That he did it to someone as tough as Aboya.

Can you iamgine if Aboya had thrown the same pass at say, Appleby?  I would guess "Apples" would be in a hospital somewhere right now.

From the 2007 NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Rules and Interpretations Guide

Rule 4, Section 26, Article 4

"Flagrant personal foul, live ball. A flagrant personal foul shall be a personal foul that involves severe or excessive contact with an opponent or involves contact that is extreme in nature while the ball is live."

Rule 4, Section 69, Article 1

"Unsportsmanlike conduct is behavior or an act that is unbecoming to a fair, ethical and honorable individual."

While Morris's actions were definitely unbecoming to an honorable individual, I think that the first rule here would be the one that I would have nailed him with. It would appear that Sunday's refs skimmed through Rule 4 but hey who can blame them, it is the biggest section of the book. Having reffed hundreds of basketball games(if you played intramural ball between '96 and '00, I probably reffed your game at least once) I know that you can always find a way to penalize or reward a player, coach or team appropriately. The fact that Morris went unpunished for that BS move is ridiculous.

It is amazing to me that anyone can suggest with a straight face that the play wasn't intentional.  The Pac 10 and the UW should absolutely be ashamed of themselves for not fessing up that it was an intentional play.  If you want to argue that it is within the rules, that's one thing (although I can't believe a play like that is within the rules of even dodgeball!).  But to say that the play wasn't intentional or to say that Aboya jumped in front of the ball and it is therefore his fault is an absolute insult to the intelligence of anyone who saw the play.  Either these people are blind, stupid or extremely dishonest.  

Tom Hansen's Phone number and the lady that answered the phone very politely took all the information down, but she did not even know about this incident! Apparently this attach is not getting any attention  whatsoever.
Every one of you in the nation needs to pick up the phone and call Tom Hansen's phone number above to state your complaint. Be polite but you must make your voice known.  You don't even have to be a UCLA fan, if you love the game of basketball, voice your concern.

Hello,

This issue was previously viewed as unintentional by Bill McCabe, who said "[...] [Aboya] jumps to the right and the ball hits him in the face."

However, from the following picture (http://pixel.princeton.edu/~mburns/images/aboya.jpg) it is obvious that the throwing motion begins and ends when both of Aboya's feet are on the ground. Aboya's movement to the right is not significant, and the  UW player's movement (gritted teeth, avoiding rebound) clearly shows that it is intentional.

I understand that during a live game, in real time, it is difficult for the officials to conclude that the play warrants a technical.  This is not my complaint.  My complaint is the lack of an OFFICIAL apology by the UW program.  Instead, their coach Romar disingenuously feigns "suprise" at the attention given to this dirty play as is evident from this Seattle Times article. (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskies/2004178583_webromar12.html)

Obviously I am biased (see UCLA email address), but I don't think either the player and/or the coach and/or McCabe have been completely honest in their assessments of the situation.  Furthermore, I feel that this sets a dangerous precedent for the level of dirty play in the PAC-10.  Although I trust the maturity of our team, you can imagine how painful it would be for one of Kevin Love's full court passes to be stopped 94 feet short by a UW player's face.  We should  not wait until a player is injured to address this situation.

I look forward to hearing a response,

Thanks,

Just received this response to my email wondering why no public apology was made and no action taken by the Pac-10 (which included the photo sequence and the Pac-10 mission):

Tim has apologized to Alfred once right after the incident, and again when the teams shook hand after the game. I hope that you wrote the same letter to Oregon after Aaron Brooks punched Ryan Appleby in the face in the 06 Pac-10 Tournament. Aaron has apologized to Ryan, and Tim has apologized to Alfred, and everyone has moved on.............

Lance LaVetter
University of Washington

Couple problems Lance; Brooks was suspended for two games and wrote letters of apology to Appleby and Romar.  Maybe Lance should talk down to Romar and remind him about the Brooks/Appleby incident.