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There was contact on the play. Based upon the NCAA rules and recent directives and POEs there is support for calling any of the three: normal personal foul, intentional personal foul, or flagrant personal foul. My opinion is that it was better to have a whistle on this play than not, but I will not question the judgment of the officials working the contest. I think that they could have gotten away with not having a foul on this play with only some grief, but not a blow-up, from Coach K as the contact wasn't hard, although the Duke player fell hard, but fortunately wasn't hurt. The problem was that a North Carolina player suffered a broken arm/wrist just the day before on a similar play. So again a whistle on this silly challenge from behind when clearly beaten and out of position makes more sense to me.
I will also comment that in my opinion a play such as this must be called by the Lead and Center without any involvement whatsoever from the Trail. The Lead may have gotten himself into a spot with a poor angle by being too close to the action, but the C had a perfect look. The Trail needs to stay the heck out of it and trust his partners to handle their business. To do otherwise undermines the crew. This wasn't a must get that grandma in the 47th row could see.
As either the Lead or C, I would be much displeased with the Trail for coming and putting a whistle on this. It gives the perception that the official is making a call to please a coach. I'm never in favor of that.
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