You know what I like about Gonzaga? They have a whole bunch of funny-lookin’ players. You’ve got David Pendergraft, the 10-foot-tall leprechaun. You’ve got Adam Morrison, with the Ashton Kutcher-esque mop and the ridiculous quasi-moustache. And you’ve got Derek Raivio, who looks like he’s about 12 years old. Heh.

(Hey, considering that I started rooting for Gonzaga more than a decade ago because I thought the school had a funny-sounding name, it’s only right that funny-looking players should be part of the reason I still like them.)

I’m watching the Zags on TV right now. They’re struggling to maintain their best-in-the-nation 34-game home winning streak, trailing rival St. Mary’s 33-30 at halftime.

In other basketball news, the ACC has suspended the officiating crew from last Saturday’s overtime game between Duke and Florida State, admitting that the officials blatantly handed the game to Duke, er, ahem, made an incorrect technical-foul call. Unfortunately, the suspension addresses only the one specific call, not the bigger picture of consistent pro-Duke bias in ACC games:

Duke made 31 of 43 free throws in the game; FSU, despite repeatedly attacking the Blue Devils inside, only got to the free-throw line 11 times, making 10. …

FSU officials sent a DVD to the ACC office Monday that highlights more than two dozen plays from the game they thought included questionable calls or non-calls. One was a three-point attempt by senior center Diego Romero with 28.8 seconds remaining in overtime. Romero was hit in the face by Duke’s Josh McRoberts as McRoberts jumped out at him to defend the shot, but no foul was called.

Also, Duke was awarded possession of a loose ball with four seconds left in overtime although replays showed the ball bouncing off Williams’ arm. Duke clinched its victory with two foul shots on the ensuing possession.

This marks the second straight game the referees in a Duke game have come under scrutiny.

The Blue Devils beat Boston College 83-81 on Wednesday night in a game in which Duke attempted 24 more free throws than the Eagles and there was a non-call on Williams when he clearly banged into a BC player who was attempting a shot in the final seconds.

I never really believed my friend Joel, who went to Georgia Tech, when he talked about how Duke “gets all the calls”… until I watched that Boston College game, and then saw the highlights of the Florida State game a few days later. It’s absolutely ridiculous. Apparently, it is a consistent pattern that Duke attempts substantially more free throws per game than its opponent in nearly every conference game. Are the Blue Devils really just that good at avoiding contact? Previously, I would have assumed yes, but after seeing for myself the awful no-calls in the BC and FSU games, my answer is a resounding no. The “respect” that Duke and Coach K get from ACC refs, both at home and on the road, translates into unfair results, pure and simple. The Devils are a genuinely great team, but they should have lost at least one, if not both, of their last two games.

(I posted about the Duke-BC travesty here, but removed the post from my homepage after a few minutes because felt I was “overblogging” and didn’t want to bump other posts down.)