Michigan State beat Florida Gulf Coast on Sunday night 78-77 thanks to some home cooking from their clock operator.
FGCU was down by a point with 2.4 seconds left and had the ball under their basket following a timeout. They looked to throw an inbounds pass but had it blocked out of bounds by Michigan State. When they got the ball back to repeat the inbounds pass, there were 1.6 seconds left. Then they tried the infamous Christian Laettner play by heaving a pass almost the length of the court to the free throw line, where it was caught by Antravious Simmons, who attempted a turnaround jumper. The problem is the clock expired before Simmons had a chance to attempt his shot:
Despite some mishaps of a running clock, @FGCU_MBB nearly upsets #13 Michigan State on @dreamchasertrey's last second attempt. pic.twitter.com/fIXYZ4ciFq
— #ASUNMBB (@ASUNMBB) November 21, 2016
What happened? In both cases, the clock operator started the game clock when the pass was thrown rather than when the ball was touched by a player in the court, which is the proper way to do it. FGCU was squeezed and clearly the victim of home cooking by Michigan State.
BRUTAL. Big ? about when the clock started in East Lansing. One heck of an effort from our guys. #DunkCity #ASUNMBB pic.twitter.com/Hy48ngHMcX
— FGCU Men's Hoops (@FGCU_MBB) November 21, 2016
