Aggies/Bruins

I watched the second half of the UCLA/Texas A&M second-round March Madness game on Saturday night. Texas had a double-digit lead and pretty much choked it away. Either that or UCLA put the clamps on them defensively. Both factors were involved, in my opinion.

Anyway, UCLA comes back to take the lead 51-49 with 9.5 seconds left. Aggies have the ball, so their coach called a time out. Now, 9.5 seconds is not a lot of time, but it's enough time to run some sort of play.

Instead, the Aggies' David Sloan (pictured above), drove the ball down the court, crossed over the UCLA point guard, and took a shot in the key while being essentially triple-teamed.

Somehow I doubt that was the play A&M's coach drew up.

Sloan's shot was viciously blocked and the Bruins won the game. At the time, it looked like Sloan's last shot was blocked cleanly. Replay after replay seemed to show no foul on the play. I was beside myself at how stupid this kid was... there were a good five seconds left on the clock when he took the shot, and he had two teammates wide open on the wings who had much better looks at the basket.

But examining the above picture, it sure as heck looks to me like Sloan was fouled on the play.

So whatever. Boo on Sloan for taking a bad last shot and ruining what had been a great game to that point. Boo on the UCLA players who got away with one and boo on the refs for not catching it.

Onward to more March Madness on Thursday!