Please Tweet this post around and share it around on Facebook. Let's be clear about what happened tonight, and let's be loud about it: The officials blew this. Clearly, horribly blew it.
Plenty of time later to talk about all the things Rick Barnes and Texas could have done better. And congrats to Arizona for playing well and advancing to the Sweet 16. The Wildcats did a great job tonight.
But right now? I'm just royally, righteously furious about the screw job that Texas just got at the end of the game, courtesy of -- guess who? -- Jim Burr. The same clown who single-handedly jobbed Texas against UConn and, more famously, blew the Rutgers-St. John's Big East Tournament game three weeks ago.
For the record? My game watching crew reviewed the DVR ten times and it wasn't five seconds. It wasn't five arm-ticks. And it wasn't five seconds objectively. We used a stopwatch and if you're generous, it gets up to about 4.6 seconds. He rushed it, and we got hosed. The theme for the tournament. The no-calls at the end with J'Covan and Gary were just icing on the cake.
Update: Courtesy of SBN Bay Area, we have video of the official cheating. It just could not be more clear. The official rushes through four arm ticks, and then before he can get to his fifth Corey Joseph is calling a timeout. Indeed, Joseph begins to trot away because it's so crystal clear that he got it called in time. But the official raises his arm in reaction to Joseph's timeout motion and, inexplicably, instead of granting the timeout, indicates a post-dated fifth arm-tick. That's as blatantly, objectively horrible a call as I've ever seen.
What a horrible end to a great season.
Update 2: Many thanks to reader MJ, who emails us with this even-more-indisputable evidence of the blown call.
Incredible. Just.... bah. How awful.
Update 3: Was it an unjustified make up call? Pat Forde of ESPN.com sheds some light on the official's mindset:
1. Trailing 69-67, Williams got the ball on the block and attempted a post move on Texas' Tristan Thompson (and others helping on the play). Williams faced up into the tall Texas bodies and attempted a shot that ended up coming off the left-hander's right hand. It missed everything, backboard included.
"Obviously, I thought I got fouled," Williams said. "I'm not going to miss the rim by 10 feet. I think he hit my elbow."
Arizona coach Sean Miller angrily agreed. After Jordan Hamilton rebounded the air ball and called a fateful timeout (more on that later), Miller tore into the officials. At the end of the timeout, as the players returned to the court, Miller walked to the baseline, glared for a long time at Cartmell and yelled at least twice, "That was a foul!"
2. The five-count, against desperate full-court denial defense from the Wildcats. It seems unlikely that such a broadside from a coach would have an effect on a veteran like Cartmell, but what followed mere moments later could be construed as the mother of all make-up calls. It certainly was the most impactful five-count of March.