Foul, not a foul, technically a foul. Okay. Still no reason to call it there. "If you call it in the first quarter you have to call it in the final seconds." But that's the thing: This isn't called all the time! Refs do let plays like that go constantly and in that moment when it's not really affecting the play, just play on.
In an alternate universe, the foul isn't called, Paige hits the 3...no one is outraged about a missed illegal screen. Sure, Iowa fans are upset. Some Twitter people point out, hey, technically that should be a foul! But there's no national angst or anger. I know this because in the past 133 years since Naismith started the game, I remember zero buzzer beaters that sparked outrage because an illegal screen went uncalled. And I guarantee a lot have been set on game winners over the past decades.
On my Twitter feed last night a high school ref was going on and on about how you HAVE to call that and folks saying it shouldn't be called don't know the game and have obviously never reffed a game and simply don't understand basketball. Meanwhile, also on my Twitter feed, two other high school refs--one of whom had just done a state tourney game--were saying you absolutely don't call that. So to act like it's something that has to be called because of the letter of the law...come on.
