Dan Scott: Oliver Purnell Interview |
Following is a partial transcript of Dan Scott's interview with Oliver Purnell this morning on 104.9 FM, The Drive. Here Purnell speaks specifically on the controversy surrounding the end of the 68-66 loss to Duke Thursday night. The full audio will be available soon. DS: I'm going to be as blatant with you as I can with this question, and I know you have to be careful about what you can and can't say, but the fans here who watched on TV, and the fans who were wearing orange at Cameron last night, walked away feeling they had gotten jobbed. What was the feeling of the players and coaches? OP: I was asked the question right after the game, and of course we had not seen the tape or any of the clock stoppages, and had to rely on the officials to get the time back on the clock and so on and so forth. So my response after the game was that I have no proof it was handled wrongly. So since I have no proof it was handled wrongly I have no complaints. I feel differently about it this morning because I've had a chance to study the tape, I've had a chance to speak with the league office - mainly John Clougherty (head of officials for the ACC) - about the whole situation and clearly there were errors made. So I don't feel the same about it (today), but at the same time I do feel the same in that we've got to move on. Nothing is going to change in terms of the outcome, and clearly that's the most significant thing as far as we're concerned - trying to move on from that tough loss and bouncing back at home against Virginia... I wouldn't use the word 'jobbed,' because that would indicate that lost the game for us and I really don't feel that way. But I do feel we were denied an opportunity to take the game into overtime, and who knows what would have happened at that point. But clearly there were mistakes made. The league office has acknowledged that, and that's where we are. But as far as we're concerned as a coaching staff as soon as we see our players that's over. We've got to move forward and try to get the next one in this topsy turvy ACC. DS: You say the league acknowledged mistakes were made. Protocol - Did you file some sort of formal complaint with the league and will they issue some sort of public statement saying mistakes were made? Or was it just a private conversation done unofficially between you and John Clougherty? OP: I called John on the issue after I saw it last night. We didn't talk until this morning and it really wasn't necessary to talk until this morning. The league...they generally handle those things internally and they'll probably have a statement on that. But I think they're still reviewing it and talking about it in terms of what to do about it. From my standpoint you can't change the outcome, so let's move on. But they're still talking about it and will be making some kind of statement or taking some kind of action at some point. DS: As a coaching staff when did you know you were going to be defending 4.4 seconds instead of 1.8, or 2.4 or whatever it should have been? OP: We had some sense when Vernon hit the shot and the clock kept running that there would be more time on the clock. We didn't know exactly how much. The official indicated they were going to the monitor, there would be more time on the clock, and they would let us know. So probably halfway through our timeout they came over and said it was 4.4., or whatever it was, on the clock. So that's when we knew. Again, we had some idea there would be some time on the clock. The thing of course that's different about the whole situation is there's a difference between 4.4 and 2.6 or 2.4. A two-second differential when you've got to go the length of the floor, that's a totally different situation. DS: Is this another reason to take the instant replay system and chunk it in the river? I mean they've got the information there, they've got a chance to rectify it, and they don't. OP: Well, no because I think it goes a little bit deeper than that. What they looked at, I don't think they looked at enough. When I said errors made, and that's what I believe, you had errors made; you had the scorer's table, you had the officials maybe not taking it back far enough and all of those things. So no, I don't think so. I think the instant replay situation, or looking at the clock to correct errors or make sure there's enough time on the clock probably keeps a lot more mistakes from being made. In this case it did not happen, and again the league is continuing to look at what errors were made and what, if anything, they'll do about.
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