Tuesday night’s wild game in Lincoln saw Purdue pick up a huge road win.
It may have also come via divine providence through idiocy.
The game was decided when Jamarques Lawrence slipped and fell as he accepted the inbounds pass with 4.1 seconds left and the Cornhuskers trailing by one. Gicarri Harris recovered the ball, hit two free throws, and Nebraska never got a shot off, nor did it possess the basketball on their end of the floor. It was a weird end to an exciting game.
As it turns out, it may end
up being a tremendous own goal that ends up being huge in the Big Ten race.
A few moments before Lawrence slipped Purdue’s Oliver Cluff scored and was fouled to put the Boilermakers in front by one with 5 seconds left. Nebraska fans did not like the call, and as Purdue walked back to its bench before the free throw attempt something was thrown on the court.
The object appears to land in the same spot where Lawrence would later slip:
Here is where it gets interesting. There is A LOT of time that happens between the tossed object and the slip. It obviously was not a full beverage because that would have exploded all over the court, but what if there was a small amount of liquid in the cup that was missed by whoever was cleaning the floor? It would have had to stay on the floor through:
- The pseudo-timeout as Purdue milled around in front of its bench before the free throw attempt.
- The attempt itself, including CJ Cox getting the rebound and getting tied up.
- An entire Nebraska timeout.
In terms of real time that span is at least 3-5 minutes from when the object was thrown to when the play happens. If you’ll notice, Sam Hoiberg also slips int he same area when he goes over to help Lawrence up. Harris did not slip, but probably because he had a moment to gather himself and the ball before he was fouled. It’s likely he was surprised to see the guy he was guarding slip and fall like a Looney Toons character on a banana peel.
At minimum, throwing something there is really stupid by the fan because it opens the door for a technical foul to be assessed on the home team and free throws to be awarded. At worst, Lawrence gets seriously injured because he did take a big fall. It is also pretty clear something on the court caused him to clip.
Harris does eventually go right through the same area without issue but that is also before Hoiberg fell, so who knows. Was it something on Nebraska’s shoes? Was something still on the court? Did Nebraska give up an own goal by missing that something was thrown on the floor and not getting it cleaned up. If so, it happened right at the Purdue bench, so how did Purdue not notice? Obviously there is no guarantee that Nebraska scores on the following play if he stays vertical, but at minmum this incident took their chances from slim to none.
I have no answers, but I found it very interesting that an excellent basketball game ended in such a strange manner.
