Officials Disallowed Boise State Buzzer-Beater by Using a Stopwatch

Boise State appeared to beat Colorado State at the end of regulation when James Webb III hit a long three-pointer as time expired. The shot came off an inbounds pass with .8 seconds remaining and was clearly released before time expired. Upon further review, though, the apparent game-winner was ruled no-good because they game clock did not start upon Webb’s catch.

Official David Hall explained what happened.

"“The protocol on any last-second shot, after the shot is made, you go to the monitor to review whether the shot was taken in time or not.  We followed the protocol, we went to the monitor and we reviewed whether the shot was taken in the 0.8 seconds that was on the game clock when the ball was inbounded. We did that and we noticed that the game clock was not started upon touch. We then used a stopwatch overlay from the monitor review system to determine when he touched it and then figure out how many tenths of a second it took from the time he touched the ball until the time he released the ball and whether he was able to get that shot off in that 0.8 seconds. After reviewing that several times we determined that the shot was late. It was not taken in that 0.8-second time frame, but actually closer to 1.2 or 1.3 time frame. As a result, the basket does not count.”"

SportsCenter ran two stopwatch tests of their own to discover how much time elapsed between Webb catching the ball and releasing the shot. Each result (.63 and .70 seconds) suggest the play should have stood as called on the floor.

Boise State coach Leon Rice was understandably miffed.

"“I’ve never seen anything like it, I don’t think we can just make up timing rules,” [he] said. “Hopefully the (Mountain West) conference can explain it to me, because I guess I’m ignorant to what you can do and what you can’t do. They don’t hand time things in the Olympics anymore.”"

Colorado State went on to win in overtime, making the controversial call even more painful for the Broncos.

If you have a timer handy, run a trial of your own. It’s difficult to understand how the officials came up with a figure over one second. They must have been extremely confident in that decision to overrule the call made in real time.

I just … don’t see where they would have gotten such confidence in “no basket” being the correct ruling.

[Idaho Statesman]