Geno, let's not basketball anymore!

[SVCBeercats]

Geno Auriemma takes issue with referees: ‘It’s not basketball anymore’ - Just Women's Sports

The UConn women's basketball coach said his frustration with the officiating led him to slam a water bottle on the court, drawing a technical foul.

justwomenssports.com

 

[hoopsfan22]

He's right and i think the women's game is becoming like the men's game just with poorer officiating.

 

[BBallF]

He's right and i think the women's game is becoming like the men's game just with poorer officiating.

They don't allow the same type of physicality in a men's game such as holding, grabbing the jersey etc. There would be fistfights.

 

[DEpup]

Maybe they should post the pictures of her bruises for all to see. I'd also like to see a montage of all the uniform grabs she gets. Public shaming the refs and the sport itself is clearly the only way change happens in women's sports....

 

[hoopsfan22]

They don't allow the same type of physicality in a men's game such as holding, grabbing the jersey etc. There would be fistfights.

So true and like Geno said men's games are tough because every time you go into the lane the whistle blows.

 

[veryolddog]

It is very tough to shoot a basketball when turning a corner and the defensive player has a hand full of T-Shirt pulling you to floor. Enough said, there are suppose to be rules of the game. Let's play basketball going forward according to the rules.

 

[oldude]

Several years ago the NCAA rules committee promoted the idea of “freedom of movement” by cracking down on “hand checking”, “moving screens” and other tactics designed to impede player movement on the court.

Smart coaches, including Dawn Staley, Geno and others began emphasizing “bodying up” opponents on defense. There is, of course. a fine line between playing tight defense and impeding player movement.

What I witnessed on Sunday was Zia Cooke frequently using her shoulders and hips to impede Lou’s movement on the court, with an occasional tug on her uniform. It was not unlike what you see watching NFL CB’s covering receivers. I think there was only 1 foul called, and that was when Lou went sprawling on the court after a hip check by Cooke that would have impressed any NHL player.

I can understand Geno’s frustration as he watches one of the best shooters in WBB get beaten up on the court. Whatever happens during the remainder of this season, for the good of the game, it is incumbent on the NCAA rules committee to revisit the subject of freedom of movement to eliminate the practice of body checking and jersey grabbing in basketball

 

[HuskyNan]

Maybe they should post the pictures of her bruises for all to see. I'd also like to see a montage of all the uniform grabs she gets. Public shaming the refs and the sport itself is clearly the only way change happens in women's sports....

Here’s one

 

[HuskyNan]

Look at Lou’s arm above her wrist

 

[HuskyNan]

This thread isn’t to complain about the South Carolina game. It’s specific to Lou and how she’s been treated the entire season.

 

[reelfan]

It was clear that Lou was singled out and SC was determined to impede her by any means necessary.
There a a couple ways to hand this. The University can state their case to the head of officiating, Big East.
The players can take things in their own hands to send a message.

 

[Ozimoto]

Hard for the players to send a message when they don't have fouls to give...

 

[hoopsfan22]

They saw what she did at Tennessee, so why wouldn't they target her? This is where you need one more shooter on the floor so you could have Paige or Azzi play opposite her and let them pick their poison.

 

[Tonyc]

Its to bad they didnt review it and reverse it like they did in our prior game. Reading this makes me wonder. Well I will be watching the LSU SC game and see how its called and the Marquette UConn game and how its called. It should be interesting to see how the refs react to Genos comments. Does this happen to some other teams good shooters like Catlin Clark Maddy and Haley Jones?????

 

[Bama fan]

This stuff happens all the time nowadays. In the SC game, we had 22 personal fouls and they had 21, But we shot 25 free throws and they shot 36. We shot 76 %, and they shot 72.2%, But they got more shooting opportunities than we did. 1.6 points per foul to our 1.19 points per foul. Last night I watched Tennessee lose to MSU in a real nailbiter of a game. I am certain the MSU crowd felt the refs were rather lousy. There were a total of 53 personal fouls called in the game. Tennessee got 37 points on 44 free throws while MSU got 19 points on 30. And there were some serious differences in the fouls that were called. I have no allegiance to either team, but it seemed as if Tennessee got away with a lot of pushing and pulling, and that MSU didn't . The MSU coach was given a technical foul after an egregiously bad call , and that allowed the Vols to tie it at the end of regulation. The game went into two overtimes and MSU should have put it away at the end of the first OT, but missed critical free throws. The officials could have called many more fouls, but I guess they were too tired to notice them. But the point is that reckless play is taught and encouraged by coaches, and the officials aren't able to rein it in any longer. Teams now depend on free throws, and not on hitting a high percentage from the floor. The sport is changing for the worse I fear.

 

[Bone Dog]

Does this happen to some other teams good shooters like Catlin Clark Maddy and Haley Jones?????

Of course it does. The only difference is that Iowa has other scorers. Against us, Nika face guarded Clark all game, and Kate Martin went on a tear. Similarly, Stanford has a pair of perimeter shooters — Jump and Demetre — who make it hard to overplay Jones. When we had Azzi and Caroline, the defensive pressure on Lou was lower. Lou is our primary perimeter threat right now, so of course other teams have to overplay her. They’d be insane not to.

 

[PacoSwede]

Several years ago the NCAA rules committee promoted the idea of “freedom of movement” by cracking down on “hand checking”, “moving screens” and other tactics designed to impede player movement on the court.

Smart coaches, including Dawn Staley, Geno and others began emphasizing “bodying up” opponents on defense. There is, of course. a fine line between playing tight defense and impeding player movement.

What I witnessed on Sunday was Zia Cooke frequently using her shoulders and hips to impede Lou’s movement on the court, with an occasional tug on her uniform. It was not unlike what you see watching NFL CB’s covering receivers. I think there was only 1 foul called, and that was when Lou went sprawling on the court after a hip check by Cooke that would have impressed any NHL player.

I can understand Geno’s frustration as he watches one of the best shooters in WBB get beaten up on the court. Whatever happens during the remainder of this season, for the good of the game, it is incumbent on the NCAA rules committee to revisit the subject of freedom of movement to eliminate the practice of body checking and jersey grabbing in basketball

it seems to me that 'freedom of movement' should NOT include the freedom for a player, when driving to the basket, to intentionally jump into the defender. that is rarely called an offensive foul and almost always the defender is penalized. it's disgusting and rampant for some players or teams and a real flaw in the game.

the rules committee should deal with this too,

 

[Bone Dog]

What lesson should other teams take from Lou’s recent games. The toughest teams in D1 roughed her up and she still scored well. Could they possibly conclude that this is a failed strategy? Nah, probably not.

 

[HuskyNan]

Its to bad they didnt review it and reverse it like they did in our prior game. Reading this makes me wonder. Well I will be watching the LSU SC game and see how its called and the Marquette UConn game and how its called. It should be interesting to see how the refs react to Genos comments. Does this happen to some other teams good shooters like Catlin Clark Maddy and Haley Jones?????

They all get it. Geno calls it “the Diana Taurasi treatment”.

 

[Blades]

Several years ago the NCAA rules committee promoted the idea of “freedom of movement” by cracking down on “hand checking”, “moving screens” and other tactics designed to impede player movement on the court.

Smart coaches, including Dawn Staley, Geno and others began emphasizing “bodying up” opponents on defense. There is, of course. a fine line between playing tight defense and impeding player movement.

It's been a big problem for Uconn's MBB too since the Big East season started with refs who allow to much fouling away from the ball and specifically against teams who run motion offenses with a lot of cutting and screens for shooters/ more talented players. Providence and St Johns are 2 of the worse offenders of the foul you on every play/ "they can't call it" all philosophy. What they did and the refs allow on Senachal was a travesty. So it seems to have worked it's way into the women's game as a ploy for less talented teams on the perimeter, who just want to play bully ball.

From Jay Bilas in 2020:
"With the freedom of movement initiative, officials were mandated (not asked — mandated by their superiors) to call the clear fouls being committed, especially the impeding of ball handlers and cutters by illegally disrupting rhythm, speed, balance and quickness. Officials did a great job of consistently calling hand-checking, arm bars on ball handlers and illegal contact in the post and on shooters. As a result, scoring went up significantly, and went up without the gains coming from free throws. In short, the game greatly improved, and players and coaches adjusted nicely. The freedom of movement initiative was far less painful than expected, and the gains were clear. The credit belonged to the supervisors for being vigilant and resolute in executing the mandate, and to the officials for doing exactly what they were required to do.

Well, the gains made have been lost this season. Freedom of movement in college basketball is dead. Actions that were clear fouls over the past three seasons are being allowed, including hand-checking and arm bars to illegally impede ball handlers, and illegal contact on cutters to impede and disrupt. Post play has become more physical."

Bilas on Officiating | COACH BOB WALSH

 

[my2cents]

The refs call the holds, hacks and blocks more when the offensive player has the ball. Clark at Iowa gets way more calls because she has the ball.
Lou gets way less calls, because our offense has her running off picks where she is held and bumped before she gets the ball.
Just give her the ball, get out of the way and let her make a move. Everyone else just hit the glass.

 

[CL82]

Whatever happens during the remainder of this season, for the good of the game, it is incumbent on the NCAA rules committee to revisit the subject of freedom of movement to eliminate the practice of body checking and jersey grabbing in basketball

Uh, that was pretty much my entire game.

 

[BBallF]

So true and like Geno said men's games are tough because every time you go into the lane the whistle blows.

Exactly. I sat court side at Rose Hill at Fordham last week when the men upset St. Louis. There is physicality, mostly underneath, and the players are very athletic, and whereas they didn't call pushing off by the dribbler onto the defender when it was just the removal of the hand and the arm wasn't stiff, they do call holds and restriction of movement and fouls in the lane. Nobody grabbed someone else's jersey. The refs weren't great on the charge vs. block calls but they controlled the game and nothing got out of hand despite the fact that it was incredibly loud and a very heated game.

They call the women's game differently now and they are squeezing the juice out of the beauty of the sport. When John Wooden was in his last years he was interviewed at a men's game. He said that if you want to see how basketball should be played you should watch the UCONN women. I think that was part of Kobe's attraction to the team also. There is a reason why he wanted his daughter to play at UCONN.

We are on the verge of being dinosaurs here. Something just has to be done. The NCAA has to be taken on in some meaningful way about this. I fully expect a very serious injury at some point due to the lack of enforcement of the rules and the quality of the officials in the women's game. I worry that someone's life will be inexorably altered forever when they were just trying to play college basketball.

It's breaking my heart. I played 4 years in college. I love the sport and I loved every minute I played either in a game or even pick up or just shooting around even after removing the snow from my driveway in the winter and turning on the outdoor lights. My wife cannot believe how I will just randomly stop even now and want to watch a playground game. I also coached at lower levels for many years. One of our plays was "UCONN".

It's a magnificent sport. A fusion of ballet and many primary sports such as running and jumping with many different skills required including a high level of eye-hand coordination. You are watching now however the gradual degradation of the sport. It's very sad. One of the reasons I want us back on top again is to show that basketball doesn't need to borrow from football to be the best form of the sport.

 

[Rowdy831]

UCONN has to be careful complaining about foul calls. Of all the teams out there they would be most impacted by foul happy refs. When you only want to play 5 players as Geno has shown the bench is non existent and those loose whistles could end up costing them the game.

When they have CD and back that should make it harder to hold on to one player to limit the scoring. Right now the idea is stop Lou and you take UCONN down to one player that can beat you on the offensive end of the court. I don't necessarily agree with that assessment but right now it might be a good plan.