Purdue coach Matt Painter sums up NCAA Tournament loss to Houston
Hear what Matt Painter said following Purdue’s 62-60 loss to Houston at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Houston basketball’s Milos Uzan will forever be remembered in Cougars lore for his game-winning bucket against Purdue in the Sweet 16. A potential foul that would’ve negated the last possession entirely likely won’t, however.
It’s worth noting there are, of course, plenty of what-ifs through the course of a game. But a play between Uzan and Purdue‘s Braden Smith felt especially important.
As Uzan prepped to run Houston’s last set in the 60-60 game with under 20 seconds left, he drove right before putting a slight shoulder into Smith, who appeared to play off the shove and set his feet for a push or charge. The referees let the teams play through it, however, which led into the Cougars’ game-winning inbounds play.
“He got away with one there,” color analyst Steve Lappas said on the game broadcast.
Uzan followed up the no-call foul with a perfectly dialed-up inbound play, as he found Joseph Tugler in the paint before Tugler immediately bounce-passed back to Uzan for the game-winning shot at the rim with 0.8 seconds left.
Uzan was magnificent in the game altogether, with a game-leading 22 points on 8-of-17 shooting with six assists and three rebounds on the night. He outdueled Smith, the Big Ten Player of the Year, who had an off-shooting night with seven points on 2-of-7 shots. Smith dished out a whopping 15 assists, though.
The NCAA tournament could be looking at a much different outcome if there was a foul called there, and it appears it could’ve gone either way in the moment.
