-charge call in NCAA Tournament history. In a second-round game of the 1970 Mideast Region, Jacksonville guard Vaughn Wedeking sneaked up behind the unsuspecting Issel near mid-court. The collision as Kentucky transitioned from defense to offense was called a charge even though Issel did not have the ball. It was Issel’s fifth foul.
“That being the last play of my college career, it was pretty hard to swallow,” Issel recalled 51 years later.
The block-or-charge call resonates for Issel as he watches the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
“Even to this day, that’s a part of the college game that I really don’t like,” Issel said. “Just watching the tournament over the (March 27-30) weekend, you had guys flopping all over the place.”
Barry Mano, the founder and president of the National Association of Sports Officials, questioned whether there has been a significant increase in block-charge calls in this year’s NCAA Tournament.
“I haven’t heard at all through the grapevine that there’s been an escalation in the number of those calls,” he said. “I don’t have hard data to back it up, but it would be banter at the water cooler at our building if something like that had really raised its head.”
Yet UCLA Coach Mick Cronin said he was taken aback by the numerous charge-or-block calls he saw while preparing for the Bruins’ second-round game against Abilene Christian.
Abilene Christian “without question led the nation in charges taken,” Cronin said. “I’ve never seen anything like it watching them on film.”
Issel said that block-or-charge calls can turn off fans. “I think that really takes away from the product,” he said.
Monty McCutchen, who heads the NBA’s Referee Development department, acknowledged how block-or-charge calls can make basketball less appealing. The NBA took action.
“Some of our most exciting plays at the NBA level are at the rim,” he said. “And we were recognizing that we were eliminating that excitement from the game: both the potential layup or very emphatic forceful dunk or in some cases the most beautiful plays are our blocked shots. …
“When two people are competing above the rim, and you put it in slow motion and put music to it, it’s damn near poetry.”
Contrasting with this poetry is the pedestrian prose of flopping. Defenders fall backward in the hope of inducing a charging call.
There is less flopping in the NBA. Retired college referee John Clougherty suggested the possibility of being hit by, say, an oncoming LeBron James inhibited defenders from taking the blow. McCutchen turned to yesteryear by adding, “There weren’t very many players who stood in front of Karl Malone.”
The NBA imposes penalties for flopping. In a regular season, a first offense draws a warning and subsequent flops result in fines. In the playoffs, there is no warning, only fines, McCutchen said.
As for college basketball, one way to reduce — if not eliminate — flopping would be for offensive players to pull up for a jump shot short of the defender.
“No kidding,” said Mano, who then suggested coaches discourage this fix. Coaches value drives to the rim, floaters and three-point shots. A pull-up jumper is frowned upon.
“We’re in a land of just dunks and three-pointers, right?” Mano said. “The analytics are saying don’t do that (pull-up jumper).”
Issel suggested a way to reduce flopping in college basketball.
“I wish they’d just call a bunch of blocking calls,” he said, “and people would stop doing it.”
The call that ended Issel’s college career came at a time when charging was a relatively new and ill-defined part of the game. So-called “charges” could happen anywhere on the court. Now, Issel’s fifth foul would be seen as a violation of basketball justice.
“Our sense of justice was violated,” Mano said, meaning referees. “But the rule said this was what it was. I didn’t like those plays. I thought that was horse (manure).”
‘Historic season’
After Alabama lost to UCLA in a Sweet 16 game to finish the season with a 26-7 record, Coach Nate Oats saluted his players.
“It’s been a historic season,” he said. “I don’t want to see them walk out of this locker room with their heads down. You could make the argument that this is one of the best, if not the best team, in Alabama program history.”
The 26 victories were the second most in a season in program history. The Tide won the SEC regular-season championship for the first time since 2002 and the SEC Tournament title for the first time since 1991.
Alabama also became only the fourth team — other than Kentucky — to win both SEC regular-season and tournament titles in the same year since the latter event was revived in 1979. The other three were Alabama in 1987, Florida in 2007 and Florida in 2014.
Kentucky has won both SEC championships in the same year 11 times since 1979, most recently in 2017.
Oats also applauded seniors Herb Jones, John Petty and Alex Reese.
“They didn’t have to stick around and play for a guy that didn’t recruit them,” said Oats, who just finished his second season as Alabama coach. “They didn’t have to buy into what we were trying to sell. They did. I couldn’t be happier for what we were able to give our … seniors this year.”
Heretical season
During a teleconference previewing the NCAA Tournament, Wally Szczerbiak echoed something fellow broadcaster Clark Kellogg said about the heresy of Kentucky and Duke not receiving bids this year. Kellogg said that the freshmen playing for programs synonymous with success through one-and-done players weren’t collectively as talented as their first-year predecessors.
To make his point, Szczerbiak cited three star freshmen on teams that did receive bids.
“Cade Cunningham (Oklahoma State), Jalen Suggs (Gonzaga) and Evan Mobley (Southern Cal) are going to be First Team All-Americans, and they didn’t go to Duke and Kentucky,” he said. “So, there you go.”
No big deal
Incoming UK player Kellan Grady played against Kentucky in the 2018 NCAA Tournament. His Davidson team lost to UK 78-73 in a first-round game in Boise.
Davidson Coach Bob McKillop said it was not just another game in his long career. “It stands out in your mind because it’s an NCAA Tournament game,” he said.
The game stands out in the Big Blue Nation’s collective mind because Kentucky missed all six of its three-point shots, thus ending a streak of 1,047 games in which UK made at least one shot from beyond the arc.
When told that UK fans lamented the end of the streak, McKillop laughed.
“Jeez, I’d like to have that misfortune to deal with,” he said. “If that’s the only thing they can lament, jeez, please let that be the only thing I can lament.”
Why transfer?
Davidson Coach Bob McKillop volunteered a clarification on Kellan Grady transferring to Kentucky.
“It’s not like he’s transferring in the contemporary world of transfers,” McKillop said. “He’s graduating from Davidson in a couple of weeks.”
So, why is Grady, who will graduate with a degree in sociology, transferring? One reason is that Davidson offers only bachelor’s degrees.
“So, there’s no way he could play his fifth year here,” McKillop said.
Isn’t it ironic?
If Gonzaga and Baylor play for the NCAA Tournament championship Monday night, the game would involve the two teams long considered the best in college basketball this season.
It would also occur four months to the day after the teams were supposed to play in the regular season. Gonzaga was supposed to play at Baylor Dec. 5. The game was canceled that morning.
“It’s crazy,” Baylor guard Jared Butler said after assuring listeners during a Friday teleconference he was not looking past Saturday’s semifinal game against Houston.
“That’s kind of ironic. I think it would be like a Batman-against-Superman type thing.”
Coaching connection
New Mexico Director of Athletics Eddie Nunez hired Richard Pitino as the new coach. There was a prior Nunez-Pitino connection.
A native of Miami, Nunez played basketball for Miami-Dade Community College before transferring to Florida. After playing for Billy Donovan, he worked for two seasons as a graduate assistant on the Gators’ basketball staff.
Of course, Donovan played for Rick Pitino at Providence in the 1980s.
Rick Pitino said of his son, Richard, “He’s a tremendous young coach just like Billy Donovan was.”
Happy birthday
To Erik Daniels. He turned 39 on Thursday. … To Chris Gettelfinger. He turned 63 on Thursday. … To Brian Long. He turned 29 on Friday. … To Jarred Vanderbilt. He turned 22 on Saturday.