Should End of Game Blown Calls Result in Win Reversals? - jmik58's Blog

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Should End of Game Blown Calls Result in Win Reversals? Stuck

Posted on February 26, 2013 at 12:40 PM.

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The men wearing black and white stripes had a trick up their sleeves, one-upping ISU's Hilton Magic

For Iowa State fans, visions of the Paul Shirley block-charge nightmare are dancing in their heads all over again.

This time the stakes weren't quite as high but the end result more definitively cost the Cyclones a win.

With only seconds remaining in last night's contest between the Kansas Jayhawks and Iowa State Cyclones, KU's Elijah Johnson drove to the bucket in an attempt to tie the game with a two-point layup. Johnson appeared to charge through ISU's Georges Niang but no call was made. As Johnson fell to the floor, however; Niang was whistled for holding -- sending Johnson to the line for two game-tying free throws. The game went to overtime where the Jayhawks pulled out the victory.

Regarding the apparently blown call at the end of the game, Big-Twelve officials have spoken out by stating that "calls are under review" from the game. But is this little more than a public relations formality?

Granted, games are full of moments where human error on the part of officials or referees cause the game to change in various ways. But when a missed call at the end of regulation causes the victory to change hands from one team to another; should something be done?

If college basketball (looking at you, Big-Ten) can retroactively change a three to a two on a play that took place six possessions ago, shouldn't something as important as the win itself be eligible for correction?

It would be near impossible to restart a contest from the point of error in basketball. We're not talking about George Brett and a pine-tarred bat involving teams that will see each other multiple times over the course of a season. Perhaps if a win-altering call should be deemed so egregious, allow officials to consider the game a draw.

Human error is a natural part of playing and officiating games. But when the error on the part of the referee occurs so close to the end of the game and the scales are tipped extremely in one way, there's no reason a progressive and intelligent race of beings can't put idealism and traditionalism aside to simply get it right.

Sound Off: Should game results be altered when blown calls clearly cost a team the win? What ideas would you propose to handle similar situations?

Justin Mikels is a staff writer for Operation Sports. Give him hell in the comments below or on Twitter: @long_snapper

Comments

# 1 huntt26 @ Feb 26

I'm still very upset about this game, but there's not much that can be done. I'm just hoping the Cyclones still make the NCAA tournament. A win would have all but locked them in the field...

# 2 huntt26 @ Feb 26

It would have been fine if they wouldn't have called the charge and also didn't call Niang for the hold. Either call something before that or let them play.

# 3 jhawk886 @ Feb 28

I'll give you that something probably should've been called one way or another on Elijah's drive, and the subsequent foul was very ticky-tack. However, the game was very poorly officiated throughout on both sides. If you want to say that it was a horribly officiated game, I'm perfectly fine with that; but there were multiple other terrible calls throughout that game for both sides that had a significant outcome on the game. Boiling the entire game, outcome, and the officiating down to one call at the very end of the game is absurd.

This was a great game. Iowa State set a school record for 3's made in a game and KU had to fight all game to stay in it and then fight back with insane 3's to match ISU's great free throw shooting to tie it at the end. That was the best college basketball game I've seen all season and it's unfortunate that the officiating was so poor, but we shouldn't diminish the effort and passion the players from both teams played with and the greatness of that game because of one call at the end of the game.