From: jb118@prism.gatech.EDU (Jeffrey N. Burch)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.college
Subject: Re: Laettner-Timberlake
Date: 20 Aug 92 22:07:33 GMT
Organization: Georgia Tech Research Institute -- EOL

In article <1992Aug20.103106.18550@dg-rtp.dg.com> foerster@dg-rtp.dg.com writes:
>In article <4673@news.duke.edu>, trradrx@canctr.mc.duke.edu (R.CLOUGH) writes:
>|> In article <55766@olivea.atc.olivetti.com>, rsmith@strobe.ATC.Olivetti.Com (Russ Smith) writes:
>|> >A "physical game"? Since when is stepping on a fallen player intentionally
>|> >considered a physical play? It was a cheap shot, plain and simple. 
>|>
>|>   Perhaps the wrong term.  My point was that the Kentucky player issued a 
>|> cheap shot as well, blindsiding Laettner and knocking him out of bounds.
>
>I still have a "real" problem believing little Richie Farmer (all 5'11" of him)
>could do any type of physical damage to Christian Laettner no matter what the 
>situation (pause) unless of course Laettner was laying on the floor and little
>Richie stomped on him (rimshot!!!!!)

Bob Clough indicated in a followup that it might have been Deron Feldhaus.
It was.  I watched the tape again a couple of days ago and here is what I
observed.

It was 2 or 3 possessions before the Laettner stomp.  Mashburn got the 
ball in the corner and put up a three, which he made.  As the ball was
in the air, both Duke and Kentucky players started lining up to go for
a potential rebound.  Laettner stood at a point almost under the basket, 
and Feldhaus ran to a position about 2-3 feet behind him (Laettner
didn't see this).  

Both men "planted" themselves to jump for the rebound, and Feldhaus put
his hand on Christian's back (it looked like he was trying to steady
himself or get support.  No foul yet, though).  Feldhaus timed himself
to jump for a rebound, but Mashburn's shot went in.  Feldhaus, instead
of stopping, did give Christian a shove to the back, but it was with
one arm, as both men stood flat footed, and Deron couldn't have been 
more than 1.5 feet from him, so it didn't seem possible to me he could
have gotten much leverage.  Further, Feldhaus is about 4 inches shorter
than Laettner, and about 20 or 30 pounds lighter.  But a push it was.

Laettner went flying about 8 feet (rolling into the backboard support
and into the arms of a referee), which seemed all out of proportion
to the power Feldhaus could've delivered.  I imagine that coaches
encourage players to go flying when they are fouled (or think they
are fouled), to be sure the ref notices.   This time, though, there
were two refs who were looking right at it, one who was beside Mashburn
and was looking right at the hoop, and the ref underneath the basket
who actually caught Laettner and helped him up.  Neither of these
guys called anything.  Timberlake stood on the line to guard the
inbound pass from Christian, but I couldn't tell if he was doing
any woofing or not (his back was towards the camera).  It is hard
to see how Laettner could've had any idea who shoved him.

At the least, Feldhaus deserved a warning from the ref, and at worst,
perhaps a foul.  But since the refs must've seen this, and called
nothing, I suppose they figured it wasn't any worse than anything
else they'd seen under the basket.  It didn't impress me as a cheap
shot the way the Laettner stomp was (although granted he didn't step
all that hard).

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^  Dr. J(effrey Neil Burch)                 jb118@prism.gatech.edu    ^
^  Georgia Tech Research Institute                                    ^ 
^  Electro-Optics and Physical Sciences Laboratory                    ^ 
^  Atlanta, Ga.                                                       ^ 
^  30332           In Kentucky, a pervert is defined as someone who   ^ 
^  404-894-3628         likes sex better than UK basketball.          ^
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Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.college