A Terrible Flagrant Foul Call Crushed Seton Hall’s Tournament Dreams

Seton Hall and Arkansas were locked in a tight battle into the final minute of the second half in their first round matchup of the 2017 NCAA Tournament. After a traveling violation with under 25 seconds to play turned the ball over to Arkansas, Seton Hall was forced to foul down 72-71 to send the Razorbacks to the free throw line and hope for a miss or keep the chance to tie the game with a three-pointer.

The Razorbacks successfully broke the Seton Hall trap and got the ball into the frontcourt, where the Pirates fouled. However, in the act of fouling (which was certainly a forceful foul), the Arkansas player tripped on incidental contact and was sent to the floor. The referees reviewed the play and determined it should be a Flagrant 1, which gave Arkansas two shots and the ball. This let the Razorbacks take a two-possession lead after making 3-of-4 free throws after Seton Hall had to foul again.

Here’s the full play in question:

Here’s a closer look at what was deemed to be worthy of a flagrant foul:

That decision effectively killed Seton Hall’s chances, as they were forced to go even faster down four, rather than three at most, to get back into the game. Chris Webber, doing the color commentary on the game, went off on the refs decision by correctly asserting that no foul that happens in a late game situation involves a player going for the ball. The trip, which appeared to be completely coincidental, made the foul look worse than it really was as he went flying into the air.

While the refs can hide behind the letter of the law, Webber and everyone else upset by the call have a valid point in noting that you regularly see people wrap up and simply grab or push a player in those situations to assure that the refs call a foul (we’ve seen at times refs not calling intentional fouls that weren’t clear enough and that being an issue too).

It’s a horrible way for Seton Hall to lose the game. Arkansas very well would have still emerged victorious without the flagrant call as they had the advantage with the lead and two foul shots coming up, but that’s a soft flagrant foul call in that situation.