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Here's how ESPN announcers Brent Musberger and Steve Lavin called the end of UCLA's 81-80 win over Cal, an ending that included a controversial call:

(Video via Awful Announcing) Musberger and Lavin are now facing heavy criticism for their seeming cluelessness about the controversial finish, which included a shot (maybe) going over the backboard, which would negate the fact that it then went through the rim.

Writes Bob Raissman in the New York Daily News:

That's the problem. Neither Musburger - who got involved in basketball shortly after Dr. Naismith invented it - nor Lavin, a former coach, even discussed the possibility Shipp's basket should not have counted. Considering ABC replayed the shot eight times, the voices had ample time to tackle the subject.

Writes Neil Best of Newsday:

What I find interesting is they did not discuss the potential illegality of the winning shot from behind the backboard, which was a major topic of conversation on SportsCenter.

I find it interesting, too. When Lavin exclaimed, "From behind the backboard, Brent," they should have addressed whether the shot was legal or not. They dropped the ball there.

But after the jump, see where I think they really dropped the ball.

ESPN is doing yet another 'Greatest' countdown, the newest one counting the greatest college basketball players in history. Although the No. 1 name hasn't been announced, it's going to be UCLA center Lew Alcindor. ESPN.com has a listing of Nos. 25 through 3, and Alcindor's name isn't on that list. On ESPN Radio this morning Mike Greenberg said that No. 2 is Oscar Robertson, so Alcindor is obviously No. 1.

Alcindor, who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, is a fine choice, having been an All-American and Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament all three years of his college career. But looking at the Top 25 as a whole, one big problem stands out: ESPN and the corporate sponsor of this exercise, IBM, clearly wanted to pack the list with big-name stars, so it inflated the college greatness of players who eventually went on to have NBA success.

To echo something Matt Norlander has written, ESPN is calling this a list of the greatest college players, even though it's clear that the players' post-collegiate careers played a major part in where they were ranked. Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, for instance, are all ahead of Ralph Sampson.

'Revisionist history' is the nicest term for that kind of emphasis.