During Friday afternoon’s NCAA Tournament opening-round game between the USC Trojans and the Michigan State Spartans, a controversial call caused quite a stir in the college basketball world.
In the second half of the game, Michigan State guard AJ Hoggard appeared to hit Trojan guard Kobe Johnson in the neck and was whistled for a foul – an important call, given that it was Hoggard’s third foul, putting him in foul trouble for the game. However, when the officials went to the monitor to review the play, it became obvious to nearly everyone that it was a flop by the Trojan player.
“What I see here honestly from the angles that I have? I really don’t see contact up to that area,” CBS rules analyst Gene Steratore said in his analysis according to On3. “You’ve got someone that appears to impact that he’s been hit in the throat. They’ve called a foul. But, when they go over to review this, they could actually remove any foul that was called and go with no foul whatsoever. In my opinion, I really don’t see a lot of contact here at all. I could possibly see them removing any foul here whatsoever.”
Flop of the year? Lol#NCAAbasketball #marchmadness2023 #USC #MSU pic.twitter.com/MPzWO0rS2Z
— Pete Havel (@petehavel) March 17, 2023
Not only did Steratore think the officials should have waved off the foul, he thinks they should have considered assessing an “unsporting technical foul” to the defender for his flop.
“When you go over there and a player gives you this impression like they’ve really been hit in a severe way? But there doesn’t appear to be any contact? That becomes an unsporting technical foul for embellishing something that didn’t exist,” Steratore said. “I don’t know, if there’s slight contact, if you can say he’s completely embellishing or pretending as if there’s contact. I can see them just wiping everything away here and just playing basketball without a foul at all.”
However, the officials stuck by the call. And the college basketball world wasn’t happy.
Hoggard didn’t touch him!! Flop!!
— ᗩᑎT ᗯᖇIGᕼT (@itsAntWright) March 17, 2023
That's a big call on Hoggard for his third foul. They should have wiped that out upon review.
— Seth Davis (@SethDavisHoops) March 17, 2023
Hoggard didn’t touch him…
— College Basketball Report (@CBKReport) March 17, 2023
Refs taking a long look at that offensive foul they called on Hoggard. Kobe Johnson certainly sold it.
— Kyle Austin (@kylebaustin) March 17, 2023
https://twitter.com/ColbeyMadewell/status/1636781942157852707?s=20
Hoggard called for a charge up top, his third foul and second of the half. And refs looking at the review. May have got his arm into defender's head or throat area. Sure would be nice if the arena had replays. Or working wifi to stream the game.
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) March 17, 2023
Ultimately, it didn’t matter too much as Michigan State still won the game and advanced, but it was still a blown call in a crucial moment.
[On3]
