[Fan10]

If anyone saw the end of the Alabama/Mississippi State game on Tuesday night, you saw a major coaching error. With the score tied and 30 seconds left, Alabama had the ball, and there was a timeout. During the timeout, the TV guys mentioned that Alabama had a foul to give (They had 5 fouls). When play resumed, with 11 seconds left, Alabama was called for a charging foul (#6). When Mississippi State inbounded the ball, Alabama, who was thinking they still had a foul to give, committed a foul with 7 seconds left. After a meeting at the table, the officials correctly put MSU on the line for a 1 and 1, which completely flabbergasted the TV guys and myself as I watched on TV. Looking back on it, it's easy to see that it was handled correctly, and Alabama's head coach admitted after the game that it was a breakdown in communication with his staff and that they can't let that happen again. But, at the time, the fouls happened so close together that in my mind, in the TV guys' minds, and obviously in the minds of the Alabama coaches, the foul was only the 6th. Luckily for Alabama, the front end of the one and one was missed, and the game went to OT where Alabama eventually won.

The whole sequence got me to thinking though: What if the official scorer had fallen into the same trap that seemingly everyone else had fallen into? What if Mississippi State was given the ball out of bounds, Alabama held them, and as we are about to go to overtime, the error is discovered. Am I correct that Mississippi State would get to shoot a one and one with no one around and if the first one is good, the game would immediately end with Alabama having no chance to answer? If so, I truly cannot imagine a worse way for a game to end.