Iowa robbed

Submitted by Moleskyn on

Just saw this on ESPN. Sucks for them.

Nine Iowa players and coaches were robbed of cellphones and cash from the team's locker room during Saturday night's victory at Iowa State.

My guess is they stopped offering sacrifices to appease AIRBHG and this is just him getting their attention back.

GoBlueInNYC

September 17th, 2013 at 3:28 PM ^

Man, how shitty is your stadium personnel situation that the visiting school's locker room gets robbed. Do they not have security personnel or something? That's some HS bullshit.

The Geek

September 17th, 2013 at 5:56 PM ^

and this has been front page of the Sports section for two days in a row. We are heavily Hawkeye grads here, though.

My son is in his junior year of high school and we have been looking at schools within a few hours drive. 

Not that Iowa State was at the top of his list, but he made a comment about it this morning. Needless to say, he won't be in Ames, Iowa in 2015. Like you said, HS BS...

Clarence Beeks

September 17th, 2013 at 4:20 PM ^

The simple fact is, it was a bad call, but they put themselves in the position for the bad call to happen. If they would have just kicked the field goal, or done a proper kneel down rather than just setting the ball down, it would have never happened. Yes, it was a bad call, but it's not intellectually honest to absolve Wisconsin of their role in giving the situation the opportunity to arise in the first place.

Clarence Beeks

September 17th, 2013 at 4:54 PM ^

Thanks for the insult. Very mature. Fact is, he just put the ball down. If he'd properly kneeled, and handed it to the official, just like in every other kneel down, it never would have happened. That, and as mentioned below, that's the risk you run when you run a play, of any type, in bounds with that little time left. It's easy to blame the officials, but they aren't the only ones to blame.

Double Wolverine

September 17th, 2013 at 5:03 PM ^

Live it definitely looked weird from the angle they showed on TV. Seeing the replay it was very obvious he kneeled and put the ball down, that angle was the same one the back umpire had of the play. The refs whistled the play dead when he put the ball down. After the whistles, 3 ASU players jumped on the ball and proceeded to sit on it for several seconds. That is the definition of a delay of game. The only thing Wisconsin could have done was get to the line with 7 seconds, not 3 to have a better case to the refs. It was a blown call.

Clarence Beeks

September 17th, 2013 at 5:05 PM ^

"The only thing Wisconsin could have done was get to the line with 7 seconds, not 3 to have a better case to the refs. It was a blown call."



And/or hand the ball to an official. To be perfectly honest, I don't think I have ever seen a player NOT hand the ball to an official on a kneel down. Regardless, I have never seen someone just set the ball on the ground on a kneel down.

Clarence Beeks

September 17th, 2013 at 5:09 PM ^

And yes, you're absolutely right that they should have been up to the line and ready to spike it before there were 3 seconds left. Why they weren't immediately up to the line as soon as he kneeled (or didn't, and (should have) handed the ball to the official) to spike it is the big mystery on this play. They weren't running the field goal unit out (and had no reason to do that since they had the downs to spike it), so they had to know they needed to spike it. Just makes no sense. As I said, it was a mistake by the officials, no doubt, but Wisconsin made at least three mistakes on the play, too, and that's my point: this didn't happen in a vacuum where only the officials made a mistake.

Clarence Beeks

September 17th, 2013 at 9:57 PM ^

You're honestly saying that leaving the ball on the ground was the right thing to do? Every football player, from the youngest age, is taught to hand the ball to the official. I honestly do not think I have ever once seen a player do what the Wisconsin player did by just leaving the ball on the ground like that on a kneel down play. First, it's just respectful, but second, it actually ensures that the ball is spotted in a timely manner.

grumbler

September 18th, 2013 at 12:22 PM ^

If you think that every player, from the youngest age, is taught to hand the ball to the official, you really need to see more football, because you have misssed the thousands of plays in which the players have not handed the ball to a ref, but simply left it where the play ended.  There were dozens of examples of this in the very game in question.

Wisconsin's coaches almost certainly blundered by allowing referee blunders to impact the end of the game, but other than that, Wisconsin got jobbed, and the blame rests with the officials.

jmblue

September 17th, 2013 at 5:44 PM ^

The other thing Iowa could have done is take a shot at the endzone.  You have 18 seconds and the clock is stopped (the receiver went out of bounds on the previous play), and your kicker isn't very reliable, so why put the game all on his shoulders?  With 18 seconds, you really could take two shots at a TD before kicking.  Centering the ball may marginally improve your kicker's chances (though given that all kickers nowadays kick it soccer-style, kicking from the hash often isn't much of a handicap), but it forces your kicker to come through, while also opening up the possibility of a clock disaster.

 

 

Erik_in_Dayton

September 17th, 2013 at 6:06 PM ^

A player is down if he "simulates placing his knee on the ground"  per NCAA Rule 4(1)(3)(o).  The refs should have blown the whistle as soon as Stave crouched down regardless of whether his knee touched the ground.  I agree with Double Wolverine that one of the refs in fact did blow his whistle (at roughly the 15 second mark). 

Both the kneel down and the whistle should have ended the play, and, if nothing else, the ASU player falling on the ball at roughly the 12 second mark should have ended it too.  The latter instance should have caused a the refs to stop the clock because it was either a turnover, which stops the clock, or a delay of game penalty, which obviously stops the clock too.  Either way, the clock stoppage would have given the refs time to think and talk to the replay booth about whether there was a turnover.  It is inexplicable that the refs did nothing until they whistled the start of new play with roughly three second left. 

Without speaking to what Wisconsin should have done, this was a terrible bit of officiating. 

Clarence Beeks

September 18th, 2013 at 9:50 AM ^

I never said it was 100% Wisconsin's fault. Instead, what I said was that it was not 100% the fault of the officials. Big difference. Honestly, anyone who has played sports at a decently competitive level has heard the refrain more times than is ever necessary that you never put yourself in the position for a bad call to be the difference in the game. That's exactly what happened here. It was absolutely a bad call (I literally have no idea where several of you got the idea that I didn't think it was), but Wisconsin put themselves in the position for that to be decisive in the game (both with mistakes they made throughout the game to make the score what it was and on that drive by running that play in bounds and then making the mistake of not handing the ball directly to the official, among others). To your other post above, if there is one life lesson their coach should be teaching his players it is that they should not put their fate in the hands of other people (who could always make a mistake) when you, yourself, can do something affirmatively to avoid it.

Oscar

September 18th, 2013 at 3:00 PM ^

Ok, I'll play. So what if Wisconsin kicked the field goal because that is the safe play. But then they missed right by a few feet. Now they are getting second guessed for not centering the ball.

To say that the coaches should have thought about the ineptness of the officials before they call a play is ridiculous. If that is the case, then why even try a field goal, the refs could mess that up as well. And definitely don't try and throw a touchdown pass, they will call it incomplete for no good reason (ask Megatron).

Dan Man

September 17th, 2013 at 3:44 PM ^

I think that, legally, Iowa State may be responsible to reimburse the players for this assuming that the stuff was properly locked in the lockers.  I think it's Iowa State's responsibility to keep Iowa's stuff safe - similar to a bailor/bailee relationship (if not exactly like it).

Monocle Smile

September 17th, 2013 at 3:44 PM ^

i once had a laptop stolen out of my house when two of my roommates were home. some people are really good at this thing. i don't know how the locker room wasn't locked, though.