Championship Refs: 4 First Half Fouls vs 26 in 2nd half

[HeismaNole_rivals116019]

That’s an insane stat. If you wanted to use one example of why basketball sucks so much outside of tons of threes, this would be exhibit A.

How do you only call four fouls in the first half and then nearly 7x as many in the second half and then try to argue that refs aren’t influencing the outcome of games?

 

[DS849]

Has to be one of the most physical games I've seen in college ball. Thought it got out of hand.

 

[Blue till I die]

That's why it's best to do the opposite of what they did. Start with a tight whistle, so players stop fouling so much.


They called nothing in the 1st half and it wasn't pretty to watch

 

[adam512003]

Florida getting that bench technical was a huge moment in the game. That's when the whistle got tighter. Houston was looking like they were going to pull away before that.

 

[TomTraubertsBlues]

This is my biggest problem with officiating. Call a game tight, or let them play. Changing it up at halftime is ridiculous and unfair to both teams.

 

[*Fox2Monk*]

That’s an insane stat. If you wanted to use one example of why basketball sucks so much outside of tons of threes, this would be exhibit A.

How do you only call four fouls in the first half and then nearly 7x as many in the second half and then try to argue that refs aren’t influencing the outcome of games?

No surprise with who was on the call, both of them suck at best and gamble on games at worst. I was surprised both halves weren’t called that way.

 

[BlueBomb]

Well to be fair, both teams turned up the intensity significantly in the 2nd half.

But I do agree that the officials should've been more consistent.

 

[Ryan Lemonds Hair]

Well to be fair, both teams turned up the intensity significantly in the 2nd half.

But I do agree that the officials should've been more consistent.

Turning up the intensity significantly from the first half would have been this.....

 

[bigblueinsanity_rivals250340]

Florida getting that bench technical was a huge moment in the game. That's when the whistle got tighter. Houston was looking like they were going to pull away before that.

Yep. As awful as the tech was, it ended that streak of 4 straight very bad calls vs uf. Refs evened out after.

 

[ManitouDan]

“Makeup” is something that applies to a ladies face , not calling a ballgame … yes I’ve been warned by blue for using that line

 

[bbnkat02]

This is my biggest problem with officiating. Call a game tight, or let them play. Changing it up at halftime is ridiculous and unfair to both teams.

This. imagine showing up to work each day and you have a different boss or you’re told do do something a different way each and every day. You’d quit and rightfully so.

I’m so sick of the inconsistency in not only sports but everywhere else. It’s exhausting.

 

[HogFan2012]

I think they thought if they didn't try to get the game under control somebody would get seriously injured.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...QIFBAE&sqi=2&usg=AOvVaw0DsYXdXCKCRW-DZ0qu6upo

 

[cats#1again]

Has to be one of the most physical games I've seen in college ball. Thought it got out of hand.

Which is the only reason Florida didn't run them out of the building early.

 

[cats#1again]

Well to be fair, both teams turned up the intensity significantly in the 2nd half.

But I do agree that the officials should've been more consistent.

They really didn't. It was just as intense in the first half. People don't know to look for things like that and just thought Houston was better than Florida. No, Houston fouled Florida Everytime they moved. There's not one thing you can do about it either

 

[cats#1again]

This. imagine showing up to work each day and you have a different boss or you’re told do do something a different way each and every day. You’d quit and rightfully so.

I’m so sick of the inconsistency in not only sports but everywhere else. It’s exhausting.

Makes for a close game on TV

The sec has been doing it for years when UK and the bigger teams co.e to town on a Wednesday night.

 

[26MichaelUK]

Yet we have people in complete denial over this stuff happening..

 

[WildcatStu1]

Yep. As awful as the tech was, it ended that streak of 4 straight very bad calls vs uf. Refs evened out after.

Evened out or screwed Houston? When that technical was called, I said Florida would now get every call. The next thirteen fouls called were 11 on Houston & 2 on Florida. That is when Florida made there comeback. I won’t argue on most of the calls against Houston, but Florida got away with similar fouls that weren’t called. I predicted this after the technical because I remember same thing after Wooden got the technical in 75 against UK. Refs swallowed their whistle against UCLA after technical.

 

[Tf2217]

First half went by too fast. Losing a whole bunch of money on the stoppages that a huge foul number allows.
Probably made millions more in ad revenue than if they called the same game as the first half.

 

[bigblueinsanity_rivals250340]

Evened out or screwed Houston? When that technical was called, I said Florida would now get every call. The next thirteen fouls called were 11 on Houston & 2 on Florida. That is when Florida made there comeback. I won’t argue on most of the calls against Houston, but Florida got away with similar fouls that weren’t called. I predicted this after the technical because I remember same thing after Wooden got the technical in 75 against UK. Refs swallowed their whistle against UCLA after technical.

Describe every call. If you mean Houston was finally whistled for their routine assault, then yes. I never saw a game with so much allowed contact especially on the boards.

Hell even after they started blowing their whistle, they still only called about half of what they should've.

 

[wildcatdon]

Yep. As awful as the tech was, it ended that streak of 4 straight very bad calls vs uf. Refs evened out after.

You thought those away from the ball fouls against Fla were bad? Every one one of them were correct. When they showed the replay it confirmed it. SEC refs never make those calls during the season. It was a rough game. Fla could have been called for holding numerous times. They thought it was football.

 

[mcnicKY91]

The problem is nothing is going to change as long as people keep watching...

The championship game had over 21 million ppl watching. And that was without a traditional college basketball power playing.

As long as the NCAA/Turner/CBS keep having these amounts of eyeballs on these games, nothing will get fixed. That is just the reality of the situation.

 

[CRZ4UK]

Yet we have people in complete denial over this stuff happening..

They call me crazy. lol. Officials don’t cheat!! You’re a tin foil hat conspiracy theorist!! Don’t you blame the officials for us losing. We only got 7 terrible calls. We are Kentucky. We need to be able to overcome that.

There is a conspiracy among college basketball with officials. I’m 100% convinced of that. I do not believe it’s Vegas pulling the strings. It’s the leagues , TV and money.
Wasn’t all those late comebacks exciting when the whistle kept changing in the tournament? It was almost like once you got a 10 point lead. everyone then lost it. I bet everyone turned the games off and went to bed.

 

[ala_kat2]

This is my biggest problem with officiating. Call a game tight, or let them play. Changing it up at halftime is ridiculous and unfair to both teams.

Call it like it’s an everyday college game. A foul is a foul. Be consistent.

 

[gamecockcat]

I officiated HS basketball and summer tournaments for a couple of years. It was stressed every single year and even during midseason meetings to be consistent: every trip up and down the floor, every quarter, every half. To be a good official, you cannot 'let them play' for a quarter, a half and then start calling every contact. As the skill level increases, we were told to allow the players to play a bit more. But, parts of the few CBB games I watched this year looked a lot more like a rugby/hockey game than basketball. A ton of lowered shoulders to create room for a shot, a lot of handchecking, a lot of very physical play and, to my eyes, missed calls on shots. Makes for some really bad basketball at times if every shooter is physically checked on their shot. If players understand early what will and won't be called, the game, from the officials' standpoint, moves along much more smoothly. When the calls seem like they're all over the board, that's when coaches, players and fans start giving the crew a ton of grief.

 

[CRZ4UK]

I officiated HS basketball and summer tournaments for a couple of years. It was stressed every single year and even during midseason meetings to be consistent: every trip up and down the floor, every quarter, every half. To be a good official, you cannot 'let them play' for a quarter, a half and then start calling every contact. As the skill level increases, we were told to allow the players to play a bit more. But, parts of the few CBB games I watched this year looked a lot more like a rugby/hockey game than basketball. A ton of lowered shoulders to create room for a shot, a lot of handchecking, a lot of very physical play and, to my eyes, missed calls on shots. Makes for some really bad basketball at times if every shooter is physically checked on their shot. If players understand early what will and won't be called, the game, from the officials' standpoint, moves along much more smoothly. When the calls seem like they're all over the board, that's when coaches, players and fans start giving the crew a ton of grief.

You didn’t have TV cameras and commercials in those games. Officiating is how the money makers want it. Inconsistent and erratic. It’s easier to control a game without it being blatant like Higgins was. They are not incompetent. They are doing what they are told to do.

 

[PhattyJ4UK_rivals309166]

Yep. As awful as the tech was, it ended that streak of 4 straight very bad calls vs uf. Refs evened out after.

Think Houston got called for 11 in a row after that tech.

Refs sucked and most definitely changed the outcome of that game. Not saying changed the winner bc who knows but they ruined that game.

 

[gamecockcat]

You didn’t have TV cameras and commercials in those games. Officiating is how the money makers want it. Inconsistent and erratic. It’s easier to control a game without it being blatant like Higgins was. They are not incompetent. They are doing what they are told to do.

I hope that's not true, that the NCAA instructs the officials to keep the big games close. That's ultimately awful for the sport and the fans. Hard to fathom that the championship game was organically officiated drastically different from one half to the next, though. The style of play during the game could NOT have changed that much that the refs had to call almost 7X more fouls. That's plain bad officiating.

Whether it's intentional or not is speculation. I did get really put out the last minute or so when the officials went to the replay twice and spent a minute or more looking at the monitor when, on replay, it was obvious the initial call was correct without any question. Why spend that much time on obviously correct calls? Should they review whether a free throw went in for a couple of minutes?

 

[HeismaNole_rivals116019]

There's so much money involved and when money is involved, you get corruption. NCAA is paid $10B for their tournament rights. The TV network is making over a billion in advertising sold.

So that's one component that wouldn't surprise me influences decisions from company men type guys (this is exactly what Dick Bavetta was accused of being by Tim Donaghy). The other is the Vegas side which I think is prominent- too easy to do, too easy to hide.

 

[mhs1964]

What we watched in all three games in the Final Four is what we have seen frequently with UK. It id difficult to milk the clock with a lead. It’s even more difficult in a pressurized tournament game.

 

[kywildcats8]

Terribly officiated game, as I seem to think most games are these days- zero consistency by the officials- in their jobs, most people would get fired by being so inconsistent at their jobs- makes it hard to watch any more

 

[CRZ4UK]

What we watched in all three games in the Final Four is what we have seen frequently with UK. It id difficult to milk the clock with a lead. It’s even more difficult in a pressurized tournament game.

Especially if one team is being favored so they can catch up and make it an exciting finish. The last 2 minutes of our Oklahoma game was the most blatant attempt to keep viewers tuned in I’ve ever seen. They fouled us probably 10-15 times that no official could miss. Carr was hip checked to the floor. Oweh was tripped Carr again was assaulted in the corner. They didn’t just miss all those calls in the last 2 minutes. They wanted an exciting ending. Don’t be gullible. Just because you DONT want it to be true. Doesn’t mean it isn’t. Millions.