Rutgers coach deserves some blame, too

In the aftermath of Wednesday's officiating mistake at the end of St. John's win over Rutgers, the notion has taken hold that the Scarlet Knights were cheated out of a game they deserved to win. That's simply not true.

Even Rutgers coach Mike Rice was gracious enough to admit there was no guarantee his team would have won the game if it had the chance for one last possession with 1.7 seconds left, starting from behind the midcourt line. There would have been time enough only for a desperation heave, either a "Hail Mary" shot from 35 or 40 feet or an even more improbable lob toward the basket for a tip-in.

There was one big mistake made at the end of the game, and blame for it has to be shared not only by the three-man officiating crew of Jim Burr, Tim Higgins and Earl Walton but by Rice.

Yes, the Rutgers coach blew it almost as badly as the officials did.

As television replays showed, there is no doubt that St. John's Justin Brownlee -- who scooped up the loose ball after a failed Rutgers inbounds pass on the final play -- traveled first and then went out of bounds with 1.7 seconds showing on the clock. Both violations should have stopped the clock, as Big East commissioner John Marinatto acknowledged in a postgame statement.

The officials were wrong not to blow the whistle at least when Brownlee went out of bounds, no matter how surprising his actions were at the end of the game. The crew has "withdrawn" from the rest of the tournament, the Big East announced Thursday.

But Rice also failed in his duty to keep coaching his team to the final horn. Like the officials, he assumed the game was over when Brownlee came up with the loose ball at midcourt.

Instead, Rice ran to argue with Burr about the non-call on Rutgers' previous possession when he believed Mike Coburn was fouled by the Red Storm's D.J. Kennedy on his way to the basket. Some commentators have followed Rice's lead to weave that judgment call into the tapestry of controversy.

But they all omitted the judgment call that went against the Red Storm on a loose rebound with just over a minute to play. The ball clearly was knocked out by Rutgers, but instead of the Storm getting an extended possession, the ball went to the Scarlet Knights, who took a 61-60 lead on Coburn's three-point play.

You can argue judgment calls until the cows come home, but there is no way to right every wrong in a college basketball game or even to get agreement on what is right or wrong. On the play that upset Rice, Kennedy was smart to step into the lane to stop Coburn. The previous night, Villanova let South Florida's Anthony Crater go uncontested down the lane for the winning basket.

The call could have gone either way on Coburn's drive. It could have been charging. Depends on what color glasses you're wearing . . . Red or Scarlet.

The only legitimate argument is about the final 1.7 seconds. If Rice had been fully alert, he would have stopped Burr to ask for a review of how much time was left when Brownlee stepped out of bounds.

But the coach who praised his team after its last-minute win over Seton Hall in the first round for learning how to "be comfortable in chaos" wasn't. Rice wasn't calm amid the chaos. He added to it. Bad call by him and bad call by the officials.