Refs
So browsing thru the posts I didn't see too much griping about the officials. I thought they were terrible and called way too many ticky tack fouls. We needed Big Ten officials( no idea where they are actually from but they didn't call a Big Ten game) Duke was the better team Smith and Irving were incredible, but putting those guys at the line every 30 seconds was a killer. I was in a DVR cocoon so when I logged on I was surprised there wasn't more griping. Was I way off in my feel of the game?
it seems like you and i are the only two that saw the game this way. too many go to the "old fall back" by saying "of course duke will get more FTs because all we do is shoot 3s". We attacked the basket every bit as much as duke today.
Attacking the lane isn't the only way to draw fouls. Duke got calls becuase they were bigger and would get the rebound with the smaller Morgan going over the back. I think his first two fouls came this way.
March 20th, 2011 at 10:23 PM ^
but attacking the basket is obviously the most effective way to draw fouls. of course their are other ways to draw fouls, but they are minimal. it's like saying there are other ways to score points in football without getting a TD.
yes, UM relies on the 3, but that wasn't the issue today. UM's 3 pt shooting rate was less than duke's today.
again, i'm not complaining about the fouls that were called today. i'm complaining about the fouls that were not called - on duke.
Because they weren't.
If you look at the 4 factors for winning: Michigan outshot Duke and handled the ball much better. Duke outrebounded Michigan. Now, going into the game Michigan was 36th in the country in not giving up free throws and Duke was only 195th at getting to the line. The final of the 4 factors to winning is free throw rate. Duke shot free throws on 51% of their possessions. Michigan did on just 20.8%. Even without watching the game, you could look at those numbers and guess that something was probably up.
Also, a tweet from during the game:
@Hamr65:
Belein has been warned by official Ed Corbett to calm down. He's done a bunch of Big East and ACC games. #JustSayin
Now, going into the game Michigan was 36th in the country in not giving up free throws and Duke was only 195th at getting to the line
You need to remember that Duke played 85% of the season without Kyrie Irving. He's extremely quick and it's hard to stay in front of him without fouling. He shot 10 FTs today. If he'd played all season, their team FT rate obviously would have been a lot higher.
Duke got away with handchecking all day and went through stretches where they got a foul every time we breathed on them.
It would have been a lot worse if Duke had made more FTs in the first half.
The fact is basketball refereeing is consistently atrocious and taking it too seriously will always be difficult because of this.
And downright awful since last night. Today we also have the NC-Washington fiasco, and the lopsided end sequence in the Arizona-Texas game. They've completely put their stamp on the game rather than letting players decide it.
Sign up and start doing High School games. You'll learn a ton about the game and understand thats refs couldn't give a shit who wins.
March 20th, 2011 at 10:12 PM ^
To be able to see incompetence anymore than I need to play Arena Football to see when someone in the NFL is having a bad game.
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<br>No one said they were slanting the game towards one team. They are just getting more involved in the games than they should be, deciding games on a whistle rather than a players actions. And oft doing it inequitably (inconsistently), and lately, incompetently.
March 20th, 2011 at 10:52 PM ^
Yeah so when they dont call something and theirs contact and everyone bitches too. Ref will and never can win. Someones always pissed.
I recognize that refs have a job that basically can't make them look good. Basketball is a tough game to officiate and people tend to remember being "slighted" much more than they remember the mistakes that go in their favor.
Really, my only consistent beef with refs is when they insert their personality into a game or situation. Ted Valentine is the perfect example. The best ref should be the one you don't notice or couldn't pick out if he walked past you ten minutes after the game. The show boating and getting in players faces is just unprofessional and immature. Call what you see, keep your mouth shut, and be above the fray. That's what I consider a good ref.
When John Beilein gets a warning from the refs and it one point has to calm the bench down as they were reacting pretty dramatically to the bad calls, it was pretty bad. So far in this tournament they have impacted far too many games. Even worse yet is the head of officials half time interview. He offers up little to no explanation of the calls and comes of as a bit of a douche.
It wasn't that bad. Stop crying.
It was bad for both teams. Too many whistles in my opinion, I would rather them let the players play for the most part. I realize this is the nature of the beast and don't blame officiating for a loss.
March 20th, 2011 at 10:29 PM ^
maybe so. but that shouldn't be the performance rating. this is the frickin NCAA tournament. the games should be officiated fairly and competently. and they aren't, in general. the slightest slant toward one team can impact the outcome of the game, like today.
March 20th, 2011 at 11:06 PM ^
Once again they dont care who wins. They dont slant calls. You think we all sit around throw tarts at a block M before the Duke vs Michigan game? My cousin does Big Ten football and he can't give two shits who wins. His Dad was a UM grad and during the Illinois vs Michigan game he wasn't trying to find ways to screw Illinois out of first downs.
We are freaking people. Mistakes will be made. They called a tight game today and they did from start to finish. What the fuck do you want?
March 20th, 2011 at 11:58 PM ^
irrelevant point. you are clueless if you don't think coack K, dean smith, bobby knight, etc got the benefit of calls during their career over their opponents. it doesn't mean the refs want them to win, it's just a fact of life.
you could say the same thing about individual players too. you don't think guys like kobe, lebron, bird, jordan, etc got the benefit of calls over the likes of craig ehlo? or ted williams, wade boggs, albert pujols, etc getting the calls over some 5th starter?
of course. it doesn't make it right though.
It's not that necessarily there are that many slanting the games to one team (though I could make a nice short list of NBA guys who have proven otherwise), but mostly it's not a conscious slant. That latest study that Sports Illustrated covered said almost all factors in home court advantage were statistically nil.....except for the home team getting a significant amount of the calls going their way. Referee intimidation? Going along with the majority? There's probably different psychology behind it, but it's there. We were playing in Duke's backyard. And as you say, certain coaches and programs get the benefit of the doubt. And it's more than just being good. Sometimes it's because the coach intimidates refs (Bobby Knight, Coach K), sometimes it's the image. But refs slant calls all the time. Just not for the "HAHA I HAVE MONEY ON THE GAME" reason.
March 21st, 2011 at 11:05 AM ^
March 21st, 2011 at 10:41 AM ^
You have to hit your shots, and we didn't.
They will grow from this and hopefully build some pride in being "Michigan" basketball.
from the field. Explain to me how that isn't hitting your shots? Michigan shot just as well as Duke did in the game.
March 20th, 2011 at 10:04 PM ^
It mostly sucked both ways. Both teams were getting some pretty weak foul calls, and honestly I believe that's the main reason we got into such a hole in the first place. I think we can beat Duke anytime and anyplace under normal circumstances, but if you start pushing the foul count that high, we're not going to win the bench battle with Duke. We're still some amount of sustained success away from being able to match up with a program like Duke's from the top AND bottom.
March 20th, 2011 at 10:36 PM ^
we will probably never again match up with duke from 1-10 on the depth chart. so we have to have better coaching. and i think we do.
Xs and Os-wise, i don't know of a better coach in the country. hopefully, we can build off the success this year and land a top PF or C in the next class. We will then be a BIG (or even national) champ contender for years to come.
March 20th, 2011 at 10:40 PM ^
I am 100% with you, Ziff - I was also on madia blackout an just finished the game - damn great game, but the refs sucked. It wasn't even the fact that they appeared to favor Duke (which they did) - it was that they called every single ticky-tack foul, which served to (1) slow down a great game, and (2) favor DUke, because Duke took it to the hole more.
Boo, refs.
Still, amazing effort by our guys - I am so pumped for next year.
March 20th, 2011 at 11:08 PM ^
beyond clueless
March 20th, 2011 at 11:10 PM ^
All I ask for is fucking equality. Treat us the same as you treat them. We didn't get it. I'm not saying it was the difference in the game, but come on man.
March 20th, 2011 at 11:24 PM ^
Yeah, equality would be nice, but it's Duke. They always get the officiating edge, they always will get the officiating edge, and you know that going in. Part of beating Duke is overcoming that.
March 20th, 2011 at 11:56 PM ^
I didn't think the officiating was that bad. Pretty much every foul call on us legitimately was a foul. Smotrycz, in particular, still needs to get better at defending with his feet and not his hands. If you want to point to one thing that got us beat, it was shaky defensive rebounding.
March 21st, 2011 at 12:19 AM ^
The refs let Duke's big men shove our guys under the basket, which basically is B1G style reffing. What I got upset about was that it seemed like every time duke needed a bucket to stem our momentum, they just dribbled right into our guys and got the call. That's not B1G reffing. I thought the refs were consistent, but the style of game they called suited duke's game better than ours. At least we got to the free throw line today, unlike against UT where we only shot 1. If that 3 pointer before half had gone in, I think we would have won today. One shot. But I can't complain about taking duke down to the wire. What an effort by an incredible group of guys.
March 21st, 2011 at 12:39 AM ^
If you want to point to one play that cost us, it was Novak failing to pull in that defensive rebound with one minute remaining. We would have had the ball down 70-69. But he knocked it out of bounds, giving Duke a new possession. They not only burned another 30 seconds or so, but Irving then scored to put them up by three.
March 21st, 2011 at 12:20 AM ^
OMG some bad defense and crappy rebounding had something to do with our loss and its not all on the devils in stripes?
March 21st, 2011 at 12:36 AM ^
It's confirmation bias. Lots of people went into the game expecting Duke to get all the calls, and when some individual calls/no-calls were missed by the officials - which is inevitable in any game - that just reinforced their opinions.
Call things somewhat one-sided. However, you need to be better than the officials. Beilein has preached this all year. Today was no different.
I was at the game and from the stands, the refs looked horrible. There were a couple times where our players were simply fighting for the ball and they called a foul (McLimans at end of half). Not saying that's why we lost, but I think the whole Michigan section at the game could agree that the refs were pretty bad.
and yes I think Duke uses the start of the game to see how the refs are going to call it. The used fullcourt pressure and grabbed and handchecked our guys ... but the refes didn't call anything, so then they knew how to play. It's not a bad strategy and if the refs would have called fouls at the onset, Duke would have changed their style.
Where I have an issue is the total lack of a travel call against Duke on 2 very obvious incidents. The first when their big man drug his pivot foot across the lane looking for help (1st half) and the 2nd when Irving took 4 steps on the way to the basket late in the game (he was called for a charge - but c'mon 4 steps ?).
Fouls are hard to call and Duke gets more than their share of "anticipated" ones. Like when Smith drove left down the lane (during his 2 min rampage) and was untouched yet a foul was called. This was followed by Kelly getting a rebound putback with another horrible call by a ref whose view was totally blocked by 3 players. (these equate to the imaginary holding calls in football !)
However, McLimans foul with .01 left in the half was a foul ... just bad timing. In the end we gave Duke everything they could handle ... just really wish that last shot was a 3 to win, somehow having the last shot of the game in the air to beat Duke would have been incredible.
Go Blue !
March 21st, 2011 at 10:21 AM ^
Bitching about the refs even when true just sounds bad. Everyone saw it and knows it, so move on.
My biggest complaint was the announcing. Why couldn't we have Gus Johnson and Len Elmore for the game? I have enjoyed every game they've done in the tournament. As a bonus, Gus likes Michigan.
The horrid announcing was the salt in the wound that made it sting 1000x worse.