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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It was a tough one to endure for the coaches, players and fans of the maize and blue.
Michigan was down by one with 33 seconds left, and Wolverines point guard Zavier Simpson went up for the layup. The shot missed, but as Simpson was falling to the floor, a foul was called.
Then, the refs called a timeout on the floor to review the footage of the play.
Given that the foul wasn’t going to be reversed, something else had to be afoot. It turned out, the refs were checking the tape to see what happened in the immediate aftermath, as Simpson and Ohio State forward Kyle young tumbled to the floor. Young emerged with a torn jersey, on account of Simpson grabbing hold as he was falling. It ripped, and upon further review, the refs called it a Flagrant One foul on Simpson and Michigan, while upholding the previously called foul.
Simpson drained both free throws to give Michigan the one-point lead, but Ohio State would get two free throws of its own, and possession. After an intentional foul, the Buckeyes drained both to take what ended up being an insurmountable three-point lead.
While OSU head coach Chris Holtmann said in his postgame press conference that since the jersey had ripped it did constitute a flagrant, Michigan head coach Juwan Howard was perplexed when he addressed the media.
There was little explanation about the case of it being seemingly unintentional as Simpson was attempting to brace himself, but beyond that, Howard noted that the refs somewhat stonewalled by not letting him see the replay.
“I didn’t see it,” Howard said. “I tried to ask for explanation. Tried to look for it. It was being shown on the monitor, a replay right there near our bench. So I started to look at it when I was talking to the referee. And then as I was looking, they were starting to show it, rewind, and then he told the guy to shut it off immediately. I was like, ‘Wow. Let me see what happened!’ And he was explaining it to me and I couldn’t believe it.
“How he explained it — I’m sure one of you wants to know, or all of you wants to know — it was explained like Zavier went up for a layup and as he was coming down, he grabbed his jersey and ripped it. I was like, ‘Okay, well — grabbed his jersey and ripped it.’ I’m like, ‘Okay.’ ‘Yeah, look at his jersey, it’s ripped!’ So I’m looking. And then I said, well — now, former basketball player myself — I’m looking, I’m like, ‘Well, if he’s going up,’ and this is how I’m thinking — I asked him: ‘If he’s going up and he’s falling, did he grab him to brace his fall?’ And he said, ‘Yes!’ I said, ‘Well, I guess that means that he needed some help. Did not want to absorb the contact or the momentum of hitting the floor.’ And that was it.
“At the end of the day, we have to respect their call that was made. Unfortunately, I didn’t see it.”
Just perusing social media during the contest, fans were frustrated on both sides by the lack of whistles being made, as the Terry Wymer-led crew let both teams play on with their physical brand of basketball.
But, the whistle did call — twice — in what essentially handed the game to Ohio State.
Howard’s reaction was continued astonishment.
“Honestly, I don’t know what was called or how it was called,” Howard said. “I haven’t seen it. It’s just unfortunate. It’s an unfortunate play and we had to be on the receiving end.”
Just as poignant, the penultimate question asked in the postgame presser was: ‘If protecting yourself is a flagrant foul, how do you coach your guys in that situation?’
Just like with any of us who watched the game, there was no answer for Howard.
“If you have the answer, please — share it with me,” Howard said. “That’s a good question.”
Michigan has an off-day on Wednesday before it starts to prepare in earnest for its next game, another home rivalry matchup, this time against Michigan State.