No face saving gestures this time

Washington basketball Coach Lorenzo Romar said what happened was unintentional.

A spokesman for the Pacific 10 Conference said there was "no malicious intent."

And the supervisor of Pac-10 officials said the correct call -- no call -- was made Sunday when Huskies guard Tim Morris threw an inbounds pass into the face of UCLA forward Alfred Aboya.

But at least one prominent observer, watching on television, found it hard to fathom that Morris was not and will not be punished for his actions near the conclusion of Washington's 71-61 upset win over the Bruins in Seattle.

"I would have jerked [Morris] out of the game immediately," legendary former UCLA coach John Wooden said Monday. "And after the game he'd have heard about it.

"You do have to keep in mind that these are kids and they are going to get over-excited at times and are still not completely mature. But that is no excuse for what happened."

What happened was that the 6-foot-4 Morris, a fifth-year senior, was trying to pass the ball inbounds in front of the UCLA bench as the 6-8 Aboya applied defensive pressure. With five seconds to put the ball in play, Morris was about out of time when, replays show, he appeared to take quick aim at Aboya before firing the ball into his face.

Aboya, who suffered a broken bone under his eye earlier this season, staggered away holding his nose as the ball ricocheted out of bounds, giving the Huskies another five seconds to work the ball in.

UCLA Coach Ben Howland protested, but said he was told by game officials that there wasn't a call they could make.

On Monday, that judgment was refuted by Hank Nichols, the NCAA's national coordinator of men's basketball officials, and Bill McCabe, supervisor of basketball officials for the Pac-10, who both said officials had the option of calling a technical foul on Morris for committing an unsporting act.

"If you thought the kid did it on purpose, it would be considered an unsporting act," Nichols said. "It's a hard judgment to make. I've seen that play happen but not very often.

"It usually happens when a guy jumps, but it didn't look like the UCLA guy jumped. But, yes, a technical could have been assessed against Washington."

McCabe agreed that a technical foul could have been called, but he otherwise disagreed with Nichols' assessment of what happened. He blamed the outcome on Aboya.