The LSU-Alabama game had one of the stranger finishes you'll ever see. Down three points in the final ten seconds, Bama's Natasha Gamble hit a shot from the top of the key. In real time, it looked like a three-pointer. Time ran out, Bama celebrated and got ready for overtime.

The celebration was premature. The refs went to the monitor and ruled it a two; game over, LSU won.

But on TV, it was simply impossible to tell whether it was a two or a three. Gamble's shoe was black, the same color as the three-point line. And none of the three camera angles had a clear view.

"The front part of her (right) foot was clearly on the line, and we have to be 110 percent sure, or we'll go with the 3," said the crew chief, Brian Enterline.

In law school, they taught us to avoid using words like "clearly" or "obviously." When someone says "Obviously,..." in a legal argument, you can bet that whatever follows is far from obvious, and in fact often wholly devoid of support.

There was nothing clear about the replays on my TV. Maybe the refs had another view that we didn't get. If not, I'm not sure what they were talking about. (Other refs also wonder what was going on.)

Nor was that the only dubious call Enterline made in the final minutes. He sent Augustus to the line on a play that should have been a travel -- she fall down, and with a bad angle on the play, he appeared to assume that she was pushed. A reasonable mistake, but still a mistake. Worse yet, with a minute left, he called a foul against Bama from the far sideline and appeared to overrule the closer ref with the better angle who had called a held ball.

I'm not much one for ref-bashing, and I had no dog in this hunt. But the final minutes of this game were hard to watch.

The drama of the game's conclusion was magnified since it was Rick Moody's last before retirement. "It's tough to go in that dressing room and explain to your kids the situation that was today," he said after the game.

Despite the tough calls, Moody and his players were gracious after the game. "At the end, we felt proud, I guess you could say," guard Navonda Moore said. "It was kind of unbelievable how everybody was kind of pulling for us at the end, and we ran off to a standing ovation. We always knew we could play like we played today. We played hard; they played hard. They made plays; we made plays. What can you say? It was a heck of a game."