We Lead The Conference In Fouling

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

It’s interesting and worth looking at or you have time on your hands or like to research basketball stats instead of doing more important things, but the difference is not as drastic as that tweet makes it seem. UConn Twitter is getting riled up quite a bit lately.

Take out the intentional fouls at the end by Butler and SJU. We got fouled 4 times in the last minute and took 8 FTs. The first 39 minutes were incredibly lopsided.

 

[ibleedhuskyblue]

I know this is an ask that cant be answered, but i wish we could see these numbers without the intentional 'stop the clock' fouls in the last couple minutes of games. I know that for at least this season we haven't done it much (once at KU, any others ???), while im sure that because of the many close big east games between the rest of the conferences teams, the number has to be inflated some.
If we remove those, our number stays the same, but i bet it would lower many other conference teams by a few, and the gulf between us would be larger.
For whatever reason, we seem to play very few close games. 3 of the last 5 games Creighton has played were within 5 points. How many intentional fouls were given/taken in those games ? It skews these numbers a bit.

 

[Hoophound]

Newton gets beaten to death every game.

 

[alphasigko]

That is in-conference... How were they in Out-of-Conference?

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Well he’s 2nd in the Big East in FTAs. He could get more calls, but he seems to live at the line a lot already. Went 13 times last game.

He has the ball at the end of games when we’re winning. He rarely gets a call at the rim.

 

[Huskybass]

UConn plays aggressive defense and isn't particularly quick at the 1, 2, or 4 as others have noted. Johnson does foul a lot. And our coach has said more than a few questionable things to the refs over the years. That can't help the situation.

That said, Karaban does seem to get hit with lots of fouls on virtually nothing.

 

[willie99]

This doesn’t seem right imo.

The only team even close is St John's. And they play defense more aggressively trying to create turnovers. You supposed to foul more when you're reaching in all game long.

Conversely Alex is being called for fouls when he's literally standing there with his hands above his head (read hands not coming down or reaching in)

 

[Hankster]

We do foul but it seems like Karaban gets the poopy end of the stick on a lot of his fouls.

I agree. Although it is tough to see on TV, but it seems Karaban (and others) stand straight up with arms high. Not making any contact. Iknow there is also the body, but even our bigs do the same. Maybe I need to look closer.

 

[Tenspro2002]

We are slow at the 1, 2 and 4 with a foul-happy 5. I'm not terribly surprised.

BE refs also suck.

I'd be curious what last year's numbers show, when we were elite defensively both as individuals and as a team.

 

[Hurleyman216]

This is a complete repeat of last year where we apparently “fouled a lot” in the Big East but seemed to play perfectly clean in March and in non-conference. The league needs to get this under control ASAP. Tell me which other conference black balls their best team like the Big East does to UConn? Maybe the BE officials are still pissed at Hurley for calling them out in his press conference after we won the national championship.

 

[Tenspro2002]

There is a very strange game vs. Manhattan when both teams were only called for 6 fouls this season. If you throw that out as an outlier ...

UConn vs. Big East teams this season: 19.3 fouls per game
UConn vs. non-Big East teams this season: 17.2 fouls per game

UConn vs. Big East teams last reg. season: 18.0 fouls per game
UConn vs. non-Big East teams last reg. season: 18.6 fouls per game

And the other side of that. Fouls called on our opponents:

Big East teams vs. UConn this season: 17.8 fouls per game
Non-Big East teams vs. UConn this season: 18.9 fouls per game

Big East teams vs. UConn last reg. season: 18.0 fouls per game
Non-Big East teams vs. UConn last reg. season: 16.3 fouls per game

So, this year:

In BE play: We are called for 1.5 more fouls per game than our opponents.
In OOC play: We are called for 1.7 fewer fouls per game than our opponents.
Net differential: 3.2 fouls less favorable in BE play

Last year:

In BE play: we were called for the same number of fouls as our opponents.
In OOC play: we were called for 2.3 more fouls per game than our opponents.
Net differential: 2.3 fouls more favorable in BE play

I'm surprised by last year's numbers, where it felt like we routinely got a horrible whistle in conference but I don't remember much consternation in the OOC.

But this year we are absolutely getting a much worse whistle in conference than OOC.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Newton gets beaten to death every game.

Another great point. This doesn't even show up in the statistics at hand, but Newton must lead the conference in fouls not called.

 

[ibleedhuskyblue]

So, this year:

In BE play: We are called for 1.5 more fouls per game than our opponents.
In OOC play: We are called for 1.7 fewer fouls per game than our opponents.
Net differential: 3.2 fouls less favorable in BE play

Last year:

In BE play: we were called for the same number of fouls as our opponents.
In OOC play: we were called for 2.3 more fouls per game than our opponents.
Net differential: 2.3 fouls more favorable in BE play

I'm surprised by last year's numbers, where it felt like we routinely got a horrible whistle in conference but I don't remember much consternation in the OOC.

But this year we are absolutely getting a much worse whistle in conference than OOC.

This is really interesting.

However i think our biggest gripe as a team (and fanbase) is UNCALLED fouls against us which is far more difficult to quantify.
Until someone decides to watch all our games in slow motion and count the fouls against us that weren't called, we won't know how bad this is.

 

[MexicoHusky]

I wonder what’s the correlation between good defensive teams and fouling. I ask because Pitino usually has that rep and they’re high up there too.

Always felt Pitino teams were deliberately testing what the refs would allow on a game to game basis

 

[ctchamps]

So, this year:

In BE play: We are called for 1.5 more fouls per game than our opponents.
In OOC play: We are called for 1.7 fewer fouls per game than our opponents.
Net differential: 3.2 fouls less favorable in BE play

Last year:

In BE play: we were called for the same number of fouls as our opponents.
In OOC play: we were called for 2.3 more fouls per game than our opponents.
Net differential: 2.3 fouls more favorable in BE play

I'm surprised by last year's numbers, where it felt like we routinely got a horrible whistle in conference but I don't remember much consternation in the OOC.

But this year we are absolutely getting a much worse whistle in conference than OOC.

Most likely because the BE teams we’ve played against this year run iso plays more often than the OOC teams.

 

[UConntLose]

 

[Rocktheworld]

This doesn’t seem right imo.

The gap between us and #3 is bigger than the gap between #3 and last. Yeah that doesn’t seem right to me either. But we’ve always had our opinions of reffing; this simply confirms what we knew with the actual numbers.

 

[Samoo]

I think part of this is also how deep the team is, so there is less worry. Lot of closer games typically means more D and probably more fouls.

Remember also that with Donovan out, Alex is covering bigger players when he plays small ball center.

 

[JMick]

But we really shouldn't kid ourselves into thinking Hurley hasn't been asking for it for years.

That shouldn't be a thing. It's where the conference needs to step in.

 

[nomar]

Marquette is the mystery to me. They start harassing the ball handler 3/4 court every possession. Usually there is more contact with Marquette even before the ball enters the front court and look where they are on the list. This is quite revealing.

Who needs to foul when your coach can be a 6th defender?

 

[Rico444]

I'm sure the lack of athleticism at certain spots plays into it, and Samson definitely plays defense with his arms too much. But there do seem to be plenty of times where Newton gets hammered on a drive with no call and on the next possession a guy gets breathed on and he's shooting free throws. I'm not exactly watching these games objectively though.

Yeah I complain too, but there are definitely calls that happen in our favor that don't look even remotely close to fouls. So my guess is it all pretty much evens out in the end.

 

[husky429]

That shouldn't be a thing. It's where the conference needs to step in.

It's how reffing is at every level. Sucks, bit it's true. There's not evidence enough to punish a ref, but it's happening.

 

[AdamaNation]

This doesn’t seem right imo.

Not in x but to add to Marquette comment- smart is good for at least 3 touch fouls a game.

 

[TheRealKBuks]

Yeah I complain too, but there are definitely calls that happen in our favor that don't look even remotely close to fouls. So my guess is it all pretty much evens out in the end.

This thread is proof that it doesn't even out in the end

 

[Rico444]

This thread is proof that it doesn't even out in the end

Looking at number of fouls called against a particular school doesn't constitute proof. You also have to look at how many fouls were called against our opponents. Even then, teams have different playstyles. Our guards this year aren't great at staying in front of their man, which leads to drives into the paint, which leads to more foul calls.

I thought we got screwed on foul calls early on in conference play last year, but this year has been mostly even. 4 games is way too small a sample to be concerned.