Oh, officials...

    STOP!  This show's about me...   If you don’t recognize my name, then A) you should be reading KSR College, and B) have no fear; I’ll only be with you a few times this weekend.  Even if you can’t agree with KSR College writers infiltrating the main KSR site this weekend, I think we can all agree that the referees blew last night.  Literally.  The zebra-men blew their whistles 45 times last night, not even counting when they were signaling the beginning of play after a dead ball or a time out.  That’s a lot of wasted breath. I did a little number-crunching to put last night’s game into some perspective for you.  According to a site called Sports Memo, the average number of fouls called this year (per team, per game) is 18.35.  That’s actually the lowest that number has been since 1963.  But, that number was calculated during the regular season.  What about during the tournament? I looked up the box scores from all the NCAA tournament games played so far (not counting either of tonight’s games), and I averaged out all of the fouls called on each team.  Surprise…the average number of fouls called per team, per game during this year’s tournament is actually lower than during this year’s regular season at 16.65 (I promise my math is right). So, what made the UK-Indiana game cause for so much more whistling?  A total of 45 fouls were called, the second highest total in the tournament so far.  The highest?  You guessed it…the Duke game (even though the refs couldn’t bail out the Dukies this time). With the refs blowing whistles right and left, the defensive strategies of both teams suffered.  Anthony Davis and Cody Zeller had to play softer than they normally would, as they were both saddled by fouls early in the game and were afraid of having to ride the bench when their teams needed them the most.  With both defenses limited, the offense began to get out of hand.  I guess you could say that that’s what made this game so much fun: the pace of the game was frenetic, and UK played the kind of up-and-down basketball that fans have loved ever since the glory days of Adolph Rupp.  So here’s my conspiracy theory for you to mull over: Do the refs want to see these faster-paced, more exciting games?  It’s true that my numbers show that in general, fewer fouls are being called.  But when it comes to rivalries, we often see officials calling more fouls to try and keep the peace, to try and control the game as best they can.  But what if the refs are controlling the game in other ways?  Their ability to saddle defenses, thus increasing offensive production, is kind of scary.  Clearly, there isn’t much consistency among officials when some are calling fewer fouls than they have all year, while others are combining to call 45 or 48 a game.  So with my conspiracy theory comes my prescription for success in college basketball: Hold them accountable.  Put the officials up there beside the coaches and the players to answer questions from media members after games, especially during postseason play.  There’s no reason why fans should be left wondering game after game why some of these calls are being made.  Watch the video of Anthony Davis’ first foul last night, and just try to tell me that you wouldn’t like to hear an explanation from the official who made that call. When referees can have this much control over the outcome of games, as we saw in the Syracuse/UNC-Asheville game (and many others this year), college basketball suffers.  It’s not the one-and-dones, or even (gasp) Calipari that’s ruining the sport.  And while officials aren’t by any means ruining college basketball, they’re certainly making their mark in a way that’s not so positive lately. Would you rather see more fouls called, thus creating a game like we saw last night with lightning-fast offensive production and run-and-gun action?  Or do we want to see the officials “let ‘em play,” thus creating more opportunities to see ridiculous Anthony Davis blocks?  Let’s hear your thoughts on the matter, and as always, you can follow me on Twitter @AshleyScobyKSR.