The ball was out of Darrion Trammell’s right hand and in the air, taking a palpably tense arena along for the ride to the rim. The KFC Yum Center momentarily hushed as every eyeball in the place followed the arc of the shot. This moment would decide a desperately fought South Regional championship game—but not in a way that was immediately evident.
There was a startling audio intrusion before the ball got to the basket and clanked off the iron. Official Lee Cassell pierced the dramatic pause that accompanies a mid-air shot with the shriek of his whistle, calling a foul on Ryan Nembhard that virtually no one saw in real time. The call would send San Diego State to its first Final Four, send Creighton coach Greg McDermott into a sideline rage, send Aztecs guard Adam Seiko into an overwhelmed flood of relief, and send Trammell to the foul line for the winning free throw in a 57–56 battle.
Replays showed what Cassell saw: with 1.2 seconds left, Nembhard had wrapped his left hand around Trammell’s hip and applied enough of a shove from behind with his forearm to send Trammell to the floor as his shot clanked off the front of the rim. It was a foul. It was also the kind of call that a ref often will not make in a moment like that.
