This week, the Ohio State Buckeyes saw their college basketball season come to a close with a loss to the Purdue Boilermakers in the semifinal of the Big Ten Tournament. The Buckeyes had no answer for 7-foot-4 Purdue center Zach Edey, but Chris Holtmann claims that was partially because Edey was consistently breaking a rule.
During his weekly radio show appearance, Chris Holtmann claimed that Purdue and Zach Edey were consistently violating the three-second rule that prohibits any offensive player from standing in the key for longer than three seconds at a time. But according to Holtmann, the officials ignored it.
“Listen, I was on the officials the entire game. I really do think that needs to be evaluated whether or not you keep that rule in the rulebook. Because if it’s not gonna be enforced, why is it in fact in the rulebook?” Holtmann said according to Eleven Warriors. “And clearly, it’s not a rule that is enforced. He does a good job at times of dancing in and out, but more times than not, it’s clear. And listen, give them credit. They know it’s not going to get called. And if at the very most, it’s gonna get called once a game, at the very most. And most times it won’t.”
If Holtmann’s claims are correct, it seems that Purdue took advantage of some lax officiating. We’ll have to see if this continues into the NCAA Tournament.
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