‘That one’s not hard’: Wichita State questions controversial goaltending vs. Memphis
Controversy swirled near the end of Wichita State’s 83-80 loss to Memphis in the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference tournament on Friday.
The Shockers were in the midst of a furious comeback and believed they had added another two points when Quincy Ballard tipped in a miss with 2 minutes, 45 seconds remaining that would have trimmed Memphis’ lead to 74-72. But official Chuck Jones whistled for a basket interference call that triggered an immediate video review of the play.
Officials are trained to blow the whistle when in doubt of a basket interference or goaltending call, which allows them to then take their time and make the right call by watching slow-motion replays on a monitor.
After a lengthy review and discussion, crew chief Lucas Santos upheld the call that wiped away what WSU thought was certainly going to count as a bucket. To make matters worse, Memphis scored a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession for what essentially became a five-point swing.
Instead of WSU trailing by two with less than three minutes to play, the Shockers were down seven the next time they touched the ball.
When asked afterward for his thoughts, WSU head coach Paul Mills scoffed at the question and shook his head.
“Yeah, I’m not ...” Mills said, before using better judgment. “I mean, there’s enough screenshots out there. That one’s pretty apparent. That one’s not hard.”
There was no question that Harlond Beverly’s shot was trickling off the rim, but the question was if Ballard touched the ball while it was still in the cylinder.
Ballard waited for the ball to come completely off the rim, but even the slow-motion replays made it difficult to discern whether the entire basketball was outside of the cylinder. If it wasn’t, then the tiniest edge of the basketball must have been overlapping with the most outward edge of the rim.
Complicating matters was Memphis defender Nick Jourdain contested the rebound and his left hand appeared to come dangerously close to touching the inside of the rim and the ball.
“The way I looked at it, I thought the ball was still on the rim a little bit,” Memphis coach Penny Hardaway said. “He didn’t let it fully come off. It was just an unfortunate situation for them and a good one for us. But I felt like it was still on the rim.”
In the end, officials must have deemed it was Ballard who first made contact with the ball and that the ball was still in the cylinder. For reference, the cylinder is defined in the AAC rule book as “an imaginary geometric figure that has the ring as its base and is formed by the upward extension of that ring.”
The AAC declined to put out a statement when The Eagle asked for one on the play, as a conference official referred to the following rules on basket interference:
- When a player touches the ball or any part of the basket while the ball is on or within the basket. If the touching of the basket involves contact with the net only, the official must determine if the touching had any effect on the ball which would rise to the level of basket interference.
It’s impossible to say if Friday’s outcome would have been changed by a different call. WSU would have still trailed by two points and needed several key plays down the stretch to complete a comeback.
It’s also worth pointing out WSU did itself no favors with ill-timed turnovers, poor shot selection and its struggles to keep Memphis off the glass.
But in the heat of the moment and in the immediate aftermath when its season was ended, WSU felt like it had been robbed of a momentum-swinging play in a pivotal moment.
This story was originally published March 14, 2025 at 5:43 PM.
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