Officials from Monday's Game - Statistics
I received an Email from a Spartan fan of mine ranting about how he's sick of hearing about the officials and how he heard from someone else this week that the officials from Monday's game had Big East affiliation.
I decided to look into it further (statsheet.com):
The refs who worked Monday night's game (Tony Greene, John Cahill, John Higgins) have done 3,500+ games since 1997
- 559 were Big East games (16%)
- 72 were Big Ten games (2%)
- This season neither Greene or Cahill worked a UM game, they collectively worked 14 UL games
- Since 1997, Cahill & Greene have done 52 UL games, and only 6 UM games (Greene had never officiated UM prior to Monday night).
This is very interesting data. Thanks for taking the time to look it up.
the criteria, but I'd love to see a careful UFR of the ref calls in that game, both sides. I think you could do a pretty convincing job--if not definitive--of determining the net effect. My gut sense is that it's a closer game if the more dubious calls go the other way or unwhistled.
EDIT: To do this justice you have to examine non-calls as well, which begins to complicate things. And you cannot have the refs' angle, only the camera's, whatever TV gives you. What are some of the other challenges you would face?
...my own Spartan fans who emailed me.
how you miss a 6-10 guy raising his leg 3 feet in the air to kick a basketball. It was 10 feet away from you and you were stareing right at it.
That one and the one where Hancock undercut Jordan Morgan but the foul was called on Harrell really blew my mind. It happens all the time where fouls aren't called or should have been but weren't, but those were some egregious, obvious mistakes on the refs' parts.
I have been trying really hard since Monday night to ignore the role inept officiating played in the game. Basketball, especially at a high level, is impossible to officiate. I also thought that the flow of the game was great and thus the officials didn't have a strong impact in how the game was played. So when I see threads like this I try to bite my tongue.
But I feel the need to comment on this, so I'll preface it by saying that Louisville made more plays and did a great job in the second half of attacking our defense and rebounding. We had ample opportunity to make a play or grab a rebound that would have had a more significant impact than any one call.
Now, here are my thoughts:
- On April 2nd when the Final Four was set, there were two Big East teams left. Why not take this into account and maybe select Pac-10, SEC, ACC, etc. refs to avoid any suggestion of bias?
- The two areas the Cards exploited in the second half were Siva getting in the lane and rebounding. Who were our players in foul trouble? Burke, who said after the game that he couldn't guard Siva due to fouls, and McGary, who was unable to be aggressive on the boards or play big minutes due to fouls.
- If you asked a Louisville fan which calls they were upset about (there are always some for each team)....what would they say? I think there were a couple potential steals in the first half that were called fouls, but that's all I can think of. I can name probably 6-7 HUGE calls that directly affected the game in Louisville favor. Hell, in the UMHoops photo gallery you can see three of them!
Chances are that the officials were just bad at their job that night and not favoring one team over the other. I don't think there was a conspiracy or bias more than other game. MIchigan would have benefitted from a more correctly officiated game obviously, but what can you do? We still didn't make enough plays to win.
With your post - all aspects, really. I think UL wins that game 80+% of the time the way it played out. However, the questionable calls (namely #2 on Burke and the recanting of #4 on Hancock) closed the door on the other 15-20% chance UM pulls it out.
I also share the same sentiment on the conference affiliation and the naming of the official pool. There was likely no controversey/conspiracy at hand here, BUT WHY RISK THE SUGGESTION?
To me, it's just one more bonehead decision by the governing body that is the NCAA.
What is really hard for me to get over is how great of a game was played, but I know I won't want to rewatch it in the future because the officiating was so terrible. For all of the hype and nonsense ESPN spews, Dan LeBatard was spot on: "I thought the refs were over-matched last night and I thought they were terrible last night ... they made alot of brutal calls that seemed to only go against Michigan, but it was such a fun game to watch, I forgave them. But then again, I'm not Michigan."
Found it on ESPN radio, at the 6:00 mark. Also, at the 3:00 mark, he talks about the fireworks scaring the sh*t out of Pitino but Beilein not being phased. Something to fear Pitino? I was thinking the same thing when that happened.
http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=9152772
Also, if you didn't hear Gottlieb's interview yesterday, he says the same thing about the refs at the 5:05 minute mark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAcbVNrJFTY
Neutral fans of the sport who are saying what we UM fans have been saying about the refs, and the fact that MSU fans are so adamant that officiating played no role, are pretty good indicators of how bad it was.
Thanks for the links.
Gottlieb and LaBatard agree that Michigan got jobbed by the refs. Gottlieb's comments are interesting since he points out that Louisville essentially fouls on every possession but the refs let them get away with it. So there were the obvious blown calls which changed a Michigan win into a loss but also other less obvious routinely missed calls which allowed Louisville to stay in the game with a much better Michigan team.
I'm still a big college basketball fan but this game destroyed my faith in the legitimacy of the final scores. I used to think lucky play (hot shooting, etc,) allowed lesser talented teams to win in the single elimination tournament but now I realize that luck (or corruption?) in the officiating often plays an even bigger role.
The last time I felt this bad about simply awful or corrupt officiating determining the outcome of games was the 2002 Lakers-Kings playoff series.
"We still didn't make enough plays to win."
That's the thing...we DID make plays. Down 3 with a couple minutes to go and Burke makes an insane play to cleanly block a dunk by one of their best players -- but it's called a foul. Down 4 with one minute to go and the whole defense steps up and gets a stop but a Louisville player jumps ontop of Burke who falls into Levert, who had just grabbed the rebound, knocking him out of bounds -- and it's called out of bounds instead of a foul. There's only so much the players can do when that stuff happens.
Michigan DID make the plays. After the Burke block atrocity, I concluded Michigan had no chance to officially win the game. The fix was in. I was right.
How do you win when the refs reward the other team after you make great play after great play?
I don't think it was any type of conspiracy, but it may have helped Louisville that the refs were used to reffing their style of play, which like MSU and some others is a very aggressive defensive style that can be called for lots of fouls if refs are calling it tight. Mich would have benefitted from having some WAC refs. Calls are calls but I still can't get over how so many of the bad calls were huge point swings.
It seemed like the bad calls for Louisville didn't really hurt them.
1. Mcgary kick- they got the ball back.
2. Bohanan Hacks- He was killed under the glass on 2 or 3 of his shots but on at least 2 of them he got the ball back and scored anyway.
Mich calls-
1. Burke Block- 2pts
2. Phantom Burke foul on 3 pt shot-2pts and Burke out for the half.
3. Foul on Stauskas butt pass somehow was ball out of bounds instead of 2 ft's for Burke.
4. Haradway goaltending-2pts
5. Levert being pushed by Robinson out of bounds while Bohanan is doing a somersalt over Robinsons back pretty much ended the game. My favorite play ever. He literally went right over his back and still didn't get called.
6 Robinson arm grab-1 FT Att
7. Hancock wrong foul- By not fouling out Hancok it freed him up for the big 3 late in the game.
8. The Mcgary rebounds. These weren't big point plays but these were the calls Mich needed. If they call that tight Lou stops hacking away on the offensive glass. The problem for Mcgary is if he gets the elbows up and clear space heprobably get s kicked out for shattering one of those guards faces, but that's why they need to call that quicker. Either go old school and let the big guys deal with the reaching in or call the fouls. Calling us for traveling was like throwing chum in the water for Lou.
^This^ #5 is when I turned it off and went to bed.
That looks clean to me. What's the problem?
You know, on an atomic level, Behanan never even touched Burke...
Burke should have been shooting free throws here. If he hits them both then Michigan cuts the lead to two points and what happens from there is anyone's guess.
I really don't want to re-live this game because nothing we ascertain is going to matter. The only good that can come of this is the NCAA takes note and corrects mistakes in the future.
Just fucking unbelievable. Alright I need to step away from the computer before I completely lose it.
Holy Shit. I haven't seen that picture.
I thought that Trey pushed LeVert out because he fell into him because of the over-the-back. It looks like LeVert is coming down out of bounds before Trey could push him. Is this correct?
Either way, that picture is pretty clear evidence of something not called legal basketball.
This picture, along with the .jpg of Burke's block, are pretty compelling. They say a lot without words. I think it would be pretty cool if someone created a montage or scrap book (or some combination) of all of these bad calls from the championship game and made it "circulate-able." Then we hammer the sh*t out of the NCAA's inbox.
Why? I don't know. Teach someone a f*cking lesson maybe. Who knows, perhaps Greene's officiating career gets negatively impacted. Or maybe it will stick in some ref's mind, and they'll give US the breaks later down the road.
Speaking of which, I remember when MSU got royally jobbed against Kansas in the Sweet 16 of the 1986 tourney (they didn't start the clock when State had a 4-pt lead late in the game - see 2:00 mark of this video). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2thhgxWuErs (Also, check out Larry Polec's improbable shot from behind the backboard, after the whistle, at the 6:00 mark of the same video. LARRY POLEC!). http://articles.philly.com/1986-03-23/sports/26083714_1_clock-malfuncti…
Then again against GA Tech in 1990 (clock expired before Kenny Anderson got his shot off, 3:40 mark of video). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO8dROH3dQk. I kind of wondered whether MSU's horribly officiated tourney game against Iowa State in 2000, where Eustachy got ejected (lopsided in favor of MSU), was somehow the NCAA's "make-up call" for their earlier f* up's. http://bit.ly/xAjWZf. Kind of far-fetched, I know, but there's always the karma argument too.
Why do you need a scrapbook? An archive of bad calls from the game is called "the video from the game". Take any 60 second segment of the game and you can pretty much find terrible officiating in it.
Supposedly officials do post-mortems of games. I don't konw how these bozos can possibly watch this game without being embarassed for themselves and just how bad they suck at their jobs. But the reality is, people who suck at what they do are usually oblivious to how bad they suck.
Your list is pretty similar to mine. The type of screw up that really pisses me off is the blatant mistake. You can't get too upset about a charge/block because that's an impossible coin flip. But not assigning a foul to the correct player? A missed kick ball that millions of people saw live? Burke's block when there are only two players involved and everyone is staring at them?
The ones that bugged me the most, in order, were as follows:
-
Burke's block - Went from a 3-point lead with the ball and huge momentum swing to a 5-point lead with another foul on our star. http://www.umhoops.com/2013/04/09/photo-gallery-louisville-82-michigan-76-3/
-
Hancock undercut - the MVP of the game undercuts Morgan for his fourth foul, sending him to the bench. Or, they could have called it on Dieng who was also having a good game and sent him to the bench with his fourth. Instead, they called it on a guy who can't even be seen in the photo from under the hoop and who did not have 3 fouls at the time. This is the one blatant screw up that screams of conspiracy. (looks like this was taken down from the gallery and I don't know how to imbed)
-
Hancock pump fake - this was a good play by him and a move Stauskas needs to master, but it sent Burke to the bench and was total crap.
-
GR3 Breakaway - late in the game GR3 got a breakaway for a dunk and Siva slapped the ball out of his hands. The analysts were even raving about how Siva did that twice to stop momentum. The picture I saw of this play shows that Siva got all arm. We got the ball out of bounds instead of two shots and a foul on their star. (Also seemingly removed from the UMHoops gallery but that I snagged first.)
-
LeVert Rebound - I agree that this was huge and barely mentioned. LeVert may have stepped out anyway, but what Louisville did was dangerous and clinched the game.
- Dieng Goaltend - This was frustrating because it was so obvious. As we were starting out hot and building our lead, Dieng clearly goal-tends on a Hardaway shot and instead of two points they get a break the other way. The impact on the game is reduced because of how early it was, but obvious.
#8 is the huge problem with the elbowing flagrant. Big men are now scared to clear space by pivoting with their elbows out, for fear of catching a guard above the shoulders and getting a flagrant. If the refs allow teams to be as handsy as Louisville after a rebound is secured, then the only recourse is really to flop. You never used to see the level of reaching in on rebounds that you saw in this game, because guards rightly feared catching the point of an elbow in the teeth.
Yes the refs blew some calls but before the end of game fouling by Michigan the fouls were something like 22-10 in our favor. So they called a lot of fouls against UL just not all of them. At the end of the day the refs let this game turn into a MSU/UWM type slugfest and Michigan isn't built to win that kind of game.
I don't understand why people cite foul discrepencies as evidence that officiating was not that bad. Michigan is #1 in the country in fouls per game. Louisville is 209th. Obviously, the fouls aren't going to be even.
The officiating was a joke. Nearly every significant call in the game went against Michigan, and the overall impact of bad calls both ways was almost certainly in the range of 10-15 points. This is why as hard I a try, I just can't respect college basketball the way I do college football.
The game of basketball itself if you ask me.
In some sports the flow of the game dictates the fouls called by the refs (baseball, football, etc.)
In some sports the refs control the flow of the game by the calls they make (basketball, water polo, hockey).
I think for the later it is hard to question that the refs have a much higher ability to affect the final score of the game.
Basketball to me seems like the worst offender. Sure a hockey ref can call more penalties against a team, but that doesn't mean they will score. Maybe the percentages go up a bit, but not much and hockey is very flukey with random goals.
Basketball the refs call a foul and the percentage of a point goes way up. A good FT% is around 75% and a good FG % is what 45%? That's huge. That and the calls affect the times ap layer goes to the line with Bonus, double bonus. It also plays a part in what players can actually play in the game at a given time.
Perhaps the game itself is too flawed for my liking.
Is hardly worthy of justification for missed calls. Michigan always commits fewer fouls than its opposition. If Michigan consistently led in fouls but the number was skewed in their favor for this one game then you would have a point.
McGary had a couple of wacks below that could have fouled him out. He didn't score as much so it may not have mattered. I would rather have traded McGary fouling out for a better calls on both ends.
You see if our team loses when the officiating is performed well then you just have to take your lumps and move on. When everyone is noting the poor officiating the next day then you have a problem.
I referee soccer on a fairly high level and have had the opportunity to ref at regional and national level tournaments. There is a progression to qualify for each level and there are specific policies in place to keep situations like this from happening. In the state level you typically avoid teams you have seen before once you reach the semi-final/final round. At the regional level you are not allowed to ref a team from your home state. At the national level you cannot ref anyone from your region.
You would think the NCAA would have a similar policy here, not that I doubt the ref's integrity in any way, I just think you have a point about anticipating plays based on their experiences with UL which could have affected a couple calls.
Just seems like another bad NCAA policy I guess...
There is nothing that fits the little brother archetype better than MSU fans crowing about Michigan losing a tight game in the national championship, particularly when they those same fans love touting the number of Final Fours Izzo has been to.
Pardon if this has already been brought up, but did anyone else notice that the refs weren't even standing in the right place? There were several times in the first half when Spike couldn't have driven left if he wanted to, because the ref would have been in the way. There was another time when Burke almost sprained his ankle because he stepped on the ref's foot. I was convinced that the refs were so nervous that they not only were getting tons of calls wrong, but they couldn't even remember where to stand! Just wonder if anyone else noticed that.
It's visible in Spike's highlight reel on the frontpage if you want to see what I'm talking about.
particularly the final aspect, that the refs were nervous. The teams were prepared for the moment...the referees were not.
Give me a break you guys. You act like the conference affiliation of the ref plays ANY role in how they officiate the game itself. I mean how silly - and it's not like Michigan has ever got "homered" by a referee with a bias for a particular team.
Note: Official on your left was from the conference formally known as the Big 10. The official on your right (signalling touchdown) was from the Pac 10
To me, it's not so much about affiliation as it is having seen one team so many times before. As someone mentioned briefly already, it seemed like they made a lot of anticipation calls that ended up being wrong.
Deng is a shotblocker, and because they've seen him do it so many times, they assume a clean block when he goes up and miss a goaltend.
Louisville forces a lot of mistakes with their pressure. When they see that pressure applied to non-handlers like McGary, they're used to those guys making mistakes. They're looking for the mistake (a travel) rather than the hack-a-thon happening first.
But, obviously affiliation might do something too...
That McGary travel was a makeup for the missed kick.
Where was the makeup on the Burke Block.
I will NEVER forget this as long as I live. In fact, I bring it up everytime I'm around SC fans.
Being a Michigan fan means you will see calls/games like this a lot if you follow this squad for years. On the flip side, we've also benefitted. Besides, Louisville had a couple tough calls go against them when they turned up the pressure at the end of the first half.
The block was the only one where I was like, "C'mon man..." Well also when Trey got fouled on one of those bombs he hit in the second half. But the block was late enough in the game where that could've led to another 6-0 spurt to put us up for good.
The officials from Monday's game, you mean these guys?
Anyway, you'd think that the NCAA would avoid these conflicts of interest.
StatSheet.com keeps track of referee stats, so here are the career totals and splits (including conference / non-conference and postseason statistics) for each of the three officials mentioned in the OP:
Tony Greene (STATS)
John Higgins (STATS)
You can also see how they performed in close games, blowout games and OT games in the split section as well. Interesting stuff.
I think this actually explains a lot. I didn't mind the reffing because I thought it was fairly consistent with some bad calls going both ways. What was disappointing for me was the style of reffing really seemed to be perfect Louisville's game. They allowed a lot of contact on the dribble and let Louisville be very aggressive on their press but seemed to call fouls for little contact when driving to the basket. I was talking to my friend about this right as Burke got called for his phantom block and it seemed to reinforce my point. I didn’t come away from that game thinking the refs cost Michigan the game for any of their calls but I think a different officiating crew with different style would have definitely favored us.
The system should be designed to pick the best refs, regardless of conference. A referee who is in the top tier should not be restricted from working a big game just because a team from his conference happened to make it to the Final Four.
If our refs were recognized as the best before the Final Four, then I think it was the correct call.
It may also eliminate the best refs.
However, if what we got on Monday night was the "best" refs then College Basketball has some issues.
I don't know if other officials might have handled the game better as the game would need to be replayed. I am however willing to say why not at least try officials that do not make up the conferences represented in the final four.