Jeremiah Oden made a big 3-pointer in the third overtime of Saturday’s game at Viejas Arena against Boise State that helped propel San Diego State to a dramatic 110-107 victory.
Turns out, Oden shouldn’t have been in the game. He should have fouled out in the second overtime.
Multiple sources told the Union-Tribune that Boise State submitted a complaint to the Mountain West office. The Broncos offered video evidence showing Oden, a senior forward, committing five fouls — and referee David Walker making the wrong hand signal to the official scorer on his third, assigning it to sophomore forward Pharaoh Compton instead.
The stat crew, which does not sit near the official scorer at the table between the benches, rightfully gave that foul to Oden, meaning he got his fifth — not fourth — with 2:12 left in the second overtime.
When Oden walked onto the floor for the start of the third OT, Boise State coach Leon Rice ran down the sideline, waving the real-time box score that is distributed to the teams and media during timeouts; the printout had Oden with five fouls.
Crew chief Michael Irving checked with the official scorer, who indicated Oden had only four. The game continued, and Oden’s 3 with 3:37 to go triggered a 9-2 Aztecs run that sealed the victory and kept them undefeated in conference play entering Tuesday night’s late game at Nevada.
“I had assumed he had fouled out,” SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said after Tuesday’s shootaround at the Lawlor Events Center. “The official scorer said, ‘That’s only four.’ At that point, I don’t think there was any real way of going back and seeing where it occurred. It was so (much earlier) in the game.
“If they would have fouled Pharaoh out, I would have fought for 10 minutes, saying he’s still in. But I probably would have lost (that argument), because it would have taken forever to clarify that the official had given the foul to the wrong guy.”
A Mountain West spokesperson acknowledged that it is not unusual for teams to submit officiating video requesting clarification — and there is little recourse once a game is officially declared final.
In media availability Tuesday with reporters in Boise, Rice did not address Oden’s fouls specifically but said more generally:
“Officials are people. They’re going to have good nights, they’re going to have bad nights. You coach long enough, you’re going to experience all of it. … That’s the lesson I want our guys to take: We control what we can control.
“We compete our tails off, and sometimes you have to go against adversity you can’t control. But for us to still be worrying about it, it’s useless. It’s the ‘l’ in salmon. What does it do? It does nothing. So move on.”
SDSU forward Jeremiah Oden celebrates after the Aztecs’ defeated Boise State in triple overtime at Viejas Arena on Saturday. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Oden had no fouls in the first half, then three in the second half. The third came with 2:39 left in regulation, on a block call against Boise State’s Javan Buchanan. No one else was near the play.
The officials briefly huddled to determine if Buchanan’s layup went in (it did), then Walker went to the scorer’s table to register the foul with finger signals for jersey numbers. The CBS Sports Network broadcast didn’t show Walker coming to the table, but Boise State’s internal video did and, according to sources, showed Walker flashing a single 5, not Oden’s No. 25. Compton wears No. 5.
Oden got a fourth foul late in the first overtime. After being whistled for another with 2:12 left in the second OT, he put five fingers in the air — an apparent acknowledgement that he had fouled out — and walked to the bench.
Oden subbed out for the remainder of the second OT but returned to the floor for the start of the third, eliciting the frantic reaction from Rice.
Officials do have the power to correct fouls assigned to the wrong player, even with the use of video replay. But it wasn’t until well after the game that a forensic analysis of various camera angles discovered the reason for the discrepancy between the official scorebook and box score.
“I think it happens way more than people think,” Dutcher said, “where the ref gives the foul to the wrong guy, but it’s corrected immediately when people sense it. It’s a clerical error that we had nothing to do with us as a coaching staff or with the scorebook.
“The ref gave a wrong number for a foul. No one caught it at the time, so it stuck. … I’m sympathetic to (Boise State), but what can we do?”
Walker was working his first career Mountain West game and made numerous questionable calls that were angrily contested by both head coaches. The conference is contracted with an officiating consortium operated by the Big Ten, which has drawn criticism for sending inexperienced, underqualified crews while its top referees work games in the Midwest.
The reformed Pac-12 already has said it will not use the Big Ten consortium when it launches next season and instead contract with the Big 12 consortium that also services the other leagues in the West.