Five years ago today I was a sophomore in high school sitting on my uncle’s couch watching the Wisconsin Badgers play for the National Championship against the Duke Blue Devils. Though I had no affiliation with the Badgers at the time, something about their team, how they played and the way they were going toe-to-toe with the blue blood programs of college basketball was intriguing to me and, as a result, was quickly winning my fandom.
The majority of the country not located in Durham, N.C. wanted Duke to lose that game. Wisconsin’s story was too perfect: a team who fell short in the closing seconds during the previous year’s Final Four to the Kentucky Wildcats, returned the core of their team, got back to the Final Four, beat the then-undefeated Wildcats–ending their bid at a 40-0 season–and now found themselves going head-to-head with the least likeable program in college basketball, the Duke Blue Devils.
Badger fans also knew that the end to Bo Ryan’s legendary tenure as head coach was nearing its end, and this might be the best shot they’d ever get at winning a title.
Well, fast forward 36 minutes of basketball and the Badgers trail by one with 3:20 left on the clock. Yes, I’m skipping over how Ryan’s unit got out to a nine-point lead in the second half only to see it get erased almost single-handedly by Grayson Allen. And no, this isn’t the missed call you thought I was talking about.
The play in question developed when Justise Winslow caught an inbound pass and immediately drove baseline on Nigel Hayes with Hayes doing a tremendous job at cutting off his angle to the rim. During the drive, clear as day, Winslow stepped on the baseline with his right foot before picking up his dribble, turning and finding Jahlil Okafor under the basket who scored while getting fouled by Frank Kaminsky.
The baseline referee during all of this seemed to be staring right at Winslow, though wasn’t able to see that his foot touched the black line on the baseline before giving up the ball.
This missed call, made with Duke leading by one, would’ve given the Badgers the basketball back with a shot at taking the lead and having the momentum with three minutes to play. Instead, Duke scored on the play as part of a 7-0 run that put them pretty much out-of-reach given how much time was left in the game.
Many people look back at this game and think of the controversial call a minute later when, with Duke leading by five, Bronson Koenig drove to the rim, missed, and hands went flying for the ball before it eventually landed out-of-bounds. In real-time it appeared that Koenig was the last to touch the ball, though on instant replay it was clear that Winslow’s finger grazed the ball as it was flying out of his reach. The referees obviously stuck with their initial ruling that Wisconsin touched it last and the rest is history.
There are obviously a lot of what-ifs when you re-watch old sporting events and think about what could have been if a single moment went the other way. In this case, though, these queries are warranted, and it’s hard to think about how history would’ve been different had the baseline referee seen Winslow step out-of-bounds.