Here’s something that you don’t see every day.
In the second half of No. 24 Florida State’s win over No. 12 North Carolina, Joel Berry II, UNC’s senior all-american point guard and the reigning Final Four MOP, was blatantly held during a fast break. The hold resulted in a turnover, and as you might expect, Berry was not happy a foul wasn’t called.
As he scooped up the ball and went to go speak to Ted Valentine, known as TV Teddy on the internet, Valentine quite literally turned his back on Berry. Watch this:
Joel Berry gets held, which leads to a turnover (easy call to miss in transition, BUT) Ted Valentine then refuses to engage Berry in conversation, literally turning his back to him. pic.twitter.com/q8jxDtVhFC
— Hayes Permar (@DHPIV) January 4, 2018
If you talk to coaches in the sport, Valentine is one of the most respected officials in the college game. He generally gets calls right, he’s willing to hear out what they have to say and, most importantly, he’s not affected by a home crowd getting on him or someone like Coach K or Tom Izzo jabbering in his ear for two hours.
But that doesn’t excuse this.
Not when it is very easy to see that Valentine and his crew totally blew a call that resulted in a turnover in a game that the Tar Heels lost by a single point.
Berry had a legitimate beef and should be as respected as any player in the sport.
What Valentine did here was wrong, and while you cannot say that he cost UNC the game - the way possessions play out down the stretch are determined by the score, and if the score was different it would have played out differently - he, at the very least, owes Berry an apology.