From: jb118@prism.gatech.EDU (Jeffrey N. Burch)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.college
Subject: Laettner-Timberlake
Date: 18 Aug 92 20:27:52 GMT
Organization: Georgia Tech Research Institute -- EOL

In article <4649@news.duke.edu> trradrx@canctr.mc.duke.edu writes:
>In article <1992Aug18.172951.6393@nsisrv.gsfc.nasa.gov>, oday@lobster.gsfc.nasa.gov (Orin Day) writes:
>>You are correct, sir.  And nobody has mentioned Timberlake's chest
>>apologizing to Laettner's foot!!
>
>You know, I recently viewed the Duke-Kentucky classic again, and I noticed
>something interesting right before the Laettner two-step.  Kentucky had the
>ball, shot, missed and made a basket on the rebound.  During this play, after
>the first missed shot, Richie Farmer violently shoved Laettner out of bounds,
>and then quickly ran back up court.  In the meantime, Mr. Timberlake had 
>rushed over to Laettner, pointing at him and apparently yelling at him.  Then 
>he ran away.  Two plays later, Laettner stomped him after the foul.  

Laettner claimed, however, that he had been manhandled by Timberlake 
earlier, just before the stomp.  I too have the tape, and I checked the
10 previous possessions prior to the stomp, and I couldn't see anything
physical between them.  

I'll check the tape again tonight to see about Farmer, but something about
it sounds fishy.  Richie is listed at 6' but everyone who has seen him
(including my brother-in-law) says that he is at best 5' 10".  For him to 
be able to shove a 6' 11", much much heavier Laettner out of bounds by
himself, violently or no, sounds a little incredible.

>  Now, it seems that Laettner thought Timberlake had shoved him earlier, a
>reasonable conclusion since he had been blindsided by Farmer and Timberlake
>was the one standing over him when he got up.  So he decided to teach the
>freshman a lesson, and he got caught.

Even if true, since he got the wrong man, it is a case in point for
avoiding this.  Everyone seems to think that Timberlake wasn't hurt too
much since he started applauding and stood right up, but anyone was has
ever had this happen to him (blush!) knows that you can feel it.

>  This of course does not excuse Laettner for the stomp, and he certainly
>deserved the technical.  But it does explain why he did it, and he 
>certainly had an excuse.  I'm sure that Laettner was throwing elbows the whole
>game, and the shove may have been retaliation for some earlier bumps.  It's
>just that Laettner got caught.

Right.  Actually, since Kentucky got only one point from their technical
free throws, and Laettner wasn't in serious foul trouble, it was mostly
a tempest in a teapot rather than the critical play of the game.  

But then again, Kentucky only lost by one, didn't they.  :-)
One of the greatest NCAA games ever...

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^  Dr. J(effrey Neil Burch)                 jb118@prism.gatech.edu    ^
^  Georgia Tech Research Institute                                    ^ 
^  Electro-Optics and Physical Sciences Laboratory                    ^
^  Atlanta, Ga.                                                       ^
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