Refereeing in St. John's-Rutgers overshadows a great finish

NEW YORK - Yesterday, Gil Biruta picked up his fifth foul in overtime when he was called for a technical for swinging his elbows.

It was a tough call for Mike Rice to swallow, no doubt, but his response -- "That's a tough call. Big East referees are the best in the world. I'm going to trust that they were right. In overtime that's an unbelievable call." -- was professional, classy, and what we like to call taking the high road.

What are the odds that on Wednesday, just 24 hours after the call against Biruta, Rutgers would once again would be on the wrong end of a tough call late in the game. Only this time, the officials didn't get it right.

First, the video:



As you can see, with time still left on the clock, Justin Brownlee traveled with the basketball and stepped out of bounds before throwing the ball into the stands. The travel or the out of bounds call should have given Rutgers the ball with 1.6 seconds left on the clock.

Andy Katz spoke to the head of NCAA officiating, who told him that the officials decision not to referee the game until the final buzzer was "unacceptable".

Rice agreed. Kind of.

"Was there a mistake? I saw it on youtube. There was a mistake made," Rice said. "I'm sure they'll say it. But that's just the way it is."

"Circumstances ... it is what it is. Its not what happens, its how you respond to it."

Sure enough, the Big East did admit it. The conference released a statement saying "the Big East acknowledges that two separate officiating errors occurred at the conclusion of the St. John’s vs. Rutgers game. Both missed violations should have caused the game clock to stop and a change of possession to occur prior to the end of the game. Neither error is reviewable or correctable under NCAA playing rules."

And while Rice went out of his way to commend the officials, repeatedly saying those are great officials and that the Big East has the best crews in the country, its clear that he was holding back.

"Those are three great officials — I’ve had ‘em all throughout the year, impeccable reputation," Rice said. "There's going to be blood coming through my tongue."

For the Rutgers seniors, this is a difficult way to end their careers. Nothing was expected of this team, but they bought into what their new head coach was saying. They fought hard. They pulled off a couple of upsets. They won a game in the Big East tournament. And while their season and career comes to a disappointing close (they are under .500, so they are not eligible for a postseason tournament, according to Rice), this team is not exactly disappointed.

"I can't even be mad at how the game ended because of how hard we fought," James Beatty said.

Its a shame that the refereeing is what has taken center stage talking about this game, because it overshadows what was another terrific finish in the Big East Tournament.