Michigan State is blowing Minnesota out

[tornado]

Hmmm...interesting comment in this column...
"Michigan State.....Coming off three easy victories beating Bradley University, Minnesota University and Louisiana State University...."

https://westerncourier.com/44127/sports/the-big-dance-heads-to-minneapolis/

[egib52]

Hmmm...interesting comment in this column...
"Michigan State.....Coming off three easy victories beating Bradley University, Minnesota University and Louisiana State University...."
https://westerncourier.com/44127/spo...o-minneapolis/

I wouldn't put much into it. It's WIU's student newspaper, they probably don't even know what the NCAA Tournament is!

[tornado]

yeah -- agree....
but getting back to the Bradley-Michigan State game...
...when Michigan State got to go to the FT line almost 30 times, it prompted me to realize how the refs can indeed alter the outcome of the game
without making any truly blatant calls like happened in Hawaii in 1981-82 that sent Dick Versace off the deep end....

so in my own cynical way as I was watching the USF-DePaul game last night - I thought that likely those who run the CBI
would want DePaul to win so the series will run the full length of 3 games....thus I predicted (to myself) that DePaul would almost certainly
be on the receiving end the benefit of calls, and that's exactly what happened.

- lo-and-behold -- in a very close OVERTIME game, DePaul was whistled for only 15 fouls while USF had 25.
And DePaul shot 27 free throws (21-27) while USF shot 19 (15-19) and USF even got called for a lot of borderline turnover calls (19).

Of course this doesn't prove anything but it sure fit the exact pattern I had fully expected to see so that the series can run the full course...

[egib52]

I totally agree than refs have a huge impact on a game. Look at the Drake game in Des Moines too. Not only does blowing the whistle more times in favor of one team over the other lead to more free throws. Think about how often in the game that the momentum for one team can be stopped by a couple whistles. For instance in the comeback in the MVC Champ game when BU went on their run, had a few touch fouls gotten called it would have sapped all of the energy out. There will always be opportunities for teams to prevail in spite of poor officiating, but I think it definitely can effect a game.

[Da Coach]

...
so in my own cynical way as I was watching the USF-DePaul game last night - I thought that likely those who run the CBI
would want DePaul to win so the series will run the full length of 3 games....thus I predicted (to myself) that DePaul would almost certainly
be on the receiving end the benefit of calls, and that's exactly what happened.

- lo-and-behold -- in a very close OVERTIME game, DePaul was whistled for only 15 fouls while USF had 25.
And DePaul shot 27 free throws (21-27) while USF shot 19 (15-19) and USF even got called for a lot of borderline turnover calls (19).

Of course this doesn't prove anything but it sure fit the exact pattern I had fully expected to see so that the series can run the full course...

That is what I expected, since the great majority of CBI series in the past have gone 3 games, and it benefits everyone for it to go 3 games instead of 2. But I am not sure that happened. Did you think so?
I watched the game (I had to record it so I could also watch Walt Lemon and the Bulls, too), But I watched to see if there were any questionable calls, especially down the stretch in a close game where any call could be critical to who wins or loses. And though there were quite a few fouls called overall, most were earlier in the game and not many were called down the stretch or in overtime (except the intentional fouls by USF to stop the clock late in overtime with DePaul leading).
Of the calls late, I cannot say that I saw any that seemed obviously to be slanted toward DePaul. The calls, all seemed to me to be the right calls IMO, and DePaul won the game without help from the officials.