James Breeding

[RitzLuce1]

Did I miss Chief’s Brief’s? Need to know what the Chief thought of this.

 

[RitzLuce1]

He got his way in a National Tilte game. Whatever grudge they have with Hurley is hopefully washed away and we can get a normal whistle going forward. Still hurts

What a horrible post. As if what he did Monday night ever warrants a “normal whistle” going forward.

Unforgivable damage already done.

 

[Fishy]

UConn's average FTA differential on the season was -4.6. Michigan's was +6.2. The discrepancy ended up being 12, which pretty much aligns with both those averages. Michigan was bigger, in addition to being better at both defending and attacking the rim. On the year, they were 2nd in defending 2P% and 8th in made 2P%. UConn was 46th and 20th in those categories, respectively. They took a lot of threes because the other team had a 7'3 center. It's really hard to score at the rim in a sport where the court is smaller and there's no defensive three seconds. Two years ago, when UConn had the 7'2 man-child, they ranked 5th and 6th.

Do I think UConn got a great whistle? Certainly not. The phantom flagrant foul alone was enough to potentially swing the game. UConn went from leading to trailing in one possession, and never caught up. It might seem like something a better team should overcome, but UConn was not the better team and I think that's where the frustration comes in. The longer that game continued with UConn leading, the more pressure Michigan was going to feel. The Karaban flagrant changed that game in a way that's difficult to quantify.

However, what I think the conspiracy theorists are missing is this: different refs call the game differently and emphasize different things. In this game, players were seemingly allowed to get away with much more contact off the ball than they were on the ball. That clearly didn't work in UConn's favor and probably has something to do with the poor record they have with Breeding. I get being upset about that.

But the idea that this was all orchestrated by the NCAA to punish UConn and the Big East seems very farfetched. It also feels like people want to blame Val for anything and everything from the Big East not getting enough teams in to UConn not getting enough calls in the title game. Or, my favorite one, that the Big East isn't standing up for UConn because the Big East knows UConn wants to leave...like it hasn't known that the entire time.

UConn has now been to three title games in four years and won two of them, and yet still people here blame the Big East for everything from UConn not getting a fair whistle in conference, to UConn not playing a hard enough schedule, to the officials not having enough respect for a non-P4 league. If the powers that be hate the Big East so much, why did they wait until the title game to stop UConn? UConn went through three Big Ten teams just to get there!

If the shoe were on the other foot, and it was Duke or UNC complaining about all the bumping and hand-checking not being called away from the ball, does anyone think in a million years that we would take them seriously? Of course not. We would describe them as "finesse" or "soft" and insist that the more physical brand of ball is the way it should be called all the time.

I'll give you one person who seemed to think Michigan was much better: Dan Hurley. His tone in the on-court interview after, I think the under-8 media timeout, with UConn still leading, was not one that projected a lot of confidence. It actually caught me off guard because it was such a departure from his approach to previous games. He acted like they were a 15-seed just hoping to keep it close and maybe steal it at the end - and that's kind of how it looked from the outside. Michigan would have won by 15 if it could've thrown the ball in the ocean from deep.

Here’s the problem - we have eyes.

You can’t just say well, UConn averages this many fouls and Michigan averages this many and the numbers are similar so the officiating was fine. That’s way too simple-minded.

You can actually, with your eyes, go see video of what was called and not called and come away with the consensus opinion that nearly everyone who watched the game came to - there was something rotten in Indy.

 

[AdamaNation]

For me, it's just sinking in just how terrible the officiating was last night. We really outplayed them. Just wish the ball bounced differently a few times. And that Breeding was not near the court. It didn't feel fair. God damn Hurley built a monster. I hate the AK era ended this way.

Our window is nowhere near closed, but there's going to be a visible adjustment without AK. I expect some bumps in the road. Wish the staff had some time to recharge after that heartbreaker but gotta hit the portal hard. We have work to do.

Just hope this is motivation to go on another tear and Hurley gets his 3rd, 4th, 5th titles...

Don’t forget. The biggest piece for Karaban is now in Boston. Has the staff absorbed enough from Luke to run our euro style offense as effectively?

 

[QDOG5]

I agree that we got screwed on a lot of calls against Michigan but while we may think Solo was fouled on the Reed pass Solo has to know there is going to be contact and it look liked he was trying to draw a foul instead of going strong to the rim. On another note, there are so many analytical websites out there I'm surprised there are none that break down all the officials calls in a game. I mean we have seen some questionable calls in this thread. I would definitely visit a site that broke down officiating more in depth.

 

[TheChamps990411]

Had no idea this guy was a thing but all those plays had me yelling at the tv and their were a couple more that werent shown. I remember thinking Cadeau should have had 4 fouls in the first half and at least 3 Johnson that shouldve been called and thats not counting the 3 take down sequence. Doesnt matter at this point. I think the best way to rectify this is to make everyone we face in the tourney pay for this. Lets win #7 for the utter disrespect.

 

[Leebo]

The "well UConn fouls a lot and Michigan doesn't" argument just falls apart because it would end up meaning "Michigan wasn't called for hacking Reed, pushing and tripping Demary, and body slamming Smith, because Michigan is just better at not fouling".

The implication of saying "well UConn fouls a lot and Michigan doesn't" would be fine if the discussion were about a few borderline calls going slightly more in one direction or the other, not rampant assault.

 

[DRBackup]

Only replay I can find and it’s not great, but sure looks like Ball was pushed and then hit below…….dont see how else he leaves layup short and doesn’t hit rim

Also hard to see how he ends up on the floor (without being fouled) since he was effectively stationary under the basket when he got the ball, so he had no momentum to carry him through to the floor. I'll take a closer look a couple times and see what else I can see.

 

[DRBackup]

Then there was Cadeau again attempting to drive to his right to get around Demary who again had his left arm outstretched and Cadeau got into Demary's chest while using his left hand to grip Demary's bicep on the outstretched arm. He went down and the foul was called on Demary again. That was a "hook and hold" called the wrong way by Breeding who was on the baseline with Demary's body blocking his view of the play.

I don't often see reference to this, but I see this a lot where the foul occurs out at the three point line, but the foul is called by the official on the baseline. I'm like, there are like 6 players between you and that play, how on earth did you see a foul ?
I'd really like to see some AWS next gen stat thing that can track the location of all the officials and all the players on the court and show who blows the whistle so you can see how unlikely it actually is that they saw any of it. The way they have it for the ball in MLB

 

[DRBackup]

Vegas also was going to get absolutely wrecked if UConn won… just saying

WTF are you talking about ? That's not how Vegas works and never has. They move the line based on which team is getting all the action so it ends up split evenly. Vegas won't get wrecked, no matter who wins.

 

[uconntoatl]

I’m basing the decision to buy certain tickets on knowing if James Breeding will be officiating . I want to boo him in person.

 

[Dibbie]

What a horrible post. As if what he did Monday night ever warrants a “normal whistle” going forward.

Unforgivable damage already done.

I don’t like it any more than you, but nothing anyone can do about it now. I choose to look forward for better outcomes. Some people just go through life differently than others.

 

[willie99]

UConn's average FTA differential on the season was -4.6. Michigan's was +6.2. The discrepancy ended up being 12, which pretty much aligns with both those averages. Michigan was bigger, in addition to being better at both defending and attacking the rim. On the year, they were 2nd in defending 2P% and 8th in made 2P%. UConn was 46th and 20th in those categories, respectively. They took a lot of threes because the other team had a 7'3 center. It's really hard to score at the rim in a sport where the court is smaller and there's no defensive three seconds. Two years ago, when UConn had the 7'2 man-child, they ranked 5th and 6th.

Do I think UConn got a great whistle? Certainly not. The phantom flagrant foul alone was enough to potentially swing the game. UConn went from leading to trailing in one possession, and never caught up. It might seem like something a better team should overcome, but UConn was not the better team and I think that's where the frustration comes in. The longer that game continued with UConn leading, the more pressure Michigan was going to feel. The Karaban flagrant changed that game in a way that's difficult to quantify.

However, what I think the conspiracy theorists are missing is this: different refs call the game differently and emphasize different things. In this game, players were seemingly allowed to get away with much more contact off the ball than they were on the ball. That clearly didn't work in UConn's favor and probably has something to do with the poor record they have with Breeding. I get being upset about that.

But the idea that this was all orchestrated by the NCAA to punish UConn and the Big East seems very farfetched. It also feels like people want to blame Val for anything and everything from the Big East not getting enough teams in to UConn not getting enough calls in the title game. Or, my favorite one, that the Big East isn't standing up for UConn because the Big East knows UConn wants to leave...like it hasn't known that the entire time.

UConn has now been to three title games in four years and won two of them, and yet still people here blame the Big East for everything from UConn not getting a fair whistle in conference, to UConn not playing a hard enough schedule, to the officials not having enough respect for a non-P4 league. If the powers that be hate the Big East so much, why did they wait until the title game to stop UConn? UConn went through three Big Ten teams just to get there!

If the shoe were on the other foot, and it was Duke or UNC complaining about all the bumping and hand-checking not being called away from the ball, does anyone think in a million years that we would take them seriously? Of course not. We would describe them as "finesse" or "soft" and insist that the more physical brand of ball is the way it should be called all the time.

I'll give you one person who seemed to think Michigan was much better: Dan Hurley. His tone in the on-court interview after, I think the under-8 media timeout, with UConn still leading, was not one that projected a lot of confidence. It actually caught me off guard because it was such a departure from his approach to previous games. He acted like they were a 15-seed just hoping to keep it close and maybe steal it at the end - and that's kind of how it looked from the outside. Michigan would have won by 15 if it could've thrown the ball in the ocean from deep.

If you ignore all the cheap fouls on us and all the fouls not called on Michigan, then I suppose you can rationalize the outcome with metrics

Problem is the videos don't lie, but metrics do

 

[JustbrewitMan]

Don’t forget. The biggest piece for Karaban is now in Boston. Has the staff absorbed enough from Luke to run our euro style offense as effectively?

These sets & plays have probably been run well over 10,000 times by this staff and players in practices and games. They are all logged on video and in playbooks.

This coaching staff basically lives and breathes this stuff almost 24/7 together.

I’m going to trust facts and say our offense will still be beautiful next year even with Luke shipping up to Boston.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

WTF are you talking about ? That's not how Vegas works and never has. They move the line based on which team is getting all the action so it ends up split evenly. Vegas won't get wrecked, no matter who wins.

I’m sure they wouldn’t get “wrecked” by a UConn win, but they would have taken a pretty good relative hit.

I think I read there was a very large handle on UConn futures bets. These were consistent at +1000 to +2000 range all season.

My small group of ~10 UConn friends had a bunch of modest-sized bets on UConn Men, Women, and Men+Women parlays we built pre-season and early season.

We are not even close to being even “mid rollers”, but because of the odds, if they came in, they would have amounted to 100k+ in winnings because of the odds.

 

[Hurlees4hed]

These sets & plays have probably been run well over 10,000 times by this staff and players in practices and games. They are all logged on video and in playbooks.

This coaching staff basically lives and breathes this stuff almost 24/7 together.

I’m going to trust facts and say our offense will still be beautiful next year even with Luke shipping up to Boston.

Great post. Luke was super valuable to us in Storrs. He was a huge part of some special teams and I wouldn't be opposed to him potentially returning someday. We will NOT suddenly forget how to win without him. He did not make Hurley.

 

[uconnyankee]

WTF are you talking about ? That's not how Vegas works and never has. They move the line based on which team is getting all the action so it ends up split evenly. Vegas won't get wrecked, no matter who wins.

There were several reports that suggested UConn would have been the worst team to win for ‘Vegas’…
The line does move, but that doesn’t mean the casinos break even.
There were also a lot of bets made in the futures market that weren’t impacted by game spread.
I made a bet in Nov for UConn to win it all. There were a lot of those bets for UConn earlier in the season.

 

[Kembacity]

Here’s the problem - we have eyes.

You can’t just say well, UConn averages this many fouls and Michigan averages this many and the numbers are similar so the officiating was fine. That’s way too simple-minded.

You can actually, with your eyes, go see video of what was called and not called and come away with the consensus opinion that nearly everyone who watched the game came to - there was something rotten in Indy.

Agreed, the no calls that we’ve all seen on Cadeau and when I think Morez trips Demary and then trucks Stewart to the ground on the same fast break were insane and egregious.

I saw some Michigan fools defending the fouls being called well saying that a foul on UConn was “obvious” and would be called “any time” because we had 2 hands on a player. Okay go watch that offensive play where Cadeau just shoves Demary with 2 hands as he’s curling around the 3 pt line.

At halftime when I saw all the non-UConn fans irate at the calls, I was relieved that it was pretty obvious.

 

[BGesus4]

WTF are you talking about ? That's not how Vegas works and never has. They move the line based on which team is getting all the action so it ends up split evenly. Vegas won't get wrecked, no matter who wins.

Idk how many times I’m going to need to write this reply but it has nothing to do with the spread bets. It is the futures bets that would’ve hurt them. There were a bunch of articles about it with the sports books openly saying they had a preference for Michigan out of the four teams and their least favorite was UConn. I assure you, it is how Vegas works. The payoff for betting Michigan to win it all was quite low all year long while UConn was up to +3500 right before the tournament with plenty of people willing to put money on UConn. You can’t perfectly hedge everything.

Look it up

 

[UConnRock]

The no call of Cadeau hacking Reed was a game changer.

 

[Dogfish]

We were at the game. Just to add to the conspiracy theory side, they weren't showing the replay of any fouls that were called against UConn on the big screen, especially in the second half. I kept telling my family that I just wanted to see the replay. This was a terrible carry over from the regular Big East season.

 

[TroyHall98]

UConn's average FTA differential on the season was -4.6. Michigan's was +6.2. The discrepancy ended up being 12, which pretty much aligns with both those averages. Michigan was bigger, in addition to being better at both defending and attacking the rim. On the year, they were 2nd in defending 2P% and 8th in made 2P%. UConn was 46th and 20th in those categories, respectively. They took a lot of threes because the other team had a 7'3 center. It's really hard to score at the rim in a sport where the court is smaller and there's no defensive three seconds. Two years ago, when UConn had the 7'2 man-child, they ranked 5th and 6th.

Do I think UConn got a great whistle? Certainly not. The phantom flagrant foul alone was enough to potentially swing the game. UConn went from leading to trailing in one possession, and never caught up. It might seem like something a better team should overcome, but UConn was not the better team and I think that's where the frustration comes in. The longer that game continued with UConn leading, the more pressure Michigan was going to feel. The Karaban flagrant changed that game in a way that's difficult to quantify.

However, what I think the conspiracy theorists are missing is this: different refs call the game differently and emphasize different things. In this game, players were seemingly allowed to get away with much more contact off the ball than they were on the ball. That clearly didn't work in UConn's favor and probably has something to do with the poor record they have with Breeding. I get being upset about that.

But the idea that this was all orchestrated by the NCAA to punish UConn and the Big East seems very farfetched. It also feels like people want to blame Val for anything and everything from the Big East not getting enough teams in to UConn not getting enough calls in the title game. Or, my favorite one, that the Big East isn't standing up for UConn because the Big East knows UConn wants to leave...like it hasn't known that the entire time.

UConn has now been to three title games in four years and won two of them, and yet still people here blame the Big East for everything from UConn not getting a fair whistle in conference, to UConn not playing a hard enough schedule, to the officials not having enough respect for a non-P4 league. If the powers that be hate the Big East so much, why did they wait until the title game to stop UConn? UConn went through three Big Ten teams just to get there!

If the shoe were on the other foot, and it was Duke or UNC complaining about all the bumping and hand-checking not being called away from the ball, does anyone think in a million years that we would take them seriously? Of course not. We would describe them as "finesse" or "soft" and insist that the more physical brand of ball is the way it should be called all the time.

I'll give you one person who seemed to think Michigan was much better: Dan Hurley. His tone in the on-court interview after, I think the under-8 media timeout, with UConn still leading, was not one that projected a lot of confidence. It actually caught me off guard because it was such a departure from his approach to previous games. He acted like they were a 15-seed just hoping to keep it close and maybe steal it at the end - and that's kind of how it looked from the outside. Michigan would have won by 15 if it could've thrown the ball in the ocean from deep.

Agreed that the flagrant changed the entire complexion of the game and there were many other regrettable calls but it’s not solely the reason they lost.

Michigan won the game in the paint and Hurley knew that is where the team could not match up. They controlled it with points in the paint and defensively shutting it down. We could not convert shots in the paint so much so that it forced us to take 30+ threes. I don’t think the coaching staff was looking for that many threes.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Where I tip my hat to Michigan, and where (taking everything into account) I truly bethe game was decided was with their free throw shooting.

I believe with just under four minutes remaining they had a seven point lead and we had the ball. They were (IIRC) 21-22 from the free throw line at that point. If they had been for example 18-22 (still an excellent percentage) the game would have had an entirely different feel as the final minutes were winding down. They do warrant credit for shooting free throws the way our 2014 team did.

 

[sledog]

I suggest a massive targeted letter campaign to appropriate UC/BE/NCAA persons highlighting the Breeding transgressions. After all, he may have cost UC / BE another championship. This is not 'poor loser' stuff, but corrective action. Perhaps a common letter. I'm sure BY can provide names / addresses.

 

[CTBasketball]

We should all file restraining orders against James Breeding to ensure he can never be within 1000’ of any of us.

Will keep him out of the arena.

 

[SubbaBub]

I'm content leaving it at a poorly officiated game without crossing into conspiracy.

You had two teams that played hard when it mattered most and 3 officials who did the opposite of that and it affected the outcome.

The real criticism here is that it wasn't one call, it was a lack of preparation and a refusal to see what was actually happening.

They could have whistled only to catch their breath and it would have been a similar performance.

As a final dig that is petty and irrelevant, should the NCAA be hiring officials with a running impediment? It has to be distracting to his work and the others around him.

 

[upstater]

Also hard to see how he ends up on the floor (without being fouled) since he was effectively stationary under the basket when he got the ball, so he had no momentum to carry him through to the floor. I'll take a closer look a couple times and see what else I can see.

Had his legs taken out from underneath him. Watch the legs. I also think he was hit across the arm but it's very hard to see and as hard for a ref to see it. But the legs are clear.

 

[upstater]

I'm content leaving it at a poorly officiated game without crossing into conspiracy.

You had two teams that played hard when it mattered most and 3 officials who did the opposite of that and it affected the outcome.

The real criticism here is that it wasn't one call, it was a lack of preparation and a refusal to see what was actually happening.

They could have whistled only to catch their breath and it would have been a similar performance.

As a final dig that is petty and irrelevant, should the NCAA be hiring officials with a running impediment? It has to be distracting to his work and the others around him.

Hard to adopt this approach when we saw the same ref give Hurley a T early in the BET CG and, as Raftery commented, "Hurley didn't say a word, just threw his arms out in exasperation."

 

[Kolumbo]

I'll also throw in the play where I think Solo went up to block a shot and the Mich player jammed the ball into the side of the rim. I think they showed 1 replay but couldn't really see how much contact there was. The player just didn't have the hops to get the ball over the rim. Honestly couldn't tell if there was a foul or not but I'd wager it was a fine basketball play.

 

[businesslawyer]

Cadeau consistently pushed Silas in the back and there was no call.

Silas reached in and got tagged for that 3FT thing in the beginning. Smart play, but cheap, and then he got Silas trapped under the hoop for his second. Neither of those were on the refs. It was the others, in the second half that were real issues. The illegal screen, etc.

And it's just that Cadeau was given free range once he had two fouls. He was, in my opinion, the key. Shut him down and Michigan would struggle, in particular with a hobbled Yax. And UConn really wasn't give the opportunity, and he was able to really mug the only real point of attack UConn player in return.

Actually the second foul you mentioned on Silas I thought was on the refs. Silas fouled in part and after Reed was prevented from getting over to defend because Mara was literally holding him by the shorts.