Tag Archives: Yanick Moreira

VIDEO: Bryce Alford talks about win over SMU, goaltending call

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Point guard Bryce Alford was the hero in UCLA’s 60-59 win over SMU to start the NCAA Tournament, scoring 27 points and hitting 9 of 11 from beyond the arc.

The sophomore made four 3-pointers in the last 3:40, but his last one got some help in the form of Yanick Moreira’s goltending.

“It’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened to me in the game of basketball,” Alford said.

Alford now holds UCLA’s single-season record for made 3-pointers with 88, one head of the 87 that Arron Afflalo had in 2007.

Was the goaltending call correct in UCLA’s win vs. SMU?

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. — UCLA beat SMU, 60-59, today in the NCAA Tournament’s round of 64. The Bruins finished the game on an 8-0 run — with those last three points coming when Yanick Moreira got called for goaltending on Bryce Alford’s long 3-point attempt.

Did officials make the right decision?

From the NCAA men’s basketball rules book, this is Rule 9, Section 17, Article 3:

Goaltending occurs when a defensive player touches the ball during a field-goal try and each of the following conditions is met:

1. The ball is on its downward flight; and
2. The ball is above the level of the ring and has the possibility, while in flight, of entering the basket and is not touching the cylinder.

From what I saw live and from looking again at the footage, Alford’s shot looked like it was about to hit the rim. Moreira then jumped up and tipped it before it did, however, which resulted in the call. The shot didn’t look like it had the “possibility … of entering the basket,” but the officials also could have applied a basketball interference rule. The latter only requires that Moreira touched “the ball while any part of it is within the cylinder that has the ring as its lower base.”

Here was what official Sean Hull said after the game: “The call is goaltending and isn’t reviewable. We gave the rule number and the article. Why we went to the monitor was to determine if the basket was a three or a tow. Under two minutes by rule, we have a directive to do that. At the table it was confirmed that it was a three, and we put the ball back in play.”

At a glance: No. 11-seed UCLA vs. No. 6-seed SMU

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No. 11-seed UCLA (20-13) vs. No. 6-seed SMU (27-6)
Thursday, March 19, 12:10 p.m. PT (approximate start)
KFC Yum! Center (Louisville, Ky.)
NCAA Tournament — South Regional
TV: truTV (Verne Lundquist, Jim Spanarkel, Allie LaForce)
Radio: AM 1150 (Chris Roberts, Tracy Murray)

Scouting report: There is good and bad that comes with Larry Brown — the good being that he is a very good basketball coach, and the bad being that he’s not likely to stick around very long. And for college programs, there’s the ugly too: NCAA violations tend to follow him.

Though his degree of involvement varied in the two cases — Brown essentially told Grantland he was in the wrong place at the wrong time in regards to UCLA’s vacated 1980 runner-up finish — the 74-year-old left both the Bruins and Kansas with sanctions in his wake. That might happen again at SMU, his third collegiate stop and the 13th team he has coached in his career.

On the court, there’s little disputing what Brown has done for the Mustangs. Before he was hired in 2012, SMU went 13-19 and ranked 281st and 121st nationally in offensive and defensive efficiency, respectively. The team had significantly improved by his second season, going 27-10 for a runner-up finish in the NIT after being snubbed from the Big Dance.

This year, the Mustangs are back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1993. In the aforementioned efficiency statistics, they now rank 25th (offense) and 42nd (defense) in the country. Although they don’t have any standout wins, all but one of their losses have come against tournament teams. The exception is an 81-73 loss at UConn on March 1, one it avenged two weeks later in the AAC title game.

With a deep, capable frontline that can rebound and defend the rim as well as most teams in the country — as well as a capable point guard in Nic Moore, the AAC Player of the Year — SMU is a team without many glaring weaknesses. Three of five starters are transfers, perhaps a testament to Brown’s ability to develop players that others once overlooked.

It’s fair to wonder how long this rise might last. Continue reading “At a glance: No. 11-seed UCLA vs. No. 6-seed SMU” »