Tuesday night against Indiana St. towards the end of the game, there was a nice outlet by Justin Carter to P’Allen Stinnett and he went in for a dunk…..and he held on to it for a little longer than he should have. Yep, he got a Technical Foul called. Now there has been some discussion on the Bluejay Cafe about whether the technical should have been called and then even some went on to say how they are tired of P’Allen getting technical fouls all together.
First off, I thought the call should have been a no-call. Seriously. It was toward the end of the game with under a minute to go, the game was pretty much decided, the player was on his own home court, and it was something in the game for the fans to get excited about. Yes, it probably was a right call, but I don’t agree with it and believe me if it was in the ACC or SEC or some other large conference school in the same situation, that would have been a no call and let go. But I believe some of these referees love the opportunity to call a technical foul.
So far in his career, P’Allen has gotten himself 7 technical fouls. Thanks to our friends at Statsheet, P’Allen leads the nation in Technical Fouls in his two seasons along with Chas McFarland from Wake Forest. Both with 7 in their career. This season though, Robin Smeulders from Portland and Darnell Hugee from Prairie View A&M lead the way with 5 and 4 technicals respectively.
Below are when P’Allen’s technicals have been called and the referees involved:
Click to see this better
As you can tell, of the 7 Technicals called on P’Allen, there are 3 referees that are on there twice in the past two seasons. Let’s take a look at these guys a little more.
Paul Janssen–Janssen has called the most Creighton’s games (12) the past two seasons leading the way last season with 8 games. This year is 3rd on the list calling 4 games. Mr. Janssen is probably the most familiar with P’Allen and in his the last two games he was a referee in a Creighton game in 07-08, he called a technical foul on P’Allen. This season, Janssen has called the Nebraska, @Illinois St., Dayton and Wichita St home games this season.
Gerry Pollard–This guy is a piece of work. Last season Pollard called 6 Creighton games. This season only 1. The one game this season was the Northern Iowa game. Pollard must have had his fill of P’Allen last season and took the opportunity to have his crew call the game a little close and gave P’Allen a T for what I remember was a double technical, but an unnecessary one. But also, Pollard has a tendency to be quick with that whistle as he ranks 3rd in the country this season on assessing technical fouls. He is also the guy who kicked Greggggg Marshall out of the game in St. Louis at the MVC tournament last season.
David Hall–Has refereed 10 of Creighton’s games over the past two seasons including the Indiana St. game the other night. @Evansville, Southern Illinois andthe New Mexico were the other games. He has to be a tired guy as he does mostly Missouri Valley Conference and Pac-10 games including calling a game out at Oregon St. the night before. He has been kind of on a roll lately calling 4 technical fouls in the last 9 games.
Janssen, Pollard and Hall called the most games for the Jays last season so they are quite familiar with P’Allen Stinnett. Unfortunately, that may be a bad thing when it comes to this season and beyond. I think P has done a lot better job keeping some of his emotions in check this season, but I’m afraid that first impressions have stuck in the minds of these three referees. Then with Tom Eades and Rick Hartzell who are tied for 4th in games called with the Jays this season (with 3 each)have been part of crews this season where a technical was called on Stinnett, the road becomes a slippery slope. What is disppointing is that even though P’Allen may mature as a person and a player over the next few years, referees may be still quick to T-up Mr. Stinnett due to the past and first impressions. Referees hate to be shown up, so there is a difference between making a nice play and showboating to the refs.
But here is one last thing to look at. Other than the technical called in Vegas and the MVC tournament, all of the technicals have been called on the home court at the Qwest Center. And really you could lump the other two together as a “home” game because of the large amount of Creighton fans at both of those games. P’Allen is just trying to create energy for the fans and get them involved. There is nothing better for a home team than to have the fans excited and into the game. It wouldn’t surprise me that the things P’Allen does to get him technicals are ways to create fan energy…things that are lacking at times at the Qwest Center. P will dunk and make a face for the camera to get people excited because that is what people want to see. What better than to get a controversial call or a technical to get the fans all worked up and into the game to create havoc not only for the referees, but to the opposing team? Yes, that dunk and tech on Tuesday night was towards the end of the game, but did you see the reaction of the crowd and energy that was missing for most of that game? If P’Allen was getting technical fouls on the road, then I would pull back this theory. Whether it hurts the team as a whole, I don’t know if that is the case yet. But at this point, P’Allen is just being P’Allen. Would you rather he not show any emotion? His up and down gameplay would be the thing I would be more concerned about. But that is for another day.
Bluejay Basketball 
Ok, agree with this post especially the comments made towards the end. Last year we chalked up some of the fouls and t’s to a fiery and inexperienced freshman P. I like a player that shows emotion and play with his heart on his sleeve the way P did last year. However, this year has been a lot calmer for P. With exception of the face making and all of maybe 5 or 6 jams for P and 2 really good games, the emotion has not been there. I am just hoping someone or something didn’t try to change him too much. Let him play, show emotion and do his thing. If he wasn’t on such a tight leash, I guarantee he would be Valley player of the year hands down, as predicted.
Sorry but basketball is supposed to be a team sport. “Do’in his own thing” is not basketball but tends towards that other game, somewhat related, played in the NBA. Personally, I would not walk across the street to see such a game. Unfortunately, many view the NBA as the height of BB when it is in truth far from the way BB ought to be played.
A rough quote from the best BB player CU ever had, Paul Silas, had him over-hearing his team (NBA coach) crowing about how they did not have to run a single play all night. And Silas commenting upon this attitude with something like “You die a little each night.” Or words to that effect.
P’ Allen could rebound and defend with the best if he put his mind to it seriously. Let’s hope that he concentrates on the entire game and really buys into the teamwork nature of CU BB.