James Breeding

[Vuce]

Yes, that would be helpful because frankly I have a hard time believing biased fans who are clearly motivated to see it a certain way. It is interesting that he refereed 4 of our 6 losses this year, but that could be just a function of his foul calling style being a bad matchup for our fouling style. Seeing the plays linked in series and compared would be helpful. I would be very interested in that. Is there a way to tell which official called each foul? Is there a way to tell whether Breading was in position to see a non-called foul? It seems very difficult and easy to cherry pick the plays that fit your narrative either way. But again, would love to see someone try.

I think the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Breading probably did cost us a few calls that with another ref might have gone the other way and in a close game, that might have made the difference. But after watching UConn steal two championships in 2011 & 2014, it is hard to complain too much about getting a bad draw, but I get it. It would have been sweet to win that 7th.

Regardless of all that there is NO WAY Breeding should be officiating a Final Four game involving UConn with his history. There are literally hundreds of officials. It’s not hard, swap one official in the Final Four game between Michigan and AZ and it’s a non issue. If there is one guy who cannot be in that game last night it’s Breeding and it’s not debatable

 

[RuffRuff]

It really was, and the good thing for UConn and Hurley, is that it seems like everyone but Michigan fans saw it the same way. I got texts during the game from non UConn fans who could not believe how bad our whistle was. Twitter seems to concur. Hurley is taking the high road and saying it's a great crew. I think that's him trying to keep these guys from screwing us going forward.

Credit to May, it felt like he coached them to play into the theatrics, which the refs were buying. There were a few calls that were so egregious, that you can't turn your head from asking yourself if there was a predetermined approach on the way they were calling it.

Cadeau was throwing his body around like an Oscar winner in this one, and he got it almost every time (didn't get the call at the end of the half on the 3/4 court heave). The slip and fall whistle on Silas, Johnson flailing his body on Silas working through the illegal screen. It all felt coached. Give May credit - he probably knew we were going to come out physical and this was his counter.

Between the tampering and stuff like this, guy has some inner weasel.

 

[eastern14]

It’s sad that we’ll never know what would have happened if both teams had been officiated the same way.

 

[uconnfan68]

I'm going to be even more upset about this as time goes on.

What we saw last night was ridiculous and wildly unprofessional.

We've had a fair shake over the years in the NCAA tournament, last night was not that.

Are you serious? They retroactively suspended us! Never before, or since, has that happened.

 

[WrenchFan69]

Are you serious? They retroactively suspended us! Never before, or since, has that happened.

People really gloss over this because we won the title the following year. That could have torpedoed the program forever. We don't give enough credit to the 2014 team. Thank god for Shabazz. Boat should be on the wall. And shoutout to Deandre Daniels, Niels Giffey, Amida Brimah, Lasan Kromah, Phil Nolan, Terrence Samuel, Kentan Facey, Leon Tolksdorf, Omar Calhoun, and Tyler Olander

 

[Chief00]

I really don’t like to dwell on how games are called. And I congratulate Dusty May and his team for doing what they had to do, playing good D and making their foul shots. And I’m the first one to admit I cringe watching Chief complain about foul calls game after game when anyone can see that much of the disparity is based on how we play.

But. Having said all that, with hundreds of Division 1 referees out there, how is it possible that in the national title game the NCAA can appoint a referee with a history with one of the two teams? Frankly, I’m shocked that a ref from either of the conferences in the final game would be allowed near the court? Wouldn’t you want 3 refs from neutral conferences, which doesn’t see either team all the time?

If anyone knows the thinking on that I’d love to hear it. Is it really totally based on grading and they don’t care if there’s a history between one of the refs and one of the teams? That just strikes me as literally crazy, and an issue that can be totally eliminated just by not letting a ref from either team’s conference on the court.

I’ll talk about the game tomorrow. Too upset right now. The game was there, we

While you were cringing when I criticized Breeding throughout the season, now most people here are now saying what I said then.
In fact there were just three refs I criticized (Breeding, Gaffney and once O’Connell) and the vast majority was directed at Breeding. 90% of my Briefs had nothing to do with officiating. Otherwise, an excellent post.
The flagrant foul call on Karaban was the key play of the game and was ridiculous. It reminded me of a time during the season when Hurley protested a call and Breeding’s response was to turn it into a flagrant.
Michigan is a very good team and it would have been an uphill battle to win without a ref steering the outcome against our players and coaches. True, we make too many dumb fouls and those are on us. But, the bias driven fouls impact playing time, rotations etc.
I actually thought Ball was ready for a big night before the foul downpour against him and our team. He was 3/7 from 3 points and Solo would have gladly shot 7 more and he had a look of confidence. Instead he could play just 16 minutes and ended with 4 fouls. At that rate he would have had 10 fouls in 40 minutes. And he’s not one of our guys who is overly aggressive on defense.
Let’s get some transfer and recruits and kick butt next season. And when Breeding comes to CT let’s boo him from the start.

 

[Scrappy3]

I have never talked about refs but this was honestly brutal

 

[karstenkibbe]

Val is a do nothing commissioner. She won't lift a finger.

This. 110%. For those of you suggesting that Val complain/file an appeal/call out/whatever to the NCAA, keep dreaming. Since her exit from the WNBA, her career has been a combination of board seats and her relatively quiet bat mitzvah-length tenure as BE commissioner. It’s time for her to retire. Need new blood to fight for the BE and keep it relevant. She is NOT in fight mode. She’s in collecting-paychecks mode.

 

[Orc]

Michigan couldn’t score in the first half. They called tacky fouls on Uconn and put them at the free throw line consecutive possessions. Officiating was so one sided

 

[UCfor3]

Meanwhile McKenney and others body check our ball handlers at half court and it literally was called once on Morez when it was so obvious it had to be called.

How about the illegal screen by Morez Johnson where he sticks the knee and shoulder into our player(Demary?) and they call the foul on us. So ridiculous. Morez Johnson basically pushes guys almost every time down the court and he does it every Michigan game I watched this season.

 

[businesslawyer]

While you were cringing when I criticized Breeding throughout the season, now most people here are now saying what I said then.
In fact there were just three refs I criticized (Breeding, Gaffney and once O’Connell) and the vast majority was directed at Breeding. 90% of my Briefs had nothing to do with officiating. Otherwise, an excellent post.
The flagrant foul call on Karaban was the key play of the game and was ridiculous. It reminded me of a time during the season when Hurley protested a call and Breeding’s response was to turn it into a flagrant.
Michigan is a very good team and it would have been an uphill battle to win without a ref steering the outcome against our players and coaches. True, we make too many dumb fouls and those are on us. But, the bias driven fouls impact playing time, rotations etc.
I actually thought Ball was ready for a big night before the foul downpour against him and our team. He was 3/7 from 3 points and Solo would have gladly shot 7 more and he had a look of confidence. Instead he could play just 16 minutes and ended with 4 fouls. At that rate he would have had 10 fouls in 40 minutes. And he’s not one of our guys who is overly aggressive on defense.
Let’s get some transfer and recruits and kick butt next season. And when Breeding comes to CT let’s boo him from the start.

Solo’s two second half fouls were totally on him and on plays where he just needed to let the other guy go. Those are the “undisciplined fouls” that Hurley was talking about post game.

The play that TBS never replayed that I’d like to see again was Solo’s missed layup after Tarris stepped into the passing game and then saved the ball under our basket with about 3 minutes left that would have cut it to I think 2 or 4. Instead, they came down and hit a 3 and to me that was the single key play of the game. I’ve only seen the play at one angle and full speed and I can’t tell if he was fouled or not. He might not have been but I’d love to know if anyone can use AI to rotate the angle they showed us.

But I don’t want to whine about particular calls because most of the time you can’t fairly judge them out of context of the game anyway. I stand by my original post which is I don’t understand with hundreds of Division 1 referees how a ref with a history with a coach or school could get assigned to a championship game with them.

 

[Mr. French]

How about the illegal screen by Morez Johnson where he sticks the knee and shoulder into our player(Demary?) and they call the foul on us. So ridiculous. Morez Johnson basically pushes guys almost every time down the court and he does it every Michigan game I watched this season.

Yes that’s another one - I was FURIOUS

 

[UCFan1513]

Honest question: when you attend games as a fan and the refs make bad calls, do you yell amateur!!! ?

I'm curious your thoughts on the officiating. You're a very rational and knowledgeable poster, so would value your opinion

 

[RuffRuff]

How about the illegal screen by Morez Johnson where he sticks the knee and shoulder into our player(Demary?) and they call the foul on us. So ridiculous. Morez Johnson basically pushes guys almost every time down the court and he does it every Michigan game I watched this season.

You mean this one. This one blows my mind. BUT, there were about 7 of them in this game. We're not talking 50/50 eye of the beholder, we are talking utterly egregiously bad calls or no calls.

 

[UCFan1513]

I've been posting on the BY in its various iterations since around 2006/2007ish. Not sure I've posted much about the refs over the years but it's going to be a hard pill to swallow rewatching a lot of the questionable (at best) calls from this game.

Michigan was the better team, we didn't hit nearly enough of our looks, but that ridiculous Karaban flagrant was the total momentum swing.

Tremendous effort by the staff and players and there's nothing to take away from that. Just feel like there were endless no calls on Michigan that really changed the outcome.

Exact same boat. Have been posting since 2014. Never complained about a ref. This was truly brutal, and that's not just because of the emotions of losing an NC game. When I saw this crew announced for the final game there was a bad feeling, but I never dreamed it would be this bad

Sure you can always do things to play better and win. But this was a two possession game where officiating decided much more than that amount

 

[cullaville]

The first half whistle killed us. Boy Charles Barkley is annoying right now

" Charles Barkley is annoying right now' or always?

 

[B1GEast]

I don't understand how Breeding ends up in this game. I really don't understand why the Big East insists on hiring him.

I knew after the first call against Demary that they were going to take him out of the game. He would have gotten a better whistle if they had just let Cadeau call the fouls himself.

Boggles the mind.

You don't understand the influence that the power conferences have on the NCAA?

The foul discrepancy in the first half alone indicated how the game would play out

The only way UConn pulls this game out is through pure heroics. The can't stop 3 pointers.

Hurley has to bite his tongue here cause he knows.

We were robbed in broad daylight

People can choose to say UConn and their fans are bitter, but they didn't hide it.

This is why we need to get out of the Big East

 

[Umami Zen]

Solo was his own worst enemy last night. I’m not complaining about fouls on us it’s the non calls against us which were obvious

Solo was his own worst enemy last night. I’m not complaining about fouls on us it’s the non calls against us which were obvious

Solo's D has needed work for awhile but there were fouls called on Demary's D on Cadeau that were not called the other way. Solo was getting hammered in the lane-no calls.

 

[jorge34]

You mean this one. This one blows my mind. BUT, there were about 7 of them in this game. We're not talking 50/50 eye of the beholder, we are talking utterly egregiously bad calls or no calls.

That’s one of the worst and most critical. He pushes and extends his hip/thigh. He fouls him twice, right in front of the ref. Outrageous call

 

[Leebo]

How about the illegal screen by Morez Johnson where he sticks the knee and shoulder into our player(Demary?) and they call the foul on us. So ridiculous. Morez Johnson basically pushes guys almost every time down the court and he does it every Michigan game I watched this season.

The gall to flail like he did... Something else.

 

[Mots010]

How about the illegal screen by Morez Johnson where he sticks the knee and shoulder into our player(Demary?) and they call the foul on us.

That was Demary's 3rd foul early in the second half. Almost no fouls were called in this subsequent 8 minutes after that moment. I feel like this was the moment where the game completely shifted.

 

[UCFan1513]

How about the illegal screen by Morez Johnson where he sticks the knee and shoulder into our player(Demary?) and they call the foul on us. So ridiculous. Morez Johnson basically pushes guys almost every time down the court and he does it every Michigan game I watched this season.

And how about the fact that Reed did even less than that (i.e., set a completely legal screen) and was called for it

 

[Hey Adrien!]

I really don’t like to dwell on how games are called. And I congratulate Dusty May and his team for doing what they had to do, playing good D and making their foul shots. And I’m the first one to admit I cringe watching Chief complain about foul calls game after game when anyone can see that much of the disparity is based on how we play.

But. Having said all that, with hundreds of Division 1 referees out there, how is it possible that in the national title game the NCAA can appoint a referee with a history with one of the two teams? Frankly, I’m shocked that a ref from either of the conferences in the final game would be allowed near the court? Wouldn’t you want 3 refs from neutral conferences, which doesn’t see either team all the time?

If anyone knows the thinking on that I’d love to hear it. Is it really totally based on grading and they don’t care if there’s a history between one of the refs and one of the teams? That just strikes me as literally crazy, and an issue that can be totally eliminated just by not letting a ref from either team’s conference on the court.

I’ll talk about the game tomorrow. Too upset right now. The game was there, we just didn’t hit enough shots to overcome Michigan and the refs. But man, if anyone criticizes the guts and heart of this team they can fight me first. Because sane people would have quit when everthing is against them and shots aren’t falling. And yet, we had a chance to win in the last 30 seconds.

This is the most sane officiating take I've seen so far, and kudos to that.

The solution moving forward, if it is possible: send a bunch of championship caliber refs to the Final Four but prioritize refs in conferences that do not have a team in the game. For example, I would have loved excellent Big 12 or ACC refs on that game. On the flipside, if the game features conference mates, then have refs from that conference so at least there's consistency of that style of play.

 

[Bigmanfan]

Posted in the chat. Cadeau had two fouls in the first half (easily committed more than two) He didn't pick up his 3rd until 1:23 left in the game. Unbelievable how much he was individually able to get away with.

 

[huskyjawz]

I was at the game. Did the tv announcers call out the bad calls?

 

[upstater]

Yes, that would be helpful because frankly I have a hard time believing biased fans who are clearly motivated to see it a certain way. It is interesting that he refereed 4 of our 6 losses this year, but that could be just a function of his foul calling style being a bad matchup for our fouling style. Seeing the plays linked in series and compared would be helpful. I would be very interested in that. Is there a way to tell which official called each foul? Is there a way to tell whether Breading was in position to see a non-called foul? It seems very difficult and easy to cherry pick the plays that fit your narrative either way. But again, would love to see someone try.

I think the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Breading probably did cost us a few calls that with another ref might have gone the other way and in a close game, that might have made the difference. But after watching UConn steal two championships in 2011 & 2014, it is hard to complain too much about getting a bad draw, but I get it. It would have been sweet to win that 7th.

There are a lot of UConn haters on Twitter making the same points as businesslawyer's original post. You have prominent Duke and Illinois fans saying it.

 

[upstater]

I was at the game. Did the tv announcers call out the bad calls?

Only a couple. They thought that the blocking foul on Solo was a bad call, they noted that Cadeau caused Tarris's TO with a hack, they said Demary got hooked by Cadeau, they said Cadeau sold the foul on Braylon, and they also said Demary was actually fouled with an illegal screen and it was called on him. Only times they mentioned questionable reffing against UConn.

They did note that Demary was pushed in the back and sent flying but they did not follow up and tell us what the result of the review was.

Also, they never mentioned any inconsistency. Instead, when UConn was picking up touch fouls or when Reed got bagged for an illegal screen, they said the fouls were justified.

So... I can totally see the foul calls against UConn were justified... but they didn't see any inconsistency there.

Alex was hammered on one drive and it was plain as day but no mention of two players clobbering his arms.

UConn had those calls go against them on drives.

Finally, I should mention that Solo was fouled on his late game banked in 3. It was why his shot was so far off. The player not only pushed him at the hip as he went up, but he smacked his hand just before he released the ball. No mention. Solo was grousing about it. The bank shot was a total accident due to being hit.

 

[Umami Zen]

Too many foul situations to discuss. But three stood out to me. Roddy Gayle climbing up Reed's back for the put back dunk. Johnson's hooking screen on Silas while defending Cadeau and then his flop. Johnson's hook/hold on AK-Call on AK- Breeding elevates to a flagrant-4 point swing.

For a big strong athletic team like Michigan- Never seen so much flopping and selling fouls to refs. Dusty obviously knew how to read the refs and coached his guys to take advantage. A shame for our guys and despite that advantage-They almost stole the game.

 

[upstater]

The Big East cannot reward Breeding for this. CANNOT.

 

[Kembacity]

I was at the game. Did the tv announcers call out the bad calls?

Early on, the foul that should’ve been a jump ball they were vocally saying “that’s basketball”, and maybe charges. There was a lot of “biting their tongue” while replays of calls happened