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You Make The Call: Did Boise State’s Derrick Marks get fouled? (VIDEO)

Derrick Marks

Derrick Marks

AP

With Boise State down 56-55 in the final seconds of Wednesday night’s First Four game, Derrick Marks threw a pump-fake on Dayton’s Kyle Davis, getting the defender in the air and drawing contact on the shot:

No foul was called on the play.

Here’s my take: I hate that fouls like this get called. Marks is not trying to shoot this ball, he’s trying to create contact so that the ref will bail him out with a whistle. I don’t care that Davis’ arms are bent at a 45-degree angle. If Marks shoots a normal jump shot after that pump fake, he doesn’t get fouled.

That said, this is a play that has been called a foul thousands -- literally, thousands -- of times over the course of the college basketball season. We’ve essentially accepted that getting your defender in the air and leaning into the contact will earn you free throws. I truly believe that if this play were to happen on any other possession during the game, the ref would have blown his whistle.

Why did he swallow it?

Was it because it was the final seconds of the game?

Was it because he was on Dayton’s home floor in the NCAA tournament?

Both?

The refs blew this one, in my opinion. And given the fact that the team that was burned was playing a ROAD GAME in the NCAA Tournament, maybe the Selection Committee will rethink the idea of slotting Dayton in Dayton for the First Four.

What do you all think?