People have their reasons for preferring the college game to the NBA. Some of them are more wholesome than others. Mine is that the college game does not give credit to an offensive player when the defense scores a basket for the offensive team.1
In the NBA, the points from an own-goal get credited to the nearest offensive player. But in college, no player gets credit. As it should be. In the play-by-play, the own-goal is credited to the team who gets the points (much like a team rebound). In recent years as the NCAA has adopted a more descriptive play-by-play, there’s a qualifier added to the play that says “wrongbasket”, which makes it clear what happened.
This is really useful. If one wants to go find all of the cases of own goals, it can be done. Except! While scorekeepers are empowered to record these events, they often fail to do so. Last year there were just four own-goals recorded. I suspect there were at least 20 or 30 more that weren’t.
That’s the thing with own-goals. They happen so rarely that nobody involved knows what to do. Scorekeepers don’t know how to score it. Guilty players often react with sheepish body language. Announcers have to gather themselves when they realize the ball was tipped in by the wrong team. And fans provide some mix of cheers and laughter even when their team benefits.
For those reasons, the own-goal is the funniest play in basketball. Mind you, it’s not laugh-out-loud funny. It’s more on the high-brow end of the comedic spectrum. One has to appreciate the subtle humor. But it gets me every time.
Indulge me as we look at last season’s own-goals. Sound up!
The first one occurs on the very first possession of a January 6, 2023 game between Canisius and Manhattan. It’s so early, the broadcast hasn’t even put the scorebug on the screen.
Hey buddy, you just scored for the wrong team! Try not to do that from now on. The bewildered reaction from the announcer is a nice touch.
Our second clip actually comes from the same game! Just a few minutes later, Canisius is feeling guilty for the free points. This is great example of sportsmanship, just like in soccer when they do the throw-in to the other team after an injury stoppage.
The look of dejection by the offending player is relatable. We’ve all been there, trying to do some good only to screw it up.
Next we go to the MAAC championship game, where a Marist player provides the perfectly-timed tip-in of an Iona miss in the MAAC Championship game.
Two Iona players signal that the bucket should count as if the officials might not be familiar with the protocol here.
Finally, the fourth recorded case was Washington’s Noah Williams Keion Brooks following up a 3-point attempt by USC’s Reese Waters, which triggers the best crowd reaction of this group:
What other play in sports can elicit groans that echo in the arena?
While I’m rolling, here’s a bonus from an Ohio State - Purdue game in 2013. Evan Ravenel misses the dunk but gets the tip from a Purdue player. Great play, but that’s the wrong basket, my dude.
In the gamer for this one, even Thad Matta got it wrong.
OSU coach Thad Matta said he had to explain to Ravenel as he ran down the court that he'd still get credit for the basket. But as it turned out, Purdue corrected the boxscore after the game and took the basket away from Ravenel, citing article 8b in the NCAA rulebook and crediting it to no individual player.
Article 8b, bitches. There are no unearned individual points at the college level. Leave that nonsense for the NBA. The rule dates back at least as far as 1953 which is the oldest rule book I have in my possession. It’s possible Naismith came up with it.
Why the sudden fascination with own-goals, kenpom? Well, even though there hasn’t been a single own-goal officially recorded in a game this season, there’s been at least one in reality. And it decided a game.
It’s this gem from Saturday’s San Francisco - Utah State game.
Jonathan Mogbo, possible WCC player of the year, is battling for rebounding position, loses his balance, and is just trying to bat the ball away so no Utah State player can get the rebound. Unfortunately, he loses his balance too much, and bats the ball off the backboard and into the hoop.
The official scorer gave credit to Utah State’s Kalifa Sakho for the bucket. Which is understandable. If you’re the scorer and you work for the home team, you’d prefer to give credit to one of the home team’s players. Sakho makes game-winner is a better headline than “Own-goal wins game” for morale and what-not.
It’s possible Sakho got a hand on the ball (and in the linked piece he says he touched it) but watching it at live speed it seems pretty clear Mogbo is the one propelling the ball forward. This alternative angle seems to confirm that.
Even if you want to dispute it as an own-goal, it’s very clearly an accidental goal. In a game where neither team could make a shot when they were trying, it was fitting to decide the game on points scored when the teams were not actually trying to score.
The only other game-winner I’m aware of is a 2005 game between Bowling Green at Virginia Tech. There is no longer video of this on the internet so we are left with a written description.
Bowling Green won on a Virginia Tech own-goal which represented Dan Dakich’s crowning achievement in a 9-21 season. The Hokies themselves were not a post-season threat either. It’s possible that neither San Francisco nor Utah State will be in the bubble conversation, but for now, it’s too early to rule either one out (especially 11-1 Utah State). Own goals are usually harmless entertainment, but in this case, it could have a profound effect on both teams involved.
Update! I prepared this on Tuesday afternoon and Tuesday night we got our first official own-goal of the season. Enjoy the comedic stylings of Virginia’s Ryan Dunn as he converts the tip-in for his Memphis friends and then doesn’t know what to do with himself for a half-second. Also, check out Memphis’s Caleb Mills in a supporting role, who informs the official that indeed, per article 8b, the basket should count.
Well, it’s mostly that there’s more urgency in a college season and a college game by virtue of those being shorter than their NBA counterparts. And the 200 or so games of single elimination basketball we get every March. But after that, it’s how own-goals are scored.