Last night's officials

[olivecourt]

The only questions I ask when evaluating refs are these:

1. Was the game fun to watch?

2. Did the right team win?

If the answer is yes to both, then that's all you can ask for. Now, the refs can't make a game be fun to watch. But they can take an otherwise well-played game and make it be unwatchable. Last night's game was about as fun as any I can recall just from a pure basketball standpoint. The refs were a big part of that.

 

[tweeterhawk]

How did you leave Jim Burr off your list? He moved up a couple of spots on my most hated ref list this season.

Good catch. I also should have included Borowski or whatever his name is, from the crew that tossed Fran.

 

[tweeterhawk]

The only questions I ask when evaluating refs are these:

1. Was the game fun to watch?

2. Did the right team win?

If the answer is yes to both, then that's all you can ask for. Now, the refs can't make a game be fun to watch. But they can take an otherwise well-played game and make it be unwatchable. Last night's game was about as fun as any I can recall just from a pure basketball standpoint. The refs were a big part of that.

Sadly, I don't think you could ever say that about ANY B1G officiating crew...

 

[rodg12]

The balding white ref was AWFUL. Terrible calls at both ends. The other two guys were good.

 

[bcl20]

Seem likes most who hated the calls were at the game. Watching on TV, and it was a replay in which I knew the result so emotion was practically eliminated, the officiating was fine. There was nothing that stood out as far as bad reffing went.

 

[MSGT1]

Look, all I am saying is this crew made some terrible calls and looked like morons because of them.

There was a LOT of booing on calls that, when watched on TV, were actually the correct call. There were definitely calls missed, but nowhere near as many as the crowd reaction made it seem (the Gatens travel call in the second half being one).

 

[tweeterhawk]

At the very great risk of dissecting every call from last night's game, in real time I wondered about the travel call on Gatens. It did look like he got clubbed by a Dayton player coming down with the rebound and there was some body contact, causing him to fall or move to the side and shuffle his feet. After watching the replay, I was left wondering whether the contact was beyond anything that might normally happen under the basket going for a rebound in a D1 basketball game. I'm not sure it was. Unfortunate he got bumped and shuffled his feet, but that happens. It's basketball. I will yield to the officiating crew, their experience and their presence on the floor at that particular point.

 

[DuffMan]

I thought the officials were a bit sub par. I hate to signal out one call, cause God knows I've kicked plenty of easy calls, but there was a play in the 1st half in which Mel went up for a try from the block table/bench side and got raked across the arm. You could actually hear the contact from where I was 20 rows up, and you could clearly see him fumble the shot as the contact occured. Lead was in ideal postion, and he wasn't straight lined, and I can't figure out why there wasn't a whistle. We actually got the board and the putback on the miss so it didn't really "cost us" but I thought it was an easy call.

They were very inconsistent with travelling. That tells me the game was either a bit too fast for them or they weren't officiating from the feet up and instead were just guessing. Neither of those are good things.

Lastly they were atrocious mechanically. There were several occasions in which no-one on the court (coaches, players, or other officials) knew what the hell was going on because all we had was a whistle and some personalized hopping around and pointing. I remember once in the second half sitting through an entire commercial break not knowing what a call was, whose ball it was, or where the ball was. The poor mechanics when accompanied by an extremely patient whistle (the patient whistle is actually a good thing) made for some very confusing moments.

 

[MSGT1]

Seem likes most who hated the calls were at the game. Watching on TV, and it was a replay in which I knew the result so emotion was practically eliminated, the officiating was fine. There was nothing that stood out as far as bad reffing went.

Yep, I DVR'd it and watched it after my kids concert, I already knew the outcome also, and the play where White went flying was the only truly bad call either way. There were a couple of non-calls that maybe should have been called, but nothing horrid. I said to my son at halftime that it was the best reffed game I'd seen involving Iowa all year.

And yes, I'd love it if all their games were played with similar refs and style of play, ie.. the wide open, run and gun free-flowing game that you rarely see in the Big Ten.

 

[Hawkeye11en1]

Lastly they were atrocious mechanically. There were several occasions in which no-one on the court (coaches, players, or other officials) knew what the hell was going on because all we had was a whistle and some personalized hopping around and pointing. I remember once in the second half sitting through an entire commercial break not knowing what a call was, whose ball it was, or where the ball was. The poor mechanics when accompanied by an extremely patient whistle (the patient whistle is actually a good thing) made for some very confusing moments.

I remember this. I think a Dayton player was trying to rebound near the baseline. Oglesby (I think it was him) stuck his hand in there and either fouled him or knocked the ball off the Dayton player out of bounds. The ref pointed at Oglesby but didn't call anything. They then went to TO. I had no clue if he called a foul or what. I'm not sure HE knew what he called. He ended up calling it out off Dayton, and they were none too pleased.

 

[DuffMan]

I remember this. I think a Dayton player was trying to rebound near the baseline. Oglesby (I think it was him) stuck his hand in there and either fouled him or knocked the ball off the Dayton player out of bounds. The ref pointed at Oglesby but didn't call anything. They then went to TO. I had no clue if he called a foul or what. I'm not sure HE knew what he called. He ended up calling it out off Dayton, and they were none too pleased.

That was the time.

That was the time.



The other time was McCabe and a Dayton player were both going up for a 50/50 rebound and we get this whistle and a foul on Iowa. Fran went nuts because it clearly wasn't a rebound foul as there was no box out and both players were fighting for the ball. Then after the time out Dayton comes out shooting free throws and Iowa only had 4 fouls at that point. It took me looking up at the scoreboard and recoginizing OglesThree had one more foul than he had previously and that they must have had a super late whistle on him on the original shot attmept.

 

[sioux34]

Agree with the poor performance on the traveling calls. There was one where Ogelsby shuffled his feet and switched pivot foot with no call. Like I said, the refs were bad in both directions.

 

[AdamHawk]

I thought the officials were a bit sub par. I hate to signal out one call, cause God knows I've kicked plenty of easy calls, but there was a play in the 1st half in which Mel went up for a try from the block table/bench side and got raked across the arm. You could actually hear the contact from where I was 20 rows up, and you could clearly see him fumble the shot as the contact occured. Lead was in ideal postion, and he wasn't straight lined, and I can't figure out why there wasn't a whistle. We actually got the board and the putback on the miss so it didn't really "cost us" but I thought it was an easy call.

I remember this play as well. I was talking to my buddy about it afterwards, saying the ball stayed up in the air while his whole arm disappeared, so he clearly didn't get any of the ball. But I was only 35 rows up so I probably had a better vantage point than the guy 15 feet away.

 

[Billso]

There was a LOT of booing on calls that, when watched on TV, were actually the correct call. There were definitely calls missed, but nowhere near as many as the crowd reaction made it seem (the Gatens travel call in the second half being one).

Absolutely. The TV announcers even joked about it.

I have great respect for Duff's comments on mechanics etc., and they were definitely inconsistent on travel/double dribble. But on balance, big picture, the refs did their job: they let the players play, they didn't impose on the game, they didn't favor either team, and they got most of the calls right. The contrast with Hightower/Valentine/etc. was breathtaking.

 

[83Hawk]

There were missed calls...but overall I thought the officiating was better than we usually see in Big 10 games. As has been pointed out...the game flowed nicely and the missed/bad calls went both ways.

Fun game to watch....it just shows how much better Big 10 BB would be without the likes of Burr, Valentine, and Hightower.

 

[SpiderRico]

There were missed calls...but overall I thought the officiating was better than we usually see in Big 10 games. As has been pointed out...the game flowed nicely and the missed/bad calls went both ways.

Fun game to watch....it just shows how much better Big 10 BB would be without the likes of Burr, Valentine, and Hightower.

....and Borowski!

 

[SpiderRico]

There were missed calls...but overall I thought the officiating was better than we usually see in Big 10 games. As has been pointed out...the game flowed nicely and the missed/bad calls went both ways.

Fun game to watch....it just shows how much better Big 10 BB would be without the likes of Burr, Valentine, and Hightower.

...and Sanzere!

 

[storminspank]

Despite the booing from a raucous CHA crowd (wow, when was the last time a CHA crowd could be described as raucous?) for every call that went against Iowa or was not made for the local team, I thought the officiating was pretty good, regardless of the outcome of the game.

I do not recognize their names: Gerry Pollard, Lamar Simpson, Keith Kimbell. Do they typically work the B1G?

I do not think it is a coincidence that this was a crew that did not include the names Hightower or Valentine and Zach McCabe managing to play 32 of 40 minutes, grabbing 8 rebounds, scoring 20 points and getting only 4 fouls while playing aggressively mostly in the lane (and one of those, IIRC, was fouling a player to stop a break-away following a turnover.) Granted, Dayton is not a Michigan State and this game did not include the usual B1G mugging that takes place under the basket.

Gary Pollard - Big 12, MVC
Lamar Simpson - A10, Horizon
Keith Kimble - Southland, Sun Belt

 

[Billso]

There were missed calls...but overall I thought the officiating was better than we usually see in Big 10 games. As has been pointed out...the game flowed nicely and the missed/bad calls went both ways.

Fun game to watch....it just shows how much better Big 10 BB would be without the likes of Burr, Valentine, and Hightower.

...and Bain!