I hate doing this:

[caw]

This is my analysis of the game:

1st half:

• Bad calls on fouls on Drummond and Oriakhi, which took both Drummond and Oriakhi out of the game. It was 23-20 when Drummond left the game, Oriakhi already was on the bench. I don't know how you can't argue this didn't kill UConn. Marquette goes on a 20-9 run in the final 7 minutes of the half with Drummond/Oriakhi and Smith planted on the bench.
• Olander couldn't defend Crowder. Wolf and Olander in at the same time was a joke, slow lineup against a quick team (that was a bad call by Blaney, and I mean horrid). You throw Smith out there, he defends better and if he picks up fouls 3 or even 4, you take it because you have Drummond and Oriakhi for the second half.
• Roscoe, Drummond and Oriakhi all had 2 first half fouls, this took away the ability of UConn to defend the inside or the stretch big in Crowder

2nd half

• UConn started out great and would have been down 2 if the refs didn't call a questionable off the ball offensive foul on Roscoe (the defender had his feet in the air) - note this was the second charge off the ball that the refs called on UConn)
• UConn still cut it to 5 when Boatright decided to get a technical -5 points for Boatright
• UConn cuts it to seven when Crowder kicks a J-Lamb bounce pass, no call, DJO goes the length for a fast break layup
• UConn has it to 8 again, Crowder knocks the ball out of bounds, call goes to Marquette, Crowder hits a 3 and Drummond picks up the foul.
• UConn gets it to 8 again, refs call a foul on Napier, when Blue throws him to the ground after Blue has lost the ball. Two foul shots for Marquette to stretch it to 11.

That was a horribly called game for UConn. Now, UConn didn't help itself with foul shooting. 12-21, really 11-19 considering one was a tech (only hit 1-2) called on Marquette with seconds left.

Marquette took 22 threes, 12 more than UConn, and still managed 7 more foul shots. UConn was -6 on fouls if you include that last second tech on Marquette.

I don't think you can say UConn didn't play or come to play. The refs took the air out of the ball completely for UConn. Calhoun wouldn't have stood for it, but Blaney isn't Calhoun, anytime Blaney is up against a coach that can work the refs, UConn gets f-d. Refs just don't respect him.

 

[Revrat]

Inability of our bigs to put the ball within a foot of the hoop from 2 feet away, Inability to hit free throws, Inability to over come horrendous officiating are my top three reasons we lost.

 

[caw]

Wholeheartedly agree. I have a feeling that mods on this board well erase this thread cause you know it's never ref's fault.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk

Perhaps.

I rarely think refs have that much influence on a game, because they subconsciously or consciously make an effort to keep it fair (if not even) or the bad reffing evens out and both teams get calls that they shouldn't. This game it was not only highly skewed to Marquette but unfairly so. I mean usually even if there are a ton of bad calls it's only 1 or 2 skewing one way or the other. Tonight it was like a plus 5 for Marquette. Now UConn may have still lost if the bad calls evened out or even skewed UConn's way, but UConn never had a chance with calls that were made.

I can't think of one bad call against Marquette.

 

[tzznandrew]

Inability of our bigs to put the ball within a foot of the hoop from 2 feet away, Inability to hit free throws, Inability to over come horrendous officiating are my top three reasons we lost.

You take out AD, and they shot 71% from the FT line.

 

[jorge34]

The officiating was really, really bad, but the effort they put forth in the first half (and five minutes to go in the game) was worse. If you are getting the short end of bad calls, play harder, don't give up. They need somebody, on the court, to kick them in the ass when the effort starts to wane. It certainly isn't and won't come from Napier, Lamb, or Oriakhi...they have terrible body language on the court.

Nobody has stepped up, and that is shocking.

Team just has a very weird dynamic this year. I still believe they have some of the best talent in all of college basketball, but they aren't going anywhere with the attitudes and lack of internal desire they seem to be plagued with.

 

[willie99]

horribly called game

the refs took our bigs out of the game, and made several horrible calls during the game

Donato is every bit as bad as Cahill

 

[dsturdy5]

Poor officiating or not you have to adjust and UConn never did.

Now, it wasn't even the volume of calls that bothered me. Rather it was when certain calls were made and what the teams did with them. IE, the missed oob which lead to the three pointer. no one questions that it was a bad call but you have to man up and get another stop. Marquette, to their credit, made plays when given these extra opportunities.

I've seen a lot of people here and on twitter referring to the "kicked" ball. The ball deflected off of the MU player's leg. it was not an intentional striking of the lower leg which would have been a kick.

 

[huskymagic]

The referees made sure that the game was decided by their hands calling every against UCONN and making every call for Marquette it was embarrassing and shameful, no doubt to the delight of Mark Emmert. Boatright's technical was a game changers and a 5 point swing that we never really recovered from. No only that, but guys like Daniels and Olander are playing minutes they should not be playing. Daniels is an awful player and someone who I have constantly stated contributes nothing more than turnover for us when he is in the game. I have never seen a player ranked that highly who has absolutely no impact on the game. Olander as well who is a limited player and athlete is playing way too much. His lack of quickness, toughness, and athleticism is getting exposed in Big East conference play. Olander is ok but he is not ready to be playing this many minutes he needs another year or two before he can be a very good player. Rosoce Smith needs to be playing way more minutes and starting if necessary. Our two little guard lineup was as I predicted once again exposed defensively. We cannot continue to go this small with Napier and Boat because the marquette guys were killing them all game long. We need their scoring but not at the expense of being atrocious on defense.

However, I have seen good things and progress from this past couple of games and there are things we can build on.

 

[caw]

The officiating was really, really bad, but the effort they put forth in the first half (and five minutes to go in the game) was worse. If you are getting the short end of bad calls, play harder, don't give up. They need somebody, on the court, to kick them in the ass when the effort starts to wane. It certainly isn't and won't come from Napier, Lamb, or Oriakhi...they have terrible body language on the court.

Nobody has stepped up, and that is shocking.

Team just has a very weird dynamic this year. I still believe they have some of the best talent in all of college basketball, but they aren't going anywhere with the attitudes and lack of internal desire they seem to be plagued with.

This is where having Roscoe/Drummond/Oriakhi on the bench with 2 fouls each killed them. The effort was fine, or even good before all three went to the bench.

The coaching at the end of the first half was bad, not the effort. Look at what happened when Drummond gets #2. UConn is down 23-20 with 7 to go:

Blaney decides to throw Olander and Wolf out there. That is not good for starters. They are playing a team that has no big men and excels from 3 and beating its man off the dribble. Having two slow-footed bigs out there is horrid. It opens up guards and bigs from 3 because the bigs (Olander/Wolf) can't hedge on screens at all because if they do they can't recover to their man (who can make the 3).

If Blaney wants to have both Olander and Wolf out there he needs to limit their exposure. There are two ways to do this. One is to stall the ball on offense and the second is to play a bit of a zone. He didn't do either, which really exposed our backup bigs.

Now the Wolf/Olander combination was only in the game for 2:33 and Marquette stretched the lead from 23-20 or 25-20 (if you don't want to count the foul shots on the Drummond foul) to 32-22.

UConn calls timeout and puts in Roscoe at the 4 and Olander at the 5. Olander misses 2 foul shots and Marquette comes down, gets 2 offensive rebounds and drains a 3.

It pretty much stays at that deficit the rest of the half.

 

[caw]

The referees made sure that the game was decided by their hands calling every against UCONN and making every call for Marquette it was embarrassing and shameful, no doubt to the delight of Mark Emmert. Boatright's technical was a game changers and a 5 point swing that we never really recovered from. No only that, but guys like Daniels and Olander are playing minutes they should not be playing. Daniels is an awful player and someone who I have constantly contributes nothing more than turnover for us when he is in the game. I have never seen a player ranked that highly who has absolutely no impact on the game. Olander as well who is a limited player and athlete is playing way too much. His lack of quickness, toughness, and athleticism is getting exposed in Big East conference play. Olander is ok but he is not ready to be playing this many minutes he needs another year or two before he can be a very good player. Rosoce Smith needs to be playing way more minutes and starting if necessary. Our two little guard lineup was as I predicted once again exposed defensively. We cannot continue to go this small with Napier and Boat because the marquette guys were killing them all game long. We need their scoring but not at the expense of being atrocious on defense.

However, I have seen good things and progress from this past couple of games and there are things we can build on.

Olander is OK next to Drummond and/or Oriakhi (mostly Drummond) but he can't be in there with Roscoe and Enosh.

 

[Henry]

Regardless of the reffing, we still waste too many possessions. Also, when you have bigs and the other team doesn't and they like to run you are are going to get a lot of touch fouls. Your slow, big men will appear to foul even when they don't. Our big men have not earned a reputation for establishing position offensively or defending and our guards never stop penetration. Leads to a lot of calls against your big men.

 

[mauconnfan]

The referees made sure that the game was decided by their hands calling every against UCONN and making every call for Marquette it was embarrassing and shameful, no doubt to the delight of Mark Emmert. Boatright's technical was a game changers and a 5 point swing that we never really recovered from. No only that, but guys like Daniels and Olander are playing minutes they should not be playing. Daniels is an awful player and someone who I have constantly stated contributes nothing more than turnover for us when he is in the game. I have never seen a player ranked that highly who has absolutely no impact on the game. Olander as well who is a limited player and athlete is playing way too much. His lack of quickness, toughness, and athleticism is getting exposed in Big East conference play. Olander is ok but he is not ready to be playing this many minutes he needs another year or two before he can be a very good player. Rosoce Smith needs to be playing way more minutes and starting if necessary. Our two little guard lineup was as I predicted once again exposed defensively. We cannot continue to go this small with Napier and Boat because the marquette guys were killing them all game long. We need their scoring but not at the expense of being atrocious on defense.

However, I have seen good things and progress from this past couple of games and there are things we can build on.

Broken record.......................unbelievable magic. The nerve to pick on 2 guys who hardly play to make sure your everloving predictions are right? Joke my friend, JOKE!

 

[huskymagic]

Broken record.......................unbelievable magic. The nerve to pick on 2 guys who hardly play to make sure your everloving predictions are right? Joke my friend, JOKE!

thats because they are absolutely hurting this team. We need a contributor not people who cant play and cant contribute more than a turnover.Stop defending guys who are hurting this team. Our best lineup was when Roscoe and Oriakhi were playing at the same time and we went on that run to cut it down to 5 points before Boatright's technical and 5 point swing that just deflated our team. By the way I like what Napier said but that guy once again shows why he was unfit to be named captain and supposed leader of this team. You dont say the stuff that Napier said right after a loss to the media. He blames everyone else on the team but refuses to accept blame for his own failures. Roscoe Smith should have been named a captain of this team and you know this just as well as I do. Napier played well offensively but his body language, his demeanor, his attitude is all negative and no one can rally around someone like that. If UCONN had played with the urgency, effort, and hunger they played with in the second half then we would have won this game.

 

[DogMania]

I knew we were screwed when I saw Donato and the other ref whose name escapes me walk onto the court. Marquette was simply more physical at just about every position specially in the backcourt. With that said the refs completely took away the home court advantage and killed us with bad call after bad call.

I think I've come to the point to realize that this team is not as talented as I had figured. I'm not feeling very good about these last 4 games.

 

[willie99]

Poor officiating or not you have to adjust and UConn never did.

Now, it wasn't even the volume of calls that bothered me. Rather it was when certain calls were made and what the teams did with them. IE, the missed oob which lead to the three pointer. no one questions that it was a bad call but you have to man up and get another stop. Marquette, to their credit, made plays when given these extra opportunities.

I've seen a lot of people here and on twitter referring to the "kicked" ball. The ball deflected off of the MU player's leg. it was not an intentional striking of the lower leg which would have been a kick.

adjust? how do you adjust when you're sitting on the bench? how do you adjust when a ball clearly goes off Marq and they give Marq the ball? how do you adjust when you're tackled but they call the foul on you?

it was nothing about "how they were calling the game", that's when you ADJUST. It was about being screwed by horrible calls

 

[tzznandrew]

You adjust when refs are calling both teams tight (a la Duke-UConn 2004). You adjust when refs swallow their whistles.

You look like you're confused and not trying when refs call you for ticky-tack fouls while you get tackled.

 

[willie99]

their two bigs get to play 77 minutes hard, drive, crash the boards and help on defense, a combined 6 fouls

AD fouls out in 25 minutes, on some pathetic calls

what if 1 or 2 or their big men get the quick / cheap / bullshit whistles? anyone think they're the same? seriously?

 

[champs99and04]

"It was 23-20 when Drummond left the game, Oriakhi already was on the bench. I don't know how you can't argue this didn't kill UConn. Marquette goes on a 20-9 run in the final 7 minutes of the half with Drummond/Oriakhi and Smith planted on the bench."

Gotta love that two foul rule!

 

[upstater]

Poor officiating or not you have to adjust and UConn never did.

Now, it wasn't even the volume of calls that bothered me. Rather it was when certain calls were made and what the teams did with them. IE, the missed oob which lead to the three pointer. no one questions that it was a bad call but you have to man up and get another stop. Marquette, to their credit, made plays when given these extra opportunities.

I've seen a lot of people here and on twitter referring to the "kicked" ball. The ball deflected off of the MU player's leg. it was not an intentional striking of the lower leg which would have been a kick.

But, they did get stops after, not immediately. Even after Boatright's tech they got it down to 5.

Then after the Roscoe call (when he was blocked), they got it down to 6.

Then they came back and the Crowder out of bounds play happened, and they were down 10.

They turned around and got it down to 7 after a Lamb 3 and made a stop, then had the ball. That was when Crowder grabbed Oriakhi and threw him out of bounds, then stood out of bounds and knocked the ball back into play.

UConn was down 9 and still trying, but they came up court, and the ref called a foul on Napier for impeding the point guard's grabbing of Napier's shirt.

By then, there was less than 4 minutes left and the lead was 11, and yes, they didn't fight it.

But, we're talking about a stretch of 5 bad calls over 7 minutes.