There were a whole tournament’s worth of wild moments on the first day of March Madness. None were more crazy than the end of SMU/UCLA when referee Antinio Petty called goaltending from a distant vantage point on a wild heave from beyond the arc by UCLA’s Bryce Alford.
The horrible call handed UCLA a one-point lead with 13 seconds to go. You saw what happened. Alford chucked up a wild shot that was well off target and would have been all air if SMU’s Yanick Moreira didn’t go up to take an irresistible pluck at it.
Petty was standing in front of the UCLA bench. He immediately motioned goaltending despite having arguably the worst view of the play among the trio of stripes. His call was quick, decisive and authoritative. A brief review of a courtside monitor ensued to make sure Alford’s shot was a three attempt. It was.
Bryce Alford’s Dad Steve is UCLA’s head coach and it appeared to me the elder Alford knew his team got an undeserved gift. His focus in the immediate aftermath of the blown call was to rush along the officiating crew so it would not entertain a debate or discussion that could lead to a reversal. We know now that goaltending is not reviewable but the monitor look to determine Bryce Alford’s shooting position gave Petty and his crew an excuse to see where the shot was headed. They could have changed the call independent of the review process under the guise of “getting it right“ and added a simple assertion there was no replay influence. Instead, Steve Alford kept pestering the refs to force SMU to inbound the ball all the while SMU coach Larry Brown appeared as if he was in a fog about what was happening.
It’s worth noting that CBS sideline reporter Allie LaForce (the game was carried on TruTV) disclosed just before the game’s tipoff that Larry had suffered 48-hours worth of uncontrollable hiccups and had barely slept. She said he was feeling lousy.
So, with Steve Alford dictating the direction of the chaos, the ball went inbounds with SMU down one and 13 seconds to go. The Mustangs could still win it. SMU’s Nic Moore had two clean looks – two unchallenged shots – and missed twice. Both shots were on line but short. Game over.
It was SMU’s first NCAA tourney game since 1993 and Larry’s first Dance match since he won the whole thing with KU in 1988 (I attended that title game with my Dad in Kansas City).
On the TruTv broadcast of SMU‘s unfair loss, Verne Lundquist and Jim Spanarkel struggled in their attempts to explain the Alford miss and the call by Petty.
Spanarkel‘s first comment was: “I thought that ball was wide right.” followed by a trademark “Oh My Goodness” from Verne who was pretty persistent in second-guessing his partner. “They called goaltending. It looked like it was WAY wide right. Oh. Off the rim?” An overhead replay did indeed give the appearance that the ball hit the rim. Spanarkel: “So it hit the rim.” But then clearly two other angles showed no rim contact.
While that‘s going on, you can see Steve Alford urging for the game‘s resumption. “Hey, what are we doing?” Alford appeared to say as he motioned with his hands to play on.
Verne: “I think they reversed the call.” But then no. SMU inbounds and game ends.
Spanarkel later on the goaltending call: “That’s a good call”
“Ya think?” Verne said skeptically.
Spanarkel: “Yeah, that’s a good call.“
Verne: “You don’t think it was coming down wide right?”
Spanarkel: “No, that ball is grazing the rim.”
Then Verne pitched it to LaForce for a post-game spot with Steve Alford. LaForce is actually pretty good in these situations now after honing her direct approach with the difficult Nick Saban last fall. LaForce asked Alford a series of pointed questions. Alford seemed to acknowledge they caught a break on the bad call but later backtracked by saying the ball was “right at the cylinder.”
Since all the league’s rulebooks are online now, it’s an easy thing for America to look up so let‘s look at the rule on goaltending. .
Rule 9 – Section 17 – Article 3
a. Goaltending occurs when a defensive player touches the ball during a field goal try and each of the following conditions is met:
1. The ball is on its downward flight; and
2. The ball is above the level of the ring and has the possibility, while in flight, of entering the basket and is not touching the cylinder.
An additional emphasis on the key element of the rule appears in the front of the rulebook. It says bluntly that a goaltending call can be made only “as long as it has a possibility of entering the basket.”
By any objective view of the shot, the chance-to-go-in criteria is not met. There’s no goaltending.
Ernie and his trio of CBS studio analysts put the NCAA’s Officiating Coordinator John Adams on the air not too long after the call. Adams made the disingenuous assertion that the ball had a chance to go in. What else is he gonna say I guess.
Larry and the young man who was called for the goaltending (Moreira) were classy and not-at-all bitter sounding after the game about the injustice. That’s a real sportsman-like approach to have but I would have liked Larry to raise more of a ruckus in the immediate aftermath of the call. His gravitas may have swayed a discussion of the call and perhaps led to a reversal.
Day two of the Dance wasn’t as fun. The Johnnies were beaten soundly by San Diego State in all the ways you feared they would be. Without Obekpa, the Aztecs exploited their size and strength edge in the paint when they needed hoops to stave off frantic Johnny runs led by Sir Dom and D’Angelo, Both had great, max-effort games. The St. John’s rebounding disadvantage (32 to 40) wasn’t horrible but when Rysheed Jordan got his second foul just 90 seconds into the contest, you knew Lavin would have to use bench players who simply aren’t prepared to play in this kind of game. Every starter but Jordan played 39 of the game’s 40 minutes!
I would hope St. John’s extends Lavin and lets him work to remedy his roster’s serious depth and size problems. Lavin has one year remaining on his original six-year deal. It’s highly unusual for big college coaches to work a season with no contractual certainty beyond the one at hand so you’d expect some decision one way or another in the next few weeks. Lavin deserves to stay. He’s a very positive force on the floor with his players. He’s great with the media. He’s a good representative of the university. While he’s brought in a few players who have had unsavory episodes, he seems to handle those situations well. Thanks to him and a staff that includes his mentor Gene Keady, the program appears to rest on a solid, rules-abiding foundation. Bring Lavin back.