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Fans sitting courtside...just seven feet from where the referee made his technical foul call against Hopkins give this account....

After blowing thru a screen and giving Hopkins a stiff elbow, Hopkins told the Rice player "you come thru a screen like that again and I am going to deck you".

Whistle blows...Hopkins gets the "T".

Ridicluous call....glad the call did not cost us the game!

Could have been worse. Tom Penders received a "T" for passing out, collapsing on the court, and then having oxygen administered last night at the Houston-UAB game.

Stampede wrote:Fans sitting courtside...just seven feet from where the referee made his technical foul call against Hopkins give this account....

After blowing thru a screen and giving Hopkins a stiff elbow, Hopkins told the Rice player "you come thru a screen like that again and I am going to deck you".

Whistle blows...Hopkins gets the "T".

Ridicluous call....glad the call did not cost us the game!

I have no reason to doubt this account but I am sure the fans are a little predjudice. The announcers on allaccess said that Hopkins elbowed the Rice player in the back of the head. Perhaps it was in retaliation. Regardless, I saw no major jostling, falling down, injury,etc. Refs need to let them play until weapons are seen.

Sometimes you can just tell from the body language when a ref knows he screwed up - this was on of those times - He over-reacted to something he saw and then coud not put it back in the bottle.

And you know what was funny? On the Rice possession after the free throws Hop knew the ref wasn't going to blow the whistle no matter what he did. Bryan hopped in the ballhandlers shorts and beat him with an ugly stick all the way down the court! Pretty funny stuff from the senior.

I like the fact that Hopkins has a chip on his shoulder like that.

Good point pony - we got every call after that as I recall. The ref might as well have just left the building.

The elbow-to-the-head call was the official reason given for the Tech. Personally, I was more concerned about the fact that Hop hit just one of three free throws when he was hit while shooting behind the stripe. He's got to hit those, especially in close games.