Post-game comment by Cal's coach

"It's hard to defend the free-throw line," Gottlieb said.

LINK

In this instance, "it's hard to defend the free-throw line" was, I suspect, a euphemism for "we got reamed by the refs." At least, for most of the first half, which was as much as I could bear to watch (no pun intended), it sure seemed that when Cal. went driving into the lane, it was a charge; when ND did it, it was a defensive foul. There was a stretch of something like 3 or 5 held balls, most of which appeared to be defensible calls, but the one-sidedness of the rest of the calls did not. The Cal. coach was the epitome of cool and calm, but she was clearly unhappy.

This is the ND success story. Novosel and Diggins drive the lane and lean into the defenders and a foul is called. Usually, a similar drive by the opponents is not called a foul. I guess because of their reputation the refs assume it must be a foul and not a charge or no call.

Geno complained about this and one of the reasons we were successful against ND in the last game is that they didn't call every Novosel and Diggins drive a foul.
ND gets a large porportion of their points from the foul line for this reason.

Walz from Louisville had perhaps even more to complain about. The UL-MD game was a real home job.

When are the Suits at WCBB and the NCAA going to step in and deliver top quality refs?......The game is too quick for 80% of these refs.......Teams get screwed every night on poor calls......

I felt St. Johns were also playing against the Refs. (One player fouled out, three others played with four fouls.) As long as I have been watching basketball, it seems the Refs are always partial to the home team. It may be subconscious intimidation by the home town crowd.Kudos to St. Johns for beating Oklahoma ( and the Refs) on their home court.

ND is a whole other thing.

Forget leaning into defenders they leap sideways into defenders. It is the most ludicrous move I have ever seen and the officials reward them again and again. Both players are entitled to their lines when in movement neither the offensive nor the defensive has the right to veer into the other players line. If the lines naturally intersect the player establishing position first is entitled to the spot.

Or at least install some penalty such as a suspension for consistently miscalling violations.

Novosel's 18 Made Free Throws is the most in NCAA Tournament history.

If ND gets to the Free Throw line early in the game, you can bet that it will continue for the complete game.

Is 20 FT attempts for 1 player an NCAA Tournament Record?

It is, IMHO, a ridiculous number.

I deon't know about 20 for a game but 18 in a half must be.

Even Doris couldn't stop herself talking about some of the calls, didn't realize you guys had to put up with that kind of stuff. I have no problem if refs call fouls but be consistent geez.

Reminds me when they won their first NCAA championship. For the first 3 years they most often called a walk on Ruth Reilly when she went to take a shot. Senior year they gave her a pass. What happened to Cal. in regards to the ref's calls is exactly what occurred to us. They got ref-erized.

How about a big round of applause for referees Sue Blauch, Michael Price and Gina Cross on their historic NCAA record setting assists performance!

Cal actually finished in 3rd place last night on FTA: ND-33, Novosel-20, Cal-14!!!

At this point I'm not sure how up-to-date the NCAA record book is because it is missing some stuff from last year, but FWIW Novosel's 18 appears to have beaten the old record by UTenn's Bridget Gordon by 1. She finished 1 short of the FTA record of 21 held most recently by KSU's Nicole Ohlde and Harvard's Allison Feaster in that famous game back in 1998.

Novosel averaged more that 1 FTA every 2 minutes, which is sick, but her 90% success rate was one of the better efforts ever. Drake's Lori Bauman went 16-16 in the first tourney back in 1982.

Rebecca even said it while calling the Big East tourney game against ND. Novosel was all out of sorts because she was not getting the bogus calls that she usually receives. You can't underestimate the added edge that gives a team. You now have the confidence that driving in the lane will get you calls (and also pile up fouls on the opposition) and in a game that you may be struggling to find your shot, it helps you settle down and get into a rhythm. That's stuff that doesn't show up in the box score.

Exactly, it hurts a team twice because the opponent goes to the line and it puts defenders in foul trouble when it is called continually.

Clearly, the answer is the need for more Jewish and Protestant officals. Or maybe Geno needs to bring some local nuns, priests and the Bishop to the game to sit behind the UConn bench.

Did ND's approach of taking the ball into the lane for academy award performances begin or accelerate in the Final Four last year, or has it been this bad for a couple of years? When Stef got in foul trouble, they took the ball into the lane last year and, per Geno, forced the refs to make calls.

They are a good team, and Novosel is a good shooter, but the bogus calls are the difference between a good (top 10) team and elite (top 4) team. It is bad basketball and and bad officiating. One poster noted yesterday that Muffett should be embarassed. My question is: Does Muffet encourage it or merely condone it? It is getting them wins; I doubt that she has any complaints.

Ah, shoot, my mistake, I didn't see this and posted another thread.

Sorry guys.

Upshot to me?? It embarrasses the women's game when it's so easy to tell the intent is to get a marquee team or player to the next round.

That was REALLY bad last night...and I'm no Cal fan (but, honesty compels me to admit I despise ND).

BTW....
I took the time to email the NCAA commish on it.

Obviously, a single email means squat.

Any of you others care to, though, and those things add up.