A controversial no-call on an apparent Florida goaltending late in the first half of Monday night’s championship game between Houston and Florida now looms even larger after the Gators’ narrow 65-63 win.
The missed call came with exactly one minute remaining in the first half as Gators 7-footer Micah Handlogten swiped at the ball off the rim following a shot attempt from Cougars forward J’Wan Roberts. Roberts immediately pointed his index finger down as if to call for a goaltending but officials instead let play continue.
A closer look at the play from an above-the-backboard angle below makes it even more clear it was an outright missed call. Here’s a snippet of the NCAA rulebook on how this should have been officiated based on one of the conditions of goaltending:
Goaltending occurs when the ball is above the level of the ring and has the possibility, while in flight, of entering the basket and is not touching the cylinder.
Handlogten clearly interfered with the ball while it was within the cylinder even if a look from above seems to indicate it could have been a missed shot. By definition, Houston should have been awarded two points.
Instead, Florida blazed down the court in transition and scored a quick 3-pointer to cut Houston’s lead down to three points, punctuating what was effectively a five-point swing just before halftime.
NCAA rules also call for goaltending and basket interference to be what it calls a “correctable error” but only in instances in which it is called live in play. Typically, anything that appears close to goaltending is called, and an instant review of the play can more accurately determine whether it was or was not. Because it was not called, it was not reviewable and therefore not correctable.
The five-point swing and the missed call has to sting for Houston after it led by as many as 12 points in the second half only to lose by two. While Florida earned its championship and may still have won, it’s salt in the wound for Cougars fans knowing this might have been the difference between winning a title and finishing as the national runner-up.
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