CompleteLunacy

April 9th, 2013 at 12:41 AM ^

But Louisville just beat MIchigan tonight, there's nothing more to be said. They were hitting some crazy shots in the 2nd half and could seemingly not miss at all. 

The refs were all around awful tonight. The Burke block was I think the only one that had any meaningful influence on the outcome...because it was so blatantly obvious to everyone except the refs, and who knows what happens with momentum if that's called the right way.

 

MGoBlue96

April 9th, 2013 at 1:16 AM ^

allowed Hancock to still be in the game after he committed another foul. Not having their best shooter on the court down the stretch would have made a difference.

Basically another poster put it perfectly, Michigan's defense and rebounding in in the last 23 minutes of the game were the biggest problem, but that doesn't excuse the terrible job the officials did tonight. Unfortunately for Michigan most of the blatently obvious missed calls didn't work in their favor, and a couple of them had a significant impact.

I don't see anybody mention it yet, but how about the one with Mitch in the first half when he rebounded the ball, and was clearly undercut. Even the announcers pointed that one out.

UM didn't play well enough in the last 23 minutes, but the anger towards the officials is perfectly warrented given how ridiculous the missed calls were. At the very least these refs should not be given the assignment in any future championship games.

CompleteLunacy

April 9th, 2013 at 12:58 AM ^

The only oother thing that sucked was Hancock not getting the 4th when he should have...but again, those things happen. Refs call fouls on the wrong player all. the. time. It's only magnified here because of how it would have changed the complexion of the game. 

All that stuff you say sucked (missed goaltend, questionable contact not called fouls), but it's part of a basketball game, especially in this year's tourney...calls seem random, I agree Michigan got the short end of teh stick more times than not, but don't forget that Louisville was in foul trouble early in the 2nd half. The game would be much closer if Michigan hits its free throws. How many times did Burke, Hardaway, anf whoever else go to the line and only make 1 of 2? Those misses added up, especially compared to how efficient Louisville was at the line.

To win a championship, you need to be really effing good, and you need luck to go your way. Michigan was really effing good tonight, but Louisville was both better and luckier. 

 

 

CompleteLunacy

April 9th, 2013 at 1:24 AM ^

Ok maybe not ALL the time, but it happens when two guys are involved on a play and the ref calls the wrong one with a foul. Yeah, it happens. It sucks because it was kind of important to M tonight. But oh well...

No, missed goaltending is not part of basketball, but I didn't imply that. Missed calls are part of the game. Every sport, really. Refs are human. Clearly tonight, they weren't ready for the moment. It's not like they didn't call any fouls on Louisville. 

 

MGoBlue96

April 9th, 2013 at 1:53 AM ^

that foul on a guy who wasn't even involved in the play, not the shotblocker or Hancock. It wasn't like there was two guys making contact at the same time, Hancock was the only guy that even made any contact with Morgan on that play.

And your missing the point when you say it is not like they didn't call other fouls on Louisville, it was not the number, it was how blatently obvious the ones that were missed were, and how significant the ones that hurt Michigan were. Also to put it bluntly the reason Louisville was called for more fouls, is because they were making contact almost every time down the court in the second half.

Whatever the case may be this officiating crew has no business ever doing a Final Four game again, best of the best my ass.

MGoCombs

April 9th, 2013 at 12:56 AM ^

Sorry, I've tried but I refuse to admit that "Louisville just beat Michigan tonight." Of course they did beat us, and Michigan had many attempts to negate the refs, but we got jobbed in a special way. Burke and McGary were both in foul trouble that they shouldn't have been. Louisville got a Michigan team without its best players on the court for a significant amount of time. They beat a "lite" version of this team. And not impressively. I honestly feel like the better team lost tonight.



Side note: the refs blew some calls the other way too. They were bad all around. I just feel like we got the bad end of it. I don't think it was some conspiracy, intentional or something the refs even were aware of.

Jacoby

April 9th, 2013 at 12:42 AM ^

Everybody here needs to get a grip. Yes we lost, and yes there were a lot of bad calls. So what? Louisville and Michigan combined to play the best college game anyone has seen in years. Congrats to all players. Let the refs be and let's lose with dignity.

aanii

April 9th, 2013 at 1:40 AM ^

This thread is pathetic.  I understand wanting to vent a little, but to act like we only lost because of the refs in a game where we were in the bonus for the last 12 minutes and L'ville didn't get there until 30 seconds to go is ludicrous.  McGary got away with a lot of contact down low and was lucky he didn't foul out earlier, we had about 7 trips in a row where Burke or THJ got to line for 2 or and 1s that kept us in it from about 5 to 2 minutes to go...Siva had a clean steal going the other way that was called at the last second that turned into a 3 for Trey - a 5 point turn around.  Behanen had some legit complaints in how he was mauled on some rebounds...there were a lot of touch foulson L'ville down the stretch, the kicked ball that led to a turnover, etc.  

The fact is that the officials sucked - on both ends.  there is no way they did so in a way that decided the game though.  Louisville had what, 4 guys with 4 fouls?  McGary is going to get in foul trouble until he learns to control himself better in the paint on D and can set a proper screen.  But if you want to go back through the game you can easily find all kinds of bad calls in our favor too.  It was just a piss poorly officiated game.  In the end, what was really the HUGE difference in it all was Hancock hitting those 3s at the end of the first half and in 90 seconds taking a 12 point game to a 1 point game.  Why in god's name Beilien didn't call a time out is beyond me.  and then we let 30 seconds go off the clock  trying to foul to get them to the line - which only happened because we only had 4 fouls called on us in the entire second half!  They had 13 at that point!  How can you say we lost because of the refs when the disparity was so lopsided?  

 

In the end a thread like this just makes us look like fools.  you might as well start burning couches too.  sparty and bucknuts are going to laugh their asses off at how stupid y'all sound cherry picking the calls that went against us while ignoring the numerous calls in our favor.  To my eye, I was amazed that we had so few fouls in the last minute when L'ville was the tem driving the lane nearly every possession.  Once I thought about it  i realized clls Trey was getting on our end Siva wasn't on theirs.  So it was shitty to be sure...but it was shitty for all involved.  Man up and enjoy the fact that we've emerged from the 15+ years of mediocrity and are here to stay.  We'll be back.  

M-Dog

April 9th, 2013 at 12:44 AM ^

The refs were, uh, unconventional.  But they were that way all night.  They were going to let physical play go on.  At some point, you realize how they are calling the game and move on.

Let's not whine about the refs as the sole reason that we did not win.  That's what we all criticized Syracuse for.  

 

MGoBlue96

April 9th, 2013 at 2:34 AM ^

foul and calling a phantom foul on Burke in the first half is letting things go. The missed calls had jack to do with how they were calling the game, they were simply horrible calls.

I don't see anyone saying the missed calls were the soul reason UM lost. The defense and rebounding weren't good enough the last 23 minutes of the game, but anybody who says the officials didn't play a role with some of the calls was clearly watching a different game.

Also as far as Syracuse goes I do agree Morgan's play was a block, but that was one call. Not the same thing as multiple missed calls. It also wasn't anywhere near as obvious as any of the missed ones tonight.

Wolverrrrrrroudy

April 9th, 2013 at 6:45 AM ^

"You do agree Morgan's play was a block".  Sounds so matter of fact.  Read the rules, watch the play and tell me if you still feel the same.  And pay attention to the rules, it doesn't say the feet can't move, but rather the defensive player needs to be in position before the offensive player leaves his feet.  Other than some shuffling of the feet (but not to move laterally) he executed defensively a text book play when it comes to taking the charge. 

MGoBlue96

April 9th, 2013 at 7:30 AM ^

to me it looked like  Morgan was still sliding over (moving laterally) on that play. Of course that was only a slowed down replay, because live it was very difficult to tell either way. That really wasn't  my point though, yes that call looked highly questionable on slowed down replays, but it was not remotely the same as what happened to Michigan tonight with multiple game changing calls being missed. That play was not clear at full speed, pretty much all the ones missed in this game were of the obvious variety, meaning there was no excuse for them to be missed. In short, Syracuse fans trying  to say they were screwed based one play is way off base, where as the frustration with the officials in this game is actually warrented.

 

bokee88

April 9th, 2013 at 12:49 AM ^

If we grabbed a few more defensive rebounds and maybe hit a couple more free throws that game ends differently and we forget the questionable calls.



Go Blue. It was a helluva ride.

Ball Hawk

April 9th, 2013 at 12:54 AM ^

FT shooting was bad as usual. Is it that god damn hard to call a decent game? There will always be missed calls but you cannot officiate a game like the refs did tonight.

Ball Hawk

April 9th, 2013 at 12:55 AM ^

FT shooting was bad as usual. Is it that god damn hard to call a decent game? There will always be missed calls but you cannot officiate a game like the refs did tonight.

Wolverrrrrrroudy

April 9th, 2013 at 6:40 AM ^

I think it just felt that way watching, I saw some where they were actually 72% from the line which isn't too bad.  It seemed like everyone missed at least one of the free throws and usually the first one which meant we didn't even have a chance to rebound a miss.

Jonesy

April 9th, 2013 at 1:00 AM ^

I'm just going to convince myself we won by 15 as we would have were the referees not determined to give UL the win.  Congrats UofM for being the 2013 bball champs, now we've got two!

Wolverrrrrrroudy

April 9th, 2013 at 6:38 AM ^

The plays and calls being pointed out are not being used in a We Should have Won.  I think that fans (and you are right) will always be biased, but based on the Trey Burke block which was called a foul - the national media and other non-UM seem to agree.  You take Syracuse  fans and they were in general claiming the whole game went against them without specifically indicating which plays other than Morgan, but even worse indicating they were robbed and should have won the game.  That is not the case here, no one is saying Michigan would have won but rather never had the chance to try.  There were obvious blown calls here (not judgetmental type fouls) like goaltending that wasn't even close. I would say Trey's block wasn't even close (check ESPN or any other source you consider to be mainstream, they will indicate the same)

The refs didn't lose this game for us.

But, they made damn sure we wouldn't win it.

rob f

April 9th, 2013 at 1:09 AM ^

(because if I didn't, I could let myself get really really ugly over the nearly criminal behavior we all just witnessed...)

It's clear that I either: 1) no longer understand the rulebook as it is written, or 2) didn't know that rules and their enforcement can be altered at the whim of officials who seem to not be worried about being graded or in any way penalized for making unexplainable calls, over and over and over again.

Today---and I say this with a completely straight face---it appears that a new rule was instituted to allow muggings and other forms of thuggery to be practiced, both by  teams dressed in camoflage and by teams dressed in stripes.  Maybe Beilein and Brandon should have opened that envelope they got over the weekend from the NCAA and had Addidas add either some camo and/or stripes at the last minute so that we, too, could get away with this now-legalized thuggery.

Congratulations to Louisville on all the spectacular things that they did outside of what I described above.  A really talented team, they did a lot of really amazing things tonight that unfortunately were somewhat overshadowed by what we all witnessed on the part of the 3-man team they and Michigan shared the court with.

From this point forward thru the end of April, I will refrain from any further comments and complaints on MGoBlog regarding the officiating tonight.  Hopefully by then I will be able to let go of it.

jaked1247

April 9th, 2013 at 1:06 AM ^

Ok I agree refs were bad, don't agree with those of you who blame them for the loss. Especially those who think Caris LeVert didn't step out of bounds with 50 seconds left. He obviously did.

MGoBlue96

April 9th, 2013 at 1:21 AM ^

that Levert didn't step out of bounds, no idea where the hell you are getting that from. What people are complaining about on that play, is that the Louisville player ran from the free throw and jumped straight on Burke's back and than fell on him.

Wolverrrrrrroudy

April 9th, 2013 at 6:30 AM ^

Apparently not actually reading and just glancing at the comments I suppose.  He was on the line and if you had actually watched the game, they even replayed it and paused.  I haven't seen any comments indicating he wasn't out of bounds.  This play doesn't concern me that much, I agree they could have called a foul, but they weren't calling the fouls in the paint most of the night. 

JamieH

April 9th, 2013 at 1:13 AM ^

Two of the 3 refs were basically Big East refs. Cahill and Greene spend a large part of their time reffing Big East games. 

How the hell do you have a final game between a Big East and a Big Ten team and you basically stack the officiating deck with 2 officials that are overly familiar with one team?

If nothing else, Big East refs were much more likely to let Louisville mug us on every possession, I mean, "play hard defense". 

Might as well try to play the Rose Bowl with all Pac 10/12 officials.

http://statsheet.com/mcb/referees

 

Electron Erectshon

April 9th, 2013 at 9:22 AM ^

A few disclaimers before I address the refs. I thought the teams were evenly matched and the game itself was the best championship game I’ve ever watched. Both teams played excellently. Louisville didn’t miss many shots, Siva was dynamite and Djieng hit some huge buckets down the stretch (i.e. FT extended jumper, hook shot). The game probably would have come down to a final possession – essentially a coin flip – but the refs took that moment away.

Yes, the refereeing was bad and it made a huge difference. The fact that the national media isn’t acknowledging it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. The fact that Jay Bilas and Jay Williams say “Behanan was just tougher and got hammered too (but didn’t complain)” shouldn’t affect what you know. And here’s what you know.

-- Djieng’s obvious goaltend took away 2 points for us in the 1st half.

-- Burke’s 2nd foul was a bad call. There’s stepping into a guy who gets busted for leaving his feet, and then there’s throwing yourself at a defender who has floated out of the play. Removing Burke from the game enabled LOU to exploit a talent mismatch between Hancock and LeVert. Those 4, 3-pointers in the 1st half made all the difference in the world. Could have Beilein rolled the dice and left Burke in? Yes, and I would have if I was in his position, but the decision should not have needed to be made. It had a huge impact on the game. McGary feeds off Burke and without Burke, to some extent, McGary was nullified too.

-- Burke’s 2nd half block was “all ball.” It was a game-changer. Momentum was on UM’s side and Burke’s liftoff and challenge was building upon that momentum. The refs don’t make that call and Michigan has a chance to even up the game on the next possession.

-- Hancock’s ORIGINAL 4th foul – that was attributed to someone else – made a huge difference. He couldn’t have made that pivotal 3-pointer if he was on the bench along with McGary. (btw, I have no qualms with all of McGary’s 4 fouls).

-- Djieng traveled and then Behanan fouled before that momentous high-glass putback by Behanan. At best, Behanan may have earned a tie-up on that possession (arrow favored MICH), but that was not a case of  “man against boy” BEAST mode winning the day. (I love how they call a tie-up in the Witchita State game when it wasn’t nearly as close to a tie-up as the one they let Behanan get away with.)

-- Behanan was also over the back and resulted in LeVert getting pushed out-of-bounds on that key stop – that we earned -- when we were down 4 points with 50 seconds left.

Look, I realize that Michigan was the benefactor of a couple of questionable bumps, hand checks and in-bounds warnings. But those types of calls aren’t the issue. LOU were benefactors of those "meh, play on" and relatively unimportant calls too (e.g. Siva charge in the 1st half, Robinson getting hacked on a made jumper in the 2nd half, McGary getting undercut on a rebound that resulted in a tie-up instead of an obvious foul on LOU).

The calls I’m noting here were massive game-changing mistakes that had a huge impact on how this game played out. It is sad. And just because the talking heads in the media don’t address it – and other fan-bases will call us whiners – doesn’t change the fact that we were on the wrong end of bad officiating and it is perfectly okay to be disappointed and sad about it. It’s a shame that an unbelievable game like this didn’t have a chance to find its natural ending. That’s what refs can do sometimes. You just hope it doesn’t happen during a once-in-a-lifetime contest like this.

After thoughts…

The One Shining Moment (OSM) basically says it all when it comes to what people outside of UM think of UM. “They” don’t like us. We are not liked by anyone. From what I can remember, OSM featured a crowd shot, The TREY, a Robinson alley-oop and an Albrecht 3-pointer in the championship. Craft’s buzzer beater seemed to receive the OSM glorification more than The Trey. THE TREY for Pete’s sake!

John Beilein is my favorite UM coach of all-time. Just getting to hear what he had to say during halftime and then the post-game interview with Tracy Wolfson, made me appreciate him even more. Pitino is a phony sleaze ball, and I have no idea how HE got the breaks in this game. How does that happen? Beats me.

Also, this UM team is my favorite of all-time. And I’ve been watching for many decades. All class, all heart and intelligence to boot. What a pleasure it was to watch those guys. All I can say to those fans who are younger than me, appreciate this run. It was truly fantastic and defied so much logic. I was already a huge fan of UM in 1989 and attended Michigan during the Fab 5 years, and this tourney run could easily be the best I ever get to see in my lifetime.

SHub'68

April 9th, 2013 at 1:20 AM ^

watching the Indiana game all over again.  How frustrating that every time we got a defensive rebound they could just yank our arms off the ball, then turn around ont he other end and McGary is getting a foul for a bump.

Or Trey for a clean block and again when he didn't even make contact of any kind.  Horrible.  Again on GRIII's jump shot - that he hit - when even the announcers were calling it out and the replay clearly showed the contact on his shooting arm.

Trey hit a three near the end and got hit on that, too, but the camera view wasn't up close enough to make it look egregious.  I went back with the DVR and it's there.  Should have been a 4-pt attempt.

Spike got tackled near the top of the key once, too.

Just awful.

SeattleWolverine

April 9th, 2013 at 1:21 AM ^

Officiating was terrible. I've never seen such a significant game so poorly officiated. From the goaltending to Burke's 2nd foul to Burke's fast break block to Robinson's jumper to McGary's obvious kicked ball...it just went on and on. More calls went against us than for us. It sucks but it will never be changed. The missed foul on Hancock's 4th was huge. We also were so close to getting several of their guys with a 4th or 5th but could never get the calls.

 

Once again I think the big picture question is how is college basketball going to be officiated. The scrums on the rebounds and the over the back was insane. There were a few Louisville possessions at the end where they rebounded their misses and both teams were just fouling the living shit out of each other. It's a joke. The officials failed to set the boundaries by calling the fouls early and it led to more ridiculously physical play. Once again college basketball proves that if you can get away with overly physical play. It's not basketball; it's fouling. I think it is much more of a big picture question than just a problem with this game. They need to clean it up and swing the pendulum back to skill rather than physicality.

SHub'68

April 9th, 2013 at 1:27 AM ^

Louisville's players even fouled each other in the scrum for the ball.  I was waiting for someone to get seriously hurt.  I did not see the game where the dude broke his leg, but with that kind of scrummy shit going on, I have a pretty good idea that it was bound to happen.

It looked like what I hate about the Big Ten and it has got to be fixed.  It is not basketball - it is shit.  The Big Ten could lead in this by fixing themselves first.  Maybe getting their team jobbed in the National Championship game will do that?

Sucks, though, that, as in football, if they do anything about it, once again it has to be UM getting f'd on the national stage for it to happen.

Wolverrrrrrroudy

April 9th, 2013 at 6:23 AM ^

The B10 refs are aweful.  They allow far too much physical play.  But this game went beyond that.  1.  How does the goaltending call get missed?  Is there only one ref responsible for making that call, or could any of the three?

2.  Burke's block - it is as if the ref predetermined a foul without watching the play unfold assuming Trey was going up with the intention to foul.  He clearly was not.  This is the poster child for all of the bad calls in the game because it put Burke in further foul trouble and was the difference between having the ball down three and giving Louisville a 5 point lead.  Too many implications on this call.

3.  The Burke foul on the three - watching live I couldn't believe and the replay just confirmed it.  Burke was jumping out of the play clear of Hancock who had to jump sideways into Burke.  What is the rule here, this can't actually be legal correct?

4.  I love Belien and do not agree with most who criticize, this is really more of a concern / question about strategy.  It seems to me too many times this year our concern for avoiding fouls actually hurt us at the end of the game, where we want to intentionally foul and give up the 1 in 1.  I'm just wondering why leading into the last 6-7 minutes of the game, when you know it is going to be a dog fight and you are already behind, why not play some agressive press D going for the steal and if you get some non-shooting fouls so be it, at least get it to the point where you have the other team in the 1-in-1 when it comes down to the final minutes.  I'm not saying intentionally foul, but be more agressive defensively which could lead to a turnover or worst case allow us to give them a 1 in 1 in the final minutes.

SeattleWolverine

April 9th, 2013 at 1:32 AM ^

The absolute most disgusting thing about "amateurism" in college sports is that the unpaid players who generate the fan interest and money all have to sit up there and answer the questions from the media after they lose. But god forbid that the officials who make six figure salaries ever have to go up there and be grilled by the media about their performance. We would absolutely never want to hold them accountable or anything. I would love to hear an explanation for about 50 calls in this game. Some are subjective but a lot of the stuff like the goaltending or McGary's kick ball or Burke's block were obviously incorrect at game speed. I really want to see Mike Higgins getting grilled about all of his missed calls that he gets paid to make correctly.