[Herky] Iowa falls in double overtime at Minnesota after second-half comeback

[Larry Edwards]

http://www.thegazette.com/subject/sports/iowa-falls-in-double-overtime-at-minnesota-after-second-half-comeback-20170209 



He couldn’t talk about it, but clearly there was one moment from Wednesday night’s 101-89 double-overtime loss to Minnesota that Iowa men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery was very upset about. 

In the closing seconds of regulation, with the Hawkeyes up two, Nicholas Baer got a steal and passed to Brady Ellingson in the corner. Ellingson waited, expecting Minnesota players to foul. When they didn’t immediately, both he and Jordan Bohannon — running in from the opposite side — appeared to 

attempt to call timeout. 

Instead, no timeout was granted, Gophers forward Jordan Murphy tied up with Ellingson and a jump ball was awarded to Minnesota. The ensuing possession saw Minnesota guard Nate Mason tie the game with a layup and extend the game. 

“I can’t,” McCaffery said in the postgame news conference, when asked about the attempted timeout. “Just don’t (ask) it.” 

Coaches who criticize officiating in postgame remarks are often fined by the Big Ten, so McCaffery had nothing to gain from expressing frustrations publicly that he’d already expressed to the officials on the court. 

Both Ellingson and Bohannon said after the game they were calling timeout. Bohannon said he ran to the corner trying to offer an outlet for Ellingson and did his best to get the ref’s attention. There wasn’t much more for him to do than offer a shoulder shrug and say, “it wasn’t able to be heard I guess. I think you have to have the ref notice you. Obviously there’s a lot going on, so it’s hard to notice sometimes.” 

Ellingson seemed particularly dejected about it after the game, saying, “I should’ve called timeout right away,” and that his expectation of a foul was what led to the pause. 

“You never want to leave the game up for the refs to make a call. I should’ve gotten rid of it or called timeout right away,” Ellingson said. “It’s just how the game goes sometimes.” 

The most frustrating aspect to the situation for the players was that during the previous timeout, there was a directive from McCaffery to call timeout as soon as the Hawkeyes got the ball back. Peter Jok said that included McCaffery telling a referee what their plan was. 


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