In a 2024-25 men’s college basketball season defined in some part by endless video reviews, it’s perhaps fitting that one of the biggest discussion points after the most thrilling game of the 2025 NCAA Tournament centered around the officials.
Houston’s stunning 70-67 comeback victory against Duke Saturday night in the Final Four was made possible, in part, by a questionable call that ultimately allowed the Cougars to score the game-winning points.
With Duke leading by one, Houston intentionally fouled Blue Devils guard Tyrese Proctor with 19.6 seconds remaining. Instead of extending his team’s narrow lead, Proctor missed the front end of a one-and-one, with the ball bouncing off the rim toward Houston’s J’Wan Roberts and Duke’s Cooper Flagg.
With Roberts boxing him out, Flagg was able to extend his arm and get his hand on the ball, but shortly after doing so, the freshman phenom and national player of the year was whistled for a foul.
The call drew immediate criticism from the CBS broadcast team.
“That’s a ‘play on’ to me,” CBS analyst Bill Raftery said. “He (Flagg) was being screened out. … For all the contact all evening, I thought that was just a ‘play on.’”
Grant Hill, Raftery’s fellow analyst and a former Duke standout, agreed with his colleague’s assessment.
With his team in the bonus, Roberts, a 62.5% free throw shooter, went to the other end and calmly knocked down both shots to give the Cougars a 68-67 lead.
The Blue Devils had a chance to go ahead in the final seconds, but Flagg was short on a fall-away jumper, with Roberts closely defending him. Houston came down with the rebound, All-American guard L.J. Cryer was fouled with 3.7 seconds remaining, made both free throws and a Duke desperation heave at the buzzer badly missed to complete the Blue Devils’ collapse in a game they led by nine with 2:10 remaining.