On the front page of CNN:

investors continue to worry that the government's efforts to slow the recession won't be sufficient.

More likely, Americans continue to worry that the government's efforts to slow the recession will make things worse.

If you have not heard of the Duke lacrosse rape case, let me urge you to find out more about it. It would be a waste of my time to explain the case as it has been done thoroughly at other blogs. Start by reading Robert KC Johnson's case narrative, and continue with basically any and every other post he has made there. Also see John in North Carolina's blog for more people who have responded in impressive and rare fashion to the false charges, incompetent law enforcement, and flat out lies that are disgustingly common in this case.

Johnson has followed the case extremely closely from the start, primarily because he was so disgusted by the behavior of some Duke faculty members known as the "Group of 88". He is meticulous, incredibly well researched, thorough, honest, honorable, and tenacious. I almost would say that I would not like to see KC as my opponent in an argument, but really, the opposite is true. KC is exactly the kind of rival any person of integrity would want. In short, he is exactly the kind person those without integrity would shiver in fear at.

He has exposed shameful behavior of many throughout this case. He has eviscerated Durham district attorney Mike Nifong, the Group of 88, the Durham police, the DNA testers, protesters at Duke holding up signs saying "castrate" those who should be presumed (and are very likely) innocent. KC has also given out well deserved pats on the back to many others, including the student run newspaper The Chronicle, taxi driver Moezeldin Elmostafa (who corroborated an alibi for one of the accused), members of the Duke economics department, and Duke law professor James Coleman.

If you were watching the Duke-Clemson game on Thursday night, you might think Duke got away with one they didn't deserve. You'd be right, but you'd be wrong if you thought it was the first time that had happened.

Against Clemson, the timekeeper did not start the clock when an errant inbounds pass was picked up, meaning that the 4.4 seconds when the shot went through was way too much time. There really should have been 3.5 or so seconds, which would have made Duke's winning shot far too late.

Additionally, the referees did not tell Clemson they were adjusting the clock from 1.8 seconds to 4.4 until just before the play started, leading to Clemson playing more aggressively on the inbound pass and possibly assisting Duke's win.

What is all the more shocking is that Virginia lost a game to Duke in 1997 because of a clock error that was corrected in a different manner. The timekeeping mistake at Clemson differed from the Virginia mistake in that the Clemson (Duke) timekeeper's mistake was only corrected by looking at the time when the shot passed through the basket, giving Duke more time. The Virginia mistake was corrected by timing the entire play and subtracting that from the original time on the clock, giving Virginia less time.

In that 1997 game, Duke tied the game with 11 seconds left when Jeff Capel hit the first of 2 free throws, missing the second. A long pass went to Norman Nolan, ahead of everyone to the Duke basket. He was close enough not even needing to dribble for what would have been a sure layup, but a Duke player got back just barely and fouled him hard enough that he missed the shot. (ALMOST an intentional foul.)

Norman went to the line for two foul shots. He missed the first shot, and Willie Dersch went to the scorer's table to sub in. The ref waved him in, and he made a shooting motion, indicating that he would be coming in for the shooter, Norman. The strategy was to force the game to pause for a few seconds so Virginia could set their defense.

Norman's second shot hit the front of the rim, and barely rolled over and in, leading to the crowd yelling as loudly as they had all night. The timekeeper blew the horn for the officials to allow the substitute in, but they couldn't hear it. The officials gave the ball to Duke, who inbounded to Steve Wojciechowski, who dribbled down through incredulous Virginia players Harold Deane and Norman (and even Dersch, standing with his arms wide in amazement) who were yelling that the sub was supposed to come in.

The clock did not run until Wojo was practically at half court. Wojo drove in and was fouled by Norman during a shot. When the referees (Hartzell, Steed, and Higgins) huddled to sort out the mess, they decided that there were two errors, only one of which was correctable. Despite the fact that one official had waved the sub in, and knew a sub was coming in after the shot, they denied that they could correct that error. The only error to fix was the time on the clock, which when timed by hand put just over a second on the clock (which ended up screwing Virginia even further).

The refs put 0.7 seconds on the clock and Nolan missed a hail mary after Steve Wojo hit two free throws. Duke won by a point.

It really wasn't a time-keepers mistake, since the clock operator was blowing the horn for the substitution. It was a referee's mistake, which they denied until they watched the tape the next day. ACC commissioner Gene Corrigan suspended all 3 for a game later in the season.

In both games is that the officials did not correct, or were not given the leeway to correct the mistake in a fair fashion. The integrity of the game should be the foremost concern. Admitting an "error", (which the ACC also did for the Clemson-Duke game, but just shrugging it off because it is "uncorrectable" makes the officials have active influence on the game, rather than attempting to be impartial observers with a duty to make things right.

Thanks to Peavine Hoolow on http://www.thesabre.com basketball message board for a couple details I had forgotten.

I've been a daily reader of James Lileks for years. While he's very entertaining, and I'm a big fan despite the fact that he thinks Hugh Hewitt is the bees knees, most days you can replace his bleat with a Shorter James Lileks:

"It has been a long Monday yet again. Took the dog to school, walked the kid. Hopefully you forgot when I said yesterday that something Very Interesting happened, and that I would tell you about it today, because I won't. And boy howdy do I wish I still lived in Fargo. Or Arizona. Same thing. Really. Anyways, sorry for the length of the bleat, I have nine columns the length of War an Peace to write, so it's a short one today: (Insert three thousand words about ordering bad chinese food here).

Just how bad is Duke?

Virginia, which to put it mildly has looked terrible this season, dominated Duke in every phase of the game, winning 37-0. After three quarters, Duke had 39 yards, the longest drive nine yards. Midway through the first quarter, Duke coach Ted Roof made his quarterback and center practice snaps! After a bye week they don't have snaps down?!? They never got past the Virginia 41. Virginia blocked a punt, had another long punt return, and intercepted three passes, one of which was returned for a touchdown.

The Virginia defense looked solid even considering the competition. On the other hand I can't give the offense much credit. A touchdown on a trick play, a touchdown on an interception, a one yard touchdown drive, a touchdown against scrubs in the final minute. The longest drive against the Duke first team was 31 yards.

I was pretty embarrassed about the Georgia Tech game, because finally the entire country could see just how bad we were. Our running game without Jason Snelling is terrible. None of our quarterbacks are able to sustain drives. Before the Duke game, they had thrown more touchdowns to the opposing team than to their own. The scoring offense is ranked 100th, the rushing offense next to last in division I-A (thank goodness for Temple!), the passing offense 94th.

Yet neither the running backs nor the quarterbacks are the biggest problem.

During one typical play against Duke, we double teamed a defensive end with a guard and tackle while Tom Santi took the other DE with body language of "am I supposed to be blocking?" Led to a sack. I don't expect perfection, but when we're not even sure who blocks who, that's a problem. This confusion seems to be happening on nearly every play. Against Western Michigan, Kevin Mccabe took a three step drop and was hit as he threw! The whole point of the short drop is to get rid of the ball quickly, yet he was hit almost immediately.

What happened to the offensive line? We lost three long time starters, two of whom were drafted. But Jordy Lipsey, Eugene Monroe, and Branden Albert were all highly heralded recruits. Ian Yates Cunningham has experience at two positions. The new offensive line coach has brought a new scheme with him. Dave Borbely has gotten praise from insiders for his knowledge of the game, but it hasn't rubbed off on his players yet. Lipsey has had a hard time keeping his weight up, Monroe dislocated a kneecap in the spring and hasn't fully recovered.

The offensive line is by far the biggest problem on the team. If it doesn't improve, we're staring a 2-10 season right in the face.

The Hoos have the rest of October to try and become the worst bowl team in NCAA history. If we beat East Carolina, Maryland, North Carolina, and NC State, that's six wins and a sure bowl. Personally, I think 2-2 is more likely, and staying home with a 4-8 record.

Has there ever been a bowl team with a triple digit ranked offense? (Comedy 1992 Alabama answer.)

Are ACC basketball awards biased? Specifically, are they biased against Virginia? I've taken a look back at a few situations where Virginia fans complain of unfair treatment.

Should Norman Nolan have been first team all-ACC as a senior in 1998?

Nolan was the best offensive threat on a lousy team. Did he get passed over because Virginia doesn't have much basketball prestige? I checked his stats once, and they compared well with Cherokee Parks' senior year (21 points and 9 rebounds for Nolan vs. 19 and 9 for Parks). Duke finished last in the ACC in Parks' senior year (1995), and Virginia finished last in Nolan's senior year (1998). Neither made first team all ACC. As seniors, Parks received the eighth most votes, and Nolan received the sixth most for all ACC selection. (All lists and statistics from http://www.sportsstats.com/bball )

95 1st 1 340 *Joe Smith. MARY
95 1st 2 331 Jerry Stackhouse, UNC
95 1st 3 325 Randolph Childress, WFU
95 1st 4 308 Tim Duncan, WFU
95 1st 5 296 Rasheed Wallace, UNC
95 2nd 6 289 Travis Best, GT
95 2nd 7 225 Bob Sura, FSU
95 2nd 8 219 Cherokee Parks, DUKE
95 2nd 9 193 Harold Deane, VIRG
95 2nd 10 155 Todd Fuller, NCSU
95 3rd 11 150 Junior Burrough, VIRG
95 3rd 12 124 James Forrest, GT
95 3rd 13 107 Johnny Rhodes, MARY
95 3rd 14 65 Jeff McInnis, UNC
95 3rd 15 43 James Collins, FSU

Smith and Duncan were #1 overall NBA draft choices, while Wallace, Sura, and Stackhouse have been reasonably successful as pros. Best and Childress were both great college guards, seniors who led their teams to a share of the ACC title. It's hard to put Parks any higher than where he was.

98  1st  1   345 *Antawn Jamison, UNC    **UNANIMOUS** 115 1stteam votes
98  1st  2   343 Matt Harpring, GT                     113
98  1st  3   292 Vince Carter, UNC                      70
98  1st  4   287 Trajan Langdon, DUKE                   68
98  1st  5   282 Roshown McLeod, DUKE                   70
98  2nd  6   274 Norman Nolan, VIRG                     57
98  2nd  7   207 Ed Cota, UNC                           33
98  2nd  8   202 Shammond Williams, UNC                 14
98  2nd  9   185 C.C. Harrison, NCSU                    11
98  2nd  10  167 Greg Buckner, CLEM                     10

In 1998 the ACC clearly wasn't as strong as in 1995, but there were several very good players. Jamison was a force for UNC, Harpring was an all around great hustling player who carried several Yellow Jacket teams on his shoulders. Vince Carter was coming into his own as a dominant physical presence. 1998 15-1 ACC Champs Duke had two very good players fill out the team. Nolan just missed the first team.

Comparing Nolan's situation to Parks', they both just missed the first team, Parks by a little more because of the strength of the conference that year. I can only conclude that Nolan was not overlooked because of his school.

Was Junior Burrough unfairly left off the 1995 All ACC first team?

Who would you move below him? Burroughs suffered because, again, the ACC was loaded in 95. Virginia had its deepest team perhaps ever, eight or nine deep quality players. Burrough's stats were comparable to Stackhouse's (18 and 9 compared to 19 and 8), and he shot very well (50%). Maybe put him ahead of Best since GT was only 8-8 in conference. And Rasheed only averaged 16 and 8, though he was clearly an exceptional talent. There would still be seven players ahead of Burrough that year, one of whom was his own teammate. I can't see a compelling argument for putting Burrough ahead of any of the other seven players.

Was Harold Deane the true ACC Tournament MVP in 1994?

Ok, I don't hear this one that much. Mainly because it's my own argument.

In 1994 Virginia started out horribly. Cory Alexander broke his foot in the first game, and true freshman Deane had to take over the point. The team couldn't shoot at all, the offense frequently consisted of throwing up a shot with the hope of putting in the rebound.

In the tournament, Harold absolutely picked up the team on his shoulders and took UVa to the finals. We lost that game to the defending national champs by basically one play. Cornel Parker passed to Jason Williford who nailed a wide open three... but Parker was called for a charge. No basket, UNC ball, five point swing. A scrub hit a layup at the buzzer for the final margin of eight.

Jerry Stackhouse was voted MVP, and is obviously the least deserving ACC tourney MVP winner of all time. His 15.7 PPG are the least of any winner since 1987, his 6.7 RPG are less than any non-guard winner since Len Bias with 6.0 in 1984, he averaged less than two assists per game, and he only hit TWELVE FIELD GOALS THE ENTIRE TOURNAMENT.

Yes, you read right, the ACC tourney MVP in 1994 averaged one field goal per ten minutes of game time. He was voted MVP because he hit 23 out of 29 free throws. He won simply because he was the high scorer on an absolutely loaded team, while Harold took a team that could not shoot AT ALL to the finals practically by himself (everyone remembers Jamal Robinson had a good tourney, too).

THAT one is Highway robbery.

I've posted a preview of Virginia Football 2006.

Question: If a man had shot his sleeping wife in the back and killed her, taken his children and fled, admitted it to multiple law enforcement officers, and lost $17,000 to Nigerian scammers, would he still be able to make bail?



Of course, that's a joke, because not in a million years would he be offered bail.

Prediction: For her next trick, Mary Winkler will throw herself on the mercy of the court on account that she is a widow.