Miami at Louisville Player Throws Ball Off Opponent's Face (Video)

[HokiePaul]

Does anyone think this should just have been a simple OOB call? That's all I would have had in real time when I watched it. It's common (and accepted) that you can attempt to throw the ball off of an opponent to avoid an OOB call (or for other reasons such as to avoid a 5 second violation). This doesn't look any different to me, other than it happened to get him in the face.

My thought on the play was simply that the rebounder lost track of where he was on the court and thought that he was about to land OOB. Did the instinctive thing and threw it off of the opponent before landing. His reaction after the play also doesn't suggest this was malicious or unsportsmanlike.