Duke basketball beat Wake Forest under controversial circumstances when refs ruled Mark Williams’ game-winning putback wasn’t basket interference.
Fans of refereeing conspiracy theories got a gift on Tuesday night when a critical officiating decision resulted in a Duke victory over Wake Forest.
The Blue Devils and Demon Deacons were locked at 74 apiece in the final seconds. After Paolo Banchero missed a layup, Mark Williams rose up for a putback to give Duke a 76-74 lead with one second left.
The refs immediately put that play under a microscope to check if there was basket interference. The ruling went Duke’s way, and so did the game.
Did the refs gift Duke their win over Wake Forest?
Twitter couldn’t decide if the refs got it right or not. And the replays didn’t really clear much up.
Matt Norlander was convinced by a tweet with the rule regarding interference:
A player may have a hand legally in contact with the ball, when this contact continues after the ball enters the cylinder or when, during such action, the player touches or grabs the basket.
“Basket should’ve counted, per this rule, officials got it right. (They often do.),” Norlander tweeted.
One question is whether Williams maintained contact from outside the cylinder going into it.
Since his right hand and left hand contacted the ball at seemingly different points, maybe it should have been called goaltending.
Then again, a lot of dunks would be disallowed under those strict interpretations.
Maybe the key phrase in all of this is the last one: when, during such action, the player touches or grabs the basket.
Williams unquestionably grabbed the basket as he completed the putback.
Essentially, Williams made his first contact, regardless of which hand, outside the cylinder then completed a “dunk” which was valid within the confines of the interference rule.
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