LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - MARCH 28: Carsen Edwards #3 of the Purdue Boilermakers reacts after he was fouled by Lamonte Turner #1 of the Tennessee Volunteers (left) during the closing seconds of the second half of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament South Regional at the KFC YUM! Center on March 28, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) We have a controversial finish on our hands in Anaheim as a huge call from the referees enabled Purdue to tie the game in the final seconds against Tennessee. A controversial call kept Purdue’s season alive while ending Tennessee’s. Purdue had the ball for an inbound play down 82-80 with 2.5 seconds on the clock, with Ryan Cline triggering the play. Cline passed to Carsen Edwards on the perimeter, and the refs called Tennessee for a foul, sending Edwards to the line for three huge free throws. The call was controversial in the immediate aftermath with many questioning on Twitter if the Boilers just got a lucky break and if this was the latest example of the Vols getting the raw end of a call. Edwards only hit two-of-three at the charity stripe, tying the game at 82 and sending it to overtime where the Boilermakers won 99-94. While the defender does not contact the shooter’s arms on this play, his hip does make contact with the lower body prior to the shooter landing. Remember, a player remains a shooter until he is no longer airborne. In my opinion, this is the correct call. pic.twitter.com/3g3NSwPt62 — Gene Steratore (@GeneSteratore) March 29, 2019 “While the defender does not contact the shooter’s arms on this play, his hip does make contact with the lower body prior to the shooter landing,” Former NCAA official and CBS rules analyst, Gene Steratore wrote on Twitter. “Remember, a player remains a shooter until he is no longer airborne. In my opinion, this is the correct call.” This is now Tennessee’s second straight overtime game in the NCAA Tournament after needing the extra session to top Iowa in the Round of 32. This one could have been avoided if the refs simply swallowed the whistle against Purdue. For some reason, it seems like Tennessee, in football and basketball, tends to find themselves on the wrong end of decisions from the officials. If the Vols don’t win this game in overtime, it’s going to be a long offseason to get over this controversial ending.<doc-sep>Cline made four three-pointers in the final 5:33 of the second half. The last of those tied the game at 80 with 30 seconds to play and came from well beyond the NBA three-point line. He finished with a career-high 27 points, making 7 of 10 from beyond the arc, before fouling out with two minutes left in overtime.<doc-sep>LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - MARCH 28: The Tennessee Volunteers bench looks on against the Purdue Boilermakers during overtime of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament South Regional at the KFC YUM! Center on March 28, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) Tennessee basketball lost to the Purdue Boilermakers in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. But the Volunteers’ bad breaks preceded March Madness. There’s no sugar-coating it. Tennessee basketball beats the Purdue Boilermakers if the refs make one of two correct calls on Purdue’s final possession in regulation when down by two points. And they have a chance if there’s not a third missed call to end regulation. Instead, they missed all of them. The first was an obvious missed five seconds. Purdue was inbounding the ball with two and a half second left, and it took them seven seconds to get it in. Sure, if you’re a ref, you don’t want to end the game on a close five-second call. But when it’s that clear, you have to make it. This video proves that it’s 7 seconds, and the ref wasn’t even counting. Egregiously, though, after the inbound, Lamonte Turner got called for fouling Carson Edwards when he was shooting a three. Sure, there was contact. But the contact came after the shot, and Edwards kicked out his leg. Amidst all that, he still had a chance to land on his feet. You can see that here. So Edwards hit two of three free throws. Now, maybe, if the refs want to be ticky-tack, they make that foul call anyway. But if you’re going to be ticky-tack, then do it on the inbounds play as well with seven seconds on the clock. Less scandalously, they gave the Vols 0.1 seconds on the clock to get off a play because that’s when they recognized the timeout, even though it was called with over 0.5 seconds left. So Tennessee basketball had no chance at a game-winning shot. That missed call, though, was likely not going to affect the outcome. The big scandal was the inconsistency between the five-second violation and the foul call. And as the Vols, a team that was No. 1 for four weeks, miss out on the Elite 8, late foul calls have defined this season. Such a questionable foul call cost them a shot at their second Elite 8 in school history and most wins in school history. Last week, it nearly cost them a loss in the Round of 32. Turner again got a clean block on a three-point shot in regulation that the refs ruled a foul, which is why the Vols needed overtime to beat the Iowa Hawkeyes. And while the most recent late foul cost them an Elite 8 bid, another foul cost them a shot at the SEC regular season championship. We’re obviously referring to the LSU Tigers in the regular season. In a scramble for a loose ball with the game tied in overtime and two seconds left, a once self-admitted LSU fan called a foul on the Vols that gave the Tigers two game-winning free throws. If that call doesn’t happen, you’re likely talking about a second overtime in LSU. So if you’re keeping score at home, a questionable late foul cost Tennessee basketball the regular season SEC championship, a blatantly wrong late foul call nearly cost them their Sweet 16 berth, and a wrong ticky-tack foul call cost them the Elite 8. Now, before I go any further, let me be clear. There are 1,000 other reasons Rick Barnes’s fourth team, which finished the year 31-7, didn’t go further. They didn’t have to shoot 50 percent from the free throw line. Also, they didn’t have to fall behind by 18, even if their comeback was a valiant effort. Against Iowa, they didn’t have to turn it over so much in the second half. In overtime against LSU, they didn’t have to make so many mental mistakes and rush late shots. It’s also worth noting the Tigers didn’t have one of their starters in that game, so that foul was clearly not an excuse. It wasn’t just questionable late foul calls that hurt the Vols this year either, though. They won a game against the Ole Miss Rebels because Admiral Schofield got away with taking a charge at the top of the key, which should not be allowed. If you’re guarding a guy in transition and you can just stop to take a charge, it’s cheap and represents everything wrong with college basketball. So there were four late-game questionable fouls that very few refs make in a season affecting Tennessee basketball games, and it was just a bit of bad luck that three went against the Vols. What happened Thursday was the most egregious when you take it in context with the blatantly missed five-second violation. It should also be noted that this is the second straight Sweet 16 game in which a late foul cost the Vols. Remember this bogus charging call on Jarnell Stokes when Cuonzo Martin led Tennessee basketball to that round in 2014? That was with UT down by one having a chance to win. This time, though, there were numerous failures. And it’s a horrible look for college basketball.<doc-sep>
The Tennessee Volunteers just enjoyed a great season. They won 31 games, beat the Kentucky Wildcats twice, and made the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. But that’s as far as they went thanks to the Purdue Boilermakers, and a little controversy, something the Vols are no stranger to. After trailing by as many as 18, the Vols went on a furious second-half rally to seemingly take command in the final minute. After leading by three with a minute left, Ryan Cline hit a three-ball to tie the game at 80-all before a Grant Williams up by two with 10 seconds left. At that point, ESPN’s win probability projection gave the Vols an 83.7% chance of winning, but the Vols fouled Purdue star Carsen Edwards on a three-point attempt with two seconds left. However, the foul in question was one that, while there was contact, is usually not called in the final seconds. Thanks to the new PI review rules, this “foul” call with 1.7 seconds left would be overturned in the NFL pic.twitter.com/NU6Jz8Gb2W — Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) March 29, 2019 I’ve seen far more contact in countless games not called, not to mention any fanbase would be irate if that was called against their team in that situation. And Edwards clearly pushed his leg out to sell the foul more. But we’re talking about a Tennessee team that benefited from bad officiating late in wins at Vanderbilt and vs. Kentucky in the SEC Tournament. Edwards finished with a game-high 29 points on 8/22 shooting, including two of three free throws to send the game into overtime, where Purdue cruised to a 99-94 win. The real story was Ryan Cline, who averages just 11.7 ppg but erupted for 27 points on 10/13 shooting and 7/10 from three-point land to knock the Vols out of March Madness.