Officials made a mistake in the final minute of Syracuse’s third-round NCAA Tournament loss to Marquette on Sunday, NCAA officiating coordinator John Adams said Tuesday in a statement.

An over-and-back call due to an inbounds pass from Dion Waiters to Scoop Jardine was not the correct call, Adams said in the statement.

‘I have reviewed the play in question and it appears from the video that we have seen, that an error was made in applying the backcourt violation rule (Rule 4.3.8).  The Syracuse player made a legal play and no violation should have been called,’ Adams said in the statement.

The play is not reviewable during the game, Adams said in the statement.

On the play, Waiters prepared to inbound from just past midcourt with Syracuse tied 59-59 and 51.2 seconds to play. He slightly misfired a pass to his intended target, Jardine, who had to jump to catch it. One of his feet came down on the half-court line, prompting an official to call the backcourt violation.

But according to the 2010 and 2011 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Rulebook, Rule 4, Section 3, Article 8 states: ‘After a jump ball or during a throw-in, the player in his/her front court, who makes the initial touch on the ball while both feet are off the playing court, may be the first to secure control of the ball and land with one or both feet in the back court. It makes no difference if the first foot down was in the front court or back court.’

The call gave Marquette possession. On the ensuing sequence, Marquette’s Darius Johnson-Odom made a 3-pointer to give the Golden Eagles a 62-59 lead with 26 seconds left in the game.

In the locker room after the game, Jardine said he did not talk to the officials about the call. But he discussed the incident with Waiters, mimicking his catching motion and saying he was sure he did not commit a violation.

‘I know it wasn’t backcourt, I know it,’ Jardine said to Waiters in the locker room. ‘But I didn’t see the replay. I want to see the replay.’

Jardine declined immediate comment Tuesday when he learned of the NCAA’s statement.

After the game, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said he didn’t clearly see the play, so he avoided passing judgment on the officials. He said Waiters should have waited a slight bit longer to inbound the ball.

‘I didn’t see it. I couldn’t see,’ Boeheim said after the game. ‘We had a freshman taking it out, and he just didn’t wait a second. He needed to wait for Scoop to get clear a little bit, and just one of those things.’

Director of athletic communications Pete Moore said Boeheim and the rest of the program had no further comment Tuesday evening.

Syracuse assistant coach Bernie Fine said in a phone interview that he and Boeheim questioned the call immediately from the bench. The coaching staff did not attempt to discuss the call with the officials, he said.

‘You can’t guess as to what could have happened,’ Fine said. ‘But it was a big call when it came. But it wasn’t intentional. That’s what the ref thought it was.’

The officials simply made what was a judgment call at the time, Fine said, and the team will not look back on the incident as the reason it lost the game.

‘It’s just over,’ Fine said. ‘You can’t cry over spilt milk. People make mistakes sometimes. A mistake was made, and there’s nothing we can do about it now.’

bplogiur@syr.edu

 

Published on March 21, 2011 at 12:00 pm