The Illinois basketball team is heading to the Sweet 16 for the second time in the last three years and will face off against the No. 2 seed Houston Cougars at the Toyota Center.
Head coach Brad Underwood and Co. will look to avenge their loss to Kelvin Sampson's Cougars from four years ago, when Illinois fell to Houston 68-53 in the second round of the NCAA tournament. It was a tough way to end an impressive season, especially with it being Kofi Cockburn's final game in the Illini.
But during that game, we were all witnesses to a historically bad moment by the officials on the court. During a fastbreak dunk by former Illini RJ Melendez, the then-freshman was whistled for one of the silliest technical fouls that we have ever seen in this tournament.
Melendez, a product of Arecibo, Puerto Rico, had an open lane to the basket in transition after an errant pass by Houston forced a turnover on the other end of the floor. It was a rather harmless play on Illinois' part, with Melendez going for a simple two-handed dunk to cut the deficit to four.
However, the referees who were in charge of this game saw it differently, and deemed the dunk by Melendez to be a little over the top. They thought his actions of swinging on the rim were unsportsmanlike, and gave the young man a technical because of it.
NCAA officials did not have situational awareness when making this call
Former Indiana Pacer Reggie Miller explained it perfectly during his call, saying, "If he lets go right now, he's gonna hit his head, or fall on his back." If Melendez had not swung his body to turn the other way, he could have experienced a laundry list of different injuries on that play.
It would have been as gruesome as gruesome can get when it comes to the game of basketball. Melendez could have busted his ankle by smashing his foot into the stanchion on the landing. He could have fallen straight to the ground and bounced his head against the ground.
The possibilities are endless, and the fact that the officials in that game didn't swallow their whistles on that play still doesn't make any sense. If they just had an ounce of situational awareness when making that call, then there wouldn't have been an issue.
It was a very weird moment in March Madness history, and the only thing that we can do is hope that it doesn't happen this year. This bout between these two teams is about to be electric, and it would just be a letdown if we had another botched play like this in the highlight reel.