What just happened? BY seems shellshocked.

[attaboy]

For Louisville, it seemed to be a good strategy. Uconn players, by now, should know what is coming now in certain games. This is especially true when the game is that chippy in the first half and the home team has more fouls. Honestly, both teams could have been playing with the second five if they called it remotely close in the first half. As a player, you have to be ready for a second half that is probably not going your way after the way the first half went. Halftime is a game changer for referees. You talk a little small talk and then assess the first half. In that conversation, it was most likely agreed to tighten things up a little. Been there and done that, usually, that is a bad omen for the visitors. I hate the old double foul call but as an official, I would have made good use of this call last night. A couple of double fouls, a warning to the involved players(if you want to play knock it off), and a warning to the coaches, could have solved the issue. Unfortunately, doesn't make for good TV, and the stripes thought what they left out there did. Where is Sylvia Hatchell when you need her? Personally, I would have like to see the lane cleared, drive to the rim and kick to the place of where the double or triple team was coming from(short corner or strong side elbow). Oh well, in this case a W is a W. Next up on the gridiron -- Georgetown.

 

[Joe6cats]

One way to look at this and the BU/ ND games, is that the referees are doing their bit for parity: it is open season for uncalled fouls on those dang Huskies.

 

[Timeout]

Why is everybody shocked? At Baylor we didnt go to the line til the end of the game, at ND the calls werent called and here at Lville the fouls were one sided again. Not bad for a team that dosnt foul. UConn is going to need to keep their poise and be patient and really slow things down when things like this happen and maintain control and then what needs to happen is one of our bigs needs to foul and opponet and knock her on her butt hard and send a message. Fear and intimidation works wonders. I dont like it one bit but if theyre not calling it then we need to learn to play that way

Would have been nice to send nurse Buck out there to apply some good medicine - lol.

 

[HuskyNan]

For some reason Dolson doesn't like elbows poking her nose. She treated Vails' arm the way I treat a turkey leg when I'm carving on Thanksgiving.

It was a hand...looked like an elbow during the game. Or maybe that was a different play.

 

[UcMiami]

I think refs do have a hard time judging how to call game like this - I think they screwed it up last night, but i isn't easy as you do not want to completely stop the flow by calling every touch. I think the best refs start the game calling it close and send the message that th physical stuff is not acceptable, and the players have to adjust quickly or sit with 3 fouls. Once they establish that, they can somewhat relax the standards.
Last night I thought they started inconsistently calling some touch fouls and letting a lot of hacking go. And then they got worse! I don't blame LV for going with the flow if it isn't being called.
I also think some teams do put added pressure on bad officiating - basically challenging the officials to foul the whole team out. But again, I think good officials can change that tactic very early in games by calling the right fouls.

 

[UcMiami]

Would have been nice to send nurse Buck out there to apply some good medicine - lol.

I did wonder about that possibility. There would have been a few bodies on the ground if he had.

 

[HuskyNan]

I did wonder about that possibility. There would have been a few bodies on the ground if he had.

When have you ever seen Heather show that kind of aggressiveness? And the Huskies needed scoring last night, not defense.

 

[schmendrick]

Man, I'm glad I wasn't able to watch this. I think our TV screen was too. I wonder, though, if this will not turn out to be the best preparation--and inspiration--for Georgetown and ND.

Also, for those who did have the pleasure, are the "brutal" (to quote Icebear) non-calls attributable to the sheer incompetence or the refs? Were they overwhelmed by the crowd?

Yum Center? Blech.

 

[Timeout]

When have you ever seen Heather show that kind of aggressiveness? And the Huskies needed scoring last night, not defense.

Not intentionally. In the Rutgers game, a Rutger player got a 'good' unintentional whack from Buck when both players went for the ball. We often see Heather cover some ground to get to a rebound. She's not afraid and we were out rebounded last night.

 

[Icebear]

Man, I'm glad I wasn't able to watch this. I think our TV screen was too. I wonder, though, if this will not turn out to be the best preparation--and inspiration--for Georgetown and ND.

Also, for those who did have the pleasure, are the "brutal" (to quote Icebear) non-calls attributable to the sheer incompetence or the refs? Were they overwhelmed by the crowd?

Yum Center? Blech.

The cause is very hard to guess since we cannot see inside their minds. However, I would go with the officials being overwhelmed and incompetent. Dee Kantgetitright has done several bad games this year.

 

[pap49cba]

The depressing thing is that Dee Kantner obviously is considered one of the best given all of the 'big' games she works.

 

[speedoo]

The depressing thing is that Dee Kantner obviously is considered one of the best given all of the 'big' games she works.

Very depressing. Worst thing about her is that she is so inconsistent, some games she calls way too many fouls, others like last night, she allows the game to bet out of hand. Seriously, how much worse was Sally Bell?. At least with Bell, you knew she was going to call too many fouls,so you kinda knew what to expect.

 

[johnnyc]

I was only able to catch the 1st half and it was getting pretty rough. Looks like they picked it up a notch in the 2nd. I guess somewhere between what happened last night and Sylvia Hatchell's comments is good basketball.

 

[HuskyNan]

Very depressing. Worst thing about her is that she is so inconsistent, some games she calls way too many fouls, others like last night, she allows the game to bet out of hand. Seriously, how much worse was Sally Bell?. At least with Bell, you knew she was going to call too many fouls,so you kinda knew what to expect.

I dunno, speedoo. I was rewatching the 2004 UConn-Tenn game in Knoxville which was officiated by Sally Bell. Geno & Pat Summitt, plus an assortment of Husky and Lady Vol players, were stomping their feet in exasperation so much so that Ann Meyers, one of the announcers, warned that there were going to be a lot of T's if people didn't watch their tempers. Meyers and Sean McDonough spent most of the game trying to find new euphemisms for "really bad officiating", at one point laughing out loud when an LV player dribbled the ball off her foot and Maria Conlon was called for a foul.

 

[Bestiarius]

The depressing thing is that Dee Kantner obviously is considered one of the best given all of the 'big' games she works.

My rating of her would be a Dee minus.

 

[JS]

My rating of her would be a Dee minus.

So you're a Dee-tractor?

 

[speedoo]

I dunno, speedoo. I was rewatching the 2004 UConn-Tenn game in Knoxville which was officiated by Sally Bell. Geno & Pat Summitt, plus an assortment of Husky and Lady Vol players, were stomping their feet in exasperation so much so that Ann Meyers, one of the announcers, warned that there were going to be a lot of T's in the game if people didn't watch their tempers. Meyers and Sean McDonough spent most of the game trying to find new euphemisms for "really bad officiating", at one point laughing out loud when an LV player dribbled the ball off her foot and Maria Conlon was called for a foul.

No question, Bell was the worst high profile ref in recent memory. Just the quantity of terrible calls she made in any game was stupifying, and the fact that she was used in so many big games for so many years was inexplicable. And I'm not saying Kantner is as bad, just suggesting that she is approaching a similar situation in that she appears to be very much over rated by the powers that be who assign the refs. I'd much rather see Dennis DeMayo, for example reffing a big game. I think Dennis is one of, if not the best, around.... very consistent, lets them play but quickly gets a game under control when necessary. With Dennis in Dee's place last night, we would have actually had a basketball game instead of a mess.

 

[Replicant]

UConn is going to need to keep their poise and be patient and really slow things down when things like this happen and maintain control and then what needs to happen is one of our bigs needs to foul and opponet and knock her on her butt hard and send a message. Fear and intimidation works wonders. I dont like it one bit but if theyre not calling it then we need to learn to play that way

Our only "big" that delivered said message last night was Kelly delivering a gorgeous shoulder check for her 4th foul. If the refs won't enforce the rules, you have no choice as a player but to take matters into your own hands to protect yourself and your teammates. It was probably advisable for Geno to have taken a "T" and get the refs attention when we were still up by approx. 17 midway into the 2nd half. Our girls are tough, but we don't have any true enforcer types. I could easily visualize LV players sprawled on the deck if they'd tried that crap against Tamika, Swin, Asjha, Tina, Shea, Dee, Morgan, et al...

 

[speedoo]

Our only "big" that delivered said message last night was Kelly delivering a gorgeous shoulder check for her 4th foul. If the refs won't enforce the rules, you have no choice as a player but to take matters into your own hands to protect yourself and your teammates. It was probably advisable for Geno to have taken a "T" and get the refs attention when we were still up by approx. 17 midway into the 2nd half. Our girls are tough, but we don't have any true enforcer types. I could easily visualize LV players on the deck if they'd tried that crap against Tamika, Swin or Asjha, Shea, Dee, Morgan, et al...

As has been suggested by one or more here, Geno as Olympic coach needs to be mindful that he is not just the UConn coach these days, he is always representing USA basketball whenever he is in the public eye. And he has made it very clear that his role as Olympic coach is by far more important than anything else in his professional life. So he has probably decided that any kind of behavior on his part, no matter how well warranted, that might result in a technical foul, is just not acceptable.

 

[pap49cba]

I don't care if he is the Olympic coach in my view Geno's first responsibility is to protect his players and if that means taking a T so be it. No one is going to argue with it if it is apparent someone could be seriously injured. Almost everyone commenting or tweeting during the game (Bob Joyce, Rich Elliot, Rebecca, Debi A., etc.) said the game was way too physical to the point of being out of control.

 

[AboutWeston]

Our only "big" that delivered said message last night was Kelly delivering a gorgeous shoulder check for her 4th foul. If the refs won't enforce the rules, you have no choice as a player but to take matters into your own hands to protect yourself and your teammates. It was probably advisable for Geno to have taken a "T" and get the refs attention when we were still up by approx. 17 midway into the 2nd half. Our girls are tough, but we don't have any true enforcer types. I could easily visualize LV players sprawled on the deck if they'd tried that crap against Tamika, Swin, Asjha, Tina, Shea, Dee, Morgan, et al...

Couldn't Heather do it? From personal hospital experiences including brain surgery and three weeks or so in the ICU, I can tell you the best nurses are tough, because they have to be to deal with patients' pain, living through some heavy emotional experiences.

They would quit on day two if they let it get to them. Maybe being the enforcer is good practice for a nursing career?

 

[Replicant]

As has been suggested by one or more here, Geno as Olympic coach needs to be mindful that he is not just the UConn coach these days, he is always representing USA basketball whenever he is in the public eye. And he has made it very clear that his role as Olympic coach is by far more important than anything else in his professional life. So he has probably decided that any kind of behavior on his part, no matter how well warranted, that might result in a technical foul, is just not acceptable.

Yes, I saw that rationale in other posts and I'm hardly suggesting that Geno do something ridiculous and embarrass UConn or Team USA. But getting Teed-up is a tool of coaching. He still represents and coaches UConn...right. When a game gets as physically out-of-control as last night's, it's incumbent upon a coach to communicate that to the refs. Both teams are very fortunate that no player was injured...it was that nasty.

As a UConn fan, I'm more concerned about the welfare of our players than some hypothetical scenario in which Geno might be perceived as something less then perfectly PC. I mean, Geno being Geno is why he was selected as the coach of Team USA in the first place.

If this new PC Geno theory is accurate, then perhaps wcbb refs (in particular last night's crew) are taking advantage of the newly de-fanged and PC Geno?

 

[HuskyNan]

Perhaps Geno wanted the team to calm down and run some sort of logical offense rather than get them fired up and play helter-skelter. Whatever the reason, he can read his team's psyche better than we can.

 

[Replicant]

Couldn't Heather do it? From personal hospital experiences including brain surgery and three weeks or so in the ICU, I can tell you the best nurses are tough, because they have to be to deal with patients' pain, living through some heavy emotional experiences.

They would quit on day two if they let it get to them. Maybe being the enforcer is good practice for a nursing career?

LOL...I have known some tough-as-nails nurses!. I don't think that's Heather though, she doesn't have a mean bone in her body.

 

[Replicant]

Perhaps Geno wanted the team to calm down and run some sort of logical offense rather than get them fired up and play helter-skelter.

This brings up a good point. There have been many games this season that have started out in this helter-skelter fashion. In past seasons Geno would have been lightening quick to call time , scream and refocus the crew. This year he's been allowing those scenarios to play out like never before in my memory. Sure enough, it's worked and we've almost always come out of these early scrums with big runs by the time the dust has cleared. It happened again last night when we jumped out to a 20 point lead in that first frenetic half.

Walz apparently went into the locker room at the half fearing an embarrassing home loss (w/Lt. Governor in attendance) and decided to employ a knee-cap strategy in the 2nd half. Five minutes into the 2nd half it was clear that LV players had very bad intentions that the refs were all too happy to accommodate. With Geno as ticked off as he was during the halftime interview, I found it hard to believe he wasn't more demonstrative with the refs when the aggression escalated out-of-control.

 

[phil sampieri]

My question is after seeing the absolute awful officiating in all my years.
Does the university or Geno have a right to contact NCAA powers that be and have them review what we all witnessed last night. Do they have a committee
that oversees ?

 

[schmendrick]

My question is after seeing the absolute awful officiating in all my years.
Does the university or Geno have a right to contact NCAA powers that be and have them review what we all witnessed last night. Do they have a committee
that oversees ?

Seems to me, like other have said, that another response might be keeping composure against undue aggression by teams like Georgetown and Notre Dame while increasing their own, thus challenging refs to whistle them each time.

 

[speedoo]

I don't care if he is the Olympic coach in my view Geno's first responsibility is to protect his players and if that means taking a T so be it. No one is going to argue with it if it is apparent someone could be seriously injured. Almost everyone commenting or tweeting during the game (Bob Joyce, Rich Elliot, Rebecca, Debi A., etc.) said the game was way too physical to the point of being out of control.

With all due respect, it's easy for you to take that position since you are not in Geno's shoes and you have nothing to lose. Geno has made it very clear that he believes his responsibility as USA Olympic coach is more important than anything else. If you disagree with his position, fine, but your disagreeing with his position does not invalidate it.

Also it is not at all clear to me that serious injuries are more likely in a game like last night. Bruises and soreness are certainly far more likely as a result of that kind of game, but I really do not believe serious injuries, such as those that would cause a player to miss some games or worse are any more likely. Of course it's easy to argue that I am wrong with this, because it's logical, intuitive, etc., but I can't recall a single serious injury to a UConn player in nearly 20 years of watching this team play that occurred in this sort of nasty game. If someone can cite such a serious injury, I am all ears.

So if Geno believes as I do that serious injuries are no more likely in such a nasty game, does he really need to take extraordinary measures to protect his players? Protect them from bruises and soreness? I'll side with him if that is the choice.

 

[JDForever]

Yes LV received a lot of foul calls but over 50% of our shots were from three well above the 30 or so percent that Geno prefers. Very few teams foul three point shooters. The game was tough but settling for threes will not get foul calls.

 

[connboy77]

I'm just glad noone was seriously injured in this football game. Maybe before the Georgetown game starts, Geno, the Georgetown coach, and the refs can meet at half court to discuss whats going to be allowed and not allowed in the game. I don't know if this would do any good, but at least both teams will be on notice. What happened yesterday should never happen again.