Saturday, February 12, 2005
Video showed Miami's shot came after buzzer, but officials didn't have a replay.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Mid-American Conference commissioner Rick Chryst hopes to have courtside video monitors at all league games in the aftermath of a game-winning shot by Miami (Ohio) that came after the final buzzer to beat Ball State.
On Wednesday night in Muncie, Ind., Miami's Nathan Peavy grabbed a rebound in the foul lane and dropped in an 8-foot shot as time expired, giving the RedHawks a 54-52 win.
Referee Tom Clark ruled that Peavy's basket was good, although officials were unable to review the play at the scorer's table because the game was not televised. On Friday, Chryst said that Peavy's shot shouldn't have counted and the game should have gone to overtime.
However, Miami's win will stand.
"This was an extremely close call, and it is only after reviewing multiple camera angles and slowing video down to a frame-by-frame analysis that one can definitively conclude the game-winning shot occurred after the clock had reached zero," Chryst said.
Officials praised
Chryst said the officiating crew did its best under the circumstances to make the right call.
"They were in position, they acted decisively, they went to the scorer's table in search of a replay, which was unavailable, and they communicated appropriately," he said.
"This is a veteran crew -- with over 50 years of combined officiating experience -- and I have the highest confidence in their abilities and judgment."
Following the season, Chryst plans to review the conference's management of late-game situations to prevent this from happening again.
"We need to do better as a conference in terms of providing every possible resource to our officials to get these calls right," he said. "I would like to see a courtside monitor and video replay in every league game, and following the season we will review our game management protocols with our coaches and administrators to evaluate how best to try and achieve that goal."
The loss knocked the Cardinals (12-8, 7-5) into a three-way tie for second place in the MAC West, a half-game behind Western Michigan. Miami (15-5, 10-2) is in first place in the MAC East.