The first weekend of the NCAA Tournament is, for me as well as many other folks around the country, the best four days of the year.
For 12 hours a day, four days straight, its non-stop college hoops. There are four games happening at once, and more often than not you can find yourself flipping between two classic finishes. Sometimes more.
That was the case this year, as we got more than our fair share of exciting finishes and entertaining ending. The problem? Far too many of them were besmirched with the stain of referee error:
- It started before the NCAA Tournament even began. In the second round of the Big East tournament, a crew headed up by Jim Burr ignored an ending to the St. John's-Rutgers game in which Justin Brownlee traveled, ran out of bounds, and threw the ball into the stands, all while there was still time ticking off of the clock.
- The most notorious ending of the first weekend came between Pitt and Butler. After Andrew Smith scored the go-ahead bucket, Butler's Shelvin Mack fouled Gilbert Brown at half court with just 1.4 seconds left. Brown hit one of two free throws, but after he missed the second, Nasir Robinson fouled Matt Howard with 0.8 seconds left. Howard hit the game-winning free throw.
- Syracuse had the ball with the game tied against Marquette and just under a minute left. The Orange were inbounding the ball from the sideline in the front court. Scoop Jardine caught the ball and his right foot, the first foot to land, came down on the midcourt line. A back court violation was called incorrectly, giving Marquette the ball back. Darius Johnson-Odom hit a three on the ensuing possession. Scoop Jardine then fired up an ill-advised three with 20 seconds left, and Marquette hit two free throws to seal the win.
- The hero for Arizona in both games was Derrick Williams, but depending on who you ask, the refs may deserve just as much credit. In the Wildcats win over Memphis, Derrick Williams blocked Wesley Witherspoon's shot on the final possession (after Arizona failed to corral a defensive rebound on a free throw), but replays made it appear that Williams fouled Witherspoon. Against Texas, after Jordan Williams called an ill-advised timeout, Cory Joseph was called for a five second call that appeared to be quick, giving Arizona the ball under their own basket. After Derrick Williams finished an and-one to give the Wildcats a 70-69 lead, Texas missed two shots around the rim that could have been called fouls.
- Washington allowed UNC to go on a 15-4 run late in the second half, turning 74-69 deficit into a 84-78 lead. The Huskies made a comeback, but their execution down the stretch of the game was atrocious. Venoy Overton took an ill-advised layup with 7.4 seconds with a chance to take the lead. After Justin Holiday turned the ball over on the inbounds pass and UNC hit two free throws, Overton fired up a half court prayer with three seconds left on the clock. Fortunately, John Henson tried to catch the shot before it went out of bounds. Unfortunately, Henson dropped it, giving Washington the ball back with 0.5 seconds left. The refs, however, declined to check the monitor, which was unfortunate considering that the ball landed out of bounds with about 1.2 seconds left. Isaiah Thomas missed a shot at the buzzer, which looked like it was goaltended. It didn't matter, however, as his foot was over the three point line.
On the sport's biggest stage, the drama at the end of games aren't the result of buzzer beaters or clutch shots, great performances or Gus Johnson. Its the result of a lack of execution. Mistakes made by players and refs didn't make the first weekend any less exciting, but they leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth. A sense that all is not right in the college basketball world.
No one wants to seem a game end on a blown call or a bad play, let alone a season and possibly even a career.
The best game of the 2010 tournament will be remembered for the call made by Gus Johnson when Jordan Crawford hit a 32 foot three to force overtime.
The best game of the 2011 tournament will be remember for the call a ref made on Nasir Robinson 90 feet away from the basket.
I can't be the only one bothered by that, can I?
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4 comments:
Pick a lane, will you? How can you call it error for the refs to swallow their whistles in the Big East tournament and then call it an error when the refs did *not* swallow their whistles in the Butler-Pitt game? Which is it? Should they swallow their whistles (in which case the Big East tournament game was no error) or should they call the fouls that occur no matter what the clock says (in which case the Butler-Pitt game was no error)? You can call either one of them an error, depending on which position you take, but you can't call them both errors for the same reason!
I didn't call it an error for the refs to call the fouls late in the Butler-Pitt game. Read this. I was one of the folks from the beginning saying that the refs made the right call.
And if you follow me on twitter, than you know that I ripped the refs for their calls late in the St. John's game. I actually had to go back and delete some for using, umm, profanities.
Nasir Robinson and Shelvin Mack (and I guess Gilbert Brown, for missing the free throw) made the mistakes late in that game. Not the refs.
My apologies, I do remember reading that post. It's just that I saw your heading "referee error" and then underneath it the description of the Butler-Pitt game and, because I forgot your previous post, I assumed you were upset at the refs.
I appreciate your response that was probably more generous in tone than mine was ;) I hereby declare my disagreement with you null and void.
Haha no worries man. Your response was actually a lot friendlier than most I've gotten over the past few weeks. I probably could have made it clearer in the post but, you know, these extra LBs aren't going to run themselves off, although that would be nice.
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