I would like to give the referees an option when it comes to replays. This is something that has bothered me for a long time but it happened in the Purdue game, and so while I am still annoyed, I will make my point.

With about 25 seconds left in regulation, Purdue inbounded the ball to Zach Edey and he tried to pass the ball to Braden Smith who was streaking down the sideline but he threw the ball out of bounds. The refs said the ball was deflected by a Wisconsin player and it was Purdue ball – but since it is under 2 minutes, they can review it.

When you watch the review, you see one Wisconsin player hit Edey’s arm as he turns to pass the ball (which is a clear foul) and then the Wisconsin player who double teamed Edey that they thought deflected it totally whiffed on the ball and slapped Edey in the head. (which is a clear foul).

Based on the rules, the referees can not call a foul based on the replay – so they correctly awarded the ball to Wisconsin. To a certain extent, I agree with the rule – if you watch a game in slow-motion, you are going to see a foul on every play. But here is where I disagree.

In real time, they saw the Wisconsin player hit the ball out of bounds. If they saw it correctly in real time, they would have called a foul since he completely missed the ball and hit the Purdue player. And the foul is what caused the ball to go out of bounds. So there should be a different option for the refs.

I am still good with them not calling a foul – the replay should not be allowed to call a foul. But they should be allowed to make a judgment call that even though technically the ball went off one player, the non-called foul was responsible and thus, they give the ball to the team that was fouled. If we are saying in real-time they thought the arm motion deflected it out, then they should be able to say that arm still caused it to go out based on the foul.

By the way, I am not saying that the refs stole the game from Purdue – they were not great, but Purdue got plenty of calls that went their way as well. But I would like the rules to change and give the refs the chance to correct a mistake. It is a bad rule to say that I missed calling a foul on you in a fast paced physical game but since it is in the last 2 minutes, I am going to go to a replay to review it where my only option is to also take the ball away from you.

I am probably just grumpy because Purdue lost. And it is almost dinner time and I still don’t know anything more than I would have UConn, Houston, Purdue and UNC as the one seeds. I should get back to the fake bracket to cheer me up.