Vanderbilt’s Matthew Fisher-Davis’ game-losing foul was a mistake, but his team isn’t blaming him for it

The Vanderbilt Commodores lost to the Northwestern Wildcats in the opening round of the NCAA tournament thanks to the most heart-breaking foul you could imagine. With seconds left in the game, Vanderbilt’s Matthew Fisher-Davis inexplicably fouled Northwestern’s Bryant McIntosh on purpose despite his team holding the lead, sending an 86 percent free throw shooter to the line.

McIntosh made both and put the Wildcats up with 14 seconds remaining, setting up the 68-66 victory — Northwestern’s first in the school’s history.

“It was my dumb mistake why we lost,” Fisher-Davis said afterward.

The intentional foul surprised McIntosh, who thought maybe he was the one messing up.

“When he grabbed me I was kind of surprised,” he said, via ASAPSports transcriptions. “I was pushing the ball up the floor. And I thought maybe I made a mistake. And to see that we were down one and he fouled, I just had to put my mind on making the free throws at the end.”

Fisher-Davis said he lost track of the score, which led to him committing the back-breaking intentional foul. It’s possible he was confused when his head coach, Bryce Drew, pointed at the ball handler. It wasn’t a signal to foul him, but in the heat of the moment, perhaps Fisher-Davis took it as that.

“It could have been a miscommunication,” Drew admitted. “He looked over at me before. But one play doesn’t lose the game for you. And I’m proud of the guys fighting back and being in that situation. Without him we’re not even close to being in that situation at the end.”

Drew was right: Fisher-Davis recorded 22 points off the bench on Thursday, his highest scoring game since Jan. 4. While Vanderbilt trailed much of the second half, Fisher-Davis’ 14-point second half helped keep the team in the game.

“And one play at the end or one or two plays at the end doesn’t lose a game for us,” Drew said. “There’s plays throughout the whole game that coaches can call better, that players can play better, we’ve had that pattern through the whole year with our guys. I’ll talk to Matt more in depth at some point. He’s down about it.”

Fisher-Davis’ teammates backed him up whole-heartedly.

“The second half, we had no chance if he didn’t make some of the shots that he did,” Luke Kornet said. “I just wanted to let him know that, we’re with him no matter what. Every single one of us and what our team is, I’m going to make mistakes and everybody is going to be around me and supporting me and vice versa.”

Even Northwestern, though jubilant for the win, expressed sympathy for Fisher-Davis’ mishap.

“I feel badly for Fisher-Davis,” Northwestern head coach Chris Collins said. “It’s an honest mistake. It happens all the time. And you feel for players when those kind of things happen.”

The foul will be one of the most talked about moments from the first day of madness, but Vanderbilt doesn’t define the game based on that single mistake.

“How we’re built is one or two plays don’t define a whole game,” Drew said. “Everyone in that locker room could have done something better to not be in that situation.”