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Referee Tony Greene speaks with SI about end of Duke-Syracuse game

Syracuse v Duke

during their game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on February 22, 2014 in Durham, North Carolina. Duke won 66-60.

Grant Halverson

The ejection seen ‘round the world happened on Saturday night, as Jim Boeheim lost his mind over a call, got himself tossed and then became a meme.

All in a day’s work, I guess.

What was lost in the madness of Boeheim’s overreaction, however, was whether or not the right call was actually made.

Seth Davis os SI.com got the official who called a charge on C.J. Fair on the phone on Sunday night, and while Greene would not discuss whether or not the call that was made was correct, he did have this to say:

He did, however, tell me that he and his partners, Roger Ayers and Jamie Luckie, watched video of the play on an iPad in the officials’ locker room immediately afterward. When I asked Greene if he felt better after seeing the video, he replied, “Oh yes, absolutely.”

It was also interesting to hear Greene explain what was going through his mind as the pivotal sequence began. “I’m one of those guys who expects the unexpected,” he said. “I knew there’s not much time left, and that they were most likely going go to C.J. Fair, who’s not really a three-point shooter. You figure he’s going to go to the basket, so you prepare yourself. You’re thinking, how am I going to adjudicate what’s about to happen based on the rules?”


Working as a referee is not the easiest job in the world.

Whenever there is a close call to be made, there is going to be a fan base that ends up hating you after the final whistle. If he had called a block on Rodney Hood instead of calling a charge on Fair, Duke fans may not have let him leave Cameron.