The worst call of the week in college hoops was not the one that has everyone talking.
On Wednesday night, in their win at Vanderbilt, No. 1 Tennessee was given the gift of a hook-and-hold. With just over a minute left on the clock and down 76-70, Vanderbilt was called for a flagrant foul when Clevon Brown sent Grant Williams flying:
Grant Williams hit the ground HARD pic.twitter.com/IPhOHrKYDD
— Troy Machir (@TroyMachir) January 24, 2019
Tennessee got two shots and the ball, forced overtime and eventually won the game, but the talking point from that evening ended up being centered around that one call and whether or not it was justified.
(It was. Blame the rule, not the rule being properly enforced.)
Anyway, that was hardly the worst call of the week.
This was:
Does Pritchard even touch Nowell? pic.twitter.com/r26rLrHORI
— Kevin Wade (@KwadeSays) January 25, 2019
With the game tied in the final seconds of Thursday night’s loss to Washington, Jaylen Nowell had a shot from just inside half court that would have given the Huskies the win. Oregon’s Payton Pritchard ran in front of Nowell right before he released the shot and was called for a foul.
Three shots.
The only problem?
As you can see in the video above, he never made any contact with Nowell.
Ouch.
Nowell would go on to hit all three free throws and the Huskies would eventually win 61-56.
“Real tough call to end the game. It is a gut-wrencher, one we’re going to have to fight through,” head coach Dana Altman said. “I watched the play from a lot of different angles, it was just a tough call.”