WVU 2 FTAs, KU 35 FTAs: Should the Referees Be Brought in for Questioning by the FBI that Is Reputedly Looking into other Bizarre Activities in D1, or Is KU's New Two Free Throw Defense Just that Great of an Innovation?
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Two Free throw attempts for a visiting team in 40 minutes of hard fought, physical Division One basketball with the home team coached by a hard nosed, defense first coach, desperately trying to get his team a W to try to find a way to stay in contention for a 14th consecutive conference title.
Who believes Coach Self stood in the locker room before the game and said, “Boys, I’ve got a new strategy for the game tonight. Don’t foul them. Don’t put them on the FT line. This is the key to beating WVU. Don’t foul them. Well, maybe two FTAs, but absolutely no more. Don’t get after them. Don’t foul them. Don’t guard them if it means fouling them and putting WVU on the FT line. DON’T DO IT and we win this baby by 6-10 points easy.”
It seems a bit of a stretch to me. Self has done a lot of audacious things in his time. But who really thinks Selfian audacity explains the 2 FTAs WVU was awarded?
Scully, baby, I wanna believe!!!
But I just can’t.
Two measly free throw attempts for West Virginia.
Fugggeddabout Huggie getting bounced out of the game at the end, as if to put a coup’d gras on the home job.
Two measly free throw attempts.
In 40 minutes.
I have never looked a gift horse bearing a much needed win in the mouth before, but I have to do exactly that, after watching this second, apparently farcical, near professional wrestling grade, come-from-double-digits-behind, utterly preposterous KU win over WVU.
Anyone that thinks for a picosecond that this appeared to be a fairly refereed game likely also believes that Marine radioman and CIA fake defector alum Lee Harvey Oswald rocked that Mannlicher faster and more accurately than trained snipers could; that the WTC VII was NOT dropped in a controlled demolition and was instead dropped by pigeon droppings; and that the Pentagon was hit by an airliner that archived NSA and Russian spy satellite imagery will one day co-confirm, if we are not all destroyed by nuclear war before then.
Just two lousy free throws for West Virginia University?
Well, that was some kind of incredible KU defense, wasn’t it?
We can’t blame it on the WVU offense, because, well, because the WVU offense played pretty well.
Self needs to bottle this new KU defense.
And then use it EVERY game.
This new KU defense is the stuff of legendary, come-from-behind victories.
Let’s commemorate it to posterity as the “Two Free Throw Defense” aka the TFTD.
Everyone, me included, has said this team has had an incredible run of bad breaks and is about do for some good luck.
Well, it got a heaping, stinking, Allen Field House sized pile of luck today.
Two FTAs for the Mountaineers.
Self once famously and rightly said, “Amazing things happen in this building.”
Well, its time to update and amend that memorable quote of his.
Now, its time to say: “Ridiculously unbelievable and preposterously improbable things happen in that building, too.”
The Two Free Throw Defense happens in that building.
Quick, someone, help me out from this mountain of scepticism that weights me down.
Tell me that, oh, once or twice a season, visiting teams in Allen Field House are only granted two charity tosses in the Monarch of the Midlands. Tell me it happens every year.
Ready, set, go…fill in how many times a season opposing teams get 2 FTAs in 40 minutes?
Like Fox Mulder, I want to believe.
The TFTD is so staggeringly effective that an opponent can shoot 26 treys and make 50% of them, while KU shoots 22 and makes 31.8% and KU can win!!!
The TFTD is so darned effective, KU can shoot nearly the same FG%, actually be -3 on the glass, and still win it.
Well, I don’t want to oversimplify. Nooooooo.
KU was in fact +5 on steals, +1 on blocks, and made 5 fewer TOs than the Mountaineers.
Yo, Huggie, what in the hell are you complaining about?
KU got 35 FTAs and your team only got 2 FTAs; that happens all the time, doesn’t it?
Huggins and the Mountaineers didn’t just get homed.
The got MacMansioned.
Hell, they got subdivisioned.
They got high-rise condominiumed!!!
What did Bob Huggins do to deserve this sort of treatment of his team from the refs in Lawrence, Kansas?
Is Huggins under investigation by Bob Mueller for collusion with the Russians, now that nothing appears to be turning up about Trump and the Russians?
Is Huggie under investigation by the Fibbee agent/agent runner shizzle?
What would make referees see and call only two shooting fouls in a fast paced, 40 minute game in which they saw and called enough fouls for 35 FTAs for KU?
Did I say I am flabbergasted?
I am also frankly ashamed that something so apparently bogus occurred on a court named for the man who invented the game in the greatest arena in college basketball on an ESPN game day. Well, wait a minute. ESPN is irrelevant.
I love beating Huggie. I love bitching that his teams play too rough and try to intimidate opponents too much. I love beating his strategy with Self Ball.
But how can we say we beat them, when the game was refereed like that?
As always, one can say the referees made bad calls both ways. I can think of another 5-10 plays where KU was butchered and got no calls.
But the bottom line is that WVU faced nearly an entire game of no calls.
Disgraceful. Just disgraceful.
The game was de-refereed.
At least that is how it appeared to moi.
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We should all play like Sargent Schultz — “I know NOTH-ING!”
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It is embarrassing. If I that happened to the Jayhawks, there would be 1000 posts about it already. There is no explanation for it.
OR, is it that we are just so used to referees calling games “even” that when they called it as it actually were, there was this discrepancy?
Nah…
35-2. Even with the Tech Fouls and the Late Game Gimmees it was 27-2. How can that be!
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Bothers me not a whit.
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For people that actually know the game of basketball it’s not surprising, KU had several games early in the year here at AFH where they shot single digit Fts. Why? Simple they settled for jump shots and weren’t driving to the goal. Just like WV did tonight, according to the KC star, WV attempted just 6, yes only 6 of their 61 shots at the rim. They are lucky we didn’t shoot more with the obvious fouls Bilas pointed out that were misssed, honestly I thought KU got away with 2 fouls.
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@kjayhawks exactly right! Marcus got hit on the head, svi got screwed on 2 calls. Huggs didn’t complain til the very end. Saw the weakest flop of the year!
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@Crimsonorblue22 Konate’s offensive goal tend was a big omission, too. And it was TWO hands, yet!
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Even with the fouls that were called on WVU, there were a number that were missed. Jay Bilas pointed out some of them. The final number should probably have been about 42-4. The ‘Eers have been mugging other teams’ players for years; a crew finally called the majority of them in a game.
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Hold on just a second. We need to look at the numbers in context before stating as a fact that the refereeing was one sided.
The foul count itself was 26 for WVU and 14 for KU. The last 4 fouls against WVU were in the last 8 seconds of the game which makes the count for basically the entire game a more realistic 22 to 14. When you consider that the average for WVUk games is 21 to 17, then the foul count is not that out of the norm.
Now, we know that until a team gets into the bonus or the foul is not committed in the act of shooting then no free throws are awarded. WVU was shooting lights out from the outside and not taking it to the hoop, which normally happens when the outside shots are going in, so most of the fouls KU was called for were of the non-shooting variety while KU was not hitting from the outside so it was penetrating a lot more and when it got fouled I was during the act of shooting resulting in free throws.
Were there bad calls? Sure, there always are but it went both ways. Bilas even commented that fouls were not being called on WVU.
When you look at it in context it really is not as bad as just saying 35-2…wouldn’t you all agree?
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@mayjay I didn’t see an instant replay of svi or dg that was thrown out of bounds at the end, did you? Hard to tell from my seat, crowd was mad!
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Self even said they shot a ton of 3s and we drove, drove, drove. Perhaps Huggies thugball massive fouling and mauling style finally caught up to him?
Live by the free, die by the free.
However, Dok did foul the guy at the end when Higgins screwed Huggins.
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more context—that’s the fewest ft shots by WVU since 1906.
I wonder what the worst ft disparity is in Ncaa history ?
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HighEliteMajor said:
We should all play like Sargent Schultz — “I know NOTH-ING!”
Hogan’s Heroes is pretty funny.
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@JayHawkFanToo excellent post.
with you on this one.
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We can try to rationalize it but it was just very one-sided officiating down the stretch, when we made our run. For example, go to 7:05 of second half. Doke dunks and gets a “barely a touch” foul call. Our next trip down at 6:29 a completely phantom block call on a Vick drive. At 5:41 Svi totally grabs a WVU player’s arm on a rebound, no call. Then at 5:00 280 pound Doke completely flops, refs call WVU foul on a Doke screen. At 1:43 it looked like Doke hit the WVU player in the face on his shot, his arms not vertical, no call.
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@HighEliteMajor What do you make of the announcers repeatedly saying the calls were horrible in WV favor? You don’t hear that often, especially not in KU’s favor. Were some calls missed? Yes, esp the last block by Dok that was a clear foul, but I think extreme fouling by Huggy finally backfired.
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@HighEliteMajor I think you could find a compable handful of calls that weren’t called on WV.
Having a team that shoots lots of 3s and mauls people against a team that doesn’t guard 3 shooters and drives a lot seems like the right formula for this foul total doesn’t it? Throw in AFH and their coach getting double T’d.
I do think that calls went against them but as @JayHawkFanToo said, it’s not nearly as egregious as the 35-2 number indicates.
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@approxinfinity i don’t have a big issue with the first 3/4 of the game. I think the analysis of that above is pretty solid. But I would suggest to start at the 8:00 mark of the second half. We’re down by 10 I believe. Then assess for just that time period. It seemed to me that really everything went our way.
@Fightsongwriter I watched the entire second half without the benefit of sound, or the influence of the announcers. I was watching the second half at a restaurant, then rewatched this morning again without sound.
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The worst missed call was probably when Garrett got whacked in the head on a drive.
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Lane violation on the front end of a one and one for wvu too.
I re-watched the game. As far a egregious fouls not called there were at least two and a goal tend against KU (Garrett getting whacked in the head and Svi getting throw out of bounds by Carter at the end) not called and at least one against WVU (Dok’s block at the end) that were not called. Also one bad foul called on Dok when Kontae fell over him on the block late. WVU had a 5 point possession curtesy of the refs, it’s not like one team got all the calls. WVU drove the ball to the hoop less than 10% of the time, which makes sense when you’re raining threes, but doesn’t result in fouls being called.
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@BShark And that exact same play has happened to Devonte a couple times this year. Wonder why we can’t get that obvious call?
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When ESPN…yes, ESPN…says…the refs need to start calling all these fouls on WVU and not just warning them not to do it…or words to that effect, then you know refereeind did not favor KU.
@HighEliteMajor as far as more fouls being called at the end, this is normal. When players that play tight defense, like WVU does, get tired they get sloppy and cannot move fast and foul more often than not. You mentioned several calls that favored KU but there are as many that went the other way. Most of the early fouls called on WVU were in the act of shooting while penetrating and resulted in FTs being awarded while most of the ones called on KU were not in the act of shooting with no FTs awarded.
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@HighEliteMajor thanks for breakdown. I didn’t get to see the 2nd half, but other than the actual FTA disparity, doesn’t the foul count avg and style of play factor into that?
Weren’t we discussing in our non-conference portion of our season our lack of FTA due to jump shooting approach? We made a conscious decision to start driving and getting to the line. Seems by many accounts the very same factors were at play in offensive approach yesterday. With missed calls both ways. Bills was particularly calling it out in the first half. @jaybate-1-0
I refuse to feel sorry for Huggins and WVU since they use a foul so much that refs become self-conscious about blowing the whistle.
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@JayHawkFanToo Yes, I understand the dynamic of fouls, and defense, and all of that. Thank you. I have not said anything about a FT disparity. So nothing you said in response relates to my comments. I’m referring to the last 8 minutes.
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@HighEliteMajor my current streaming approach with Sling is not working out for catching any replay.
I can’t figure out why the ESPN package with Sling does not include KU MBB replays. I’m blaming SZ and our contract.
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I am there with you. I might try Direct TV, they have promotion going for $10 per month for 3 months. Then, I will switch to YouTube TV that is now finally available on Roku, 3 streams, lots of Chanel’s including ESPN and Fox, lots of local station carried and unlimited recording for $35 per month.
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@JayHawkFanToo that DTV for 3 may scratch the itch. Then I’ll cancel because I don’t need it for anything but KU Bball.
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Summary: They fouled more due to our driving vs. them shooting 3s. This affected the FT shooting numbers as well. The FT shooting difference was skewed somewhat due to the last few minutes. Due to their style of play, I saw many grabs, holds, etc. that were not called on WVU. IMO, this is typical for a WVU game. The last 8 mins. …we got the benefit of the calls, no question. I can understand why Huggins was so upset. The referring is inconsistent. Over the long haul it should even out. “And that’ all I have to say about that.”
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@Hawk8086 That is hitting the nail on the head.
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Wow -we played unbelievable defense. - -Yes there were calls missed. - - -Sorry but yes even with all their 3pt attempts- - - and as much trouble as we have had defending all year -WOW what a quick turnaround. - - We all know now that we have just added a fresh 50 gallon barrel of fuel about how we get the calls. - Yep missed calls both ways - -But man don’t care how you twist it - -TWO free throw attempts for an entire game? TWO? kind of hard to absorb.
Then if you were to watch at half and listened - you would of heard Jay Williams little shot - -" can we get some fouls called - - can we get some fouls called " - -doesn’t take a Rocket Scientist to figure out what he was talking about there. - I fully understand about the 3pt shooting and agree - BUT yet with the physicality on the inside there had to be more then 2 attempts for the game for WV. - this for sure gives us a yet another really bad look for games at Allen Field house and favorable calls.
Now on the other hand for all the WV fans that cry about how KU pays off the officals - - umm news flash - -The Conference assigns these officials - -not KU - -KU has nothing to do with who is assigned to these games so get over yourselves on that. - - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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kjayhawks said:
For people that actually know the game of basketball it’s not surprising, KU had several games early in the year here at AFH where they shot single digit Fts. Why? Simple they settled for jump shots and weren’t driving to the goal. Just like WV did tonight, according to the KC star, WV attempted just 6, yes only 6 of their 61 shots at the rim. They are lucky we didn’t shoot more with the obvious fouls Bilas pointed out that were misssed, honestly I thought KU got away with 2 fouls.
Hmmm, how to put this?
I know the game some and I can do basic math, too, which it appears that some persons that imply they know the game apparently cannot.
2 FTAs is ONE THIRD as many as 6 FTAs!!!
ONE THIRD as many FTAs stands out a statistical anomaly IMHO!!!
But of course that is not the crucial comparison, is it?
The crucial comparison is:
KU 35 FTAs
WVU 2 FTAs
I have been following the college game since about 1960. What year is it? Ah, I remember, its 2018. That’s about 58 years, or so.
I don’t ever recall a D1 game in which one team was awarded 2 FTAs and the other was awarded 35 FTAs. I am not saying it NEVER happened, because never is for suckers, and I can’t recall all the D1 games ever played during that time. But I am saying I don’t ever recall one game with that distribution of FTAs.
WVU got .057 of the FTAs KU got!
And here is the case against your argument probably being correct, except in some universe of phenomenally remote statistical possibilities like the one where WTC VII fell because planes hit other buildings.
First, KU had 14 PFs called on them, so its not like KU was not guarding hard and engaging in a lot of contact. It was more like they were guarding hard whenever a foul would NOT trigger a FTA, but not guarding hard and contesting shots, whenever a FTA would be triggered. Hmm. I just don’t recall a Self Defense team not contesting shots to this great of an extent, do you? I mean, as you say, even on a really lax day of defense, KU, or other teams, commit 6 fouls triggering FTAs, right?
Second, WVU took only 26 treys out of 61 FGAs; that means WVU shot 35 FGAs inside the trey stripe. Let me repeat that: THIRTY FIVE FGAS INSIDE THE TREY STRIPE. Wow! Did KU’s Self Defense really contest so few of 35 FGAs inside the stripe that they only triggered 2 shooting fouls?
Third, KU often takes between 20-30 treys and never gets only 2 FTAs that I recall. Doesn’t this put this event out in the Archon Alien realm of statistical anomalies?
This refereeing appears to deserve some review by an appropriate oversight body in the mind of at least one person that knows at least a little something about the game. Me.
But then I am old fashioned.
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I disagree.
KU 35 FTAs
WVU 2 FTAs
These are apples and apples comparison.
Unconflated.
Completely in context of FTAs.
Completely unconflated.
Next.
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JayHawkFanToo said:
I am there with you. I might try Direct TV, they have promotion going for $10 per month for 3 months. Then, I will switch to YouTube TV that is now finally available on Roku, 3 streams, lots of Chanel’s including ESPN and Fox, lots of local station carried and unlimited recording for $35 per month.
I’ve been using Hulu live, it works pretty well and I do get to see replays.
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jayballer73 said:
Wow -we played unbelievable defense. - -Yes there were calls missed. - - -Sorry but yes even with all their 3pt attempts- - - and as much trouble as we have had defending all year -WOW what a quick turnaround. - - We all know now that we have just added a fresh 50 gallon barrel of fuel about how we get the calls. - Yep missed calls both ways - -But man don’t care how you twist it - -TWO free throw attempts for an entire game? TWO? kind of hard to absorb.
Then if you were to watch at half and listened - you would of heard Jay Williams little shot - -" can we get some fouls called - - can we get some fouls called " - -doesn’t take a Rocket Scientist to figure out what he was talking about there. - I fully understand about the 3pt shooting and agree - BUT yet with the physicality on the inside there had to be more then 2 attempts for the game for WV. - this for sure gives us a yet another really bad look for games at Allen Field house and favorable calls.
Now on the other hand for all the WV fans that cry about how KU pays off the officals - - umm news flash - -The Conference assigns these officials - -not KU - -KU has nothing to do with who is assigned to these games so get over yourselves on that. - - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
Until/unless this game is objectively reviewed, by an appropriate oversight body, all I can say is: SOMEONE appeared very sore at Huggins and WVU, and appeared to have a score to settle, and appeared to settle it with a swallowed whistle.
But I am a reasonable board rat and am the first to admit that statistical anomalies can happen, and that freakish occurrences can be reviewed with 20/20 hindsight and objectivity and be revealed to be exactly that–statistical anomalies.
So: if appropriate oversight were exercised and a review of the game tapes reveals that it was just some freakish anomaly that can occur over more than a century of college basketball, well, okay, then I am okay with what ever is decided.
In any case, this game should go down in Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
And be included in a video called "The Ten Freakiest Anomalies in College Basketball History.
And if it weren’t to be found to be one of the 10 freakiest anomalies, then I sure as heck am interested to learn the other ten.
Rock Chalk!
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@jaybate-1-0 6 of WVU’s 61 shot attempts were at the rim. Not a recipe to get to the line and something we were bemoaning about the current KU team recently.
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BShark said:
@jaybate-1-0 6 of WVU’s 61 shot attempts were at the rim. Not a recipe to get to the line and something we were bemoaning about the current KU team recently.
What he said plus I had on my lucky hat!
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@dylans Please keep wearing this hat every game. Tia.
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All I’m saying about it is this - if KU would have had 35 free throw attemps and WVU only had 2, we would be under some sort of NCAA investigation. Probably the FBI, KBI and Mayberry RFD would be involved.
WHAT? Wait…
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BShark said:
@jaybate-1-0 6 of WVU’s 61 shot attempts were at the rim. Not a recipe to get to the line and something we were bemoaning about the current KU team recently.
I appreciate you doing some digging and bringing that to my attention. Still…
How many games, during the time that we were moaning, did KU get 2 FTAs in a hard fought, 40 minute game against a physical defense?
I am REALLY not trying to be a dick here.
But trying to justify these 2 FTAs is something even my old hero, Gerry Spense, attorney at law, would have been daunted by.
You have to be very careful with trying to argue that these calling only these 2 FTAs were justified.
I thought about it a significant amount before I posted about it.
I thought of many of the things other posters have suggested as explanations, but I just couldn’t persuade myself of any of them.
I don’t like posting about what appears biased officiating, especially when it comes out in our favor.
I used to officiate a little and so I am quite sympathetic to the referees’ situations.
But I don’t recall ever calling a game myself, where one side had 35 FTAs and the other had 2 FTAs. And I wasn’t a whistle swallower and I bounced a few coaches out of games. Granted this was junior high and city league officiating and so it doesn’t really compare with D1, or even high school officiating in standards of excellence of officials. But I took my humble officiating duties seriously and I tried my best to be fair. And I never refereed a game where I had an ax to grind with a coach. And I never dished 35 FTAs to one team and 2 FTAs to another over five years of doing quite a lot of games (sometimes six in one day), while working my way through college.
This appears really a very hard, globular chunk without a very good explanation, other than a random statistical anomaly.
This is why I suggest the game be reviewed by the appropriate oversight group.
If it review suggests it is a statistical anomaly, fine.
If it were not, D1 should not tolerate this sort of thing.
This sort of thing did not even happen against KU in Columbia Missouri that I recall.
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@jaybate-1.0 This KU team has 6 games this year with single digit free throw attempts. Never as low as two but still. There would probably be some more but games like A&M we had 11 fta but 3 of those were at the end of the game when A&M fouled on purpose.
Also, tifwiw but this is somehow only the 7th largest free throw disparity this season in college hoops.
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@jaybate-1.0 I was listening to Bilas pontificate on the disparity during the game. He, or the other guy, said something like Nothing like this has happened in the past 10-20 years?
I dunno man. I also felt like WVU didn’t drive to the lane to get fouls! The stat I heard was 6 drives to lane for fouls. 6 times.
I’m gonna go watch the game again and keep track my damm (sic) self but to me, if you only drive to lane for a foul or an and one 6 GD times, then 2FT’s is all your gonna get!
Hey, I like Huggy bear. He’s a great coach for the Big 12. Great coach for WVU, for the CBB game. Period. But he over reacted.
I mean, you said it yourself, there were 5-10 other fouls on WVU that could have, should have been called but weren’t.
Devonte’ said himself that they were getting fouled a lot more than were actually called. SO IMO. Huggy was telling his players to “bring out the tire irons” as you so eloquently put it sometimes. Great quote by the way. Its on point.
My point is, after I rewatch the game and count how many WVU drives for fouls should have been called, that KU just flat out outplayed them. Even when they were behind.
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I will say one thing real quick.
DOKE!! That boy, he flopped so hard one time!!!
Yah, that was so funny. OMG. WVU guy guarding him pushes him, it wouldn’t have knocked me over and Doke goes sliding on his butt. Btw, I’m about the same size as a horse racing jockey.
I absolutely died laughing!!
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JayHawkFanToo said:
Hold on just a second. We need to look at the numbers in context before stating as a fact that the refereeing was one sided.
The foul count itself was 26 for WVU and 14 for KU. The last 4 fouls against WVU were in the last 8 seconds of the game which makes the count for basically the entire game a more realistic 22 to 14. When you consider that the average for WVUk games is 21 to 17, then the foul count is not that out of the norm.
Now, we know that until a team gets into the bonus or the foul is not committed in the act of shooting then no free throws are awarded. WVU was shooting lights out from the outside and not taking it to the hoop, which normally happens when the outside shots are going in, so most of the fouls KU was called for were of the non-shooting variety while KU was not hitting from the outside so it was penetrating a lot more and when it got fouled I was during the act of shooting resulting in free throws.
Were there bad calls? Sure, there always are but it went both ways. Bilas even commented that fouls were not being called on WVU.
When you look at it in context it really is not as bad as just saying 35-2…wouldn’t you all agree?
BOOM. That’s whats up right there JayhawkFan.
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Lulufulu said:
@jaybate-1.0 I was listening to Bilas pontificate on the disparity during the game. He, or the other guy, said something like Nothing like this has happened in the past 10-20 years?
Which is just outright not true as I mentioned already but it bears repeating. Only the 7th biggest foul disparity this season.
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Crimsonorblue22 said:
@mayjay I didn’t see an instant replay of svi or dg that was thrown out of bounds at the end, did you? Hard to tell from my seat, crowd was mad!
Missed that, I think. They didn’t do a very good job of showing the sequence that led Huggy to inviting his own early exit.
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@nuleafjhawk Don’t forget the Keystone Kops.
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What do you bet Trae Young gets to the line 12 to 15 times Monday night? That will be because he drives constantly, not because of an instruction to the refs to even up for yesterday’s game, but some will no doubt see causation.
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I am glad to hear from you, even though we disagree quite a bit on this. But because you have made your case to me you have provoked me into thinking more about this and I may have an explanation of what may have happened. But before proffering my idea, I will address some of your points.
Driving the rim is not the only way to get a shooting foul. KU in several different seasons has mastered driving into guys 10 feet from the basket to get fouled on what I now like to call hard pull-ups. Certainly WVU guys were shooting pull ups and some mid range J’s and those can be used to draw fouls also. But they weren’t being called for sure after the first six fouls. I suspect Huggins thinks that sort of driving into people 10-15 feet away is not very manly way to play the game. He believes tire iron fouling is honorable.
Regardless, as I said, once you get past 6 fouls each half every foul is at least a 1&1 shooting foul, if I recall correctly. Again, WVU only got 2 FTAs.
Now, I fully agree that Huggins brought out the tire irons this game.
During the game I was utterly pissed off about all the “flagrant” fouls that were not called flagrant, and all the no calls that should have been called. I really feared that Huggie had tipped the game with the tire irons by forcing the refs to send KU to the line so many times for so much of the game. From about 15 to go, it was almost like the refs were getting resentful of Huggins for having his team foul so much and not pull them back when they started calling them on it. Refs don’t like it when they call a bunch of fouls to get a game under control and the coach of the team that is doing the most egregious tire iron style fouling doesn’t pull his guys back. I believe the referees thinking would go something like this: hmmmm, we’ve called a piss pot full of fouls and stopped the game endlessly, because of this sunnuvabitch trying to turn this into a football game, so let’s see how he likes this: we’ll just not call any shooting fouls on KU and see how long his guys can hang on to the lead, when his guys start missing as many as KU’s guys have been, because of all the rough stuff. And, oh yeah, tough guy, we’re going to keep KU on the FT line and the moment you blow up we’re going to T you out of here!
Now that you have made me process this again, I am starting to think that this must be what happened.
These refs have probably called a number of WVU games where Huggins and his teams have pulled out the tire irons the same way Tom Izzo and his teams do. We don’t see all the other WVU games. We just see Huggie do it twice a season and some times, when he has no chance of winning, and out of collegial respect for a hall of fame grade coach, Huggie even pulls his punches with his team. But this was a must win game for both teams and Huggie knew he had a chance of fouling up the game so much that the refs would finally just swallow their whistles to get the game over; that would favor Huggie. So: Huggins just went to the trunk of his black 57 Chevy with the flames on it, pulled out a full array of tire irons, handed them out to his team and said something vaguely like: two go in one comes out. Foul’em till the refs can’t call anymore fouls and then keep fouling; that sort of game we win for sure, even in Allen Field House, even with the home whistle. We aren’t going to get a fair whistle at KU, so let’s make them call so many fouls early they finally have to stop calling the fouls and let us play them straight up.
Well, my hypothesis is that the refs were sick of Huggie’s strategy. They had seen it too many times before. They call it getting worked by a coach. Refs don’t like feeling like they’ve been worked. They don’t mind back and forth with a coach and they don’t mind having a mistake called to their attention, but they hate it when a coach takes it into a level of roughness that they have used their whistles firmly to say, no, we are not going to have that kind of game today.
Maybe these refs had just seen Huggies act once too many times.
Maybe these refs looked down at the blue lettering on the court that spelled Naismith and they just decided they had finally been worked once too many times.
When I look at it this way, as an old referee, and when I think about the referees saying, look, we’ve made it clear to this guy, and we’ve cut him some slack, but he just doesn’t get it.
Maybe they just decided to take the game into their own hands to keep Huggie from taking it into his.
Now that’s something I can relate to.
Referees rightfully have great discretion in how to bring a game and its participants into line and to impose fairness on the competition.
Refs exist to make the game a fair competition.
Maybe the refs thought, so you want to take this junk to a point where we HAVE to swallow our whistles, eh? Well, we’ll just swallow our damned whistles for you right now with 18 minutes to go and see how you like them apples, Bob.
And Bob didn’t like it.
And they hung the Ts on him and sent him to the showers.
And did you notice that not one of the referees appeared to try to reason with their fellow referees to revisit what went on, and not one of them seemed the least bit ruffled about Bob’s tirade, nor did they give him a second look as he left.
Hey, @Lulufulu, I’m feeling better already!!!
Maybe this glass is half full, after all.
Rock Chalk!
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mayjay said:
What do you bet Trae Young gets to the line 12 to 15 times Monday night? That will be because he drives constantly, not because of an instruction to the refs to even up for yesterday’s game, but some will no doubt see causation.
I will bet that I for one will anticipate no future appearance of wrong doing in D1, because I am fully satisfied by the amount of appearance of wrong doing I get without anticipating anything.
I will bet that Deuce Young will appear to get the usual whistle breaks “stars” that come prepackaged with hype appear to get in the apparently entertainment value-drenched D1 from time to time (note: this is not anticipating future wrong doing, because in the entertainment value-soaked D1 it appears such enablement of stars does not appear to be inappropriate activity, perhaps somewhat the same as enabling stars in the World Wrestling Federation would not be considered inappropriate.)
I will bet the Deuce comes out of his slump sooner or later, but that he remains a volume shooter.(Note: I don’t think the refs have anything to do with his slump, or with him being a volume shooter.)
I will bet that Deuce tries to drive on Devonte Graham (to foul him up), because Devonte has no credible back up and so Self would have to play Vick and Malik as his point guards, which would then force him into playing Garrett on a wing regardless of matchup, something he would not want to have to do for a majority of the game.
I will bet that Self tells Devonte to take as few fouling risks defending Deuce as he can the first 30 minutes to keep his fouls down, although probably he will NOT tell the team to keep the other team’s FTAs down to 2.
Next, I will bet that when Deuce gets a couple buckets Self will proably have Devonte sit on Deuce’s strong hand, pick him up much farther out and will probably tell him to get a hand in Deuces face if he shoots the three, or let him drive by with his weak hand, because Self has put Mitch, and/or Silvio in the paint for a stretch and they will contest Deuce at the rim and KU’s wings will attempt to sag and strip Deuce as he drives down the lane.
I will bet that some one will try to castigate others for being skeptical about events that appear remarkably improbable and then make the nonlinear leap to suggesting that they will anticipate future wrong doing.
Regarding the 12-15 FTAs being related to referee bias, there are enough bizarre anomolies in the recent past that no one needs to anticipate any. They just keep coming without any anticipation. Its like Washington and the Deep State. You don’t need to anticipate them doing bad stuff. You just set your alarm, wake up and they’ve done something else bad. No anticipation required.
But here’s the really great part: because of the preceding, there is no need to insinuate others would EVER anticipate this sort of fecal matter in the future, when almost no one anticipates the worst, except Deep State geeks that probably know why Stephen Paddock died in Las Vegas a day after police found dead from suicide in his Mandalay Bay hotel room. No, regular folk just wake up, brew some java, and before they are even fully awake the bad stuff just comes in over the digital transom, as per mind control precepts developed with our tax dollars to be used for destabilizing cultures at home and abroad in the interest of regime change.
(Note: these will all, of course be gentleman’s wagers involving no consideration of any kind, or value, and loss of which will only result in metaphorical consumption of crow.)
Rock Chalk!
