Nothing like a nice, controversial finish to get the blood flowing.
New Mexico was on the receiving end of a rule misinterpretation on Saturday afternoon, and that interpretation likely cost the Lobos a win over San Diego State and, arguably, a shot at the MWC regular season title.
Here’s the situation: New Mexico is up by three with 12 seconds left and the ball under their own basket. Their allowed to run the baseline, so Craig Neal calls a play where the inbounder throws the ball to a player running out of bounds.
Totally league as long as the player establishes out of bounds before touching the ball. The referee rules that he doesn’t.
Here’s the video:
The problem?
According to the rules, Xavier Adams -- the player receiving the pass from Cullen Neal -- only needed one foot on the floor out of bounds in order to establish himself as an inbounder that was able to catch that ball. He got one foot down (see the picture above), but the referees appeared to rule that he needed to have both feet down.
That was incorrect, according to the Mountain West office.
“While this was a very close judgment call made at full speed, it has been determined after careful review of slow-motion video replays the call was in fact incorrect,” the league said in a release. “The New Mexico player did get one foot down (two feet are not required) out-of-bounds before receiving the ball, thus establishing his location in accordance NCAA Basketball Playing Rules 4.23.1.a and 7.1.1. By rule, the officials were not permitted to go to the monitor during the game to review this play.”
And here’s the kicker: When SDSU got the ball back, they hit a three to send the game into overtime, where the Aztecs won. But if New Mexico had won this game, they’d be sitting at 8-2 in MWC play, one game behind SDSU in the loss column with a return game against them in The Pit.
Instead, they’re now three games back with seven to play, meaning that the race is effectively over.
It’s tough to blame the referees here -- it was a bang-bang call that is only clear in slow-motion replay -- but man, that’s a big call to miss.
