I have never hated Duke.
I have never hated Coach K.
I don't mind dynasties; I respect sustained excellence.
And I always thought that opponents' complaints that Duke gets all the calls to be nothing more than loser-whining.
Until today.
In West Virginia's mannish 73-67 whipping of Duke in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, which I was fortunate to attend, the referees put on a jaw-dropping display of biased officiating in the first half.
The refs—Mike Sanzere, Tom Eades, and Ed Hightower—called the game too tight in general for my liking.
But in the first half, it surely appeared as if they were actively aiding Duke.
Never mind that Duke ended up shooting 10 more free throws for the game. It was the non-calls on Duke players holding, hacking, and fouling WVU players that were just as bad.
It's clear I'm a WVU fan. But readers of this blog know that I try to view my team with a clear eye and call them out when they deserve it. I am not a homer. The Duke-biased officiating in the first half was apparent even to impartial observers around me at the Verizon Center.
One said, "WVU can't even breathe on a Duke player" without getting called for a foul.
Bob Huggins even drew a technical foul IN HIS OWN HUDDLE during a timeout. So frustrated was Huggins at one point during the first half, he yelled out toward the Duke players, "They don't foul! They don't foul! I know that!"
So the execrable officiating that WVU had to overcome only made the WVU win that much sweeter.
WVU was bigger, stronger, and tougher than Duke at every position. When allowed to play, the Big East battle-tested Mountaineers overcame the softer Dookies.
Forward Joe Alexander was the titular star of the game with his 22 points, but backup point guard Joe Mazzulla was the tough heart of this win, nearly recording a triple-double.
Alex Ruoff hit the two biggest three-point shots of his life, the first a fallaway as the shot clock expired and the second to extend WVU's lead.
Working with one hand tied behind his back by the refs—Wellington Smith and Da'Sean Butler each had four fouls early in the second half and rode the bench—Huggins used his bench brilliantly, even putting in 6'4", 220-pound Jarrett Brown, WVU's heavily muscled backup quarterback, toward the end of the first half, to provide a little intimidation.
But Huggins's smartest substitution moves came in the last three minutes of the game, when Duke was forced to start fouling WVU.
Huggins alternated backup forward Cam Thoroughman—a grisly rebound-grabber—with ball-stingy guard Johnnie West (yes, the son of that guy). The idea was to have Thoroughman in the game at the defensive end to grab missed Duke shots and the sharrpshooting West in the game on the offensive end to get fouled and go to the line.
Some of the stats in the box score look like misprints:
— WVU out-rebounded Duke 47-27. That's just astounding.
— WVU shot only 40 percent from the field, but held Duke to 38 percent.
— Duke, which made its living this season on three-pointers, made only five of 22 three-point attempts.
Huggins, whose hiring I opposed because of his reputation, has turned this John Beilein team of shooters into a team of shooters, rebounders, and defenders. And I like to think that Beilein was watching and smiling when WVU executed a couple of his beautiful backdoor layups.
Now it's on to Phoenix. Lest WVU fans forget, Phoenix was very good to WVU the last time it showed up there. Just ask Oklahoma.
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5 months ago
you've got to be kidding me. The officiating went wholly for WVA the whole way. Look back at the game. Singler got held or pushed on every rebound attempt. Duke isn't a team that fouls much, as a rule, because it's just not that physical. Yet they got hammered on ticky-tack nickel and dimers while WVA was able to muscle its way around anything. Huggins always has coached his team to play like thugs, and it looks like his tenure at WVA will be no different.
from 5 months ago
Honestly, how can you claim the officiating was one-sided towards the Mountaineers when Duke took ten more free throws and was whistled for 2 less fouls? Duke's biggest problme is in it's back court. The Blue Devils will NOT contend fora N.C. until Greg Paulus is gone or demoted to 10 minutes per game. In 2010, when Duke's back court is Nolan Smith and Eliot Williams, then Duke can start to think about Final Fours again.
from 5 months ago
Thugs? Wow -- you really are one panzy of a basketball fan. It's a physical game. Look, my wife's a Duke fan and I give her grief all the time for the Blue Devils getting the majority of the calls. I've seen it in too many games to know that it's no urban legend.
My feelings on this WVU game, though, were that after the initial 4-minute period of the first half, the referreeing was pretty fair all things considered. I was as surprised as anyone.
If you'd watch a little Big East basketball, you'd realize that there's a game played inside the arc that requires a little banging of the bodies.
And Duke IS a team that fouls. Usually their fouls are shirt pulls and holds that somehow get overlooked at the most convenient of times. WVU fought through that and answered with a physical game in return. In every game, you need to adjust to how the refs are calling the game. I felt that in the second half, WVU did that.
It was a good, hard-fought game on both ends. The refs didn't decide it, the players did. In the end, isn't that what everyone wants?
5 months ago
For all you duke haters we will be back with a post presence out of this world. And we will still shoot the three perfection beat that you UNC lovers and they will not will the National Championship.
5 months ago
2 less fouls... who cares? That's not a big deal at all. They officiating helped WVU because every single turnover for Duke was some sort or travel or carrying. Duke never turns the ball over as much as yesterday. Its was biased towards WVU in my opinion.
5 months ago
Considering WVU had a shot after about five shots in the first half set up by a travel...
As for Duke doing "fouling." Yes they do, every team does. The difference, however, is Duke does a quick jab and lays off. West Virginia does it and keeps doing it. The refs always call it then.
The refs, in the second half, were so pro-WVU it was not even funny.
5 months ago
I think the refs did make a lot of pro Duke Calls in the first half... Butler and Smith had two fouls called that were weak.
I thought the second half was pretty evenly officiated.
I'm a lifelong fan of both schools, so I'd like to think that is an unbiased assessment, but I was glad the blue and gold got the W.
5 months ago
life, death, taxes, and duke getting every call. it was that way yesterday. the only thing that swayed it slightly was huggins blasiting of the officialis at the 4 minute mark. hightower is a terrible ref, has been since i started watching college basketball. yet there he is, every year, on the biggest stage.
without the rfs, duke would have lost in round one. the tourney is a lot more enjoyabl enow that those losers are back home.
5 months ago
Duke fans will always look for a reason to justify a loss, if you were the better team than you would have battled through these so called bad calls, but apparently you WERE NOT the better team.
Face it WVU beat Duke convincingly if it wasn't for WV knowing that they had the game in the bag they would have held the 13 pt lead they had with 2 minutes remaining until the end.
I was at the game and the entire coliseum was talking about the trash calls Duke had called for them. WV was in foul trouble really early and still handed Duke that a$$ whippin' every one saw coming.
Maybe WVU should have played Belmont, it might have actually been a game then.
5 months ago
10 more free throws for the game?! Wow!!! Obviously officials should even up the calls on both sides of the court so that each team gets a "fair" chance, right?
4 months ago
When Duke wins, "the refs favored them." When Duke's opponent wins, it is "in spite of the officiating." I am not a Duke fan, but they certainly do not get all the calls (I was also at the ACC tourney and agree with Rod's post). Additionally, no one said that UNC, Clemson, or WVU weren't better teams (on the particular days they played)...it is just people taking offense to adding the "in spite of the refs" component.
I also missed the part of the rulebook that says that teams need to shoot the same number of free throws...that is one of the most ignorant basketball conclusions that someone can distill from a statistic.
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