North Florida was hosting Tennessee Tech on Monday night and the Ospreys probably wanted to throw down some dunks in pregame warm-ups to get fired up and pump up the home crowd.
Turns out dunking before the game was a game-changing decision:
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UNF assessed an administrative technical foul for a dunk during pregame warmups // TTU will shoot FTs prior to opening tipoff
— UNF Men's Basketball (@OspreyMBB) December 16, 2014
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Torrance Rowe hits both FTs so TTU leads 2-0 prior to tip // Ball is tossed and UNF gets the ball
— UNF Men's Basketball (@OspreyMBB) December 16, 2014
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Most of the time these administrative technical fouls don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. Except Tennessee Tech ended up winning the game 82-80 over the Ospreys on Monday night. Turns out those two points before opening tip actually meant the difference in a game that was tied 80-80 over the course of 40 minutes of play.
If you’re curious about the rule that North Florida broke, it’s Section 4, Class B, Article 1e of the NCAA rule book. A technical foul should be given for the following: “A team member dunking or attempting to dunk a dead ball before or during the game, or during any intermission.”
After a great road win at Purdue, this is an awful way to lose for North Florida. This sounds like a dumb rule, but it’s probably even worse to break it and lose by two points after a pregame technical foul cost was the point differential the game.
And for the record, the pregame technical foul isn’t the main reason North Florida lost. The Ospreys led 41-32 at the half and allowed Tennessee Tech to score 50 points in the second half on 60 percent shooting.
(H/T: ESPN Stats & Info)