FanPost

Proof CJ's called charge was IN FACT A BLOCK!

After re-watching the monumental play over and over again, I couldn't help but think that a slow motion replay would prove us all right, prove CJ had made the better move than his defender, prove Boeheim was justified in his explosion of protest. I searched and searched for a slow motion replay and concrete evidence to support our collective allegations. Surely someone had already put it all together.

Finding nothing, I followed one last link, tweeted by ESPN, asking viewers to chime in on whether they believed it a block or a charge. The link took me to a video of the play on ESPN's Youtube page. The best view was the third view from the baseline camera, right behind the official. Turns out, you can slow Youtube videos down to play a 1/4 speed. At that speed, my eyes lit up when the video proved what I suspected, CJ lifted the ball up in his shooting motion (the requirement of the new rules emphasis), while the defender was still drifting toward the right (the baseline).

I downloaded the video so that I could take "snapshots" of each frame. The attached link is the resulting Google Doc, which shows the frame in which CJ begins his upward motion, side by side with the last frame before they make contact. Sure enough, the ball rises significantly and obviously. By placing that same, final pre-contact frame directly below the frame showing CJ initiating his upward motion, it becomes evident that the defender drifts significantly to the right. In other words, the defender was still moving after CJ had begun his upward motion.

There were have it. PROOF that it was not a charge. PROOF that the ref got it wrong. PROOF that we are all justified in our anger, frustration, and that cold, bitter feeling in the pits of our stomachs.

Feel free to tweet the link to EVERYBODY at ESPN and Duke and anyone else who still thinks the call was correct.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9_oYKzoOrP5UklabFpUaDBMY00/edit?usp=sharing