BYU was up 10 with about 3 minutes on Wisconsin when a strange play happened. The Badgers trapped BYU’s Dawson Baker in the corner, and as he tried to split the trap, he elbows Max Klesmit in the groin. After a review, the refs determined that Baker intentionally did it which led to a Flagrant 2 foul and an ejection.
You could clearly see that Baker dropped his shoulder to try to split the trap – which led to the contact. But in my opinion, it was a basketball play. The announcers mentioned that it wasn’t that simple – the way the rules are written, it doesn’t matter if it is a basketball play or not – it simply matters that it was intentional. If that is the case, the rule needs to be re-written. We can’t allow a player to get trapped in the corner (where he is also somewhat being mugged), and say that if there is accidental contact to the groin if the player tries to dribble out of the trap that it is an automatic ejection because they intentionally tried to dribble the ball.
Well, John Tonje would hit both free throws to cut the lead to 8, but it looked like it will be alright as BYU’s Egor Demin hit a deep three pointer to make the lead 11. But Wisconsin would chip away at the lead. It was 8 with 90 seconds to play. Tonje would hit a three-pointer and a layup while being fouled to cut the lead to just 2 points with a minute to play.
Demin dropped the clock down to 30 seconds before missing a three-pointer, but the rebound barely went off a Wisconsin player last to give BYU the ball back. The Badgers decided to simply defend and stopped Dailin Hall’s drive to the basket.
At this point, I had a horrible thought go through my head. What would happen if Wisconsin scored, and the game went to a couple overtimes. BYU is not allowed to play on Sundays. Would they have to stop the game, or just give the Cougars an exception since the game started on Saturday.
But with 10 seconds left, all the Badgers could get was Tonje shooting a well-defended fade-away jumper and the Cougars escaped with a 2 point victory. No need to play on Sunday, just need to book their trip to the Sweet 16.
Meanwhile, in Wichita, Gonzaga was trying to create a miracle comeback of their own on Houston. Houston led by double digits for most of the game, but Graham Ike would score 5 straight points to cut the lead to 76-72. Ike would cut the lead to 3 from the line and Khalif Battle would further cut the lead to 1. But that would be as close as the Bulldogs would get. LJ Cryer hit two free throws to make the lead 3 points, Gonzaga’s Battle would be forced to a desperation three pointer from the corner that would be blocked, and the rest of the time ran off allowing both Cougars to survive massive comeback bids.
BYU ended the Big 10s run of 10 straight wins, and then Tennessee made sure that a new run did not get started by knocking off UCLA. And the Lunatic is falling asleep as he types. Going to have to do Sunday’s handicapping before the games in the morning, because I am exhausted.
I don’t know that I will keep these picks but in case I get delayed, I will buy myself two more hours. The first game is Florida (-9.5) vs Connecticut (O/U 151) – if I had to at this point, I think the game will be exactly like the Auburn / Creighton game. That means take Florida (20) and the over (20).
I might change my mind once I get a chance to see some data. But that will be in the morning.