Larry Brown Sports

If there’s one thing that’s near and dear to my heart, it’s definitely mascot folly. We haven’t had a ton of it lately unfortunately, leaving me to watch the Oregon Duck/Houston Cougar fight to get my fix. But on Wednesday night in the Rice/Tulane game, Rice’s Sammy the Owl got the heave-ho from referee Quick Draw Curtis Shaw, whose reputation precedes him.

I dunno, pretty hard to act tough when you’re suited up in an owl costume. I guess I understand where he’s coming from — he probably has a serious case of mascot envy. Honestly, how much rhino balls would it suck to be an owl when the other mascots in your conference are ferocious beasts like Tigers, Mustangs, and Cougars? He must have had a lot of pent up frustration he let out with the headbutt on Shaw. And credit to Carter Blackburn for absolutely nailing the call! By the way, who knew that Ben Braun was coaching Rice these days?!?

Thanks to FanHouse via Ballhype for the vid

Come to find out that there was more to Stanford coach Trent Johnson’s ejection Saturday than meets the eye. Luckily we don’t have to discuss the controversial nature of the move since Stanford ended up winning the game, but apparently Trent Johnson should have realized with whom he was dealing. The sleuthing Matt Spiegel at Sporting News Radio pointed out Saturday evening on his show that Curtis Shaw is notorious for blowing the whistle more than any other referee in college hoops. Shaw leads all officials in both fouls called this year as well as technical fouls called. He also has made five ejections, more than twice anyone close to him on the list.

In fact, when you google “Curtis Shaw referee,” you wind up with nothing but stories of Curtis Shaw impacting games with his calls. A story from March 2000 tells of Iowa State’s Larry Eustachy losing his cool and getting ejected in a game against Michigan State by the officials, one of whom was Shaw. A Syracuse blog tells of Shaw making whimsical calls against Pitt a few years ago. And the best was a 1999 official’s magazine featuring an interview with Shaw, with the sub-headline “overcoming a hot head early in his career.” Yeah, so much for “overcoming” the issue. Really, officials need to know their place, and for the most part, that doesn’t include ejecting coaches in the middle of the NCAA tournament unless completely warranted.