The reffing was a hit job [says one guy getting ripped in his own comments]

Submitted by Baffin on March 31st, 2021 at 12:47 PM

Not excusing the lazy post-ups by Hunter, the overwrought hero ball by Wagner, the all-too-expected Smith turnovers, the frickin missed free throws .... BUT

The reffing was an absolute hit job. Juzang got to shoot three FTs on a reach-in. At least two offensive fouls by U-M were fictitious. There was a BS travelling call on Wagner, too. Even a couple call reversals (I think when Johns was forced out of bounds) showed where the officials' instincts were. Screw U-M, ask questions later. Plus, half of those O-rebs by UCLA were over the back of an M guy. 

Honestly, if Michigan makes a few shots or Jozang misses a few, none of this matters. BUT also, if the refs aren't in the tank for UCLA, the outcome would also be different. Not mutually exclusive. 

Just cause it's the theme song doesn't make it not true. 

 

 

MGoCarolinaBlue

March 31st, 2021 at 3:03 PM ^

While officiating is not the reason for last night's loss, I will say that the game-to-game inconsistency of officiating in this tournament has been extremely frustrating to watch as a fan. I can only imagine how frustrating that must be for the players.

In some of these tournament games it seems that you can't breathe on another guy without getting some ticky-tack foul called, and then you have key guys sitting on the bench for key minutes due to foul trouble.

In other games, such as the game we saw last night, you have players pushing each other out of bounds or to the floor while the refs swallow their whistles.

Between different officiating crews, night to night, it's almost like you are watching a different sport entirely, and I do imagine it's frustrating to try to get into your rhythm as a player when there is that much variation in how the game can be called.

But again, there's no excuse for the poor offensive showing last night. It boggles the mind to try to count how many opportunities we had to accumulate more points and we very easily could have won by double digit points, but instead we failed to capitalize on those opportunities over and over again, botching execution of basic basketball skills with a consistency that was painful to watch.

ERdocLSA2004

March 31st, 2021 at 4:21 PM ^

No doubt it’s inconsistent.  Different refs, different players, different teams, different strategy, etc.  the human element will always produce inconsistencies.  That being said I’m still astounded at some of the plays players make when you know it’s going to be called a foul.  The exaggerated swiped at the ball, jumping into the 3pt shooter when you’re late getting there, getting fooled by shot fakes under the basket, etc.

Baffin

March 31st, 2021 at 12:54 PM ^

Again, not mutually exclusive. Just because you play shamefully badly doesn't mean you aren't entitled to fair officiating. 

I agree that Michigan could have overcome the refs by playing better basketball, I said that in my post. The point is that you shouldn't have to.

San Diego Mick

March 31st, 2021 at 3:49 PM ^

Baffin, your OP is baffling, take your lumps buddy, there might have been some bad calls here or there but that wasn't the problem last night.

We played like dog shit, plain and simple, that's why we lost, we didn't get beat, we beat ourselves. 

When you play that badly and only lose by 2, you beat yourself.

We had a great and fun season, I appreciate what the coaches and players accomplished and feel fortunate to have them, Go Blue!

murderwolflives2

March 31st, 2021 at 2:15 PM ^

I would agree.  And the inconsistent nature of the calls appeared to have BOTH sides playing tentatively.

Reach in one play = foul

Shove practically to the floor = no call

Tough to play like that.

Baffin

March 31st, 2021 at 12:57 PM ^

Did you actually edit my post title? Does anything about my post violate your rules? I get that it's a semi-benevolent dictatorship around here, but honestly editorializing in my post title is pretty low.  Just lock the post if you don't like it. Don't edit my words for laffs. 

Seth

March 31st, 2021 at 1:41 PM ^

It's a business, and a bad look for us if we have a message board thread bitching about the officiating. I didn't want to take down your thread because it's a fair conversation, but I edited the title to be more representative of its contents.

Locking is for when the OP is important but discussion is certain to go off the rails. This post was the opposite: good conversation in the comments started by a pretty bad OP.

Seth

March 31st, 2021 at 2:42 PM ^

Is the internet going to recognize that and be understanding? We're a blog with a message board, not the other way around. Most media these days have either gotten rid of their message boards or put them in a separate, often paywalled spot on the site so it won't be confused for content.

We let our readers add content as diaries or message board posts that are displayed on the front page. In course they become reflective of our work, and subject to some of the same editorial scrutiny we adhere to. I think it's a fair trade. Greater power/greater responsibility and all.

Baffin

March 31st, 2021 at 2:17 PM ^

"It's a business." LOL 

Trashing recruits is one thing, complaining about objectively bad officiating is another. 

You even acknowledged it's a "fair conversation" and yet you claim the need the need to protect "the business" from "fair conversation". On a fan blog. 

Good work. 

 

TIMMMAAY

March 31st, 2021 at 3:28 PM ^

You don't seem to want to actually understand, just bitch some more. Cool, cool. 

Just know that it makes you look... uncouth. And petty. Overall, the game was called fairly. I bitch endlessly (to myself and/or my wife) about refs, but I acknowledged that the last two games were called fairly. Some calls will be bad, that's just how it goes, but on balance it evens out. 

You can apply this short sighted cherry picking to any game that finishes within a score, going back to black and white tv. It would be very dumb, but you could do it. 

Wings Of Distinction

March 31st, 2021 at 1:42 PM ^

So now we are in an MgoWorld where those with a bit of power can cavalierly change us commoners' post's?

Please tell me you're not serious.

With great power comes great responsibility.....as it were.

Go Blue.

Are You Not En…

March 31st, 2021 at 2:05 PM ^

This is a strange thread title to change. It’s a reader message board and not a reflection on any invested party of the website unless the chime in. It’s also a blog that caters to M fans. 
 

It wasn’t a great game of officiating but it wasn’t the worst. Their center got a bunch of bs (technically a foul but not really call worthy type thing) called on him too. 


in summary, why edit this but not the millions of hot take threads that complain about a million different things (including officiating on 13 Saturdays a year)

mgoblue0970

March 31st, 2021 at 2:13 PM ^

Because that's what the "snowflake" threads are for.

I get the concerns about the ability of the mods to change one's words but quite frankly, if a poster is too fucking stupid or arrogant to not put something like this in a snowflake thread, they're opening themselves up to such ramifications.

ahw1982

March 31st, 2021 at 7:24 PM ^

Eh, not that anyone would care what I think, but:

1) If a website is going to edit user content, they should be clearer about it.  In this case, there doesn't seem to be any indication a mod edited the title until you drill down into the comments (personally, I was really confused by the title, made it sound like OP was bashing the ref whiners).

2) If it's being modded because it belongs in a snowflake thread, it should either be deleted and a snowflake thread created, or the title should be edited to call it a snowflake thread.

3) Editorializing "weak" takes is something that's better done more democratically, the way Reddit sorts submissions by upvotes and buries dumb takes into oblivion.  Instead of having mods exercise unfeterred discretion in editing the titles of posts for opinions they deem unworthy, there should just be a black and white rule that says if a mod sees a submission with a certain number of negative votes, it gets "[THUMBS DOWN]" edited to the beginning of the title with no additional editorialization.  Or just upgrade the board as a whole to sort by an algorithm automatically based on thumbs up, like Reddit.

murderwolflives2

March 31st, 2021 at 3:21 PM ^

Compared to some other non-editorialized titles, I think this one was pretty tame and unnecessarily edited.

Always told not to shit on the players, but this was ok:

https://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/deserved-lose-historically-horrible-game

OP comment: 49 points is high school stuff.

Oh, and let's not forget the Look-a-like posts:

https://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/ucla-look-alike-posti-go-first

Interesting choices, but your statement is the truth.  Their pigs/their farm, whatever.

jbrandimore

March 31st, 2021 at 5:52 PM ^

I wrote the post you seem to be unable to understand.

I am sorry if you weren’t taught the meaning of words, but I’m here to help.

To flame players, one would have to name them. Their names tend to be proper nouns and begin with a capital letter. No proper nouns appeared in the post you have such issues with.

As far as the second point you miss you aren’t clear about whether you are having issues with the word “historically” or the word “bad,” but again I’m here to help.

Historically means something that happened recently that is remarkable when compared to a long string of events.

Michigan has played 93 NCAA tournament games since 1948. They (we) scored 43 in the first game. This was in the pre shot clock era and pre 3 point shot era.

In the next 92 games, we have failed to score 50 points only one other time. We scored 44 against Texas Tech in 2017. That Texas Tech team played for the National Championship and was a historically (there’s that word again) great  defensive team.

So, on a percentile basis last night’s output was 3. I would say that qualifies as historically bad.

Next time, understand what you are reading. Less embarrassing.

Are You Not En…

March 31st, 2021 at 3:16 PM ^

It’s not. At all. None of us are mgoblog employees. It’s equivalent to two customers yelling at each other in your waiting room. Not a good look and totally in your right to clean up. But this hypothetical yelling (officials) happens all the time with no step in from the business. And again, a business can do what it wants whenever so I have no issue with the edit, I was commenting thst its curious this was the thread to edit when there’s a lot of precedent for allowing these

bronxblue

March 31st, 2021 at 12:50 PM ^

Good lord we can be whiny after a loss.

Here's the thing - don't go 6/11 from the FT or 13/25 at the rim or turn the ball over double-digit times, and this isn't an issue.  Were there some bad calls yesterday?  Sure.  But honestly the only egregious thing I saw was the couple of non-flop calls.  

This wasn't a "hit job" - it was a bad performance and a loss.  It happens.  

Hab

March 31st, 2021 at 12:50 PM ^

To me, this post falls under the heading of "Calling a spade, a spade" and not blaming the refs for the L.  The refs were, objectively speaking, one-sided and awful.  Some of the called charges were especially bad--the call on Smith in particular.