‘Just Embarrassing for the NCAA’: March Madness Viewers Stunned by Blown Call That Potentially Cost Samford an Upset Win Over Kansas
TBS
A controversial call in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament game between Kansas and Samford on Thursday night has fans calling it a “robbery”
Up 90-89 with under 20 seconds left in the second half, Jayhawks guard Nicolas Timberlake tried to dunk the ball on a transition opportunity to go up by three points. Trailing closely behind Timberlake, however, was Samford guard A.J. Staton-McCray who managed to block the shot. Unfortunately for Staton-McCray, he was called for a foul.
Various angles of the play showed that it was a clean block. Timberlake fell to the ground during the ball, meaning Samford likely would have had a numbers advantage in the event of Staton-McCray getting the rebound and taking it to the other side of the floor.
Foul or clean block? 👀 pic.twitter.com/A9qizLQf4f
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 22, 2024
Thirteenth-seeded Samford lost to the fourth-seeded Jayhawks 93-89.
Viewers were furious.
All time bad call in Samford game. Right up there with Michigan Trey Burke block
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) March 22, 2024
Just a horrible missed call that took away a potential all-time upset from Samford. Unreal. pic.twitter.com/C1bsumHtkp
— Will Whitson (@will_whitson2) March 22, 2024
The story is going to blow over because it is 1 AM ET and there is a full slate of games tomorrow, but Samford got robbed on that foul call.
That’s too bad.
— Jake Marsh (@PMTsportsbiz) March 22, 2024
SAMFORD WAS ABSOLUTELY ROBBED OF A POTENTIAL INSANE MARCH MOMENT. pic.twitter.com/cj4WqSiJt9
— Zach Bollinger (@zachbollinger18) March 22, 2024
Samford was called for a foul…COME ON! This was ALL BALL pic.twitter.com/s01ifkrh53
— Chase Daniel (@ChaseDaniel) March 22, 2024
Maybe the worst foul call in the history of the sport.
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) March 22, 2024
March Madness has tons and tons of stoppages to review pointless out of bounds calls.
But apparently it’s against the rules to review season changing plays, like this clean block that was called a foul.
Just embarrassing from the NCAA. pic.twitter.com/X1NKq2OqLO
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) March 22, 2024
Samford coach Bucky McMillan echoed the point about the numbers advantage, but he made it clear that wasn’t faulting the referees for his team’s loss.
Samford head coach Bucky McMillan on the foul called at the end of the game against Kansas: pic.twitter.com/zKi3jKlmaH
— Ryan Hennessy (@RyanWVTM13) March 22, 2024
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