Rutgers SCREWED By Big East Officials

Justin Brownlee runs towards the sidelines as time expires
(NY Times)

I have seen some terrible calls over the years watching sports, but nothing compares to what happened Wednesday afternoon at Madison Square Garden in the Big East Tournament.  With 4.9 seconds on the clock Rutgers was inbounding the ball with a chance to either tie, or win the game with a 3.  The Rutgers player heaved the ball across half court and after what looked like a St. Johns foul, a St. Johns player ended up with the ball.  Thats when the situation got out of control.

Justin Brownlee ended up with the tipped ball and ran towards the sidelines as the clock slowly ticked away.  With about a second and a half on the clock, Brownlee stepped out of bounds near the scorer's table, along with taking four steps without dribbling the ball.  He then finished it all off by chucking the ball out of bounds with time still remaining on the clock.

What you would assume is that the referees would confer and put time back on the clock because of the travel, or the fact that Brownlee stepped on the sideline.  However, the refs raced up the tunnel and towards the locker room before any review was initiated, or even talked about.  St. Johns won the game by a margin of 65-63, when clearly, and I mean CLEARLY, the game should have continued.

Luckily, the head of NCAA officiating, John Adams made a statement following the game stating that the call was "unacceptable," and there was "definitely a mistake made."  The loss will be hard to swallow for Rutgers though, since they at least should have had another shot to send the game to OT, or to win outright.  Its a shame that a team, especially one without tournament hopes, should have to end their season in that manner.

Here is a clip of the atrocity: