The NCAA needs to get its act together
1. This is interesting. It lists the refs and what they do for their full-time jobs. I always wondered. Hurmph.
2. I was quoting Team America back in that other thread. Chris, ("the best martial arts expert Detroit has to offer", tells Gary that he doesn't trust him and that if he betrays the team, then he will apply said punishment.
3. Main point: This is partly why I get so pissed whenever the NCAA tries to find new ways to penalize teams for excessive celebration. As many of you know, there was some proposal of taking away a TD if the player started celebrating before getting into the endzone. Excessive celebration is really not a big deal. They're essentially trying to redeem themselves for The U ridiculing the NCAA (my take) and the arbitrary penalty has created way more problems than it's solved. But what really gets under my skin is that the NCAA is spending all this time and energy on finding ways to crack down on players showing emotion (for the most part) when officiating in college football, basketball, and hockey has been absolutely terrible. Refs are finding new ways to screw teams over, but the most pressing issue facing college athletics is excessive celebration? Give me a freakin' break. How many more Oklahoma-Oregons do we need to happen before the NCAA realizes that maybe they should be addressing more pressing issues, i.e. games being decided by bad officiating?
This is the same organization that is rewarding Michael Rosenberg for his hit-job on Michigan with accusations of major violations. Here's a thought: maybe this coaching staff, which has a pretty damn good history when it comes to following NCAA guidelines, wasn't very careful about filing the practice logs because no one actually takes the issue seriously since they know the NCAA doesn't really give a shit. (OTOH, that kid Alex Herron was pretty irresponsible.)
March 29th, 2010 at 12:58 AM ^
I'll add that they're bad in baseball, too. This season has been specifically horrendous.
I couldn't make a qualified enough statement about baseball officiating, so I thank you.
I stand by my theory: Michigan was supposed to pay for the fireworks at the NCAA Referees' 2010 4th of July Barbecue, but just bought everyone sparklers because of the economy. Being seriously pissed, the Refs banded together and decided to break Michigan's back this year.
Every other school went above and beyond, so there was fine China and filet mignon everywhere.
They did this by traveling back in time after said BBQ?
Ladies and Gentlemen, we can fix this!!!
Quick, destroy all the sparklers in the world and go buy every firework you can find before July 4th!
"Where's Gravalese?"
"oh he's right here...and over there....and over there...and a little over there...."
You may add lacrosse to the list of sports that referees botch.
March 29th, 2010 at 10:16 AM ^
in the UVa - MD never-ending game last year whose quick whistle changed the outcome of that game manned up explained his mistake to Coach Cottle after the game, and apologized. An unheard of move by a ref.
By the way - nice game by your wahoos Saturday - I don't know what is wrong with my Jays, but UVa really looks the part this year. I don't know if anyone can take them, and I would far prefer UVa to win it all this year than 'Cuse pull the three-peat.
March 29th, 2010 at 12:18 PM ^
If they play like they did on Saturday, they're untouchable. There's no way Hopkins is that bad of a team that the difference between the two really is nine goals. But it's too young of a team not to have a lot of inconsistencies, and I think they'll drop one of these upcoming ACC games. Last week against Towson was kind of a sloppy one. By the way, is Hopkins as down this year as they look? They could sure use Boland back, but they had that interesting graphic in the game where they have been getting off to this awful start every year and then come roaring back. I'm with you, I'd much rather see Hopkins get the title than Cuse again, and even more so I'd rather not have Hopkins come screaming back, play their way into a lower seed in the tournament, and draw them in round 1.
Also, I didn't know the ref had apologized to the MD coach last year. That does sound different. But I'm sure as hell not complaning about the outcome - my rationalization (whether true or not :) ) is that the whistle caused the defenders to relax before the shot.
Untouchable? You're saying a Virginia team that only beat Syracuse by 1 at home is untouchable? If people think MSU basketball is a team built for the tourney, I submit to you SU lacrosse who has been to I believe something like 23 or 24 of the past 25 Final Fours.
We'll see you guys in Baltimore.
Go Orange!
....but I am really concerned by the lack of offensive discipline. There is a lot of really young talent, and Boland's loss was a killer, but they are still making a lot of clearing mistakes, outlet passes have been an adventure, and I think they are really hurt by the fact that both of their face-off guys are really FOGO guys. When they had the Peysers and Harrison taking face-offs for 6 years in a row, they had true all-around middies taking those draws, leaving them no offensive or defensive liabilities after the draw. I am scared to death every time Dolente gets stuck on the defensive end of the field, and he has offensive delusions of grandeur.
In any event, I think the final this year is UVa-UNC. But in my book UVa beating Cuse in March is a bad sign - its hard to beat them twice in a season, and they are ALWAYS better the second time around. Too many times Hop has beaten them early in the season (not lately) only to fall to them in the tournament.