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[QUOTE="nelsonmuntz, post: 5229372, member: 833"]
I don't complain about the refs often, but the sport of basketball will be better off when the 1990's style refs like the ones we had last night retire.  Oklahoma played the refs perfectly.  Last night's refs allowed clutching and grabbing off and let defenders deny freedom of movement, but also made many bailout calls for any penetrator that hurled themselves at the basket.  UConn started doing both things later in the game, so I don't think the officiating was necessarily biased, but it was terrible.

Good modern refs will ring up the clutching and grabbing early even if they need to send a couple of players to the bench in foul trouble.  The offenders will stop eventually.   And good refs will not reward the kamikaze drives with bailout calls.  Make a basketball play or good refs will swallow their whistle.  Unfortunately, last night's crew was doing the opposite.

Last night's officiating is why basketball was often painful to watch in the 90's, and why the sport is not the most popular sport in the world yet.  Oklahoma was playing the way it needed to try to win, but it was hard to watch for a casual fan, and the sport as a whole would be better if that style was punished instead of rewarded.
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