Controversial finish to the Butler-Xavier game

For those that haven't seen it, the end of Butler's exciting game against Xavier had quite the finish.

After a questionable jump ball forced by Gordon Hayward, Butler gets possession under the basket with 36 seconds left in the game. Shelvin Mack takes a quick three from the corner and misses. After Hayward grabs an offensive rebound, Xavier knocks the ball away from Mack, resulting in a scrum for the loose ball. During that scrum, the clock stops. As play continues, the ball ends up in the hands of Hayward, who makes an open layup with just 1.2 seconds left.

Take a look:



Now, the refs go to the monitors to look at the time, and they determine that the clock was stopped for 1.3 seconds. Since Hayward released the ball at 1.8 seconds, and the ball went through the net with 1.2 seconds left, they said that the game was, in fact, over.

As you might imagine, Xavier head coach Chris Mack, along with a couple of his players, were upset by this call. I can't say I wouldn't be just as upset if I was in their shoes, but the fact of the matter is that the referees made the right call. When the clock stops during play, the refs are supposed to go to the monitor, determine how much time elapsed while the clock was stopped using a digital stop watch, and adjust the game clock appropriately.

They did that.

And the result they came up with was that if the clock been running, Hayward's shot would have been at the buzzer.

Game over.

Yes, that ruling sucks. Xavier and Butler waged a war on Saturday. X overcame a 15 point first half deficit, took control of the game in the second half, but gave up the lead late before one of the most exciting finishes of the young season.

But you won't remember that. What you will remember is that the refs did not allow Xavier a chance at winning at the end, even if it was the correct call.