Purdue 70, Michigan 69 Comment Count

Ace



[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

Thirty-nine minutes and fifty-four seconds of exquisite basketball ruined by replay.

Michigan and Purdue played an absolute classic tonight. Twice the fifth-ranked Boilermakers stretched their lead to double digits; twice Michigan clawed their way back, finally taking their first lead of the game with under five minutes remaining.

Moe Wagner went toe-to-toe with Isaac Haas in the post. Zavier Simpson hit multiple floaters over seven-footers, including one to beat the first-half buzzer. Charles Matthews hit a couple cold-blooded jab-step threes. Jordan Poole scored eight points in seven minutes. Isaiah Livers was everywhere. Regardless of outcome, it was a game that showed Michigan's present and (especially) future are both bright.

But about that outcome. With under ten seconds on the clock in a 69-69 tie, Matthews came off a Wagner screen, got a step on Dakota Mathias, and drove hard to the basket. Mathias reached through Matthews and poked the ball out from behind, no foul, Michigan ball—as with countless plays before it, the gentleman's agreement to give that play to the offense applied.

Then the refs went to the scorer's table and spent five minutes Zaprudering the play, killing much of the considerable excitement from the wild back-and-forth affair before eventually determining the ball lingered on Matthews's hand for a frame or two after the Mathias poke. Purdue got the ball, Wagner committed a (legitimate) foul on Haas, who made the first of two free throws. A buzzer-beating heave by Matthews took a painful journey around the rim and out.

It's hard not to feel robbed. While it's also hard not to be excited about this team, that rings hollow when a call that's never made in the first 38 minutes of a game costs them a much-needed signature win. The future is bright. The present, for the moment, is stupid.

[Hit THE JUMP for the box score.]



Comments

mi93

January 9th, 2018 at 11:50 PM ^

there's a worse overturned call in all of basketball.  Since Dr. James Naismith invented the game, defense forces the ball out of bounds, offense ball.

Horrible way to lose.  Our young men deserved better.

Wow, they played a great game.

Goosfraba

January 9th, 2018 at 11:55 PM ^

The out of bounds call off Matthews was one of the worst pieces of basketball officiating I've ever seen. 

If you're holding a ball and I hit it out of your hand, you will be the one to touch it last every single time under close examination.  Why? Because you were holding the fucking ball.

The interpretation of the rule we saw tonight makes absolutely zero sense.  What a disgrace to the game.

Mitch Cumstein

January 10th, 2018 at 6:13 AM ^

I agree and think there is a serious problem with the review rules wrt out of bounds. If the refs can go pixel-by-pixel still frame to see who touched it last, then in my opinion they need to go pixel-by-pixel to see if the defender made any contact with the offensive player (even just brushing his jersey). Which, by the book, is a foul. Of course neither is ever called that way, but if you’re going to manipulate the way the game is called in the last 5 minutes, it can’t just be some of the calls/rules.

MI Expat NY

January 10th, 2018 at 10:40 AM ^

I missed the game, so don't know if this applies here, but the replay rule on out of bounds plays is at it's worst when there really is a ticky-tack foul that could legitmately have been called but the official in real time made the justified decision to just reward an out of bounds to the offense.  Then on review, it shows that the ball hit the offense last, which they have to overturn, but can't go back and then award the ticky-tack foul the official would have called to provide an equitable outcome.  

Basketball is a fast game with many, many close calls over the course of the game, and several calls a game where an official reaches for an equitable result without having to enforce each rule to the letter.  While I wouldn't argue that reviews shouldn't exist in basketball, I think they should be limited to 30 seconds and not show slow-motion reviews.  If you can clearly tell the call was wrong at real speed in a short amount of time, overturn the call.  If you can't, let it stand.  

Yinka Double Dare

January 10th, 2018 at 11:24 AM ^

I get that they don't want to have foul calls made on replay (god, I can't imagine how much worse replay would be if they could do that too), but they ought to allow the refs to consider it in determining who gets the ball out of bounds. If it's technically off the offensive team but the guy was fouled, don't call it an actual foul, just award the ball to the offensive team out of bounds (like a foul when a team isn't in the bonus anyway). That they have to be blind to the contact in determining who gets the ball is a replay problem in both the NBA and college.

They also should limit replay to no more than 1/2 speed or something, and time-limit it. This frame-by-frame business (1) makes the replay drag out even longer and (2) results in goofy calls like this where the ball is contacting the offensive player's hand slightly longer than the guy who poked it away due to basic shit like friction/physics. 

Michigan4Harbaugh

January 10th, 2018 at 10:47 AM ^

In addition, isn't it interesting to see that the Vegas line was -1 Purdue. With the two awful calls against us in the last 6 seconds, it certainly makes you wonder. I would not be upset to see betting on sporting events vanquished. Go Blue.

AAB

January 9th, 2018 at 11:51 PM ^

there is a moment in basically every slide into a bag where the runner's foot comes of the bag for an instant before his leg hits.  If you slow it down to a frame-by-frame you can call the guy out according to the letter of the rule.  But at that point you're just punishing a player for unavoidable physics.  

Unless a defender rips completely through the ball, the ball is virtually always going to be in the ballhandler's hand for an instant or two after the defender knocks it away.  It's basically unavoidable.  You're punishing a guy because frame by frame replay reveals a physical reality we had all just previously agreed to ignore and could never catch in real time.  

It's beyond me how that accomplishes anything useful for the game or is in the spirit of the rule.  

Goggles Paisano

January 10th, 2018 at 5:37 AM ^

I side with the "end replay" camp myself.  I'm not sure what size the camp is, but I am tired of the super slow replays with incredible resolution that are changing the way the games have been called forever.  This goes for football and baseball too.  Not to mention the momentum and game flow killing stoppages in play to look at a play for 5 minutes.  

You see it in baseball with guys sliding over the base or being 1/100 of an inch away from the base on turning a double play.  You see it every week it seems in football with some ridiculous overturn of a TD by a WR for "not surviving the ground" or some other silly reason to say what we all know is a TD is not a TD.  

Mike Mayock who I think is one of the best analysts out there was calling an NFL game on the radio this past weekend and he said he would like to see replay go away.  Ian Eagle who was doing the play by play agreed with him.  

I don't know what the answer is as officiating seems to be going downhill in all sports, but replay is getting out of control with the literal interpretation of plays and with the amount of plays that get reviewed.  

Hail-Storm

January 10th, 2018 at 9:46 AM ^

There is a lot that is hidden from a ref in football with catches and guys running down the sideline and getting their foot down, or crossing the plane. There are also more stoppages between plays 

In basketball, either the ball goes in or not. Shot clock checks at end of game seem to be the most important and are easy to check.  Toes on lines and such seem like they are not worth it to tear up the flow of the basketball game.  This was a rediculous review. Between the reversal of the call and the time it took to "get it right" it took the wind out of an exciting end. 

tnixon16

January 10th, 2018 at 10:32 AM ^

Call me an old-timer, but I’m all for ending replay...even in college football. To be clear, I think a coach should be able to challenge a game-changing play once or twice a game, as in the NFL. But I HATE that college football games have to keep being stopped to see if every damn call was correct. Just play the sport!

And that goes for replay in college basketball. Let the refs make or blow the calls. Limit it, perhaps, to seeing if a shot at the end of a game got off in time. But, please...limit its use and only when necessary.

Limit replay as much as you can. It kills the sport of it all.

Zenogias

January 10th, 2018 at 12:05 AM ^

I was a big supporter of replay and an advocate for it, but I've realized that all it does is change arguing about some dumb pointless crap to arguing about other dumb pointless crap.

I've been saying this about baseball slides for a year or two now. Every time a guy executes a pop-up slide, his foot is going to leave the bag for a split second. The runner isn't trying to advance, he's still over the bag, but now we will call him out on replay. It's a travesty, a damn technicality that has nothing to do with the actual game. Terrible.

The out of bounds call tonight is the exact same thing. Why do even want to decide shit on the dumbest of technicalities like that when it's clear where the spirit of the rule lies? Replay makes it so much worse.

HollywoodHokeHogan

January 10th, 2018 at 1:12 AM ^

I thought replay was a great idea and I was wrong. I don’t follow baseball, but it’s slowed football and basketball down to a crawl so the audience can enjoy (and perform!) amateur forensic analaysis. Then you get the amateur legal analysis because once youre looking at frame by frame footage you’re probably operating in a murky area of the rule book. It’s made the reffing worse because the refs have come to depend on replay fixing their mistakes (the NFL is terrible for this). It fucks up basketball because many times refs will not call a soft foul but instead give the team the ball on the inbound. That’s what happened in this game, but once you get to review you can’t go back and call the foul so Michigan got boned.

L'Carpetron Do…

January 10th, 2018 at 11:07 AM ^

Well said. Excellent analogy.  Slide calls have been way over-litigated since they added replay and plays that NEVER would've been caught by the naked eye take runners off the bases.  What bothers me is if the manager calls to see if the runner beat the tag and then replay shows that he did in fact beat. But he came off for a split second when the glove is still applied and he's called out. So infuriating.  

Go Blue in MN

January 9th, 2018 at 11:52 PM ^

This team is fun to watch.  There's no reason we can't go 12-6 in the BIG and make another Sweet 16 appearance.  If it happens, that would have to be Beilein's best coaching job ever.

And next year . . . Whoa, Nellie!

TK

January 10th, 2018 at 10:07 AM ^

I see a lot of optimism for next year but it’s pretty premature in my opinion. If we lose both Matthews and Mo, we will struggle big time. If one or both come back, now we might have something. But it’s a little early for any kind of prediction at this point.

MGoStu

January 10th, 2018 at 10:30 AM ^

It seems to be the consensus that we will lose one or both of Matthews and Wagner, but neither looks ready to go pro to me. I realize the NBA frequently drafts on potential and Matthews has a metric fuck ton of it, but his game just doesn't look ready to me. I haven't seen all the games this year, so maybe it's showing up when I'm not watching.

L'Carpetron Do…

January 10th, 2018 at 11:18 AM ^

Agree.  Mattews' game isn't very polished yet and Wagner seems weak on D. Wagner is def long and athletic enough to be a good defender but I think its mental with him.  Also Matthews' shot needs a little work, esp. at the line. If I'm an NBA exec I don't know if I want to take a chance on a dude who is a straight up bad foul shooter.  Stay another year and fix what you need to.

TrueBlue2003

January 10th, 2018 at 12:00 PM ^

by improvements and increases in minutes from the underclassmen and incoming freshmen.

5: Teske is already not a dropoff from Wagner (and statistically is an improvement).  If Davis or Castleton can be decent as backups, the 5 will be just fine next year. If Teske gets some touch around the rim and improves even a fraction of the amount he improved from last year to this year, the position could be better off.

4: Full Livers/Johns/Iggy at the 4 will be a huge improvement over minutes split with Robinson (which is already being realized).

3: Matthews is the real wildcard, both from his own uncertainty (would he go?) and uncertainty behind him.  If he goes, it's possible Iggy/Johns are not only capable replacements but possible improvements by the end of the year.  If Matthews goes, we still should be as good as this year, but may not be better.  If he stays, competing for the conf title and making the sweet 16 should be the expectation and then some.

2: MAAR is a nice player but Poole is already a better shooter and more athletic.  He's on a trajectory to be better than MAAR by next year.

1: Obviously, junior Z, sophomore Brooks and DeJulius project to be better than the current versions of themselves.

Blue and Joe

January 9th, 2018 at 11:52 PM ^

I've always been a pro-replay guy. Remember arguing for it when it was new. But I feel like it's becoming something it was not designed to be. That replay call goes against the spirit of the game. It's technically correct, but it's not right. I hate it.

Zenogias

January 10th, 2018 at 12:11 AM ^

With you 100%. I was all for replay, but now I feel like it's being used predominantly to endlessly litigate technical nonsense. If we were just making sure we got the obviously terrible calls changed, it would be a positive. But taking that much time to review the out of bounds call in tonight's game is just ridiculous, and then to rule against the spirit of the rule for no reason is the topper. Is there a way to take replay away from the officials on the floor entirely and let someone else ensure that just the important, obvious crap gets dealt with?

True Blue Grit

January 10th, 2018 at 8:23 AM ^

Replay is being overused right now to the point where it's detracting from the sport (whichever you're talking about - football, baseball, etc.).  I think instead of eliminating it, that somehow limiting its use to only certain situations would be the right approach.  Of course, how to do it is the issue.

Jangalang

January 10th, 2018 at 9:04 AM ^

Give these guys 30 seconds (short timeout) to review and make a decision.  If what you see within 30 seconds doesn't change the call then move on and get on with the damn game. 

It almost left like in this case they were looking and reviewing and examining and reviewing and reviewing until they saw something that would overturn the call...it's like they wouldn't stop until they saw what they needed to overturn it.

Blue and Joe

January 10th, 2018 at 8:55 AM ^

The problem is it's really hard to limit replay. Say you only use it for the "obvious calls," people are going to see things during those replays that they want overturned. A good example is the baseball sliding thing mentioned above. That seems like an obious use of replay. Just see if the ball or runner got there first. But then that evolves into a frame-by-frame analysis of the physics of motion. It's hard to draw those lines.

MGoBkExam

January 10th, 2018 at 9:06 AM ^

Seems like such an easy fix and I think would keep the spirit of the game. 15 seconds to review. If its not obvious (no frame by frame, enhance, enhance, enhance stuff), then it stands. Can't believe they haven't implemented something like that in basketball. I believe they have in baseball right?

A Lot of Milk

January 9th, 2018 at 11:54 PM ^

I thought this was gonna be the start of a run similar to the amazing 2014 Wisconsin, MSU, Iowa wins that got us an outright big title. But nope. Everyone in the big ten gets to keep their best players, all of ours leave.

Ajcoss

January 9th, 2018 at 11:54 PM ^

Needs to play more than 7 minutes. Don't know how JB doesn't see this. Matthews is a really frustrating player. Streaky shooter & can't go left. Plus, Poole can handle (along with Raak) as he should be backup point. He should get 15-20 minutes a game. This team could be really good next year. Z, Poole, Matthews, Livers, and Teske. Hope 2-3 freshman can play and we will be better than this year! Mo & D-Rob hurt this team.

rice4114

January 10th, 2018 at 12:55 AM ^

He will be an NBA player sooner than we all want. Sometime soon he will be a tall Trey Burke type offensive player. By that I mean the best offensive player on the floor. Him and Livers ooh boy.

Hail-Storm

January 10th, 2018 at 9:56 AM ^

with the exception of Robinson. I missed almost all of the first half, but when he came in for a minute or two in second half, Purdue immeadiately attacked him. Since he isn't hitting on the other end, and other guys are, his defense is too much of an issue to be on the floor much. I was glad to see Michigan pull him pretty quick.

Also, that move by Zavier on the baseline against Haus (I think) with the little shake and reverse scoop was so pretty.  Like a combo of Trey Burke and Spike.  

 

Ham

January 10th, 2018 at 12:02 AM ^

The refs should have never been in a position to steal the game from us in the first place. Why a 3rd year player decided to go so early and then not be able to handle his dribble was inexcusable. Hold for the last shot. Don’t give over 6 seconds to your opponent. Not that hard. And this was after multiple crappy possessions in a row to end the game. Ugh,

Kilgore Trout

January 10th, 2018 at 12:09 AM ^

Agree with you on this. Beilein is a great coach, but he has the tendency to get conservative too early. Michigan basically didn't run offense on the last three critical possessions and came up empty in them all. Contrast that with Purdue getting good shots off of their weave motion thing. Good game, but frustrating.

L'Carpetron Do…

January 10th, 2018 at 9:41 AM ^

I was ticked when out of that timeout with like 1:15 left , somebody immediately mishandled the ball and then the motion/pick or whatever wasn't there and Rahkman ended up hurling up a shot as the shot clock expired. Golden opportunity.  Also don't know whay Beilein didn't call a timeout when Matthews pushed it into the frontcourt after the missed FT - Michigan still had a timeout right?

UMinSF

January 10th, 2018 at 12:05 AM ^

marred by awful officiating at the end.

 

Still, that was fun.

John Beilein basketball is fun.

Young stalwarts Poole and Livers are fun.

Vastly improved Simpson and Teske are fun.

Upperclass leadership of MAAR and Wagner is fun.

Early season mess turning into late season surge is fun.

Next season's prospects really fun.

Michigan basketball = Fun!