2011 NCAA Tournament Officials (Master Thread)

[canuckrefguy]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

Burr should have positioned himself to be able to officiate the hail mary. Walton was where he was supposed be on the throw-in.

Who's got the first look on this play? Walton at the centre position. Burr could have been a bit closer on the play - but he's behind the last two players, pretty much where he should be. He could have been "wider" - but still probably would have been straightlined. In either case, Walton still would have had the better angle.

If you watch the replays, the Rutger's player clearly catches the ball outright, and then the St. John's player hacks/grabs him across the inside of his forearms, which causes him to lose the ball and fall backwards onto the floor. Foul.

If the catch had been "iffy" or the ball "up for grabs", I agree, a no-call is the way to go. But the pass was bang-on, and the Rutger's player timed his jump well enough to secure control of the pass. He deserves protection from excessive contact that takes away the play he just made.

I can live with the no-call on the rebound, given all the chaos off the missed FT. But that play on the pass should have been called.

Agree wholeheartedly that falling asleep on the OOB with 1.7 left was an egregious screw-up by Burr/Higgins. My original point was that it was the cherry on top of an extremely bad last minute or so.