Fran says …

ESPN-TV color announcer Fran Fraschilla provided the Journal-World with his take on the most crucial call of the college basketball season to date — UCLA’s foul of Mario Little with seven-tenths of a second left in the Jayhawks’ 77-76 victory over the Bruins on Thursday in Allen Fieldhouse.

The foul sent Little to the line for a tie-breaking, game-winning free throw.

“I think the replay showed there was a foul (by Malcolm Lee), and I’ve always felt as a coach that the referees need to call a foul the same way in the first minute as they do in the last minute,” former St. John’s coach Fraschilla said.

“While it was a very tough break for UCLA, it looked like it was a foul. To me, it looked like although he (Little) was fading when he got fouled, he started his shooting motion and was smart enough to continue his shooting motion, so the referees gave him the two shots. Remember, UCLA was in the two-shot bonus. It was going to be a two-shot foul anyway so it didn’t matter.”

The officials went to the monitor before sending Little to the line with a chance to break the 76-76 tie.

“The rule is you have to go to the clock to make sure the foul didn’t take place after there’s triple zeros on the clock. It was clear the foul took place before the clock got to triple zero,” Fraschilla said. “Again, it’s a very tough break for the team that gets the foul called on ’em, but it’s part of basketball. When I hear people say, ‘Let the players decide it, not the officials’ … a UCLA player decided it unfortunately by fouling,” Fraschilla stated.

Recruiting

DeAndre Daniels, a 6-foot-8, 180-pound senior forward from IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., attended the game as part of his official visit to KU. Daniels, who decommitted from Texas in mid-August, also has UCLA on his list of schools that still includes Texas, Florida, Kentucky and Oregon. He’s Rivals.com’s No. 9-rated player nationally. His visit will last until Saturday.