After more than two hours of sensational basketball between Michigan State and Oakland, the game was over with the blow of a whistle.
Oakland junior guard Kahlil Felder, who was the unquestioned star of the game, drove to the paint on Michigan State’s Eron Harris, spun and fell forward to the floor after Harris slid to block Felder’s path to the basket. The call? A charge on Felder, which was his fifth and final personal foul. Felder went to the bench, and Oakland’s hopes of winning the game died.
Felder’s foul came with 49 seconds remaining in overtime, and Michigan State leading by two. Although the deficit was slim, Oakland could not manage to beat the No. 1 team in the country without their star and emotional leader. Felder was sensational, scoring 37 points and dishing out nine assists. Although he was late getting there, we cannot blame Harris for going for the charge call at that point in the game; the whistle was going to be blown either way. The referees were bound to make a poor call, and boy did they.
Overtime Period Between Michigan State and Oakland was Hardly Basketball
Like previously stated, there was no surprise that a whistle would be blown on the possession. For the game, there were 62 total fouls called, split 31 apiece between the two schools. That’s in 45 minutes of play.
In the last five of those minutes, also known as overtime, there were 11 fouls (five against Michigan State, six against Oakland). There were five fouls in a span of two minutes, from the 4:25 mark and the 2:27 mark. There were multiple fouls that were not fouls at all, where it seemed predetermined by the officials that their whistle would blow on that possession. Both sides eventually could do nothing but look on and Tom Izzo just about raised his blood pressure to unsafe heights. Michigan State’s sophomore point guard Lourawls Nairn Jr. faced the difficult task of guarding Felder, and on multiple occasions he could do nothing but throw his arms up, in confusion and in disarray.
In fact, Michigan State dominated Oakland in overtime. The Spartans were 4-7 from the field, scoring nine points off of field goals. They were also 7-9 from the free throw line, with misses coming from freshman big man Deyonta Davis and junior guard Alvin Ellis III. That equates to 16 total overtime points. Oakland, on the other hand, was 0-6 from the field, which gives them a big, fat zero in the field goal department. The Grizzlies took advantage of the whistle-happy officials, though, as they went 10-10 from the free throw line. (Give them credit for knocking down their free opportunities I guess.) Without the free throw opportunities, Michigan State might win this game by double digits. Either way, there is no question that the calls had a huge affect on the overtime period, and the game itself.
At the end of the day, the constant whistles created a choppiness in the game that was frustrating to watch as a college basketball fan. The overtime period took *about* 45 minutes to complete, and neither coach even called one timeout during this time. It did not feel like basketball, to any extent. The NCAA so badly wants to create “freedom of movement” and “flow” into the college game, but with frequent whistles, and confused players and coaches not knowing how to correct their apparent mistakes, how does the institution think more rules is helping anything? Michigan State and Oakland scored 35 percent of the total points in Tuesday night’s game at the free throw line, where there was zero freedom of movement and zero flow in the game. The worst part was that one of these phantom calls went against the game’s best player at the end of the game, which stole any chance of Kahlil Felder pulling Oakland back into the game and maybe upsetting the No. 1 team in the country.
The whistles hurt both teams, but most of all, it hurt fans everywhere.
Miscellaneous Thoughts:
For Michigan State, the heroes of the day were obviously senior guard Bryn Forbes and redshirt-junior guard Eron Harris. Both players were sensational in picking up Denzel Valentine’s slack, as the potential National Player of the Year is out with a knee injury.
Forbes was intense from the start, as his performance was personal. He and Valentine both went to Sexton High School (Lansing, MI) and it was obvious that he felt that he needed to have a big game. He did just that by going 7-9 from three on his way to 32 points on the night. Forbes, a Cleveland State transfer last year, needs to be recognized as one of the most shooters in the entire country.
Harris, a West Virginia transfer that wore a redshirt last year, had one heck of a game as well. He has had some trouble getting comfortable in his first year of game action as a Spartan, and this was his breakout game. Harris was attacking the basket like a crazed barbarian, and it earned him 15 free throws, of which he converted 11. Throw in five rebounds and five assists, and it is easy to see why Tom Izzo was raving about him last year.
Also, Oakland’s Kahlil Felder was tremendous. He found ways to always be contributing, and forced the Spartans to put so much focus on him that it allowed other guys to make some players. The stepback in the corner that he hit over Nairn Jr. was the shot of the game, win or lose. It was such a tragedy that he could not finish the game on his terms. He is averaging 25.9 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 8.9 assists per game on the year, so keep an eye on him. He should tear up the Horizon once conference play starts.
