oru assistant coach needs a hug.

Sources tell me one of ORU's men's basketball assistant coaches wasn't happy with the clock management in the closing moments of the ORU-IUPUI game Saturday night.

As Robert Jarvis' potentially game-winning three-point attempt missed and players fought for the rebound, the ball trickled out of bounds along the baseline as time expired. The clock went to zeros, the horn sounded and the officials blew their whistles.

Game over, right?

Well...

As the teams lined up to shake hands, ORU assistant coach Conley Phipps turned to the clock operator and tersely said, "you know you're supposed to stop the clock only on the official's whistle...did you know that?"

The tone of his remarks, sources say, would suggest Phipps thinks ORU got "homered" by an exuberant clock operator.

Independent video replay (i.e. - ME WITH MY DVR!) confirmed the ball rolled out of bounds with 0:0.8 seconds remaining on the clock.

HOWEVER... To Phipps' point about the official's whistle: the underneath official (Bill Neketis, I think) was on top of the play and blew his whistle as time expired on the clock. His whistle blew a fraction of a second before the final horn sounded. None of the officials requested a video review of the play. Referee Lamont Simpson signaled the game was over and that was that.

It's also worth noting my video review also indicates Neketis signaled possession was to IUPUI, not ORU (but then appears to point possession to ORU). While the TV replay doesn't fully show who knocked the ball out of bounds--IUPUI's Jon Avery and ORU's Marcello Vealy both scrambled for the loose ball--it appeared Vealy last touched it. I'm not saying he did, but it certainly appears he may have touched it last.

But this all conjecture. Lest we forget, the officials have the last word, Coach Phipps. It is not for the table crew to determine the outcome of the game. While your frustration at dropping a tough road game in the conference is certainly appreciated, your flip remarks to the crew was bush league.