BASKETBALL OFFICIATING ISSUES

by Brian P. Foley, The College Baseball Blog

On Monday evening, we had some issues in college basketball dealing with how officials deal with the end of game situation. The Georgetown and Villanova game was tied in the final 5 seconds with the Villanova Wildcats with the ball. The Wildcats missed the shot and Johnathan Wallace grabbed the rebound and went up the sideline where he was bumped by a Villanova player. The official called the foul with 0.1 seconds left in a tied game giving the Hoya guard two shots to win the game from the line. Every ESPN announcer has said "That call can't be made with that amount of time left." I am sorry but I believe that call has to be made whether it is the beginning of the game or at the end of the game. A foul is a foul no matter where it happens on the court. We can look at last week's Illinois-Indiana game where an Illini player grabbed a rebound with almost no time left and went the throw up a 3/4 court shot but was hacked and the officials did not make the call. Who says the player does not make the shot?

The officiating in the men's game was not the only one facing issues as Rutgers was leading by 1 Tennessee with a few seconds left in the game when Candace Parker took a hook shot which was missed and a Tennesee player rebounded the ball and shot the ball but was fouled with 0.2 seconds left. The clock was stopped at .2 seconds for over a second thus giving time for the official to make the call instead of the game being over. The Rutgers women had the game stolen away from them on Monday night by poor officials who should have ruled that the game should have been over but decided to give the Lady Vols two free throws in which she hit both to give them the win.