The Maryland Terrapins' electric buzzer-beater defeat of the Colorado State Rams has been shrouded in a bit of controversy since Sunday night, when eagle-eyed fans complained that center Derik Queen may have traveled on the big play.
The rub stems from a slow-motion replay of the moment. As the freshman drives toward the basket, it looks as though he took three steps without dribbling, rather than the allowed two, before getting the ball in off the glass. The refs didn't call anything and the Terps won the game, but the replay and the resulting "what if?" was clearly enough to send the internet into a tizzy.
Well, perhaps a breakdown from CBS rules analyst Gene Steratore will settle this for fans on both sides of the game.
Speaking late Sunday night, Steratore explained why he saw no issue with Queen's now-controversial bucket.
"By rule, the dribble doesn't end," the analyst said. "And so there is firm possession with one hand locked or, more times than not, with two hands. So we've got to look to see when the dribble ends.
"Derik Queen makes the turn around the loop. At that point, when he brings it back up, we don't know if that's fully possessed. If he bobbles that at that point, he could continue to bobble that basketball on the way to the hoop without a travel. So you've got to wait until you can define firm possession. Now the dribble has ended. As I said, most times than not it's when both hands come together. You can see when Derik Queen has both hands together, one foot hits, next foot, great shot, great ending.
"To me, it just really doesn't jump off the screen as anything big."
Watch that answer below:
Asked about it after the game, Colorado State coach Niko Medved also handled things pretty calmly, though he notably had not watched the video yet.
"I haven't seen the video yet. It's going to be hard for me to watch. I'm sure I will at some point. I don't know. Maybe it was [a travel], maybe it wasn't," he said. "But it doesn't matter; they didn't call one. ... They never go back and change the call."
In any event, the Terps have now punched their ticket to the Sweet 16, where they'll be in a position to devastate some brackets should they take down No. 1 Florida on Thursday, March 27.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as CBS Rules Official Explains Why Maryland’s Derik Queen Didn’t Travel on Buzzer-Beater.
