MINNEAPOLIS — Depending where you were when you saw the play, you may not have even realized Samir Doughty had been called for a foul.

Steven Pearl said he couldn't tell right away, as he turned toward the area behind Auburn's bench and saw people celebrating the Final Four win. The people at Toomer's Corner who flooded toward the trees to roll them yet again didn't realize until they were told. Even Doughty — the one called for the foul — was surprised in the moment as the referee reacted to the foul call later than he would've expected.

"It was a late call. It was a late foul call," Doughty said. "I thought the game was over honestly, but he called the foul."

The players on the floor who weren't defending the shot witnessed it all as it unfolded.

Anfernee McLemore saw the shot go up, and immediately thought Kyle Guy had hit the corner 3. When he saw it go off the mark, he jumped to grab the rebound, but before he could, he saw the referee's hand go up and the whistle blow. Austin Wiley needed a second to process that he'd actually heard the whistle he thought he heard. He immediately put his hands behind his head in shock, just as McLemore did.

Jared Harper and Bryce Brown said they knew right away what had happened. They just didn't agree.

"I knew before I grabbed the rebound the ref had blown the whistle. I knew he’d called the foul," McLemore said. "I asked him, ‘You called a foul?’ I saw him say something to the other ref, and he put three fingers up."

"I watched the whole thing. I looked over at the ref and saw he called a foul. It wasn’t that long before I realized it," Wiley said. "I was watching the whole time. The ref was right there. I saw him call it. I thought it was going to be a no-call. But he made the call."

"I heard the foul call. I was looking at the play. I thought Samir played great defense," Harper said.

"Tough call. Tough call to make. I just don’t feel like it should’ve been decided like that," Brown added.

Those who were on the bench for the final moments had as much trouble as anyone processing the controversial final moment.

"I thought it was a bad call, honestly," Malik Dunbar said.

"We couldn’t believe it at first," Horace Spencer described it. "The ref took the game from us kinda. We had it."

"I felt like it was supposed to be a no-call. I didn’t feel like he fouled him," J'Von McCormick added. "Obviously it’ll be something I remember for life, that we were a second away from going to the championship and the refs called a foul. It changed the whole game obviously."

Debates will go on forever about the validity of the call. Some will defend the NCAA officiating, suggesting Doughty — a fair argument, at that — didn't give Guy enough space to land. That's how the NCAA defended its officiating in a statement, pointing to Rule 4, Section 39.i, which states: "Verticality applies to a legal position and also to both the offensive and defensive players. The basic components of the principle of verticality are: The defender may not 'belly up' or use the lower part of the body or arms to cause contact outside his vertical plan or inside the opponent's vertical plane."

In the Auburn sphere, that won't sit well.

In that moment, to make that call, it's nearly impossible to digest.

Several Auburn players and coaches — Steven Pearl, Jared Harper and Anfernee McLemore specifically — pointed to several other plays throughout the game that decided the outcome as much as the foul call. They didn't want to linger on the call too much because they knew other things could've been done to prevent a Final Four loss.

But still, the way near-victory turned into heartbreaking defeat couldn't be ignored.

"It’s very disappointing. I hate it for the team, the coaches. We worked very hard to get to this point," Wiley said. "For it to end like that, it’s pretty unfortunate."

It wasn't the only questionable call in the final five seconds.

Something picked up on television that went unnoticed by almost everyone in U.S. Bank Arena was the Ty Jerome no-call on the double-dribble just before Brown used Auburn's second-to-last foul to give. Jerome dribbled it off his own foot, gathered the ball with both hands and and started to dribble again.

Brown said he was unaware of that play when he was told in the locker room.

As open locker room came to a close, Spencer, Dunbar and Doughty gathered around a phone to watch that play. They heard the commentators mention the rule and the missed call. They didn't say anything. They just turned off the phone and shook their heads.

A 10-point comeback flattened — just like that.

"It just hurt because I felt like we put ourselves in position to come back and win that game," Brown said. "Anybody that saw that game, anybody that saw that play, a lot of people will disagree with that call. It just hurts that we went out like that because we felt we were so close to a national championship."