CLEMSON — As soon as Clemson forward RJ Godfrey was called for goaltending on Syracuse guard Kiyan Anthony’s layup, there was a break in the action.
Which worried the former NBA superstar seated in the front row of the JMA Wireless Dome, Carmelo Anthony.
The referees weren’t going to restart the New Year’s Eve game until they consulted with the Tigers’ bench because Clemson coach Brad Brownell raised his arms in disbelief immediately after the bucket counted. He believed Godfrey blocked the ball on the way up.
Brownell hanged by a gaggle of Clemson assistants on the sideline, waiting to see if they could pull up a replay. The 57-year-old was readying to do something he couldn’t have done in years past: initiate a coach’s challenge.
It’s anything but a refined process for Brownell and his staff in the sport’s first season with this right because it’s a rush to consider what looks like a bad call and what’s actually a bad call after further consideration.
But it’s also a new world for sports dads like the 41-year-old Anthony, better known as “Melo” during his distinguished career. He was understandably less than mellow when referees paused the action since it was a sign his son might lose two points.
“If there's a close call that they know you're probably gonna look at, they're a little slower to put the ball in play for everybody. They probably were doing that a little bit to help us,” Brownell said. “And he was just joking about it needs to be sped up.”
After Clemson’s coaches and then the refs completed their reviews, the Tigers won the challenge. Brownell also won the mid-game interaction with an NBA All-Star.
The coach overheard Melo’s grumblings and walked over to his courtside seat, smirking, to have chat with the Syracuse legend. Anthony laughed at whatever Brownell said.
A few words were exchanged after the officials’ review, as well, because Kiyan’s two points were taken back. And every point mattered in a 64-61 win, the first of back-to-back ACC wins that have the Tigers (12-3, 2-0) unbeaten heading into a 9 p.m. Jan. 7 matchup with No. 24 SMU at Littlejohn Coliseum.
“I was giving (Anthony) a hard time about that after we got the call right,” Brownell said.
The coach’s challenge, like in professional basketball and football, has added a new element to the college game.
Up until this year, a coach’s only recourse after an upsetting ruling was to become irate in a ref’s field of view, hoping it would guilt them into changing their mind or offering a favorable “makeup” call later.
Now, they can stop play and have officials review out of bounds, basket interference and goaltending calls, as well as whether a secondary defender was in the restricted-area arc.
The challenge rules were implemented — along with modifications to how long refs spend at monitors reviewing calls and a newfound emphasis on addressing delay-of-game tactics — in hopes of improving the “flow of the game.”
The flow point is debatable because coaches’ challenges result in extra stoppages. But maybe they cut down on prolonged arguments between coaches and refs in some cases.
“It's probably good for the game,” Brownell said. “I'm glad that there's one (challenge). I don't want there to be so many.”
Brownell has been both successful and unsuccessful in challenging calls, admitting it’s not exactly easy to get a replay cued up quickly for a second look on the bench.
He has to rely on what his eyes see, then look down the bench to see if his assistants concur. Teams that win a challenge retain the right to challenge one more time.
If the challenge is lost, that team can’t challenge again that game.
“Kind of look to my assistants, and then we're quickly looking at the guy with the video,” Brownell said. “I don't know that every time the video guy has got the playback in a quick enough amount of time that we can make a decision, feeling like we definitely know.”
But even if the Tigers haven’t always known for sure, they had the right idea at Syracuse.
Godfrey blocked the ball on the way up, clean off the glass.
Anthony’s son finished with seven points, not nine.
And Brownell had the last laugh with a legend.