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Refs taking Big Dog Out of the game


1981 grad

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The Zips played poorly on the road and deserved to lose the game yesterday.  However, I find it ironic that in our last loss to Gonzaga, we had a questionable call and technical against Big Dog that took him out of the game with 4 fouls.  In that game, Big Dog was playing defense and put his hand on the Gonzaga's centers back and he reacted like he had been shoved in the back and nearly fell over.  The Gonzaga crowd reacted and the ref under the basket called a foul on Big Dog away from the ball. Big Dog complained, and then was hustled to half court by his team and the ref whistled a ridiculous T while Big Dog was at half court.  Big Dog went off the court and it changed the complexion of the game because he was ineffective with 4 fouls and did nothing the rest of the game.

 

Yesterday, the 2nd foul on Big Dog was an offensive foul when the defender held Big Dogs arm as Big Dog was going for position and would not let go.  The ref did not make a call and the arms became entangled and Big Dog raised his arm to try to get rid of the defender and the defender fell backward.  Ref called double foul?

 

The third foul was at when after the half when Big Dog and an Ohio U player started jawing after the half and as Big Dog was walking away from the player towards the Zips locker room the ref called the T. 

 

On the last foul, the slow motion replay shows that the defender was not looking at the ball or Big Dog when the foul was called.  Instead, he was looking directly at the ref under the basket. Big Dog's shoulder makes contact with the defender's head as Big Dog is moving toward the ball.  The defender is looking at the ref and as soon as Big Dog touches his head it snaps back and he falls over like he had been hit by a freight train, the crowd reacts, and the ref under the basket calls the 4th foul on Big Dog away from the ball and we take him out of the game. (Just like Gonzaga)

 

It is unfortunate that 3 of the 4 fouls against Big Dog were garbage.  However, coaches watch tape and I think we will see more of this, especially on the road where refs react to the crowd.  The good new is that Poke got plenty of playing time and looked good.  We will need him to play well with Hughs injury if we are going to win a tournament game.

 

   

 

 

 

 

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Do we think the refs are somehow out to get the Zips or the refs are just equally bad, both ways, all across college basketball? Honestly there seem to be very few games where he isn't in foul trouble. Also need to consider that it is a high probability that teams specifically game plan to try to get him into foul trouble and out of the game. They see the same things we do.

Edited by LZIp
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8 minutes ago, LZIp said:

Do we think the refs are somehow out to get the Zips or the refs are just equally bad, both ways, all across college basketball? Honestly there seem to be very few games where he isn't in foul trouble. Also need to consider that it is a high probability that teams specifically game plan to try to get him into foul trouble and out of the game. They see the same things we do.

It's institutional bias against the metabolically challenged.

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If you watch the opposing coaches, they do a lot of whining about Big Dog.  Maybe the refs are starting to listen.

 

I'm not sure the officiating is down in all conferences, but it is abysmal in the MAC.  If the MAC wants to advance into be a respected league, one of the elements to advance is decent  and consistent officiating.

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19 references to "Big Dog" in one post. Gotta be some sort of record.

 

He lost some composure yesterday and it cost us. You can't let a bench scrub bait you into a T.

 

That said, the panicked, horrific shot selection once he returned to the game is what really killed us. Not the refs.

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2 hours ago, K92 said:

It's institutional bias against the metabolically challenged.

 

Very good.  I like that. 

 

I so clearly remember how opposing coaches used to bitch about Shaq.  They all felt that the size of his body helped him so much in "clearing out" the defenders who were guarding him that they technically should have been Charging calls.   Maybe I am a little Old School when it comes to basketball.  But if you're guarding someone in the post, you should be limited to whatever you can do without initiating any significant contact.  You can knock the ball away from him without touching him, you can block his shot without touching him, and you can establish position and make him go around you.  That should be all that is allowed.   

 

To me, I think defenders make some kind of body contact with him nearly every time they try to block his shot.  And I think far more of those plays should be "And One" situations.  Maybe I am too biased.  But that's my opinion from what I see.  

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4 hours ago, 1981 grad said:

coaches watch tape and I think we will see more of this, especially on the road where refs react to the crowd. 

 

The right way to handle this situation is for Akron to lobby with the league officials once they review the film.  I'm sure they do that with other situations.  You might also want to know that the head of MAC officials was at that game yesterday.  

 

The technicals are so incredibly subjective that there might not be much you can do.  But that 4th foul is the one that got my attention, and not just because it was critical to the outcome of the game.  And I think we may have seen that a little differently.   It appeared that they called him for moving and pushing on a screen that they apparently thought he was setting for Kwan.  But it was Kwan who was setting the screen, and Big Dog was running past the screen.  That should have given him the freedom to pass through, and I do agree that it was the defender who got in his way that initiated the contact.    

 

One call didn't determine the outcome of this game.  But collectively, they really did take him out of the game.  

 

 

Edited by skip-zip
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I think the MAC refs for B-ball are bad sometimes, good sometimes and that's the problem.  Consistency is all you ask, whether it is game to game or half to half.  And it is not there.  Heck, sometimes not consistent in the same 10 minute frame.

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Interesting to see actual stats. we are 149/347 for average# of fouls per game (fpg). We average 18.8 fpg, but last 3 games averaged 22.3. We average 2 more fouls/game on the road than at home, and we are up 1 foul/game from last year. The fewest fpg in the MAC is OU, but they are #120 overall. I have to imagine that as a conference we rank pretty bad in the fouls/game category. I really don't see specific bias against UA, but the MAC referees seem to feel the need to insert themselves into every game and are very inconsistent with the amount of contact needed to call a foul. Lastly, they just call too many fouls.. and it would seem more than most other conferences.

 

https://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-basketball/stat/personal-fouls-per-game

 

 

 

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I'm betting someone probably posted this (but I searched and couldn't find it) because it was from October but Brian Mull from NCAA.com posted what he thought were the most likely bracket busters before the season started . He did pretty well, four of his seven are in first in their conference, one in second and one in third. His only bad miss was Ft. Wayne (the school formerly known as IPFW). Anyway good call on the Zips of course but I bring it up in this forum solely because they included a picture of Big Dog. Only it isn't Big Dog, it's Tree. :)

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