ACC Referee Told N.C. State Head Coach Mark Gottfried To Shut His "Fucking Ass Up" Yesterday

Yesterday's ACC final between N.C. State and North Carolina was just a typical game for N.C. State in the ACC—oozing with controversy. N.C. State, you will recall, is the alma mater to Tom Gugliotta. Googs, of course, was unceremoniously kicked out of a game by ACC official Karl Hess little more than a month ago.

While Googs and buddy Chris Corchiani expressed confusion since they were not using profanities, it apparently would not have mattered since the refs themselves are allowed to drop the occasional "F" bomb. Brian Dorsey, who was a member of Karl Hess's crew that ejected the N.C. State alums, told Gottfried to "shut [his] fucking ass up" after the Wolfpack coach wanted an offensive foul called. Adam Smith, a reporter out of Burlington, North Carolina, initially tweeted the exchange and claims that it was a direct quote as it happened right in front of him.

N.C. State lost the game 69-67 and was incensed at a non-call in the final seconds for charging (it's unclear if this is the charge that lead to the exchange, the reports only say it was "deep" in the second half). Wolfpack fans are now calling it a controversy because the game saw "significant national criticism befall the Atlantic Coast Conference officiating crew who called 42 phenomenally inconsistent fouls..."

Controversy or not, Gottfried took the high road, kind of, after the game. He refused to question the refereeing because he knew he would get a fine, but he did manage to get off a "fuck you" of his own. "This is just a tough one to take. A tough one," he said. "[W]e had to fight through a lot of different things in the game, but our kids never quit."

2 media report ACC referee tells Coach Gottfried "Shut your fucking ass up" during UNC game [statefansnation]