Hawks look to start win streak of one at Breslin game thread

[SpiderRico]

The game was called fairly well, I thought, for the first 35 minutes of the game. However, the refs absolutely swallowed their whistles in the last 5 minutes, which seems to happen all the time at Breslin. MSU knows this, so they ramp up their physicality then and teams often times can't do anything about it. There wasn't a single time that Garza touched the ball that he wasn't fouled. There wasn't a single time that we had cutters thru the lane that weren't held.

Now, I'll give MSU credit in that they hit their shots down the stretch. With 4:54 to go, we were up 61-59. They went on a 13-2 run in the next 3+ minutes and that was all she wrote.

Sweep the remaining home games and the final game at Illinois is most likely for a double bye.

 

[PCHawk]

The game was called fairly well, I thought, for the first 35 minutes of the game. However, the refs absolutely swallowed their whistles in the last 5 minutes, which seems to happen all the time at Breslin. MSU knows this, so they ramp up their physicality then and teams often times can't do anything about it. There wasn't a single time that Garza touched the ball that he wasn't fouled. There wasn't a single time that we had cutters thru the lane that weren't held.

Now, I'll give MSU credit in that they hit their shots down the stretch. With 4:54 to go, we were up 61-59. They went on a 13-2 run in the next 3+ minutes and that was all she wrote.

Sweep the remaining home games and the final game at Illinois is most likely for a double bye.

You're right. It's funny how 35 minutes can fool you into thinking the officiating didn't hurt you. But the last 5 minutes was straight up football. A team could hold Garza to 0 points if they were allowed to do that for 40 minutes. Coaches being allowed to work the refs should be completely eliminated from the game. If an official has an agenda, it's going to happen whether the coach complains or not. And it's not like there are times where the refs are trying their hardest to do their best, but then a coach yells at them and they decide to focus even harder to do an even better job. For a coach, it's never about calling it fair. It's about calling it their way. The best coaches in the nation are actually just the best coaches at working the refs. What a ridiculous concept, but its true. Just eliminate it already.

 

[InGoodCo]

I don't blame the refs, but they have huge impacts on the game. Teams need to adjust and coaches need to work them. Hardly seems fair but not much in life is.

 

[Ree4]

Some of that, but there’s no denyingtheir roster is bigger, faster, and stronger than ours

Same thing as "letting them play" is another way of saying "they aren't calling shit". I'd say they're thicker and quicker , not taller or necessarily stronger. That doesn't necessarily win you games though. I think our players have more conditioning, MSU just had a larger rotation and our players were gassed at the end.

 

[Ree4]

Or, MSU turned it up, as they often do toward the end, and won a hard fought game at home after two consecutive losses in East Lansing. And, you are dead wrong. The officiating tipped the game, as it typically does in Izzo’s favor at home.

Yep Garza getting undercut with no call. But the guy was losing his balance they say, how is that an excuse to knock somebody to the floor and almost give him a concussion?!?

 

[CP87]

You're right. It's funny how 35 minutes can fool you into thinking the officiating didn't hurt you. But the last 5 minutes was straight up football. A team could hold Garza to 0 points if they were allowed to do that for 40 minutes. Coaches being allowed to work the refs should be completely eliminated from the game. If an official has an agenda, it's going to happen whether the coach complains or not. And it's not like there are times where the refs are trying their hardest to do their best, but then a coach yells at them and they decide to focus even harder to do an even better job. For a coach, it's never about calling it fair. It's about calling it their way. The best coaches in the nation are actually just the best coaches at working the refs. What a ridiculous concept, but its true. Just eliminate it already.

My take on the reffing from last night: not any more lopsided towards the home team than usual, Iowa could have overcome it with better play.

But your idea of not allowing coaches to address officials is an interesting one. Who is primarily in charge of setting up rules/regulations governing play? Coaches, or ADs representing on behalf of their coaches. So they set things up so that coaches have maximum control over what is going on. Lots of timeouts, incredibly lax enforcement of the coaching box (which was expanded 10 feet in recent years)...

...basically unlimited ability to work the officials.

But who else does it benefit? Do you think the players like being hyper-manipulated throughout a game, or would they rather be given the freedom to make their own decisions? As a fan, do you enjoy coaches influencing refs? Games where the last 5 minutes of game time takes 40 minutes of actual time because of all the stoppages so coaches can tell their players exactly what to do?

What if coaches were not allowed to leave their seat? Would that negatively impact the player or fan experience?

What if coaches could only address the lead official, and only during stoppages in play? Would you feel like that detracted from the product?

What if basketball eliminated live-ball timeouts, and drastically reduced the overall timeouts? You trap a guy in the corner: he can no longer get bailed out by a TO. The coach wants to take a TO to draw up a last second play after an opponent make: sorry, no stoppages, it is on your players. Would the game really get worse for anyone but the coaches? I think players and fans would embrace it.

 

[SpiderRico]

During a hugely important part of the game in the last 4 minutes or so, the camera panned to the sidelines and the fat hispanic ref (Larry Sciratto I think is his name) was literally smiling and laughing with Izzo on the sidelines. How fucking inappropriate is that? It's a single digit game in the last 3-4 minutes, we're fighing on the road for 2nd place in the conference, and a ref is in the coaching box with Izzo yucking it up. And that m'n'fer was the baseline ref on our offensive side that didn't call a goddamn thing in the last 5 minutes while Garza was getting mugged down low and JW was getting held every time he cut thru the lane.

I hate that f'ing ref.