Officials from Monday's Game - Statistics
I received an Email from a Spartan fan of mine ranting about how he's sick of hearing about the officials and how he heard from someone else this week that the officials from Monday's game had Big East affiliation.
I decided to look into it further (statsheet.com):
The refs who worked Monday night's game (Tony Greene, John Cahill, John Higgins) have done 3,500+ games since 1997
- 559 were Big East games (16%)
- 72 were Big Ten games (2%)
- This season neither Greene or Cahill worked a UM game, they collectively worked 14 UL games
- Since 1997, Cahill & Greene have done 52 UL games, and only 6 UM games (Greene had never officiated UM prior to Monday night).
If this were football, and the BCS Title game had been between an SEC team and a Big East team (I know, not likely) and most of the refs assigned to the game had been from the Big East, there would have been an outcry from the SEC so loud that there would probably be an FBI investigation by now.
I know that college basketball refs don't have official conference delegations, but those 2 guys pretty much make their living in the Big East. They really should not have been working the title game. Despite all attempts to be impartial, it is human nature to give the benefit of the doubt to the team you are familiar with.
My friend brought up the whole illuminati idea, really cant get away from it seems like...
I wish Michigan would have won...
Go Blue Always
I just feel bad for Higgins. You mention him near the start of the OP and then he gets no more love at all during the post. Either that, or his stats go against the argument you were trying to make.
Yeah that kicked ball was a huge game-changer. Instead of retaining possession of the ball, Louisville retained possession of the ball.
I'm not going to say there were missed calls - I was yelling plenty of choice words during the game as well. And I'll even say we were on the short end of the "obvious" misses.
Howeva!
This is petty. The conference affiliation has nothing to do with the calls that were made in that game. Really, if we want to fairly debate this, then there must be some kind of acknowledgment that Mitch McGary could have easily fouled out in the first half had the officials not let the teams be physical. If that would have happened, we never would have been in the game.
UL played great and were a great team. If I had to put percentages on why we lost (which is a stupid exercise, but I'll do it to support my point);
Luke Whatever's 4/4 in 2 minutes: 42%
Inability to guard ball screens: 33%
THJ's inability to be a factor: 8%
Second half turnovers: 7%
Not taking advantage of UL's fould trouble in second half: 5%
Officiating: 3%
End of game subs/fouling: 2%
You're so blinded by being one that they can never do any wrong....
A: I'm not an official.
B: Did you completely ignore my first sentence?
C: The only thing I'm "defending" is that they weren't biased because of their Big East workload. That doesn't mean I'm saying they were not bad. The two can be mutually exclusive.
April 10th, 2013 at 10:08 PM ^
April 11th, 2013 at 10:05 AM ^
EDIT: This used to be longer, but I'm not defending myself to the bias here, so here's the cliff notes.
I used to be an official. My role in basketball has changed, I'm no longer an advocate of officials, but am very involved in the game and in grading officials.
So, yes, if you can pick out only 5 plays that were incorrect, I'll say that's about 3% of the reason you lost given:
A: We were the beneficiaries of several calls, and
B: There's hundreds of plays in a given game.
But whatever, I'm done. I'm the first to admit that officials get calls wrong. I'm usually the first to point it out. But they storylines on it are stupid. There's no conspiracies. And they aren't "terrible." If you want to see terrible officials, go watch a high school game. And then if you think that's terrible, go watch a middle school game. And if you still think you can do better than college guys, then fucking do it and stop bitching about it. (generally speaking, not you specifically)
Dude,
if you are grading officials, and find what happened on monday night even remotely acceptable for that elite-level......I now realize why refs suck. They aren't held to any semblance of professional standards.
If you would, explain to me how Hancock didn't get his 4th foul after two officials conferenced about it. Foul was clear as day. But they gave it to a kid 10 feet away who had no bearing on the game. Announcers said so. No replay was even needed. For any of their most egregious mistakes, no replay was needed. That 4th foul would have iced L-ville. And MI would have won.
Pray tell.......what do you think happened during that "conversation"? I'll bet you a week's pay that it was done to keep the potential MVP in the game.
Answer it.
If you dare.
It was pretty obvious that McGary changed how he was playing once he realized that mauling people in the post like a bear wasn't going to be called on either end of the floor. That doesn't mean that was part of his gameplan coming in, nor does it mean that it really benefitted us to have to play that way.
I should stop reading it now
makes sense. The refs wanted l'villie to win.
But as many have illustrated point by point, my problem isn't that it was a horribly officiated game (though you would think if this is the best the NCAA has to offer, Indianapolis, we have a problem), but so many of the MAJOR calls went against us. All fouls are not created equal. And bad calls at certain times and types cause different swings in the game. And the list of outrageous rather than bad calls seems heavily slanted.
Cahill worked Louisville at Memphis early this season.
20 ft att Memphis, 46 ft att Louisville.
Accountability.
The coaches are required to face questions after the game about what they did and did not do. The Tournament selection committee is required to face questions about its picks and seedings.
Why aren't the Refs required to answer questions after the game about calls they made or did not make? At least tell us your thought process. Maybe we'll learn something.
But to act like they can never be questioned and the only accountability is some secret internal review that nobody ever knows the outcome of, is so archaic.
I'm still not over it.
They were kind of consistent:
- First half McGary got undercut on a rebound...no foul. Hancock's potential 4th foul was an undercut...no foul (you could include the 'over Burke's back rebound here, also not a foul even though it was kind of the opposite)
- Burke, clean block - foul; on the Hancock undercut, clean block up top - foul (no, this wasn't Dieng. They got the right guy if they ruled the block a foul)
- Pump fakes without a real basketball move to draw contact - foul both times. With a real basketball move ( GR3) - also a foul
- Arm bars for the first 40 feet someone dribbled - never a foul. In the 41st foot - ~3 fouls called. (I'm sure UL was upset at some of these)
/s
April 10th, 2013 at 10:34 PM ^
This game will go down in my Michigan Memories as something quite similar to the USC game mentioned above (or the other USC game, Bo's last of his career), as a game where the refs made way too big of a difference in the final outcome.
The hack-a-minute squad from Louisville met a team that seriously outclasses them offensively. They did the only thing they know how to do: foul, foul, foul. The refs can't call a foul every time down the court, can they? (Not with HOF coaching standing on the court directing traffic apparently) If they did, the entire UL squad would foul out.
More people are saying that the type of defense UL plays would lead their players to foul out in 5 minutes in the NBA. Nobody wants to watch football defense in a basketball game. Even the NBA understands this!
Before this game, I thought Wiscy and MSU defense was pushing the boundaries, but UL takes it to the next level.
This was a bad result. Anyone who thinks UL was the better team is out of their mind. Put three NBA refs in there and we would have won by 20.
April 11th, 2013 at 12:35 AM ^
Im not sure if its been mentioned yet. In Basketball all officials are independent contractors, they are not tied to one confrence or team of officials like in football. One of the officials primarily gets contracted by the Big East to offciated games in thier confrence. If the majority of his work is from one place and he has bills, messing up in the eyes of that confrence is not a good career move. I'm no lawyer, but I'm sure that has to be a major conflict of interest and would make it all but impossible to be impartial. He has to much to lose by pissing off the Big East. John Cahill is the official Im referring about, I'm sure he a great guy and I don't know him to judge his credibility. Human nature however, is to protect yourself and whether he wanted to or not he is going to be biased.
He officiated the following games for Louisville this season: (HOW DOES HE END UP OFFICIATED THE FINALS?)
Michigan 76 Louisville 82
Syracuse 61 Louisville 78
Louisville 58 Syracuse 53
Marquette 51 Louisville 70
Louisville 51 Georgetown 53
Kentucky 77 Louisville 80
Louisville 87 Memphis 78
Now the interesting thing is the articles I could find stating the amount an official is paid ranged from $750 - $2000 per game. It seems to indicate that pay was based off confrence and game.
The fix was in.
You don't have to go any further than non-call on Hancock for his 4th foul, when they HAD A CONFERENCE (which is supposed to get the call CORRECT), and then awarded the foul to some kid 10 feet way. And the annoncers all asking "how do you call that?".
The answer is simple. The refs are Big East and have to live in that conference. This is their living. And they are corrupt (as you saw with NO PAC-10 refs in the finals due to recent scandal).
Rock the boat....and it's back to pushing broom instead of reffing.
Play ball....and make 150-200k per year for an easy job.
There is no logical excuse for what we saw on Monday. Except for the fix was in.
You won't hear any excuses from the NCAA or the refs. None. They don't care. They make money. And you just watch and spend.