NCAA Basketball 2014-2015 (This may help ease the pain)

[derspiess]

Local UK bandwagon fans are out in full force.  Tim would be proud.

[Ed Anger]

Ugh

[derspiess]

My test for them is to ask them who their favorite player is AND DON'T SAY THE TALL BLACK GUY.

[Berkut]

Wow, I have to admit I didn't think Xavier would be nearly that much of a challenge. Their big, slow, goofy looking white guy made our big slow white guy look bad for quite some time.

Oddly enough though, it was the play of our big slow white guy who was probably the difference in the win.

Arizona is really hard to beat in that there really isn't anyone you can focus on to shut them down. They have incredible balance across the starters, plus a great scoring three point shooter off the bench.

However, from night to night it is hard to say who is going to be "the guy". But to win against the elite teams, you can't just go out and see who is going to be "the guy" tonight. And that is what Arizona feels like a lot of times - Arizona doesn't know who "the guy" is on any given night, and it feels like maybe some of our scorers are content to NOT be the guy on some particular night.

The next two games are Wisconsin and Kentucky. Arizona cannot win either of them, much less both of them, without some production from everyone.

[derspiess]

Wow, I have to admit I didn't think Xavier would be nearly that much of a challenge. Their big, slow, goofy looking white guy made our big slow white guy look bad for quite some time.

Have you heard his back story?  He's kind of a local celebrity here now.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/12008914/xavier-leading-scorer-matt-stainbrook-drives-uber-spare

[derspiess]

Also, Tommy filled out a bracket this year and got all four of last night's winners right.  He's tied for 3rd place in the 38-person pool.

[crazy canuck]

Very unimpressed with Arizona's play against a very unathletic team.  Very unimpressed with Arizona's coaching staff for not figuring out how to break a barely adequate 1-3-1 zone with a slow defender at the top and the slowest guy in the tournament providing rim protection (without a vertical).

Very unimpressed with the amount of fouls being called on plays where a foul was difficult to detect.

I missed the early games.  I hope they were better.

[derspiess]

Very unimpressed with the amount of fouls being called on plays where a foul was difficult to detect.

Yeah, it's been ridiculous.  Overall the tournament has been entertaining, but the ticky tack foul shit has lessened it a bit.

[Berkut]

Still waiting for fans to say "Hey, the officials there called just the right number of fouls overall! Well done!"

It has happened, but it is exceedingly rare compared to the perception that the game was poorly called - and almost always too many fouls, unless it is that your team was mauled and never got a call.

You would think the officials, overall, are just not very good. Wonder how they got into the NCAA tournament, considering how consistently bad they all are?

It is kind of fun watching the games as a fan. I constantly have this "JESUS HOW CAN THEY CALL THAT!!!" reaction...then see the replay and 9 times out of ten say..."Yeah, that is the right call" or at least "Yeah, I can see WHY they called that, even if on replay it could have gone either way".

I liked that in a critical spot of the game the covering officials were willing to just admit they had no idea who the ball went off of and look for help, then go jump ball rather than make something up.

[crazy canuck]

You would think the officials, overall, are just not very good. Wonder how they got into the NCAA tournament, considering how consistently bad they all are?

Actually that is a good question.  How do they get into the tournament?  And no need to be so defensive Mr. Zebra.  I didn't say all refs are consistently bad but the games I saw last night and particularly in the early part of the Kentucky game had too many phantom fouls.

[Berkut]

You would think the officials, overall, are just not very good. Wonder how they got into the NCAA tournament, considering how consistently bad they all are?

Actually that is a good question.  How do they get into the tournament?  And no need to be so defensive Mr. Zebra.  I didn't say all refs are consistently bad but the games I saw last night and particularly in the early part of the Kentucky game had too many phantom fouls.

Not being defensive at all - *I* am not officiating those games.

The NCAA selection process for officials is done by the NCAA director of officiating. He selects officials from those who apply and presumably has some criteria for who he selects. It is kind of weird in that officials in the regular season work for conferences (sometimes several) and answer to conference directors of officiating, NOT to the NCAA.

But the NCAA director of officiating, who is kind of de facto the sort of head of all NCAA officials, will say, for example, that he expects officials to do things in a certain manner, and he won't select people for the NCAA tournament who don't do things in the fashion he wants. But the officials for the most part have to keep their conference directors happy, so there can be something of a conflict. The Pac-12, for example, might want their officials to call a particular play a block rather than a charge, but the director of NCAA might want something else.

But getting to do the tournament is considered to be a point of distinction for any NCAA official, and the tournament for officials actually works kind of like the teams. You get a round of 68/64 game, and supposedly depending on how you do and are rated, about half move on to the next round, etc., etc.

[crazy canuck]

I wonder what we are seeing is a direction from the NCAA director of officiating to call games more tightly?

[Berkut]

I wonder what we are seeing is a direction from the NCAA director of officiating to call games more tightly?

In the last couple of years there has been an overall focus at the high school and college levels to "clean up" the game as far as it concerns letting defenders impede offensive players, mostly on cutting, riding to the players to the basket, etc.,

What is odd though is that it seems like to me those aren't the calls that people question though.

It is more the contact in the act of shooting that everyone wants something else on.

My own feeling is that I mostly *react* that they call too many fouls on defenders playing "good" defense.

[crazy canuck]

I wonder what we are seeing is a direction from the NCAA director of officiating to call games more tightly?

In the last couple of years there has been an overall focus at the high school and college levels to "clean up" the game as far as it concerns letting defenders impede offensive players, mostly on cutting, riding to the players to the basket, etc.,

What is odd though is that it seems like to me those aren't the calls that people question though.

It is more the contact in the act of shooting that everyone wants something else on.

My own feeling is that I mostly *react* that they call too many fouls on defenders playing "good" defense.

The calls I am talking about are the ones that are occurring away from the ball.  Denying the post player position, cutting off the cutter etc.  IMO that is good defense.

[Berkut]

I wonder what we are seeing is a direction from the NCAA director of officiating to call games more tightly?

In the last couple of years there has been an overall focus at the high school and college levels to "clean up" the game as far as it concerns letting defenders impede offensive players, mostly on cutting, riding to the players to the basket, etc.,

What is odd though is that it seems like to me those aren't the calls that people question though.

It is more the contact in the act of shooting that everyone wants something else on.

My own feeling is that I mostly *react* that they call too many fouls on defenders playing "good" defense.

The calls I am talking about are the ones that are occurring away from the ball.  Denying the post player position, cutting off the cutter etc.  IMO that is good defense.

Huh - interesting. To be honest, away from the ball call's are usually the ones that, as an official, I consider to be largely obvious when they happen.

Denying a post player position, for example. By rule, you cannot ever move someone from their spot on the floor. If they are there legally, displacing them is almost always a foul. This is a pretty obvious call. You can't just shove someone away from the basket in the post.

Cutting off the cutter, same thing - if it is a foul, it is because the person trying to cut them off didn't get there in time, and that is usually a pretty obvious call, and easy to make...if you see it.

I wonder what you consider "good defense" if you see these calls and think they are wrong...or should not be called.