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.

I’ve always enjoyed attending parades. I like the music-on-the-streets component. And here in New York City, I’m interested in the political tension and controversy that usually accompanies a lot of the marches.

The St. Patrick’s Day parade is this city’s granddaddy. It’s big and colorful and runs much of the day. It always falls on the actual holiday unless it’s a Sunday in which case it’s moved to Saturday.

In recent years, the West Indian-American parade on Labor Day in Brooklyn has drawn big, fun crowds and the National Puerto Rican Day parade in June is popular. But the St. Patty’s Day parade really hits my sweet spot best because of all the bagpipers. The number of participating pipe bands is staggering. One right after another with one’s sound blending into the next.

I watched the 2015 St. Pat’s parade from the park side of 77th and Fifth. It’s a good spot near the end of the route away from the rowdiness and bars.

Mayor Bill de Blasio refused to attend this parade. It’s not gay enough for him. What I mean by that is that the parade’s organizers have long excluded groups who aim to march under LGBT banners. This was supposed to be a breakthrough year but ended up being too small a step forward. The parade’s token invite to just a single openly gay group (affiliated with broadcast partner NBC) ignored overtures from other prominent organizations who wanted to march.

The conservative Catholics who control the parade have tripped over themselves a bit with declarations that groups are not allowed to march under a “political” banner yet you saw invited marchers on Tuesday carrying a big sign that said “ENGLAND GET OUT OF IRELAND.” The parade also forbids floats and vehicles yet the front end of the procession yesterday featured a fleet of Ford cars and trucks presumably because of that company’s paid sponsorship arrangement.

As I said here last year, it’s a matter of when – not if – the LGBT groups who want to march get their invites to this parade. It’s such a massive collection of people marching up Fifth Avenue in a city that embraces inclusion that change is inevitable. The stodgy Irishmen who don’t want rainbows mixing in with their green will eventually be replaced by less stodgy Irishmen who see and learn what the new Pope and New York Archbishop Tim Cardinal Dolan (pictured above) are finally saying on the subject now that a clear majority of Americans are learning to accept, love and support the LGBT community.

A brisk wind from the northwest blew Dolan’s shawl into his face and forced him (the parade’s grand marshal) to grab a hold of the hat on his head. Several members of the US Navy Marching Band watched their white sailor hats go flying as they passed by me.

After seeing enough, I went down to O’Hanlon’s for a couple and arrived just in time for the start of Arsenal/Monaco. You wouldn’t even know it was St. Pat’s day at the bar because the obsessive focus was on soccer. This must be a known Arsenal hangout because it was an intense crowd that shrieked on every sequence. Great atmosphere. Monaco was in defensive, run-out-the-clock mode from the start and it almost didn’t work out for them. It’s hard to believe Arsenal gave up three goals at home based on the way these two teams looked yesterday. The other thing I thought about as I sat there in this really wonderful pub full of singing soccer fans was whether we’ll ever see a MLS match generate that type of intense passion.

As for March Madness, the Johnnies are in as a 9 but will play without O-Block-Pah (suspended two weeks for doob puffs). It’s gonna be tough for St. John’s to make much of a run without the Swatter. Jay Wright told Mike on Monday that Obekpa’s absence really hurts St. John’s. “He’s the one guy you can’t lose,“ said Wright. The Storm’s opponent San Diego State makes the cross-country flight to Charlotte Wednesday which isn’t easy but their game will tip off Friday night on San Diego time (940 PM in the east) which eases that disadvantage a bit. SDSU has size but doesn’t shoot great so I think it’s a winnable game for the Johnnies who would get Duke on Sunday if they can beat Fisher and the Aztecs. Watch for all five St. John’s starters to play in excess of 35 minutes given the fact they now have no viable sixth man.

The only other NYC team to get in was Manhattan. Their head coach Steve Masiello looks ridiculous now for popping off about his team’s bracket placement. Masiello and the Jaspers lost a sixteen vs. sixteen game last night against sub-500 Hampton. Manhattan won the MAAC tourney coming off a mediocre regular season to get the automatic bid. But instead of fully embracing the Dance chance, Masiello complained about the selection committee’s fun and kinda twisted placement of Masiello’s team opposite Kentucky in the round of 64 game. This all came a year after a scandal in which Masiello was busted for inflating his Kentucky credentials and nearly got disgraced out of the sport. I personally enjoy the committee’s effort to manipulate storylines instead of creating brackets purely on the math and science. If I was Masiello, I would have not made a peep about Kentucky until I beat Hampton. And then, I would have said Bring ’Em On.