Northwestern got robbed on a blown interference call that will forever be linked to the curse the school just broke.
For basically ever, Northwestern has been cursed with being unable to punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament. That draught ended this year when the Wildcats made it to the tournament for the first time in school history, but the woes didn’t end there.
Northwestern won their first game of the weekend but ran into No. 1 seeded Gonzaga in the second game. While that was a daunting task in of itself, the Wildcats had to fight against something else — tournament officiating.
It’s a lazy excuse when fans harp on the officiating when their team loses, but Northwestern fans have a legit gripe. At a critical point in the second half of a very close game, official blew a call against Gonzaga that should have been interference.
To add salt to the wound, Chris Collins was called for a technical foul when he immediately objected to what was an obvious interference call.
Here’s the replay of the interference. You don’t have to look hard for it:
You might be thinking, ‘I’m not suer it’s legal to stick your arm through the rim to block a shot’.
Well, it’s not.
While it was very clearly interference, the call is not allowed to be reviewed. So instead of being able to go to the tape and reverse the call — which would have put points on the boar for Northwestern — the technical foul on Collins allowed Gonzaga to go to the free throw line and collect points themselves.
To recap:
- Gonzaga committed interference
- It didn’t get called
- Northwestern’s coach ran onto the court and got T’d up
- Gonzaga scored points on free throws
March Madness justice is a tough pill to swallow.