Whatever you do, don't blame the officiating

[Mountain Mustang]

I agree we never should've been in the situation but the refs absolutely blew the call. Everyone on the post game broadcast thought so too. The ref who made the call was perpendicular to the line of the shot and almost at half court. The ref behind the shot made no call because he could clearly see it was going to be an airball or have zero chance of going in. The director of officiating was on the broadcast and you could see he was clearly struggling to defend the call. IT WAS AN AWFUL CALL. THEY GAVE THEM 3 POINTS THAT DIRECTLY COST US THE GAME. I would be shocked if they don't allow a review on this sort of play in the future. Just a shame to lose this way; I would've been much less [deleted] if we'd lost had Alford drained the 3.

If you look at the overhead video it looks like it could be a goaltend

That's a goaltend? No way.

[geno]

Not related to goaltending, maybe, but have to note the refs called us for fourteen fouls, UCLA for seventeen. We made twelve of twenty shots. They made ten of fourteen. If we had just made fourteen of twenty, ....

[Treadway21]

Not goaltending Air ball.

[Mountain Mustang]

Not related to goaltending, maybe, but have to note the refs called us for fourteen fouls, UCLA for seventeen. We made twelve of twenty shots. They made ten of fourteen. If we had just made fourteen of twenty, ....

I 100% agree with this. There were a bunch of different ways we could've won this. We never should've put ourselves in that situation. Alford shooting 8/10 (not counting the airball called goaltending) from 3 doesn't happen. Cunningham's pass shouldn't have happened. We shouldn't have shot 28% from the field for 3/4 of the game and so poorly from the free throw line. I'll stipulate all of that. It's amazing that we could all the sudden wake up and go on a 19-0 run to a sizeable lead with time running out and then be right back in the situation to give UCLA a shot for the win. But the bottom line is the refs made a bad error and those 3 points shouldn't have been awarded. The ref behind the shot should've overruled the other ref who made the call and didn't have the angle but he didn't. You just want to see a game like that decided by the players on the court and not have a call like that happen. That's all; life of a Pony...

[WildBillPony]

I agree we never should've been in the situation but the refs absolutely blew the call. Everyone on the post game broadcast thought so too. The ref who made the call was perpendicular to the line of the shot and almost at half court. The ref behind the shot made no call because he could clearly see it was going to be an airball or have zero chance of going in. The director of officiating was on the broadcast and you could see he was clearly struggling to defend the call. IT WAS AN AWFUL CALL. THEY GAVE THEM 3 POINTS THAT DIRECTLY COST US THE GAME. I would be shocked if they don't allow a review on this sort of play in the future. Just a shame to lose this way; I would've been much less [deleted] if we'd lost had Alford drained the 3.

If you look at the overhead video it looks like it could be a goaltend

Please explain.

[Charleston Pony]

we lost that game because we played "nervous" for more than half the game, including the finish. Granted that was a tough call to give them the winning points, but if we only had a few more perimeter shooters...oh well, maybe next year?

[StallionsModelT]

we lost that game because we played "nervous" for more than half the game, including the finish. Granted that was a tough call to give them the winning points, but if we only had a few more perimeter shooters...oh well, maybe next year?

Tough call is different from an obviously wrong call.

[Pony_Law]

Lots of things determine an out one of a game, so the call itself did not cause te loss. That said it was a horrible call that never should of happened and was 1 of several things that cost smu the game period.

[LakeHighlandsPony]

Congrats to UCLA. They played a better game and out hustled us. Maybe a marquee program got tired of the articles all week questioning they belong. We took a half off and they took advantage.

[RebStang]

Lots of things determine an out one of a game, so the call itself did not cause te loss. That said it was a horrible call that never should of happened and was 1 of several things that cost smu the game period.

Yes, and in another universe I could have possibly been born a girl instead of a boy.

However, in the universe we do live in and in the game that was played, the refs made a horrible call that directly affected the outcome of the game.

Saying "we could have done this" or "we could have done that" doesn't change the fact that, in the game that was actually played, we got screwed at the end.

[SMUPhil]

I agree that one call should not have mattered in the long run, but the game is all about who has at least one more point when the clock is at zero. What sucks for us is that the call, took us from UP 2, to DOWN 1 with less than 10 seconds left. Boom, lead change, no time to discuss, now we are on our heels playing to catch up/take the lead back and it ends in a frantic mess.

[PonyKris89]

Sorry pal, I'm not letting the refs off that easy on this one.
I blame the refs for one of the worst calls I have ever seen, and I'm pissed that I had to listen to that ref mouthpiece after the game give us his BS excuses.

And why the hell do all the national TV games have to have some head of officiating to always comment on these calls?
Why?
All they ever do is lie and defend their own. Pointless.

[gostangs]

That is so true. Has that mouthpiece ever said. " sorry, ref blew this one". No - it's always some piece of [deleted] waste of time excuse.

[SMU89]

[ponyte]

A game may be defined by one play. But one play never determines a game. No doubt there was a summation of plays that could have affected the outcomes. Like hitting two more FTs or making one more inside the paint shot. Even in the first half.

In the end, there was a perfect storm of plays that gave UCLA the narrow chance to win. And it happened.