Vegas Watch

The following video is from Sunday's UCLA-Washington game (the Huskies upset the Bruins, 71-61). Washington's Tim Morris is attempting to inbound the ball in the last minute of the game. Alfred Aboya is defending him. The Huskies have no timeouts left (this is important).



I understand the necessity to do something in that situation. And yeah, I guess in some sense it is a "smart play", as the announcer notes. But it really seems unnecessary to wind up and throw the ball off the guy's face as hard as you can. Why not throw it off his knee, or thigh, like, you know, everybody else in the history of basketball has chosen to do? That would be a similarly smart move. It is almost an unnatural reaction to throw it off his face.

Basketball Prospectus' John Gasaway sums up the future ramifications of this play very nicely:

(Kudos to the Huskies' Tim Morris, by the way, for virtually ensuring that the Rules Committee will make at least one change in the offseason: it will no longer be permissible for a player to avoid a five-second call on an inbounds pass by simply throwing the ball, hard, off the defender's face. This shall be called The Morris Rule. It didn't come soon enough for Alfred Aboya.)

I really do hope it is called The Morris rule. Seems like this should be a flagrant foul- it's in the same category as fouling someone hard while having no intention of going for the ball on a fast break. We do not want college basketball players to start being able to save on toothpaste.

H/T: RMMB.