Auburn buzzer-beater waved off vs. Texas A&M: Here’s what happened
KeShawn Murphy’s prayerful 3-pointer to lift Auburn to a 91-90 victory Tuesday night against Texas A&M found only the net. The jungle erupted in pandemonium. In a matter of seconds, his Tigers teammates enveloped him on the field in the most sacred of sporting celebrations: that of he just called the play variety.
Or so they thought.
After a long official review, the heroic impulse was discarded. Texas A&M escaped with a 90-88 road victory — or, from another, more popular perspective inside the building, Auburn was robbed of an epic buzzer-beater — after the shot was deemed to have been thrown just after the final horn.
Chaos once again ensued in The Jungle after the shot that sank the Aggies was removed. The officials had to be escorted by police to the locker room for their safety while fans in the arena threw trash and drinks – on the floor, at the officials – in a general feeling of disgust and discouragement. An elderly man in the midst of the chaos can be seen tossing a cup of water over his shoulder to an official as if he had just finished studying the teachings of Blake Griffin. Look closely in the middle of your screen at the two-second mark below.
Which, of course, raises the obvious question: what the hell just happened?
And more to the point: Did Auburn just lose a game it actually won? My findings are below.
🔎 Shooting investigation
With 0.6 seconds left on the game clock, Auburn forward Elyjah Freeman leaned straight from the baseline and threw a perfectly placed missile to Murphy – who went right into the game-winning drive that wasn’t to be. The shot was initially counted in real time, but was only later canceled after viewing the video.
Take a look below and it’s almost impossible to make out the original TV angle if the buzzer sounded before Murphy launched.
The call is so close that even a different angle with a better view of Murphy and the game clock obviously doesn’t lead to a conclusion. Watch the video below. Because it was a bang-bang game, I think the initial decision to count the basket was the correct one.
A story in four parts
I slowed down the video above to 2% on iMovie and looped the last 0.2 seconds over and over. I suspect the officials in the building had that angle – or a very similar angle to that, although we don’t know – when they made their final decision. Because they were ultimately right, even though careful measures clearly had to be taken (and probably under duress, at that).
Here is the story of the plan in four parts broken down frame by frame.
Part 1: 📸
First, you can clearly see 0.1 seconds remaining on both the shot clock (above the backboard) and the scoreboard (far left of your screen). The shot clock above the backboard is the official clock, and as you’ll soon see, it’s critical to the final decision. It is clear and obvious that the ball is still in Murphy’s hand.
Parts 2 and 3 📸
The second and third parts of this story are where things go wrong. I’m sharing two photos at almost the same time because they are so close together. The official clock (again, above the backboard, to the right of the photo below) is not in sync with the scoreboard inside the building, probably off by a centisecond perhaps. You can see that the official clock strikes 0.0, while there are still 0.1 seconds left on the scoreboard. In the first photo below, it looks like Murphy didn’t completely release the ball.
This moment – and again, probably within a few hundredths of a second of the one above – is certainly less clear but still obvious upon close inspection. You can see again that the official clock above the backboard is at 0.0 and there are 0.1 seconds left on the scoreboard to the left of the photo. You can also see that Murphy is still in contact with the ball.
Part 4 📸
The fourth and final plan is the least important. Below you can see the ball is clearly off, but the clock on the scoreboard and the shot clock above the backboard are reset to zero.
📽️
And here’s another look at this great basic angle from Johnny Congdon of ABC 33/40 News in Birmingham, slowed down.
The judgment
The initial call taken by the basket was the correct call. It was also correct to remove the basket upon closer inspection, although reversing the initial decision to count it – given its proximity – is surprising.
Auburn coach Steven Pearl, unsurprisingly, was equally surprised by the decision to take the shot off the board. He could be seen after the match holding an iPad and pleading his case to an official.
“I don’t clearly understand the reasoning behind what they did, so we’re going to gather more information and hopefully we can kind of elaborate on that,” he said. “But from the angles that I saw, it looked like the ball was out of his hands at the red light on the scoreboard that we were looking at. But I guess they had a different angle that they were looking at and they determined that, you know, the ball wasn’t out of his hands.”
Pearl added in his press release that there was no communication after the call and that he was still seeking further clarification. He returned to court after his press conference and was apparently still searching for those answers.
“They just said it wasn’t good and they ran away,” Pearl added. “I probably wouldn’t want to talk to me at that point anyway, so I understand why they ran away from me. But from the angles I saw, it looked like it wasn’t coming from his fingers. But I don’t have all the same angles as them. I’m just looking at an iPad, and on the clock it says 0.2. But obviously, like — on the floor, I’m like, ‘We just won the game, wow’ — so to go from there, It’s of course… they decided it was within reach. It’s devastating.
