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.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.
The game was decided on the boards. Did you watch the game?
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.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.
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.
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???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...
I never heard of her before, but this Ana Ivanovic is hot.
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 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.