Matt Painter questions officiating reviews on controversial out of bounds calls vs. Houston

Purdue fell 62-60 to Houston in the Elite Eight on a heartbreaking last-second shot at the rim off an inbound pass. The low-scoring affair had its fair share of controversy throughout, which some would say could have shifted momentum and changed the outcome of the game.

According to Boilermakers head coach Matt Painer, there were several calls that could have gone either way that he took issue with. One thing he took offense to in particular is that on more than one occasions, the officials didn’t huddle together to make a collective call.

“It’s frustrating, frustrating for our guys. As long as they get it right, a couple of them, the one thing I didn’t understand is why they didn’t collaborate and get together,” Painter said. “That’s the only thing I was asking, like, obviously, they missed the one. And then the other one, they messed that one too, but like at the time, I didn’t realize it.

“Sometimes when it’s 50 feet away from me, it’s really hard. I didn’t understand why they didn’t get together. They can’t go and review that, but they can get together and kind of talk it through and help each other. There’s three people out there. So that was my only complaint.”

The one the officials missed is Painter referring to the controversial no-call on Houston’s Milos Uzan. Uzan appeared to use his arm to shove a defender off of him. That gave him room to get a shot off, which he missed, and a scramble led to Houston inbounding from out of bounds. Instead, had the seeming offensive foul been called, the Boilermakers would have had the ball.

The sequence came at the end of the game. There were left than 10 seconds left when Uzan pushed off and shot. By the time the ball went out of bounds, there were just 2.2 seconds left. That let the Cougars to set up an out of bounds play, which they executed flawlessly and got the game-winning shot off of with less than a second left to take a two-point lead. That would, ultimately, be the difference in the game and sent Houston to the Elite Eight.

Ultimately, the Boilermakers fall short of their ultimate goal of making a second-straight Final Four. Last year’s national runners-up, Purdue will head into the offseason looking to find itself right back in the same position next year under head coach Matt Painter.