At half time of one of the Big East Tournament evening games, ESPN went back to the studio with Reece Davis, Hubert Davis, and Digger Phelps for highlights of some other games. One of these games was the barn-burner between Houston and Memphis. The Cougars’ Aubrey Coleman made a basket to put his side up one with under five seconds to go. Willie Kemp of Memphis then took the inbound pass and sped down the court, trying to beat the buzzer for a win. And that’s when things got interesting.

Kemp was called for a palming violation in final seconds of the game, allowing Houston to come away with a 66-65 victory. That was not the controversy. The thing that I noticed was how adamant both Hubert Davis and Digger Phelps were in saying that no call should have been made.

The argument goes something like this: Let the players decide the game. On the last play of the game, let the teams on the court decide who wins, not the people in the striped shirts. An interesting argument, but horribly flawed, not to mention hypocritical.

I’ll address the hypocrisy first, since this is what made me so upset upon hearing their analysis. On March 23, 2007, in the final seconds of the game, Jeff Green took the ball on the low post, spun around his defender and made a basket to give the Hoyas a thrilling 66-65 victory over Vanderbilt to advance to the Elite Eight. He made a huge play to lift his side.

The following season, the Hoyas traveled to Morgantown and were involved in another nail-biting finish. Jessie Sapp had just made a three-pointer to put Georgetown up 58-57 with six seconds to play. On the final possession, West Virginia stormed down the court, and Da’Sean Butler went to the basket for a lay-up, when Patrick Ewing Jr. rose above the rim and blocked the shot to secure the Hoya victory. A great defensive play to help his team win.

But, no one talked about Jeff Green’s clutch shot, or Patrick Ewing’s Junior amazing effort on the game-winning block. Instead, people talked about an “obvious travel” and a “clear goal-tending.” They focused on a tiny bauble of Green’s pivot foot, claiming that this slight movement was enough for the officials to make a call. They said the non-call on Ewing’s block was “controversial,” even though after thousands of slow-motion replays it is still hard to tell. In both of these instances, there were no analysts saying that the referees did the right thing by “letting the players decide.”

But, beyond the obvious hypocrisy, there is a deeper issue here. Hubert Davis and Digger Phelps’ philosophy is flawed. If Willie Kemp had been driving up the floor, and four Houston players had tackled him with one second left and there had been no foul called, Hubie and Digger would have been livid. And they would be justified. Sometimes, you have to call a foul, no matter when it happens. And it’s the same here. When a referee puts the whistle away on an obvious foul or violation, it has just as much impact on the final result as a call does.

Was it the right call in the Memphis-Houston game? I saw a few replays, and as an impartial observer in this case I think the referee was right. And so, as far as officiating goes, the referee has to make that call. Is it a tough way to lose? Absolutely. Should Memphis feel cheated? I don’t think so.

The referee’s job is to enforce the rules. Can the referees let the players play sometimes? Of course. And they should. As basketball fans we hate to see games decided by an official, so on close plays, we understand when referees allow play to continue. But, we must remember that if there is a foul, or a carry, or a travel, or a goaltend, a non-call decides the outcome just as much as a call does. Making the blanket statement that a referee should not blow his whistle because “the players should decide the game” is just wrong.