You're right, it's Brian's site and he can do whatever the hell he wants, and as long as he continues to open up the comments section, I'll feel free to comment on what he writes.
Look, I'm not trying to start some flame war here or anything, but I think reasonable people can disagree. I watched the game and I just don't think that the refs had a ton to do with us losing. Yes Manny was in foul trouble, but both of those initial calls that put him on the bench for all of the first half were legit, imo. Blake Griffin is the player of the year, and we had no answer for him. That's why we lost. I'm not saying there weren't bad calls--there were, but that's part of the game, just like the runs you mentioned. The fact is we weren't good enough inside, and for that reason I think if we played Oklahoma 10 times, we'd lose 9. That's just my take, which is what I was trying to express. If you disagree, that's fine. I love the site, I think Brian's great, it was nothing personal.
The game was reffed inconsistently at times and there were some bad calls, just like in every game. I think it's silly to point to the foul disparity though as evidence of the refs having some kind of anti-Michigan bias. Knowing what you do about both teams, if you hadn't expected Michigan to get called for more fouls than Oklahoma, then you know very little about basketball. As refs often say to coaches who point to the amount of fouls their teams have been called for compared to the other one, "tell your players to stop fouling." We are a team that stands around the perimeter and launches threes. Oklahoma is a team that goes inside to one of the biggest, strongest, best post players in the country. OF COURSE they are going to get more foul calls than we are, it's the nature of the styles of play. Also, for every foul they called us for, there were probably 4 or 5 other plays where we hacked the crap out of Griffin and they let it go. Yeah, better players tend to get more fouls called, but they also tend to get fouled more. I remember when I played in High School against Oak Hill (team that featured Rajon Rondo, Josh Smith, KC Rivers, and our own Anthony Wright) I've never done as much shoving and hacking in my life, some of which I got called for, but a lot of which they let go. All I'm saying is that there was a ton of contact with Griffin last night, and I don't think the officiating made much of a difference in this game.
Not even close. At least everything they said focused on his abilities as a basketball player. In fact, I would say the Griffin love didn't even come close to what you hear about Hansbrough on any given UNC broadcast. The Tebow crap is beyond belief, because it goes beyond football and makes him sound like Jesus Christ himself. They say stuff like "spending 5 minutes with this young man will make you a better person.." "He's had experiences that no other 22 year old in the world could have had..." etc.
Yeah, the Griffin stuff is annoying, but this sounds like sour grapes to some extent--the guy is the national player of the year and just went for 33 and 17 on us. I'd say he deserves a lot of it.
whoa relax. When the very first thing you mention about the game is a bad call by the ref, and not the fact that we missed 14 shots in a row or whatever, had no answer for Griffin, etc, the implication is that you're at least placing a large share of the blame on the refs. Maybe that's not what you meant, and it's possible I was projecting a lot of the other ref whining I'd been reading onto your post. If so, I apologize. No need to turn this into the rivals/scout board though by calling me an asshole.
Have you ever watched a UNC game? The Griffin love isn't even close to the Hansbrough crap. Not only is TH the greatest player ever to walk the earth, he also TRIES harder than anyone in the country. What incredible EFFORT, he NEVER QUITS, etc, etc.
Yeah, it was disappointing, but we didn't lose because of the refs. Yeah, there were maybe some questionable calls here and there (like the box out), but the fact is we got beat by a better team, and even with better refs we probably still lose that game. As for the Griffin love, the guy's the national player of the year, you have to expect some slobbering. And given that he went for 33 and 17 on us, he probably deserved it. Great season though, I'm proud of this team. Can't wait for next year.
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