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I watched the 2nd half and the OT.
Verne Harris became injured just prior to the media TO under 16:00 in the 2nd half. So the crew went a long way with him hobbled. They did the best they could. Verne stayed at C opposite the table the rest of the game including the extra period. They actually messed up only twice as the Lead rotated and then forget to go back due to Verne's condition. Both times the Trail was running up Verne's back and he waved that official over. The Trail official then crossed over in the frontcourt.
The BI may or may not have been missed because of the concern over how to handle Verne. On the play Bill Kennedy had rotated to L opposite the table. I believe that Verne had shifted his focus to him and was making sure that he was going to go back, Chris Rastatter was tableside and probably was concerned with flying down to Lead on the other end. A Stanford player then blocked a shot by putting his hand up through the net and ring and reaching outside the cylinder to contact the ball that the Washington player was just releasing. The crew missed it. The replay clearly shows it. Unfortunate.
I did not care for the position on the final play of regulation with 2.1 seconds remaining. Verne was of course C opposite the table. He started near the top of the key and moved down to the division line while the pass was thrown to midcourt. Bill Kennedy chose to be Trail OPPOSITE the table for the throw-in in the backcourt on the end line! WHY? He knows that he has Verne over there on that side of the court. He should have stayed tableside as Stanford had running privileges anyway. I don't understand this choice after 2 time-outs. It's not like the crew didn't have time to talk about where they would start on the play. Chris Rastatter was the new Lead and he was all the way down on the opposite end line. He did have a double whistle on the foul with Verne. This positioning made it difficult for the crew to cover the court, but they did and got the obvious foul on the 3pt shot at the buzzer. (Actually .2 was put back up after consulting the monitor.) I believe that the crew did get this play right with some difficulty.
BTW there was no backcourt violation on the play as some of the sports broadcasters are saying after the fact. The Stanford player jumped from his frontcourt caught the inbounds pass while airborne and then landed with his first foot down on the division line and his second foot in the backcourt. We all know that the exception allows this. He may have traveled before he passed the ball to Hernandez though. It was close.
I don't know what else this crew could have done with Verne as hurt as he certainly was. He gutted it out. The only other choice was to have him leave the court and finish the game with only two officials. Not a wonderful option either.
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