Not just one ref, from the beginning all of them

[ZooCougar]

I totally loathe when people blame officiating for lack of performance, but last night was a bit beyond the pale. UConn should file a complaint.

 

[CTBasketball]

I really enjoy seeing Louisville in the bonus with 20:00 to go in the half.

 

[upstater]

To show you the leeway given to Louisville, remember Brimah's dumpoff layup attempt? He was hit pretty hard and missed it. Daniels' second foul was comparatively tickytack, and I know DD was passive after that, but there's a big contrast right there.

 

[CTBasketball]

To show you the leeway given to Louisville, remember Brimah's dumpoff layup attempt? He was hit pretty hard and missed it. Daniels' second foul was comparatively tickytack, and I know DD was passive after that, but there's a big contrast right there.

Exactly. Since we were getting everything called on us from the beginning, it forced the players to play passive and less aggressive because they would pick up fouls.

 

[Devland]

There is a little thing called momentum. I know Louisville controlled the boards. How many time have you watched a game and one team is controlling the game then something happens that swings the momentum and the other team goes on a run. The referees in this game made sure that didn't happen. What happens if Giffey goes to the line and hits three free throws. It would have been a six point game and some positive energy would have started flowing UConn's way. Maybe they go on a run. Who knows. But that call killed UConn. For a few minutes after that call UConn was out of sorts and they couldn't do anything right. If the momentum had been allowed to swing UConn's way, the rebounding numbers and the score may have been different.

 

[Waquoit]

The game was decided on the boards. Did you watch the game?

You missed the joke. I'm shocked, shocked!

 

[DogMania]

You saw it with Ville getting ticky tack calls, and Uconn's guards getting nothing. Smith in on Olander? Foul. Boatright and Napier hit? Nothing.

The refs didn't blow the whistle on the guy landing on Giffey because they weren't blowing their whistles on Louisville at all. They were predetermined to not call fouls on Louisville.

I was thinking the same thing. Add to that, people are killing Mike Stuart about that missed call, but what about the other two refs on the court? You would have thought all three would have been raising their hands and blowing whistles on that play. Really makes you think twice about what was going on during that game.

 

[dtrumpet]

we should have known early on the refs would be trouble. Bazz's first foul was "committed" outside the right arc, but was called by the ref on the left baseline. He actually had to run out to the arc while making the call for it to make any sense.

 

[jdb50]

we should have known early on the refs would be trouble. Bazz's first foul was "committed" outside the right arc, but was called by the ref on the left baseline. He actually had to run out to the arc while making the call for it to make any sense.

 

[Hoophound]

The problem with bad officiating is it kills momentum. Part of the reason we couldn't rebound etc. was loss of rhythm. When you can't catch a break, you lose your mojo.

It is easy to say officiating is just an excuse, but sometimes the officiating is bad enough to set the tone of the game and that can lead to an advantage/disadvantage. We had a lot going against us last night and it set the tone for UL to play their game.

 

[uconnell]

The fact that Bazz and DD had to sit 7 minutes into the game was only the beginning.

 

[gtcam]

If anyone believes that the refs didn't have a profound effect on the game last night, then they weren't watching the game. Period. Yes, Louisville can point to the rebounding edge, and then I'll point to the foul line differential (both in made attempts and in appearances at the line). Not just the debacle with sending Ollie off, but allowing their guards to hand-check while ours got called for "finger on the jersey". I normally hold my tongue when it comes to slight disparities in the officiating....but last night was ridiculous...

Agreed Dan. When Hancock was called for the charging foul he waved his hand in disgust in the ref's face - that is an auto T. the ref looked at him smirked and ran to the scorers desk to grab some water. Pitino was yelling at Hancock for doing it and telling him to use his head and sat him down. Remember when Bazz was T'd a few times this year? Did he try to show up the refs???

 

[David 76]

Agree on the officials but I don't think DD needs to pick up a ticky-tackey foul to go passive.

 

[CL82]

I never heard of her before, but this Ana Ivanovic is hot.

 

[DogMania]

I wonder, do you think Harrell, Mathiang and Van Treese are still able to pull down a combined 19 rebounds and block 7 shots while sitting on the bench with foul trouble, where they belonged? Do you suppose their aggressive approach to the game might have changed, had they been called for a few of the fouls they committed?

The real impact of terrible and biased officiating is the cumulative effect, not just the impact on the play immediately at hand.

That's a really good point. The fact is we've seen this team win even when getting out-rebounded badly. If the game was called fairly the outcome might have turned out differently. UConn would have gotten to the line a lot more. UL wold not have been able to play as agressively, and as you pointed out, UL would not have had the same players on the floor as long as they did, due to foul trouble. Add to that, how frustarted the players must have felt trying various things to succeed while the refs were doing all they could to ensure that they would fail.

I do give UL a lot of credit for beating UConn to most of the 50/50 balls and rebounds and simply took advantage of the situation that was given them, I'm not implying that UConn definately wins that game if called otherwise, but I think they would have had been able to compete with them and who knows what might have happened.