Fansided

NCAA official: Refs didn’t see TV angle of Duke-Wisconsin out of bounds play

By Cameron La Fontaine

Apr 6, 2015; Indianapolis, IN, USA; A general view of basketballs on the side of the court before the 2015 NCAA Men
Apr 6, 2015; Indianapolis, IN, USA; A general view of basketballs on the side of the court before the 2015 NCAA Men /
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A controversial call in Duke’s win over Wisconsin Monday night still has people wondering what happened during the official review of the play.

Late in Monday night’s NCAA Championship game between Duke and Wisconsin, a controversial out of bounds call that gave the ball to Duke and was reviewed, then upheld, had viewers wondering what the heck happened.

With under two minutes left in the game, the referees called the ball out on Wisconsin’s Bronson Koenig but were able to review the call. With CBS’ replay zoom showing it go off of Duke forward Justise Winslow’s finger, many expected the ball to be given to Wisconsin, who was down five at the time.

So why didn’t officials overturn the controversial late-game call? You’ll be surprised to know that the officials didn’t even get the same look that we did at home.

NCAA supervisor of officials John Adams spoke on SiriusXM’s College Sports on Tuesday and had this to say about it according to ESPN:

"“All four of our officials were involved in the review — Jeff Clark was our standby,” John Adams told SiriusXM College Sports Tuesday. “We never saw on our monitor what everybody saw at home, if you can believe that.”…“I saw it after they had left the monitor, and actually thought about: Is it in my prerogative to get up, run over the table, buzz the buzzer and tell them to come back and look?” Adams said. “That’s how critical I thought the play was, and concluded that this is a job for the guys on the floor and I’ve never done this before, why would I do it tonight and perhaps change the balance of the game?”“We had been told time and time again, ‘Nobody at home will see anything you didn’t see.’ And I will tell you that’s not what happened last night. That is not an excuse. That is just laying it out for you.”"

I don’t believe in the excuse that one bad call changes the whole game, because afterall, it’s 40 minutes of basketball, but when Duke was given the ball, Tyus Jones went down and made another three to give Duke their largest lead at 66-58. With under 90 seconds left in the game, Wisconsin wasn’t able to get back and even it up with Duke after Tyus Jones pretty much took over the game in the last five minutes.

In recent years it’s shown time and time again that bad calls can be made rather frequently, and fans have become progressively angry because they truly believe that those calls impacted the outcome of the game.

This happened in Saturday’s Final Four game between Kentucky and Wisconsin last Saturday as well. There was a blown no-call after the shot clock ran out but the officials didn’t call it, leading to Nigel Hayes making a bucket that brought Wisconsin within two points with 2.5 minutes to play in the game.

The difference between Saturday’s call and Monday’s call is that in the Nigel Hayes shot clock violation, officials weren’t able to stop the game and review it because NCAA rules say that a play can’t be reviewed unless it happened within the final two minutes of the game.

But even when that system seemed like it was going to work in the National Championship game on Monday night, it failed because the officials weren’t given the same look that the viewers at home were given.

Something needs to happen within the NCAA to fix this problem. Why officials were not given the same look that we were given on TV Monday night baffles me and shows the scary possibility that a game could be changed even when referees see it on replay.

This happened last year in the MLB in a game between the Tampa Bay Rays and Minnesota Twins, when the umpires messed up the count during Yunel Escobar’s at bat. He should have been walked, but even after going to the review, the umpire made it a full count, that then resulted in a strikeout for Escobar.

Official review replay is set up so that this kind of stuff doesn’t happen and for it to happen in such a big game like the college basketball National Championship says that even more change needs to come on how the official review works. The ball should have been Wisconsin’s with the chance to bring the score within one possession, but they weren’t given that chance.

I still don’t think you can say that the call costed them the entire game, but it definitely costed them a play with a chance to draw the game closer.

h/t For The Win

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