Sat Mar 21, 2009 11:02 pm EDT
A thrilling finish to the Gonzaga-Western Kentucky second round NCAA tournament game was marred by an egregious officiating error, when refs failed to give the Hilltoppers a timeout after Gonzaga hit the go-ahead basket with 0.9 seconds on the clock.
Instead of granting the timeout, play continued and Western Kentucky missed a 70-foot prayer at the buzzer.
It's a grainy screenshot, but the game clock at the bottom of the screen says 0.9 and that's Western Kentucky coach Ken McDonald emphatically calling a timeout. Even worse, A.J. Slaughter, a Hilltopper guard, was also calling timeout near the baseline when his team was inbounding the ball.
The last few seconds of the game were played at a frenetic pace without any stops, which may have contributed to the confusion. Western Kentucky tied the score after a tip-in with 7.2 seconds left and, without a stop in play, Gonzaga's Demetri Goodson immediately went coast-to-coast for the go-ahead layup with 0.9.
However, there's no excuse for the refs to have missed the timeout. There were three officials on the court; at least one should have seen either McDonald or Slaughter signaling for the stoppage in play.
On CBS, Greg Anthony got it exactly right when he said the refs have to be operating under the assumption that the team with the ball will be calling a timeout in such a situation. His colleague, Seth Davis, disagreed for reasons that are still unclear. (Of course, at the same time this was happening, Davis' alma mater, Duke, was benefiting from some shady officiating in Greensboro.)
Much like with the Super Bowl, it's a shame that a great finish was marred by the incompetence of referees. In all likelihood, the final result of the game would have been the same had the refs granted the timeout. Still, in NCAA tournament history, teams have hit game-winners with less time, so there was always a chance.
The Dagger is a college basketball blog edited by Jeff Eisenberg. Email him, and follow him on Twitter.

Posted Jan 28 2010
Posted Jan 28 2010
Posted Jan 28 2010
Edited by MJD
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498 Comments
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Its typical of you to take shots at Duke when they are completely irrelevant to what you're discussing, but at least you used to make a weak attempt to justify your bias. This time you can't even point to anything specific. You're a hack.
And for the record, the officiating in the Duke game was terrible - but Duke was hardly the beneficiary. Texas got away with hacks and grabs all game while Duke got called for every touch foul. Case in point, Kyle Singler fouled out in this game for the first time this season, picking up four fouls in the last few minutes of the game, most of which were questionable calls at best.
Chris, you're a hack.
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And yes, xiaodi_linchen, the officiating in favor of Duke was shady. Henderson gets the rebound and falls down with the ball in his possession, that's supposed to be traveling. But since he plays for Duke, no call. Disgusting.
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