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In the second round of the 2012 NCAA tournament, 16th-seeded UNC-Asheville trailed top-seeded Syracuse by three points with 38.2 seconds remaining, Orange inbounding the ball. This was a big moment for the Bulldogs, and it would prove to be a big moment, too, for a man whose name and face you wouldn't even recognize. In fact, what happened next in the game would stick with Eddie Corbett for weeks. There was a reason he'd always told his daughter to stay off SportsCenter and Facebook, wasn't there?
UNC-Asheville forced an errant pass that bounced off the hands of Syracuse guard Brandon Triche and back out of bounds in front of the Bulldogs' bench. The players began to celebrate, but the ref on the baseline had his left arm extended, pointing down the court. Syracuse ball. That was Corbett.
Boos from fans filled the CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh. "How did they think that went off of Asheville's hand?" said TV commentator Reggie Miller. "This is unbelievable."
Syracuse went on to win, 72-65. In the aftermath of the game, that blown call became seen as the game's pivot, the injustice that derailed UNC-Asheville's upset bid. UNC-Asheville coach Ed Biedenbach hinted at it when he told reporters, "Syracuse is better than Asheville, but tonight Asheville was the better team." The director of men's basketball officiating for the NCAA—Corbett's boss—told a national TV audience, "He didn't get it right." The play was shown repeatedly on the sports networks and dissected by pundits. The next day a group named "Ed Corbett is the Worst Referee Ever" popped up on Facebook, filling up with photos of sad Bulldog players with captions such as "Are you kidding me!!!" and "So Sad =(."
"I was on SportsCenter and all of the talk shows for two straight days," said Corbett, 60, in an interview 10 months later at a diner near his home in Hastings, N.Y. He said it with a detached shrug, as if he were ordering another coffee.
UNC-Asheville forced an errant pass that bounced off the hands of Syracuse guard Brandon Triche and back out of bounds in front of the Bulldogs' bench. The players began to celebrate, but the ref on the baseline had his left arm extended, pointing down the court. Syracuse ball. That was Corbett.
Boos from fans filled the CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh. "How did they think that went off of Asheville's hand?" said TV commentator Reggie Miller. "This is unbelievable."
Syracuse went on to win, 72-65. In the aftermath of the game, that blown call became seen as the game's pivot, the injustice that derailed UNC-Asheville's upset bid. UNC-Asheville coach Ed Biedenbach hinted at it when he told reporters, "Syracuse is better than Asheville, but tonight Asheville was the better team." The director of men's basketball officiating for the NCAA—Corbett's boss—told a national TV audience, "He didn't get it right." The play was shown repeatedly on the sports networks and dissected by pundits. The next day a group named "Ed Corbett is the Worst Referee Ever" popped up on Facebook, filling up with photos of sad Bulldog players with captions such as "Are you kidding me!!!" and "So Sad =(."
"I was on SportsCenter and all of the talk shows for two straight days," said Corbett, 60, in an interview 10 months later at a diner near his home in Hastings, N.Y. He said it with a detached shrug, as if he were ordering another coffee.
