GLENDALE, AZ – APRIL 03: Kennedy Meeks #3 of the North Carolina Tar Heels and Silas Melson #0 of the Gonzaga Bulldogs compete for the ball in the second half during the 2017 NCAA Men’s Final Four National Championship game at University of Phoenix Stadium on April 3, 2017 in Glendale, Arizona. The North Carolina Tar Heels were awarded possession after a jump ball was called. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

Gonzaga-North Carolina turned out to be one of the worst NCAA Tournament title games in recent memory, and certainly the worst since Butler-UConn in 2011.

Part of the reason this game was so bad: the officials did their best to ruin it.

In particular, the entire second half was riddled with officiating errors both in big spots and affecting overall game flow. Here’s the full list.

44 fouls and 52 free throws

Basketball games are most fun when the refs allow the players to play. However, because they called 44 fouls—27 in the second half—this game couldn’t have any flow. That’s to be expected when there’s a stoppage from a foul every 54 seconds.

The beginning of the second half was particularly egregious. There were 11 fouls called in the first five minutes of the second half, which got both teams in foul trouble and completely changed the game. Many of them were ticky-tack fouls that shouldn’t have been called.

The fouls made what should have been a fun game frustratingly choppy and boring.

This foul call on Zach Collins

A lot of the foul calls in this game were bad, but none changed the game as much as the fourth foul call against Zach Collins for … I’m not sure. Watch this and try to tell me where the foul is.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Collins is a star inside, and he provided Gonzaga with a major size mismatch against UNC. The fourth foul forced him out of the game for the next seven-and-a-half minutes, and it affected the Zags’ ability to extend their lead.

Case in point: Gonzaga made only one field goal between Collins’ foul, at 15:53 and Collins’ next field goal, at 6:09.

Personal foul/Flagrant 1

In this sequence, the refs called a foul on UNC’s Joel Berry. It was not a foul. However, since they couldn’t overturn that foul call, they went back and called a flagrant foul on Gonzaga’s Przemek Karnowski, for accidentally slapping Berry across the face.

So we got a player shooting free throws despite not being fouled, and then another shooting free throws for being called for a foul but also called the victim of a flagrant foul.

Again … ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The refs didn’t understand traveling

In the midst of calling a barrage of fouls, the refs somehow missed this (seven-step? eight-step?) travel on Karnowski.

They also missed a travel by Gonzaga’s Nigel Williams-Goss, but then called a travel when Williams-Goss didn’t actually travel.

“Tipped” three

Jordan Mathews airballed a three in the second half, but the refs inexplicably said the ball was tipped, so they gave it back to Gonzaga, which subsequently hit a three to finish out the possession.

It was not tipped.

Kennedy Meeks was out-of-bounds

The most crucial missed call of the game came when the refs called a jump ball on a tie-up with 49 seconds left and UNC leading by one. The possession arrow gave the ball to the Tar Heels, but UNC’s Kennedy Meeks had his hand out-of-bounds while holding the ball, so Gonzaga should have been given possession.

UNC scored on its next possession to lead to a win.

Illegal inbounds pass

After UNC scored with 25 seconds left to extend the lead to three, Gonzaga attempted to inbound the ball quickly, but wasn’t fully out-of-bounds. That should have given the ball back to UNC.

Look, officiating college basketball is difficult, and anyone reading this would likely have been worse at officiating this game. However, these were supposed to be some of the best refs college basketball has to offer, and they woefully underperformed.

Anyone who watches college basketball knows that officiating tends to be a major problem in the sport. Perhaps it’s time for the NCAA and the conferences to start hiring full-time referees to improve officiating across the sport.

About Kevin Trahan

Kevin mostly covers college football and college basketball, with an emphasis on NCAA issues and other legal issues in sports. He is also an incoming law student. He's written for SB Nation, USA Today, VICE Sports, The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal, among others. He is a graduate of Northwestern University.

1 thought on “A look at all of the referees’ errors in the Gonzaga-North Carolina National Championship game

  1. If you watch video of the last one (the inbounds pass), it appears that he lifts his foot off the line before passing it in. Since his other foot is established OOB, the pass is legal.

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