2011 NCAA Tournament Officials (Master Thread)

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by canuckrefguy

As for all the Burr-bashing. In the infamous Rutgers game - it was neither Burr nor Tim Higgins that were the primary official in what I think are the biggest f-ups in the dying minutes of that game: (1) the obvious rebounding foul that was passed on (C on the play was up above the 3pt line when the foul occurred off a missed FT), but positioned way too high IMO), and another foul on the hail mary pass at the end where the Rutgers guy is basically knocked down. Earl Walton was the closest official on both those plays - but Higgins and Burr got all the vitriol. Not defending any of them - but Walton kind of got off scott-free in the court of public opinion IMO.

On the FT rebound, Higgins was the lead and was standing about 4' INBOUNDS, a position several feet from where he should have been and one that took away any chance he had of helping across the lane with contact. As you said, the C/Walton was also way too high but still should have been able to see it from where he was. Either one could have got that one. There was no reason for Higgins to be that far inbounds. It was as if he was anticipating the make or the rebound to go the other way and wanted to get a head start since he's not so fast. If he has to do that to keep up, maybe its time to retire.

I didn't think the hail mary was a foul. That ball was up for grabs and both players with basically straight up for the ball. Just because one falls down doesn't mean the other one fouled him.

Burr should have had line coverage on the OOB with Higgins providing secondary coverage. Walton, being directly across the court, wouldn't have had any way to reliably tell if the player was inbounds or not.

So, yes, a foul was missed. Fouls are missed. The biggest gaff in that game was the player running OOB with the ball with no whistle....that one falls only on Burr & Higgins. Walton may have been able to save the day but it would have been difficult to see from his spot (which was a correct location form him to be).