Rutgers head coach Mike Rice was visibly upset in the moments following his team's 65-63 loss in the second round of the Big East tournament to St. John's. It's what Price missed that has the NCAA head of officiating criticizing the game's officials.
Price was visibly upset at the lack of a foul call as his team attempted a full-court inbound pass in the game's final seconds. However, the real controversy came when St. John's player Justin Brownlee stole the inbound pass, and then walked out of bounds with time still on the clock.
Even though Brownlee was clearly out of bounds with about 1.7 seconds to play, the officials called the game, and St. John's won. By rule, however, the call could not be reviewed by the officials. NCAA head of officials, John Adams, told ESPN.com that he is not happy with what happened.
In fact, Adams called the incident and lack of a call "unacceptable."
Adams is in charge of selecting the officials for the upcoming NCAA tournament, and he did stress that Wednesday's events don't necessarily mean the three officials — Jim Burr, Tim Higgins and Earl Walton — won't be used in the tournament.
Big East commissioner John Marinatto has also already addressed the controversial ending.
"The Big East Conference acknowledges that two separate officiating errors occurred at the conclusion of the St. John's vs. Rutgers game," he said in a statement. "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."
