Big 10 officiating
I know it's not exactly a new flash to people, but the officiating of the Wisconsin game was horrendous. This is not MarioKart on N64, officiating should not handicap a team for being ahead. Michigan can't get a call all game, especially in the first half where time after time Michigan players got fouled without call and Wiscy gets the benefit because they're behind. But once there's a minute and a half left, Manny gets the call he hasn't gotten all game and Gibson (who played terrible) gets away with an egregious foul.
You might say this is sour grapes and you'ld pry be right considering this game coupled with the UConn win would give new life to the season. As such, we go right back to having to go probably 8-4 the rest of the way against a brutal schedule.
Finally, I want to say it's still not the reason we lost IMO, as we missed layups and couldn't manufacture offense down the stretch, but it still kills me to have games influenced so strongly by the officials.
January 20th, 2010 at 10:38 PM ^
Except when it comes to things outside of pass interference, or calling a blatant hold, or something of that sort...
January 20th, 2010 at 10:39 PM ^
100% agree... we played awful down the stretch but i'm sick of saying "well we got screwed by a few calls but we still had a chance to win." screw that.
we were up 39-33 with about 7 mins left and manny harris drew a CLEAR blocking foul and its called a charge. I was absolutely shocked when he called a charge because there is no way on this earth that the official actually believed that was a charge. And if somehow he did he should be immediately fired because his coordination and eyesight are clearly not adequate to be officiating basketball games at this level. The bottom line is that he called that foul because wisconsin was behind and it was in the kohl center (similar to wisconsin being given a lightning bolt while in last place; loved the mario kart reference).
Also the foul they called on Sims with a minute left on that obvious flop was terrible also and basically sealed our fate.
The team didn't play well but i am so sick and tired of games being so heavily influenced by officials. I swear to god the games are officiated equally or better at the IM building
January 21st, 2010 at 10:59 AM ^
thats still the worst call i've ever seen
January 20th, 2010 at 11:10 PM ^
It's more like Wisconsin got the speeding bullet.
January 20th, 2010 at 11:10 PM ^
the refs are always screwing us on the road against decent teams but the real problem is not the refs its the players. If we had better players we would not be in a close game to be screwed . we have no center that can play if we get out rebounded we most likely lose . we have no one besides harris & morris that can break down the defense & morris doesn't start . JB needs some creators at the guards spots & if we dont get trey ziegler we will be a whole lot worst next year especially is harris leaves as he's projected to be a late first early second round pick by ESPN
January 20th, 2010 at 11:16 PM ^
Let's look at the game lines:
Points 48 54
FG Made-Attempted 17-44 (.386) 18-52 (.346)
3P Made-Attempted 6-17 (.353) 4-24 (.167)
FT Made-Attempted 8-11 (.727) 14-17 (.824)
Fouls (Tech/Flagrant) 18 (0/0) 12 (0/0)
Which team is the Michigan and which team is Wisconsin?
Game score Wisco wins by 6. FT disparity 6.
Also Michigan 33 Wisconsin 32 (that's rebounding stats).
Where we got killed was TOs and PF and while we played sloppy we got jobbed.
January 21st, 2010 at 12:16 AM ^
The refs screw EVERYONE on the road. That's just the way it is.
January 21st, 2010 at 1:33 AM ^
Second.
Big Ten officiating is blatantly home-biased, especially if the home team is behind. It's also blatantly skewed against the team leading, particularly if its the visiting team.
Frames the win vs. PSU in Happy Valley, the loss vs. Northwestern in A^2, and the come-from-ahead loss in Madison quite nicely, dontcha think?
January 20th, 2010 at 10:39 PM ^
100% agree... we played awful down the stretch but i'm sick of saying "well we got screwed by a few calls but we still had a chance to win." screw that.
we were up 39-33 with about 7 mins left and manny harris drew a CLEAR blocking foul and its called a charge. I was absolutely shocked when he called a charge because there is no way on this earth that the official actually believed that was a charge. And if somehow he did he should be immediately fired because his coordination and eyesight are clearly not adequate to be officiating basketball games at this level. The bottom line is that he called that foul because wisconsin was behind and it was in the kohl center (similar to wisconsin being given a lightning bolt while in last place; loved the mario kart reference).
Also the foul they called on Sims with a minute left on that obvious flop was terrible also and basically sealed our fate.
The team didn't play well but i am so sick and tired of games being so heavily influenced by officials. I swear to god the games are officiated equally or better at the IM building
January 20th, 2010 at 10:42 PM ^
Yes, officiating was pretty bad, but let's not kid ourselves. When Sims has half our points and no one else is scoring, it's going to be hard to win any game, especially on the road. We had opportunities to break away with the game when Wisconsin was shooting terribly in both halves but just never pulled it out.
The last 9 minutes of that game made me die inside. We scored 4 points in 8-9 minutes. COME ON. I hated this more than the Northwestern game.
January 20th, 2010 at 10:42 PM ^
I'm pretty sure Wisconsin didn't pick up a single foul from about 8 minutes left until 1 minute left (when the game was essentially over.) In that same stretch Michigan got called for around 8.
There's no point even going on the road to play a team with roughly equal talent in the Big 10, you won't win. Just save the plane fare and forfeit.
January 20th, 2010 at 11:29 PM ^
which is why this game was not so painful for me. I have been to plenty of games at the Kohl Center. Everyone gets jobbed. I paid attention to the score online, never once believing UM would win. I would have gone downstairs to watch the last two minutes, but I could already see that UW had five straight foul calls and that the game had been decided by Zebra's.
Michigan also has never had a Basketball coach who goes after the officials. It kills me that this is true, but if you don't complain as much as the other guy, you don't get the calls. From Frieder to Fischer to Amaker (Ellerbe never existed, right?) to JB, we have had no one who yells. Look at the winners in the league, now and in the past--Izzo, Ryan, Knight, Keady. they all go bonkers...and they all get (or got) the calls.
January 20th, 2010 at 10:54 PM ^
Honestly I saw some questionable calls both ways, which always happens in a sport that requires split second decisions like Basketball.
Plus I can't gripe about officiating when we have such poor shot selection, miss that many layups and give the other team so many offensive boards.
January 20th, 2010 at 11:03 PM ^
Well said. Although I do think that we got screwed on a few calls, we should have jumped out to a much bigger lead in the first 10 minutes. Douglass and Novak need to learn how to make a layup; we just can afford to miss those shots.
January 20th, 2010 at 10:55 PM ^
Ok I looked it up. From the point when we went up 39-30 with 9 minutes left to the point when they went ahead 47-43 we were called for seven fouls, Wisconsin was called for 1. Ugh.
January 20th, 2010 at 11:01 PM ^
I can't get over the charge call on Manny. It's so bad when you can tell with absolute certainty from a televsion screen that it was the wrong call without even seeing a replay.... and then you see the replay and it's an even more obvious charge than you originally thought
January 20th, 2010 at 11:48 PM ^
First off let me state that I am huge Michigan football who grew up in Wisconsin. My favorite teams in order are 1. Michigan Football 2. Michigan Football players 3. Michigan Football coaches 4. Michigan Football recruits 5. Michigan Stadium 6. Green Bay Packers 7. Badger basketball.
That being said, you guys lost that game because you couldn't take advantage of the fact Wisconsin had 7 points with 10 minutes to play in the first half and was without Wolverine killer and second leading scorer Jon Leuer. Wisconsin couldn't hit a shot to save their lives and Michigan did nothing to take advantage of that.
That is why they lost, not the refs.
January 20th, 2010 at 11:55 PM ^
Sometimes one team gets hot and the other cools and then vice versa happens. It's the natural ebb and flow of the game. You just make it sound like Michigan pulled off the gas and said "We're at the Kohl Center let's give em a show". There's a reason why Wisconsin has won 117 games in a row against unranked teams at the Kohl Center and it's not because UW is a fucking powerhouse it's because of the favorable treatment that they get.
If you don't see that then you're blind.
January 21st, 2010 at 12:38 AM ^
You're being pretty blind in your rage right now IMO.
January 20th, 2010 at 11:57 PM ^
so you're saying the game was decided in the first 10 minutes? not in the last 7 when michigan got a total of 1 call and wisconsin got 7? (and there is no doubt many of those calls were somewhere between the range of questionable to blatantly wrong)
January 20th, 2010 at 11:52 PM ^
Being a Varsity Basketball official I can say that wasn't the worst b10 game I have seen but the lead ref was suckered on the Sims flop at the end. Saying that, UM had a chance to win the game couldn't get stops or scores. Manny was awful and Sims had half the points. The Officials didn't cost Michigan this game.
January 20th, 2010 at 11:58 PM ^
but no one on Wisco does? The charging calls were ridiculous and we also got some pretty ticky tack calls from the refs.
January 21st, 2010 at 12:23 AM ^
Basketball officiating is the hardest sport to officate. Sometimes things just don't go your way. It' easy to complain while watching TV but when you are there on the spot watching D1 athletes and things happen so fast and you need to make a split second call it's not always gonna be 100% correct or right. I have made calls that I knew right after may have been the wrong call. It's the human nature of the game. If people feel they would be that much better than join up and start doing middle school and sub varsity games. You will find out there is no winning in officiating, someone will always be pissed.
My goal is to make it the big ten someday or the Mac. I am doing class A varsity right now. I have long long way to go and a lot to learn.
January 21st, 2010 at 12:59 AM ^
Shredder - I would hate to see your talent wasted officiating MAC games. God gave you a gift. MS Paint is your medium and mgoblog is your Sistine chapel.
January 21st, 2010 at 9:46 AM ^
i'm going to ask you this... what is the call when player initiates the contact??? at the start of the 2nd half wiskys guards had no where to go with their dribble pentration so they bulled their way through stu and zack, and michigan was called fouls each time... i think they did this 3 straight times...
January 21st, 2010 at 10:08 AM ^
Well in Stu and Zack's case they have very poor foot speed for D1. The Wisky guards were so much quicker than both of them. If they can't move their feet and move with those guys then fouls will be called. It's either a block or hand check or a no call. The offense is always gonna get that call. It's more of a poor defense thing than a foul thing.
January 21st, 2010 at 10:01 AM ^
The amazing thing was that Jim Burr wasnt even there and the officiating was subpar.
January 21st, 2010 at 10:13 AM ^
Are terrible, but they're usually terrible toward every team, at least over the course of the season. The last OSU/Wisconsin game became a tournament of charging calls b/c the refs called a couple of early charges on Evan Turner and then felt that they had to call charges all game long.
January 21st, 2010 at 10:44 AM ^
Officiating didn't help us much, but damnit we were up by 9 with 9:00 to go in the game and just stopped making shots and making plays as a team. We only scored 9 points in the last 9:00 minute of the games. Also, we missed lay ups the entire game.
We should have been up by way more than we were after the first 10 minutes of the game. We didn't play to win and let Wisconsin right back in. This team has no mental toughness.
January 21st, 2010 at 12:19 PM ^
Having been involved with basketball, I can say that I wouldn't blame the refs despite many questionable calls. Michigan should have been up by more and put the game away. The thing that I hate is when the officiating is inconsistent. How can the Wisconsin defender flop without a call early in the game but it's called late when Michigan is down two and he does the same thing? Oh well, that's how basketball officiating typically is unfortunately.