[BillyMac]

I don't know a lot about college basketball officiating, but it appears that from the initial split-second catch, or non-catch, and throw/tip/tap/slap back, until the conclusion and announcement of the monitor review, everything in between (dribble, shot clock, team control, etc.) was just a giant dumpster fire.

I'm not fully blaming the officials, there were a lot of tough judgment calls that occurred in a very short period of time. Nothing was easy about this situation.

Watched a friend work a state semifinal a few weeks ago. At one point he was the trail in the back corner of the frontcourt, in front of and trapped against the table, with one partner all the way down on the end line, and the other partner all the way over on the other side of the court, with their own active matchups, so no real help (except for the two head coaches standing within a few feet of him). He had several decisions to go through on a play in that corner as one offensive player was trapped in the corner by two defensive players, and then the players went to the floor after the ball got loose the floor. What initially was almost a five second call (he was counting) became either an offensive team control foul, a defensive foul, out of bounds (on either team), backcourt, or a held ball, all while he had to listen for a coach (or coaches) requesting, and he possibly granting, a timeout. All this in a few seconds.

He came out with the strongest held ball call that I've ever seen.

It's not easy being a high school, or college, basketball official.