Debacle in East Lansing

Michigan State beat Florida Gulf coast by one point last night. But game was marred on the final play—a full court pass—because the clock started when (or even before) the pass was released, rather than when it was first touched on the court of play:



Watch Bo Boroski there at the bottom of the screen. You can see him tap his belt, and start the clock as the ball is released—an inexcusable fuckup.

This GIF may be somewhat deceptive in that it looks like the TV clock started even before the actual game clock (displayed behind the basket). But even so, the game clock clearly hit zero, the backboard was lit red, and the horn started to sound, even before the pass was caught:



Upon hearing the horn, the FGCU player heaved the ball at the basket, rather than take a dribble and shoot, as he was the plan and as he should have had time to do. Instead, the desperation heave got nowhere near the rim.

Everyone watching, including the announcers, all the players, and all the officials immediately knew there had been a complete fuckup. They went to the monitor, but Boroski bizarrely decided to take a stop watch and see if the FGCU player got the shot off in time (even though he missed) and to see whether any time should be put back on the clock—even though no one kept playing because the horn had sounded and the MSU player under the basket just let the ball bounce off him and go out of bounds. You can see Eron Harris with his hands in the air celebrating while the "shot" is in the air because it was obvious the horn sounded before the shots was taken:




Amazingly, the Big Ten has issued a statement saying this was the proper procedure. This cannot be right. The clock struck zero and the horn sounded before FGCU even had the ball. This is a fixable error: since the clock struck zero and there was a horn before the ball was even in play, the play never happened. Just like if the clock had started and run out while the ref still had the ball.

But Bo Boroski was ready to call it a night. I say he should go ahead and call it a career.