Fair Calls or Foul Play?

I’m sure every basketball fan remembers the drama with the Mavericks and the Heat in the NBA finals a few years back. Dwyane Wade was fouled 117 times and shot 386 free throws, all before the Mavericks got off the team bus (source: wikipedia). The refs seemed to give every extra chance to the Heat, allowing them to catch up and eventually come back from a 2-0 series to win four games to two. Critics believe this was because of Mark Cuban’s public statements concerning the NBA organization and specifically the impartiality of refs. I guess they showed him.

Fast forward to 2008, and we have the Texas Aggies making their second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. In the second round they are set to play #2 ranked UCLA. The Aggies hold up well in the first half and carry a lead into the second period. The game continues to be close however, and the the last few minutes of play are set to determine the outcome.

Aggie guard Donald Sloan drives the lane with under 10 seconds left to tie things up and keep Aggie hopes alive… and his shot is blocked. UCLA wins. Hey wait a second…

With two hands clearly shown touching his arms at the critical moment of the shot, and Sloan crumpled into a ball on the court afterwards, you’d think that the referees would have thought something was amiss. The commentators noticed, the fans noticed.  Before you call me a poor sport or slanted fan, it’s important to note that it wasn’t just the Aggie faithful that objected. The first Google result for “donald sloan” is an article from the San Jose Mercury News, touting the clear evidence in the AP Photos above. For those of you who missed Geography, College Station, TX and San Jose, CA are not neighbors.

These pictures have made quite a splash on the internet and in television: ESPN SportsCenter devoted a segment to the topic, and everyone else from Fox Sports to the Washington Post featured the controversial no-call.While we shouldn’t have to worry about the refs profiting financially from the result of the game and steering the outcome, we may have to worry about something basketball fans are very familiar with: make up calls.

As this this slow-loading video shows, early in the game Donald Sloan seems to roughly handle (aka, “body slam”) a UCLA player and yet the UCLA player is called for the foul. I’m sure UCLA fans had a very similar reaction to this foul as the Aggies did to the foul in the game’s final seconds. Were the refs trying to re-balance the game after this mistake? Could there be others missed calls in this equation? Attempting to answer these questions is a futile effort and no matter what evidence is found, in the end, the Aggies still lost.

Luckily A&M fans seem to be taking it well. The most popular comment references Sloan’s slightly lacking 67% Free-throw average, acknowledging that even if the refs called it correctly, he would still have to sink two baskets before the Aggies even had a shot at overtime. The outcome of that extra period is anyone’s guess, but it’s a safe bet that one team and it’s fans would still leave with nothing but controversy and the other with a chance at the NCAA Championship.