Hi All,
I am a long time lurker (over a decade) who has never posted before. Thank you all for making this site such a valuable resource. I am posting for the first time today because I am so bothered about the end of last night's game- not the bad call but the lie that followed.
Here is the letter I wrote to Val Ackerman, Stu Jackson, and John Cahill this morning.
I feel what happened in last night's game is important and both should never happen again, and must be honestly and publicly explained by the Big East. After thinking over the issue for a night I actually feel it is a far bigger issue than a simple bad call. I don't really care that Michael Stephens blew the original play. That happens and is part of sports and being a fan (although that game was hugely important for St John's), but I am deeply offended he lied about it to cover up his mistake. I care that the lie was accepted by the other refs, and that in their official statement after the game the Big East regurgitated the lie with 0 critical thought.
First, I think we can all acknowledge the ref(s) lied. To debunk the absurdity of the lie takes 10 seconds of critical thinking. If my 7 year-old told me a lie that bad I would tell him his lie is too stupid to be believed, and that the thought-process behind the lie isn't worthy of a 4 year old.
But here is the really important part. I am sick of being lied to. Our biggest companies lie to us all the time, and most importantly our President and the government he leads lie to us all the time. This has to stop and I refuse to become unfazed by constant lies. The truth is important and should be defended, even if it means making a referee look bad. Admitting lies and correcting the narrative is important, not so we can get a better understanding of how a basketball team got screwed, but in and of itself. The truth should be worked for at all times, whether you are a tech company, the President, an athletic conference, a citizen, or a referee. It should also never be too late to tell the truth.
So what do I want? I don't want anybody fired/suspended. They are probably good refs who screwed up and acted like morons because they knew they blew it. I guess it happens, and I hope they learn from their mistakes. But I do want the mistakes admitted. From the first bad whistle to the lies and cover-up what happened should be publicly explained. I want refs to know (and for that matter everybody in the entire world) that mistakes are OK but lies are not. I want the Big East to set an example of honesty and integrity, to be better than our society where lies and lying have become a way of life.