Quote:
Originally Posted by Nevadaref
Very disappointed in Jay Bilas, who is normally pretty good, today for his lack of understanding of the BI rule.
Why is the assumption that the official is incorrect instead of people presuming that the TV announcers are wrong?
The play:
Gonzaga attempts a field goal in the final seconds of the 2nd half. The ball is in the imaginary cylinder above the ring, but not touching the basket. A Tenn. player puts his hand up through the basket from below. He touches the net and makes slight contact the ring. He comes close to, but doesn't not touch the ball. The ball hit the backboard and passed over the ring, and then continued away on the other side of the goal.
The announcers declared that this was absolutely illegal. 
Update: The SportsCenter guys just said that it should have been an "automatic goaltending." |
Personally, I would like to see one extra "teammate" added to the crew covering sports games. I know that a few of the football bowl games had a "rules interpreter" on the crew covering the games for the networks.
It would be nice to have another referee at the event in the background. Anytime there was a controversial play -- such as this one (I was watching as well) -- the executive producer could quickly consult the referee who could provide feedback directly to the commentators. With the size of the crews that they take to these games -- cameramen, producers, announcers, etc. it would seem that they could improve the quality of the broadcast by having the referee on board at a very low cost. I would also add one to the "technical staff" in the ESPN Studios that would prevent a repeat of the error over and over on Sportscenter for the next 23 hours.