A technical foul is called on the Illinois player when he hangs on the rim. (0:22)
Illinois guard Alfonso Plummer stole the ball from Houston's Jamal Shead and fed his teammate the ball as the Illini were down by six in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
With 8 minutes, 40 seconds left in the second half of the Illinois-Houston game, Melendez made the easy two-handed slam to cut Houston's lead to four. The crowd roared at the bucket as the Illini tried to get back into the game.
The guard was assessed a technical by the official for hanging on to the rim too long.
As it appeared the Illinois would get a little bit of a boost, it was snatched away as Houston's Jamal Shead hit a technical free throw to make it a five point game.
Brad Underwood, the Illinois coach, said that it was deflating. I can't wait to see it again.
Illinois got a little closer in the next possession thanks to a three-point play by Kofi Cockburn, but it wasn't able to overtake Houston's lead.
Illinois was down 22-11 after the technical foul.
The coach wondered if there was a personal motivation to call the foul after the game, as the official told him the foul should not have been called.
O'Connell told me he should never have called it. When a kid has a head of steam going at 100 mph? Health and safety of student-athletes is something we all talk about. Come on.
And then to kill the momentum? It was horrible.
The official didn't offer him an explanation for the technical, and he waited to get his legs under him before dropping off the rim to prevent injury.
The freshman from Puerto Rico said that he was going full speed in that transition, so he always thought about Paul George.
The pool report on the technical foul was not allowed because explanations aren't given for calls on individual plays.
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