Strange finish at Pitt-Louisville game

[Da Coach]

Pitt at Louisville has been a great game to watch. It has been close all the way, and was tied in regulation 56-56. In overtime, it remained close. Louisville took a 3 point lead, 60-57, with 15 seconds left. Then Pitt missed a layup and Louisville rebounded and it looked like they could just dribble out the clock. But instead, Louisville passed downcourt to Kyle Kuric for a quick dunk to make it 62-57 with just 0.5 seconds left in OT.
This is where it got bizarre. One of the male Louisville cheerleaders stepped onto the court and grabbed the ball after the dunk, and tossed it high into the air to celebrate what appeared to be a win. However, because there were still a few tenths of a second left on the clock (the clock stopped after the dunk as it does in the final minute, but the ball was still live), the officials called timeout, conferred, looked at the video, and ruled that Louisville should be assessed a technical foul for what the cheerleader did.
Pitt then made both technical FTs, to cut the lead to 62-59, and then inbounded the ball, got a last shot that just bounced off the rim which would have tied the game.
The final score was 62-59, but if that last shot by Pitt had been good, imagine how that cheerleader would have felt, and how much crap he would have taken from the Louisville people as well as the national media!

http://www.courier-journal.com/artic...ws|text|Sports (see 4th paragraph)

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201102270314

[tornado]

In effect -- two bad moves almost cost Louisville a 5 point lead in 0.3 seconds..one by Kuric and one by the Louisville cheerleader


Kuric should have dribbled out the final seconds - but he had to throw down a dunk...then the cheerleader thinking the game was over when 0.3 seconds remained, grabs the ball prompting a technical.
After 2 FT, and an odd reset of 0.5 on the clock, Pitt got the ball back and almost nailed a long three

[Da Coach]

Here is a video clip of the cheerleader interfering at the end of this game-

[Bravesfan]

Pitt at Louisville has been a great game to watch. It has been close all the way, and was tied in regulation 56-56. In overtime, it remained close. Louisville took a 3 point lead, 60-57, with 15 seconds left. Then Pitt missed a layup and Louisville rebounded and it looked like they could just dribble out the clock. But instead, Louisville passed downcourt to Kyle Kuric for a quick dunk to make it 62-57 with just 0.5 seconds left in OT.
This is where it got bizarre. One of the male Louisville cheerleaders stepped onto the court and grabbed the ball after the dunk, and tossed it high into the air to celebrate what appeared to be a win. However, because there were still a few tenths of a second left on the clock (the clock stopped after the dunk as it does in the final minute, but the ball was still live), the officials called timeout, conferred, looked at the video, and ruled that Louisville should be assessed a technical foul for what the cheerleader did.
Pitt then made both technical FTs, to cut the lead to 62-59, and then inbounded the ball, got a last shot that just bounced off the rim which would have tied the game.
The final score was 62-59, but if that last shot by Pitt had been good, imagine how that cheerleader would have felt, and how much crap he would have taken from the Louisville people as well as the national media!

http://www.courier-journal.com/artic...ws|text|Sports (see 4th paragraph)

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketb...d=201102270314

He's still going to take a lot of crap anyway. He should have known better to do that! And Kuric shouldn't have done that either, though I have seen Bradley games in the past where one of our players dunks at the end, though with the game well in hand.

[AE Braves Fan]

You mean like WL last night?

[BradleyJD]

Pitino "joked" that the experiment of male cheerleading was over.

[Future Walk-On]

You mean like WL last night?

Stealing it at mid court and having absolutely no one around you and all your momentum going to the basket....i dunno

[Bravesfan]

You mean like WL last night?

Well that's true.

[ChewaBrave]

Yeah my cards nearly managed to blow that one. That guys is already getting reamed on the major UofL board I follow. Good thing, they won -hehe

[tornado]

You mean like WL last night?

there's quite a difference between an end-game dunk in a 24 pt blowout...and a dunk at the end when you ARE better served by eating up the remaining clock...
After some of these kids have been playing competetive basketball for 15-20 years - how come they still cannot seem to grasp the "clock management" concept...

[ChewaBrave]

Kuric is a pretty smart kid, that handles himself fine on the court - in all honesty, if some random cheerleader hadn't run out on to the court and grabbed the ball, it would have been a non-issue.

[Braves4Life]

Kuric is a pretty smart kid, that handles himself fine on the court - in all honesty, if some random cheerleader hadn't run out on to the court and grabbed the ball, it would have been a non-issue.

True....... but it didn't have to be.

[BU RICK]

I'll go with the extra 2 points every time, especially at home. The crowd liked it very much, they didn't boo him for adding two points with about .3 left and it was a sure 2 handed dunk. How was he suppose to know a cheerleader was going to touch the ball...also coach K doesn't seem to mind adding points at the end of a game with a large lead, if it works for him it must be good...IMO

here's a video...http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-basketb...ul-throws-ball

[LG281]

Cut the dunk and the Rah Rah some slack...itS obvious from the video that the dunk was welcome by all...and pretty apparent that the cheerleaders really thought the game was over.

Seen stranger, premeditated things at sporting events. Clearly this poor sap just got caught up in the game.

The Ville got the W...not a big deal.

[Future Walk-On]

Could you imagine if this was the final four and Pittsburgh forced overtime and won???