A Season Inside by John Feinstein

Author:John Feinstein [Feinstein, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-80091-6
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2011-09-28T04:00:00+00:00

Tonight, Foxcroft has a play for Forte. “Saw it on television last night,” he says. “Guy shoots a three-point shot. Defender deflects it. It goes in. Two points or three?”

“Two,” Forte says. “The three-point shot is dead as soon as the ball is deflected.”

Foxcroft and Clougherty shake their heads. “Wrong. It’s still three. The latest Atlantic 10 directive talks about it.”

Forte is already reaching for his rule book. “That’s wrong,” he says. “I’ll prove it.” He is still looking through the rule book when it is time to go onto the floor. As they leave, he presents Clougherty with a new Fox40, complete with a ridge that has been added for comfort.

“It’s the new improved Fox Forty,” Forte says.

“Yeah, just like Kellogg’s corn flakes,” Foxcroft says. “It means we can raise the price.”

Even though this is a nonconference game, it is an important one to both schools. Each is scrambling for postseason position. Richmond is 15–3, Old Dominion 13–5. Early in the game, Richmond Coach Dick Tarrant is on all three officials. “I think they let an old guy [fifty–seven] like me get away with more than a young guy,” Tarrant says later. “I take advantage of it. Why not? You need every edge in this game.”

During one argument, Forte points down at Tarrant’s foot, which is across the line of the coaching box.

“Dick,” he says, “you’ve got a wing tip on the line.”

“Joe,” Tarrant shoots back, “I’m glad the game’s so easy you’ve got time to look at my feet.”

Forte laughs. Officials will often cut a coach extra slack if he says something funny. Hank Nichols, generally considered the referee of the last twenty years, tells a story about an argument he had one night with Jim Valvano. “Jimmy was all over me about a call. So, finally, I said, ‘Okay Jimmy, that’s enough. I don’t want to hear another word.’

“Jimmy says to me, ‘Hank, can you tee me for what I’m thinking?’

“I said, ‘No Jimmy, I can’t tee you for what you’re thinking.”

“And he says, ‘Okay then, I think you suck.’ I had to let him go. It was too good a line to tee him up for.”

Richmond controls the game until a flurry of missed free throws in the closing minutes makes it close. The Spiders finally win, 82–75, after a drawn-out last few minutes.

“I didn’t think it would ever end,” Clougherty says.

“Tom Young never quits,” Foxcroft answers.

Forte has his head buried in the rule book, still trying to prove he is right about the deflected three-point shot. He is well on his way to losing his second argument of the night. No matter really. He is happy with the game.

“Last night, when I looked at the tape of Villanova–Georgetown I noticed that when I was in the center position I was much too close to the play. I was so close on a couple of plays the kids could have passed me the ball. Tonight, I backed off. It was better.”

He is back in Washington by midnight.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.