Unless it pulls off a series of massive upsets in the Big Ten Tournament, Minnesota’s men’s basketball team isn’t going to the NCAA Tournament, the NIT or any other postseason tournament. The Golden Gophers are one of the worst teams in the country from a power conference.
Despite that, though, Minnesota is doing a good job of playing spoiler. The Golden Gophers defeated Rutgers — a bubble team — with a buzzer-beating three-pointer from Jamison Battle. But Minnesota could not fully celebrate being a spoiler. First, the Gophers — and everyone else — had to sit through a lengthy review that frankly, did nothing but spoil a lot of fun.
With 5.8 seconds left, Rutgers guard Caleb McConnell made a free throw to put the Scarlet Knights up 74-72. Battle then inbounded the ball to Ta’lon Cooper. As Rutgers was not pressuring Cooper, he let the ball roll for a while before touching, delaying the start of the clock. When Cooper picked the ball up, he dribbled to just inside of the three-point line, then passed to Battle. Scarlet Knights guard Cam Spencer leaped at Battle, who faked a shot, then pulled up and nailed the three at the buzzer.
MINNESOTA BUZZER-BEATING 3 TO STUN RUTGERS! 🏀🧅🧅🧅 pic.twitter.com/uK3Ej8cPj5
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) March 3, 2023
The play was exciting, but also not especially controversial from an officiating standpoint. Cooper didn’t touch the ball before picking it up. Battlle’s shot was taken from well behind the three-point line but he was nowhere near going out of bounds. He got it off in time and there was no time remaining when the ball when through the hoop. It was all clear. Despite that, the review took more than 10 minutes.
And college basketball fans were not happy to see the officials make such a spectacle out of what should have been an easy review and a fun moment for Minnesota.
I’ve never seen a dumber/longer replay than for this Minnesota and Rutgers game.
— Hammer and Rails (@HammerAndRails) March 3, 2023
Whatever is going on with the refs in the Minnesota and Rutgers game cannot happen.
— Mark Carman (@thecarm) March 3, 2023
That final Minnesota/Rutgers replay review took ELEVEN MINUTES. ELEVEN. And it was an obvious call live, and on every subsequent replay review.
Every referee involved in that fiasco should be suspended. I'm not even joking. It's not acceptable.
— Jeff (BPredict) (@BPredict) March 3, 2023
they're still reviewing this??!!! (Rutgers/Minnesota)
— The Sickos CBB Committee (@SickosCBB) March 3, 2023
This review at the end of the Minnesota/Rutgers game is bizarrely long and unnecessary. He clearly got it off in time and it’s obvious there should be no time on the clock. Don’t understand this at all.
— Made For March (@madeformarch) March 3, 2023
This review at the end of the Minnesota Rutgers game really puts off the vibe of the Big 10 trying to make sure Rutgers doesn’t end up with a quad 4 loss.
— Shelby Waddell (@CoachSWaddell) March 3, 2023
The end of this Rutgers-Minnesota game is a prime example of why we need to remove replay review from sports.
They've been reviewing a buzzer beater for 25 minutes.
WTF are we doing? They completely destroyed all the excitment of a game winning shot.
— Raheem Palmer (@iamrahstradamus) March 3, 2023
To be clear, there’s no harm in reviewing a play. In fact, with a game-ending play, there’s no excuse not to, especially when it comes late in the year and involves a bubble team. It’s important to remember that the officials are dealing with inches and tenths of seconds. Even an obvious call can be messed up when everything is that precise. Replay is meant to correct those errors.
Replay is not meant to be an insufferably and needlessly long process. With the benefit of cameras, the call was clear — even without slow motion. At the most, the officials should have looked at the play once in slow motion, then ruled the shot clean on all counts. In no way should that process ever take more than one minute, let alone 10.
[Photo Credit: FS1]
