Refs not provided definitive replay angle in critical national title call
The referees in Monday's men's basketball national title game were heavily criticized for questionable calls late in Duke's 68-63 win over Wisconsin. But there appears to be a plausible explanation for one call.
With a little less than two minutes to go in the game and Duke holding a five-point lead, an out-of-bounds call was initially awarded to Duke. Most of the television replays were inconclusive except for one that showed Duke forward Justise Winslow's finger grazing the ball before it went out of bounds.
Only problem is that the officials on the floor were not provided that replay angle and upheld the call, giving Duke possession.
"All four of our officials were involved in the review -- Jeff Clark was our standby," NCAA supervisor of officials John Adams said on SiriusXM College Sports on Tuesday. "We never saw on our monitor what everybody saw at home, if you can believe that."
Adams said he saw the definitive angle but only after the officials left the scorer's table. He could have taken the unprecedented step of calling them back and telling them what he saw, but he decided against it.
"I saw it after they had left the monitor, and actually thought about; is it in my prerogative to get up, run over the table, buzz the buzzer and tell them to come back and look?" Adams said. "That's how critical I thought the play was, and concluded that this is a job for the guys on the floor and I've never done this before, why would I do it tonight and perhaps change the balance of the game?
"We had been told time and time again, 'Nobody at home will see anything you didn't see.' And I will tell you that's not what happened last night. That is not an excuse. That is just laying it out for you."
