LOUISVILLE, Ky. — OK, it was a foul.
By the letter of the law, it was a foul.
San Diego State guard Darrion Trammell knew it, because he was the player who was fouled.
Creighton guard Ryan Nembhard knew it, because he was the one who committed the foul, grabbing Trammell’s right hip with his left arm as he was in midair sending a floater off the front of the rim.
Both coaches — Creighton’s Greg McDermott and San Diego State’s Brian Dutcher — knew it.
Most of the 20,051 paying customers at Sunday’s South Region Elite Eight game in the KFC Yum! Center knew it.
Yes, it was a damned foul. There was contact. Of course, though, the kind of contact Nembhard made on Trammell takes place on almost every play across the 40 minutes these college games run.
The foul shouldn’t have been called, not on the final possession of a pulsating game that was tied at 56-56 and ended in a wild 57-56 San Diego State win, sending the No. 5-seeded Aztecs (31-6) to the first Final Four in school history, with a game against Florida Atlantic waiting on Saturday in Houston.
Given the way the game had been officiated for the previous 39 minutes and 59 seconds, with a total of 22 called (11 on each team), the foul shouldn’t have been called.
The three officials had let the players play for those 39 minutes and 59 seconds, so they should have allowed the players to decide the outcome in the moment of truth.
“I still feel like I had a good look,’’ Trammell said of that fateful final shot. “The refs made their call. They called it.’’
It was a sickening way to end a game of such massive consequence.
It not only left 23-13 Creighton, a No. 6 seed in the midst of a marvelous season, sick, it left everyone watching the game (not associated or rooting for No. 5 seed San Diego State) sick.
Lee Cassell, John Clougherty is on Line 1.
Cassell is the official who made the call in question, sending Trammell to the foul line with those 1.2 seconds remaining, Trammell missing the first free throw and making the second as the scant difference in the game.
Clougherty famously called Seton Hall guard Gerald Greene for a touch foul on Michigan’s Rumeal Robinson with three seconds remaining in overtime of the 1989 national championship game. Robinson made both free throws in Michigan’s 80-79 win and the foul call forever left a stain on Clougherty’s legacy.
That was a national championship game and this was an Elite Eight game, so nationally Clougherty’s name will be remembered more than Cassell’s will after what transpired Sunday.
You know who was at the Seattle Kingdome for that Seton Hall-Michigan game?
San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher, who was an assistant on Steve Fisher’s staff back then.
“People questioned whether Rumeal Robinson was fouled, and he made two free throws and we won a national title,’’ Dutcher recalled after Sunday’s game. “So, this is not the first time fouls have been called at the end of NCAA Tournament games.’’
I covered that Seton Hall-Michigan game and one of my most profound memories of that epic encounter was the class with which then-Seton Hall coach P.J. Carlesimo handled that controversial, gut-wrenching ending.
Neither Carlesimo nor a single one of his players said a negative word about the call in the immediate aftermath of the game. I always felt that Carlesimo saved Clougherty’s reputation and the wrath he may have been subjected to by the classy way in which he handled that.
McDermott and his players handled it the same way Sunday.
“You win with class and you lose with class,’’ McDermott said. “That’s what we’re going to do. We had opportunities [to win]. We had some decent looks at the basket in the second [half] and were unable to knock them down. Officiating is part of the game. We’re not going to go there.
“We lost the game because we didn’t do enough, and San Diego State did. All the credit goes to San Diego State. It’s on us that we didn’t quite get it done, not [on] anyone else.’’
In case you missed it — and maybe it was done unwittingly — but that was a lifeline tossed to Cassell by McDermott with a touch of class.
“It’s a tough feeling,’’ Nembhard said. “You work so hard all year and it comes down to a play like that. I don’t know … I think we could have done a little bit more to make it a game that didn’t have to go down to that.
“It’s a tough way to lose.’’
Shame on Cassell.
Kudos to Creighton.
Credit to San Diego State.
