SEATTLE — The most famous inbound pass of 2008 went from Tim Morris’ hands to Alfred Aboya’s face on Sunday, and over the next two days, ricocheted into the national spotlight.
Several Los Angeles papers wrote about the incident, and the highlight was shown and debated on several national sports shows. Legendary former UCLA coach John Wooden was quoted in a Los Angeles Times story saying, “I would have jerked (Morris) out of the game immediately. And after the game he’d have heard about it.”
On Tuesday, both Morris and Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said they were surprised at the amount of attention the play from Washington’s upset win over UCLA has been getting.
“I am surprised,” Romar said of the ongoing attention surrounding Morris, who is Romar’s second cousin. “I know Tim Morris pretty well. I’ve known him since he was two years old. Tim Morris is not a gangster, he’s not a thug. Tim apologized right away. I don’t think it was a premeditated, I’m-going-to-knock-this-guy’s-face-off type pass. It’s unfortunate with what happened in that game that the concentration is there knowing the kind of kid Tim Morris is. If Tim Morris would have reared back and aimed at the guy’s face and hit him in the face, we would have had problems. Him and I would have had problems. But that wasn’t what happened.”
Morris, who call’s ESPN’s Parton The Interruption one of his favorite shows, was surprised to see himself on the show Monday afternoon. Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser, the show’s hosts, called the play cheap and said Morris should have been given a technical.
“I actually like PTI a lot, it’s one of my favorite shows,” Morris said. “So I was watching and saw them trashing me.”
Morris added that he’ll still watch the show despite that trashing.
“I’ll watch it, I still like Wilbon,” he said.
Morris maintained Tuesday that he wasn’t trying to hit Aboya in the face or injure him. He mentioned that along with being crowded between Aboya and the UCLA bench, another factor on his inability to inbound the ball was UCLA coach Ben Howland standing nearby with his hands in the air.
“It was honestly a reaction,” he said. “We were running a play where a couple of guys were curling off. I looked and none of them were open. Coach Howland was in the way, so I couldn’t throw it deep. I just reacted, he was so close, I really didn’t mean to. I tried to shake his hand afterward. It was really just reaction.”
Morris apologized to Aboya immediately after the play, though the UCLA junior refused to shake his hand. Morris said he tried to apologize again to Aboya after the game, but that he was not much more accepting of that apology.
“Honestly I wouldn’t have been either,” Morris said. “Somebody hits you in the face, you’re not going to want to shake their hand afterward. I don’t hold anything against him.”
Both Morris and Romar hope the story fades away soon.
“It is unfortunate it’s gotten that much negative press when it wasn’t something that was maliciously done,” Romar said.
Noteworthy
Holiday injured: Freshman forward Justin Holiday suffered a knee and ankle sprain on his right leg during Tuesday’s practice.
The severity of the injuries is not yet known, and Holiday will be examined today and his status for Washington’s games this week will be determined then.
UW to host women’s NCAA tourney: Washington was selected as a first and second-round site for the 2009 and 2010 women’s NCAA Tournament.
The 2009 games will take place on March 21st and 23rd or on March 22nd and 24th. The 2010 games will be played on March 20th and 22nd or March 21st and 23rd.
Washington hosted the NCAA West Regional in 2004 and hosted first and second-round games in 2005.
Think Pink: For anyone attending the Washington women’s games on Friday and Sunday, this is the week of the “Think Pink” initiative to support breast cancer awareness. Players will wear pink warm-ups, pink ribbons on their jerseys and pink shoelaces, and the coaches will also wear pink. Fans are encouraged to come to the game wearing pink as well.
Contact Herald Writer John Boyle at jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on University of Washington sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com /huskiesblog
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