Duke head coach Jon Scheyer gracefully handled his team’s 69-62 overtime loss to Virginia on Saturday after the officials called — then reviewed and waved off — a foul that would have sent leading scorer Kyle Filipowski to the line in regulation with a chance to win the game. In his first public comments since the dust settled over the weekend, however, Scheyer was more forceful in his response to the sequence, insisting the bungled handling by the officiating crew was not acceptable.
“I’m angry still,” Scheyer said Monday on the ACC’s weekly conference call. “I’d be I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t. Saturday was a disappointing outcome. All of us saw the ACC release. I respect them for pointing it out. I respect them for acknowledging it. Obviously doesn’t change the outcome that our guys didn’t get the opportunity to earn a win.”
The ACC admitted last Saturday night that its officiating crew made a mistake by waving off the foul following a review at the end of regulation. In a press release, the league office said the sequence was incorrectly adjudicated and that Filipowski should have been awarded two free throws with the game tied at 58.
“The Atlantic Coast Conference, upon review of the final play of regulation during the Duke at Virginia men’s basketball game, has announced an incorrect adjudication of the playing rules,” the ACC’s statement said. “A foul was called on Virginia’s Ryan Dunn during a shot attempt by Duke’s Kyle Filipowski as time expired. Upon the officials’ review of the play, it was determined that the foul committed occurred after the clock reached 0.0. However, the play should have resulted in two free throws for Duke.”
Scheyer after the game was more confused than upset over what happened on the final play in regulation that seemingly set Duke up to win with free throws before the call was reversed and the game was sent to overtime. The officiating crew informed him that the call was made “after the buzzer,” but he admitted he was unclear on exactly what the rule was. Mainly, he sought clarity, which he got with the ACC admitting it goofed up.
“You can’t get a rule wrong like that,” said Scheyer. “So I hate it for our guys. Obviously, there’s a lot of season left to play. We have to move on and get ready for Notre Dame (Tuesday) night. But it was really disappointing. I feel for guys with that happening. In addition, not getting clarification, or not getting transparency after the game of why that rule is called or how you could overturn that. So for me, it’s not okay.”
The aftermath of the loss has been equally as bad for Duke. Not only did the botched ending likely cost the Blue Devils a road win — which would have been a great Quad 1 win for their résumé — but it bumped them down to a No. 7 seed in the latest Bracketology from CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm while improving Virginia’s postseason standing from a No. 3 seed to a No. 2 seed.
